A/N: I don't own the rights to any of the Percy Jackson series or it's characters. That right goes to Rick Riordan. I also don't own the rights to Animorph including it's title.

I am, however, the person who posted 'The Tales of...' series.

This is not a crossover of the Percy Jackson series with the book/tv series Animorph, despite what you might think from the title. I just thought it be a proper name for the ability to turn into animals since that's why the tv/book series 'Animorph' was called that in the first place.

If you haven't read this yet, read:

Animorph Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief
Animorph Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters

We Enter the Garden of Hesperides

"We will never make it," Zoë said. "We are moving too slow. But we cannot leave the Ophiotaurus."

"Mooo," Bessie said. He swam next to me as we jogged along the waterfront. We'd left the shopping center pier far behind. We were heading toward the Golden Gate Bridge, but it was a lot farther than I'd realized. The sun was already dipping in the west.

"I don't get it," I said. "Why do we have to get there at sunset?"

"The Hesperides are nymphs of the sunset," Zoë said. "We can only enter their garden as day changes to night."

"What happens if we miss it?"

"Tomorrow is winter solstice. If we miss sunset tonight, we would have to wait until tomorrow evening. And by then, the Olympian Council will be over. We must free Lady Artemis tonight."

Or Annabeth will be dead. I thought, but I didn't say that.

"We need a car," Thalia said.

"But what about Bessie?" I asked.

Grover stopped in his tracks. "I've got an idea! The Ophiotaurus can appear in different bodies of water, right?"

"Well, yeah," I said. I mean, he was in Long Island Sound. Then he just popped into the water at Hoover Dam. And now he's here."

"So maybe we could coax him back to Long Island Sound," Grovere said. "Then Chiron could help us get him to Olympus."

"But he was following me," I said. "If I'm not there, would he know where he was going?"

"Moo," Bessie said forlornly.

"I... I can show him," Grover said. "I'll go with him."

I stared at him. Grover was no fan of the water. He'd almost drowned last summer in the Sea of Monsters, and he couldn't swim very well with his goat hooves.

"I'm the only one who can talk to him," Grover said, "It makes sense."

He bent down and said something in Bessie's ear. Bessie shivered, then made a contented, lowing sound.

"The blessing of the Wild," Grover said.

"The same blessing you use on the Lion Antelope and Zebra back in Las Vegas two years ago?" I asked.

Grover nodded. "That should help with safe passage. Percy, pray to your dad, too. See if he will grant us safe passage through the seas."

I didn't understand how they could possibly swim back to Long Island from California. Then again, monsters don't travel the same way as humans. I'd seen plenty of evidence of that. I decided to include a blessing for Grover to breath underwater just in case.

I tried to concentrate on the waves, the smell of the ocean, the sound of the tide.

"Dad," I said. "Help us. Get the Ophiotaurus and Grover safely to to camp. Protect them at sea and if possible make sure Grover can breathe underwater."

"A prayer like that needs a sacrifice," Thalia said, "Something big."

I thought for a second. Then I took off my coat.

"Percy," Grover said. "Are you sure? That lion skin... that's really helpful. Hercules used it!"

I glanced at Zoë, who was watching me carefully.

"I always favor my namesake-the first Perseus-over Hercules. Not because of number of victories but because Perseus got a happy ending with his wife Andromeda and my mom named me after him hoping I have the same luck," I said. "If Perseus can survive without nemean lion skin, then so can I."

That seemed to surprise Zoë. I guess she expected me to favor Hercules. Hermes even once told me most do.

I threw the coat into the bay. It turned back into a golden lion skin, flashing in the light. Then, as it began to sink beneath the waves, it seemed to dissolve into the sunlight on the water.

The sea breeze picked up.

Grover took a deep breath. "Well, no time to lose."

He jumped into the water and immediately began to sink. Bessie glided next to him and let Grover take hold of his neck.

"Be careful," I told them.

"We will," Grover said. "OKay, um... Bessie? We're going to Long Island. It's east. Over that way."

"Moooo?" Bessie said.

"Yes," Grover answered. "Long Island. It's this island. And... it's long. Oh, let's just start.

"Moooo!"

Bessie lurched forward. He began to submerge and they went under.

"Well, that is one problem addressed," Zoë said. "But how can we get to my sisters' garden?"

"Thalia's right," I said. "We need a car. But there's nobody to help us here. Unless we, uh, borrowed one."

I didn't like that option. I mean, sure this was life-or-death situation, but still, it was stealing, and it was bound to get us noticed.

"Wait," Thalia said. She started rifling through her backpack. "There is somebody in San Francisco who can help us. I've got the address here somewhere."

"Who?" I aksed.

Thalia pulled out a crumpled piece of notebook paper and held it up. "Professor Chase. Annabeth's dad."

...

After hearing Annabeth griped about her dad for two years, I was expecting him to have devil horns and fangs. I was not expecting him to be wearing an old-fashioned aviator's cap and goggles. He looked so weird, with his eyes bugging out through the glasses, that we all took a step back on the front porch.

"Hello," he said in a friendly voice. "Are you delivering my airplanes?"

Thalia, Zoë and I looked at each other warily.

"Um, no, sir," I said.

"Drat," he said. I need three more Sopwith Camels.

"Right," I said, though I had no clue what he was talking about.

"Dr. Chase, it's us, Percy and Thalia," Thalia said.

Dr. Chase's eyes seem to widened realizing who Thalia and I were. "Thalia! Percy! Oh good to see you again. Where's Annabeth? Is she with you?"

Thalia and I look at each other, not sure how to answer him. This caused him to straightened up. "Is she all right? Has something happened?"

None of us answered, but our faces must've told him that something was very wrong. He took off his cap and goggles. He had sandy colored hair like Annabeth's and intense brown eyes. He was handsome, I guess, for an older guy, but it looked like he hadn't shaved in a couple of days, and his shirt was buttoned wrong, so one side of his collar stuck up higher than the other side.

"You'd better come in," he said.

It didn't look like a house they'd just moved into. There were LEGO robots on the stairs and two cats sleeping on the sofa in the living room. The coffee table was stacked with magazines, and a little kid's winter coat was spread on the floor. The whole house smelled like fresh-baked chocolate-chip cookies. There was jazz music coming from the kitchen. It seemed like a messy, happy kind of home-the kind of place that had been lived in forever.

"Dad!" a little boy screamed. "He's taking apart my robots!"

"Bobby," Dr. Chase called absently, "don't take apart your brother's robots."

"I'm Bobby," the little boy protested. "He's Matthew!"

"Matthew," Dr. Chase called, "don't take apart your brother's robots!"

"Okay, Dad!"

Dr. Chase turned to us. "We'll go upstairs to my study. This way."

"Honey?" A woman called. Annabeth's stepmom appeared in the living room, wiping her hands on a dish towel. She was a pretty Asian woman with red highlighted hair tied in a bun.

"Oh, Percy, Thalia. Good to see you again. Whose your friend with you?" she greeted.

We introduced Zoë to her. Mrs. Chase then asked if we were hungry. We admitted we were, and she told us she'd bring us some cookies and sandwiches and sodas.

"Dear," Dr. Chase said. "They came about Annabeth."

Mrs. Chase just pursed her lips and looked concern. "All right. Go on up to the study and I'll bring you some food." She smiled at me. "Nice seeing you again, Percy and Thalia. Nice meeting you Zoë."

Upstairs, we walked into Dr. Chase's study and I said, "Whoa!"

The room was wall-to-wall books, but really caught my attention were the war toys. There was a huge table with miniature tanks and soldiers fighting along a blue painted river, with hills and fake trees and stuff. Old-fashioned biplanes hung on strings from the ceiling, tilted at crazy angles like they were in the middle of a dogfight.

Dr. Chase smiled. "Yes. The Third Battle Ypres. I'm writing a paper, you see, on the use of Sopwith Camels to strafe enemy lines. I believe they played a much greater role that they've been given credit for.

He plucked a biplane from its string and swept it across the battlefield, making airplane engine noises as he knocked down little German soldiers.

"Oh, right," I said. I knew Annabeth's dad was a professor of military history. She'd never mentioned he played with toy soldiers.

Zoë came over and studied the battlefield. "The German lines were farther from the river."

Dr. Chase stared at her. "How do you know that?"

"I was there," she said matter-of-factly. "Artemis wanted to show us how horrible war was, the way mortal men fight each other. And how foolish, too. The battle was a complete waste."

Dr. Chase opened his mouth in shock. "You-"

"She's a Hunter, sir,"" Thalia said. "But that's not why we're here. We need-"

"You saw the Sopwith Camels?" Dr. Chase said. "How many were there? What formation did they fly?"

"Sir," Thalia broke in again. "Annabeth is in danger."

That got his attention. He set the biplane down.

"Of course," he said. "Tell me everything."

It wasn't easy, but we tried. Meanwhile, the afternoon light was fading outside. We were running out of time.

When we finished, Dr. Chase collapsed in his leather recliner. He laced his hands. "My poor brave Annabeth. We must hurry."

"SIr, we need transportation to Mount Tamalpais," Zoë said. "And we need it immediately."

"I'll drive you. Hmm, it would be faster to fly in my Camel, but it only seats two."

"Whoa, you have an actual biplane?" I said.

"Down at Crissy Field," Dr. Chase said proudly. "That's the reason I had to move here. My sponsor is a private collector with some of the finest World War I relics in the world. He let me restore the Sopwith Camel-"

"Sir," Thalia said. "Just a car would be great. And it might be better if we went without you. It's too dangerous."

Dr. Chase frowned uncomfortably which reminded me of my mom when I'm about to do something that could be dangerous. "Now wait a minute young lady. Annabeth is my daughter. Dangerous or not, I... I can't just-"

"Snacks," Mrs. Chase announced. SHe pushed through the door with a tray full of peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches and Cokes and cookies fresh out of the oven, the chocolate chips still gooey. Thalia and I inhaled a few cookies while Zoë said, "I can drive, sir. I'm not as young as I look. I promise not to destroy your car."

Mrs. Chase knit her eyebrows. "What's this about?"

"Annabeth is in danger," Dr. Chase said. "On Mount Tam. I would drive them, but... apparently it's no place for mortals."

It sounded like it was really hard for him to get that last part out.

I waited for Mrs. Chase to say no. I mean, what mortal parent would allow three underage teenagers to borrow their car? To my surprise, Mrs. Chase nodded. "Then they'd better get going."

"Right!" Dr. Chase jumped up and started patting his pockets. "My keys..."

His wife sighed. "Frederick, honestly. You'd lose your head if it weren't wrapped in your aviator hat. The keys are hanging on the peg by the front door."

"Right!" Dr. Chase said.

Zoë grabbed a sandwich. "Thank you both. We should go. Now."

We hustled out the door and down the stairs, the Chases right behind us.

"Percy," Mrs. Chase called as I was leaving, "tell Annabeth... Tell her she still has a home here, will you? Remind her of that."

I took one last look at the messy living room, Annabeth's half brothers spilling LEGOS and arguing, the smell of cookies filling the air. Not a bad place, I thought. I now realized, they must have really tried to compromise with Annabeth since she came to live with them again for her to stay, even now when they finally realized how dangerous San Francisco really is for her, they still want her to be part of their family.

"I will tell her," I promised.

We ran out to the yellow VW convertible parked in the driveway. The sun was going down. I figured we had less than an hour to save Annabeth.

...

"Can't this thing go any faster?" Thalia demanded.

Zoë glared at her. "I cannot control traffic."

"You both sound like my mother," I said.

"Shut up!" they said in unison.

Zoë weaved in and out of traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge. The sun was sinking on the horizon when we finally got into Marin County and exited the highway.

The road were insanely narrow, winding through forests and up the sides of the hills and around the edges of steep ravines. Zoë didn't slow down at all.

"Why does everything smell like cough drops?" I asked.

"Eucalyptus." Zoë pointed to the huge trees all around us.

"The stuff koala bears eat?"

"And monsters," she said. "They love chewing the leaves. Especially dragons."

"Dragons chew eucalyptus leaves?"

"Believe me," Zoë said, "if you had dragon breath, you would chew eucalyptus too."

I didn't question her, but I did keep my eyes peeled more closely as we drove. Ahead of us loomed Mount Tamalpais. I guess in terms of mountains, it was a small one, but it looked plenty huge as we were driving toward it.

"So that's the Mountain of Despair?" I asked.

"Yes," Zoë said tightly.

"Why do they call it that?"

She was silent for almost a mile before answering. "After the war between the Titans and the gods, many of the Titans were punished and imprisoned. Kronos was sliced to pieces and thrown into Tartarus. Kronos's right-hand man, the general of his forces, was imprisoned up there, on the summit, just beyond the Garden of the Hesperides."

"The General," I said. Clouds seemed to be swirling around its peak as though the mountain was drawing them in, spinning them like a top. "What's going on up there? A storm?"

Zoë didn't answer. I got the feeling she knew exactly what the clouds meant, and she didn't like it.

"We have to concentrate," Thalia said. "The Mist is really strong here."

"The magical kind or the natural kind?" I asked.

"Both."

The gray clouds swirled even thicker over the mountain, and we kept driving straight toward them. We were out of the forest now, into wide open spaces of cliffs and grass and rocks and fog.

I happened to glance down at the ocean as we passed a scenic curve, and I saw something that made me jump out of my seat.

"Look!" But we turned a corner and the ocean disappeared behind the hills.

"What?" Thalia asked.

"A big white ship," I said. "Docked near the beach. It looked like a cruise ship."

Her eyes widened. "Luke's ship?"

I wanted to say I wasn't sure as I didn't say the figurehead, a statue of Princess Andromeda when she was chained to a rock as sacrifice to the gods before my name sake saved her. But something told me had to be the Luke's demon cruise ship Princess Andromeda. That's why he'd sent his ship all the way down to the Panama Canal. It was the quickest way to sail it from the East Coast to California.

"We will have company, then," Zoë said grimly. "Kronos's army."

I was about to answer, when suddenly the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. Thalia shouted, "Stop the car. NOW!"

Zoë must've sensed something was wrong, because she slammed on the brakes without question. The yellow VW spun twice before coming to a stop at the edge of the cliff.

"Out!" Thalia opened the door and pushed me hard. We both rolled onto the pavement. The next second: BOOOM!

Lightning flashed, and Dr. Chase's Volkswagen erupted like a canary-yellow grenade. I shapeshifted into a tortoise and tucked into my shell. I felt the hot the metal shrapnel rain down on my shell as well as the sound of metal hitting metal. Let me tell you, tortoise shells can handle a lot of things, but I can feel the pain of hot metal hitting my shell.

When I felt no more metal hitting my shell, I shapeshifted back to human form. I look and found Thalia had protected herself with her shield.

"One shall perish by a parent's hand," Thalia muttered. "Cursehim. He would destroy me? Me?"

It took me a second to realize she was talking about her dad. "Oh, hey, that couldn't have been Zeus's lightning bolt. Remember, Kronos wants you to destroy Olympus and will deceive you to get what he wants. He did ruled the sky, sea, and underworld before our dads and Hades took over so that lighting might be somehow caused by him."

Thalia shook her head, looking angry and stunned. "I don't know, Percy-"

"Wait," I said. "Where's Zoë? Zoë!"

We both got up and ran around the blasted VW which was a wreck. Part of the VW's fender had impaled itself in the street. The smoking hood was spinning in circles. Pieces of the yellow metal were strewn across the road. But nothing was inside and beyond the wreckage there was nothing. I looked won the cliff. No sign of her.

Zoë!" I shouted.

Then she was standing right next to me, pulling me by my arm. "Silence, fool Do you want to wake Ladon?"

"You mean we're here?"

"Very close," she said. "Follow me."

Sheets of fog were drifting right across the road. Zoë stepped into one of them, and when the fog passed, she was no longer there. Thalia and I looked at each other.

"Concentrate on Zoë," Thalia advised. "We are following her. Go straight into the fog and keep that in mind."

Thalia stepped into the fog, into the Mist, and I followed.

When the fog cleared, I was still on the side of the mountain, but the road was dirt. The grass was thicker. The sunset made a bloodred slash across the sea. The summit of the mountain seemed closer now, swirling with storm clouds and raw power. There was only one path to the top, directly in front of us. And it led through a lush meadow of shadows and flowers: the garden of twilight, just like I'd seen in my dream.

...

If it hadn't been for the enormous dragon, the garden would've been the most beautiful place I'd ever seen. The grass shimmered with silvery evening light and the flowers were such brilliant colors they almost glowed in the dark. Stepping stones of polished black marble led around either side of a five story-tall apple tree, every bough glittering with golden apples, and I don't mean yellow golden apples like in the grocery store. I mean real golden apples. I can't describe why they were so appealing, but as soon as I smelled their fragrance, I knew that one bite would be the most delicious thing I'd ever tasted.

"The apples of immortality," Thalia said. "Hera's wedding gift from Zeus."

I wanted to step right up and pluck one, except for the dragon coiled around the tree.

Now, I don't know what you think of when I say dragon. Whatever it is, it's not scary enough. The serpent's body was as thick as a booster rocket, glinting with coppery scales. He had more heads than I could count, as if a hundred deadly pythons had been fused together. He appeared to be asleep. The heads lay curled in a big spaghetti-like mound on the grass, all the eyes closed.

Then the shadows in front of us began to move. There was a beautiful, eerie singing, like voices from the bottom of the well. I reached for Riptide, but Zoë stopped my hand.

Four figures shimmered into existence, four young women who looked very much like Zoë. They all wore white Greek chitons. Their skin was like caramel. Silky black hair tumbled loose around their shoulders. It was strange, but I'd never realized how beautiful Zoë was until I saw her siblings, the Hepserides. They looked just like Zoë-gorgeous, and probably very dangerous.

"Sisters," Zoë said.

"We do not see any sister," one of the girls said coldly. "We see two half-bloods and a Hunter. ALl of whom shall soon die."

"You've got it wrong," I stepped forward. "Nobody is going to die."

The girls studied me. They had eyes like volcanic rock, glassy and completely black.

"Perseus Jackson," one of them said.

"Yes," mused another. "I do not see why he's a threat."

"Who said I was a threat?"

The first Hesperid glanced behind her, toward the top of the mountain. "They fear thee. They are unhappy that this one has not killed thee."

She pointed at Thalia.

"I'm not going to kill Percy," Thalia said. "He's my friend."

"There are no friends here, daughter of Zeus," the girl said. "Only enemies. Go back."

"Not without Annabeth," Thalia said.

"And Artemis," Zoë said. "We must approach the mountain."

"You know he will kill thee," the girl said. "You are no match for him."

"Artemis must be freed," Zoë insisted. "Let us pass."

The girl shook her head. "You have no rights here anymore. We have only to raise our voices and Ladon will wake."

"He will not hurt me," Zoë said.

"No? And what about thy so-called friends?"

Then Zoë did the last thing I expected. She shouted. "Ladon! Wake!"

The dragon stirred, glittering like a mountain of pennies. The Hesperides yelped and scattered. The lead girl said to Zoë, "Are you mad?"

"You never had any courage, sister," Zoë said. "That is thy problem."

The dragon Ladon was writhing now, a hundred heads whipping around, tongues flickering and tasting the air. Zoë took a step forward, her arms raised.

"Zoë, don't," Thalia said. "You're not a Hesperid anymore. He'll kill you."

"Ladon is trained to protect the tree," Zoë said. "Skirt around the edges of the garden. Go up the mountain. As long as I am a bigger threat, he should ignore thee."

"Should," I said. "Not exactly reassuring."

"It is the only way," she said. "Even the three of us together cannot fight him."

I have to admit Zoë had a point. Not even Hercules was able to beat Ladon. And although I had the same power as Periclymenus-grandson of Poseidon who was able to go toe-to-toe in combat with Hercules and because of it and the fact I'm son of Poseidon the gods fear I could be potentially be stronger, right now I don't think any form I can turn to would be match to Ladon.

Ladon opened his mouth. The sound of a hundred heads hissing at once sent a shiver down my back, and that was before his breath hit me. The smell was like acid. It made my eyes burn, my skin crawl, and my hair stand on end. I remember the time a rat had died inside our apartment wall inNew York in the middle of the summer. This stench was a hundred times stronger, and mixed with the smell of chewed Eucalyptus. With a breath like that, now I was certain there wasn't an animal form that could help me fight this thing.

Thalia went left. I went right. Zoë walked straight toward the monster.

"It's me, my little dragon," Zoë said. "Zoë has come back."

Ladon shifted forward, then back. Some of the mouths closed. Some kept hissing. Dragon confusion. Meanwhile, the Hesperides shimmered and turned into shadows. The voice of the eldest whispered, "Fool."

"I used to feed thee by hand," Zoë continued, speaking in a soothing voice as she stepped toward the golden tree. "Do you still like lamb's meat?"

The dragon's eyes glinted.

Thalia and I were about half way around the garden. I could have shapeshifted into a Pronghorn or Cheetah, but I didn't want to risk one of Ladon's heads seeing it and decided I was a threat. Ahead, I could see a single rocky trail leading up to the black peak of the mountain. The storm swirled above it, spinning on the summit like it was the axis for the whole world.

We'd almost made it out of the meadow when something went wrong. I felt the dragon's mood shift. Maybe Zoë got too close. Maybe the dragon realized he was hungry. Whatever the reason, he lunged at Zoë.

Two thousand years of training kept her alive. She dodged one set of slashing fangs and tumbled under another, weaving through the dragon's heads as she ran in our direction, gagging from the dragon's horrible breath.

I dropped down on all four and morphed into a pegasus.

"No!" Zoë panted. "Run!"

The dragon snapped at her side, and Zoë cried out. Thalia uncovered Aegis, and the dragon hissed. In his moment of indecision I flew to Zoë, low enough for her to grab on, before flying into the air toward the mountain with Thalia following.

The dragon didn't try to pursue. He hissed and stomped the ground, but I guess he was well trained to guard that tree. He wasn't going to be lured off, even by the tasty prospect of eating some heroes.

I landed once I was certain we were safe and Zoë let go as I morphed back into human form. Behind us, the Hesperides resumed their song in the shadows behind us. The music didn't sound so beautiful to me now-more like the sound track for a funeral.

At the top of the mountain were ruins, blocks of black granite and marble as big as houses. Broken columns. Statues of bronze that looked as though they'd been half melted.

"The ruins of Mount Othrys," Thalia whispered in awe.

"Yes," Zoë said. "It was not here before. This is bad."

"What's Mount Othrys?" I asked, feeling like a fool as usual.

"The mountain fortress of the Titans," Zoë said. "In the first war, Olympus and Othrys were the two rival capitals of the world. Othrys was-" She winced and held her side.

"You're hurt," I said. "Let me see."

"No! It is nothing. I was saying... in the first war, Othrys was blasted to pieces."

"But... how is it here?"

Thalia looked around cautiously as we picked our way through the rubble, past blocks of marble and broken archways. "It moves in the same way that Olympus moves. It always exist on the edges of civilization. But the fact that it is here, on this mountain, is not good."

"Why?"

"This is Atlas' mountain," Zoë said. "Where he holds-" She froze. Her voice was ragged with despair. "Where he used to hold up the sky."

We reached the summit. A few yards ahead of us, gray clouds swirled in a heavy vortex, making a funnel cloud that almost touched the mountaintop, but instead of resting on the shoulders of a twelve-year-old girl with auburn hair and a tattered silvery dress: Artemis, her legs bound to the rocks with celestial bronze chains. This is what I had seen in my dream. It hadn't been a cavern roof that Artemis was forced to hold. It was the roof of the world.

"My lady!" Zoë rushed forward, but Artemis said, "Stop! It is a trap. You must leave now."

Her voice was strained. SHe was drenched in sweat. I had never seen a goddess in pain before, but the weight of the sky was clearly too much for Artemis.

Zoë was crying. She ran forward despite Artemis' protest, and tugged at the chains.

A booming voice spoke behind us: "Ah, how touching."

We turned. The General was standing there in his brown silk suit. At his side were Luke and half a dozen dracaenae bearing the golden sarcophagus of Kronos. Annabeth stood at Luke's side. Her hands cuffed behind her back, a gag in her mouth, and Luke was holding the point of his sword to her throat.

I met her eyes, trying to ask her a thousand questions. THere was just one message she was sending me, though: RUN.

"Luke," Thalia snarled. "Let her go."

Luke smile was weak and pale. He looked even worse than he had three days ago in D.C. "That is the General's decision, Thalia. But it's good to see you again."

Thalia spat at him.

The General chuckled. "So much for old friends. And you, Zoë. It's been a long time. How is my little traitor? I will enjoy killing you."

"Do not respond," Artemis groaned. "Do not challenge him."

"Wait a second," I said. "You're Atlas?"

The General glanced at me. "So, even the stupidest of heroes can finally figure something out. Yes, I am Atlas, the general of the Titans and terror of the gods. Congratulations. I will kill you presently, as soon as I deal with this wretched girl."

"You're not going to hurt Zoë," I said. "I won't let you."

The General sneered. "You have no right to interfere, little hero. This is a family matter."

I frowned. "A family matter?"

"Yes," Zoë said bleakly. "Atlas is my father."