BLOODSHOT . . . piper mclean

72.

The wind dude — or whatever he was — whisked in and out of the pink granite windows, then disappeared on the other side. Eden scanned the palace's facade for an entrance. The only one she saw was several blocks away, with tourists lined up to buy tickets. No time for that.

"We've got to catch him," Perfect Jason said. "Hold on."

"But—"

Perfect Jason grabbed Eden and Nico and lifted them into the air.

They soared over the walls and into a courtyard where more tourists were milling around, taking pictures.

A little kid did a double take when they landed. Eden debated putting her middle finger up at him. Then his eyes glazed over and he shook his head, like he was dismissing a juice-box-induced hallucination. No one else paid them any attention.

On the left side of the courtyard stood a line of columns holding up weathered gray arches. On the right side was a white marble building with rows of tall windows.

"The peristyle," Nico said. "This was the entrance to Diocletian's private residence." He scowled at Perfect Jason. "And please, I don't like being touched. Don't ever grab me again."

Perfect Jason tensed. He so deserved it, though. "Uh, okay. Sorry. How do you know what this place is called?"

Nico scanned the atrium. He focused on some steps in the far corner, leading down.

"I've been here before." His eyes were as dark as his blade. "With my mother and Bianca. A weekend trip from Venice. I was maybe . . . six?"

"That was when . . . the 1930s?"

"'Thirty-eight or so," Nico said absently. "Why do you care? Do you see that winged guy anywhere?"

"No . . ." Perfect Jason frowned at Eden, who shrugged. What the hell did she know about Nico. "I just . . . I can't imagine how weird that must be, coming from another time."

"No, you can't." Nico stared at the stone floor. He took a deep breath.

"Look . . . I don't like talking about it. Honestly, I think Hazel has it worse. She remembers more about when she was young. She had to come back from the dead and adjust to the modern world. Me . . . me and Bianca, we were stuck at the Lotus Hotel. Time passed so quickly. In a weird way, that made the transition easier."

"Percy told me about that place," Perfect Jason said. "Seventy years, but it only felt like a month?"

Nico clenched his fist until his fingers turned white. "Yeah. I'm sure Percy told you all about me."

Eden whistled, finishing her ice cream. "Listen. We don't talk about that place," she remembered it there all too well, and she didn't like the memories that came with the hotel and the quest. She frowned at the shit above her. "God, what is up with this place?"

Nico's eyes swept the windows above them. "Roman dead are everywhere here . . . Lares. Lemures. They're watching. They're angry."

"At us?" Perfect Jason's hand went to his sword.

"At everything." Nico pointed to a small stone building on the west end of the courtyard. "That used to be a temple to Jupiter. The Christians changed it to a baptistery. The Roman ghosts don't like that."

Eden snorted. "I get that."

"And over there . . ." Nico pointed east to a hexagonal building ringed with freestanding columns. "That was the mausoleum of the emperor."

"But his tomb isn't there anymore," Perfect Jason guessed.

"Not for centuries," Nico said. "When the empire collapsed, the building was turned into a Christian cathedral."