The Titan's Curse

were chasing someone—Zoë Nightshade, racing toward me like a cheetah, dodging campers with no trouble. And she had our flag in her hands.
    “No!” I yelled, and poured on the speed.
    I was two feet from the water when Zoë bolted across to her own side, slamming into me for good measure. The Hunters cheered as both sides converged on the creek. Chiron appeared out of the woods, looking grim. He had the Stoll brothers on his back, and it looked as if both of them had taken some nasty whacks to the head. Connor Stoll had two arrows sticking out of his helmet like antennae.
    “The Hunters win!” Chiron announced without pleasure. Then he muttered, “For the fifty-sixth time in a row.”
    “Perseus Jackson!” Thalia yelled, storming toward me. She smelled like rotten eggs, and she was so mad that blue sparks flickered on her armor. Everybody cringed and backed up because of Aegis. It took all my willpower not to cower.
    “What in the name of the gods were you THINKING?” she bellowed.
    I balled my fists. I’d had enough bad stuff happen to me for one day. I didn’t need this. “I got the flag, Thalia!” I shook it in her face. “I saw a chance and I took it!”
    “I WAS AT THEIR BASE!” Thalia yelled. “But the flag was gone. If you hadn’t butted in, we would’ve won.”
    “You had too many on you!”
    “Oh, so it’s my fault?”
    “I didn’t say that.”
    “Argh!” Thalia pushed me, and a shock went through my body that blew me backward ten feet into the water. Some of the campers gasped. A couple of the Hunters stifled laughs.
    “Sorry!” Thalia said, turning pale. “I didn’t mean to—”
    Anger roared in my ears. A wave erupted from the creek, blasting into Thalia’s face and dousing her from head to toe.
    I stood up. “Yeah,” I growled. “I didn’t mean to, either.”
    Thalia was breathing heavily.
    “Enough!” Chiron ordered.
    But Thalia held out her spear. “You want some, Seaweed Brain?”
    Somehow, it was okay when Annabeth called me that— at least, I’d gotten used to it—but hearing it from Thalia was not cool.
    “Bring it on, Pinecone Face!”
    I raised Riptide, but before I could even defend myself, Thalia yelled, and a blast of lightning came down from the sky, hit her spear like a lightning rod, and slammed into my chest.
    I sat down hard. There was a burning smell; I had a feeling it was my clothes.
    “Thalia!” Chiron said. “That is enough !”
    I got to my feet and willed the entire creek to rise. It swirled up, hundreds of gallons of water in a massive icy funnel cloud.
    “Percy!” Chiron pleaded.
    I was about to hurl it at Thalia when I saw something in the woods. I lost my anger and my concentration all at once. The water splashed back into the creekbed. Thalia was so surprised she turned to see what I was looking at.
    Someone . . . something was approaching. It was shrouded in a murky green mist, but as it got closer, the campers and Hunters gasped.
    “This is impossible,” Chiron said. I’d never heard him sound so nervous. “It . . . she has never left the attic. Never.”
    And yet, the withered mummy that held the Oracle shuffled forward until she stood in the center of the group. Mist curled around our feet, turning the snow a sickly shade of green.
    None of us dared move. Then her voice hissed inside my head. Apparently everyone could hear it, because several clutched their hands over the ears.
    I am the spirit of Delphi, the voice said. Speaker of the prophecies of Phoebus Apollo, slayer of the mighty Python .
    The Oracle regarded me with its cold, dead eyes. Then she turned unmistakably toward Zoë Nightshade. Approach, Seeker, and ask.
    Zoë swallowed. “What must I do to help my goddess?”
    The Oracle’s mouth opened, and green mist poured out. I saw the vague image of a mountain, and a girl standing at the barren peak. It was Artemis, but she was wrapped in chains, fettered to the rocks. She was kneeling, her hands raised as if to fend off an attacker, and it looked like she was in pain. The Oracle spoke:
Five shall go west to the goddess in chains,
    One shall be lost in the land without rain,
    The bane of Olympus shows the trail,
    Campers and Hunters combined prevail,
    The Titan’s curse must one withstand,
    And one shall perish by a parent’s hand.
    Then, as we were watching, the mist swirled and retreated like a great green serpent into the mummy’s mouth. The Oracle sat down on a rock and became as still as she’d been