The Blood of Olympus

Although they’ve defeated the giants, the gods look uneasy. Zeus calls them to attention, chides Hera for her dangerous plan, and then calls Apollo forward. Zeus points out that Apollo has defied his father twice; he emboldened his descendant Octavian “to follow his dangerous paths” and “prematurely revealed a prophecy that still may destroy them all” (338). After Zeus sends Apollo back to Olympus to await his punishment, Jason challenges his father, angering the god, but Artemis steps in and smooths things over.

The group must deal with the problem of Gaea’s waking up. Her first plan is to destroy Camp Half-Blood. Frank suggests that the gods and demigods go there together right away, but Zeus says that it’s impossible. From the moment that “Apollo allowed the Prophecy of Seven to be spoken” and Hera interpreted it, “the Fates wove the future” (340) with limited outcomes and solutions. The demigods must defeat Gaea. Zeus offers to slap the Argo II back to Long Island. Jason recalls how Asclepius responded to Leo and feels a sense of dread. The demigods board the ship for its last voyage.

The slap of Zeus is so forceful that the ship barely makes the trip. All the demigods except Leo evacuate. Frank transforms into a dragon, carrying Percy, Annabeth, and Hazel; Jason harnesses the wind, flying himself and Piper to safety. The demigods leap into battle, Romans fighting alongside Greeks.

Although he thinks the battle is progressing well, Jason wonders where Leo and Gaea are. At that moment, Gaea rises out of the earth; she was delayed by the power of the Athena Parthenos, but the statue is no match for a primordial goddess. Jason rises into the sky to avoid being pulled into the earth like the demigods and monsters. Gaea boasts that they can’t fight the earth. Suddenly, Leo descends from the sky on a reborn Festus, who is spewing fire, and pulls Gaea off the hill.

As Gaea leaves the earth, demigods and monsters stop sinking. Jason prepares to join Leo in the air with Piper, who still thinks she holds the physician’s cure. Percy tries to stop them, but Frank holds him back. The prophecy is clear: This part of the fight belongs to Jason (storm) and Leo (fire), and Piper’s charmspeak has a role to play, as it has in the past.

Gaea tries to disintegrate herself into sand and dirt to get back to the ground, but Jason prevents this by using storm spirits, and Leo invokes fire. Gaea must be kept off the ground, her source of power, as Kymopoleia hinted. Piper uses her charmspeak to convince Gaea that she’s exhausted, until she falls asleep, but Jason too becomes affected and begins to lose altitude. Festus grabs him and Piper in his other claw. Leo orders Jason and Piper to leave so that he can vaporize Gaea, but they don’t want to leave him behind. Leo reminds them that he has a plan and that he loves them. Then, Festus opens his claw, releasing them. As they hurtle toward the earth, Festus becomes a ball of fire. A comet rises from the ground, hitting the ball of fire in a huge explosion.

As the battle rages, Will finds Nico, and they plunge into the chaos to find Octavian. Nico decides not to allow Octavian to escape him a second time. He sees Festus grab Gaea and Jason fly up with Piper. Nico and Will find Octavian preparing an onager, unaware that his robes are tangled in the trigger rope. He sneers at Nico and Will; they can’t stop him from killing Gaea and Jason and saving Rome. Michael Kahale appears and understands what will happen when Octavian fires but doesn’t try to stop him. Will worries that Jason will be killed in the explosion. Privately, Nico shares his concerns but decides to trust his father’s words at the Chapel of Bones that “[s]ome deaths cannot be prevented” (356, italics in original). Octavian pulls the trigger and is pulled into the ball of fire that shoots into the sky and explodes.

The following day, the survivors try to make sense of events. Giant eagles brought Jason and Piper safely back to earth. Pieces of the Argo II were scattered around the valley, but there was no sign of Leo. After a meeting of the Cloven Elders, Grover Underwood announces that they can’t sense Gaea’s presence, “now so dispersed and powerless that she could never again form a consciousness” (356). Octavian had saved Rome “by hurling himself into the sky in a fiery ball of death,” but “the real sacrifice” (356, italics in original) belonged to Leo. Hazel and Frank reveal that Leo planned all along to vaporize Gaea far enough away from Earth that no one else would be hurt. Hazel admits that she switched the vials, and Piper wonders how Leo could have planned to take the physician’s cure since he was alone.

The Romans set up a camp for themselves, and the Roman and Greek demigods mingle, help each other, and gather around the campfire together. The night before the Romans head back to Camp Jupiter, the two sides gather for one last campfire. Frank announces that Chiron has agreed to “a free exchange between the camps” (361). Reyna gives a speech honoring the two sides for choosing peace, cooperation, friendship, and acceptance over hatred and war. She pulls Nico into the firelight, speaks of his courage, and hugs him.

That night, Nico stays in the Hades cabin with Hazel. Frank stops by and invites Nico to return to New Rome with them, but he declines. He and Hazel discuss Leo. Hazel admits that she felt Leo’s death, and Nico agrees but notes that “[s]omething about it was…different” (365). Hazel worries that she messed up by helping Leo, and Nico reassures her that it wasn’t her fault. He thinks back to the moment he allowed Octavian to fire and wonders if that blast enabled Gaea to die or needlessly condemned Leo to death. He prays to Hades for guidance.

Awake at dawn, Nico sees a blond head enter his cabin and is disappointed that it’s Jason, not Will; he’s then promptly annoyed at himself for being disappointed. He assumes that Will blames him for Octavian’s death and now finds Nico “creepy and revolting” (366). Nico follows Jason outside and watches the Romans prepare to depart. He heard that the senate is planning to elect Jason pontifex maximus, but Jason cares more about the shrines he intends to build than the title. Nico regretfully confirms to Jason that he sensed Leo’s death, holding back what felt different so as not to give him false hope. Ella, Tyson, and Rachel Elizabeth Dare (the mortal oracle) follow the Romans to Camp Jupiter “to try to reconstruct the Sibylline Books” (368), their only guidance for quests since Apollo’s prophecies remain dark. Jason is thrilled when Nico reveals that he plans to stay at Camp Half-Blood. Seeing Will sternly calling him over, Nico excuses himself.

Will berates Nico for not stopping by the infirmary, where he has been tirelessly working on injured demigods. Nico reminds Will that he can summon skeletons and zombies, but Will tells him that he can’t summon anything without dissolving and then orders him to stay at the infirmary for three days until he heals. Nico agrees but first clears the air with Percy, admitting that he had a crush on him but now sees that the son of Poseidon isn’t his type.

Piper spends the days before the Romans depart acting as a go-between and peacemaker when old rivalries bubble up. She shares a final heart-to-heart with Reyna, revealing that she knows Reyna lends her strength to others and needs to allow herself to draw strength from others too. She invites Reyna to visit Camp Half-Blood anytime she needs a break or a friend.

That night, Piper reflects on her memories aboard the Argo II and feels restless. Around two o’ clock in the morning, Jason knocks on her window, and the two go to the roof of Cabin One to look at the stars. They share their first kiss and their hopes for a fresh start. Jason reminds her how she brought Festus to life with her voice and encourages her to believe that Leo could still be out there.

Leo died, but he’d programmed Festus to inject him with the physician’s cure. He wakes up on the back of Festus above cloud cover. When his navigation readings scramble, he happily orders Festus to descend. Seeing Ogygia below, he whoops: Calypso is waiting on the beach. Festus dumps Leo onto the sand, face-first. He spits out some seaweed and looks up at Calypso, who says that he’s late. She helps him up, and they kiss. She summons her suitcases, and Leo asks if she’ll be immortal once she leaves the island, but she doesn’t know and is “[m]ore than okay” with that (380). With no plan except returning to Camp-Half Blood to assure the other demigods that he’s okay, Leo flies off with Calypso on Festus.