she went to the bathroom in the arena. It had caused more than one unfortunate

slip-and-slide accident. So I opened the gates of the arena, and she bounded

straight toward the woods.

 

I jogged after her, not too concerned that she was getting ahead. Nothing in the

woods could threaten Mrs. O'Leary. Even the dragons and giant scoipions ran away

when she came close.

 

When I finally tracked her down, she wasn't using the facilities. She was in a

familiar clearing where the Council of Cloven Elders had once put Grover on

trial. The place didn't look so good. The grass had turned yellow. The three

topiary thrones had lost all their leaves. But that's not what surprised me. In

the middle of the glade stood the weirdest trio I'd ever seen: Juniper the tree

nymph, Nico di Angelo, and a very old, very fat satyr.

 

Nico was the only one who didn't seem freaked out by Mrs. O'Leary's appearance.

He looked pretty much like I'd seen him in my dream — an aviator's jacket, black

jeans, and a T-shirt with dancing skeletons on it, like one of those Day of the

Dead pictures. His Stygian iron sword hung at his side. He was only twelve, but

he looked much older and sadder.

 

He nodded when he saw me, then went back to scratching Mrs. O'Leary's ears. She

sniffed his legs like he was the most interesting thing since rib-eye steaks.

Being the son of Hades, he'd probably been traveling in all sorts of

hellhound-friendly places.