Rick Riordan
The Titan’s Curse - 03
But I couldn't help staring at the two giant bronze guys with tall bladed wings like letter
openers. They were weathered brown except for their toes, which shone like new pennies from all
the times people had rubbed them for good luck.
Good luck. The blessing of Zeus.
I thought about the tour guide in the elevator. Her gray eyes and her smile. What had she
said? There is always a way for those clever enough to find it.
"Thalia," I said. "Pray to your dad."
She glared at me. "He never answers."
"Just this once," I pleaded. "Ask for help. I think… I think the statues can give us some luck."
Six skeletons raised their guns. The other five came forward with batons. Fifty feet away.
Forty feet.
"Do it!" I yelled.
"No!" Thalia said. "He won't answer me."
"This time is different!"
"Who says?"
I hesitated. "Athena, I think."
Thalia scowled like she was sure I'd gone crazy.
"Try it," Grover pleaded.
Thalia closed her eyes. Her lips moved in a silent prayer. I put in my own prayer to
Annabeth's mom, hoping I was right that it had been her in that elevator—that she was trying to help
us save her daughter.
And nothing happened.
The skeletons closed in. I raised Riptide to defend myself. Thalia held up her shield. Zoe
pushed Grover behind her and aimed an arrow at a skeleton's head.
A shadow fell over me. I thought maybe it was the shadow of death. Then I realized it was
the shadow of an enormous wing. The skeletons looked up too late. A flash of bronze, and all five of
the baton-wielders were swept aside.
The other skeletons opened fire. I raised my lion coat for protection, but I didn't need it. The
bronze angels stepped in front of us and folded their wings like shields. Bullets pinged off of them
like rain off a corrugated roof. Both angels slashed outward, and the skeletons went flying across
the road.
"Man, it feels good to stand up!" the first angel said. His voice sounded tinny and rusty, like
he hadn't had a drink since he'd been built.
"Will ya look at my toes?" the other said. "Holy Zeus, what were those tourists thinking?"
As stunned as I was by the angels, I was more concerned with the skeletons. A few of them
were getting up again, reassembling, bony hands groping for their weapons.
"Trouble!" I said.
"Get us out of here!" Thalia yelled.
Both angels looked down at her. "Zeus's kid?" Yes!
"Could I get a please, Miss Zeus's Kid?" an angel asked.
"Please!"
The angels looked at each other and shrugged.
"Could use a stretch," one decided.
And the next thing I knew, one of them grabbed Thalia and me, the other grabbed Zoe and
Grover, and we flew straight up, over the dam and the river, the skeleton warriors shrinking to tiny
specks below us and the sound of gunfire echoing off the sides of the mountains.
Chapter Fifteen
I Wrestle Santa's Evil Twin
80