The House of Hades (Heroes of Olympus Book 4)

terrifying, but amazing.’
    Frank had trouble processing her words.
Terrifying
couldn’t apply to him. He was just Frank.
    His adrenalin drained away. He looked around him, wondering where all the enemies had gone. The only monsters left were his own undead Romans, standing in a stupor with their weapons lowered.
    Nico held up his sceptre, its orb dark and dormant. ‘The dead won’t stay much longer, now that the battle is over.’
    Frank faced his troops. ‘Legion!’
    The zombie soldiers snapped to attention.
    ‘You fought well,’ Frank told them. ‘Now you may rest. Dismissed.’
    They crumbled into piles of bones, armour, shields and weapons. Then even those disintegrated.
    Frank felt as if he might crumble too. Despite the ambrosia, his wounded arm began to throb. His eyes were heavy withexhaustion. The blessing of Mars faded, leaving him depleted. But his work wasn’t done yet.
    ‘Hazel and Leo,’ he said. ‘We need to find them.’
    His friends peered across the chasm. At the other end of the cavern, the tunnel Hazel and Leo had entered was buried under tons of rubble.
    ‘We can’t go that way,’ Nico said. ‘Maybe …’
    Suddenly he staggered. He would have fallen if Jason hadn’t caught him.
    ‘Nico!’ Piper said. ‘What is it?’
    ‘The Doors,’ Nico said. ‘Something’s happening. Percy and Annabeth … we need to go
now
.’
    ‘But how?’ Jason said. ‘That tunnel is
gone
.’
    Frank clenched his jaw. He hadn’t come this far to stand around helplessly while his friends were in trouble. ‘It won’t be fun,’ he said, ‘but there’s another way.’

LXIX
     

ANNABETH
     
    G ETTING KILLED BY T ARTARUS didn’t seem like much of an honour.
    As Annabeth stared up at his dark whirlpool face, she decided she’d rather die in some less memorable way – maybe falling down the stairs, or going peacefully in her sleep at age eighty, after a nice quiet life with Percy. Yes, that sounded good.
    It wasn’t the first time Annabeth had faced an enemy she couldn’t defeat by force. Normally, this would’ve been her cue to stall for time with some clever Athena-like chitchat.
    Except her voice wouldn’t work. She couldn’t even close her mouth. For all she knew, she was drooling as badly as Percy did when he slept.
    She was dimly aware of the army of monsters swirling around her, but after their initial roar of triumph the horde had fallen silent. Annabeth and Percy should have been ripped to pieces by now. Instead, the monsters kept their distance, waiting for Tartarus to act.
    The god of the pit flexed his fingers, examining his own polished black talons. He had no expression, but hestraightened his shoulders as if he were pleased.
    It is good to have form
, he intoned.
With these hands, I can eviscerate you.
    His voice sounded like a backwards recording – as if the words were being sucked into the vortex of his face rather than projected. In fact,
everything
seemed to be drawn towards the face of this god – the dim light, the poisonous clouds, the essence of the monsters, even Annabeth’s own fragile life force. She looked around and realized that every object on this vast plain had grown a vaporous comet’s tail – all pointing towards Tartarus.
    Annabeth knew she should say something, but her instincts told her to hide, to avoid doing anything that would draw the god’s attention.
    Besides, what could she say?
You won’t get away with this!
    That wasn’t true. She and Percy had only survived this long because Tartarus was savouring his new form. He wanted the pleasure of physically ripping them to pieces. If Tartarus wished, Annabeth had no doubt he could devour her existence with a single thought, as easily as he’d vaporized Hyperion and Krios. Would there be any rebirth from that? Annabeth didn’t want to find out.
    Next to her, Percy did something she’d never seen him do. He dropped his sword. It just fell out of his hand and hit the ground with a thud. Death Mist no longer shrouded his face, but he still had the complexion of a corpse.
    Tartarus hissed again – possibly laughing.
    Your fear smells wonderful
, said the god.
I see the appeal ofhaving a physical body with so many senses. Perhaps my beloved Gaia is right, wishing to wake from her slumber.
    He stretched out his massive purple hand and might have plucked up Percy like a weed, but Bob interrupted.
    ‘Begone!’ The Titan levelled his spear at the god. ‘You have no right to