The Tower of Nero (The Trials of Apollo #5) - Rick Riordan Page 0,115

summer.

Emmie’s rooftop garden was bursting at the seams with tomatoes, peas, cabbage, and watermelon. The great hall was bursting at the seams with old friends.

The Hunters of Artemis were in residence, having taken quite a beating on their most recent excursion to catch the Teumessian Fox.

“That fox is murder,” said Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano, rubbing her bruised neck. “Led us right into a den of werewolves, the little punk.”

“Ugh,” agreed Thalia Grace, pulling a werewolf tooth out of her leather cuirass. “TF spreads destruction everywhere he goes.”

“TF?” I asked.

“Easier than saying Teumessian Fox twenty times a day,” Thalia told me. “Anyway, the fox runs through a town and stirs up every monster within twenty miles. Peoria is pretty much in ruins.”

This sounded like a tragic loss, but I was more concerned with my Hunter buddies.

“Are you regretting your decision to join up?” I asked Reyna.

She grinned. “Not for a minute. This is fun!”

Thalia punched her in the shoulder. “Great Hunter, this one. I knew she would be. We’ll get that fox one of these days.”

Emmie called to them from the kitchen to help with dinner, because the carrots weren’t going to dice themselves. The two friends strode off together, laughing and sharing stories. It did my heart good to see them so happy, even if their version of fun was a never-ending foxhunt that destroyed large portions of the Midwest.

Jo was teaching Georgina, their daughter (and possibly mine, too), to forge weapons in the smithy. When Georgina saw me, she looked unexcited, as if we’d just parted a few minutes ago. “You keep my doll?” she demanded.

“Ah…” I could have lied. I could have magically produced an exact likeness of the pipe-cleaner figure and said Of course. But the truth was, I had no idea where the little guy had ended up, perhaps in Delphi or Tartarus or Chaos? I told her the truth. “Would you make me another one?”

Georgina thought about this. “Nah.”

Then she went back to quenching hot blades with her mom.

The swordsman Lityerses seemed to be adjusting well. He was overseeing an “elephant visitation program” with Waystation resident Livia and Hannibal from Camp Jupiter. The two pachyderms were romping around together in the back lot, flirting by throwing medicine balls at each other.

After dinner, I got to visit with Leo Valdez, who had just straggled back home after a full day of community service. He was teaching homeless kids shop skills at a local shelter.

“That’s amazing,” I said.

He grinned, biting off a chunk of Emmie’s fresh-made buttermilk biscuits. “Yeah. Bunch of kids like me, you know? They never had much. Least I can show them somebody cares. Plus, some of them are excellent mechanics.”

“Don’t you need tools?” I asked. “A shop?”

“Festus!” Leo said. “A bronze dragon makes the best mobile shop. Most of the kids just see him as a truck, with the Mist and all, but a few of them…they know what’s up.”

Jo passed by on her way to the griffin lofts and patted him on the shoulder. “Doing good, this one. He’s got potential.”

“Thanks, Mom,” Leo said.

Jo scoffed, but she looked pleased.

“And Calypso?” I asked Leo.

A flurry of emotions passed across his face—enough to tell me that Leo was more lovesick than ever over the former goddess, and things were still complicated.

“Yeah, she’s good,” he said at last. “I’ve never seen anyone actually like high school before. But the routine, the homework, the people…She ate it up. I guess it’s just so different from being stuck on Ogygia.”

I nodded, though the idea of an ex-immortal liking high school didn’t make much sense to me either. “Where is she now?”

“Band camp.”

I stared. “Excuse me?”

“She’s a counselor at a band camp,” Leo said. “Like, for regular mortal kids who are practicing music and stuff. I don’t know. She’s gone all summer.”

He shook his head, clearly worried, clearly missing her, perhaps having nightmares about all the hot clarinet-player counselors Calypso might be hanging around with.

“It’s all good,” he said, forcing a smile. “You know, a little time apart to think. We’ll make it work.”

Reyna passed by and heard the last part. “Talking about Calypso? Yeah, I had to have a heart-to-heart with mi hermano here.” She squeezed Leo’s shoulder. “You don’t call a young lady mamacita. You got to have more respect, entiendes?”

“I—” Leo looked ready to protest, then seemed to think better about it. “Yeah, okay.”

Reyna smiled at me. “Valdez grew up without his mom. Never learned these things. Now he’s got two great foster moms and a