1

Lester (Apollo) Still human; thanks for asking Gods, I hate my life

WHEN OUR DRAGON

declared war on Indiana, I

knew it was going to be a bad day.

We’d been traveling west for six weeks, and Festus had

never shown such hostility toward a state. New Jersey he

ignored. Pennsylvania he seemed to enjoy, despite our bat-

tle with the Cyclopes of Pittsburgh. 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.

Yet for some reason, Festus decided he did not like

Indiana. 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.

“Whoa, buddy!” Leo Valdez pulled the dragon’s

reins. “We’ve talked about this. No blowtorching public

monuments!”

Behind him on the dragon’s spine, Calypso gripped

Festus’s scales for balance. “Could we