Page 149 of The Court of the Dead
Semele’s smoky form churned and twisted. “I— Would Olympus allow it?”
Hecate chuckled. “Olympus doesn’t know what it is doing most of the time. And I have missed you.”
Her hand flared with purple fire.
Nico watched in shock as the smoke thickened, solidifying into a beautiful woman in a long blue gown and a black shawl, her brown hair pulled up in intricate braids. It was the same face he’d seen in the fireworks, now made of flesh.
Semele ran her hands down the front of her gown. “I am myself once again!”
“You are,” said Hecate. “You have earned it.”
Semele threw her arms around Hecate.
The goddess of magic laughed. Then she whispered something in Semele’s ear.
Semele pulled away, her eyes filled with tears. “Yes. Yes, I will go see him now.” She turned to Nico. “Thank you for allowing me to share your mind. It is a beautiful place.” Then she faced Asterion. “And you, you gorgeous cow. I can properly hug you.”
She tackled the bull-man around the waist, much to his surprise.
“I will be back,” she promised. “But first…I have someone to see.”
Semele dissolved in a frenzy of golden glitter.
“Well then!” said Hecate. “Dolus and Apate, it’s your turn.”
The twin gods flinched.
“Look, about the house cat thing…” Dolus said. “We may have gotten carried away….”
Hecate laughed. “I am not upset. The Ferris wheel illusion was particularly nice. In fact, I was impressed by your contributions today.”
“You were?” Apate said. “I mean, yes, of course! Thank you!”
Hecate smiled at Nico and Will. “It has given me great pride to know that Camp Half-Blood has honored me with a cabin. I imagine they would be happy to do the same for our twin deceivers, yes?”
A terrifying image flashed through Nico’s mind of Dolus and Apate campers at Camp Half-Blood—the trickery, the guile, the epic toilet-paper fights with the Hermes cabin.
“We’d be happy to arrange that,” he said. He hoped he sounded honest, or at least properly deceitful.
The goddess’s gaze moved to Hazel. “And you and I, Hazel Levesque—our history is deeply intertwined. We have fought together, and I have great respect for you.”
“Thank you,” said Hazel. “The feeling is very mutual.”
“I imagine you will ensure that shrines are constructed on Temple Hill for our trickster friends?”
Hazel grinned at Frank, and then saluted the goddess. “We’ll see to it right away.”
Apate’s face turned red. “You honor us, Hecate! You know, we were just about to do a Mist volcano, if you’d like to see it—”
“You may leave us now,” Hecate said.
The twin gods gulped. Then, because they knew an exit cue when they heard one, they vanished in a cloud of rhinestones and flowers.
Will exhaled in relief. “Thank you, Lady Hecate. I think I’ve had enough guile and trickery for one day. But, uh, speaking of that…” He glanced up at the news helicopter. “What about all the humans who saw everything?”
“Oh, them.” Hecate waved her hand dismissively. The helicopter veered away and flew off toward downtown San Francisco. The mortal bystanders who were still in the park lowered their phones, looked momentarily stunned, and then wandered off in different directions.
“Mortal minds are easy to manipulate,” said Hecate. “They’ll have a dozen different explanations for what they saw today, and none of them will be correct. In the end, as always, they’ll believe only what they want to believe.”
