The Sea of Monsters

were snoutlike, and their teeth were all pointed canines.
    “Where are my manners?” Luke said smoothly. “These are my assistants, Agrius and Oreius. Perhaps you’ve heard of them.”
    I said nothing. Despite the javelins pointed at me, it wasn’t the bear twins who scared me.
    I’d imagined meeting Luke again many times since he’d tried to kill me last summer. I’d pictured myself boldly standing up to him, challenging him to a duel. But now that we were face-to-face, I could barely stop my hands from shaking.
    “You don’t know Agrius and Oreius’s story?” Luke asked. “Their mother . . . well, it’s sad, really. Aphrodite ordered the young woman to fall in love. She refused and ran to Artemis for help. Artemis let her become one of her maiden huntresses, but Aphrodite got her revenge. She bewitched the young woman into falling in love with a bear. When Artemis found out, she abandoned the girl in disgust. Typical of the gods, wouldn’t you say? They fight with one another and the poor humans get caught in the middle. The girl’s twin sons here, Agrius and Oreius, have no love for Olympus. They like half-bloods well enough, though . . .”
    “For lunch,” Agrius growled. His gruff voice was the one I’d heard talking with Luke earlier.
    “Hehe! Hehe!” His brother Oreius laughed, licking his fur-lined lips. He kept laughing like he was having an asthmatic fit until Luke and Agrius both stared at him.
    “Shut up, you idiot!” Agrius growled. “Go punish yourself!”
    Oreius whimpered. He trudged over to the corner of the room, slumped onto a stool, and banged his forehead against the dining table, making the silver plates rattle.
    Luke acted like this was perfectly normal behavior. He made himself comfortable on the sofa and propped his feet up on the coffee table. “Well, Percy, we let you survive another year. I hope you appreciated it. How’s your mom? How’s school?”
    “You poisoned Thalia’s tree.”
    Luke sighed. “Right to the point, eh? Okay, sure I poisoned the tree. So what?”
    “How could you?” Annabeth sounded so angry I thought she’d explode. “Thalia saved your life! Our lives! How could you dishonor her—”
    “I didn’t dishonor her!” Luke snapped. “The gods dishonored her, Annabeth! If Thalia were alive, she’d be on my side.”
    “Liar!”
    “If you knew what was coming, you’d understand—”
    “I understand you want to destroy the camp!” she yelled. “You’re a monster!”
    Luke shook his head. “The gods have blinded you. Can’t you imagine a world without them, Annabeth? What good is that ancient history you study? Three thousand years of baggage! The West is rotten to the core. It has to be destroyed. Join me! We can start the world anew. We could use your intelligence, Annabeth.”
    “Because you have none of your own!”
    His eyes narrowed. “I know you, Annabeth. You deserve better than tagging along on some hopeless quest to save the camp. Half-Blood Hill will be overrun by monsters within the month. The heroes who survive will have no choice but to join us or be hunted to extinction. You really want to be on a losing team . . . with company like this?” Luke pointed at Tyson.
    “Hey!” I said.
    “Traveling with a Cyclops ,” Luke chided. “Talk about dishonoring Thalia’s memory! I’m surprised at you, Annabeth. You of all people—”
    “Stop it!” she shouted.
    I didn’t know what Luke was talking about, but Annabeth buried her head in her hands like she was about to cry.
    “Leave her alone,” I said. “And leave Tyson out this.”
    Luke laughed. “Oh, yeah, I heard. Your father claimed him.”
    I must have looked surprised, because Luke smiled. “Yes, Percy, I know all about that. And about your plan to find the Fleece. What were those coordinates, again . . . 30, 31, 75, 12? You see, I still have friends at camp who keep me posted.”
    “Spies, you mean.”
    He shrugged. “How many insults from your father can you stand, Percy? You think he’s grateful to you? You think Poseidon cares for you any more than he cares for this monster?”
    Tyson clenched his fists and made a rumbling sound down in his throat.
    Luke just chuckled. “The gods are so using you, Percy. Do you have any idea what’s in store for you if you reach your sixteenth birthday? Has Chiron even told you the prophecy?”
    I wanted to get in Luke’s face and tell him off, but as usual, he knew just how to throw me off balance.
    Sixteenth