THEY SAILED OUT of the Colosseum and veered south over the rooftops of Rome.
All around the Piazza del Colosseo, traffic had come to a stand still. A crowd of mortals had gathered, probably wondering about the strange lights and sounds that had come from the ruins. As far as Camilla could see, none of the giants' spectacular plans for destruction had come off successfully. The city looked the same as before. No one seemed to notice the huge Greek trireme rising into the sky.
The demigods gathered around the helm. With a bit of nectar, the worst of Camilla's exhaustion and pain faded. Off to the side, Jason bandaged Piper's sprained shoulder. Hazel sat at the stern, feeding Nico ambrosia. The son of Hades could barely lift his head. His voice was so quiet, Hazel had to lean in whenever he spoke.
Frank and Leo recounted what had happened in the room with the Archimedes spheres, and the visions Gaea had shown them in the bronze mirror. They quickly decided that their best lead for finding Annabeth was the cryptic advice Bacchus had provided: the Emmanuel Building, whatever that was. Frank started typing at the helm's computer while Leo tapped furiously at his controls, muttering, "Emmanuel Building. Emmanuel Building." Coach Hedge tried to help by wrestling with an upside-down street map of Rome.
Percy knelt next to Jason and Piper, Camilla right behind. "How's the shoulder?"
Piper smiled. "It'll heal. You three did great."
"Gotta admit, I like you both better when you're not trying to kill each other," Camilla said.
Jason elbowed Percy. "We do work pretty well together."
"Better than jousting in a Kansas cornfield," Percy agreed.
"There it is!" Leo cried, pointing to his monitor. "Frank, you're amazing! I'm setting course."
Frank hunched his shoulders. "I just read the name off the screen. Some Chinese tourist marked it on Google Maps."
Leo grinned at the others. "He reads Chinese."
"Just a tiny bit," Frank said.
"How cool is that?"
"Guys," Hazel broke in. "I hate to interrupt your admiration session, but you should hear this."
She helped Nico to his feet. He'd always been pale, but now his skin looked like powdered milk. Part of Camilla wanted to wrap him in a thick blanket and send him straight to bed, though she doubted he'd appreciate the gesture.
"Thank you," Nico rasped. His eyes darted nervously around the group. "I'd given up hope."
"You knew about the two camps all along," Percy said. "You could have told me who I was the first day I arrived at Camp Jupiter, but you didn't."
Nico slumped against the helm. "Percy, I'm sorry. I discovered Camp Jupiter last year. My dad led me there, though I wasn't sure why. He told me the gods had kept the camps separate for centuries and that I couldn't tell anyone. The time wasn't right. But he said it would be important for me to know..." He doubled over in a fit of coughing.
Hazel held his shoulders until he could stand again.
"I—I thought Dad meant because of Hazel," Nico continued. "I'd need a safe place to take her. But now... I think he wanted me to know about both camps so I'd understand how important your quest was, and so I'd search for the Doors of Death."
The air turned electric—literally, like Jason had started throwing off sparks.
"Did you find the Doors?" Percy asked.
Nico nodded. "I was a fool. I thought I could go anywhere in the Underworld, but I walked right into Gaea's trap. I might as well have tried running from a black hole."
"Um..." Frank chewed his lip. "What kind of black hole are you talking about?"
Nico started to speak, but whatever he needed to say must have been too terrifying. He turned to Hazel.
She put her hand on her brother's arm. "Nico told me that the Doors of Death have two sides—one in the mortal world, one in the Underworld. The mortal side of the portal is in Greece. It's heavily guarded by Gaea's forces. That's where they brought Nico back into the upper world. Then they transported him to Rome."
Piper must've been nervous, because her cornucopia spit out a cheeseburger. "Where exactly in Greece is this doorway?"
Nico took a rattling breath. "The House of Hades. It's an underground temple in Epirus. I can mark it on a map, but—but the mortal side of the portal isn't the problem. In the Underworld, the Doors of Death are in... in..."
He couldn't seem to say it out loud, but Percy caught on a moment later.
"Tartarus," he guessed, the name alone sending a cold chill down Camilla's spine. "The deepest part of the Underworld."
Nico nodded. "They pulled me into the pit, Percy. The things I saw down there..." His voice broke.
Hazel pursed her lips. "No mortal has ever been to Tartarus," she explained. "At least, no one has ever gone in and returned alive. It's the maximum-security prison of Hades, where the old Titans and the other enemies of the gods are bound. It's where all monsters go when they die on the earth. It's... well, no one knows exactly what it's like."
Her eyes drifted to her brother. The rest of her thought didn't need to be spoken: No one except Nico.
Hazel handed him his black sword.
Nico leaned on it like it was an old man's cane. "Now I understand why Hades hasn't been able to close the doors," he said. "Even the gods don't go into Tartarus. Even the god of death, Thanatos himself, wouldn't go near that place."
Leo glanced over from the wheel. "So let me guess. We'll have to go there."
Nico shook his head. "It's impossible. I'm the son of Hades, and even I barely survived. Gaea's forces overwhelmed me instantly. They're so powerful down there... no demigod would stand a chance. I almost went insane."
Nico's eyes looked like shattered glass. Camilla wondered sadly if something inside him had broken permanently.
"Then we'll sail for Epirus," Percy said. "We'll just close the gates on this side."
"I wish it were that easy," Nico said. "The doors would have to be controlled on both sides to be closed. It's like a double seal. Maybe, just maybe, all seven of you working together could defeat Gaea's forces on the mortal side, at the House of Hades. But unless you had a team fighting simultaneously on the Tartarus side, a team powerful enough to defeat a legion of monsters in their home territory—"
"There has to be a way," Camilla said.
Nobody volunteered any brilliant ideas.
Camilla thought her stomach was sinking. Then she realized the entire ship was descending toward a big building like a palace.
"We'll figure out the Tartarus problem later," Percy said. "Is that the Emmanuel Building?"
Leo nodded. "Bacchus said something about the parking lot in back? Well, there it is. What now?"
"We have to get her out," Percy said.
"Well, yeah," Leo agreed. "But, uh..."
He looked like he wanted to say, What if we're too late?
Wisely, he changed tack. "There's a parking lot in the way."
Percy looked at Coach Hedge. "Bacchus said something about breaking through. Coach, you still have ammo for those ballistae?"
The satyr grinned like a wild goat. "I thought you'd never ask."
◈
Camilla could have cried with relief at the sight of Annabeth, injured but alive, standing in the chaos the Argo II's ballista had caused. Percy was the first off the ship, reaching her in seconds.
The rest of the crew gathered around them.
"Your leg." Piper knelt next to Annabeth and examined the Bubble Wrap cast. "Oh, Annabeth, what happened?"
She started to explain. With every word that came out of her mouth, Camilla found herself more and more awed by the daughter of Athena. When she finished, Camilla's amazement was mirrored on everyone else's faces.
"Gods of Olympus," Jason said. "You did all that alone. With a broken ankle."
"Well... some of it with a broken ankle," Annabeth corrected.
Percy grinned. "You made Arachne weave her own trap? I knew you were good, but Holy Hera—Annabeth, you did it. Generations of Athena kids tried and failed. You found the Athena Parthenos!"
Everyone gazed up at the looming statue.
"What do we do with her?" Frank asked. "She's huge."
"We'll have to take her with us to Greece," Annabeth said "The statue is powerful. Something about it will help us stop the giants."
"The giants' bane stands gold and pale," Hazel quoted. "Won through pain from a woven jail." She looked at Annabeth with admiration. "It was Arachne's jail. You tricked her into weaving it."
Leo raised his hands. He made a finger picture frame around the Athena Parthenos like he was taking measurements. "Well, it might take some rearranging, but I think we can fit her through the bay doors in the stable. If she sticks out the end, I might have to wrap a flag around her feet or something."
Camilla barely suppressed a half-hysterical laugh, imagining the Athena Parthenos jutting from their trireme with a sign across her pedestal that read: WIDE LOAD.
"What about you guys?" Annabeth asked. "What happened with the giants?"
Percy told her about rescuing Nico, the appearance of Bacchus, and the fight with the twins in the Colosseum. Nico didn't say much. The poor guy looked like he'd been wandering through a wasteland for six weeks. Percy explained what Nico had found out about the Doors of Death, and how they had to be closed on both sides.
Even with sunlight streaming in from above, Percy's news made the cavern seem dark again.
"So the mortal side is in Epirus," Annabeth said. "At least that's somewhere we can reach."
Nico grimaced. "But the other side is the problem. Tartarus."
The word seemed to echo strangely throughout the chamber. The pit behind them exhaled a cold blast of air.
Camilla felt an ice-cold wave of fear crash over her. She wasn't sure how she knew it, but she was certain—beneath their feet, Tartarus laid.
As if realizing the same thing, Percy guided Annabeth farther away from the edge of the pit.
Camilla looked down, spotting a trail of spider silk connected to Annabeth's arms and legs, almost like a bridal train. She summoned Hurricane, carefully cutting the silk free.
Annabeth smiled gratefully at her, opening her mouth to say something, but she didn't get a chance.
The chamber groaned. The Athena Parthenos tilted to one side. Its head caught on one of Arachne's support cables, but the marble foundation under the pedestal was crumbling fast.
"Secure it!" Annabeth cried.
Her friends understood immediately.
"Zhang!" Leo yelled. "Get me to the helm, quick! Coach is up there alone."
"Take Annabeth!" Percy yelled. "Get the statue secure!"
Annabeth didn't look happy about it, but she nodded. Frank transformed into a giant eagle, scooping Annabeth and Leo into his talons and soaring toward the deck of the ship, out of harm's way.
"Get Piper back to the ship," Camilla told Jason, wary of the daughter of Aphrodite's injury.
Jason looked warily at the floor but didn't protest. He wrapped his arm around Piper. "Back for you guys in a sec." He summoned the wind and shot into the air.
"This floor won't last!" Hazel warned. "The rest of us should get to the ladder."
Plumes of dust and cobwebs blasted from holes in the floor. The spider's silk support cables trembled like massive guitar strings and began to snap. Hazel lunged for the bottom of the rope ladder and gestured for Nico to follow, but Nico was in no condition to sprint.
"Help him!" Camilla yelled at Percy. "He won't make it back on his own!"
Percy wrapped an arm around Nico's waist, practically dragging him toward the rope ladder. Nico looked like he wanted to fight, but he seemed to realize it was either letting Percy help him or falling back into Tartarus a second time, so he gave in with an angry scowl.
Camilla brought up the rear, watching her step. The last thing she wanted to do was trip on the way to the ship.
She was halfway there when the floor shook again. At her feet, a fissure formed. Behind her, the pit began to widen, like a monster opening its mouth. The stone floor crumbled around the edges of the pit, too fast to react.
Too fast for Camilla to get out of the way.
Camilla looked up. She saw grappling lines shoot from the Argo II and wrap around the statue. One lassoed Athena's neck like a noose. Annabeth shouted orders as Leo manned the helm, ready to get them out of there.
"The floor's falling apart!" she screamed. "Get to the ladder! Hurry!"
If only she could follow her own advice.
Faster than she could run, the crumbling floor caught up to her.
The next step she tried to take, there was nothing beneath her feet.
She fell.
She was only free-falling for a moment before another body tackled her mid-air, arms wrapping securely around her waist. Camilla almost gasped with relief, clutching Jason tightly as they hovered two feet into the pit.
Then, like gravity had just been kicked up a thousand notches, they plummeted again.
Jason shouted with startled surprise, hooking one arm around her waist and using the other to grapple with the rocky walls inside of the cavern. He managed to get a handhold, but not before they'd descended another ten feet into the pit.
"What's going on?" Jason asked, his face tight with strain. "I can't—I can't fly."
Dread settled in the bottom of Camilla's stomach. She remembered how Nico had described it just a few minutes ago—a black hole.
"It's the pit," she whispered. "It's pulling us in."
"Camilla! Jason!" Percy's voice echoed above them. Camilla saw his face over the edge, but they were too far down for him to help. "Jason, just—just hold on, we're going to get you guys out!"
At the worst possible moment, three different gods' warnings played in her head like songs layered one on top of the other, their melodies vastly different but the message the same.
When you find that purpose you're so desperate for, it'll be the most painful thing you ever go through, spoken with her mother's voice.
Such dark days ahead, spoken like an eager watcher awaiting a tragedy.
Your voyage may be a little harder than you expect, daughter of Neptune, spoken not even an hour before.
She'd been doomed from the start.
And she was dragging Jason down with her.
"Jason," she whispered. "If you let me go, you might be able—"
"Not a chance," Jason said, shaking his head. As if to emphasize his point, he tightened his arm around her waist, holding her as close to him as humanly possible. "I'm not letting you fall alone."
"Jason, please," she whispered.
He shook his head again. "You and me," he promised. "Just like old times."
"Just hold on, we're going to get you out!" Hazel's face joined Percy's at the edge of the cavern, her voice shrill with panic. Camilla saw Nico next to her, his expression haunted. "Just hold on!"
Camilla swallowed hard against the lump forming in her throat. She didn't want to make Percy or Hazel feel worse, seeing her cry. She had to be strong, even if only for another few moments.
If this was her fate, she'd face it as bravely as she could.
"The other side!" she shouted up at Percy, Hazel, and Nico. "We'll meet you there!"
"Camilla!" Percy shouted.
"It's how it has to be!" she yelled, hoping it would lessen the guilt, dull the pain of the loss. She hoped he would blame the Fates instead of himself. "We'll close the Doors on both sides! We'll see you there!"
As Percy's voice echoed in the cavern, Camilla looked up at Jason. She tried to memorize the way the dim sunlight made his eyes shine.
Jason pressed his lips to her forehead, and she could just barely hear the thudding of his heartbeat, pounding in time with her own.
"Together," he whispered.
"Together," she agreed.
They both looked back up, one last time. Camilla saw sunlight far, far above—maybe the last sunlight she would ever see.
Then Jason let go of his handhold, and together, he and Camilla fell into endless darkness.
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...merry christmas y'all