“It’s distinctive,” I agreed.

“Yucky,” Meg corrected.

“It started to get really strong,” Piper said. “I’ll be honest, I got scared. Alone, in the dark, I panicked. I left.” She grimaced. “Not very heroic, I know.”

I wasn’t going to criticize, given the fact that my knees were presently knocking together the Morse code message RUN AWAY!

“Jason showed up later,” Piper said. “Simply walked out of the exit. He wouldn’t talk about what had happened. He just said going back in the maze wouldn’t accomplish anything. The answers were elsewhere. He said he wanted to look into some ideas and get back to me.” She shrugged. “That was two weeks ago. I’m still waiting.”

“He found the Oracle,” I guessed.

“That’s what I’m wondering. Maybe if we go that way”—Piper pointed to the right—“we’ll find out.”

None of us moved. None of us yelled Hooray! and skipped merrily into the sulfur-infused darkness.

My thoughts spun so rapidly I wondered if my head actually was on a swivel.

Malevolent heat, as if it had a personality. The nickname of the emperor: Neos Helios, the New Sun, Caligula’s bid to brand himself as a living god. Something Naevius Macro had said: I just hope there’s enough of you left for the emperor’s magical friend to work with.

And that fragrance, clove and honey…like an ancient perfume, combined with sulfur.

“Agave said ‘she just came out of nowhere,’” I recalled.

Piper’s hand tightened on the hilt of her dagger. “I was hoping I misheard that. Or maybe by she, she meant Money Maker.”

“Hey,” Meg said. “Listen.”

It was difficult over the loud swiveling of my head and the electricity crackling in my underwear, but finally I heard it: the clatter of wood and metal, echoing in the darkness, and the hiss and scrape of large creatures moving at a fast pace.

“Piper,” I said, “what did that perfume remind you of? Why did it scare you?”

Her eyes now looked as electric blue as her harpy feather. “An—an old enemy, somebody my mom warned me I would see again someday. But she couldn’t possibly be—”

“A sorceress,” I guessed.

“Guys,” Meg interrupted.

“Yeah.” Piper’s voice turned cold and heavy, as if she was just realizing how much trouble we were actually in.

“A sorceress from Colchis,” I said. “A grandchild of Helios, who drove a chariot.”

“Pulled by dragons,” Piper said.

“Guys,” Meg said, more urgently, “we need to hide.”

Too late, of course.

The chariot rattled around the corner, pulled by twin golden dragons that spewed yellow fumes from their nostrils like sulfur-fueled locomotives. The driver had not changed since I’d last seen her, a few thousand years ago. She was still dark-haired and regal, her black silk dress rippling around her.

Piper pulled her knife. She stepped into view. Meg followed her lead, summoning her swords and standing shoulder to shoulder with the daughter of Aphrodite. I, foolishly, stood at their side.

“Medea.” Piper spat out the word with as much venom and force as she would a dart from her blowgun.

The sorceress pulled the reins, bringing her chariot to a halt. Under different circumstances, I might have enjoyed the surprised look on her face, but it didn’t last long.

Medea laughed with genuine pleasure. “Piper McLean, you darling girl.” She turned her dark rapacious gaze on me. “This is Apollo, I take it? Oh, you’ve saved me so much time and trouble. And after we’re done, Piper, you’ll make a lovely snack for my dragons!”

SUN dragons…I hate them. And I was a sun god.

As dragons go, they aren’t particularly large. With a little lubrication and muscle, you can stuff one inside a mortal recreational vehicle. (And I have done so. You should have seen the look on Hephaestus’s face when I asked him to go inside the Winnebago to check the brake pedal.)

But what they lack in size, sun dragons make up for in viciousness.

Medea’s twin pets snarled and snapped, their fangs like porcelain in the fiery kilns of their mouths. Heat rippled off their golden scales. Their wings, folded against their backs, flashed like solar panels. Worst of all were their glowing orange eyes….

Piper shoved me, breaking my gaze. “Don’t stare,” she warned. “They’ll paralyze you.”

“I know that,” I muttered, though my legs had been in the process of turning to rock. I’d forgotten I wasn’t a god anymore. I was no longer immune to little things like sun dragons’ eyes and, you know, getting killed.

Piper elbowed Meg. “Hey. You too.”

Meg blinked, coming out of her stupor. “What? They’re pretty.”

“Thank you, my dear!” Medea’s voice turned gentle and soothing. “We haven’t formerly met. I’m Medea. And you’re obviously Meg McCaffrey. I’ve heard so much about you.” She patted the chariot rail next to her. “Come up, darling. You needn’t fear me. I’m friends with your stepfather. I’ll take you to him.”

Meg frowned, confused. The points of her swords dipped. “What?”

“She’s charmspeaking.” Piper’s voice hit me like a glass of ice water in the face. “Meg, don’t listen to her. Apollo, you neither.”

Medea sighed. “Really, Piper McLean? Are we going to have another charmspeak battle?”

“No need,” Piper said. “I’d just win again.”

Medea curled her lip in a good imitation of her sun dragons’ snarls. “Meg belongs with her stepfather.” She swept a hand toward me as if pushing away some trash. “Not with this sorry excuse for a god.”

“Hey!” I protested. “If I had my powers—”

“But you don’t,” Medea said. “Look at yourself, Apollo. Look what your father has done to you! Not to worry, though. Your misery is at an end. I’ll squeeze out whatever power is left and put it to good use!”

Meg’s knuckles turned white on the grips of her swords. “What does she mean?” she muttered. “Hey, Magic Lady, what do you mean?”

The sorceress smiled. She no longer wore the crown of her birthright as princess of Colchis, but at her throat a golden pendant still gleamed—the crossed torches of Hecate. “Shall I tell her, Apollo, or should you? Surely you know why I’ve brought you here.”

Why she had brought me here.

As if each step I’d taken since climbing out of that dumpster in Manhattan had been preordained, orchestrated by her…The problem was: I found that entirely plausible. This sorceress had destroyed kingdoms. She had betrayed her own father by helping the original Jason steal the Golden Fleece. She had killed her own brother and chopped him to bits. She had murdered her own children. She was the most brutal and power-hungry of Hecate’s followers, and also the most formidable. Not only that, but she was a demigod of ancient blood, the granddaughter of Helios himself, former Titan of the sun.

Which meant…

It all came to me at once, a realization so horrible my knees buckled.