Read Online The Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan - Free Book Online

mouth to say something— probably a curse that would blast me to smithereens—when Nico burst into the room, followed by Grover.
    â€œSO COOL!” Nico yelled, holding his hands out to Chiron. “You’re . . . you’re a centaur!”
    Chiron managed a nervous smile. “Yes, Mr. di Angelo, if you please. Though, I prefer to stay in human form in this wheelchair for, ah, first encounters.”
    â€œAnd, whoa!” He looked at Mr. D. “You’re the wine dude? No way!”
    Mr. D turned his eyes away from me and gave Nico a look of loathing. “The wine dude?”
    â€œDionysus, right? Oh, wow! I’ve got your figurine.”
    â€œMy figurine.”
    â€œIn my game, Mythomagic. And a holofoil card, too! And even though you’ve only got like five hundred attack points and everybody thinks you’re the lamest god card, I totally think your powers are sweet!”
    â€œAh.” Mr. D seemed truly perplexed, which probably saved my life. “Well, that’s . . . gratifying.”
    â€œPercy,” Chiron said quickly, “you and Thalia go down to the cabins. Inform the campers we’ll be playing capture the flag tomorrow evening.”
    â€œCapture the flag?” I asked. “But we don’t have enough—”
    â€œIt is a tradition,” Chiron said. “A friendly match, whenever the Hunters visit.”
    â€œYeah,” Thalia muttered. “I bet it’s real friendly.”
    Chiron jerked his head toward Mr. D, who was still frowning as Nico talked about how many defense points all the gods had in his game. “Run along now,” Chiron told us.
    â€œOh, right,” Thalia said. “Come on, Percy.”
    She hauled me out of the Big House before Dionysus could remember that he wanted to kill me.
    â€œYou’ve already got Ares on your bad side,” Thalia reminded me as we trudged toward the cabins. “You need another immortal enemy?”
    She was right. My first summer as a camper, I’d gotten in a fight with Ares, and now he and all his children wanted to kill me. I didn’t need to make Dionysus mad, too.
    â€œSorry,” I said. “I couldn’t help it. It’s just so unfair.”
    She stopped by the armory and looked out across the valley, toward the top of Half-Blood Hill. Her pine tree was still there, the Golden Fleece glittering in its lowest branch. The tree’s magic still protected the borders of camp, but it no longer used Thalia’s spirit for power.
    â€œPercy, everything is unfair,” Thalia muttered. “Sometimes I wish . . .”
    She didn’t finish, but her tone was so sad I felt sorry for her. With her ragged black hair and her black punk clothes, an old wool overcoat wrapped around her, she looked like some kind of huge raven, completely out of place in the white landscape.
    â€œWe’ll get Annabeth back,” I promised. “I just don’t know how yet.”
    â€œFirst I found out that Luke is lost,” she said. “Now Annabeth—”
    â€œDon’t think like that.”
    â€œYou’re right.” She straightened up. “We’ll find a way.”
    Over at the basketball court, a few of the Hunters were shooting hoops. One of them was arguing with a guy from the Ares cabin. The Ares kid had his hand on his sword and the Hunter girl looked like she was going to exchange her basketball for a bow and arrow any second.
    â€œI’ll break that up,” Thalia said. “You circulate around the cabins. Tell everybody about capture the flag tomorrow.”
    â€œAll right. You should be team captain.”
    â€œNo, no,” she said. “You’ve been at camp longer. You do it.”
    â€œWe can, uh . . . co-captain or something.”
    She looked about as comfortable with that as I felt, but she nodded.
    As she headed for the court, I said, “Hey, Thalia.”
    â€œYeah?”
    â€œI’m