Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Demigod Files

white, like she’d been drained of blood. Her left half was pitch-black and hardened, like mummy skin. She wore a golden dress and a golden shawl. Her eyes were empty black voids, and when I looked into them, I felt as if I were seeing my own death.
    “Where are your ghosts?” she demanded in irritation.
    “My . . . I don’t know. I don’t have any.”
    She snarled. “Everyone has ghosts—deaths you regret. Guilt. Fear. Why can I not see yours?”
    Thalia and Nico were still entranced, staring at the goddess as if she were their long-lost mother. I thought about other friends I’d seen die—Bianca di Angelo, Zoë Nightshade, Lee Fletcher, to name a few.
    “I’ve made my peace with them,” I said. “They’ve passed on. They’re not ghosts. Now, let my friends go!”
    I slashed at Melinoe with my sword. She backed up quickly, growling in frustration. The fog dissipated around my friends. They stood blinking at the goddess as if they were just seeing how hideous she was.
    “What is that ?” Thalia said. “Where—”
    “It was a trick,” Nico said. “She fooled us.”
    “You are too late, demigods,” Melinoe said. Another petal fell off my carnation, leaving only one. “The deal has been struck.”
    “What deal?” I demanded.
    Melinoe made a hissing sound, and I realized it was her way of laughing. “So many ghosts, my young demigod. They long to be unleashed. When Kronos rules the world, I shall be free to walk among mortals both night and day, sowing terror as they deserve.”
    “Where’s the sword of Hades?” I demanded. “Where’s Ethan?”
    “Close,” Melinoe promised. “I will not stop you. I will not need to. Soon, Percy Jackson, you will have many ghosts. And you will remember me.”
    Thalia notched an arrow and aimed it at the goddess. “If you open a path to the world, do you really think Kronos will reward you? He’ll cast you into Tartarus along with the rest of Hades’s servants.”
    Melinoe bared her teeth. “Your mother was right, Thalia. You are an angry girl. Good at running away. Not much else.”
    The arrow flew, but as it touched Melinoe she dissolved into fog, leaving nothing but the hiss of her laughter. Thalia’s arrow hit the rocks and shattered harmlessly.
    “Stupid ghost,” she muttered.
    I could tell she was really shaken up. Her eyes were rimmed with red. Her hands trembled. Nico looked just as stunned, like someone had smacked him between the eyes.
    “The thief . . .” he managed. “Probably in the cave. We have to stop him before—”
    Just then, the last petal fell off the carnation. The flower turned black and wilted.
    “Too late,” I said.
    A man’s laughter echoed down the mountain.
    “You’re right about that,” a voice boomed. At the mouth of the cave stood two people—a boy with an eye patch and ten-foot-tall man in a tattered prison jumpsuit. The boy I recognized: Ethan Nakamura, son of Nemesis. In his hands was an unfinished sword—a double-edged blade of black Stygian iron with skeletal designs etched in silver. It had no hilt, but set in the base of the blade was a golden key, just like I’d seen in Persephone’s image.
    The giant man next to him had eyes of pure silver. His face was covered with a scraggly beard and his gray hair stuck out wildly. He looked thin and haggard in his ripped prison clothes, as though he’d spent the last few thousand years at the bottom of a pit, but even in this weakened state he looked plenty scary. He held out his hand and a giant spear appeared. I remembered what Thalia had said about Iapetus: His name means “the Piercer” because that’s what he likes to do to his enemies.
    The Titan smiled cruelly. “And now I will destroy you.”
    “Master!” Ethan interrupted. He was dressed in combat fatigues with a backpack slung over his shoulder. His eye patch was crooked, his face smeared with soot and sweat. “We have the sword. We should—”
    “Yes, yes,” the Titan said impatiently. “You’ve done well, Nawaka.”
    “It’s Nakamura, master.”
    “Whatever. I’m sure my brother Kronos will reward you. But now we have killing to attend to.”
    “My lord,” Ethan persisted. “You’re not at full power. We should ascend and summon your brothers from the upper world. Our orders were to flee.”
    The Titan whirled on him. “FLEE? Did you say FLEE ?”
    The ground rumbled. Ethan fell on his butt and scrambled backward. The unfinished sword of Hades clattered to the rocks.