Daughter of Neptune, Book one

XLII

"What are you going to do?" Piper asked. "You can't seriously—"

"Entertain a giant?" I said. "We've got no choice."

"Excellent!" The giant roared as Jason and I approached. "Appetizers! Boy, who are you—Hermes? Ares? And you, girl— Athena? Artemis?"

I thought about going with that idea, but something told me not to.

"I'm Jason Grace," he said. "Son of Jupiter."

"I'm Victoria Jackson," I said. "Daughter of the Roman sea god."

Those white eyes bored into me. Behind him, Leo's circular saw whirred, and Piper talked to the cage in soothing tones, trying to keep the fear out of her voice.

Porphyrion threw back his head and laughed. "Outstanding!" He looked up at the cloudy night sky. "So, Zeus, Poseidon, you sacrifice a daughter and son to me? The gesture is appreciated, but it will not save you."

The sky didn't even rumble. No help from above. Jason and I were on our own.

Jason dropped his makeshift club. His hands were covered in splinters, but that didn't matter now. We had to buy Leo and Piper some time, and he couldn't do that without a proper weapon.

It was time to act a whole lot more confident than I felt.

"If you knew who I was," I yelled up at the giant, "you'd be worried about me, not my father. And the same goes for my golden boy next to me."

"I hoped you enjoyed your two and a half minutes of rebirth, giant, because we're going to send you right back to Tartarus." Jason added. We looked at each other, smiled, and high-fived each other.

The giant's eyes narrowed. He planted one foot outside the pool and crouched to get a better look at his opponents. "So...we'll start by boasting, will we? Just like old times! Very well, demigod. I am Porphyrion, king of the giants, son of Gaea. In the olden times, I rise from Tartarus, the abyss of my father, to challenge the gods. To start the war, I stole Zeus's queen." He grinned at the goddess's cage. "Hello, Hera."

"My husband destroyed you once, monster!" Hera said. "He'll do it again!"

"But he didn't, my dear! Zeus wasn't powerful enough to kill me. He had to rely on a ping demigod to help, and even then, we almost won. This time, we will complete what we started. Gaea is waking. She had provisioned us with many fine servants. Our armies will shake the earth—and we will destroy you at the roots."

"You wouldn't dare," Hera said, but she was weakening. I could hear it in her voice. Piper kept whispering to the cage, and Leo kept sawing, but the earth was still rising inside Hera's prison, covering her up to her waist.

"Oh, yes," the giant said. "The Titans sought to attack your new home in New York. Bold, but ineffective. Gaea is wiser and more patient. And we, her greatest children, are much, much stronger than Kronos. We know how to kill you Olympians once and for all. You must be dug up completely like rotten trees—your eldest roots torn out and burned."

The giant frowned at Piper and Leo, as if he'd just noticed them working at the cage. Jason stepped forward and yelled to get back Porphyrion's attention.

"You said a demigod killed you," he shouted. "How, if we're so puny?"

"Ha! You think I would explain it to you? I was created to be Zeus's replacement, born to destroy the lord of the sky. I shall take his wife–or, if she will not have me, I will let the earth consume her life force. What you see before you, children, is only my weakened form. I will grow stronger by the hour, until I am invincible. But I am already quite capable of smashing you to a grease spot!"