LOVE THE WAY YOU LIE . . . hoo

XLI.

THINGS WENT WRONG immediately. The giants vanished in twin puffs of smoke. They reappeared halfway across the room, each in a different spot. Mia stood with Regulus in her hands, wondering where she was needed most.

Piper leaped across a hopscotch pattern of fiery pits, making her way toward Nico, who was dazed and weaponless and being stalked by a pair of leopards. As much as Mia wanted to go and save Nico, there were bigger enemies out there.

Meanwhile Jason charged at Otis, who pulled his spear and heaved a great sigh, as if he would much rather dance Swan Lake than kill another demigod.

Percy sprinted toward Ephialtes, but slots in the floor opened under his feet, and metal walls shot up on either side, separating him from them. Mia faintly saw him jump and hold onto the hydra's cage, but by then she was already sprinting toward Ephialtes, weaving through a grove of painted plywood trees that sprang up from nowhere.

"Wonderful!" Ephialtes cried. He stood at his control panel about forty feet to Mia's left. "We'll consider this a dress rehearsal. Shall I unleash the hydra onto the Spanish Steps now?"

He pulled a lever, and Mia glanced behind her. The cage Percy had just been hanging from was now rising toward a hatch in the ceiling. In three seconds it would be gone.

"Percy!" Mia called.

He sent her a quick nod, throwing Riptide like a boomerang. The sword wasn't designed for that, but the Celestial bronze blade sliced through the chains suspending the hydra. The cage tumbled sideways. The door broke open, and the monster spilled out — right in front of Percy.

"Oh, you are a spoilsport, Jackson!" Ephialtes called. "Very well. Battle it here, if you must, but your death won't be nearly as good without the cheering crowds."

Percy stepped forward to confront the monster — then realized he'd just thrown his weapon away. A bit of bad planning on his part.

"You're such an idiot!" Mia scolded as she ran over.

"Yeah, yeah," Percy rolled to one side as all eight hydra heads spit acid, turning the floor where he'd been standing into a steaming crater of melted stone. "Cover me?"

"I hope you know what you're doing," she muttered.

As she fended off the hydra, which is way harder than it sounds, she got glimpses of Piper and Jason.

At the dais, Piper stood guard over Nico as the leopards advanced. She aimed her cornucopia and shot a pot roast over the cats' heads. It must have smelled pretty good, because the leopards raced after it.

About eighty feet to Piper's right, Jason battled Otis, sword against spear. Otis had lost his diamond tiara and looked angry about it. He probably could have impaled Jason several times, but the giant insisted on doing a pirouette with every attack, which slowed him down.

Meanwhile Ephialtes laughed as he pushed buttons on his control board, cranking the conveyor belts into high gear and opening random animal cages.

The hydra charged Mia. She swung behind a column, grabbed a garbage bag full of Wonder bread, and yeeted it at the monster. The hydra spit acid, which was a mistake. The bag and wrappers dissolved in midair. The Wonder bread absorbed the acid like fire extinguisher foam and splattered against the hydra, covering it in a sticky, steaming layer of high-calorie poisonous goo.

As the monster reeled, shaking its heads and blinking Wonder acid out of its eyes, Mia told Percy, who had that glint in his eyes when he had an idea, "that's all you," then bolted toward Ephialtes.

"I know!" Ephialtes cried out happily. "We can start with explosions along the Via Labicana! We can't keep our audience waiting forever."

Mia heard a hiss and Percy yell, "duck and cover!"

She dropped to the ground and let the Mist shield her from whatever the fuck Percy was doing. The sound was like a fiesta in the middle of an exploding gunpowder factory. The hydra vaporized instantly. Unfortunately, more projectiles were shooting all over the room. A chunk of ceiling collapsed and crushed a waterwheel way too close to Mia for her own good. More cages snapped off their chains, unleashing two zebras and a pack of hyenas. A grenade exploded over Ephialtes's head, but it only blasted him off his feet. The control board didn't even look damaged.

Across the room, sandbags rained down around Piper and Nico. Piper tried to pull Nico to safety, but one of the bags caught her shoulder and knocked her down.

"Piper!" Jason cried. He ran toward her, completely forgetting about Otis, who aimed his spear at Jason's back.

"Look out!" Percy yelled.

As Otis threw, Mia let her shield fall and use a flower she'd conjured to catch the spear. Then she flicked her wrist, and the flower took the spear across the room and skewered Ephialtes through his side just as he was getting to his feet.

"Otis!" Ephialtes stumbled away from his control board, clutching the spear as he began to crumble into monster dust. "Will you please stop killing me!"

"Not my fault!"

Otis had barely finished speaking when Percy's missile-launching contraption spit out one last sphere of Roman candle fire. The fiery pink ball of death ( naturally it had to be pink ) hit the ceiling above Otis and exploded in a beautiful shower of light. Colorful sparks pirouetted gracefully around the giant. Then a ten-foot section of roof collapsed and crushed him flat.

Jason ran to Piper's side. She yelped when he touched her arm. Her shoulder looked unnaturally bent, but she muttered, "Fine. I'm fine." Next to her, Nico sat up, looking around him in bewilderment as if just realizing he'd missed a battle.

Sadly, the giants weren't finished. Ephialtes was already re-forming, his head and shoulders rising from the mound of dust. He tugged his arms free and glowered at Percy.

Across the room, the pile of rubble shifted, and Otis busted out. His head was slightly caved in. All the firecrackers in his hair had popped, and his braids were smoking. His leotard was in tatters, which was just about the only way it could've looked less attractive on him.

"Percy! Mia!" Jason shouted. "The controls!"

Mia unfroze. She picked up Regulus and lunged for the switchboard. She slashed her blade across the top, decapitating the controls in a shower of bronze sparks.

"No!" Ephialtes wailed. "You've ruined the spectacle!"

Mia turned too slowly. Ephialtes swung his spear like a bat and smacked her across the chest. She fell to her knees, the pain turning her stomach to lava.

Percy and Jason ran to her side, but Otis lumbered after the latter. Mia managed to rise and found herself shoulder to shoulder with Percy and Jason. Over by the dais, Piper was still on the floor, unable to get up. Nico was barely conscious.

The giants were healing, getting stronger by the minute. Mia was not.

Ephialtes smiled apologetically. "Tired, Amelia Starfury? As I said, you cannot kill us. So I guess we're at an impasse. Oh, wait . . . no we're not! Because we can kill you!"

"That," Otis grumbled, picking up his fallen spear, "is the first thing sensible thing you've said all day, brother."

The giants pointed their weapons, ready to turn Mia, Percy, and Jason into a demigod-kabob.

"We won't give up," Jason growled. "We'll cut you into pieces like Jupiter did to Saturn."

"That's right," Percy said. "You're both dead. I don't care if we have a god on our side or not."

"Well, that's a shame," said a new voice.

To his right, another platform lowered from the ceiling. Leaning casually on a pinecone-topped staff was a man in a purple camp shirt, khaki shorts, and sandals with white socks. He raised his broad-brimmed hat, and purple fire flickered in his eyes. "I'd hate to think I made a special trip for nothing."