Summary

While guarding the camp, Luke Castellan was making an entry into his diary about something that happened to him – something horrific. For the previous three days, Luke and Thalia had been following a goat across Virginia. The goat didn’t appear special to Luke – other than the annoying fact that it would randomly disappear and reappear again – but Thalia swore it was an omen from her father, Zeus. Their trek was wrought with danger because as demigods, they were the targets of gorgons, the Furies and harpies who could sniff out heroes like them miles away.

The goat had disappeared for a while until they found it again in Richmond grazing on the grass under a city monument of Robert E. Lee. Thalia pulled Luke behind some rosebushes and told him to hide. The goat was a sacred...