Heroes of Olympus 04 – The House of Hades

“Sorry,” he murmured. “But if she’s a cloud spirit, couldn’t she just…you know, float away?”

The coach curled his fingers around the grip of his baseball bat. “Normally, yeah. But see…she’s in a delicate condition. It wouldn’t be safe.”

“A delicate…” Frank’s eyes widened. “She’s going to have a baby? You’re going to be a dad?”

“Shout it a little louder,” Hedge grumbled. “I don’t think they heard you in Croatia.”

Frank couldn’t help grinning. “But, Coach, that’s awesome! A little baby satyr? Or maybe a nymph? You’ll be a fantastic dad.”

Leo whistled. “Hot-air horses? Dang, Jason. So basically, you held a bunch of gas together all the way to Malta, and then you let it loose.”

“I keep thinking about fire,” Piper said. “How we expect Leo to beat this giant because he’s…”

“Hot?” Leo suggested with a grin.

“Bob, do you want to introduce us?”

“Annabeth…” Bob patted Percy’s legs. “This is Percy.”

Gale the polecat scampered up to them, farted, and ran away.

“Ah, jeez.” Leo averted his eyes. He really didn’t need to see a godly groin this early in the morning.

“Get off!” Leo tried to shove him away, but Passalos did a backward somersault and landed out of reach. Leo’s pants promptly fell around his knees.

Gale the polecat skittered around the goddess’s feet, farting and gnashing her teeth.

Whenever he felt like giving up, plopping himself down, and dying (which was, like, every ten minutes), he reached over and took her hand, just to remember there was warmth in the world.

They knew the greatest heroes didn’t get happy endings.