The House of Hades (Heroes of Olympus Book 4)

over the cliff. ‘I thought there was nothing below Tartarus.’
    ‘Oh, certainly there is …’ Akhlys coughed. ‘Even Tartarus had to rise from somewhere. This is the edge of the earliest darkness, which was my mother. Below lies the realm of Chaos, my father. Here, you are closer to nothingness than any mortal has ever been. Can you not feel it?’
    Percy knew what she meant. The void seemed to be pulling at him, leaching the breath from his lungs and the oxygen from his blood. He looked at Annabeth and saw that her lips were tinged blue.
    ‘We can’t stay here,’ he said.
    ‘No, indeed!’ Akhlys said. ‘Don’t you feel the Death Mist? Even now, you pass between. Look!’
    White smoke gathered around Percy’s feet. As it coiled up his legs, he realized the smoke wasn’t surrounding him. It was coming
from
him. His whole body was dissolving. He held up his hands and found they were fuzzy and indistinct. He couldn’t even tell how many fingers he had. Hopefully still ten.
    He turned to Annabeth and stifled a yelp. ‘You’re – uh –’
    He couldn’t say it. She looked
dead
.
    Her skin was sallow, her eye sockets dark and sunken. Her beautiful hair had dried into a skein of cobwebs. She looked like she’d been stuck in a cool, dark mausoleum for decades, slowly withering into a desiccated husk. When she turned to look at him, her features momentarily blurred into mist.
    Percy’s blood moved like sap in his veins.
    For years, he had worried about Annabeth dying. When you’re a demigod, that goes with the territory. Most half-bloods don’t live long. You always knew that the next monster you fought could be your last. But seeing Annabeth like this was too painful. He’d rather stand in the River Phlegethon, or get attacked by
arai
, or be trampled by giants.
    ‘Oh, gods,’ Annabeth sobbed. ‘Percy, the way you look …’
    Percy studied his arms. All he saw were blobs of white mist, but he guessed that to Annabeth he looked like a corpse. He took a few steps, though it was difficult. His body felt insubstantial, like he was made of helium and cotton candy.
    ‘I’ve looked better,’ he decided. ‘I can’t move very well. But I’m all right.’
    Akhlys clucked. ‘Oh, you’re definitely
not
all right.’
    Percy frowned. ‘But we’ll pass unseen now? We can get to the Doors of Death?’
    ‘Well, perhaps you could,’ the goddess said, ‘if you lived that long, which you won’t.’
    Akhlys spread her gnarled fingers. More plants bloomed along the edge of the pit – hemlock, nightshade and oleander spreading towards Percy’s feet like a deadly carpet. ‘The Death Mist is not simply a disguise, you see. It is a state ofbeing. I could not bring you this gift unless death followed – true death.’
    ‘It’s a trap,’ Annabeth said.
    The goddess cackled. ‘Didn’t you
expect
me to betray you?’
    ‘Yes,’ Annabeth and Percy said together.
    ‘Well, then, it was hardly a trap! More of an inevitability. Misery is inevitable. Pain is –’
    ‘Yeah, yeah,’ Percy growled. ‘Let’s get to the fighting.’
    He drew Riptide, but the blade was made of smoke. When he slashed at Akhlys, the sword just floated across her like a gentle breeze.
    The goddess’s ruined mouth split into a grin. ‘Did I forget to mention? You are only mist now – a shadow before death. Perhaps if you had time, you could learn to control your new form. But you do
not
have time. Since you cannot touch me, I fear any fight with Misery will be quite one-sided.’
    Her fingernails grew into talons. Her jaw unhinged, and her yellow teeth elongated into fangs.

XLVIII
     

PERCY
     
    A KHLYS LUNGED AT P ERCY, and for a split second he thought:
Well, hey, I’m just smoke. She can’t touch me, right?
    He imagined the Fates up in Olympus, laughing at his wishful thinking:
LOL, NOOB!
    The goddess’s claws raked across his chest and stung like boiling water.
    Percy stumbled backwards, but he wasn’t used to being smoky. His legs moved too slowly. His arms felt like tissue paper. In desperation, he threw his backpack at her, thinking maybe it would turn solid when it left his hand, but no such luck. It fell with a soft thud.
    Akhlys snarled, crouching to spring. She would have bitten Percy’s face off if Annabeth hadn’t charged and screamed
HEY!
right in the goddess’s ear.
    Akhlys flinched, turning towards the sound.
    She lashed out at Annabeth, but Annabeth was better at moving than Percy. Maybe she