The House of Hades (Heroes of Olympus Book 4)

‘Leo’s right. We should get going.’
    Everybody took the cue. They started wrapping up their food and finishing their drinks.
    Suddenly, Hazel gasped. ‘Guys …’
    She pointed to the northeast horizon. At first, Jason saw nothing but the sea. Then a streak of darkness shot into the air like black lightning – as if pure night had torn through the daytime.
    ‘I don’t see anything,’ Coach Hedge grumbled.
    ‘Me neither,’ Piper said.
    Jason scanned his friends’ faces. Most of them just lookedconfused. Nico was the only other one who seemed to have noticed the black lightning.
    ‘That can’t be …’ Nico muttered. ‘Greece is still hundreds of miles away.’
    The darkness flashed again, momentarily leaching the colour from the horizon.
    ‘You think it’s Epirus?’ Jason’s whole skeleton tingled, the way he felt when he got hit by a thousand volts. He didn’t know why he could see the dark flashes. He wasn’t a child of the Underworld. But it gave him a very bad feeling.
    Nico nodded. ‘The House of Hades is open for business.’
    A few seconds later, a rumbling sound washed over them like distant artillery.
    ‘It’s begun,’ Hazel said.
    ‘What has?’ Leo asked.
    When the next flash happened, Hazel’s gold eyes darkened like foil in fire. ‘Gaia’s final push,’ she said. ‘The Doors of Death are working overtime. Her forces are entering the mortal world en masse.’
    ‘We’ll never make it,’ Nico said. ‘By the time we arrive, there’ll be too many monsters to fight.’
    Jason set his jaw. ‘We’ll defeat them. And we’ll make it there fast. We’ve got Leo back. He’ll give us the speed we need.’
    He turned to his friend. ‘Or is that just hot air?’
    Leo managed a crooked grin. His eyes seemed to say:
Thanks.
    ‘Time to fly, boys and girls,’ he said. ‘Uncle Leo’s still got a few tricks up his sleeves!’

LXI
     

PERCY
     
    P ERCY WASN’T DEAD YET, but he was already tired of being a corpse.
    As they trudged towards the heart of Tartarus, he kept glancing down at his body, wondering how it could belong to him. His arms looked like bleached leather pulled over sticks. His skeletal legs seemed to dissolve into smoke with every step. He’d learned to move normally within the Death Mist, more or less, but the magical shroud still made him feel like he was wrapped in a coat of helium.
    He worried that the Death Mist might cling to him forever, even if they somehow managed to survive Tartarus. He didn’t want to spend the rest of his life looking like an extra from
The Walking Dead
.
    Percy tried to focus on something else, but there was no safe direction to look.
    Under his feet, the ground glistened a nauseating purple, pulsing with webs of veins. In the dim red light of the bloodclouds, Death Mist Annabeth looked like a freshly risen zombie.
    Ahead of them was the most depressing view of all.
    Spread to the horizon was an army of monsters – flocks of winged
arai
, tribes of lumbering Cyclopes, clusters of floating evil spirits. Thousands of baddies, maybe
tens
of thousands, all milling restlessly, pressing against one another, growling and fighting for space – like the locker area of an overcrowded school between classes, if all the students were ’roid-raging mutants who smelled
really
bad.
    Bob led them towards the edge of the army. He made no effort to hide, not that it would have done any good. Being ten feet tall and glowing silver, Bob didn’t do stealth very well.
    About thirty yards from the nearest monsters, Bob turned to face Percy.
    ‘Stay quiet and stay behind me,’ he advised. ‘They will not notice you.’
    ‘We hope,’ Percy muttered.
    On the Titan’s shoulder, Small Bob woke up from a nap. He purred seismically and arched his back, turning skeletal then back to calico. At least
he
didn’t seem nervous.
    Annabeth examined her own zombie hands. ‘Bob, if we’re invisible … how can
you
see us? I mean, you’re technically, you know …’
    ‘Yes,’ Bob said. ‘But we are friends.’
    ‘Nyx and her children could see us,’ Annabeth said.
    Bob shrugged. ‘That was in Nyx’s realm. That is different.’
    ‘Uh … right.’ Annabeth didn’t sound reassured, but they were here now. They didn’t have any choice but to try.
    Percy stared at the swarm of vicious monsters. ‘Well, at least we won’t have to worry about bumping into any other
friends
in this crowd.’
    Bob grinned. ‘Yes, that is good news! Now,