The Titan's Curse

shot. I backed into the little hallway and watched the tunnel I’d come from.
    Then right behind me I heard a sharp Chhh! like the voice of a skeleton.
    Without thinking, I uncapped Riptide and spun, slashing with my sword.
    The girl I’d just tried to slice in half yelped and dropped her Kleenex.
    “Oh my god!” she shouted. “Do you always kill people when they blow their nose?”
    The first thing that went through my head was that the sword hadn’t hurt her. It had passed clean through her body, harmlessly. “You’re mortal!”
    She looked at me in disbelief. “What’s that supposed to mean? Of course I’m mortal! How did you get that sword past security?”
    “I didn’t— Wait, you can see it’s a sword?”
    The girl rolled her eyes, which were green like mine. She had frizzy reddish-brown hair. Her nose was also red, like she had a cold. She wore a big maroon Harvard sweatshirt and jeans that were covered with marker stains and little holes, like she spent her free time poking them with a fork.
    “Well, it’s either a sword or the biggest toothpick in the world,” she said. “And why didn’t it hurt me? I mean, not that I’m complaining. Who are you? And whoa, what is that you’re wearing? Is that made of lion fur?”
    She asked so many questions so fast, it was like she was throwing rocks at me. I couldn’t think of what to say. I looked at my sleeves to see if the Nemean Lion pelt had somehow changed back to fur, but it still looked like a brown winter coat to me.
    I knew the skeleton warriors were still chasing me. I had no time to waste. But I just stared at the redheaded girl. Then I remembered what Thalia had done at Westover Hall to fool the teachers. Maybe I could manipulate the Mist.
    I concentrated hard and snapped my fingers. “You don’t see a sword,” I told the girl. “It’s just a ballpoint pen.”
    She blinked. “Um . . . no. It’s a sword, weirdo.”
    “Who are you?” I demanded.
    She huffed indignantly. “Rachel Elizabeth Dare. Now, are you going to answer my questions or should I scream for security?”
    “No!” I said. “I mean, I’m kind of in a hurry. I’m in trouble.”
    “In a hurry or in trouble?”
    “Um, sort of both.”
    She looked over my shoulder and her eyes widened. “Bathroom!”
    “What?”
    “Bathroom! Behind me! Now!”
    I don’t know why, but I listened to her. I slipped inside the boys’ bathroom and left Rachel Elizabeth Dare standing outside. Later, that seemed cowardly to me. I’m also pretty sure it saved my life.
    I heard the clattering, hissing sounds of skeletons as they came closer.
    My grip tightened on Riptide. What was I thinking? I’d left a mortal girl out there to die. I was preparing to burst out and fight when Rachel Elizabeth Dare started talking in that rapid-fire machine gun way of hers.
    “Oh my god! Did you see that kid? It’s about time you got here. He tried to kill me! He had a sword, for god’s sake. You security guys let a sword-swinging lunatic inside a national landmark? I mean, jeez! He ran that way toward those turbine thingies. I think he went over the side or something. Maybe he fell.”
    The skeletons clattered excitedly. I heard them moving off.
    Rachel opened the door. “All clear. But you’d better hurry.”
    She looked shaken. Her face was gray and sweaty.
    I peeked around the corner. Three skeleton warriors were running toward the other end of the balcony. The way to the elevator was clear for a few seconds.
    “I owe you one, Rachel Elizabeth Dare.”
    “What are those things?” she asked. “They looked like—”
    “Skeletons?”
    She nodded uneasily.
    “Do yourself a favor,” I said. “Forget it. Forget you ever saw me.”
    “Forget you tried to kill me?”
    “Yeah. That, too.”
    “But who are you?”
    “Percy—” I started to say. Then the skeletons turned around. “Gotta go!”
    “What kind of name is Percy Gotta-go?”
    I bolted for the exit.
    The café was packed with kids enjoying the best part of the tour—the dam lunch. Thalia, Zoë, and Grover were just sitting down with their food.
    “We need to leave,” I gasped. “Now!”
    “But we just got our burritos!” Thalia said.
    Zoë stood up, muttering an Ancient Greek curse. “He’s right! Look.”
    The café windows wrapped all the way around the observation floor, which gave us a beautiful panoramic view of the skeletal army that had come to kill us.
    I counted two on the east side of the dam road,