“He’s the fastest horse in the world,” Hylla said. “Pegasus is more famous, with his wings, but Arion runs like the wind over land and sea. No creature is faster. It took us years to capture him—one of our greatest prizes. But it did us no good. The horse will not al ow anyone to ride him. I think he hates Amazons. And he is expensive to keep. He will eat anything, but he prefers gold.”
The back of Hazel’s neck tingled. “He eats gold?”
She remembered the horse following her in Alaska so many years ago. She had thought he was eating nuggets of gold that appeared in her footsteps.
She knelt and pressed her hand against the floor. Immediately, the stone cracked. A chunk of gold ore the size of a plum was pushed out of the earth. Hazel stood, examining her prize. Hylla and Kinzie stared at her.
“How did you…?” The queen gasped. “Hazel, be careful!”
Hazel approached the stallion’s cage. She put her hand between the bars, and Arion gingerly ate the chunk of gold from her palm.
“Unbelievable,” Kinzie said. “The last girl who tried that—”
“Now has a metal arm,” the queen finished.

The Son of Neptune, Chapter XXXI