The Second Jackson- Piper McLean book 1

Derailed Trains

Percy

The pilot said the plane couldn't wait for us, but that was okay with me. If we survived until tomorrow, I hoped we could find a different way back- anything but a plane.

I should've been depressed. I was stuck in Alaska, the giant's home territory, out of contact with my old friends just as my memories were coming back. I had seen an image of Polybotes's army about to invade Camp Jupiter. I'd learned that the giants plan to use me as some kind of blood sacrifice to awaken Gaea and who knows what they want my sister for. Plus, tomorrow evening was the Feast of Fortuna. Me, Lani, Frank, and Hazel had an impossible task to complete before then. At best, we would unleash Death, who might take my two friend and twin to the Underworld. Not much to look forward to.

Still, I felt strangely invigorated. My dream of Tyson had lifted my spirits. I remembered Tyson, my brother. We'd fought together, celebrated victories, shared good times at Camp Half-Blood. I remembered my home, and that gave me a new determination to succeed. I was fighting for two camps now- two families.

Juno had stolen my memory and sent me to Camp Jupiter for a reason. I understood that now. I still wanted to punch her in her godly face, but at least I got her reasoning. If the two camps could work together, we stood a chance of stopping our mutual enemies. Separately, both caps were doomed.

There were other reasons I wanted to save Camp Jupiter. Reasons I didn't dare put into words- not yet anyway. Suddenly I saw a future for myself and for Annabeth that I'd never imagined before.

As we took a taxi to downtown Anchorage, I told Frank, Hazel and Lani about my dreams. They looked anxious but not surprised when I told them about the giant's army closing in on camp.

Frank choked when he heard about Tyson. "You have a half-brother who's a Cyclops?"

"Sure" Lani said. "Which makes him your great-great-great—"

"Please" Frank covered his ears. "Enough"

"As long as he can get Ella to camp" Hazel said. "I'm worried about her"

I nodded. I was still thinking about the lines of the prophecy the harpy had recited- about the son of Neptune drowning, and the mark of Athena burning through Rome. I wasn't sure what the first part meant, but I was starting to have an idea about the second. I tried to set the question aside. I had to survive this quest first.

The taxi turned on Highway One, which looked more like a small street to me, and took us north toward downtown. It was late afternoon, but the sun was still high in the sky.

"I can't believe how much this place has grown" Hazel muttered.

The taxi driver grinned in the rearview mirror. "Been a long time since you visited miss?"

"About seventy years" Hazel said.

The driver slid the glass partition closed and drove on in silence.

According to Hazel, almost none of the buildings were the same, but she pointed out features of the landscape: the cast forests ringing the city, the cold, gray waters of Cook Inlet tracing the north edge of town, and the Chugach Mountains rising grayish-blue in the distance, capped with snow even in June.

I had never smelled air this clean before. The town itself had a weather-beaten look to it, with closed stores, rusted-out cars, and worn out apartment complexes lining the road, but it was still beautiful. Lakes and huge stretches of woods cut through the middle. The arctic sky was an amazing combination of turquoise and gold.

Then there were the giants. Dozens of bright-blue men, each thirty feet tall with gray frosty hair, were wading through forests, fishing in the bay, and striding across the mountains. The mortals didn't seem to notice them. The taxi passed within a few yards of one who was sitting at the edge of a lake washing his feet, but the driver didn't panic.