DESPITE THE FACT that Eden's a Greek demigod, she hated Greece.
The landscape below was inhospitable. The hills were strewn with boulders and stunted cedars, all shimmering in the hazy air. The sun beat down as if trying to hammer the countryside into a Celestial bronze shield. Even from a hundred feet up, Eden could hear the drone of cicadas buzzing in the trees — a sleepy, otherworldly sound that made her eyes heavy, even without Piper's charmspeak.
Eden had told Piper about her adventure as soon as she'd gotten the chance to.
"You get power from a sword for later," Piper had said slowly. "And you got us a dog?"
"Mhm," Eden had answered to both, laying down on their bed and closing her eyes. God, she'd missed the comfort of a fucking bed.
"Eden," she felt Piper's head perch on her chest. "You worried me."
Then, she had opened her eyes, and although the room was blurry, she could still see her girl clearly. "I know. I begged for him to bring me back, I really did, darling." She ran her fingers through Piper's hair. "He told me that I needed the power to get back to you. So you didn't die on my watch. And I need you alive, Piper. Because without you the world would be gray."
Piper's eyes had tears in them. "Eden . . ."
"You are everything to me," she laughed. "I've said this to you a million times already, Kaleidoscope, but it's true. Every time I hear your name, it's like my blood pumps faster, and my heart beats faster. When you grab my hand or kiss me, it's like I was made to be yours, the way I just want to pull you closer and touch you everywhere. You've given me everything, my angel, that I've ever needed in my life. And nothing will pull me apart from you, no monster or giant or god, because I will find you eventually, even if one of us becomes immortal and the other dies. If I ever become immortal, I would never love anyone else but you because there's no one else I could love."
The tears streamed down Piper's face then, and Eden wiped them away. "You know, for not being able to read, you're surprisingly poetic."
"You're the one who reads to me like, every other night," Eden had scoffed and kissed her, again and again, because that was one thing that she would never get tired of doing as long as she lived — immortal or not.
"Hot and steamy!" Leo grinned at the helm, which snapped Eden out of her reverie but just made her think of Piper again. "Makes me homesick for Houston! What do you say, Hazel? All we need now are some giant mosquitoes, and it'll feel just like the Gulf Coast!"
"Thanks a lot, Leo," Hazel grumbled. "We'll probably get attacked by Ancient Greek mosquito monsters now."
"There!" Nico's voice carried out from where he was perched atop the foremast, as usual. He pointed toward a glittering green river snaking through the hills. "Maneuver us that way. We're close to the temple. Very close."
As if to prove his point, black lightning ripped through the sky, leaving dark spots before Eden's eyes and making the hairs on her arms stand up.
Perfect Jason strapped on his sword belt. Eden's looked better. "Everyone, arm yourself. Leo, get us close, but don't land — no more contact with the ground than necessary. Piper, Hazel, get the mooring ropes."
"On it!" Piper said, giving Eden a kiss before going.
"Frank," Perfect Jason called, "get below and find Coach Hedge."
"Yep!"
He climbed downstairs as Perfect Jason looked at Eden and Nico, hesitating. "Do whatever," he said to them. "Hey, actually, Eden, are you taking that sword with you?"
"No," she shook her head. "I, uh, don't think we'll need it right now."
Perfect Jason frowned at her. "You sure?"
"When have my gut instincts ever been wrong?" Eden smirked, flicking one of her rings in the air and catching it on her finger. "Besides, I'm tired of looking at that thing. I can't figure it out."
She then leapt up to where Nico was, starting to talk to him. Perfect Jason went to go talk to his boyfriend or whatever r they were doing.
"Hey, guys!" Piper called from the bow a few minutes later. "Better get over here. You need to see this."
They'd found the source of the dark lightning.
The Argo II hovered directly over the river. A few hundred meters away at the top of the nearest hill stood a cluster of ruins. They didn't look like much — just some crumbling walls encircling the limestone shells of a few buildings — but from somewhere within the ruins, tendrils of black ether curled into the sky, like a smoky squid peeking from its cave. As Eden watched, a bolt of dark energy ripped through the air, rocking the ship and sending a cold shockwave across the landscape.
"The Necromanteion," Nico said. "The House of Hades."
Piper hugged her arms, before reaching out for Eden's jacket that was loosely tied around her shoulders. Eden let her take it. "I feel vulnerable floating up here like this. Couldn't we set down in the river?"
"I wouldn't," Hazel said. "That's the River Acheron."
Perfect Jason squinted in the sunlight. "I thought the Acheron was in the Underworld."
"It is," Hazel said. "But its headwaters are in the mortal world. That river below us? Eventually it flows underground, straight into the realm of Pluto — er, Hades. Landing a demigod ship on those waters—"
"Yeah, let's stay up here," Leo decided. "I don't want any zombie water on my hull."
Some fishing boats were puttering along. Eden guessed they didn't know or care about the history of this river. Must be nice, being a regular mortal.
Next to her, Nico raised the scepter of Diocletian. Its orb glowed with purple light, as if in sympathy with the dark storm.
"So, uh, Nico . . ." Frank gestured at the scepter. "Have you learned to use that thing?"
"We'll find out." Nico stared at the tendrils of darkness undulating from the ruins. "I don't intend to try until I have to. The Doors of Death are already working overtime bringing in Gaea's monsters. Any more activity raising the dead, and the Doors might shatter permanently, leaving a rip in the mortal world that can't be closed."
Coach Hedge grunted. "I hate rips in the world. Let's go bust some monster heads."
"Coach, you should stay on board, cover us with the ballistae." Frank said suddenly.
Hedge frowned. "Stay behind? Me? I'm your best soldier! Except for Eden."
Cute, but Eden already knew that fact.
"We might need air support," Frank said. "Like we did in Rome. You saved our braccae."
"Well . . ." Coach grumbled, "I suppose somebody's got to save your braccae."
Perfect Jason clapped the coach on the shoulder. Why did he do that so often? Then he gave Frank an appreciative nod. "So that's settled. Everybody else — let's get to the ruins. Time to crash Gaea's party."
* * *
Despite the heat and the raging storm of death energy, a group of tourists was climbing over the ruins. Fortunately there weren't many, and they didn't give the demigods a second look.
Eden had stopped worrying too much about getting noticed. She could get away with anything. That was proven by that heist at the museum. Then again, she did have to threaten someone with cannibalism, but what could you do in that scenario?
Nico led the way. At the top of the hill, they climbed over an old retaining wall and down into an excavated trench. Finally they arrived at a stone doorway leading straight into the side of the hill. The death storm seemed to originate right above their heads. Looking up at the swirling tentacles of darkness, Eden felt like she was trapped at the bottom of a flushing toilet bowl.
Nico faced the group. "From here, it gets tough."
"Sweet," Leo said. "'Cause so far I've totally been pulling my punches."
Nico glared at him. "We'll see how long you keep your sense of humor. Remember, this is where pilgrims came to commune with dead ancestors. Underground, you may see things that are hard to look at, or hear voices trying to lead you astray in the tunnels. Frank, do you have the barley cakes?"
"What?" Frank asked.
"I've got the cakes," Hazel said. She pulled out the oh so magical barley crackers they'd made from horse shit. Not literally, but they looked like it.
"Eat up," Nico advised.
Eden chewed her cracker of death and gagged, putting a hand on Piper's shoulder for support.
"Yum," Kaleidoscope said, making a face. That's Eden's girl. Get disgusted by everything that wasn't the best.
"Okay." Nico choked down the last of his barley. "That should protect us from the poison."
"Poison?" Eden asked. "Did I miss the poison? 'Cause I love poison."
"Soon enough, lover girl," Nico promised. "Just stick close together, and maybe we can avoid getting lost or going insane."
On that happy note, Nico led them underground.
The tunnel spiraled gently downward, the ceiling supported by white stone arches that reminded Eden of a whale's rib cage.
As they walked, Hazel ran her hands along the masonry. "This wasn't part of a temple," she whispered. "This was . . . the basement for a manor house, built in later Greek times."
Eden found it eerie how Hazel could tell so much about an underground place just by being there. She hated it here.
"A manor house?" Frank asked. "Please don't tell me we're in the wrong place."
"The House of Hades is below us," Nico assured him. "But Hazel's right, these upper levels are much newer. When the archaeologists first excavated this site, they thought they'd found the Necromanteion. Then they realized the ruins were too recent, so they decided it was the wrong spot. They were right the first time. They just didn't dig deep enough."
They turned a corner and stopped. In front of them, the tunnel ended in a huge block of stone.
"A cave-in?" Perfect Jason asked.
"A test," Nico said. "Hazel, would you do the honors?"
Hazel stepped forward. She placed her hand on the rock, and the entire boulder crumbled to dust.
The tunnel shuddered. Cracks spread across the ceiling. For a terrifying moment, Eden imagined they'd all be crushed under tons of earth — a disappointing way to die, after all she'd been through. Then the rumbling stopped. The dust settled.
A set of stairs curved deeper into the earth, the barreled ceiling held up by more repeating arches, closer together and carved from polished black stone. The descending arches made Eden feel dizzy, as if she were looking into an endlessly reflecting mirror. Painted on the walls were crude pictures of black cattle marching downward.
"I really don't like cows," Piper muttered, reaching behind her for Eden's hand. She took it, obviously.
"Agreed," Frank said.
"Those are the cattle of Hades," Nico said. "It's just a symbol of—"
"Look." Frank pointed.
On the first step of the stairwell, a golden chalice gleamed. Eden was pretty sure it hadn't been there a moment before. The cup was full of dark-green liquid.
"Hooray," Leo said halfheartedly. "I suppose that's our poison."
Nico picked up the chalice. "We're standing at the ancient entrance of the Necromanteion. Odysseus came here, and dozens of other heroes, seeking advice from the dead."
"Did the dead advise them to leave immediately?" Eden asked.
"I would be fine with that," Piper admitted, perching her chin on her shoulder.
Nico drank from the chalice, then offered it to Perfect Jason. "You asked me about trust, and taking a risk? Well, here you go, son of Jupiter. How much do you trust me?"
Perfect Jason didn't hesitate. He took the cup and drank.
They passed it around, each taking a sip of poison. Eden grabbed it from Piper and gagged at the taste, handing it to Frank. When he was done, the chalice turned to smoke in his hands.
Nico nodded, apparently satisfied. "Congratulations. Assuming the poison doesn't kill us, we should be able to find our way through the Necromanteion's first level."
"Just the first level?" Piper asked.
Nico turned to Hazel and gestured at the stairs. "After you, sister."
In no time, Eden felt completely lost. The stairs split in three different directions. As soon as Hazel chose a path, the stairs split again. They wound their way through interconnecting tunnels and rough-hewn burial chambers that all looked the same — the walls carved with dusty niches that might once have held bodies. The arches over the doors were painted with black cows, white poplar trees, and owls.
"I thought the owl was Minerva's symbol," Perfect Jason murmured.
"The screech owl is one of Hades's sacred animals," Nico said. "Its cry is a bad omen."
Eden snorted. "I could think of a few things that could screech and cry that have a bad omen."
"Eden, love." Piper put her hand over her mouth. "Shush."
"This way." Hazel pointed to a doorway that looked the same as all the others. "It's the only one that won't collapse on us."
"Good choice, then," Eden said, pulling Piper's hand off of her mouth.
Though she began to feel like he was leaving the world of the living. Her skin tingled, and she wondered if it was a side effect of the poison. Her rings seemed heavier on her fingers, and her body seemed like it was weighted down. In the eerie glow of their magic weapons, the crew looked like flickering ghosts.
Cold air brushed against her face. She thought she heard other voices whispering in the side corridors, beckoning her to veer off course, to come closer and listen to them speak. She hated every single part of that.
Finally they reached an archway carved in the shape of human skulls — or maybe they were human skulls embedded in the rock. In the purple light of Diocletian's scepter, the hollow eye sockets seemed to blink.
Frank went ahead of Hazel, who stopped him.
"This is the entrance to the second level," she said. "I'd better take a look."
"Uh, yeah . . ." He made way for her.
Hazel traced her fingers across the carved skulls. "No traps on the doorway, but . . . something is strange here. My underground sense is — is fuzzy, like someone is working against me, hiding what's ahead of us."
"The sorceress that Hecate warned you about?" Perfect Jason guessed. "The one Leo saw in his dream? What was her name?"
Hazel chewed her lip. "It would be safer not to say her name. But stay alert. One thing I'm sure of: From this point on, the dead are stronger than the living."
Eden hated that, but it seemed true. The voices in the darkness seemed to whisper louder. She caught glimpses of movement in the shadows. And hints of gold, somehow, despite the darkness.
"Where are the monsters?" Frank wondered. "I thought Gaea had an army guarding the Doors."
"Don't know," Perfect Jason said. His pale skin looked as green as the poison from the chalice. "At this point I'd almost prefer a straight-up fight."
"Careful what you wish for, man." Leo summoned a ball of fire to his hand, and Eden was glad to see the flames. "Personally, I'm hoping nobody's home. We walk in, find Percy and Annabeth, destroy the Doors of Death, and walk out. Maybe stop at the gift shop."
"Yeah," Eden snorted. "That'll happen."
The tunnel shook. Rubble rained down from the ceiling.
Hazel grabbed Frank's hand. "That was close," she muttered. "These passageways won't take much more."
"The Doors of Death just opened again," Nico said.
"It's happening like every fifteen minutes," Piper noted.
"Every twelve," Nico corrected, though he didn't explain how he knew. "We'd better hurry. Percy and Annabeth are close. They're in danger. I can sense it."
As they traveled deeper, the corridors widened. The ceilings rose to six meters high, decorated with elaborate paintings of owls in the branches of white poplars. The extra space should have made Eden feel better, but all she could think about was the tactical situation. The tunnels were big enough to accommodate large monsters, even giants. There were blind corners everywhere, perfect for ambushes. Their group could be flanked or surrounded easily. They would have no good options for retreat.
All of her instincts told her to get out of these tunnels. If no monsters were visible, that just meant they were hiding, waiting to spring a trap. Even though Eden knew that, there wasn't much she could do about it. They had to find the Doors of Death. Goddamn her Achilles blood.
Leo held his fire close to the walls. Eden saw Ancient Greek graffiti scratched into the stone. She didn't bother reading them. The tunnel floor was littered with ceramic shards and silver coins.
"Offerings?" Piper guessed.
"Yes," Nico said. "If you wanted your ancestors to appear, you had to make an offering."
"Let's not make an offering," Perfect Jason suggested.
Nobody argued.
"The tunnel from here is unstable," Hazel warned. "The floor might . . . well, just follow me. Step exactly where I step."
She made her way forward, and the rest of the crew followed her. At least until they stopped.
"Hazel, hold up a second. Frank, what's wrong?" Perfect Jason asked.
"Nothing," Frank murmured. "I just—"
He put a foot out.
"Frank, don't move." Hazel sounded alarmed.
"Lead where?" he asked aloud.
"Uh, big guy?" Leo said. "Could you not freak out on us? Please and thank you."
That was scary. Eden looked around, scared out of her fucking mind. What if Achilles was in here, waiting for a chance to talk to her? Ho boy.
"I'm okay," Frank said weakly. "Just . . . a voice."
Nico nodded. "I did warn you. It'll only get worse. We should—"
Hazel held up her hand for silence. "Wait here, everybody."
She forged ahead alone. Eden had counted fifty ways they could all die right now before she came back, her face drawn and pensive.
"Scary room ahead," she warned. "Don't panic."
"Those two things don't go together," Leo murmured. But they followed Hazel into the cavern.
The place was like a circular cathedral, with a ceiling so high it was lost in the gloom. Dozens of other tunnels led off in different directions, each echoing with ghostly voices. The thing that made Eden nervous was the floor. It was a gruesome mosaic of bones and gems — human femurs, hip bones, and ribs twisted and fused together into a smooth surface, dotted with diamonds and rubies. The bones formed patterns, like skeletal contortionists tumbling together, curling to protect the precious stones — a dance of death and riches.
"Touch nothing," Hazel said.
"Wasn't planning on it," Leo muttered.
Perfect Jason scanned the exits. "Which way now?"
For once, Nico looked uncertain. "This should be the room where the priests invoked the most powerful spirits. One of these passages leads deeper into the temple, to the third level and the altar of Hades himself. But which—?"
"That one." Frank pointed at some random doorway.
Hazel frowned. "Why that one?"
"You don't see the ghost?" Frank asked.
"Ghost?" Nico asked.
Something was definitely wrong. Eden felt like the floor was vibrating underneath her. Then she realized it was vibrating.
"We need to get to that exit," Frank said. "Now!"
Hazel almost had to tackle him to restrain him. "Wait, Frank! This floor is not stable, and underneath . . . well, I'm not sure what's underneath. I need to scout a safe path."
"Hurry, then," he urged.
He drew his bow and herded Hazel along. Leo scrambled behind him to provide light. Eden and the rest guarded the rear. She pulled out a sword and a gun.
The cavern reverberated with monstrous roars — dozens, maybe hundreds of enemies coming from every direction. Eden recognized the throaty bellow of the Earthborn, the screech of gryphons, the guttural war cries of Cyclopes — all amplified underground, echoing in his head even louder than the war god's voices.
"Hazel, don't stop!" Nico ordered. He pulled the scepter of Diocletian from his belt. Piper and Jason drew their swords as the monsters spilled into the cavern.
A vanguard of six-armed Earthborn threw a volley of stones that shattered the bone-and-jewel floor like ice. A fissure spread across the center of the room, coming straight toward Leo and Hazel.
Frank tackled them, and the three of them skidded across the cavern, landing at the edge of the ghost's tunnel as rocks and spears flew overhead.
The entire cavern shuddered. Dividing the cavern was a new fifteen-meter-wide chasm, spanned only by two rickety stretches of bone flooring. The bulk of the monster army was on the opposite side, howling in frustration and throwing whatever they could find, including each other. Some attempted to cross the bridges, which creaked and crackled under their weight.
Eden, Perfect Jason, Piper, and Nico stood on the side where Leo, Hazel, and Frank were closest, which was good, but they were surrounded by a ring of Cyclopes and hellhounds. More monsters kept pouring in from the side corridors, while gryphons wheeled overhead, undeterred by the crumbling floor.
Shit. They couldn't make it to the tunnel, even if Eden jumped or Perfect Jason flew them. And Nico wasn't strong enough for shadow travel, maybe.
"Nico!" Frank yelled. "The scepter."
Nico raised Diocletian's scepter, and the cavern air shimmered purple. Ghosts climbed from the fissure and seeped from the walls — an entire Roman legion in full battle gear. They began taking on physical form, like walking corpses, but they seemed confused. Perfect Jason yelled in Latin, ordering them to form ranks and attack. The undead just shuffled among the monsters, causing momentary confusion, but that wouldn't last.
Eden raised her sword before turning to Piper. "Don't get out of my sight. Promise?"
"I'll try my hardest not to," she said. Battle was chaotic. Eden got that, she smiled and leaned in, kissing her before charging into battle.