Jasmine's POV

Artemis assured us dawn was coming, but you could've fooled me. It was colder and darker and snowier than ever. Up on the hill, Westover Hall's windows were completely lightless. I wondered if the teachers had even noticed the di Angelos and Dr. Thorn were missing yet. I didn't want to be around when they did.

The Hunters broke camp as quickly as they'd set it up. I stood shivering in the snow (unlike the Hunters, who didn't seem to feel at all uncomfortable), and Artemis stared into the east like she was expecting something. Bianca sat off to one side, talking with Nico. I could tell from his gloomy face that she was explaining her decision to join the Hunt. What a selfish bitch, abandoning her brother like that.

Thalia, Will, Grover, and Toothless came up and huddled around us, anxious to hear what had happened in our audience with Artemis.

When Percy and I told them, Grover turned pale. "The last time the Hunters visited camp, it didn't go well."

"How'd they even show up here?" Percy wondered. "I mean, they just appeared out of nowhere."

"And Bianca joined them," Thalia said, disgusted. "It's all Zoë's fault. That stuck-up, no good—"

"Who can blame her?" Grover said. "Eternity with Artemis?" He heaved a big sigh.

Thalia rolled her eyes. "You satyrs. You're all in love with Artemis. Don't you get that she'll never love you back?"

"But she's so . . . into nature," Grover swooned.

"You're nuts," Thalia said.

"Nuts and berries," Grover said dreamily. "Yeah."

I rolled my eyes. I loved the dude, but even he could sometimes be as ridiculous as his relatives.

Finally the sky began to lighten. Artemis muttered, "About time. He's so-o-o lazy during the winter."

"You're, um, waiting for the sunrise?" Percy asked.

"For my brother. Yes."

I knew legends about Apollo—or sometimes Helios—driving a big sun chariot across the sky. But I also knew that the sun was really a star about a zillion miles away. I'd gotten used to some of the Greek myths being true, but still . . . the stories mixed together and don't always make sense.

"It's not exactly as you think," Artemis said, like she was reading our minds.

"Oh, okay." Percy started to relax. "So, it's not like he'll be pulling up in a—"

There was a sudden burst of light on the horizon. A blast of warmth.

"Don't look," Artemis advised. "Not until he parks."

Parks?

I averted my eyes, and saw that the other kids were doing the same. Toothless stood in front of us and expanded his wings to shade us. The light and warmth intensified until my winter coat felt like it was melting off of me. Then suddenly the light died. Toothless lowered his wings.

I looked. What stood in front of us was not a ball of fire but in fact a red convertible Maserati Spyder. It was so awesome it glowed. Then I realized it was glowing because the metal was hot. The sun had melted around the Maserati in a perfect circle, which explained why I was now standing on green grass and my shoes were wet.

The driver got out, smiling. He looked about seventeen or eighteen, and for a second, I had the uneasy feeling it was Luke. This guy had the same sandy hair and outdoorsy good looks. But it wasn't Luke. This guy was taller, with no scar on his face like Luke's. His smile was brighter and more playful. (Luke didn't do much more than scowl and sneer these days.) The Maserati driver wore jeans and loafers and a sleeveless T-shirt.

"Wow," Thalia muttered. "Apollo is hot."

"He's the sun god," Percy said.

"That's not what I meant."

I laughed. I glanced at Will and noticed he looked kind of awkward. He was standing as straight as he could with his shoulders straight, staring at the Maserati driver.

"Oh my God, that's right," I realized, whispering to him. "He's your father."

Will looked at me with the corner of his eyes and nodded.

"This is the first time you've ever met him, isn't it?"

He nodded again.

"I can see where you get your good looks."

He relaxed a bit and smiled.

"Little sister!" Apollo called. If his teeth were any whiter he could've blinded us without the sun car. "What's up? You never call. You never write. I was getting worried!"

Artemis sighed. "I'm fine, Apollo. And I am not your little sister."

"Hey, I was born first."

"We're twins! How many millennia do we have to argue—"

"So what's up?" he interrupted. "Got the girls with you, I see. You all need some tips on archery?"

Artemis grit her teeth. "I need a favor. I have some hunting to do, alone. I need you to take my companions to Camp Half-Blood."

"Sure, sis!" Then he raised his hands in a stop everything gesture. "I feel a haiku coming on."

The Hunters all growned. Apparently they'd met Apollo before.

He cleared his throat and held up one hand dramatically.

"Green grass breaks through snow.
Artemis pleads for my help.
I am so cool
."

He grinned at us, waiting for applause. None of us gave it to him.

"That last line was only four syllables," Artemis said.

Apollo frowned. "Was it?"

"Yes. What about I am so big-headed?"

"No, no, that's six syllables. Hmm." He started muttering to himself.

Zoë Nightshade turned to us. "Lord Apollo has been going through this haiku phase ever since he visited Japan. 'Tis not as bad as the time he visited Limerick. If I'd had to hear one more poem that started with, There once was a goddess from Sparta—"

"I've got it!" Apollo announced. "I am so awesome. That's five syllables!" He bowed, looking very pleased with himself. "And now, sis. Transportation for the Hunters, you say? Good timing. I was just about ready to roll."

"These demigods will also need a ride," Artemis said, pointing to us. "Some of Chiron's campers."

"No problem!" Apollo checked us out. "Will! My son!" He clapped him on the back. "I'm glad to see you've inherited your mother's good looks, as well as mine, of course. And nice to see you also have good choices in the ladies." He nodded toward me.

Will facepalmed and his face burned red. "Hi, Dad."

I laughed and nudged him.

"Let's see . . ." Apollo continued. "Thalia, right? I've heard all about you."

Thalia blushed. "Hi, Lord Apollo."

"Zeus's girl, yes? Makes you my half sister. Used to be a tree, didn't you? Glad you're back. I hate it when pretty girls turn into trees. Man, I remember one time—"

"Brother," Artemis said. "You should get going."

"Oh, right." Then he looked at Percy, and his eyes narrowed. "Percy Jackson?"

"Yeah. I mean . . . yes, sir."

It seemed weird calling a teenager "sir," but we've learned to be careful with immortals. They tended to get offended easily. Then they blew stuff up.

Apollo studied Percy, but he didn't say anything, which was a little creepy.

"Well!" he said at last. "We'd better load up, huh? Ride only goes one way—west. And if you miss it, you miss it."

I looked at the Maserati, which would seat two people max. There were about twenty of us.

"Cool car," Nico said.

"Thanks, kid," Apollo said.

"But how will we all fit?"

"Oh." Apollo seemed to notice the problem for the first time. "Well, yeah. I hate to change out of sports-car mode, but I suppose . . ."

He took out his car keys and beeped the security alarm button. Chirp, chirp.

For a moment, the car glowed brightly again. When the glare died, the Maserati had been replaced by one of those Turtle Top shuttle buses like we used for school basketball games.

"Right," he said. "Everybody in."

Zoë ordered the Hunters to start loading. She picked up her camping pack, and Apollo said, "Here, sweetheart. Let me get that."

Zoë recoiled. Her eyes flashed murderously.

"Brother," Artemis chided. "You do not help my Hunters. You do not look at, talk to, or flirt with my Hunters. And you do not call them sweetheart."

Apollo spread his hands. "Sorry. I forgot. Hey, sis, where are you off to, anyway?"

"Hunting," Artemis said. "It's none of your business."

"I'll find out. I see all. Know all."

Artemis snorted. "Just drop them off, Apollo. And no messing around!"

"No, no! I never mess around."

Artemis rolled her eyes, then looked at us. "I will see you by winter solstice. Zoë, you are in charge of the Hunters. Do well. Do as I would do."

Zoë straightened. "Yes, my lady."

Artemis knelt and touched the ground as if looking for tracks. When she rose, she looked troubled. "So much danger. The beast must be found."

She sprinted toward the woods and melted into the snow and shadows.

Apollo turned and grinned, jangling the keys on his finger. "So," he said. "Who wants to drive?"


The Hunters piled into the van. They all crammed into the back so they'd be as far away as possible from Apollo and the rest of the highly infectious males. Bianca sat with them, leaving her little brother to hang in the front with us, which was cold, but Nico didn't seem to mind.

"This is so cool!" Nico said, jumping up and down in the driver's seat. "Is this really the sun? I thought Helios and Selene were the sun and moon gods. How come sometimes it's them and sometimes it's you and Artemis?"

"Downsizing," Apollo said. "The Romans started it. They couldn't afford all those temple sacrifices, so they had Helios and Selene and folded their duties into our job descriptions. My sis got the moon. I got the sun. It was pretty annoying at first, but at least I got this cool car."

"But how does it work?" Nico asked. "I thought the sun was a big fiery ball of gas!"

Apollo chuckled and ruffled Nico's hair. "The rumor probably got started because Artemis used to call me a big fiery ball of gas. Seriously, kid, it depends on whether you're talking astronomy or philosophy. You want to talk astronomy? Bah, what fun is that? You want to talk about how humans think about the sun? Ah, now that's more interesting. They've got a lot riding on the sun . . . er, so to speak. It keeps them warm, grows their crops, powers engines, makes everything look, well, sunnier. This chariot is built out of human dreams about the sun, kid. It's as old as Western Civilization. Every day, it drives across the sky from east to west, lighting up all those puny little mortal lives. The chariot is a manifestation of the sun's power, the way mortals perceive it. Make sense?"

Nico shook his head. "No."

"Well then, just think of it as a really powerful, really dangerous solar car."

"Can I drive?"

"No. Too young."

"Oo! Oo!" Grover raised his hand.

"Mm, no," Apollo said. "Too furry." He looked past Percy and focused on Thalia.

"Daughter of Zeus!" he said. "Lord of the Sky. Perfect."

"Oh, no." Thalia shook her head. "No, thanks."

"C'mon," Apollo said. "How old are you?"

Thalia hesitated. "I don't know."

It was sad, but true. She'd been turned into a tree when she was twelve, but that had been seven years ago. So she should be nineteen, if you went by years. But she still felt like she was twelve, and if you looked at her, she seemed somewhere in between. The best Chiron could figure, she had kept aging while in tree form, but much more slowly. Kind of like satyrs.

Apollo tapped his finger to his lip. "You're fifteen, almost sixteen."

"How do you know that?"

"Hey, I'm the god of prophecy. I know stuff. You'll turn sixteen in about a week."

"That's my birthday! December twenty-second."

"Which means you're old enough now to drive with a learner's permit!"

"She has to have the learner's permit first, though," I muttered.

Thalia shifted her feet nervously. "Uh—"

"I know what you're going to say," Apollo said. "You don't deserve an honor like driving the sun chariot."

"That's not what I was going to say."

"Don't sweat it! Maine to Long Island is a really short trip, and don't worry about what happened to the last kid I trained. You're Zeus's daughter. He's not going to blast you out of the sky."

Apollo laughed good-naturedly. The rest of us didn't join him.

Thalia tried to protest, but Apollo was absolutely not going to take "no" for an answer. He hit a button on the dashboard, and a sign popped up along the side of the windshield. I had to read it backward. I was pretty sure it said WARNING: STUDENT DRIVER.

"Take it away!" Apollo told Thalia. "You're gonna be a natural!"


Percy and Will seemed jealous. Percy I knew was because he's told me he couldn't wait to start driving. A couple of times that fall, his mom had taken him out to Montauk when the beach road was empty, and she'd let him try out her Mazda. Will probably because it was his father's car, but I know he wasn't too anxious on driving before he was even legally old enough anyway. I, on the other hand, couldn't care less when I could start driving. My family hardly ever uses their car to go somewhere. Flying our griffin was definitely better when going to visit my fraternal grandparents. Riding on Toothless was good enough for me. I enjoyed our flights. Though for others who didn't have what me and my family have, I could understand the need to want to start driving as soon as possible.

"Speed equals heat," Apollo advised. "So start slowly, and make sure you've got good altitude before you really open her up."

Thalia gripped the wheel so tight her knuckles turned white. She looked like she was going to be sick.

"What's wrong?" Percy and I asked her.

"Nothing," she said shakily. "N-nothing is wrong."

Something was definitely wrong. She pulled back on the wheel. It tilted, and the bus lurched upward so fast I fell back and crashed against something soft.

"Ow," Grover and Percy said.

Percy crashed into Grover and I crashed into Percy.

"Sorry."

"Slower!" Apollo said.

"Sorry!" Thalia said. "I've got it under control."

I managed to get to my feet. Looking out the window, I saw a smoking ring of trees from the clearing where we'd taken off.

"Thalia," Percy said, "lighten up on the accelerator."

"I've got it, Percy," she said, gritting her teeth. But she kept it floored.

"You clearly don't," I muttered.

"Loosen up," Percy told her.

"I'm loose!" Thalia said. She wasn't. She was so stiff she looked like she was made out of plywood.

"We need to veer south for Long Island," Apollo said. "Hang a left."

Thalia jerked the wheel, but I held on tight and grabbed onto Will while, again, Percy was thrown into Grover, who yelped. Poor Toothless, in his baby mod, flipped backwards in circles towards the back, hitting a Hunter.

"The other left," Apollo suggested.

I made the mistake of looking out the window again. We were at airplane height now—so high the sky was starting to look black.

"Ah . . ." Apollo said, and I got the feeling he was forcing himself to stay calm. "A little lower, sweetheart. Cape Cod is freezing over."

Thalia tilted the wheel. Her face was chalk white, her forehead beaded with sweat. Something was definitely wrong. I'd never seen her like this. However . . . it was something I recognized: Fear.

The bus pitched down and somebody screamed. Maybe it was me, though I doubted it since it was like a rollercoaster ride and I absolutely despised screaming in that regard. Now we were heading straight toward the Atlantic Ocean at a thousand miles an hour, the New England coastline off to our right. And it was getting hot in the bus.

Apollo had been thrown somewhere in the back of the bus, but he started climbing up the rows of seats.

"Take the wheel!" Grover begged him.

"No worries," Apollo said. He looked plenty worried. "She just has to learn to—WHOA!"

I saw what he was seeing. Down below us was a little snow-covered New England town. At least, it used to be snow-covered. As I watched, the snow melted off the trees and the roofs and the lawns. The white steeple on a church turned brown and started to smolder. Little plumes of smoke, like birthday candles, were popping up all over the town. Trees and rooftops were catching fire.

"Pull up!" Percy yelled.

There was a wild light in Thalia's eyes. She yanked back on the wheel. I held on. As we zoomed up, I could see through the back windows that the fires in the town were being stuffed out by the sudden blast of cold.

"There!" Apollo pointed. "Long Island, dead ahead. Let's slow down, dear. 'Dead' is only an expression."

Thalia was thundering toward the coastline of northern Long Island. There was Camp Half-Blood: the valley, the woods, the beach. I could see the dining pavilion and cabins and the amphitheater.

"I'm under control," Thalia muttered. "I'm under control."

"You are not," I whispered.

We were only a few hundred yards away now.

"Brake," Apollo said.

"I can do this."

"BRAKE!"

Thalia slammed her foot on the brake, and the sun bus pitched forward at a forty-five degree angle, slamming into the Camp Half-Blood canoe lake with a huge FLOOOOOOSH! Steam billowed up, sending several frightened naiads scrambling out of the water with half-woven wicker baskets.

The bus bobbed to the surface, along with a couple of capsized, half-melted canoes.

"Well," said Apollo with a brave smile. "You were right, my dear. You had everything under control! Let's go see if we boiled anyone important, shall we?"


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