STEADY

"hold your breath"

     THEY'D ONLY TRAVELLED A FEW HUNDRED YARDS WHEN THEY HEARD THE VOICES.

Annabeth plodded along, half in stupor, trying to form a plan. Since she was a daughter of Athena, plans were supposed to be her speciality, but it was hard to strategize with her stomach growling and her throat baking. The fiery water of the Phlegethon may have healed them and given them strength, but it hasn't done anything for their hunger or thirst. The river wasn't about making you feel good, Ariadne guessed. It just kept you going so you could experience more excruciating pain.

Her head started to droop with exhaustion. Then Annabeth heard them—female voices having some sort of argument—and she was instantly alert.

She whispered, "Ari, down!"

She pulled her behind the nearest boulder, wedging herself so close against the riverbank that her shoes almost touched the river's fire. On the other side, on the narrow path between the river and the cliffs, voices snarled, getting louder as they approached from upstream.

Ariadne tried to steady her breathing. The voices sounded vaguely human, but that meant nothing. She assumed anything in Tartarus was their enemy. She didn't know how the monsters could have failed to spot them already. Besides, monsters could smell demigods—especially powerful ones like Ariadne, daughter of Dionysus. Annabeth doubted that hiding behind a boulder would do any good when the monsters caught their scent.

Still, as the monsters got nearer, their voices didn't change tone. Their uneven footsteps—scrap, clump, scrap, clump—didn't get any faster.

"Soon?" one of them asked in a raspy voice, as if she'd been gargling in the Phlegethon.

"Oh my gods!" said another voice. This one sounded much younger and much more human, like a teenaged mortal girl getting exasperated with her friends at the mall. For some reason, she sounded delimitar to Ariadne. "You guys are totally annoying' I told you, it's like three days from here."

There was a chorus of growling and grumbling. The creatures—maybe half a dozen, Ariadne guessed—had paused just on the other side of the boulder, but still they gave no indication that they'd caught the demigods' scent. Ariadne wondered if demigods didn't smell the same in Tartarus, or if the other scents here were so powerful they masked a demigods' aura.

"I wonder," said a third voice, gravelly and ancient like the first, "of perhaps you do not know the way, young one."

"Oh, shut your fang hole, Serephone," said the mall girl. "When's the last time you escaped to the mortal world? I was there a couple years ago. I know the way! Besides, I understand what we're facing up there. You don't have a clue!"

"The Earth Mother did not make you boss!" shrieked a fourth voice.

More hissing, scuffling and feral moans—like giant alley cats fighting. At last the one called Serephone yelled, "Enough!"

The scuffling died down.

"We will follow for now," Serephone said. "But if you do not lead us well, if we find you have lied about the summons of Gaia—"

"I don't lie!" snapped the mall girl. "Believe me, I've got good reason to get into this battle. I have enemies to devour, and you'll feast on the blood of heroes. Just leave one special morsel for me—the one named Percy Jackson."

Ariadne fought down a snarl of her own. She forgot about her fear. She wanted to jump over the boulder and slash the monsters to dust with her sword...except she knew it would jeopardize Annabeth.

"Believe me," said the mall girl. "Gaia has called us, and we're going to have so much fun. Before this war is over, mortals and demigods will tremble at the sound of my name—Kelli!"

Annabeth almost yelped aloud. She glanced at Ariadne.

Ariadne remembered Kelli. Two years ago, at Percy's freshman orientation, he and their friends Rachel Dare had been attacked by empousai disguised as cheerleaders. One of them had been Kelli. Later, the same empousa had attacked them on Daedalus's workshop. Ariadne had stabbed her in the back and sent her...here. To Tartarus.

The creatures shuffled off, their voices getting fainter. Annabeth crept to the edge of the boulder and risked a glimpse. Sure enough, five women staggered along on mismatched legs—mechanical bronze on the left; shaggy and cloven-hooved on the right/ their hair was made of fire, their skin as white as bone. Most of them wore tattered Ancient Greek dresses, except for the one in the lead, Kelli, who wore a burnt and torn blouse with a short pleated skirt...her cheerleader's outfit.

Ariadne gritted her teeth. She had faced a lot of bad monsters over the years, but she hated empousai more than most.

In addition to their nasty claws and fangs, they had a powerful ability to manipulate the Mist. They could change shape and charmspeak, trucking mortals into letting down their guard. Men were especially susceptible.

Kelli had almost killed Percy. She had manipulated Annabeth's and Ariadne's oldest friend, Luke, urging him to commit darker and darker deeds in the name of Kronos.

Ariadne rose. "They're heading for the Doors of Death," she murmured. "You know what that means?"

"Yeah," Annabeth said. "We need to follow them."

***

     PERCY HAD TAKEN ARIADNE ON SOME ROMANTIC WALKS BEFORE. This wasn't like any of them.

They followed the River Phlegethon, stumbling over the glassy black terrain, jumping crevices and hiding behind rocks whenever the vampire girls slowed in front of them.

It was tricky to stay far enough back to avoid getting spotted but close enough to keep Kelli and her comrades in view through the dark hazy air. The heat from the river baked Ariadne's skin. Every breath was like inhaling sulphur-scented fiberglass. When they needed a drink, they best they could do was sip some refreshing liquid fire.

At least Annabeth's ankle seemed to have healed. She was hardly limping at all. Her various cuts and scrapes had faded. She'd tied her blonde hair back with a strip of denim torn from her jeans, and in the fiery light of the river her grey eyes flickered.

With what, Ariadne couldn't tell.

At least Ariadne wasn't alone.

Physically, she felt better too, though her clothes looked like she'd been through a hurricane of broken glass. He was thirsty, hungry and losing her mind (though she wasn't going to tell Annabeth that), but she'd shaken off the hopeless cold of the River Cocytus. And as nasty as the firewater tasted it seemed to keep her going.

Time was impossible to judge. They trudged along, following the river as it cut through the harsh landscape. Fortunately the empousai weren't exactly speed walkers. They shuffled on their mismatched bronze and donkey legs, hissing and fighting with each other, apparently in no hurry to reach the Doors of Death.

Once, the demons sped up in excitement and swarmed something that looked like a beached carcass on the riverbank. Ariadne couldn't tell what it was—a fallen monster? An animal of some kind? The empousai attacked it with relish.

When the demons moved on, Ariadne and Annabeth reached the spot and found nothing left except for a few splintered bones and glistening stains drying in the heat of the river.

"Come on." She lead Annabeth gently away from the scene. "We don't want to lose them."

The Three Fates were spinning this tangled web so thickly she wasn't sure she would escape. From this hopeless situation to any future ones she was sure her mind was gonna break from the stress.

After a few more miles, the empousai disappeared over a ridge. When Ariadne and Percy caught up, they found themselves at the edge of another massive cliff. The River Phlegethon spilled over the side in jagged tiers of fiery waterfalls. The demon ladies were picking their way down the cliff, jumping from ledge to ledge like mountain goats.

Ariadne's heart crept into her throat. Even if they reached the bottom of the cliff alive, they didn't have much to look forward to. The landscape below them was a bleak ash-grey plain bristling with black trees, like insect hair. The ground was picked with blisters. Every once in a while a bubble would see and burst, disgorging a monster like a larva from an egg.

All the newly formed monsters were crawling and hobbling in the same direction—towards a bank of black fog that swallowed the horizon like a storm front. The Phlegethon flowed in the same direction until about halfway across the plain, where it met another river of black water—maybe the Cocytus? The two floods combined in a steaming, boiling cataract and flower on as one towards the black fog.

It could be hiding anything—an ocean, a bottomless pit, an army of monsters. She was better on land than drowning. But if the Doors of Death were in that direction it was their only chance to get home.

Ariadne peered over the edge of the cliff.

"Wish we could fly," she muttered.

Annabeth rubbed her arms. "Remember Luke's winged shoes? I wonder if they're still down here somewhere."

Ariadne remembered. Those shoes had been cursed to drag their wearer into Tartarus. They'd almost take Grover. "Climbing it is."

She couldn't see the empousai below them anymore. They'd disappeared behind one of the ridges but that didn't matter. It was clear where she and Annabeth needed to go. Like all the maggot monsters crawling over the plains of Tartarus, they should head towards the dark horizon. Ariadne was just brimming with enthusiasm for that.

***

CONCENTRATION WAS KEY. As they started down the cliff, Ariadne focused on the challenges at hand: keep her footing, avoiding rockslides that would alert the empousai to their presence and of course making sure she and Annabeth didn't plummet to their deaths.

About halfway down the precipice, Annabeth said, "Stop, okay? Just a quick break."

Her legs wobbled so badly, the Daughter of Dionysus cursed herself for not calling a rest earlier.

They sat together on a ledge next to a roaring fiery waterfall. Ariadne was using bits that was left of her jacket to wrap around Annabeth's ankle, who was shaking from exhaustion.

Ariadne wasn't much better. Her stomach felt like it had thrown itself out of her body. If they came across anymore monster carcasses, she was afraid she might pull an empousa and try to devour it.

At least she had Annabeth. They would find a way out of Tartarus. They had to. She didn't think much of The Fates and prophecies, but she didn't believe in one thing: Annabeth was going to make it out alive.

"Things could be worse," Annabeth ventured.

"Yeah?" Ariadne tried to sound upbeat. "Like Chiron's archery practice when none of us can shoot?"

Annabeth leaned against her. Her hair smelled of smoke, as if they were at a campfire at Camp Half-Blood.

"We could've fallen into the River Lethe," she said. "Lost all our memories."

Ariadne glowered. "Some I wouldn't mind losing."

Her skin crawled thinking of Percy's amnesia. A few years before that he told her how he'd fought a Titan on the banks of the Lethe, near Hades's palace. He'd blasted the Titan with water from that river and completely wiped his memory clean.

"What was the Titan's name?" Annabeth asked.

"Bob," Ariadne said.

Her boyfriend was terrible at quick retorts at times.

Annabeth managed a weak laugh. "Bob the Titan."

Ariadne gazed across the ashen plains. The other Titans were supposed to be here in Tartarus—maybe bound in chains, or roaming aimlessly, or hiding in some dark crevices. Ariadne and her Allie's had destroyed the worst Titan, Kronos, but even his remains might be down here somewhere—a billion angry Titan particles floating through the blood-colored clouds or lurking in that dark fog.

"We should keep moving," Ariadne advised. "You want some more fire to drink?"

"Ugh. I'll pass."

They struggled to their feet. The rest of the cliff looked impossible to descend—nothing more than a crosshatching of tiny ledges—but they kept climbing down.

Ariadne's body went on autopilot. Her fingers cramped. She felt blisters popping up on her ankles. She got shaky from hunger.

A billion years later, with a dozen new blisters on his feet, Ariadne reached the bottom. She helped Annabeth down, and they collapsed on the ground.

Ahead of them stretched miles of wasteland, bubbling with monstrous larvae and big insect-hair trees. To their right, the Phlegethon split into branches that etched the plain, widening into a delta of smoke and fire. To the north, along the main rout of the river, the ground was riddled with cave entrances. Here and there, spires of rock jutted up like exclamation points.

Under Ariadne's hand, the soil felt alarmingly warm and smooth. She tried to grab a handful, then realized that, under a thin layer of dirt and debris, the ground was a single vast membrane...like skin.

She didn't mention it to Annabeth, but she started to feel like something was watching them—something vast and malevolent. She couldn't zero in on it, because the presence was all around them. Watching was the wrong word, too. That implied eyes, and this thing was simply aware of them. The ridges above them now looked less like steps and more like rows of massive teeth. The spires of rock looked like broken ribs. And if the ground was skin...

Annabeth stood, wiping soot from her face. She gazed toward the darkness on the horizon. "We're going to be completely exposed, crossing this plain."

About a hundred yards ahead of them, a blister burst on the ground. A monster clawed it's way out...a glistening telkhine with slick fur, a seal-like body and stunted human limbs. It managed to crawl a few yards before something shot out of the nearest cave, so fast that Ariadne could only register a dark green reptilian head. The monster snatched the squealing telkhine in its jaws and dragged it into the darkness.

Reborn in Tartarus for two seconds, only to be eaten.

Ariadne swallowed down the sour taste of firewater. "We're literally in hell—only goes down from here."

Annabeth helped her to her feet. She took one last look at the cliffs, but there was no going back.

They started walking, trying to avoid the cave entrances, sticking close to the bank of the river. They were just skirting one of the spires when a glint of movement caught Ariadne's eye—something farting between the rocks to their right.

A monster following them? Or maybe it was just a random baddie, heading for the Doors of Death.

Suddenly she remembered why they'd started following this route, and she froze in her tracks.

"The empousai. We're in an open plain." She grabbed Annabeth's arm. "Where are they?"

Annabeth scanned a three-sixth, her grey eyes bright with alarm.

Too late, Ariadne drew her sword.

The empousai emerged from the rocks all around them—five of them forming a ring. A perfect trap.

Kelli limped forward on her mismatched legs. Her fiery hair burned across her shoulders like a miniature Phlegethon waterfall. Her tattered cheerleader outfit was splattered with rusty-brown stains, and Ariadne was pretty sure they were ketchup. She fixed them with her glowing red eyes and bared her fangs.

"Ariadne Phoenix," she cooed. "How awesome! I get to kill your and return to the mortal world to kill Percy Jackson, too!"

Ariadne recalled how dangerous Kelli had been the last time they'd fought in the Labyrinth. Despite those mismatched legs, she could move fast when she wanted to. She'd dodged Percy's word strikes and would have eaten his face if Ariadne hadn't stabbed her from behind.

Now she had four friends with her.

"And your friend Annabeth is with you!" Kelli hissed with laughter.

Ariadne tried to think. She and Annabeth stood shoulder to shoulder as they had many times before, ready to fight. But neither of them was in good shape for battle. Annabeth was empty handed. Ariadne couldn't keep track of her, especially on a bad ankle and combat five empousai.

Briefly Ariadne considered calling for Mrs O'Leary, her hellhound friend who could shadow-travel. Even if she heard her, could she make it into Tartarus? This was where monsters went when they died. Calling her here might kill her, or turn her back to her natural state as a fierce monster. No...she couldn't do that to her dog.

So, no help. Fighting was a long shot.

That left Annabeth's favorite tactics: trickery, talk, delay.

"Wondering why we're in Tartarus?" Ariadne asked.

Kelli snickered. "Not really. I just want to kill you."

That would've been it, but Annabeth chimed in.

"Too bad," she said. "Because you have no idea what's going on in the mortal world."

The other empousai circled, watching Kelli for a cue to attack, but the ex-cheerleader only snarled, crouching out of reach of Ariadne's sword.

"We know enough," Kelli said. "Gaia has spoken."

"You're heading towards a major defeat." Annabeth sounded confident. She glanced at the other empousai, one by one, then pointed accusingly at Kelli. "This one claims she's leading you to victory. She's lying. The last time she was in the mortal world, Kelli was in charge of keeping our friend Luke Castellan faithful to Kronos. On the end, Luke rejected him. He gave his life to expel Kronos. The Titans lost because Kelli failed. Now Kelli wants to lead you to another disaster."

The other empousai muttered and shifted uneasily.

"Enough!" Kelli's fingernails green into long black talons. She glared at Annabeth as if imagining her sliced into small pieces.

Ariadne was sure Kelli and Luke did some things. Bringing his name up was a trigger most like.

"The girl lies," Kelli said. "So the Titans lost. Fine! That was part of the plan to wake Gaia! Now the Earth Mother and her giants will destroy the mortal world, and we will totally feed on demigods!"

The other vampires gnashes their teeth in a frenzy of excitement.

Ariadne prepared to attack, but Annabeth had another idea.

"The demigods have United!" Annabeth yelled. "You'd better think twice before you attack is. Romans and Greeks will fight together. You don't stand a chance!"

The empousai backed up nervously, hissing, "Romani."

"Yeah, Romani." Ariadne swung her sword in a threat of dominance. "You mix Greek and Roman, and you know what you get? You get BAM!"

She stomped her foot, and the empousai scrambled back. One fell off the boulder where she'd been perched.

So maybe she had been around Leo and Percy a little too much, it came in handy.

"Bold talk," Kelli said, "for two demigods lost in Tartarus. Lower your sword, Ariadne Phoenix, and I'll kill you quickly. Believe me, there are worse ways to die down here."

Ariadne cocked her head to the right, lazily pointing her swords at the recovered hoard of vampires. "Wait. Aren't empousai servants of Hecate?"

Kelli curled her lip. "So?"

"So Hecate is on our side now," Ariadne said. "She has a cabin at Camp Half-Blood. Some of her demigod children are our friends. If you fight us, she'll be angry."

Annabeth applauded and tackled her friend in her mind.

One of the other empousai growled. "Is this true, Kelli? Has our mistress made peace with Olympus?"

"Shut up, Serephone!" Kelli screeched. "Gods, you're annoying!"

"I will not cross the Dark Lady."

Annabeth took the opening. "You'd all be better following Serephone. She's older and wiser."

"Yes!" Serephone shrieked. "Follow me!"

Kelli struck so fast, Ariadne almost dragged Annabeth to the ground. Fortunately, she didn't attack them. Kelli lashed out at Serephone. For half a second, the two demons were a blur of slashing claws and fangs.

Then it was over. Kelli stood triumphant over a pile of dust. From her claws hung the tattered remains of Serephone's dress.

"Any more issues?" Kelli snapped at her sisters. "Hecate is the goddess of the Mist! Her ways are mysterious. Who knows which side she truly favors? She is also the goddess of crossroads, and she expects us make our own choices. I choose path that will bring us demigod blood! I choose Gaia!"

Her friends hissed in approval.

Annabeth glanced at Ariadne, and she saw she was out of ideas. She'd done what she could. She'd hit Kelli to eliminate one of her own. Now there was nothing left but to fight.

"For two years i churned in the void," Kelli said. "Do you know how completely annoying it is to be vaporized, Ariadne Phoenix? Slowly reforming, fully conscious, in searing pain for months and years as your body regrows, then finally breaking the crush of this hellish place and clawing your way back to daylight? All because some little girl stabbed you in the back?"

Her baleful eyes held amethyst. "I wonder what happens if a demigod is killed in Tartarus. I doubt it's ever happened before. Let's find out."

Ariadne slashed her sword in a huge arc. She cut one of the demons in half, but Kelli dodged and charged for a vulnerable Annabeth. The other two empousai launched themselves at Percy. One grabbed her sword arm because she was sluggish. Her friend jumped on the demigod's back.

Ariadne tried to ignore them and staggered towards Annabeth, determined to go down defending her if she had to, but Annabeth was doing pretty well. She tumbled to one side, evading Kelli's claws, and came up with a rock in her hand, which she smacked into Kelli's nose.

Kelli wailed. Annabeth scooped up gravel and flung it in the empousa's eyes.

Meanwhile Ariadne thrashed from side to side, trying to thrown off his empousa hitch-hiker, but her claws sank deeper into her shoulders. The second empousa held her arm, preventing her from using her sword.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Kelli lunge, raking her talons across Annabeth's arm. Annabeth screamed and fell.

Ariadne grew violent.

She threw herself backwards onto the hard soil as powerful as she could. The empousa slammed into the dust and lost grip on the winded Ariadne, who felt searing pain in her neck as the vampire on her arm sunk its teeth into her neck.

Ariadne's sword arm was bit, her sword clattered to the ground.

Kelli loomed over Annabeth, savoring her moment of triumph. The other two empousa circled a near-death Ariadne, their mouths slavering, ready for another taste.

Then a shadow fell across Ariadne. A deep war cry bellowed from somewhere above, echoing across the plains of Tartarus, and a Titan dropped onto the battlefield.

That was all she could gather before the exhaustion hit her body, and she passed out into blackness.

authors note:

I know.

It's been over half a year. And I'm terribly sorry

Last time I updated I believe it was back in October. So around when things started picking up in stress for me

1. I got my license in November so I'll get my unrestricted in May.
2. I'm officially 17 as of February
3. A year at kroger thanks to the day of April 1

Back in November I started writing again. I stockpiled about ten chapters. At that point, I was going to publish them every few days, but then, my Wattpad account crashed.

I'm doing so, it deleted all my chapters that were not previously published. Yeah I know. I did contact support but there was nothing I could do, so I lost motivation and gave the cold shoulder towards Ariadne and her story.

It took long to get back into it, as I reread my own books and got more into the fandom again, and realized I want to finish thins series before I graduate high school in June 2023.

In this time, I'm sure I've lost plenty of readers and supporters, I get that. Waiting and waiting with no comments is exhausting, but my mental health tanked for a while and I'm working on it.

So to the people who stayed and kept reading, I know you.

To the ones who may come back in years or months, I love you.

To those who left this behind and moved on, just know I love you as well.

Thank you all so far for the messages and worries and wanting more, as well as new readers who I've gotten comments from every day.

I love you all.

Please let me know anything, I'm trying to respond to all PMs as soon as I can!

Your author,

Jasmine