‘Can he be killed?’ Reyna asked. ‘I thought most giants could only be destroyed by a god and demigod working together.’
‘We intend to find out,’ Hylla said. ‘Once Orion is taken down, your quest will be much easier. We’ll send you on your way with our blessings.’
‘We could use more than your blessings,’ Reyna said. ‘Amazons ship things all around the world. Why not provide safe transport for the Athena Parthenos? Get us to Camp Half-Blood before August first –’
‘I can’t,’ Hylla said. ‘If I could, sister, I would, but surely you’ve felt the anger radiating from the statue. We Amazons are honorary daughters of Ares. The Athena Parthenos would never tolerate our interference. Besides, you know how the Fates operate. For your quest to succeed, you have to deliver the statue personally.’
Reyna must’ve looked crestfallen.
Phoebe shoulder-bumped her like an over-friendly cat. ‘Hey, not so glum. We’ll help you as much as we can. The Amazon service department has repaired those metal dogs of yours. And we have some cool parting gifts!’
Celyn handed Phoebe a leather satchel.
Phoebe rummaged inside. ‘Let’s see … healing potions. Tranquilizer darts like the ones we used on you. Hmm, what else? Oh, yeah!’ Phoebe triumphantly produced a rectangle of folded silvery cloth.
‘A handkerchief?’ Reyna asked.
‘Better. Back up a little.’ Phoebe tossed the cloth on the floor. Instantly it expanded into a ten-by-ten camping tent.
‘It’s air-conditioned,’ Phoebe said. ‘Sleeps four. It has a buffet table and sleeping bags inside. Whatever extra gear you put in it will collapse with the tent. Um, within reason … don’t try to stick your giant statue in there.’
Celyn snickered. ‘If your male travelling companions get annoying, you could always leave them inside.’
Naomi frowned. ‘That wouldn’t work … would it?’
‘Anyway,’ Phoebe said, ‘these tents are great. I have one just like it; use it all the time. When you’re ready to close it up, the command word is actaeon.’
The tent collapsed into a tiny rectangle. Phoebe picked it up, stuffed it into the satchel and handed the bag to Reyna.
‘I … I don’t know what to say,’ Reyna stammered. ‘Thank you.’
‘Aww …’ Phoebe shrugged. ‘It’s the least I can do for –’
Fifty feet away, a side door banged open. An Amazon ran straight towards Hylla. The newcomer wore a black trouser suit, her long auburn hair pulled back in a ponytail.
Reyna recognized her from the battle at Camp Jupiter. ‘Kinzie, isn’t it?’
The girl gave her a distracted nod. ‘Praetor.’ She whispered something in Hylla’s ear.
Hylla’s expression hardened. ‘I see.’ She glanced at Reyna. ‘Something is wrong. We’ve lost contact with the outer defences. I’m afraid Orion –’
Behind Reyna, the metal doors exploded.
XXIV
Reyna
REYNA REACHED FOR HER SWORD – then realized she didn’t have one.
‘Get out of here!’ Phoebe readied her bow.
Celyn and Naomi ran to the smoking doorway, only to be cut down by black arrows.
Phoebe screamed in rage. She returned fire as Amazons rushed forward with shields and swords.
‘Reyna!’ Hylla pulled her arm. ‘We must leave!’
‘We can’t just –’
‘My guards will buy you time!’ Hylla shouted. ‘Your quest must succeed!’
Reyna hated it, but she ran after Hylla.
They reached the side door and Reyna glanced back. Dozens of wolves – grey wolves like the ones in Portugal – surged into the warehouse. Amazons hurried to intercept them. The smoke-filled doorway was piled with bodies of the fallen: Celyn, Naomi, Phoebe. The ginger-haired Hunter who’d lived for thousands of years now sprawled unmoving, her eyes wide with shock, an oversized black-and-red arrow buried in her gut. The Amazon Kinzie charged forward, long knives flashing. She leaped over the bodies and into the smoke.
Hylla pulled Reyna into the passageway. Together they ran.
‘They’ll all die!’ Reyna yelled. ‘There must be something –’
‘Don’t be stupid, sister!’ Hylla’s eyes were bright with tears. ‘Orion outfoxed us. He’s turned the ambush into a massacre. All we can do now is hold him back while you escape. You must get that statue to the Greeks and defeat Gaia!’
She led Reyna up a flight of stairs. They navigated a maze of corridors, then rounded a corner into a locker room. They found themselves face to face with a large grey wolf, but before the beast could even snarl Hylla punched it between the eyes. The wolf crumpled.
‘Over here.’ Hylla ran to the nearest row of lockers. ‘Your weapons are inside. Hurry.’
Reyna grabbed her knife, her sword and her pack. Then she followed her sister up a circular metal stairwell.
The top dead-ended at the ceiling. Hylla turned and gave her a stern look. ‘I won’t have time to explain this, all right? Stay strong. Stay close.’
Reyna wondered what could be worse than the scene they’d just left. Hylla pushed open the trapdoor and they climbed through … into their old home.
The main room was just as Reyna remembered. Opaque skylights glowed on the twenty-foot ceilings. The stark white walls were devoid of decoration. The furniture was oak, steel and white leather – impersonal and masculine. Both sides of the room were overhung with terraces, which had always made Reyna feel like she was being watched (because often, she was).
Their father had done everything he could to make the centuries-old hacienda feel like a modern home. He’d added the skylights, painted everything white to make it brighter and airier. But he’d only succeeded in making the place look like a well-groomed corpse in a new suit.
The trapdoor had opened into the massive fireplace. Why they even had a fireplace in Puerto Rico, Reyna had never understood, but she and Hylla used to pretend the hearth was a secret hideout where their father couldn’t find them.
They used to imagine they could step inside and go to other places.
Now, Hylla had made that true. She had linked her underground lair to their childhood home.
‘Hylla –’
‘I told you, we don’t have time.’
‘But –’
‘I own the building now. I put the deed in my name.’
‘You did what?’
‘I was tired of running from the past, Reyna. I decided to reclaim it.’
Reyna stared at her, dumbfounded. You could reclaim a lost phone or a bag at the airport. You could even reclaim a hazardous waste dump. But this house and what had happened here? There was no reclaiming that.
‘Sister,’ Hylla said, ‘we’re wasting time. Are you coming or not?’
Reyna eyed the balconies, half expecting luminous shapes to flicker at the railing. ‘Have you seen them?’
‘Some of them.’
‘Papa?’
‘Of course not,’ Hylla snapped. ‘You know he’s gone for good.’
‘I don’t know anything of the sort. How could you come back? Why?’
‘To understand!’ Hylla shouted. ‘Don’t you want to know how it happened to him?’
‘No! You can’t learn anything from ghosts, Hylla. You of all people should realize –’
‘I’m leaving,’ Hylla said. ‘Your friends are a few blocks away. Are you coming with me, or should I tell them you died because you got lost in the past?’
‘I’m not the one who took possession of this place!’
Hylla turned on her heel and marched out of the front door.
Reyna looked around one more time. She remembered her last day here, when she was ten years old. She could almost hear her father’s angry roar echoing through the main room, the chorus of wailing ghosts on the balconies.
She ran for the exit. She burst into warm afternoon sunlight and found that the street hadn’t changed – the crumbling pastel houses, the blue cobblestones, dozens of cats sleeping under cars or in the shade of banana trees.
Reyna might have felt nostalgic … except that her sister stood a few feet away, facing Orion.
‘Well, now.’ The giant smiled. ‘Both daughters of Bellona together. Excellent!’
Reyna felt personally offended.
She had worked up an image of Orion as a towering ugly demon, even worse than Polybotes, the giant who had attacked Camp Jupiter.
Instead, Orion could have passed for human – a tall, muscular, handsome human. His skin was the colour of wheat toast. His dark hair was undercut, swept into spikes on top. With his black leather breeches and jerkin, his hunting knife and his bow and quiver, he might have been Robin Hood’s evil, better-looking brother.
Only his eyes ruined the image. At first glance, he appeared to be wearing military night-vision goggles. Then Reyna realized they weren’t goggles. They were the work of Hephaestus – bronze mechanical eyes embedded in the giant’s sockets. Focusing rings spun and clicked as he regarded Reyna. Targeting lasers flashed red to green. Reyna got the uncomfortable impression he was seeing much more than her form – her heat signature, her heart rate, her level of fear.
At his side he held a black composite bow almost as fancy as his eyes. Multiple strings ran through a series of pulleys that looked like miniature