The Burning Maze (The Trials of Apollo #3)

Piper pulled the younger girl into a hug and kissed her forehead. ‘Don’t mention it. And, if you’re ever in Tahlequah, come and visit me, okay?’

I thought about the millions of young people who prayed to me every year, hoping to leave their small hometowns across the world and come here to Los Angeles, to make their huge dreams come true. Now Piper McLean was going the other way – leaving the glamour and the movie glitz of her father’s former life, going back to small-town Tahlequah, Oklahoma. And she sounded at peace with it, as if she knew her own Aeithales would be waiting there.

Mellie and Coach Hedge strolled over, Baby Chuck still happily chewing his grenade in the coach’s arms.

‘Hey,’ Coach said. ‘You about ready, Piper? Long road ahead.’

The satyr’s expression was grim and determined. He looked at the coffin in the cargo bay, then quickly fixed his eyes on the tarmac.

‘Just about,’ Piper agreed. ‘You sure the Pinto is up for such a long trip?’

‘Of course!’ Hedge said. ‘Just, uh, you know, keep in sight, in case the SUV breaks down and you need my help.’

Mellie rolled her eyes. ‘Chuck and I are riding in the SUV.’

The coach harrumphed. ‘That’s fine. It’ll give me time to play my tunes. I’ve got Bon Jovi’s entire collection on cassette!’

I tried to smile encouragingly, though I decided to give Hades a new suggestion for the Fields of Punishment if I ever saw him again: Pinto. Road trip. Bon Jovi on cassette.

Meg bopped Baby Chuck on the nose, which made him giggle and spit grenade shavings. ‘What are you guys going to do in Oklahoma?’ she asked.

‘Coach, of course!’ said the coach. ‘They’ve got some great varsity sports teams in Oklahoma. Plus, I hear nature is pretty strong there. Nice place to raise a kid.’

‘And there’s always work for cloud nymphs,’ Mellie said. ‘Everybody needs clouds.’

Meg stared into the sky, maybe wondering how many of those clouds were nymphs making minimum wage. Then, suddenly, her mouth fell open. ‘Uh, guys?’

She pointed north.

A gleaming shape resolved against a line of white clouds. For a moment, I thought a small plane was making its final approach. Then its wings flapped.

The ground crew scrambled into action as Festus the bronze dragon came in for a landing, Leo Valdez riding on his back.

The crew waved their orange flashlight cones, guiding Festus to a spot next to the Cessna. None of the mortals seemed to find this at all unusual. One of the crew shouted up at Leo, asking if he needed any fuel.

Leo grinned. ‘Nah. But if you could give my boy a wash and wax, and maybe find him some Tabasco sauce, that would be great.’

Festus roared in approval.

Leo Valdez climbed down and jogged towards us. Whatever adventures he may have had, he seemed to have come through with his curly black hair, his impish smile and his small, elfish frame intact. He wore a purple T-shirt with gold words in Latin: MY COHORT WENT TO NEW ROME AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS LOUSY T-SHIRT.

‘The party can now start!’ he announced. ‘There’s my peeps!’

I didn’t know what to say. We all just stood there, stunned, as Leo gave us hugs.

‘Man, what’s up with you guys?’ he asked. ‘Somebody hit you with a flash grenade? So, I got good news and bad news from New Rome, but first …’ He scanned our faces. His expression began to crumble. ‘Where’s Jason?’





47


In-flight beverages

Include the tears of a god

Please have exact change





Piper broke down. She fell against Leo and sobbed out the story until he, thunderstruck, red-eyed, hugged her back and buried his face in her neck.

The ground crew gave us space. The Hedges retreated to the Pinto, where the coach clasped Mellie and their baby tight, the way one should always do with family, knowing that tragedy could strike anyone, anytime.

Meg and I stood by, Jason’s diorama still fluttering in my arms.

Next to the Cessna, Festus raised his head, made a low, keening sound, then blasted fire into the sky. The ground crew looked a little nervous about that as they hosed down his wings. I supposed private jets didn’t often keen or spew fire from their nostrils, or … have nostrils.

The air around us seemed to crystallize, forming brittle shards of emotion that would cut us no matter which way we turned.

Leo looked like he’d been struck repeatedly. (And I knew. I had seen him struck repeatedly.) He brushed the tears from his face. He stared at the cargo hold, then at the diorama in my hands.

‘I didn’t … I couldn’t even say goodbye,’ he murmured.

Piper shook her head. ‘Me neither. It happened so fast. He just –’

‘He did what Jason always did,’ Leo said. ‘He saved the day.’

Piper took a shaky breath. ‘What about you? Your news?’

‘My news?’ Leo choked back a sob. ‘After that, who cares about my news?’

‘Hey.’ Piper punched his arm. ‘Apollo told me what you were up to. What happened at Camp Jupiter?’

Leo tapped his fingers on his thighs, as if carrying on two simultaneous conversations in Morse code. ‘We – we stopped this attack. Sort of. There was a lot of damage. That’s the bad news. A lot of good people …’ He glanced again at the cargo hold. ‘Well, Frank is okay. Reyna, Hazel. That’s the good news …’ He shivered. ‘Gods. I can’t even think right now. Is that normal? Like, just forgetting how to think?’

I could assure him that it was, at least in my experience.

The captain came down the steps of the plane. ‘Sorry, Miss McLean, but we are queued for departure. If we don’t want to lose our window –’

‘Yeah,’ Piper said. ‘Of course. Apollo and Meg, you guys go. I’ll be fine with the coach and Mellie. Leo –’

‘Oh, you’re not getting rid of me,’ said Leo. ‘You just earned a bronze dragon escort to Oklahoma.’

‘Leo –’

‘We’re not arguing about this,’ he insisted. ‘Besides, it’s more or less on the way back to Indianapolis.’

Piper’s smile was as faint as fog. ‘You’re settling in Indianapolis. Me, in Tahlequah. We’re really going places, huh?’

Leo turned to us. ‘Go on, you guys. Take … take Jason home. Do right by him. You’ll find Camp Jupiter still there.’

From the window of the plane, the last I saw of Piper and Leo, Coach and Mellie, they were huddled on the tarmac, plotting their journey east with their bronze dragon and their yellow Pinto.

Meanwhile, we taxied down the runway in our private jet. We rumbled into the sky – heading for Camp Jupiter and a rendezvous with Reyna, the daughter of Bellona.

I didn’t know how I would find Tarquin’s tomb, or who the soundless god was supposed to be. I didn’t know how we would stop Caligula from attacking the damaged Roman camp. But none of that bothered me as much as what had happened to us already – so many lives destroyed, a hero’s coffin rattling in the cargo hold, three emperors who were all still alive, ready to wreak more havoc on everyone and everything I cared about.

I found myself crying.

It was ridiculous. Gods don’t cry. But, as I looked at Jason’s diorama in the seat next to me, all I could think about was that he would never get to see his carefully labelled plans finished. As I held my ukulele, I could only picture Crest playing his last chord with broken fingers.

‘Hey.’ Meg turned in the seat in front of me. Despite her usual cat-eye glasses and preschool-coloured outfit (somehow mended, yet again, by the magic of the ever-patient dryads), Meg sounded more grown-up today. Surer of herself. ‘We’re going to make everything right.’

I shook my head miserably. ‘What does that even mean? Caligula is heading north. Nero is still out there. We’ve faced three emperors, and defeated none of them. And Python –’

She bopped me on the nose, much harder than she had Baby Chuck.

‘Ow!’

‘Got your attention?’

‘I – Yes.’

‘Then listen: You will get to the Tiber alive. You will start to jive. That’s what the prophecy said back in Indiana, right? It will make sense once we get there. You’re going to beat the Triumvirate.’

I blinked. ‘Is that an order?’