Disclaimer: I don't own PJO.

Chapter Twelve

Desert Deaths

We rode the boar until sunset, which was about as much as I could take. Imagine riding a giant steel brush over a bed of gravel all day. That's about how comfortable boar-riding was. And I had never been a champion rider.

I have no idea how many miles we covered, but eventually the mountains faded into the distance and were replaced by miles of flat, dry land. The grass and scrub brush got sparser until we were galloping across the desert.

As night fell, the boar came to a stop at a creek bed and snorted. He started drinking the muddy water, then ripped a saguaro cactus out of the ground and chewed it, needles and all.

"This is as far as he'll go," Grover informed us as he clambered off awkwardly. "We need to get away while he's eating."

Nobody needed away convincing. We slipped off the boar's back while he was busy munching on the cacti. Then we waddled away as fast as we could with our saddle sores.

After its' third saguaro and another drink of muddy water, the boar squealed and belched, then whirled around and galloped back toward the east.

"It likes the mountains better," I guessed.

"I can't blame it," Thalia replied. "Look."

Ahead of us was a two-lane road half covered with sand. On the other side of the road was a cluster of buildings too small to be a town: a boarded-up house, a taco shop that looked like it hadn't been open since before Zoe was born, and a white stucco post office with a sign that said GILA CLAW, ARIZONA hanging crookedly above the door. Beyond that was a range of hills… but then I noticed they weren't regular hills. The countryside was way too flat for that. The hills were enormous mounds of old cars, appliances, and other scrap metal. It was a junkyard that seemed to go on forever.

"Does anybody else have a bad feeling about this?" I muttered warily, eyeing the place suspiciously. I didn't know why, but something about it put me on edge.

To my surprise, Zoe gave a nod of agreement. "I believe that you are correct," she answered, teasing her bow, which had randomly appeared from nowhere again. "There is something in the air that makes me feel wary. We must take care."

"Well, either way, something tells me that we're not going to find a car rental here," Thalia sighed. She looked at Graver. "I don't suppose you got another wild boar up your sleeve?"

Grover was sniffing the wind, looking nervous. He fished out his acorns and threw them into the sand, then played his pipes. They rearranged themselves in a pattern that made no sense to me, but Grover looked concerned.

"That's us," he said, jabbing a finger at said nuts. "Those five nuts right there."

"And?" I pressed him. "What else?"

"That cluster right there," Grover said, pointing to the left, "that's trouble."

"A monster?" Thalia asked.

Grover looked uneasy. "I don't smell anything, which doesn't make sense. But the acorns don't lie. Our next challenge…"

"Let me guess," I huffed. "Over there." I jerked a thumb toward the junkyard. With the sunlight almost gone now, the hills of metal looked like something on an alien planet. To my utter lack of surprise, Grover nodded, an anxious expression on his face as he confirmed my suspicions.

"Great," Thalia mumbled.

After some debate, we decided to camp for the night and try the junkyard in the morning. It was only logical. After all, monsters are always stronger in the dark, and we were weakened by the lack of proper vision. Going at daylight might delay us, but we'd be better off being slow than being dead. Besides, we had to sleep at some point. Being human is so inconvenient, Mental Ana snarked, making me bite back a grin.

Zoe and Bianca produced five sleeping bags and foam mattresses out of their backpacks and passed them out. The atmosphere was almost amicable, and I began to suspect that I was actually starting to genuinely like Zoe. She really wasn't that bad, now that we had come to a truce of some sort.

The night got chilly fast, so Grover and I collected old boards from the ruined house, and Thalia zapped them with an electric shock to start a campfire. Pretty soon we were about as comfy as you can get in a rundown ghost town in the middle of nowhere.

"The stars are out," Zoe murmured. She was right. There were millions of them, with no city lights to turn the sky orange.

"It's so amazing," Bianca replied, her voice awed. "I've never actually seen the Milky Way."

"This is nothing," Zoe declared. "In the old days, there were thousands more. Whole constellations have disappeared because of human light pollution."

The way she talked, it was clear that she was not one of said humans. I was curious about what she might really be, but bit back my questions. We were getting along, and with Ana (and Artemis) on the line, I didn't want to risk jeopardizing that.

Grover sighed. He was still looking up at the stars like he was thinking about the light pollution problem. "If only Pan were here, he would set things right."

Zoe nodded sadly.

"Maybe it was the coffee," Grover considered. "I was drinking coffee, and the wind came. Maybe if I drank more coffee…"

I was pretty sure that coffee had nothing to do with what had happened in Cloudcroft, but I didn't have the heart to tell Grover. I thought about the rubber rat and the tiny birds that had suddenly come alive when the wind blew.

"Grover, do you really think that was Pan?" I asked gently. "I mean, I know that you that want it to be him, but it's been thousands of years since he was last heard from. Why would he interfere now?"

"He sent us help," Grover insisted, conviction filling his voice. "I don't know how or why. But it was his presence. After this quest is done, I'm going back to New Mexico and drinking a lot of coffee. It's the best lead we've gotten in two thousand years. I was so close."

I didn't answer. I didn't want to squash Grover's hopes. But my question remained. Why now, and not before? Was it the Great Stirring?

"What I want to know," Thalia said, looking at Bianca, "is how you destroyed one of the zombies. There are a lot more out there somewhere. We need to figure out how to fight them."

Bianca shook her head. "I don't know. I just stabbed it and it went up in flames."

"Maybe there's something special about your knife," I suggested doubtfully. It didn't seem right though. Something niggled in the back of my mind, something about Grover, Ana and Thalia. And something else about the di'Angelos' facial features. I had seen their features before, I was sure of it.

"It is the same as mine," Zoe dismissed my theory. "Celestial bronze, yes. But mine did not affect the warriors that way."

"Maybe you have to hit the skeleton in a certain spot," I offered another guess.

I felt a jab of pity as I noticed how uncomfortable Bianca looked with everybody paying attention to her. The others noticed it too.

"Never mind," Zoe told her. "We will find the answer eventually. In the meantime, we should plan our next move. When we get through this junkyard, we must continue west. If we can find a road, we can hitchhike to the nearest city. I think that would be Las Vegas."

I was about to protest that Grover and I had had bad experiences in that town, and this time we wouldn't have Ana to pull our asses out of the fire, but Bianca beat me to it. She jolted upright, looking terrified.

"No!" she exclaimed desperately. "Not there!"

Zoe frowned. "Why?"

Bianca took a shaky breath. "I… I think we stayed there for a while," she stammered. "Nico and I. When we were traveling. And then, I can't remember…"

I was suddenly hit by a dark suspicion. I remembered what Bianca had told me about Nico and her staying in a hotel for a while. Then I thought about the last time I had been in Las Vegas. "One guy said it was 1983," Ana's voice, shaky with an adrenaline crash echoed in my memory. "He thought that he had been there for about two weeks." I met Graver's eyes, and I got the feeling he was thinking the same thing.

"Bianca," I said seriously. "That hotel you stayed at. Was it possibly called the Lotus Hotel and Casino?"

Her eyes widened in surprise. "How could you know that?"

I swore. "Gods, Bianca," I groaned. The strange things around the two siblings suddenly made so much more sense, but bits of the puzzle were still missing. How long had they been there for? Why were they there, and who had sent them there in the first place? Why didn't they have any memory?

"Wait," Thalia ordered, holding up her hands and looking confused. "What's the Lotus Hotel and Casino?"

"A couple of years ago," I began to explain, "Ana, Grover, and I got trapped there. It's designed so you never want to leave. We stayed for about an hour. When we came out, five days had passed. It alters your perception of time. There were people there for decades, and they thought it was only a week or so."

"No," Bianca denied, shaking her head desperately. "No, that's not possible."

"You said that somebody came and got you out," I remembered.

"Yes."

"What did he look like? What did he say?"

"I… I don't remember. Please, I really don't want to talk about this."

Zoe sat forward, her eyebrows knit with concern. "You said that Washington, D.C., had changed when you went back last summer. You didn't remember the subway being there."

"Yes, but—"

"Bianca," Zoe interrupted her again, "can you tell me the name of the president of the United States right now?"

"Don't be silly," Bianca scoffed, an edge of hysteria to her tone. She told us the correct name of the president.

"And who was the president before that?" Zoe asked.

Bianca thought for a while. "Roosevelt."

Zoe swallowed. Thalia covered her mouth with her hand to hide her gasp, and I continued to think of more and more questions, trying to understand how the two had ended up in the Casino. And why they had come out now, of all times. With the Titans rising, the timing was suspect, at best.

"Theodore or Franklin?" Zoe's voice had a hint of a shake in it, and her dark eyes were wide. Her jaw was tight and her hands were curled into fists. I didn't blame her for it. She was acting better than I would in that situation, that was for sure.

"Franklin," Bianca replied confidently. "F.D.R."

"Bianca," Zoe said slowly, carefully. "F.D.R. was not the last president. That was about seventy years ago."

"That's impossible," Bianca gasped. "I… I'm not that old." She stared at her hands as if to make sure they weren't wrinkled.

Thalia's eyes turned sad. I guess she knew what it was like to get pulled out of time for a while. "It's okay, Bianca. The important thing is that you and Nico are safe. You made it out."

"But how?" I pressed. "We were only in there for an hour to us and we barely escaped. We wouldn't have managed at all, if Ana wasn't so resistant to mind control. She practically had to drag Grover and I away from the place. How could you have escaped after being there for so long? You didn't even know your heritage back then. You couldn't have broken out of the spell alone."

"I told you." Bianca looked about ready to cry. "A man came and said that it was time to leave. And—"

"But who? Why did he do it? Why then, and not seventy years ago?"

Before she could answer, we were hit with a blazing light from down the road. The headlights of a car appeared out of nowhere. We grabbed our sleeping bags and got out of the way as a deathly white limousine slid to a stop in front of us.

The back door of the limo opened right next to me. Before I could step away, the point of a sword touched my throat.

I heard the sound of Zoe and Bianca drawing their bows, and Thalia summoning her spear. As the owner of the sword got out of the car, I moved back very slowly. I had to, because he was pushing the point under my chin.

He smiled cruelly. "Hello again, punk."

"Lord Ares," I spat the name bitterly, old feelings of resentment welling up within me again. "How's the leg?"

His smug expression darkened at the reminder that a twelve-year-old half-blood girl had managed to wound him in battle before, and he growled slightly in warning. "Watch your tone, punk," he warned. "I can't kill his girl without making Uncle P angry, but Hermes' kids are a dime a dozen. He wouldn't even notice."

Like I didn't already know that, I thought scornfully, not speaking.

The war god glanced at my friends. "At ease, people." He snapped his fingers, and their weapons fell to the ground. Bianca gasped in shock, casting a worried look at Zoe, looking for instructions. The elder Huntress glowered at him bitterly.

"This is a friendly meeting." He dug the point of his blade a little farther under my chin. "Of course, I'd like to take your head for a trophy, but someone wants to see you. And I never behead my enemies in front of a lady."

"What lady?" Thalia asked.

Ares looked over at her. "Well, well. I heard you were back."

He lowered his sword and pushed me away.

"Thalia, daughter of Zeus," Ares mused, blatantly looking her up and down like he had done to Ana when we first met him, making her shiver and glare at him. "You're not hanging out with very good company."

"What's your business, Ares?" she demanded. "Who's in the car?"

Ares smiled, enjoying the attention. "Oh, I doubt she wants to meet the rest of you. Particularly not them." He jutted his chin toward Zoe and Bianca. "Why don't you all go get some tacos while you wait? Only take Luke a few minutes."

"We will not leave him alone with thee, Lord Ares," Zoe said. I shot her a look that I hoped communicated my appreciation for her support.

"Besides," Grover managed, "the taco place is closed."

Ares snapped his fingers again. The lights inside the taqueria suddenly blazed to life. The boards flew off the door and the CLOSED sign flipped to OPEN. "You were saying, goat boy?"

"Go on," I told my friends. "I'll handle this."

I tried to sound more confident than I felt, but I don't think Ares was fooled.

"You heard the boy," Ares said. His voice was mocking, and it took all of my self-control not to punch him. "He's big and strong. He's got things under control."

My friends reluctantly headed over to the taco restaurant. Ares regarded me with loathing, then opened the limousine door like a chauffeur.

"Get inside, punk," he said. "And mind your manners. She's not as forgiving of rudeness as I am."

When I saw her, my jaw dropped to the floor. I forgot my name. I forgot where I was. I forgot how to speak in complete sentences.

She was wearing a red satin dress and her hair was curled in a cascade of ringlets. Her face was the most beautiful I'd ever seen: perfect makeup, dazzling eyes, a smile that would've lit up the dark side of the moon.

Thinking back on it, I can't tell you who she looked like. Or even what colour her hair or her eyes were. Pick the most beautiful actress you can think of. The goddess was ten times more beautiful than that. Pick your favourite hair colour, eye colour, whatever. The goddess had that.

When she smiled at me, just for a moment she looked a little like Ana. Then like this actress I used to have a crush on as a kid. Then… well, you get the idea.

"Ah, there you are, Luke," the goddess smiled. "I am Aphrodite." As if I hadn't already managed to put two-and-two together yet. I had enough thinking ability left to figure that out at least.

I slipped into the seat across from her and mumbled something that sounded like, "Um uh gah."

Her smile grew larger. "Aren't you sweet. Hold this, please."

She handed me a polished mirror the size of a dinner plate and had me hold it up for her. She leaned forward and dabbed at her lipstick, though I couldn't see anything wrong with it.

"Do you know why you're here?" she asked.

I wanted to respond. Why couldn't I form a complete sentence? She was only a lady. A seriously beautiful lady. With eyes like the sea, same as Ana. They even shifted shades, like Ana's did, turning from a deep navy to a light green. Whoa.

I pinched my own arm, hard.

"I… I don't know," I managed. I struggled to think through the haze my mind had gone into, but I couldn't. Even Mental Ana was silent.

"Oh, dear," Aphrodite clucked her tongue. "Still in denial? Even with my gift?"

"Your gift?"

She waved me off, crossing her legs and shifting them to the side, like we were in the 50s, or something.

"Tell me, Luke," she leaned in, and I began to feel uncomfortable, which allowed my mind to start clearing. She was beautiful, but beauty tended to conceal a monster's evil. When pretty and/or nice strangers started getting in your personal space, every demigod knew to brace for battle, and those ingrained instincts began dampening her effects on my mind.

"Why are you on this quest?"

I avoided meeting her gaze as I replied, least I go into another daze. "I was given the prophecy. Artemis and Ana need to be found."

"Ah yes!" She sounded triumphant, which made me worried. "Ana. Tell me about her, Luke."

"I can't," I answered frankly. "Ana's indescribable."

"How sweet!" she cooed. "You made an oath to protect her, didn't you?"

"Yes," I lifted my chin defensively. "So what?"

"It was absolutely adorable!" Aphrodite declared. "So noble, knowing that she'll probably die young, yet determined to try and save her anyway. Just like Romeo and Juliet!"

"Ana's not gonna die if I have anything to say about it!" I snapped.

"Oh, so sweet," Aphrodite repeated. She waved at the mirror. "Oh, put it down," she ordered. "I look fine."

I hadn't realized I was still holding it, but as soon as I put it down, I noticed my arms were sore. Hey, it was a heavy mirror, alright? Solid gold, with real diamonds embedded in it.

"Now listen to me, Luke," Aphrodite urged. "The Hunters are your enemies. Forget them and Artemis and the monster. That's not important. You just concentrate on finding and saving Ana."

"Do you know where she is?"

Aphrodite waved her hand irritably. "No, no. I leave the details to you. But it's been ages since we've had a good tragic love story."

"Whoa, what d'you mean tragic?" I demanded, feeling panicked. "Isn't the whole Great Prophecy thing enough?"

"That's all been done before darling," Aphrodite replied dismissively. "But it'll be a good part of proving that love really does conquer all. I mean, just look at Helen and Paris. Did they let anything come between them?"

"They started the Trojan War and got thousands of people killed!"

"Pfft. That's not the point. Follow your heart."

"I don't know where it's going, though," I admitted, feeling uncomfortably vulnerable at doing so.

She smiled sympathetically. She really was beautiful. And not just because she had a pretty face or anything. She believed in love so much, it was impossible not to feel giddy when she talked about it.

"Not knowing is half the fun of being in love," she told me. "Exquisitely painful, isn't it? Not being sure who you love and who loves you? Oh, you kids! It's so cute I'm going to cry."

"No, no," I said, instantly alarmed. I never knew what to do with crying females, mortal or otherwise. "Don't do that."

"And don't worry," she patted my hand. "I'm not going to let this be easy and boring for you. No, I have some wonderful surprises in store. Anguish. Indecision. Oh, you just wait."

"That's really okay," I told her earnestly. "Don't go to any trouble." Please don't go to any trouble. We got enough of that stuff from the Fates. We didn't need the goddess of love adding to our problems.

"You're so cute. I wish all of my daughters could break the heart of a boy like you." Aphrodite's eyes were tearing up. "Now, you'd better go. And do be careful in my husband's territory, Luke. Don't take anything. He is awfully fussy about his trinkets and trash."

"What?" I asked. "You mean Hephaestus?"

But the car door opened and Ares grabbed my shoulder, pulling me out of the car and back into the desert night.

My audience with the goddess of love was over.

"You're lucky, punk." Ares pushed me away from the limo. "Be grateful."

"For what?"

"That we're being so nice. If it was up to me—"

"So why haven't you killed me?" I shot back. It was a stupid thing to say to the god of war, but being around him always made me feel angry and reckless. He had frightened and hurt Ana, even if she had never admitted it. I loathed him for that.

Ares nodded, like I'd finally said something intelligent.

"I'd love to kill you, seriously," he said. "But see, I got a situation. Aphrodite thinks that you're some kinda soap-opera star or something. I kill you, that makes me look bad with her. But don't worry. I haven't forgotten my promise. Someday soon, kid—real soon—you and that girl of yours are going to raise your swords to fight, and you're going to remember the wrath of Ares. Until then… Get lost."

He snapped his fingers and the world did a three-sixty, spinning in a cloud of red dust. I fell to the ground.

When I stood up again, the limousine was gone. The road, the taco restaurant, the whole town of Gila Claw was gone. My friends and I were standing in the middle of the junkyard, mountains of scrap metal stretched out in every direction.

"What did she want with you?" Bianca asked, once I'd told them about Aphrodite.

I nearly lied, but decided that a half-truth would be better. "She thinks that Ana and I make a good love story," I confessed. "Says she's going to make it nice and tragic for us. And warned me about her husband's territory."

Zoe narrowed her eyes. "Be careful, Luke," she warned me. "Aphrodite has led many heroes astray."

"For once I agree with Zoe," Thalia said. "You can't trust Aphrodite. It's not a good thing that she's taken an interest in you and Ana."

"I know," I agreed. Now that I was away from her, I had regained my senses. And I dreaded finding out what Aphrodite would consider to be 'interesting'. And what was that about a gift?

"So," I said, anxious to change the subject, "how do we get out of here?"

"That way," Zoe answered, pointing. "That is west."

I double checked her calculations and nodded, hefting my bag into a more comfortable position. "Shall we?"

With an aura of grim determination and resignation hovering around us, we began making our way west again.

"Guys," Grover called after a while, pointing urgently. "Look!"

We'd reached the crest of a junk mountain. Piles of metal objects glinted in the moonlight: broken heads of bronze horses, metal legs from human statues, smashed chariots, tons of shields and swords and other weapons, along with more modern stuff, like cars that gleamed gold and silver, refrigerators, washing machines, and computer monitors.

"Whoa," Bianca breathed. "That stuff… some of it looks like real gold."

"It is," Thalia confirmed grimly. "This is the junkyard of the gods."

"Don't touch anything," I added. "If it's here, it's cursed or something. There'll be consequences for touching it, even if it is junk."

"Junk?" Grover picked up a beautiful crown made of gold, silver, and jewels. It was broken on one side, as if it had been split by an axe. "You call this junk?"

He bit off a point and began to chew. "It's delicious!"

Thalia swatted the crown out of his hands. "I'm serious!"

"Look!" Bianca called, pointing towards something. She raced down the hill, tripping over bronze coils and golden plates. She picked up a bow that glowed silver in moonlight. "A Hunter's bow!"

She yelped in surprise as the bow began to shrink, and became a hair clip shaped like a crescent moon. "That's so cool!" she squealed.

"It's like Ana's sword," Thalia commented when we got to her side.

"You have to put it back, Bianca," I added.

"Luke is correct," Zoe agreed. "If it is here, there is something wrong with it."

Bianca gained a mutinous look, clenching her fist around the bow. "I don't-"

"Leave it, Bianca!" Zoe snapped, eyes flashing.

"But—"

"It is here for a reason. Anything thrown away in this junkyard must stay in this yard. As Luke said, if it is here, it is defective. Or cursed."

Bianca reluctantly set the hair clip down.

"I don't like this place," Thalia said. She gripped the shaft of her spear.

"I'm with you," I told her. "Let's get the Hades out of this place."

No one protested, and we started picking our way through the hills and valleys of junk. The stuff seemed to go on forever, and if it hadn't been for Ursa Major, we would've gotten lost. All the hills pretty much looked the same.

I kept my hands clenched around my sword to keep my klepto urges in check. Grover found a broken tree made out of metal. It had been chopped to pieces, but some of the branches still had golden birds in them, and they whirred around when Grover picked them up, trying to flap their wings. Bianca too, kept stopping to examine things, and Zoe continually had to force her to leave them behind.

Finally, we saw the edge of the junkyard about half a mile ahead of us, the lights of a highway stretching through the desert. But between us and the road…

"What is that?" Bianca gasped.

"Nothing good," I drawled, eyeing the thing tensely.

Ahead of us was a hill much bigger and longer than the others. It was like a metal mesa, the length of a football field and as tall as goalposts. At one end of the mesa was a row of ten thick metal columns, wedged tightly together.

Bianca frowned. "They look like—"

"Toes," Grover stated.

Bianca nodded. "Really, really large toes."

Zoe, Thalia and I all exchanged nervous looks. If this was what I thought it was, we could be in a lot of trouble.

"Let's go around," Thalia decided. "Far around."

"But the road is right over there," Bianca protested. "It'd be quicker to just climb over it instead."

Ping.

I raised my sword while Thalia hefted her spear and Zoe drew her bow, but then I realized it was only Grover. He had thrown a piece of scrap metal at the toes and hit one, making a deep echo, as if the column were hollow.

"Why did you do that?" Zoe demanded.

Grover cringed. "I don't know. I, uh, don't like fake feet?"

My temper flared, and I glared at him. "What the Hades, Grover?" I snapped. "Are you trying to get us killed? This is the gods' junkyard! That's probably an automaton! A dangerous robot!"

He paled and swallowed, looking at the ground.

"Come on." Thalia looked at Bianca and Grover sternly.

"Around." I emphasized, still eyeing the giant toes.

After several minutes of walking, we finally stepped onto the highway, an abandoned but well-lit stretch of black asphalt.

"We made it out," Zoe sighed. "Thank the gods."

But she had spoken too soon. At that very moment, I heard a sound like a thousand trash compactors crushing metal.

I whirled around. Behind us, the scrap mountain was boiling, rising up. The ten toes tilted over, and we found herself under the shadow of the largest automaton I'd ever seen. It was a bronze giant in full Greek battle armour. He was impossibly tall—like a skyscraper with legs and arms. He gleamed wickedly in the moonlight. He looked down at us, and his face was deformed. The left side was partially melted off. His joints creaked with rust, and across his armoured chest, written in thick dust by some giant finger, were the words WASH ME.

"Talos!" Zoe gasped.

I swore violently. Even Ana, who had a hobby of learning to curse in other languages (English, Greek-modern and ancient, Latin, as well as French, Spanish and German from Silena and Lou Ellen respectively), would have been impressed by my vocabulary.

"Who—who's Talos?" Bianca stuttered, looking terrified.

"One of Hephaestus's creations," Thalia explained. "But that can't be the original. It's too small. A prototype, maybe. A defective model."

Talos didn't like being called 'defective' apparently.

He moved one hand to his sword belt and drew his weapon. The sound of it coming out of its' sheath was horrible, metal screeching against metal. The blade was a hundred feet long, easy. It looked rusty and dull, but I didn't figure that mattered. Getting hit with that thing would be like getting hit with a battleship.

"Someone took something," Zoe declared. "Who took something?"

She stared accusingly at me.

I shook my head. "I admit I was tempted by a few things, but I'm not an idiot. I don't steal from the gods. Ever."

Bianca didn't say anything, but I could see guilt flashing over her expression and I knew what she had done. But I had no time to do anything about it, because the giant defective Talos took one step toward us, closing half the distance and making the ground shake.

"Run!" Grover yelped.

Great advice, except that it was hopeless. At a leisurely stroll, this thing could outdistance us easily.

We split up, the way we'd done with the Nemean Lion. Thalia drew her shield and held it up as she ran down the highway. The giant swung his sword and took out a row of power lines, which exploded in sparks and scattered across Thalia's path. Thankfully, she was resistant to electricity, and simply ignored the sparks.

Zoe's arrows whistled toward the creature's face but they just shattered harmlessly against the metal. Grover brayed like a baby goat and went climbing up a mountain of metal.

Bianca and I ended up next to each other, hiding behind a broken chariot.

"You took something," I accused, in what was probably a harsher tone than was truly necessary. "That bow."

"No!" she denied, but her voice was quivering. Oh yeah, she had stolen something. Despite the warnings Thalia, Zoe and I had all given of the dangers of the junkyard, she had arrogantly ignored us and taken something she wanted. And endangered all of our lives in the process.

I glared furiously at her, making her flinch and let out a sob. I had no sympathy.

"Give it back!" I snapped. "Throw it down!"

"I… I didn't take the bow! Besides, it's too late."

"What did you take?"

Before she could answer, I heard a massive creaking noise, and a shadow blotted out the sky.

"Move!" I tore down the hill, Bianca right behind me, as the giant's foot smashed a crater in the ground where we'd been hiding.

"Hey, Talos!" Grover yelled, but the automaton just ignored him and raised his sword, looking down at Bianca and me.

Grover played a quick melody on his pipes. Over at the highway, the downed power lines began to dance. I understood what Grover was going to do a split second before it happened. One of the poles with power lines still attached flew toward Talos' back leg and wrapped around his calf The lines sparked and sent a jolt of electricity up the giant's backside.

Talos whirled around, creaking and sparking. Grover had managed to buy us a few seconds to escape, thank the gods.

"Come on!" I told Bianca, tugging her arm. But she stayed frozen. From her pocket, she brought out a small metal figurine, a statue of a god.

"It… it was for Nico," she stammered. "It was the only statue he didn't have."

"How can you think of Mythomagic at a time like this?" I demanded.

There were tears in her eyes.

"Throw it down," I ordered. "Maybe the giant will leave us alone." Small chance, but a chance all the same.

She dropped it reluctantly, but nothing happened.

The giant kept coming after Grover. It stabbed its' sword into a junk hill, missing Grover by a few feet, but scrap metal made an avalanche over him, and then I couldn't see him anymore.

"No!" Thalia yelled. She pointed her spear, and a blue arc of lightning shot out, hitting the monster in his rusty knee, which buckled. The giant collapsed, but immediately started to rise again. It was hard to tell if it could feel anything. There weren't any emotions in its' half-melted face, but I got the sense that it was about as ticked off as a twenty-story-tall metal warrior could be.

He raised his foot to stomp and I saw that his sole was treaded like the bottom of a sneaker. There was a hole in his heel, like a large manhole, and there were red words painted around it, which I deciphered only after the foot came down: FOR MAINTENANCE ONLY.

Mental Ana lit up, shouting out a plan that was so very her, it almost made me think my conscience was really her. "Crazy-idea time," I announced.

Bianca looked at me nervously. "Anything."

I told her about the maintenance hatch. "There may be a way to control the thing. Switches or something. I'm going to get inside."

"How? You'll have to stand under its' foot! You'll be crushed!"

"Distract it," I shrugged. "I'll just have to time it right." I'd probably die in the process, but my friends would escape. At eighteen, I'd already lasted longer than most half-bloods, anyway. I'd had a good run. I just wished that I could have seen Ana again, and known that she was safe. She was gonna be so upset, and the thought of it made my heart ache. I hated when she was upset.

Bianca's jaw tightened. "No. I'll go."

"You can't. You're new at this! You'll die."

"It's my fault the monster came after us," she insisted. "It's my responsibility. Here." She picked up the little god statue and pressed it into my hand. "If anything happens, give that to Nico. Tell him… tell him I'm sorry."

"Bianca, no!"

But she wasn't waiting for me. She charged at the monster's left foot.

Thalia had its' attention for the moment. She'd learned that the giant was big but slow. If you could stay close to it and not get smashed, you could run around it and stay alive. At least, it was working so far.

Bianca got right next to the giant's foot, trying to balance herself on the metal scraps that swayed and shifted with his weight.

Zoe yelled, "What are you doing?"

"Get it to raise its' foot!" she called back.

Zoe shot an arrow toward the monster's face and it flew straight into one nostril.

The giant straightened and shook its' head.

"Hey, Bin Boy!" I yelled. "Down here."

I ran up to its' big toe and stabbed it with Halcyon. The magic blade cut a gash in the bronze.

Unfortunately, my plan worked. Talos looked down at me and raised his foot to squash me like a bug. I didn't see what Bianca was doing. I had to turn and run. The foot came down about two inches behind me and I was knocked into the air. I hit something hard and sat up, dazed. I'd been thrown into an Olympus-Air refrigerator.

The monster was about to finish me off, but Grover had somehow managed to dig himself out of the junk pile. He played his pipes frantically, and his music sent another power line pole whacking against Talos' thigh. The monster turned. Grover should've run, but he must've been too exhausted from the effort of so much magic. He took two steps, fell, and didn't get back up.

"Grover!" Thalia and I both ran toward him, but I knew we'd be too late.

The monster raised his sword to smash Grover. Then he froze.

Talos cocked his head to one side, like he was hearing strange new music. He started moving his arms and legs in weird ways, doing a very jerky dance routine that would have made me laugh in any other circumstances. Then he made a fist and punched himself in the face.

"Go, Bianca!" I cheered, caught up in the moment and unthinking of what it meant that my plan had worked.

Zoe looked horrified. "She is inside?" My grin fell as I realized the direness of Bianca's situation.

The monster staggered around, and I knew that we were still in danger. Thalia and I grabbed Grover and ran with him toward the highway. Zoe was already ahead of us. "How will Bianca get out?" She yelled.

The giant hit itself in the head again and dropped his sword. A shudder ran through his whole body and he staggered toward the power lines.

"Look out!" I yelled, but it was too late.

The giant's ankle snared the lines, and blue flickers of electricity shot up his body. I hoped the inside was insulated. I had no idea what was going on in there. I could only hope for a miracle, and that Bianca was safe, though I knew it was too much to ask. The giant careened back into the junkyard, and his right hand fell off, landing in the scrap metal with a horrible CLANG!

His left arm came loose, too. He was falling apart at the joints.

Talos began to run.

"Wait!" Zoe shouted. We ran after him, but there was no way we could keep up. Pieces of the robot kept falling off, getting in our way.

The giant crumbled from the top down: his head, his chest, and finally, his legs collapsed. When we reached the wreckage we searched frantically, yelling Bianca's name. We crawled around in the vast hollow pieces and the legs and the head. We searched until the sun started to rise, but no luck.

Zoe sat down and wept. I was stunned to see her cry.

Thalia screamed in rage and impaled her sword in the giant's smashed face.

I sat down and buried my head in my hands. "It should've been me," I muttered, guilt-ridden. "It was my plan. It should've been me."

"No," Grover croaked, his face stained with tears. "It happened just like it was supposed to."

"What are you talking about?" I demanded.

He looked up at me with big watery eyes. "The prophecy. One shall be lost in the land without rain."

Why hadn't I seen it? Why had I let her go instead of me?

Here we were in the desert. And Bianca di'Angelo was gone.