This Cold Year ― Percy Jackson & Annabeth Chase²

―x. ex-dead monarchs are jackasses, apparently

THEY WOULD HAVE BEEN DEAD FIVE TIMES OVER if not for Leo's trap-sensing abilities.

First it was the motion-activated trapdoor on the sidewalk, then the lasers on the steps, then the nerve gas dispenser on the porch railing, the pressure-sensitive poison spikes in the welcome mat, and, of course, the exploding doorbell.

Leo deactivated all of them with ease.

"You're amazing, man," Jason said.

Leo scowled as he examined the front door lock. "Yeah, amazing," he said. "Can't fix a dragon right, but I'm amazing."

"Hey, that wasn't your—"

"Front door's already unlocked," Leo announced.

Piper stared at the door in disbelief. "It is? All those traps, and the door's unlocked?"

"Maybe they figured the traps were enough," Naomi guessed.

Leo turned the knob and the door swung open without so much as a squeak. He stepped inside without hesitation, and Naomi was quick to follow, glad to escape the cold.

It was pitch black in the house. It took Naomi's eyes only a moment to adjust, and the first thing that struck her was how massive just the entry hall was. The ceiling was way over their heads, a massive chandelier hanging from it. The windows rose about ten feet tall, with life-size metal statues stationed in the spaces between them. Naomi saw sofas arranged in a U in the middle of the room, with a central coffee table and one large chair at the far end. Along the back wall stood a row of closed doors.

"Where's the light switch?" Jason's voice echoed alarmingly through the room.

"Don't see one?" Leo said.

"Fire?" Piper suggested.

Leo held out his hand, but nothing happened. "It's not working."

"Your fire is out? Why?" Piper asked.

"Well, if I knew that—"

"Okay, okay," she said. "What do we do—explore?"

Leo shook his head. "After all those traps outside? Bad idea."

Naomi sighed. "Agreed. We should make camp in here out of the cold. We'll figure out what to do in the morning. Let's bring the canary cages in and settle down for the night."

They rolled the cages into the room. Leo wasn't in the mood to make more tacos (understandably), and they had no fire anyway, so they settled for cold rations.

As they ate, Naomi stared at the ground, thinking about her dream. She'd never had a dream like that, where she was someone else. She figured they were memories, things that had happened in the past to other people, but she didn't understand why she'd dreamed of them in the first place.

Her lines in the prophecy replayed in her mind. Where your ancestors rose.

Understanding hit her like a bolt of lightning. That field, the House of the Wolf... was that the place the prophecy was talking about? And the people she was in her dreams... were they supposed to be her ancestors? That had to be it, right? Her dream and the line in the prophecy were connected.

But she still didn't understand the line after that. A meeting's consequence, the past will expose. What meeting? What consequence?

So many questions, and not a single answer.

They were running out of time. If Naomi had her days right, it was the early morning of December twentieth—the day before the winter solstice. If they didn't rescue Hera in time...