by Rick Riordan
Leo looked at the mound of broken cookies. ‘Uh … you know those aren’t real prophecies, right? They’re just stuffed in the cookies at some factory –’
‘Don’t try to excuse it!’ Nemesis snapped. ‘It’s just like Tyche to get people’s hopes up. No, no. I must counter her.’ Nemesis flicked a finger over the slip of paper, and the letters changed to red. ‘You will die painfully when you most expect it. There! Much better.’
‘That’s horrible!’ Hazel said. ‘You’d let someone read that in their fortune cookie, and it would come true?’
Nemesis sneered. It really was creepy, seeing that expression on Aunt Rosa’s face. ‘My dear Hazel, haven’t you ever wished horrible things on Mrs Leer for the way she treated you?’
‘That doesn’t mean I’d want them to come true!’
‘Bah.’ The goddess resealed the cookie and tossed it in her basket. ‘Tyche would be Fortuna for you, I suppose, being Roman. Like the others, she’s in a horrible way right now. Me? I’m not affected. I am called Nemesis in both Greek and Roman. I do not change, because revenge is universal.’
‘What are you talking about?’ Leo asked. ‘What are you doing here?’
Nemesis opened another cookie. ‘Lucky numbers. Ridiculous! That’s not even a proper fortune!’ She crushed the cookie and scattered the pieces around her feet.
‘To answer your question, Leo Valdez, the gods are in terrible shape. It always happens when a civil war is brewing between you Romans and Greeks. The Olympians are torn between their two natures, called on by both sides. They become quite schizophrenic, I’m afraid. Splitting headaches. Disorientation.’
‘But we’re not at war,’ Leo insisted.
‘Um, Leo …’ Hazel winced. ‘Except for the fact that you recently blew up large sections of New Rome.’
Leo stared at her, wondering whose side she was on. ‘Not on purpose!’
‘I know …’ Hazel said, ‘but the Romans don’t realize that. And they’ll be pursuing us in retaliation.’
Nemesis cackled. ‘Leo, listen to the girl. War is coming. Gaia has seen to it, with your help. And can you guess whom the gods blame for their predicament?’
Leo’s mouth tasted like calcium carbonate. ‘Me.’
The goddess snorted. ‘Well, don’t you have a high opinion of yourself. You’re just a pawn on the chessboard, Leo Valdez. I was referring to the player who set this ridiculous quest in motion, bringing the Greeks and Romans together. The gods blame Hera – or Juno, if you prefer! The queen of the heavens has fled Olympus to escape the wrath of her family. Don’t expect any more help from your patron!’
Leo’s head throbbed. He had mixed feelings about Hera. She’d meddled in his life since he was a baby, moulding him to serve her purpose in this big prophecy, but at least she had been on their side, more or less. If she was out of the picture now …
‘So why are you here?’ he asked.
‘Why, to offer my help!’ Nemesis smiled wickedly.
Leo glanced at Hazel. She looked like she’d just been offered a free snake.
‘Your help,’ Leo said.
‘Of course!’ said the goddess. ‘I enjoy tearing down the proud and powerful, and there are none who deserve tearing down like Gaia and her giants. Still, I must warn you that I will not suffer undeserved success. Good luck is a sham. The wheel of fortune is a Ponzi scheme. True success requires sacrifice.’
‘Sacrifice?’ Hazel’s voice was tight. ‘I lost my mother. I died and came back. Now my brother is missing. Isn’t that enough sacrifice for you?’
Leo could totally relate. He wanted to scream that he’d lost his mom, too. His whole life had been one misery after another. He’d lost his dragon, Festus. He’d nearly killed himself trying to finish the Argo II. Now he’d fired on the Roman camp, most likely started a war and maybe lost the trust of his friends.
‘Right now,’ he said, trying to control his anger, ‘all I want is some Celestial bronze.’
‘Oh, that’s easy,’ Nemesis said. ‘It’s just over the rise. You’ll find it with the sweethearts.’
‘Wait,’ Hazel said. ‘What sweethearts?’
Nemesis popped a cookie in her mouth and swallowed it, fortune and all. ‘You’ll see. Perhaps they will teach you a lesson, Hazel Levesque. Most heroes cannot escape their nature, even when given a second chance at life.’ She smiled. ‘And speaking of your brother, Nico, you don’t have much time. Let’s see … it’s June twenty-fifth? Yes, after today, six more days. Then he dies, along with the entire city of Rome.’
Hazel’s eyes widened. ‘How … what –?’
‘And as for you, child of fire.’ She turned to Leo. ‘Your worst hardships are yet to come. You will always be the outsider, the seventh wheel. You will not find a place among your brethren. Soon you will face a problem you cannot solve, though I could help you … for a price.’
Leo smelled smoke. He realized fingers on his left hand were ablaze, and Hazel was staring at him in terror.
He shoved his hand in his pocket to extinguish the flames. ‘I like to solve my own problems.’
‘Very well.’ Nemesis brushed cookie dust off her jacket.
‘But, um, what sort of price are we talking about?’
The goddess shrugged. ‘One of my children recently traded an eye for the ability to make a real difference in the world.’
Leo’s stomach churned. ‘You … want an eye?’
‘In your case, perhaps another sacrifice would do. But something just as painful. Here.’ She handed him an unbroken fortune cookie. ‘If you need an answer, break this. It will solve your problem.’
Leo’s hand trembled as he held the fortune cookie. ‘What problem?’
‘You’ll know when the time comes.’
‘No, thanks,’ Leo said firmly. But his hand, as though it had a will of its own, slipped the cookie into his tool belt.
Nemesis picked another cookie from her bag and cracked it open. ‘You will have cause to reconsider your choices soon. Oh, I like that one. No changes needed here.’
She resealed the cookie and tossed it into the basket. ‘Very few gods will be able to help you on the quest. Most are already incapacitated, and their confusion will only grow worse. One thing might bring unity to Olympus again – an old wrong finally avenged. Ah, that would be sweet indeed, the scales finally balanced! But it will not happen unless you accept my help.’
‘I suppose you won’t tell us what you’re talking about,’ Hazel muttered. ‘Or why my brother, Nico, has only six days to live. Or why Rome is going to be destroyed.’
Nemesis chuckled. She rose and slung her sack of cookies over her shoulder. ‘Oh, it’s all tied together, Hazel Levesque. As for my offer, Leo Valdez, give it some thought. You’re a good child. A hard worker. We could do business. But I have detained you too long. You should visit the reflecting pool before the light fades. My poor cursed boy gets quite … agitated when the darkness comes.’
Leo didn’t like the sound of that, but the goddess climbed on her motorcycle. Apparently, it was drivable, despite those Pac-Man-shaped wheels, because Nemesis revved her engine and disappeared in a mushroom cloud of black smoke.
Hazel bent down. All the broken cookies and fortunes had disappeared except for one crumpled slip of paper. She picked it up and read, ‘You will see yourself reflected, and you will have reason to despair.’
‘Fantastic,’ Leo grumbled. ‘Let’s go see what that means.’
VII
Leo
‘Who is Aunt Rosa?’ Hazel asked.
Leo didn’t want to talk about her. Nemesis’s words were still buzzing in his ears. His tool belt seemed heavier since he’d put the cookie in there – which was impossible. Its pockets could carry anything without adding extra weight. Even the most fragile things would never break. Still, Leo imagined he could feel it in there, dragging him down, waiting to be cracked open.
‘Long story,’ he said. ‘She abandoned me after my mom died, gave me to fos
ter care.’
‘I’m sorry.’
‘Yeah, well …’ Leo was anxious to change the subject. ‘What about you? What Nemesis said about your brother?’
Hazel blinked like she’d got salt in her eyes. ‘Nico … he found me in the Underworld. He brought me back to the mortal world and convinced the Romans at Camp Jupiter to accept me. I owe him for my second chance at life. If Nemesis is right and Nico’s in danger … I have to help him.’
‘Sure,’ Leo said, though the idea made him uneasy. He doubted the revenge goddess ever gave advice out of the goodness of her heart. ‘And what Nemesis said about your brother having six days to live and Rome getting destroyed … any idea what she meant?’
‘None,’ Hazel admitted. ‘But I’m afraid …’
Whatever she was thinking, she decided not to share it. She climbed one of the largest boulders to get a better view. Leo tried to follow and lost his balance. Hazel caught his hand. She pulled him up and they found themselves atop the rock, holding hands, face to face.
Hazel’s eyes glittered like gold.
Gold is easy, she’d said. It didn’t seem that way to Leo – not when he looked at her. He wondered who Sammy was. Leo had a nagging suspicion that he should know, but he just couldn’t place the name. Whoever he was, he was lucky if Hazel cared for him.
‘Um, thanks.’ He let go of her hand, but they were still standing so close that he could feel the warmth of her breath. She definitely didn’t seem like a dead person.
‘When we were talking to Nemesis,’ Hazel said uneasily, ‘your hands … I saw flames.’
‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘It’s a Hephaestus power. Usually I can keep it under control.’
‘Oh.’ She put one hand protectively on her denim shirt, like she was about to say the Pledge of Allegiance. Leo got the feeling she wanted to back away from him, but the boulder was too small.
Great, he thought. Another person who thinks I’m a scary freak.
He gazed across the island. The opposite shore was only a few hundred yards away. Between here and there were dunes and clumps of boulders, but nothing that looked like a reflecting pool.
You will always be the outsider, Nemesis had told him, the seventh wheel. You will not find a place among your brethren.
She might as well have poured acid in his ears. Leo didn’t need anybody to tell him he was odd man out. He’d spent months alone in Bunker 9 at Camp Half-Blood, working on his ship while his friends trained together and shared meals and played capture the flag for fun and prizes. Even his two best friends, Piper and Jason, often treated him like an outsider. Since they’d started dating, their idea of ‘quality time’ didn’t include Leo. His only other friend, Festus the dragon, had been reduced to a figurehead when his control disk had got destroyed on their last adventure. Leo didn’t have the technical skill to repair it.
The seventh wheel. Leo had heard of a fifth wheel – an extra, useless piece of equipment. He figured a seventh wheel was worse.
He’d thought maybe this quest would be a fresh start for him. All his hard work on the Argo II would pay off. He’d have six good friends who would admire and appreciate him, and they’d go sailing off into the sunrise to fight giants. Maybe, Leo secretly hoped, he’d even find a girlfriend.
Do the maths, he chided himself.
Nemesis was right. He might be part of a group of seven, but he was still isolated. He had fired on the Romans and brought his friends nothing but trouble. You will not find a place among your brethren.
‘Leo?’ Hazel asked gently. ‘You can’t take what Nemesis said to heart.’
He frowned. ‘What if it’s true?’
‘She’s the goddess of revenge,’ Hazel reminded him. ‘Maybe she’s on our side, maybe not, but she exists to stir up resentment.’
Leo wished he could dismiss his feelings that easily. He couldn’t. Still, it wasn’t Hazel’s fault.
‘We should keep going,’ he said. ‘I wonder what Nemesis meant about finishing before dark.’
Hazel glanced at the sun, which was just touching the horizon. ‘And who is the cursed boy she mentioned?’
Below them, a voice said, ‘Cursed boy she mentioned.’
At first, Leo saw no one. Then his eyes adjusted. He realized a young woman was standing only ten feet from the base of the boulder. Her dress was a Greek-style tunic the same colour as the rocks. Her wispy hair was somewhere between brown and blonde and grey, so it blended with the dry grass. She wasn’t invisible, exactly, but she was almost perfectly camouflaged until she moved. Even then, Leo had trouble focusing on her. Her face was pretty but not memorable. In fact, each time Leo blinked, he couldn’t remember what she looked like, and he had to concentrate to find her again.
‘Hello,’ Hazel said. ‘Who are you?’
‘Who are you?’ the girl answered. Her voice sounded weary, like she was tired of answering that question.
Hazel and Leo exchanged looks. With this demigod gig, you never knew what you’d run into. Nine times out of ten, it wasn’t good. A ninja girl camouflaged in earth tones didn’t strike Leo as something he wanted to deal with just then.
‘Are you the cursed kid Nemesis mentioned?’ Leo asked. ‘But you’re a girl.’
‘You’re a girl,’ said the girl.
‘Excuse me?’ Leo said.
‘Excuse me,’ the girl said miserably.
‘You’re repeating …’ Leo stopped. ‘Oh. Hold it. Hazel, wasn’t there some myth about a girl who repeated everything –?’
‘Echo,’ Hazel said.
‘Echo,’ the girl agreed. She shifted, her dress changing with the landscape. Her eyes were the colour of the salt water. Leo tried to home in on her features, but he couldn’t.
‘I don’t remember the myth,’ he admitted. ‘You were cursed to repeat the last thing you heard?’
‘You heard,’ Echo said.
‘Poor thing,’ Hazel said. ‘If I remember right, a goddess did this?’
‘A goddess did this,’ Echo confirmed.
Leo scratched his head. ‘But wasn’t that thousands of years … oh. You’re one of the mortals who came back through the Doors of Death. I really wish we could stop running into dead people.’
‘Dead people,’ Echo said, like she was chastising him.
He realized Hazel was staring at her feet.
‘Uh … sorry,’ he muttered. ‘I didn’t mean it that way.’
‘That way.’ Echo pointed towards the far shore of the island.
‘You want to show us something?’ Hazel asked. She climbed down the boulder, and Leo followed.
Even up close, Echo was hard to see. In fact, she seemed to get more invisible the longer he looked at her.
‘You sure you’re real?’ he asked. ‘I mean … flesh and blood?’
‘Flesh and blood.’ She touched Leo’s face and made him flinch. Her fingers were warm.
‘So … you have to repeat everything?’ he asked.
‘Everything.’
Leo couldn’t help smiling. ‘That could be fun.’
‘Fun,’ she said unhappily.
‘Blue elephants.’
‘Blue elephants.’
‘Kiss me, you fool.’
‘You fool.’
‘Hey!’
‘Hey!’
‘Leo,’ Hazel pleaded, ‘don’t tease her.’
‘Don’t tease her,’ Echo agreed.
‘Okay, okay,’ Leo said, though he had to resist the urge. It wasn’t every day he met somebody with a built-in talkback feature. ‘So what were you pointing at? Do you need our help?’
‘Help,’ Echo agreed emphatically. She gestured for them to follow and sprinted down the slope. Leo could only follow her progress by the movement of the grass and the shimmer of her dress as it changed to match the rocks.
‘We’d better hurry,’ Hazel said. ‘Or we’ll lose her.’
They found the problem – if you can call a mob of good-looking girls a problem. Echo led them down into
a grassy meadow shaped like a blast crater, with a small pond in the middle. Gathered at the water’s edge were several dozen nymphs. At least, Leo guessed they were nymphs. Like the ones at Camp Half-Blood, these wore gossamer dresses. Their feet were bare. They had elfish features, and their skin had a slightly greenish tinge.
Leo didn’t understand what they were doing, but they were all crowded together in one spot, facing the pond and jostling for a better view. Several held up phone cameras, trying to get a shot over the heads of the others. Leo had never seen nymphs with phones. He wondered if they were looking at a dead body. If so, why were they bouncing up and down and giggling so excitedly?
‘What are they looking at?’ Leo wondered.
‘Looking at,’ Echo sighed.
‘One way to find out.’ Hazel marched forward and began nudging her way through the crowd. ‘Excuse us. Pardon me.’
‘Hey!’ one nymph complained. ‘We were here first!’
‘Yeah,’ another sniffed. ‘He won’t be interested in you.’
The second nymph had large red hearts painted on her cheeks. Over her dress, she wore a T-shirt that read: OMG, I <3 N!!!!
‘Uh, demigod business,’ Leo said, trying to sound official. ‘Make room. Thanks.’
The nymphs grumbled, but they parted to reveal a young man kneeling at the edge of the pond, gazing intently at the water.
Leo usually didn’t pay much attention to how other guys looked. He supposed that came from hanging around Jason – tall, blond, rugged and basically everything Leo could never be. Leo was used to not being noticed by girls. At least, he knew he’d never get a girl by his looks. He hoped his personality and sense of humour would do that someday, though it definitely hadn’t worked yet.
At any rate, Leo couldn’t miss the fact that the guy at the pond was one super good-looking dude. He had a chiselled face with lips and eyes that were somewhere between feminine beautiful and masculine handsome. Dark hair swept over his brow. He might’ve been seventeen or twenty, it was hard to say, but he was built like a dancer – with long graceful arms and muscular legs, perfect posture and an air of regal calm. He wore a simple white T-shirt and jeans, with a bow and quiver strapped to his back. The weapons obviously hadn’t been used in a while. The arrows were covered in dust. A spider had woven a web in the top of the bow.
