The Titan's Curse

crushed.”
    “Distract it,” I said. “I’ll just have to time it right.”
    Bianca’s jaw tightened. “No. I’ll go.”
    “You can’t. You’re new at this! You’ll die.”
    “It’s my fault the monster came after us,” she said. “It’s my responsibility. Here.” She picked up the little god statue and pressed it into my hand. “If anything happens, give that to Nico. Tell him . . . tell him I’m sorry.”
    “Bianca, no!”
    But she wasn’t waiting for me. She charged at the monster’s left foot.
    Thalia had its attention for the moment. She’d learned that the giant was big but slow. If you could stay close to it and not get smashed, you could run around it and stay alive. At least, it was working so far.
    Bianca got right next to the giant’s foot, trying to balance herself on the metal scraps that swayed and shifted with his weight.
    Zoë yelled, “What are you doing?”
    “Get it to raise its foot!” she said.
    Zoë shot an arrow toward the monster’s face and it flew straight into one nostril. The giant straightened and shook its head.
    “Hey, Junk Boy!” I yelled. “Down here.”
    I ran up to its big toe and stabbed it with Riptide. The magic blade cut a gash in the bronze.
    Unfortunately, my plan worked. Talos looked down at me and raised his foot to squash me like a bug. I didn’t see what Bianca was doing. I had to turn and run. The foot came down about two inches behind me and I was knocked into the air. I hit something hard and sat up, dazed. I’d been thrown into an Olympus-Air refrigerator.
    The monster was about to finish me off, but Grover somehow dug himself out of the junk pile. He played his pipes frantically, and his music sent another power line pole whacking against Talos’s thigh. The monster turned. Grover should’ve run, but he must’ve been too exhausted from the effort of so much magic. He took two steps, fell, and didn’t get back up.
    “Grover!” Thalia and I both ran toward him, but I knew we’d be too late.
    The monster raised his sword to smash Grover. Then he froze.
    Talos cocked his head to one side, like he was hearing strange new music. He started moving his arms and legs in weird ways, doing the Funky Chicken. Then he made a fist and punched himself in the face.
    “Go, Bianca!” I yelled.
    Zoë looked horrified. “She is inside ?”
    The monster staggered around, and I realized we were still in danger. Thalia and I grabbed Grover and ran with him toward the highway. Zoë was already ahead of us. She yelled, “How will Bianca get out?”
    The giant hit itself in the head again and dropped his sword. A shudder ran through his whole body and he staggered toward the power lines.
    “Look out!” I yelled, but it was too late.
    The giant’s ankle snared the lines, and blue flickers of electricity shot up his body. I hoped the inside was insulated. I had no idea what was going on in there. The giant careened back into the junkyard, and his right hand fell off, landing in the scrap metal with a horrible CLANG!
    His left arm came loose, too. He was falling apart at the joints.
    Talos began to run.
    “Wait!” Zoë yelled. We ran after him, but there was no way we could keep up. Pieces of the robot kept falling off, getting in our way.
    The giant crumbled from the top down: his head, his chest, and finally, his legs collapsed. When we reached the wreckage we searched frantically, yelling Bianca’s name. We crawled around in the vast hollow pieces and the legs and the head. We searched until the sun started to rise, but no luck.
    Zoë sat down and wept. I was stunned to see her cry.
    Thalia yelled in rage and impaled her sword in the giant’s smashed face.
    “We can keep searching,” I said. “It’s light now. We’ll find her.”
    “No we won’t,” Grover said miserably. “It happened just as it was supposed to.”
    “What are you talking about?” I demanded.
    He looked up at me with big watery eyes. “The prophecy. One shall be lost in the land without rain .”
    Why hadn’t I seen it? Why had I let her go instead of me?
    Here we were in the desert. And Bianca di Angelo was gone.

FOURTEEN

I HAVE A DAM PROBLEM
    At the edge of the dump, we found a tow truck so old it might’ve been thrown away itself. But the engine started, and it had a full tank of gas, so we decided to borrow it.
    Thalia drove. She didn’t seem as stunned as Zoë or Grover or me.
    “The skeletons are still out there,” she reminded us. “We need to keep