❝Stay safe, Cap,❞ Percy whispered to his best friend. ❝I'll . . . see you at the end of the line one day.❞
In which a relationship evolves between a handsome god and a distraught girl, shortly after the death of her twin brother.
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This book follo...
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THE crew huddled around on the deck as they spotted the secret entrance to an ancient temple.
"Oh, that's beautiful." He shakily maneuvered the ship of the ruins of Epidaurus.
Now, they hovered over the ancient temple complex of the healing god Asclepius, where they hoped to find the physician's cure.
Next to her stood Percy, who peered over the railing.
"Looks like more rubble," he noted with slight disappointment.
Annabeth pointed to a disk-shaped structure about fifty yards away. "There."
Leo smiled. "Exactly. See, the architect knows her stuff."
The crew formed a circle.
"What are we looking at?" Frank asked.
"Ah, Señor Zhang," Leo said, "you know how you're always saying, 'Leo, you are the only true genius among demigods'?"
"I'm pretty sure I never said that."
"Well, turns out there are other true geniuses! Because one of them must have made that work of art down there."
"It's a stone circle," Lilly said. "Probably the foundation of an old shrine."
Piper shook her head. "No, it's more than that. Look at the ridges and grooves carved around the rim."
"Like the teeth of a gear," Jason offered.
"And those concentric rings." Hazel pointed to the center of the structure, where curved stones formed a sort of bull's-eye. "The pattern reminds me of Pasiphaë's pendant: the symbol of the Labyrinth."
"Huh." Leo scowled. "Well, I hadn't thought of that. But think mechanical. Frank, Hazel . . . where did we see concentric circles like that before?"
"The laboratory under Rome," Frank said.
"The Archimedes lock on the door," Hazel recalled. "It had rings within rings."
Percy snorted. "You're telling me that's a massive stone lock? It's like fifty feet in diameter."
"Leo might be right," Annabeth. "In ancient times, the temple of Asclepius was like the General Hospital of Greece. Everybody came here for the best healing. Aboveground, it was the six of a major city, but supposedly the real action happened belowground. That's where the high priests had their intensive care, super-magical-type compound, accessed by a secret passage."
