The House of Hades (Heroes of Olympus Book 4)

throwing a fit.
    ‘Sorry.’ She wiped her face.
    ‘Hey, you know …’ Leo shrugged. ‘I’ve attacked a few rocks in my day.’
    She swallowed with difficulty. ‘Frank is … he’s –’
    ‘Listen,’ Leo said. ‘Frank Zhang has
moves
. He’s probably gonna turn into a kangaroo and do some marsupial jujitsu on their ugly faces.’
    He helped her to her feet. Despite the panic simmering inside her, she knew Leo was right. Frank and the others weren’t helpless. They would find a way to survive. The best thing she and Leo could do was carry on.
    She studied Leo. His hair had grown out longer and shaggier, and his face was leaner, so he looked less like an imp and more like one of those willowy elves in the fairy tales. The biggest difference was his eyes. They constantly drifted, as if Leo was trying to spot something over the horizon.
    ‘Leo, I’m sorry,’ she said.
    He raised an eyebrow. ‘Okay. For what?’
    ‘For …’ She gestured around her helplessly. ‘Everything. For thinking you were Sammy, for leading you on. I mean, I didn’t mean to, but if I did –’
    ‘Hey.’ He squeezed her hand, though Hazel sensed nothing romantic in the gesture. ‘Machines are designed to work.’
    ‘Uh, what?’
    ‘I figure the universe is basically like a machine. I don’t know who made it, if it was the Fates or the gods or capital-GGod or whatever. But it chugs along the way it’s supposed to most of the time. Sure, little pieces break and stuff goes haywire once in a while, but mostly … things happen for a reason. Like you and me meeting.’
    ‘Leo Valdez,’ Hazel marvelled, ‘you’re a philosopher.’
    ‘Nah,’ he said. ‘I’m just a mechanic. But I figure my
bisabuelo
Sammy knew what was what. He let you go, Hazel. My job is to tell you that it’s okay. You and Frank – you’re good together. We’re all going to get through this. I hope you guys get a chance to be happy. Besides, Zhang couldn’t tie his shoes without your help.’
    ‘That’s mean,’ Hazel chided, but she felt like something was untangling inside her – a knot of tension she’d been carrying for weeks.
    Leo really
had
changed. Hazel was starting to think she’d found a good friend.
    ‘What happened to you when you were on your own?’ she asked. ‘Who did you meet?’
    Leo’s eye twitched. ‘Long story. I’ll tell you sometime, but I’m still waiting to see how it shakes out.’
    ‘The universe is a machine,’ Hazel said, ‘so it’ll be fine.’
    ‘Hopefully.’
    ‘As long as it’s not one of
your
machines,’ Hazel added. ‘Because your machines
never
do what they’re supposed to.’
    ‘Yeah, ha-ha.’ Leo summoned fire into his hand. ‘Now, which way, Miss Underground?’
    Hazel scanned the path in front of them. About thirty feet down, the tunnel split into four smaller arteries, each one identical, but the one on the left radiated cold.
    ‘That way,’ she decided. ‘It feels the most dangerous.’
    ‘I’m sold,’ said Leo.
    They began their descent.
    As soon as they reached the first archway, the polecat Gale found them.
    She scurried up Hazel’s side and curled around her neck, chittering crossly as if to say:
Where have you been? You’re late.
    ‘Not the farting weasel again,’ Leo complained. ‘If that thing lets loose in close quarters like this, with my fire and all, we’re gonna explode.’
    Gale barked a polecat insult at Leo.
    Hazel hushed them both. She could sense the tunnel ahead, sloping gently down for about three hundred feet, then opening into a large chamber. In that chamber was a presence … cold, heavy and powerful. Hazel hadn’t felt anything like it since the cave in Alaska where Gaia had forced her to resurrect Porphyrion the giant king. Hazel had thwarted Gaia’s plans that time, but she’d had to pull down the cavern, sacrificing her life and her mother’s. She wasn’t anxious to have a similar experience.
    ‘Leo, be ready,’ she whispered. ‘We’re getting close.’
    ‘Close to what?’
    A woman’s voice echoed down the corridor: ‘Close to
me.
’
    A wave of nausea hit Hazel so hard her knees buckled. The whole world shifted. Her sense of direction, usually flawless underground, became completely unmoored.
    She and Leo didn’t seem to move, but suddenly they werethree hundred feet down the corridor, at the entrance of the chamber.
    ‘Welcome,’ said the woman’s voice. ‘I’ve looked forward to this.’
    Hazel’s eyes swept