CHAPTER SEVENTY-THREE
SILVIANA                   DUVALL

For a moment, Sylvie was weightless in the dark, the sides of the hot stone pit burning her arms.

I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die.

Then the space opened up around her. Instinctively, she tucked and rolled, absorbing most of the impact as she hit the stone floor.

Flames shot up in front of her, but Sylvie snatched up her dagger and swung before she'd even stopped rolling. A bronze dragonhead, neatly decapitated, wobbled across the floor.

"Uh, sorry," she mumbled.

Sylvie stood, trying to get her bearings. She couldn't believe she'd just done this. A few years ago, Sylvie would've had to be dragged down here by her hair.

Three bronze dragon statues stood in a row, aligned with the holes in the roof. Sylvie had decapitated the middle one. The two intact dragons were each three feet tall, their snouts pointed upward and their steaming mouths open. They were clearly the source of the flames, but they didn't seem to be automatons. They didn't move or try to attack her. Sylvie sliced off the heads of the other two.

She waited. No more flames shot upward.

"Sylv?" Finley's voice echoed from far above like she was yelling down a chimney.

"Yeah!" Sylvie shouted.

"Oh, thank fuck! You okay?"

"Yeah. Hold on a sec."

Her eyesight adjusted to the dark. She scanned the chamber. The only light came from her glowing blade and the openings above. The ceiling was about thirty feet high. By all rights, Sylvie should've broken both legs in the fall, but she wasn't going to complain.

The chamber itself was round, about the size of a helicopter pad. The walls were made of rough-hewn stone blocks chiseled with Greek inscriptions—thousands and thousands of them, like graffiti.

At the far end of the room, on a stone dais, stood the human-sized bronze statue of a warrior—the god Ares, Sylvie guessed—with heavy bronze chains wrapped around his body, anchoring him to the floor.

On either side of the statue loomed two dark doorways, each ten feet high, with a gruesome stone face carved over the archway. The faces reminded Sylvie of gorgons, except they had lions' manes instead of snakes for hair.

Sylvie suddenly felt very much alone.

"Finley!" she called. "It's a long drop, but it's safe to come down. Maybe... uh, fasten a rope so we can get back up?"

"On it!"

A few minutes later a rope dropped from the center pit. Finley shinnied down.

"Silviana Duvall," she grumbled, "your boyfriend has corrupted you. That was without a doubt the dumbest risk I've ever seen anyone take, and I'm a dumb risk-taker!"

"It's sorta fun, isn't it?" Sylvie grinned innocently. "Being reckless?"

"Not when Percy's going to kill me if you get hurt!"

"Oh, he's just dramatic." Sylvie nudged the nearest decapitated dragon head with her foot. "I'm guessing these are the dragons of Ares. That's one of his sacred animals. I think."

"And there's the chained god himself. He's kind of hot." Finn shrugged. "Where do you think those doorways—"

Sylvie held up her hand. "Do you hear that?"

The sound was like a drumbeat... with a metallic echo.

"It's coming from inside the statue," Sylvie decided. "The heartbeat of the chained god."

"So, he's like Boq," Finley said. 

...

"What?" 

"From Wicked? No? Like, he's the Tin M—Oh, whatever, can we just go? I don't like this."

She unsheathed her Greek shortsword. In the dim light, her face was ghostly pale, her eyes too unsettling to be looked at.

Sylvie's timidity didn't like this either. Her skin crawled. Her legs ached to run. But something about this room called Sylvie to stay...

"The shrine is ramping up our emotions," she said. "It's like being around Aphrodite, except this place radiates fear, not love. That's why you started feeling overwhelmed on the hill. Down here, it's a thousand times stronger."

"I wish you'd taught me your ways of incessant anxiety before we came down, then," Finn commented. "Wait. A shrine that radiates fear. Ares had two divine sons, didn't he?"

"Phobos and Deimos," Sylvie agreed. "Panic and Fear. Percy met them once in Staten Island."

"Look above the doorway." Finn pointed to snarling stone faces. "Are those their faces?"

That was when it hit her.

"This place isn't just a shrine to Ares," Sylvie said. "It's a temple of fear."

Deep laughter echoed through the chamber.

On Sylvie's right, a giant appeared. He didn't come through either doorway. He simply emerged from the darkness as if he'd been camouflaged against the wall.

He was small for a giant—perhaps twenty-five feet tall, which would give him enough room to swing the massive sledgehammer in his hands. His armor, his skin, and his dragon-scale legs were all the color of charcoal. Copper wires and smashed circuit boards glittered in the braids of his oil-black hair.

"Very good, Child of Demeter." The giant smiled. "This is indeed the Temple of Fear. And I am here to make you believers."

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Sylvie thought she was an expert at fear, but this was something new.

Waves of terror crashed over her. Her joints turned to jelly. Her heart refused to beat.

Her worst memories crowded her mind—her father in the middle of one of his worst episodes; Eurydice betraying her; Eurydice stabbing her; getting stabbed again during the Battle of Manhattan; Florian dying underneath her hands; getting scarred the same as Luke Castellan; choosing to fight Eurydice to the death in the name of keeping Percy safe; thinking she was done with one Great Prophecy only to be thrown into another one with her name written all over it; having to live with the weight of Percy going missing for seven months; her mother rejecting Sylvie as her daughter; losing all of her memories; her quest under Rome. Worst of all, she was reminded of her time spent in Tartarus. 

Paralyzed, she watched as the giant raised his sledgehammer to smash them flat. At the last moment, she leaped to one side, tackling Finley.

The hammer cracked the floor, peppering Sylvie's back with stone shrapnel.

"Ow."

The giant chuckled. "Oh, that wasn't fair!" He hefted his sledgehammer again.

"Finley, get up!" Sylvie helped her to her feet. She pulled her toward the far end of the room, but Finley moved sluggishly, her eyes wide and unfocused.

Sylvie understood why. The temple was amplifying their personal fears. Sylvie had—as Finley had described it—incessant anxiety. She had spent her whole life a concerning amount of terrified. It was kind of hard to make her more fearful when her resting fear-meter was already at the very top.

It was shocking how her fatal flaw was coming in handy for once, but she couldn't dwell on it. Finley wasn't used to this like Sylvie was. Her mind wouldn't be able to cope. She might literally go insane.

"I'm here," Sylvie promised, trying to sound reassuring. "We're gonna get out of this."

The giant laughed. "A child of Demeter saving a child of Bacchus from insanity! Now I've seen everything. How would you defeat me, girl? With seeds and agriculture?"

A few years ago that comment wouldn't have offended her, but Sylvie had worked way too hard and become way too much to still be belittled.

Today, her fear was her strength.

"Finley, trust me," Sylvie said.

The giant lumbered toward them. Fortunately, he was slow and carrying a heavy hammer.

"Let's j-just—use our powers," she stammered. "If you use your vines, and I wreak madness—"

"Finn, no powers."

"W-what?"

"No powers. Just follow me!"

The giant swung his hammer, but they dodged it easily. Sylvie leaped forward and slashed her dagger across the back of the giant's knee. As the giant bellowed in outrage, Sylvie pulled Finley into the nearest tunnel. Immediately they were engulfed in total darkness.

"Fools!" the giant roared somewhere behind them. "That is the wrong way!"

"Keep moving." Sylvie held tight to Finley's hand. "It's fine. C'mon."

She couldn't see anything. Even the glow of her dagger was snuffed out. She barreled ahead anyway, trusting her emotions. From the echo of their footfalls, the space around them must have been a vast cavern, but she couldn't be sure. She simply went in the direction that made her fear the sharpest.

"Sylvie, I don't like this," Finley confessed. "I'm closing my eyes."

"No!" Sylvie said. "Keep them open. We can't try to hide."

The giant's voice came from somewhere in front of them. "Lost forever. Swallowed by the darkness."

Finley froze, forcing Sylvie to stop too.

"Why did we just plunge in?" Finley nearly cried. "We're lost. We did what he wanted us to do! We should've just started fighting him with our powers. That always works!"

"Finn, I'm sorry," Sylvie tried soothing her. "But we can't defeat this place with our powers. You can't use force to escape your emotions."

The giant's laughter echoed like a detonating depth charge. "Despair, Finley Briggs! I am Mimas, born to slay Hephaestus. I am the breaker of plans, the destroyer of well-oiled machines. Nothing goes right in my presence. Maps are misread. Devices break. Data is lost. The finest minds turn to mush!"

"I—I've faced worse than you!" Finley shouted.

"Oh, I see!" The giant sounded much closer now. "Are you not afraid?"

"I'm never afraid."

"Of course we're afraid," Sylvie corrected. "Terrified!"

The air moved. Just in time, Sylvie pushed Finley to one side.

CRASH!

Suddenly they were back in the circular room, the dim light almost blinding now. The giant stood close by, trying to yank his hammer out of the floor where he'd embedded it. Sylvie lunged and drove her blade into the giant's thigh.

"AROOO!" Mimas let go of the hammer and arched his back.

Sylvie and Finley scrambled behind the chained statue of Ares, which still pulsed with a metallic heartbeat: thump, thump, thump.

The giant Mimas turned toward them. The wound on his leg was already closing.

"You cannot defeat me," he growled. "In the last war, it took two gods to bring me down. I was born to kill Hephaestus, and would have done so if Ares hadn't ganged up on me as well! You should have stayed paralyzed in your fear. Your death would've been quicker."

Down in Tartarus, Sylvie had been required to feel through her fear, no matter how terrified she was. She had to follow her heart—which desired to keep Percy alive—no matter what her brain said. Now she did the same thing. She moved in front of the statue and faced the giant, though the rational part of her screamed: RUN, YOU IDIOT!

"This temple," she said. "The Spartans didn't chain Ares because they wanted his spirit to stay in their city."

"You think not?" The giant's eyes glittered with amusement. He wrapped his hands around his sledgehammer and pulled it from the floor.

"This is the temple of Deimos and Phobos." Sylvie's voice shook, but she didn't try to hide it. She channeled all the knowledge she'd gained from Nemo. "The Spartans came here to prepare for battle, to face their fears. Ares was chained to remind them that war has consequences. His power—the spirits of battle, the makhai—should never be unleashed unless you understand how terrible they are, unless you've felt fear."

Mimas laughed. "What do you know of the makhai?"

"We'll see." Sylvie ran straight at the giant, unbalancing his stance. At the sight of her xiphos blade coming at him, his eyes widened and he stumbled backward, cracking his head against the wall. A jagged fissure snaked upward in the stones. Dust rained from the ceiling.

"Sylvie, this place is unstable!" Finley warned. She would know. "If we don't leave—"

"Don't think about escape!" Sylvie ran toward their rope, which dangled from the ceiling. She leaped as high as she could and cut it.

"Have you lost your mind?!"

Probably, she thought. But Sylvie knew this was the only way to survive. She had to go against reason, follow emotion instead, and keep the giant off balance.

"That hurt!" Mimas rubbed his head. "You realize you cannot kill me without the help of a god, and Ares is not here! The next time I face that blustering idiot, I will smash him to bits. I wouldn't have had to fight him in the first place if that cowardly fool Damasen had done his job—"

He'd really pissed off Sylvie now. "Do not insult Damasen!"

She ran at Mimas, who barely managed to parry her Celestial bronze blade with the handle of his hammer. He tried to grab Sylvie and Finley lunged, slashing her blade across the side of the giant's face.

"GAHHH!" Mimas staggered.

A severed pile of dreadlocks fell to the floor along with something else—a large fleshy thing lying in a pool of golden ichor.

"My ear!" Mimas wailed. Before he could recover his wits, Sylvie grabbed Finley's arm and together they plunged through the second doorway.

"I will bring down this chamber!" the giant thundered. "The Earth Mother shall deliver me, but you shall be crushed!"

The floor shook. The sound of breaking stone echoed all around them.

"Sylv, stop," Finley begged. "How—how are you dealing with this? The fear, the anger—"

"Don't try to repress it. That's what the temple is about. You have to accept the fear, adapt to it, ride it like the rapids on a river."

"How do you know that?"

"I don't know it. I just feel it."

Somewhere nearby, a wall crumbled with a sound like an artillery blast.

"You cut the rope," Finley said. "We're going to die down here!"

Sylvie held her friend's shoulder with one hand. She placed the other over Finley's heart, feeling Finley's rapid pulse.

"Fear can't be avoided. Neither can hate. They're like love. They're almost identical. That's why Ares and Aphrodite like each other. Their twin sons—Fear and Panic—were spawned from both war and love."

"But I don't... this doesn't make sense."

"Finley," Sylvie said, voice more serious than it ever had been with her. "You can't keep repressing your emotions. Not your fear. Certainly not your love."

Finley stared at Sylvie, and Sylvie watched her realize Sylvie's eyes were more than just gentle; they were knowing.

"Stop thinking about it," she continued. "Just feel."

"I hate that."

"I know. But you can't control your feelings. Like with Jason." Finley froze, her face going pale as if Sylvie had just struck her. "You have to accept him. Let him scare you. Let yourself feel, even if it terrifies you. You're allowed to be scared. You're allowed to care. It doesn't make you weak. You need to trust that the two of you will be okay."

Finley hugged herself tightly, like she was trying to keep her emotions from spilling out. "I don't know if I can."

"I know that you can," Sylvie said, stepping closer. "You're human. And right now, that's our greatest weapon. This temple thrives on fear, but it can't handle people who face it. So, yeah, you're scared. So am I. But we have to own it, Finn. It's the only way we win. Your feelings can be a strength if you let it."

Finley hesitated suspiciously. 

"This feels like an underlying lecture."

"It is," she confirmed easily. "I want you to kiss Jason when we make it out of here. And go through with it this time."

"Oh, gods, Leo told you?!"

"Leo tells me everything," Sylvie said, slightly disturbed.

Finley took a shaky breath, her face still pale but her stance a little steadier. "Fine, I'll—let my feelings in... or whatever. I'm trusting you on this, Duvall. Don't let me down."

"I won't," Sylvie promised, squeezing her shoulder.

She turned back toward the dark, crumbling tunnel they had just barreled through. Mimas's bellowing voice reverberated closer, like thunder rolling through a canyon. The ground beneath their feet quivered ominously.

"I need your help," she said, her voice steadying. "We're going to run out there together."

"Together?" Finley's eyebrows shot up. "Sylv, have you seen the size of that guy? He could squash us both like grapes."

"Grapes are Bacchus's specialty, right? Think of it as an offering," Sylvie quipped. The humor wasn't much, but it earned her a reluctant half-smile from Finley.

"Right." Finley sighed. "Then what?"

"I have no idea."

"Remind me why we all look up to you again?"

Sylvie laughed, which surprised even her. Fear and love really were related. At that moment she clung to the love she had for her friend. "Come on!"

They ran in no particular direction and found themselves back in the shrine room, right behind the giant Mimas. They each slashed one of his legs and brought him to his knees.

The giant howled. More chunks of stone tumbled from the ceiling.

"Weak mortals!" Mimas struggled to stand. "No plan of yours can defeat me!"

"That's good," Sylvie said. "Because I don't have a plan."

She ran toward the statue of Ares. "Finn, keep our friend occupied!"

"Oh, he's occupied!"

"GAHHHHH!"

Sylvie stared at the cruel bronze face of the war god. The statue thrummed with a low metallic pulse.

The spirits of battle, she thought. They're inside, waiting to be freed.

The chamber shook again. More cracks appeared in the walls. Sylvie glanced at the stone carvings above the doorways: the scowling twin faces of Fear and Panic.

"Deimos and Phobos," Sylvie said. "Sons of Aphrodite and Ares. I'm terrified. I hate doing this. But, uh, I think it's necessary... Probably."

She swung her blade and took off the bronze statue's head.

"No!" Mimas yelled.

Flames roared up from the statue's severed neck. They swirled around Sylvie, filling the room with a firestorm of emotions: hatred, bloodlust, and fear, but also love—because no one could face battle without caring for something: comrades, family, home.

Sylvie held out her arms and the makhai made her the center of their whirlwind.

We will answer your call, they whispered in her mind. Once only, when you need us, destruction, waste, carnage shall answer. We shall complete your cure.

The flames vanished, and the chained statue of Ares crumbled into dust.

"Foolish girl!" Mimas charged her, Finley at his heels. "The makhai have abandoned you!"

"Or maybe they'd abandoned you," Sylvie said.

Mimas raised his hammer, but he'd forgotten about Finley. She jabbed him in the thigh and the giant staggered forward, off balance. Sylvie stepped in and stabbed him in the gut.

Mimas crashed face-first into the nearest doorway. He turned over just as the stone face of Panic cracked off the wall above him and toppled down for a one-ton kiss.

The giant's cry was cut short. His body went still. Then he disintegrated into a twenty-foot pile of ash.

Finley stared at Sylvie. "What just happened?"

"I'm not sure."

"Sylv, you were amazing, but the makhai you released... How does that help us find the cure we're looking for?"

"I don't know. They said I could summon them when the time comes. Maybe Artemis and Apollo can explain—"

A section of the wall calved like a glacier.

Finley stumbled and almost slipped on the giant's severed ear. "We need to get out of here."

"I'm working on it," Sylvie said.

"And, uh, I think this ear is our spoil of war."

"Aw, man, I keep doing that!" Sylvie wrinkled her nose. "I severed off Polyphemus's toe once and accidentally earned that trinket."

Finley stared at her, baffled. "Is there something you haven't done?"

"Found us a way out of here," she commented, sighing.

Everything went silent for a few beats.

"I got it!" Finley cheered. She stared at the second doorway, which still had the face of Fear above it. "Thanks, dudes! For—you know—helping to kill the giant. We need one more favor—an escape. And believe me, I am properly terrified. I offer you this lovely ear as a sacrifice."

The stone face made no answer. Another section of the wall peeled away. A starburst of cracks appeared in the ceiling.

Finley grabbed Sylvie's hand. "We're going through that doorway. If this works, we might find ourselves back on the surface."

"And if it doesn't?"

Finley looked up at the face of Fear. "Let's find out."

The room collapsed around them as they plunged into the dark.

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BAILEY YAPS...

Wow Sylvie and Finley really are what Florian and Castor never got to be like okay yeah I'm here I'm with the program. Btw Sylvie is the second ever person to promote Finley to "Finn" status.

Have I mentioned I love Sylvie Duvall? Because I love Sylvie Duvall. A lot.

She's known nothing but timidity all her life but she's spent so much time forced into these horrible situations that she learned how to live with her fear despite how it might terrify her so being in the Temple of Fear actually had the opposite effect that you would expect. Nothing made her more terrified than Tartarus and she survived that so she knew she could get through this.

She is just so mother now. She used to be so child. But now Finley is so child.

We deserve each other me and BOQ💜