The Tyrant's Tomb

Reyna shrugged. “Prophecies never mean what you think, right? If
Apollo is able to open the door thanks to my help, I’m still responsible,
wouldn’t you say?”
“Besides…” I pointed to the horizon. Hours of daylight remained, but the
full moon was rising, enormous and white, over the hills of Marin County.
Soon enough, it would turn bloodred—and so, I feared, would a whole lot of
our friends. “We’re running out of time. If we can cheat, let’s cheat.”
I realized those would make terrible final words. Nevertheless, Reyna
and Meg followed me into the cold silence.
When we reached the doors, Reyna took Meg’s hand. She turned to me:
Ready? Then she planted her other hand on my shoulder.
Strength surged through me. I laughed with soundless joy. I felt as potent
as I had in the woods at Camp Half-Blood, when I’d tossed one of Nero’s
barbarian bodyguards into low earth orbit. Reyna’s power was awesome! If I
could just get her to follow me around the whole time I was mortal, her hand
on my shoulder, a chain of twenty or thirty other demigods behind her, I bet
there was nothing I couldn’t accomplish!
I grabbed the uppermost chains and tore them like crepe paper. Then the
next set, and the next. The Imperial gold broke and crumpled noiselessly in
my fists. The steel locking rods felt as soft as breadsticks as I pulled them
out of their fittings.
That left only the door handles.
The power may have gone to my head. I glanced back at Reyna and Meg
with a self-satisfied smirk, ready to accept their silent adulation.
Instead, they looked as if I’d bent them in half, too.
Meg swayed, her complexion lima-bean green. The skin around Reyna’s
eyes was tight with pain. The veins on her temples stood out like lightning
bolts. My energy surge was frying them.
Finish it, Reyna mouthed. Her eyes added a silent plea: Before we pass
out.
Humbled and ashamed, I grabbed the door handles. My friends had
gotten me this far. If Harpocrates was indeed waiting inside this shipping
box, I would make sure the full force of his anger fell on me, not Reyna or
Meg.
I yanked open the doors and stepped inside.