9.     THEODOSIA

Theo literally stumbled over the second Titan.

After entering the storm front, they plodded on for what seemed like hours, relying on the light of Percy's Celestial bronze blade. Theo couldn't seem to bring herself to brighten up enough to emit any sort of sunlight, which she told Percy was just the effect of Tartarus—but she knew, on the inside, that she just couldn't stop thinking about her nightmare. Every time she tried to lighten up—literally—she remembered her aunt's berating words, and she flickered out like a dying lightbulb.

She wasn't used to the darkness. She could only see about five feet in front of her. In a bone-chilling way, the Dark Lands reminded her of Daedalus's Labyrinth—sheaths of fog that came in thick curls and blinded Theo for yards at a time. Except here in Tartarus, the fog was made of ink.

Rocks loomed out of nowhere. Pits appeared at their feet, and Theo barely avoided falling in. Monstrous roars echoed in the gloom, but Theo couldn't tell where they came from. All she could be certain of was that the terrain was still sloping down.

Down seemed to be the only direction allowed in Tartarus. If Theo backtracked even a step, she felt tired and heavy, as if gravity were increasing to discourage her. Assuming that the entire pit was the body of Tartarus, Theo had a nasty feeling they were marching straight down his throat.

She was so preoccupied with that thought she didn't notice the ledge until it was too late.

Percy yelled, "Whoa!" He grabbed for her arm, but she was already falling.

Fortunately, it was only a shallow depression. Most of it was filled with a monster blister. She had a soft landing on a warm bouncy surface and was feeling lucky—until she opened her eyes and found herself staring through a glowing gold membrane at another, much larger face.

She screamed and flailed, toppling sideways off the mound. Her heart did a hundred jumping jacks.

Percy helped her to her feet. "You okay?"

She didn't trust herself to answer. If she opened her mouth, she might scream again, and that would be undignified. She wasn't some damsel in distress—she couldn't just wail and wait for Percy to help her. They had to have each other's backs.

But gods of Olympus... curled in the membrane bubble in front of her was a fully formed Titan in golden armor, his skin the color of polished pennies. His eyes were closed, but he scowled so deeply he appeared to be on the verge of a bloodcurdling war cry. Even through the blister, Theo could feel the heat radiating from his body.

"Hyperion," Percy said. "I hate that guy."

Theo's shoulder suddenly ached from an old wound. During the Battle of Manhattan, Percy had fought this Titan at the Reservoir—water against fire. It had been the first time Percy had summoned a hurricane—which wasn't something Theo would ever forget. "I thought Grover turned this guy into a maple tree."

"Yeah," Percy agreed. "Maybe the maple tree died, and he wound up back here?"

Theo remembered how Hyperion had summoned fiery explosions and how many satyrs and nymphs he'd destroyed before Percy and Grover stopped him. She was about to suggest that they burst Hyperion's bubble before he woke up. He looked ready to pop out at any moment and start charbroiling everything in his path.

Then she glanced at Bob. The silvery Titan was studying Hyperion with a frown of concentration—maybe recognition. Their faces looked so much alike...

Suddenly Theo bit back a curse. Of course they looked alike. Hyperion was his brother. Hyperion was the Titan lord of the east. Iapetus, Bob, was the lord of the west. Take away Bob's broom and his janitor's clothes, put him in armor and cut his hair, and Iapetus would have been almost indistinguishable from Hyperion.

"Bob," she said, "we should go."

"Gold, not silver," Bob murmured. "But he looks like me."

"Bob," Percy said. "Hey, buddy, over here."

The Titan reluctantly turned.

"Am I your friend?" Percy asked.

"Yes." Bob sounded dangerously uncertain. "We are friends."

"You know that some monsters are good," Percy said. "And some are bad."

"Hmm," Bob said. "Like... the pretty ghost ladies who serve Persephone are good. Exploding zombies are bad."

"Right," Percy said. "And some mortals are good, and some are bad. Well, the same thing is true for Titans."

"Titans..." Bob loomed over them, glowering. Theo was pretty sure her boyfriend had just made a big mistake. Her hand inched back towards her arrow quiver.

"That's what you are," Percy said calmly. "Bob the Titan. You're good. You're awesome, in fact. But some Titans are not. This guy here, Hyperion, is full-on bad. He tried to kill me.. tried to kill a lot of people."

Bob blinked his silver eyes. "But he looks... his face is so—"

"He looks like you," Percy agreed. "He's a Titan, like you. But he's not good like you are."

"Bob is good." His fingers tightened on his broom handle. "Yes. There is always at least one good one—monsters, Titans, giants."

"Uh..." Percy grimaced. "Well, I'm not sure about the giants."

"Oh, yes." Bob nodded earnestly.

Theo sensed they'd already been in this place too long. Their pursuers would be closing in. They didn't have time to waste on a half-dead Titan.

In the blink of an eye, her arrow swept into action. She hadn't even bothered to nock it and take aim—instead she used the arrowhead as a spear, digging the tip deep into the monstrous blister, which burst in a geyser of hot golden mud.

Theo wiped the Titan sludge out of her eyes, breathing hard. Where Hyperion had been, there was nothing but a smoking crater.

"Hyperion is a bad Titan," Bob announced, his expression grim. Theo couldn't tell what he thought of her little stunt. "Good that Theo friend killed him. Now... he can't hurt us. He will have to re-form somewhere else in Tartarus. Hopefully it will take a long time."

The Titan's eyes seemed brighter than usual, as if he were about to cry quicksilver. Theo's gut twisted with guilt—had she acted too quickly?

"That's right, Bob," said Percy. He nodded to Theo. "Thanks."

But Theo, still breathing heavily from the effort it'd exerted to demolish the Titan, narrowed her eyes in suspicion. How was Percy keeping his cool? The way he talked to Bob left Theo awestruck... and maybe a little uneasy, too. If Percy had let Bob chatter on any longer about good and bad, evil monsters versus good ones, then Theo was worried for how much Percy trusted the Titan. If he'd been manipulating Bob into stalling.... well, then, Theo was stunned that Percy could be so calculating.

He met her eyes, but she couldn't read his expression. That bothered her, too.

"We'd better keep going," he said. He sounded the way Theo had only heard him sound once before: When he'd suspected a traitor on Kronos's side of the Titan war to be manipulating Theo into working for the bad guys. It was a low tone, one that made the hairs on Theo's arms stand on edge.

She and Percy followed Bob, the golden mud flecks from Hyperion's burst bubble glowing on his janitor's uniform.

After a while, Theo's feet felt like Titan mush. But at least they weren't broken. She marched along, following Bob, listening to the monotonous slosh of liquid in his cleaning bottle.

Stay alert, she told herself, but it was hard. Her thoughts were as numb as her legs. From time to time, Percy took her hand or made an encouraging comment, but she could tell the dark landscape was getting to him as well. His eyes had a dull sheen—like his spirit was being slowly extinguished.

He fell into Tartarus to be with you, said a voice in her head. If he dies, it will be your fault.

"Stop it," she whispered, squeezing her eyes shut.

Percy frowned. "What?"

"No, not you." She tried for a reassuring smile, but she couldn't quite muster one. "Talking to myself. This place... it's messing with my mind. Don't worry about it."

The worry lines deepened around Percy's sea-green eyes. "Hey, Bob, where exactly are we heading?"

"The lady," Bob said. "Death Mist."

Theo fought down blazing irritation. "But what does that mean? Who is this lady?"

"Naming her?" Bob glanced back. "Not a good idea."

Theo sighed. Unfortunately, the Titan was right. Names had power, and speaking them here in Tartarus was probably very dangerous, and something told Theo they were already pushing their luck.

"Can you at least tell us how far?" she asked.

"I do not know," Bob admitted. "I can only feel it. We wait for the darkness to get darker. Then we go sideways."

"Sideways," Theo muttered, rolling her eyes. "Naturally."

She was tempted to ask for a rest, but she didn't want to stop. Not here in this cold, dark place. The black fog seeped into her body, turning her bones into moist Styrofoam. And Percy seemed like he was doing alright. If Percy was fine, then so was Theo.

She wondered if her message would get to Rachel Dare. If Rachel could somehow carry the news to Reyna without getting killed in the process, and then to have Reyna believe her on top of that...

A ridiculous hope, said the voice in her head. You have only put Rachel in danger. Even if she finds the Romans, why should Reyna trust you after all that has happened?

Theo was tempted to shout back at the voice, but she resisted. Even if she were going crazy, she didn't want to look like she was going crazy.

She desperately needed something to lift her spirits. A drink of actual water. A warm bed. The sun. Gods, she missed the sun.

Suddenly Bob stopped. He raised his hand: Wait.

"What?" Percy whispered.

"Shh," Bob warned. "Ahead. Something moves."

Theo didn't have to strain her ears as much as Percy seemed to. From somewhere in the fog came a deep thrumming noise, like the idling engine of a large construction vehicle. She could feel the vibrations through her shoes.

"We will surround it," Bob whispered. "Each of you, take a flank."

Theo wished she had her dagger for close-combat, but her bow had never failed her before. (Well, except for the entire time it hadn't shot a single arrow for her over a months-long hiatus.) She readied the bow and crept to the left. Percy went right, his sword ready.

Bob took the middle, his spearhead glowing in the fog.

The humming got louder, shaking the gravel at Theo's feet. The noise seemed to be coming from immediately in front of them.

"Ready?" Bob murmured.

A figure appeared in the fog. He raised his spear.

"Wait!" Theo exclaimed, springing up.

Bob froze just in time, the point of his spear hovering an inch above the head of a tiny calico kitten.

"Rrow?" said the kitten, clearly unimpressed by their attack plan. It butted its head against Bob's foot and purred loudly.

It seemed impossible, but the deep rumbling sound was coming from the kitten. As it purred, the ground vibrated and pebbles danced. The kitten fixed its yellow, lamp-like eyes on one particular rock, right between Theo's feet, and pounced.

A few years ago, Theo had been forced to spend a night in the back of a truck transporting zoo animals from one side of the country to the other. One of them was this big, exhausted lion that growled deep in its chest every time she got too close. If she hadn't made it clear back then, Theo hated cats. Not as much as she hated snakes, but still a decent amount.

Still, though, a little kitten like this didn't belong in Tartarus.

"How did...?" She couldn't even form the question. She watched curiously as the cat rubbed against her legs. "What is a kitten doing...?"

The cat grew impatient and pranced over to Bob. It started purring again as Bob picked it up and began to pet it.

Percy laughed. "Somebody likes you, Bob."

"It must be a good monster." Bob looked up nervously. "Isn't it?"

Theo felt a lump in her throat. Seeing the huge Titan and this tiny kitten together, she suddenly felt insignificant compared to the vastness of Tartarus. This place had no respect for anything—good or bad, small or large, wise or unwise. Tartarus swallowed Titans and demigods and kittens indiscriminately.

Bob knelt down and scooped up the cat. It fitted perfectly in Bob's palm, but it decided to explore. It climbed the Titan's arm, made itself at home on his shoulder and closed its eyes, purring like an earthmover. Suddenly its fur shimmered. In a flash, the kitten became a ghostly skeleton, as if it had stepped behind an X-ray machine. Then it was a regular kitten again.

Theo furrowed her brow. "Did you see–?"

"Yeah." Percy frowned. "Oh, man... Sunshine, we know that kitten. It's one of the ones from the Smithsonian."

Theo blinked. For a second she was worried Percy was going insane. Then she remembered the winter of a few years back, when Annabeth had been taken by the enemy's side and Theo led a team of Artemis's Hunters and demigods alike to find her. Percy had crashed it—Theo had been furious with him at the time—and told them he'd seen Luke's cronies plant saber tooth tiger teeth into soil to grow man-eating wildcats. Instead, they sprouted these kittens.

"That's one of them?" Theo asked. "How did it get here?"

Percy spread his hands helplessly. "Atlas told his servants to take the kittens away. Maybe they destroyed the cats and they were reborn in Tartarus? I don't know."

"It's cute," Bob said, as the kitten sniffed his ear.

But is it safe? Theo wondered.

The Titan scratched the kitten's chin. Theo didn't know if it was a good idea, carrying around a cat grown from a prehistoric tooth, but obviously it didn't matter now. The Titan and the cat had bonded.

"I will call him Small Bob," said Bob. "He is a good monster."

End of discussion. The Titan hefted his spear and they continued marching into the gloom.

Theo walked in a daze, trying not to think about anything that would make her more hungry than she already was. To keep herself distracted, she watched Small Bob the kitten pacing across Bob's shoulders and purring, occasionally turning into a glowing kitty skeleton and then back to a calico fuzz-ball.

"Here," Bob announced.

He stopped so suddenly, Theo almost ran into him.

Bob stared off to their left, as if deep in thought.

"Is this the place?" Theo asked, glancing around. "Where we go sideways?"

"Yes," Bob agreed. "Darker, then sideways."

Theo couldn't tell if it was actually darker, but the air did seem colder and thicker, as if they'd stepped into a different microclimate. It could go without saying that Theo never particularly liked darkness—what, being the daughter of the sun god, and all—but she didn't do well with cold, either. Usually she could warm herself up from the inside out, but she still couldn't get her powers to work for her. Something was definitely wrong.

Bob struck off to the left. They followed. The air definitely got colder. Theo pressed against Percy for warmth. He put his arm around her. It felt good being close to him, but she still couldn't relax. Her fingers itched to be holding her bow at the ready at all times, but that would have killed her joints. You can't shoot an arrow with knuckles that have broken in two from overuse.

They'd entered some sort of forest. Towering black trees soared into the gloom, perfectly round and bare of branches, like monstrous hair follicles. The ground was smooth and pale. Theo took a step, and all at once, two things happened:

Her foot—the one that Bob had healed—shot up with pain. But at the same time she felt as though somebody had breathed down the back of her neck. Her foot would have to have been dealt with later. Something was coming.

Suddenly her senses were on high alert. She rested her hand on the trunk of the nearest tree.

"What is it?" Percy raised his sword.

Bob turned and looked back, confused. "We are stopping?"

Theo held her finger to her lips. She wasn't sure what had set her off. Nothing looked different. Then she realized the tree trunk was quivering. She wondered momentarily if it was the kitten's purr, but Small Bob had fallen asleep on Large Bob's shoulder.

A few yards away, another tree shuddered.

"Something's moving," Theo whispered. "Come here."

Bob and Percy closed ranks with her, standing back to back.
Theo strained her eyes, trying to see above them in the dark, but nothing moved.

She had almost decided she was being paranoid when the first monster dropped to the ground only five feet away.

Theo's first thought: The Furies.

The creature looked almost exactly like one: a wrinkled hag with bat-like wings, brass talons and glowing red eyes. She wore a tattered dress of black silk, and her face was twisted and ravenous, like a demonic grandmother in the mood to kill.

Bob grunted as another one dropped in front of him, and then another in front of Percy. Soon there were half a dozen surrounding them. More hissed in the trees above.

They couldn't be Furies, then. There were only three of those, and these winged hags didn't carry whips. That didn't comfort Theo. The monsters' talons looked plenty dangerous.

"What are you?" she demanded, turning her pointed arrow towards the first one that had landed.

The arai, hissed a voice. The curses!

Theo tried to locate the speaker, to turn her bow on it, but none of the demons had moved their mouths. Their eyes looked dead; their expressions were frozen, like a puppet's. The voice simply floated overhead like a movie narrator's, as if a single mind controlled all the creatures.

"What—what do you want?" Theo asked, trying to maintain a tone of confidence.

The voice cackled maliciously. To curse you, of course. To destroy you a thousand times in the name of Mother Night.

"Only a thousand times?" Percy murmured. "Oh, good. I thought we were in trouble."

Via Chatter!

Aaaaaand now we have a good long chunk of chapters that Pertheo does not make an appearance in!!!! Everyone say "Bye-bye, Aquaman and Sunshine 😊👋"