Free The Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan Page B

tail?”
    Grover covered his mouth.
    â€œSorry,” I said. “Go on.”
    â€œWell, Zoë said she needed permission to leave camp immediately. Chiron refused. He reminded Zoë that the Hunters were supposed to stay here until they received orders from Artemis. And she said . . .” Grover gulped. “She said ‘How are we to get orders from Artemis if Artemis is lost?’”
    â€œWhat do you mean lost? Like she needs directions?”
    â€œNo. I think she meant gone. Taken. Kidnapped.”
    â€œKidnapped?” I tried to get my mind around that idea. “How would you kidnap an immortal goddess? Is that even possible?”
    â€œWell, yeah. I mean, it happened to Persephone.”
    â€œBut she was like, the goddess of flowers .”
    Grover looked offended. “Springtime.”
    â€œWhatever. Artemis is a lot more powerful than that. Who could kidnap her? And why?”
    Grover shook his head miserably. “I don’t know. Kronos?”
    â€œHe can’t be that powerful already. Can he?”
    The last time we’d seen Kronos, he’d been in tiny pieces. Well . . . we hadn’t actually seen him. Thousands of years ago, after the big Titan–God war, the gods had sliced him to bits with his own scythe and scattered his remains in Tartarus, which is like the gods’ bottomless recycling bin for their enemies. Two summers ago, Kronos had tricked us to the very edge of the pit and almost pulled us in. Then last summer, on board Luke’s demon cruise ship, we’d seen a golden coffin, where Luke claimed he was summoning the Titan Lord out of the abyss, bit by bit, every time someone new joined their cause. Kronos could influence people with dreams and trick them, but I didn’t see how he could physically overcome Artemis if he was still like a pile of evil bark mulch.
    â€œI don’t know,” Grover said. “I think somebody would know if Kronos had re-formed. The gods would be more nervous. But still, it’s weird, you having a nightmare the same night as Zoë. It’s almost like—”
    â€œThey’re connected,” I said.
    Over in the frozen meadow, a satyr skidded on his hooves as he chased after a redheaded tree nymph. She giggled and held out her arms as he ran toward her. Pop! She turned into a Scotch pine and he kissed the trunk at top speed.
    â€œAh, love,” Grover said dreamily.
    I thought about Zoë’s nightmare, which she’d had only a few hours after mine.
    â€œI’ve got to talk to Zoë,” I said.
    â€œUm, before you do . . .” Grover took something out of his coat pocket. It was a three-fold display like a travel brochure. “You remember what you said—about how it was weird the Hunters just happened to show up at Westover Hall? I think they might’ve been scouting us.”
    â€œScouting us? What do you mean?”
    He gave me the brochure. It was about the Hunters of Artemis. The front read, A WISE CHOICE FOR YOUR FUTURE! Inside were pictures of young maidens doing hunter stuff, chasing monsters, shooting bows. There were captions like: HEALTH BENEFITS: IMMORTALITY AND WHAT IT MEANS FOR YOU! and A BOY-FREE TOMORROW!
    â€œI found that in Annabeth’s backpack,” Grover said.
    I stared at him. “I don’t understand.”
    â€œWell, it seems to me . . . maybe Annabeth was thinking about joining.”
    * * *
    I’d like to say I took the news well.
    The truth was, I wanted to strangle the Hunters of Artemis one eternal maiden at a time. The rest of the day I tried to keep busy, but I was worried sick about Annabeth. I went to javelin-throwing class, but the Ares camper in charge chewed me out after I got distracted and threw the javelin at the target before he got out of the way. I apologized for the hole in his pants, but he still sent me packing.
    I visited the pegasus stables, but Silena Beauregard from the Aphrodite cabin was