ΉӨЦƧΣ ӨF ΉΛDΣƧ

LUCIA'S DRESS WAS TORN AND TATTERED. As she walked, she made sure not to observe around her too much, afraid of what she could see... or what this place could trick her into seeing. They walked and walked, getting in about half a mile deeper into Tartarus.

She already felt wrong and out of place. She wasn't meant to be underground or in the darkness. Her father's specialty was the sun, the sky. This was something completely different, and it made it almost impossible for her to stay positive...

When she stayed focused for too long or got lost in her thoughts, she swore as if she were walking atop something alive. She felt grumbling at her feet, the sound of exhales in her ears. It caused shivers to run up her spine. Everything about this place was just not for her.

Gods, I'm miserable.

She walked with Percy's hand tight in her grip, assuring they wouldn't get separated. Their hands were now clammy after walking for so long, but she didn't care. She couldn't risk him slipping away and them being lost to each other in any way. He also didn't seem to mind, often rubbing circles to remind her he was there. She loved him for that.

She trudged along, in a stupor. It was hard to think with her stomach growling and her throat aching.

The fiery water of the Phlegethon may have healed her and given her strength, but it didn't do anything for hunger and thirst. The river wasn't about making you feel good, it only allowed you to survive so you could endure more excruciating pain.

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

She whispered, "Percy, down!"

She pulled him behind the nearest boulder, wedging herself so close against the riverbank that the white lace-up Oxfords she was made to wear almost touched the river's fire. On the other side, in the narrow path between the river and the cliffs, voices snarled, getting louder as they approached from upstream.

Lucia tried to steady her breathing. The voices sounded vaguely human, but that meant nothing. She assumed anything in Tartarus was an enemy. She didn't know how the monsters could have failed to spot them already.

Monsters could smell demigods—especially ones like Percy, a son of Poseidon. A child of the big three...Lucia 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 in tone. Their uneven footsteps didn't get any faster.

"Soon?" one of them asked in a raspy voice.

"Oh my gods!" said another voice. This one sounded much younger and more human, like a teenage mortal girl. She sounded familiar to Lucia. "You guys are totally annoying! I told you, it's like three days from here."

Percy squeezed Lucias's hand. He looked at her with alarm, as if he recognized the girl's voice too.

There was a chorus of growling and grumbling. The creatures—it sounded like a group of them, Lucia guessed they had paused just on the other side of the boulder, but still they did not pounce or show any indication that they'd caught the demigods' scent.

Lucia wondered if demigods smelled the same in Tartarus, or if other scents here were so powerful, that it masked their scent.

"I wonder," said a third voice, gravelly and ancient like the first, "if 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 of 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 Gaea—"

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

Lucia's face hardened, she fought down a snarl of her own. She seemed to forget about fear. Her fingertips began to spark, Percy held down her hands by the wrist.

He shook his head, his green eyes pleading for her not to blow their cover. She took a steady breath in and tried to calm the fire she felt.

"Believe me," said the mall girl. "Gaea 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!"

Lucia watched Percy. Even in the red light of the Phlegethon, his face seemed waxy.

Empousai, she mouthed. Vampires.

Percy nodded grimly.

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

The creatures shuffled off, their voices getting fainter.

Lucia 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 burned and torn blouse with a short pleated skirt... her cheerleader's outfit.

Lucia gritted her teeth. She had faced a lot of bad monsters over the years, but empousai were worse 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, tricking mortals into letting down their guard. Men were especially susceptible. The empousai's favorite tactic was to make a guy fall in love with her, then drink his blood and devour his flesh.

A terrible way to end a date if you asked Lucia.

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

Lucia didn't want to think about it, but sadly, the posse of flesh-eating donkey women might have been the closest thing to good luck they were going to get in Tartarus.

"Yeah," A huff left her lips, blowing a loose strand of hair out of her face. "We need to follow them."

༄

PERCY AND LUCIA HAD GONE on many romantic walks before. Their strolls often led them along the lake's edge, the sandy expanse of the beach, and through the Dryads' leafy homes in the woods.

Outside of camp, their adventures unfolded in various city spots, but never too far, given the constant threat of monsters. They made their way through lively streets like Harlem's 125th, catching glimpses of places like the Apollo Theatre.

However, this particular walk didn't exactly have her swooning.

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 only thing that kept them from getting too lost was Lucia's hearing. She focused on every clunk of their legs and every hiss that left their lips.

Every few moments she would look at her boyfriend. He would smile every time her violet eyes fell on his. Which she thought was ridiculous considering their circumstances, but she also loved it. Adored it really, that smile kept her feeling warm inside.

The heat from the river baked their skin. Every breath was like inhaling sulfur-scented fiberglass. When they needed a drink, the best they could do was sip some refreshing liquid fire.

Percy seemed to be able to breathe easier. His clothes were ripped and as tattered as her own.

Seriously, they looked like they had been through a hurricane of broken glass.

Like her, he was thirsty, hungry, and scared out of his mind (though Lucia knew he wasn't going to admit it to her), but he'd seem to have shaken off the hopeless cold of the River Cocytus. And as nasty as the firewater tasted, it kept them going. Not to mention that Lucia was like a warming heater for him. Which kept him inching towards her, but she worried he'd get heatstroke with the river of fire so close.

One thing they were both incredibly grateful for was that she wasn't burning up anymore. If they wouldn't have been able to comfort each other through Tartarus, they might have gone insane faster.

Not that she made it to insanity yet.

But Lucia couldn't help but be haunted by Nico's remark. If he hardly made it, could she?

She hated that she was doubting herself too, or more so that she was talking herself down so much. Sure, she had a right to feel hopeless, but After months of working on herself and giving herself more credit, it felt wrong. As if she were betraying herself.

She wanted to stop all the negative thoughts that were infiltrating her, but it was as if they were out of her hands.

This place debilitated her.

Her light brunette hair was tied back with ripped fabric from her nurse stockings, and in the fiery light of the river, her aura flickered more orange than gold. Her frizzed and matted curls needed a good wash day, her face was soot with dirt, and the scars on her hands had only just begun to fade. In short, she looked completely beat up and gross.

Little did she know that Percy kept admiring how beautiful she looked. Even with all that.

Time was impossible to judge there. They trudged along, following the river as it cut through the harsh landscape. Fortunately, the empousai weren't exactly fast 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. Lucia couldn't tell what it was but the empousai attacked it with relish.

She just knew, that she hated the sounds of their snarling. It brought her back to the Princess Andromeda.

When the demons moved on, Percy and Lucia reached the spot and found nothing left except a few splintered bones and glistening stains drying in the heat of the river. They had no doubt the empousai would devour demigods with the same gusto.

"Come on." He led Lucia gently away from the scene. "We don't want to lose them."

As they walked, Lucia thought about the last time she'd fought the empousai. Kelli tried to kill Percy in Daedalus' workshop and she stabbed her before she could

At the time, Lucia thought she already knew what true fear and pain was. Now, she'd give anything to go back to all the events before that day and tell herself to prepare. To be brave.

After a few more miles, the empousai disappeared over a ridge. When Percy and Lucia 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.

Percy stopped, he swallowed sharply. Lucia looked down and her eyes dulled. Even if she and Percy reached the bottom of the cliff alive, they didn't have much to look forward to. The landscape below them was a bleak, ash-gray plain bristling with black trees. The ground was pocked with blisters. Every once in a while, a bubble would swell and burst, disgorging a monster like a larva from an egg.

Lucia lost any type of appetite she had.

She looked at Percy,

All the newly formed monsters were crawling and hobbling in the same direction—toward 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 flowed on as one toward the black fog.

The longer Lucia looked into that storm of darkness, the more she wanted to run away. It could be hiding anything: an ocean, a bottomless pit, an army of monsters... But, if the Doors of Death were in that direction, it was their only chance to get home... It was Lucia's only chance...

To feel the sunlight again.

To share a morning mug of coffee with Annabeth.

To see if it was Piper, or if a certain daughter of Bellona had her hesitating.

To tell Nico how he didn't have to be afraid to be himself.

And to fight anyone who tried to tell him otherwise.

To yell at Leo in Spanish, and defend Frank's right to his personal belongings.

To see how Grover, Thalia, and Chiron were doing

To tease Jason into letting her buy him a helmet.

To see her siblings, and tell them how much she loved them.

To talk to her Dad and Aunt Artemis again.

To kiss Percy, without the fear of a guillotine dropping on her neck at any moment.

To get back to her life.

Percy peered over the edge of the cliff. "Wish we could fly," he muttered. "I'd settle for a hang glider."

"Maybe not a good idea." Lucia pointed. Above them, dark-winged shapes spiraled in and out of the bloodred clouds.

"Furies?" Percy wondered.

"Or some other kind of demon," Lucia frowned. "Kronos said Tartarus has thousands..."

His face soured, Lucia had a feeling it had to do with her mention of Kronos. "Including the kind that eats hang gliders," Percy guessed. "Okay, so we climb."

They 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 they needed to go. Like all the maggot monsters crawling over the plains of Tartarus, they had to head toward the dark horizon.

"Are you ready, Sunlight?"

She squeezed his hand, sending him a forced but comforting smile. "As ready as I can be, Kelphead."