You can tell the future?' 'More like the future mugs me from time to time.' Rachel said 'I speak prophecies. The oracle spirit kind of hijacks me once in a while, and speaks important stuff that doesn't make any sense to anybody. But yeah, the prophecies tell the future.

And please God, grant me the wisdom to remember that I am writing for children, not golden stickers.

Some pain shouldn’t be wished away so easily. It has to be dealt with, even embraced.

That is exactly how people beat Chinese handcuffs. They turn into iguanas.

"You are okay?" he asked. "Not eaten by monsters?" "Not even a little bit." I showed him that I still had both arms and both legs, and Tyson clapped happily. "Yay!" he said. "Now we can eat peanut butter sandwiches and ride fish ponies! We can fight monsters and see Annabeth and make things go BOOM!" I hoped he didn't mean all at the same time, but I told him absolutely, we'd have a lot of fun this summer.

Her perfume was a mixture of roses and tear gas.

My stomach churned. The monster had mimicked Thalia perfectly. If I'd heard that voice in the dark, calling for help, I would've run straight toward it.