The Demigods of Olympus: An Interactive Adventure by Rick Riordan Read Free Book Online Page A

I told Sam. “We’re in this together. I don’t like the idea of staying here overnight, though. How about we get going?”
    Sam took a deep breath. “Yeah. It’s a long way to Austin.”
    “Then let’s get started.” I grabbed one of the hiking packs and slung it over my shoulder. “Let’s go find out who my godly parent is.”

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“A ch-challenge!” I managed to shout, wracking my brain for facts about lions, hoping they would also apply to leontes .
    He stopped, the hint of a smile flitting across his massive jowls. “What do you mean, ‘a challenge’?”
    “Your sister challenged me with a riddle and promised to let me go if I answered it correctly. I answered it and the gods struck her down.”
    The leonte looked around nervously. “You lie.”
    Sam sidled closer to me and whispered, “I think you’re thinking of the sphinx.”
    “You’re the king of the jungle, aren’t you? Everyone knows kings must be stronger and smarter.”
    “That’s true,” said the leonte . “But I am sure my sister did not offer you a challenge. And if she did, you certainly did not outwit her. She was the cleverest daughter of Atalanta.”
    “And I suppose you’re the cleverest son?” I tried to remember a riddle— any riddle.
    “Of course,” he said, sitting back on his haunches, licking his lips mightily. I heard Sam squeak.
    “Then you wouldn’t mind proving it,” I said. “After all, the gods are watching…even Aphrodite.”
    The leonte leapt to his feet and growled. “I will accept your challenge. And then I will destroy you, demigod .” He began to pace the room, waiting.
    I walked over toward the locker, keeping my back to it and my eyes averted. “I’ll ask you the same riddle your sister asked me. If you answer it correctly, I will kneel and accept my fate. If you fail, you kneel in front of me.”
    “Zane,” said Sam, his voice quivering, “what are you doing?”
    “Ask it, then,” snarled the leonte .
    “Okay,” I said, clearing my throat. “Here is your riddle. Um…
    “Hurry,” snarled the leonte . “Ask it just as she did.”
    “What is the only thing you can see in the dark?” I blurted out.
    “In the dark?” asked the leonte , pacing the room. I edged closer to the closet.
    “Yes. In the dark. Exactly as your sister asked me.”
    “And you answered this correctly?”
    “In seconds. I just closed my eyes to look in the dark and I saw the answer,” I said with as much bravado as I could muster.
    “Hm,” the leonte said and sat, thinking.
    Sam looked at me and I nodded with what I hoped was confidence as I moved a few steps closer to the locker.
    The leonte glared at me, then at Sam. After a moment, he carefully closed his eyes and I lunged for the locker, unsheathing the sword and slashing the blade across the monster’s chest. He collapsed, howling in pain. The blade glowed with a faint bronze light.
    “Miserable demigod!” The lion’s fur disintegrated. His limbs crumbled into columns of yellow powder. “You will never succeed! Your quest will not…”
    He collapsed into a pile of dust.
    For a moment, the library was as silent as…well, a library.
    Sam let out a delayed bleat. “Wow! That—that was—”
    “Terrifying?” I asked. My hands shook. My legs could barely hold up my weight.
    I had officially reached maximum weirdness overload . I wanted to crawl into Sam’s secret storage cabinet, close the door, and cry for a week.
    Instead, things just got weirder.
    YOU HAVE DONE WELL. A woman’s voice echoed around the abandoned room.
    Wind swept through the broken window, ruffling the open books, blowing torn pages across the floor.
    Dust motes swirled in a shaft of sunlight, solidifying into the form of a woman. She wore luminous white robes covered in intricate black