The Forgotten Olympian |BOOK 1| PJO X HP | Alexandra Marine

Chapter 34 - Alex - The Plan

"Really?" Octavian said. "You both seem to know a lot about our enemy's plans."

Most insults I could shrug off—being called weak or stupid or whatever. But it dawned on me that Octavian was calling us spies—traitors. That was such a foreign concept to me, that I almost couldn't process the slur. When I did, my shoulders tensed. I was tempted to smack Octavian on the head again, but I realized Octavian was baiting us, trying to make us look unstable.

Percy took a deep breath.

"We're going to confront this son of Gaea," he said, managing to keep his composure. "We'll get back your eagle and unchain this god..." He glanced at Hazel. "Thanatos, right?"

She nodded. "Letus, in Roman. But his old Greek name is Thanatos. When it comes to Death...we're happy to let him stay Greek."

Octavian sighed in exasperation. "Well, whatever you call him...how do you expect to do all this and get back by the Feast of Fortuna? That's the evening of the twenty-fourth. It's the twentieth now. Do you even know where to look? Do you even know who this son of Gaea is?"

"Yes." Hazel spoke with such certainty that I was surprised. "I don't know exactly where to look, but I have a pretty good idea. The giant's name is Alcyoneus."

That name seemed to lower the temperature in the room by fifty degrees. The senators shivered.

Reyna gripped her podium. "How do you know this, Hazel? Because you're a child of Pluto?"

Nico di Angelo had been so quiet, I'd almost forgotten he was there. Now he stood in his black toga.

"Praetor, if I may," he said. "Hazel and I...we learned a little about the giants from our father. Each giant was bred specifically to oppose one of the twelve Olympian gods—to usurp that god's domain. The king of giants was Porphyrion, the anti-Jupiter. But the eldest giant was Alcyoneus. He was born to oppose Pluto. That's why we know of him in particular."

Reyna frowned. "Indeed? You sound quite familiar with him."

Nico picked at the edge of his toga. "Anyway...the giants were hard to kill. According to prophecy, they could only be defeated by gods and demigods working together."

Dakota belched. "Sorry, did you say gods and demigods...like fighting side by side? That could never happen!"

"It has happened," Nico said. "In the first giant war, the gods called on heroes to join them, and they were victorious. Whether it could happen again, I don't know. But with Alcyoneus...he was different. He was completely immortal, impossible to kill by god or demigod, as long as he remained in his home territory—the place where he was born."

Nico paused to let that sink in. "And if Alcyoneus has been reborn in Alaska—"

"Then he can't be defeated there," Hazel finished. "Ever. By any means. Which is why our nineteen-eighties expedition was doomed to fail."

Another round of arguing and shouting broke out.

"The quest is impossible!" shouted a senator.

"We're doomed!" cried a ghost.

"More Kool-Aid!" yelled Dakota.