The Titan's Curse

there was no way she could go. Half-bloods couldn’t live there.
    “Why?” I asked. “What’s so bad about San Francisco?”
    “The Mist is really thick there because the Mountain of Despair is so near. Titan magic—what’s left of it—still lingers. Monsters are attracted to that area like you wouldn’t believe.”
    “What’s the Mountain of Despair?”
    Thalia raised an eyebrow. “You really don’t know? Ask stupid Zoë. She’s the expert.”
    She glared out the windshield. I wanted to ask her what she was talking about, but I also didn’t want to sound like an idiot. I hated feeling like Thalia knew more than I did, so I kept my mouth shut.
    The afternoon sun shone through the steel-mesh side of the freight car, casting a shadow across Thalia’s face. I thought about how different she was from Zoë—Zoë all formal and aloof like a princess, Thalia with her ratty clothes and her rebel attitude. But there was something similar about them, too. The same kind of toughness. Right now, sitting in the shadows with a gloomy expression, Thalia looked a lot like one of the Hunters.
    Then suddenly, it hit me: “That’s why you don’t get along with Zoë.”
    Thalia frowned. “What?”
    “The Hunters tried to recruit you,” I guessed.
    Her eyes got dangerously bright. I thought she was going to zap me out of the Mercedes, but she just sighed.
    “I almost joined them,” she admitted. “Luke, Annabeth, and I ran into them once, and Zoë tried to convince me. She almost did, but . . .”
    “But?”
    Thalia’s fingers gripped the wheel. “I would’ve had to leave Luke.”
    “Oh.”
    “Zoë and I got into a fight. She told me I was being stupid. She said I’d regret my choice. She said Luke would let me down someday.”
    I watched the sun through the metal curtain. We seemed to be traveling faster each second—shadows flickering like an old movie projector.
    “That’s harsh,” I said. “Hard to admit Zoë was right.”
    “She wasn’t right! Luke never let me down. Never.”
    “We’ll have to fight him,” I said. “There’s no way around it.”
    Thalia didn’t answer.
    “You haven’t seen him lately,” I warned. “I know it’s hard to believe, but—”
    “I’ll do what I have to.”
    “Even if that means killing him?”
    “Do me a favor,” she said. “Get out of my car.”
    I felt so bad for her I didn’t argue.
    As I was about to leave, she said, “Percy.”
    When I looked back, her eyes were red, but I couldn’t tell if it was from anger or sadness. “Annabeth wanted to join the Hunters, too. Maybe you should think about why.”
    Before I could respond, she raised the power windows and shut me out.
    * * *
    I sat in the driver’s seat of Grover’s Lamborghini. Grover was asleep in the back. He’d finally given up trying to impress Zoë and Bianca with his pipe music after he played “Poison Ivy” and caused that very stuff to sprout from their Lexus’s air conditioner.
    As I watched the sun go down, I thought of Annabeth. I was afraid to go to sleep. I was worried what I might dream.
    “Oh, don’t be afraid of dreams,” a voice said right next to me.
    I looked over. Somehow, I wasn’t surprised to find the homeless guy from the rail yard sitting in the shotgun seat. His jeans were so worn out they were almost white. His coat was ripped, with stuffing coming out. He looked kind of like a teddy bear that had been run over by a truck.
    “If it weren’t for dreams,” he said, “I wouldn’t know half the things I know about the future. They’re better than Olympus tabloids.” He cleared his throat, then held up his hands dramatically:
     
    “Dreams like a podcast,
    Downloading truth in my ears.
    They tell me cool stuff.”
     
    “Apollo?” I guessed, because I figured nobody else could make a haiku that bad.
    He put his finger to his lips. “I’m incognito. Call me Fred.”
    “A god named Fred?”
    “Eh, well . . . Zeus insists on certain rules. Hands off, when there’s a human quest. Even when something really major is wrong. But nobody messes with my baby sister. Nobody .”
    “Can you help us, then?”
    “Shhh. I already have. Haven’t you been looking outside?”
    “The train. How fast are we moving?”
    Apollo chuckled. “Fast enough. Unfortunately, we’re running out of time. It’s almost sunset. But I imagine we’ll get you across a good chunk of America, at least.”
    “But where is Artemis?”
    His face darkened. “I know a lot,