Rick Riordan Percy Jackson and the Olympians
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Chiron closed his eyes as if he were saying a prayer. In horse form, his head almost brushed the lights in the rec room. " You see now, Percy, why we thought it best not to tell you the whole prophecy. You ' ve had enough on your shoulders—" " Without realizing I was going to die in the end anyway?" I said. " Yeah, I get it." Chiron gazed at me sadly. The guy was three thousand years old. He ' d seen hundreds of heroes die. He might not like it, but he was used to it. He probably knew better than to try to reassure me.
" Percy," Annabeth said. " You know prophecies always have double meanings. It might not literally mean you die." " Sure," I said. " A single choice shall end his days. That has tons of meanings, right?" " Maybe we can stop it," Jake Mason offered. " The hero ' s soul, cursed blade shall reap.
Maybe we could find this cursed blade and destroy it. Sounds like Kronos ' s scythe, right?"
I hadn ' t thought about that, but it didn ' t matter if the cursed blade was Riptide or Kronos ' s scythe. Either way, I doubted we could stop the prophecy. A blade was supposed to reap my soul. As a general rule, I preferred not to have my soul reaped. " Perhaps we should let Percy think about these lines," Chiron said. " He needs time—" " No." I folded up the prophecy and shoved it into my pocket. I felt defiant and angry, though I wasn ' t sure who I was angry with. " I don ' t need time. If I die, I die. I can ' t worry about that, right?" Annabeth ' s hands were shaking a little. She wouldn ' t meet my eyes. " Let ' s move on," I said. " We ' ve got other problems. We ' ve got a spy."
Michael Yew scowled. " A spy?"
I told them what had happened on the Princess Andromeda— how Kronos had known we were coming, how he ' d shown me the silver scythe pendant he ' d used to communicate with someone at camp. Silena started to cry again, and Annabeth put an arm around her shoulders. " Well," Connor Stoll said uncomfortably, " we ' ve suspected there might a spy for years, right? Somebody kept passing information to Luke— like the location of the Golden Fleece a couple of years ago. It must be somebody who knew him well."
Maybe subconsciously, he glanced at Annabeth. She ' d known Luke better than anyone, of course, but Connor looked away quickly. " Um, I mean, it could be anybody."
" Yes." Katie Gardner frowned at the Stoll brothers. She ' d disliked them ever since they ' d decorated the grass roof of the Demeter cabin with chocolate Easter bunnies. " Like one of Luke ' s siblings."
Travis and Connor both started arguing with her. " Stop!" Silena banged the table so hard her hot chocolate spilled. " Charlie ' s dead and... and you ' re all arguing like little kids!" She put her head down and began to sob. Hot chocolate trickled off the Ping-Pong table. Everybody looked ashamed. " She ' s right," Pollux said at last. " Accusing each other doesn ' t help. We need to keep our eyes open for a silver necklace with a scythe charm. If Kronos had one, the spy probably does too." Michael Yew grunted. " We need to find this spy before we plan our next operation. Blowing up the Princess Andromeda won ' t stop Kronos forever." " No indeed," Chiron said. " In fact his next assault is already on the way." I scowled. " You mean the ' bigger threat ' Poseidon mentioned?" He and Annabeth looked at each other like, It ' s time. Did I mention I hate it when they do that? " Percy," Chiron said, " we didn ' t want to tell you until you returned to camp. You needed a break with your... mortal friends."
Annabeth blushed. It dawned on me that she knew I ' d been hanging out with Rachel, and I felt guilty. Then I felt angry that I felt guilty. I was allowed to have friends outside camp, right? It wasn ' t like...
" Tell me what ' s happened," I said.
Chiron picked up a bronze goblet from the snack table. He tossed water onto the hot plate where we usually melted nacho cheese. Steam billowed up, making a rainbow in the fluorescent lights. Chiron fished a golden drachma out of his pouch, tossed it through the mist, and muttered, " O Iris, Goddess of the Rainbow, show us the threat."