‘What are you going to do?’ Silena said.

‘You’ll see. Go!’

Beckendorf ducked behind a tree while I turned and yelled at the dragon, ‘Hey, lizard-lips! Your breath smells like gasoline!’

The dragon spewed black smoke out of its nostrils. It thundered towards me, shaking the ground.

‘Come on!’ Annabeth grabbed my hand. We ran for the back of the cliff. The dragon followed.

‘We have to hold it here,’ Annabeth said. The three of us readied our swords.

The dragon reached us and lurched to a stop. It tilted its head like it couldn’t believe we’d be so foolish as to fight. Now it had caught us, there were so many different ways it could kill us it probably couldn’t decide which to use.

We scattered as its first blast of fire turned the ground where we’d been standing into a smoking pit of ashes.

Then I saw Beckendorf above us – at the top of the cliff – and I understood what he was trying to do. He needed a clear shot. I had to keep the dragon’s attention.

‘Yaaaah!’ I charged. I brought Riptide down on the dragon’s foot and sliced off a talon.

Its head creaked as it looked down at me. It seemed more confused than angry, like, Why did you cut off my toe?

Then it opened its mouth, baring a hundred razor-sharp teeth.

‘Percy!’ Annabeth warned.

I stood my ground. ‘Just another second…’

‘Percy!’

And just before the dragon struck, Beckendorf launched himself off the rocks and landed on the dragon’s neck.

The dragon reared back and shot flames, trying to shake off Beckendorf, but he held on like a cowboy as the monster bucked around. I watched in fascination as he ripped open a panel at the base of the dragon’s head and yanked a wire.

Instantly, the dragon froze. Its eyes went dim. Suddenly it was only the statue of a dragon, baring its teeth at the sky.

Beckendorf slid down the dragon’s neck. He collapsed at its tail, exhausted and breathing heavily.

‘Charlie!’ Silena ran to him and gave him a big kiss on the cheek. ‘You did it!’

Annabeth came up to me and squeezed my shoulder. ‘Hey, Seaweed Brain, you okay?’

‘Fine… I guess.’ I was thinking how close I’d come to being chopped into demigod hash in the dragon’s mouth.

‘You were great.’ Annabeth’s smile was a lot nicer than that stupid dragon’s.

‘You, too,’ I said shakily. ‘So… what do we do with the automaton?’

Beckendorf wiped his forehead. Silena was still fussing over his cuts and bruises, and Beckendorf looked pretty distracted by the attention.

‘We – uh – I don’t know,’ he said. ‘Maybe we can fix it, get it to guard the camp, but that could take months.’

‘Worth trying,’ I said. I imagined having that bronze dragon in our fight against the Titan lord Kronos. His monsters would think twice about attacking camp if they had to face that thing. On the other hand, if the dragon decided to go berserk again and attack the campers – that would pretty much stink.

‘Did you see all the treasure in the Ant Hill?’ Beckendorf asked. ‘The magic weapons? The armour? That stuff could really help us.’

‘And the bracelets,’ Silena said. ‘And the necklaces.’

I shuddered, remembering the smell of those tunnels. ‘I think that’s an adventure for later. It would take an army of demigods even to get close to that treasure.’

‘Maybe,’ Beckendorf said. ‘But what a treasure…’

Silena studied the frozen dragon. ‘Charlie, that was the bravest thing I ever saw – you jumping on that dragon.’

Beckendorf swallowed. ‘Um… yeah. So… will you go to the fireworks with me?’

Silena’s face lit up. ‘Of course, you big dummy! I thought you’d never ask!’

Beckendorf suddenly looked a whole lot better. ‘Well let’s get back, then! I bet capture the flag is over.’

I had to go barefoot, because the acid had eaten completely through my shoe. When I kicked it off I realized the goo had soaked into my sock and turned my foot red and raw. I leaned against Annabeth and she helped me limp through the woods.

Beckendorf and Silena walked ahead of us, holding hands, and we gave them some space.

Watching them, with my arm around Annabeth for support, I felt pretty uncomfortable. I silently cursed Beckendorf for being so brave, and I don’t mean for facing the dragon. After three years, he’d finally got the courage to ask Silena Beauregard out. It wasn’t fair.

‘You know,’ Annabeth said as we struggled along, ‘it wasn’t the bravest thing I’ve ever seen.’

I blinked. Had she been reading my thoughts?

‘Um… what do you mean?’

Annabeth gripped my wrist as we stumbled through a shallow creek. ‘You stood up to the dragon so Beckendorf would have his chance to jump – now that was brave.’

‘Or pretty stupid.’

‘Percy, you’re a brave guy,’ she said. ‘Just take the compliment. I swear, is it so hard?’

We locked eyes. Our faces were, like, centimetres apart. My chest felt a little funny, like my heart was trying to do jumping jacks.

‘So…’ I said. ‘I guess Silena and Charlie are going to the fireworks together.’

‘I guess so,’ Annabeth agreed.

‘Yeah,’ I said. ‘Um, about that –’

I don’t know what I would’ve said, but just then, three of Annabeth’s siblings from the Athena cabin burst out of the bushes with their swords drawn. When they saw us, they broke into grins.

‘Annabeth!’ one of them said. ‘Good job! Let’s get these two to jail.’

I stared at him. ‘The game’s not over?’

The Athena camper laughed. ‘Not yet… but soon. Now that we’ve captured you.’

‘Dude, come on,’ Beckendorf protested. ‘We got sidetracked. There was a dragon, and the whole Ant Hill was attacking us.’

‘Uh-huh,’ said another Athena guy, clearly unimpressed. ‘Annabeth, great job distracting them. Worked out perfectly. You want us to take them from here?’

Annabeth pulled away from me. I thought for sure she was going to give us a free walk back to the border, but she drew her dagger and pointed it at me with a smile.

‘Nah,’ she said. ‘Silena and I can get this. Come on, prisoners. Move it.’

I stared at her, stunned. ‘You planned this? You planned this whole thing just to keep us out of the game?’

‘Percy, seriously, how could I have planned it? The dragon, the ants – you think I could’ve figured all that out ahead of time?’

It didn’t seem likely, but this was Annabeth. There was no telling with her. Then she exchanged glances with Silena, and I could tell they were trying not to laugh.

‘You – you little –’ I started to say, but I couldn’t think of a name strong enough to call her.

I protested all the way to the jail, and so did Beckendorf. It was totally unfair to be treated like prisoners after all we’d been through.

But Annabeth just smiled and put us in jail. As she was heading back to the front line, she turned and winked. ‘See you at the fireworks?’

She didn’t even wait for my answer before darting off into the woods.

I looked at Beckendorf. ‘Did she just… ask me out?’

He shrugged, completely disgusted. ‘Who knows with girls? Give me a haywire dragon any day.’

So we sat together and waited while the girls won the game.

  Interview with

CONNOR and TRAVIS STOLL,

Sons of Hermes

What’s the best practical joke you’ve ever played on another camper?

Connor: The golden mango!

Travis: Oh, dude, that was awesome.

Connor: So anyway, we took this mango and spray painted it gold, right? We wrote: ‘For the hottest’ on it and left it in the Aphrodite cabin while they were at archery class. When they came back they started fighting over it, trying to figure out which of them was the hottest. It was so funny.

Travis: Gucci shoes were flying out the windows. The Aphrodite kids were ripping each other’s clothes and throwing lipstick and jewellery. It was like a rabid herd of wild Bratz.

Connor: Then they figured out what we’d done, and they tracked us down.

Travis: That was not cool. I didn’t know they made permanent makeup. I looked like a clown for a month.

Connor: Yeah. They put a curse on me so that no matter what I wore, my clothes were two sizes too small and I felt like a geek.

Travis: You are a geek.

Who would you most want on your team for capture the flag?

Travis: My brother, because I need to keep an eye on him.

Connor: My brother, because I don’t trust him. But besides him? Probably Ares cabin.

Travis: Yeah. They’re strong and easy to manipulate. The perfect combo.

What’s the best part of being in the Hermes cabin?

Connor: You are never lonely. I mean seriously, new kids are always coming in. So you always have somebody to talk to.

Travis: Or prank.

Connor: Or pickpocket. One big happy family.

Interview with

ANNABETH CHASE,

Daughter of Athena

If you could design a new structure for Camp Half-Blood what would it be?

Annabeth: I’m glad you asked. We seriously need a temple. Here we are, children of the Greek gods, and we don’t even have a monument to our parents. I’d put it on the hill just south of Half-Blood Hill, and I’d design it so that every morning the rising sun would shine through its windows and make a different god’s emblem on the floor: like one day an eagle, the next an owl. The temple would have statues for all the gods, of course, and golden braziers for burnt offerings. I’d design it with perfect acoustics, like Carnegie Hall, so we could have lyre and reed pipe concerts there. I could go on and on, but you probably get the idea. Chiron says we’d have to sell four million truckloads of strawberries to pay for a project like that, but I think it would be worth it.

Aside from your mom, who do you think is the wisest god or goddess on the Olympian Council?

Annabeth: Wow, let me think… um. The thing is, the Olympians aren’t exactly known for wisdom, and I mean that with the greatest possible respect. Zeus is wise in his own way. I mean he’s kept the family together for four thousand years, and that’s not easy. Hermes is clever. He even fooled Apollo once by stealing his cattle, and Apollo is no slouch. I’ve always admired Artemis, too. She doesn’t compromise her beliefs. She just does her own thing and doesn’t spend a lot of time arguing with the other gods in council. She spends more time in the mortal world than most gods, too, so she understands what’s going on. She doesn’t understand guys, though. I guess nobody’s perfect.

Of all your Camp Half-Blood friends, who would you most like to have with you in battle?

Annabeth: Oh, Percy. No contest. I mean, sure he can be annoying, but he’s dependable. He’s brave and he’s a good fighter. Normally, as long as I’m telling him what to do, he wins in a fight.