WHAT IS THIS? The god of the pit hissed. Why have you come, my disgraced son?
Damasen turned toward Tartarus. The Maeonian drakon stamped its feet and snarled.
"Father, you wished for a more worthy opponent?" Damasen asked calmly. "I am one of the giants you are so proud of. You wished me to be more warlike? Perhaps I will start by destroying you!"
Damasen leveled his lance and charged.
The monstrous army swarmed him, but the Maeonian drakon flattened everything in its path, sweeping its tail and spraying poison while Damasen jabbed at Tartarus, forcing the god to retreat like a cornered lion.
Bob stumbled away from the battle, his saber-toothed cat at his side. Val and Percy gave them as much cover as he could — causing blood vessels in the ground to burst one after the other. Some monsters were vaporized in Styx water. Others got a Cocytus shower and collapsed, weeping hopelessly. Others were doused with liquid Lethe and stared blankly around them, no longer sure where they were or even who they were.
Val's heightened aura naturally killed everything in her path. And, also, she charmspoke monsters to get away from her. That was something she'd missed, the way things would run away from her.
Bob limped to the Doors. Golden ichor flowed from the wounds on his arms and chest. His janitor's outfit hung in tatters. His posture was twisted and hunched, as if Tartarus's breaking the spear had broken something inside him. Despite all that, he was grinning, his silver eyes bright with satisfaction.
"Go," he ordered. "I will hold the button."
Percy gawked at him. "Bob, you're in no condition—"
"Percy." Annabeth's voice wavered. "We have to."
"We can't just leave them!"
"You must, friend." Bob clapped Percy on the arm, nearly knocking him over. "I can still press a button. And I have a good cat to guard me."
Small Bob the saber-toothed tiger growled in agreement.
"Besides," Bob said, "it is your destiny to return to the world. Put an end to this madness of Gaea."
A screaming Cyclops, sizzling from poison spray, sailed over their heads.
Fifty yards away, the Maeonian drakon trampled through monsters, its feet making sickening squish squish noises as if stomping grapes. On its back, Damasen yelled insults and jabbed at the god of the pit, taunting Tartarus farther away from the Doors.
Tartarus lumbered after him, his iron boots making craters in the ground.
You cannot kill me! he bellowed. I am the pit itself. You might as well try to kill the earth. Gaea and I — we are eternal. We own you, flesh and spirit!
He brought down his massive fist, but Damasen sidestepped, impaling his javelin in the side of Tartarus's neck.
Tartarus growled, apparently more annoyed than hurt. He turned his swirling vacuum face toward the giant, but Damasen got out of the way in time. A dozen monsters were sucked into the vortex and disintegrated.
"Bob, don't!" Percy said, his eyes pleading. "He'll destroy you permanently. No coming back. No regeneration."
Bob shrugged. "Who knows what will be? You must go now. Tartarus is right about one thing. We cannot defeat him. We can only buy you time."
"Twelve minutes," said the Titan. "I can give you that."
"Val . . . hold the Doors." Annabeth jumped and threw her arms around the Titan's neck. Val's voice wouldn't work, all of a sudden. She'd ran it too hoarse. And she couldn't charmspeak the Titan to stay.
"Monsters are eternal," Annabeth told him. "We will remember you and Damasen as heroes, as the best Titan and the best giant. We'll tell our children. We'll keep the story alive. Someday, you will regenerate."
Val nearly laughed. Like she would have children. Like she would stay alive.
Bob ruffled her hair. Smile lines crinkled around his eyes. "That is good. Until then, my friends, tell the sun and the stars hello for me. And be strong. This may not be the last sacrifice you must make to stop Gaea."
He pushed her away gently. "No more time. Go."
Annabeth grabbed Val and Percy's arm. She dragged them into the elevator car. She had one last glimpse of the Maeonian drakon shaking an ogre like a sock puppet, Damasen jabbing at Tartarus's legs.
The god of the pit pointed at the Doors of Death and yelled: Monsters, stop them!
Small Bob the saber-toothed crouched and snarled, ready for action.
Bob winked at Val. "Hold the Doors closed on your side," he said. "They will resist your passage. Hold them—"
The panels slid shut.
* * *
"Percy, Tina, help me!" Annabeth yelped.
She shoved her entire body against the left door, pressing it toward the center. Percy did the same on the right. Val gritted her teeth and put her hands to the door and pressed them together. There were no handles, or anything else to hold on to. As the elevator car ascended, the Doors shook and tried to open, threatening to spill them into whatever was between life and death.
The elevator's easy-listening music didn't help. If all monsters had to hear that song about liking piña coladas and getting caught in the rain, no wonder they were in the mood for carnage when they reached the mortal world.
"We left Bob and Damasen," Val mumbled, tears streaming down her cheeks. "They'll die for us, and we just—"
"I know," Annabeth murmured. "Gods of Olympus, V, I know."
Val was almost glad for the job of keeping the Doors closed. The terror racing through her heart at least kept her from dissolving into misery. Abandoning Damasen and Bob had been the hardest thing she'd ever done.
"Percy, the Doors," Annabeth warned. "V can't do it herself."
The panels had started to slide apart, letting in a whiff of . . . ozone? Sulfur? Val pushed them together furiously and the crack closed. Percy leaned further against the doors.
"I will kill Gaea," Percy muttered. "I will tear her apart with my bare hands."
Val nodded, but she was thinking about Tartarus's boast. He could not be killed. Neither could Gaea. Against such power, even Titans and giants were hopelessly outmatched. Demigods stood no chance.
She also remembered Bob's warning: This may not be the last sacrifice you must make to stop Gaea.
She felt that truth deep in her bones.
"Twelve minutes," Annabeth murmured. "Just twelve minutes."
"We can do this," Percy said. "We have to."
"Yeah," Val said. "Yeah, we do."
They held the Doors shut as the elevator shuddered and the music played, while somewhere below them, a Titan and a giant sacrificed their lives for their escape.
* * *
Whatever happened next was some kind of a blur.
Val remembered seeing things — curly hair, fire, a giant, a maze, but it wasn't clear to her. Not, at least, until all of her friends were there, fighting a giant.
She needed to help. Val needed to help. But she barely got to her feet by the time the giant was on the ground, her friends were circling him.
A woman stepped forward, her torches raised. Mist curled around the giant, hissing and bubbling as it touched his skin. Val's instincts told her it was Hecate.
"And so it ends," the goddess said.
It does not end. The giant's voice echoed from somewhere above, muffled and slurred. My brethren have risen. Gaea waits only for the blood of Olympus. It took all of you together to defeat me. What will you do when the Earth Mother opens her eyes?
Hecate turned her torches upside down. She thrust them like daggers at the giant's head. His hair went up faster than dry tinder, spreading down his head and across his body until the heat of the bonfire made Val feel . . . human, again. The giant fell without a sound, face-first in the rubble. His body crumbled to ashes.
For a moment, no one spoke.
The goddess Hecate faced Hazel. "You should go now, Hazel Levesque. Lead your friends out of this place."
Hazel had anger in her eyes. "Just like that? No 'thank you'? No 'good work'?"
The goddess tilted her head. A weasel chittered and disappeared in the folds of its mistress's skirts.
"You look in the wrong place for gratitude," Hecate said. "As for 'good work,' that remains to be seen. Speed your way to Athens. Clytius was not wrong. The giants have risen — all of them, stronger than ever. Gaea is on the very edge of waking. The Feast of Hope will be poorly named unless you arrive to stop her."
The chamber rumbled. Another stela crashed to the floor and shattered.
"The House of Hades is unstable," Hecate said. "Leave now. We shall meet again."
The goddess dissolved. The Mist evaporated.
"She's friendly," Percy grumbled.
The others turned toward Val, Percy, and Annabeth, as if just realizing they were there.
"Dude." Jason gave Percy a bear hug.
"Back from Tartarus!" Leo whooped, hugging Val. "That's my peeps!"
Piper threw her arms around Annabeth and cried.
Val grinned at Leo before pulling away and looking over at Nico, who immediately walked over to her.
"You made it," Nico said to her, helping support her to stand. "I thought you wanted to stay."
"I wanted to." Val bit her lip. "God, Nico, I wanted to. But they just . . . I couldn't . . ."
He nodded to her. "I got your message. After that one, I didn't get another one."
Val frowned. "Weird. I didn't get another one. But I couldn't send you another one. There's not exactly a large amount of paper in Tartarus."
He opened his mouth when the ceiling shuddered. Cracks appeared in the remaining tiles. Columns of dust spilled down.
"We've got to get out of here," Jason said. Right. Val needed to get used to seeing the others. "Uh, Frank . . .?"
Frank shook his head. "I think one favor from the dead is all I can manage today."
"Wait, what?" Hazel asked.
Piper raised her eyebrows. "Your unbelievable boyfriend called in a favor as a child of Mars. He summoned the spirits of some dead warriors, made them lead us here through . . . um, well, I'm not sure, actually. The passages of the dead? All I know is that it was very, very dark."
To their left, a section of the wall split. Two ruby eyes from a carved stone skeleton popped out and rolled across the floor.
"We'll have to shadow-travel," Hazel said.
Nico winced. "Hazel, I can barely manage that with only myself. With eight more people—"
"I'll help you." Hazel said.
"And I'll do it too," Val offered, and Nico, and probably everyone else, sent her disapproving looks. "What? I'm okay now. I think. Are my eyes still pink?"
An entire section of tiles peeled loose from the ceiling.
"Everyone, grab hands!" Nico yelled.
They made a hasty circle. The cavern collapsed, and Val felt herself dissolving into shadow.
They appeared on a hillside overlooking the River Acheron. The sun was just rising, making the water glitter and the clouds glow orange. The cool morning air smelled of honeysuckle.
Val was holding hands with Nico on her left, Annabeth on her right. They were all alive and mostly whole. The sunlight in the trees was the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen. She wanted to live in that moment — free of monsters and gods and evil spirits.
Then her friends began to stir.
Leo staggered backward. "You know . . . I think I'll sit down."
He collapsed. The others joined him. The Argo II still floated over the river a few hundred yards away. But Val felt too tired to go over there now.
They began to exchange stories. Or, at least, the others did. Val didn't speak, just held on to Nico's arm for support.
Frank explained what had happened with the ghostly legion and the army of monsters — how Nico had used the scepter of Diocletian, and how bravely Jason and Piper had fought.
"Frank is being modest," Jason said. "He controlled the entire legion. You should've seen him. Oh, by the way . . ." Jason glanced at Percy. "I resigned my office, gave Frank a field promotion to praetor. Unless you want to contest that ruling."
Percy grinned. "No argument here."
"Praetor?" Hazel stared at Frank.
He shrugged uncomfortably. "Well . . . yeah. I know it seems weird."
She tried to throw her arms around him, then winced. She settled for kissing him. "It seems perfect."
Leo clapped Frank on the shoulder. "Way to go, Zhang. Now you can order Octavian to fall on his sword."
"Tempting," Frank agreed. He turned apprehensively to Percy. "But, you guys . . . Tartarus has to be the real story. What happened down there? How did you . . .?"
Percy laced his fingers through Annabeth's.
Val glanced up at Nico, who looked over at her. She tapped onto his hand, staring holes into it.
"We'll tell you the story," Percy promised. "But not yet, okay? I'm not ready to remember that place."
"No," Annabeth agreed. "Right now . . ." She gazed toward the river and faltered. "Uh, I think our ride is coming."
Val looked up. The Argo II veered to port, its aerial oars in motion, its sails catching the wind. Festus's head glinted in the sunlight. Even from a distance, she could hear him creaking and clanking in jubilation.
"That's my boy!" Leo yelled.
As the ship got closer, Val saw Coach Hedge standing at the prow.
"About time!" the coach yelled down. He was doing his best to scowl, but his eyes gleamed as if maybe, just maybe, he was happy to see them. "What took you so long, cupcakes? You kept your visitor waiting!"
At the rail next to Coach Hedge, a dark-haired girl appeared wearing a purple cloak, her face so covered with soot and bloody scratches that Val almost didn't recognize her.
Reyna had arrived.