The House of Hades (Heroes of Olympus Book 4)

the morning dew. On the hill, the old ruins stood white and silent – no sign of ancient paths, or goddesses, or farting weasels.
    ‘Hazel?’ Nico asked.
    Her knees buckled. Nico and Leo grabbed her arms and helped her to the steps of the foredeck. She felt embarrassed, collapsing like some fairy-tale damsel, but her energy was gone. The memory of those glowing scenes at the crossroads filled her with dread.
    ‘I met Hecate,’ she managed.
    She didn’t tell them everything. She remembered what Nico had said:
Their courage is already stretched to the limit.
But she told them about the secret northern pass through the mountains, and the detour Hecate had described that could take them to Epirus.
    When she was done, Nico took her hand. His eyes were full of concern. ‘Hazel, you met Hecate at a crossroads. That’s … that’s something many demigods don’t survive. And the ones who
do
survive are never the same. Are you sure you’re –’
    ‘I’m fine,’ she insisted.
    But she knew she wasn’t. She remembered how bold and angry she’d felt, telling the goddess she’d find her own path and succeed at everything. Now her boast seemed ridiculous. Her courage had abandoned her.
    ‘What if Hecate is tricking us?’ Leo asked. ‘This route could be a trap.’
    Hazel shook her head. ‘If it was a trap, I think Hecate would’ve made the northern route sound tempting. Believe me, she didn’t.’
    Leo pulled a calculator out of his tool belt and punched in some numbers. ‘That’s … something like three hundred miles out of our way to get to Venice. Then we’d have to backtrack down the Adriatic. And you said something about baloney dwarfs?’
    ‘Dwarfs in Bologna,’ Hazel said. ‘I guess Bologna is a city. But why we have to find dwarfs there … I have no idea. Some sort of treasure to help us with the quest.’
    ‘Huh,’ Leo said. ‘I mean, I’m all about treasure, but –’
    ‘It’s our best option.’ Nico helped Hazel to her feet. ‘We have to make up for lost time, travel as fast as we can. Percy’s and Annabeth’s lives might depend on it.’
    ‘Fast?’ Leo grinned. ‘I can do fast.’
    He hurried to the console and started flipping switches.
    Nico took Hazel’s arm and guided her out of earshot. ‘What else did Hecate say? Anything about –’
    ‘I can’t.’ Hazel cut him off. The images she’d seen hadalmost overwhelmed her: Percy and Annabeth helpless at the feet of those black metal doors, the dark giant looming over them, Hazel herself trapped in a glowing maze of light, unable to help.
    You must defeat the witch
, Hecate had said.
You alone can defeat her. Unless you manage that …
    The end
, Hazel thought. All gateways closed. All hope extinguished.
    Nico had warned her. He’d communed with the dead, heard them whispering hints about their future. Two children of the Underworld would enter the House of Hades. They would face an impossible foe. Only one of them would make it to the Doors of Death.
    Hazel couldn’t meet her brother’s eyes.
    ‘I’ll tell you later,’ she promised, trying to keep her voice from trembling. ‘Right now, we should rest while we can. Tonight, we cross the Apennines.’

ANNABETH
     
    N INE DAYS.
    As she fell, Annabeth thought about Hesiod , the old Greek poet who’d speculated it would take nine days to fall from earth to Tartarus.
    She hoped Hesiod was wrong. She’d lost track of how long she and Percy had been falling – hours? A day? It felt like an eternity. They’d been holding hands ever since they’d dropped into the chasm. Now Percy pulled her close, hugging her tight as they tumbled through absolute darkness.
    Wind whistled in Annabeth’s ears. The air grew hotter and damper, as if they were plummeting into the throat of a massive dragon. Her recently broken ankle throbbed, though she couldn’t tell if it was still wrapped in spiderwebs.
    That cursed monster Arachne . Despite having been trapped in her own webbing, smashed by a car and plunged into Tartarus, the spider lady had got her revenge. Somehowher silk had entangled Annabeth’s leg and dragged her over the side of the pit, with Percy in tow.
    Annabeth couldn’t imagine that Arachne was still alive, somewhere below them in the darkness. She didn’t want to meet that monster again when they reached the bottom. On the bright side, assuming there
was
a bottom, Annabeth and Percy would probably be flattened on impact, so giant spiders were the least of