Oh, the indignities I had suffered since Zeus stripped me of my divine powers! It wasn’t enough that I was now a sixteen-year-old mortal with the ghastly alias Lester Papadopoulos.

I, the most important passenger, the youth who had once been the glorious god Apollo, was forced to sit in the back of the dragon. Cold wind blew her chestnut hair into my face, making me blink and spit. ‘Could we please get to the ground? Gently this time?’įor a formerly immortal sorceress who once controlled air spirits, Calypso was not a fan of flying. No blowtorching public monuments!’īehind him on the dragon’s spine, Calypso gripped Festus’s scales for balance.

‘Whoa, buddy!’ Leo Valdez pulled the dragon’s reins. He landed on the cupola of the Indiana Statehouse, flapped his metallic wings and blew a cone of fire that incinerated the state flag right off the flagpole. Yet, for some reason, Festus decided he did not like Indiana. Ohio he tolerated, even after our encounter with Potina, the Roman goddess of childhood drinks, who pursued us in the form of a giant red pitcher emblazoned with a smiley face. Pennsylvania he seemed to enjoy, despite our battle with the Cyclopes of Pittsburgh. We’d been travelling west for six weeks, and Festus had never shown such hostility towards a state. When our dragon declared war on Indiana, I knew it was going to be a bad day. Will he survive the greatest challenge of his four thousand year existence? To stay alive, Apollo needs the help of a mortal goddess, a bronze dragon, and some familiar faces from Camp Half-Blood. Oh, and a Roman Emperor, whose love of bloodshed makes Nero look tame. The cave could kill him, or drive him insane. There are a few things standing in his way though. There’s only one way he can earn back Zeus’ favour, and that’s to seek and restore the ancient oracles – but that’s easier said than done.Īpollo must head to the American Midwest where, rumour has it, a haunted cave may hold answers. The second book in the latest series from international bestselling author, Rick Riordan He was once an immortal God, now he’s an awkward teenager.

The trials of apollo prophecy