The House of Hades (Heroes of Olympus Book 4)

earlier – like a vast deposit of obsidian, so heavy that Hazel couldn’t possibly move it, powerful and indestructible and completely devoid of emotion.
    ‘Your – your friend doesn’t say much,’ Hazel noted.
    Pasiphaë looked back at the giant and sniffed with disdain. ‘Pray he stays silent, my dear. Gaia has given me the pleasure of dealing with you, but Clytius is my, ah, insurance. Just between you and me, as sister sorceresses, I think he’s also here to keep my powers in check, in case I forget my new mistress’s orders. Gaia is careful that way.’
    Hazel was tempted to protest that she wasn’t a sorceress. She didn’t want to know how Pasiphaë planned to ‘deal’ with them, or how the giant kept her magic in check. But she straightened her back and tried to look confident.
    ‘Whatever you’re planning,’ Hazel said, ‘it won’t work. We’ve cut through every monster Gaia’s put in our path. If you’re smart, you’ll get out of our way.’
    Gale the polecat gnashed her teeth in approval, but Pasiphaë didn’t seem impressed.
    ‘You don’t look like much,’ the sorceress mused. ‘But then you demigods never do. My husband, Minos , king of Crete? He was a son of Zeus. You would never have known it by looking at him. He was almost as scrawny as that one.’ She flicked a hand towards Leo.
    ‘Wow,’ muttered Leo. ‘Minos must’ve done something really horrible to deserve
you.
’
    Pasiphaë’s nostrils flared. ‘Oh … you have no
idea
. He was too proud to make the proper sacrifices to Poseidon, so the gods punished
me
for his arrogance.’
    ‘The Minotaur,’ Hazel suddenly remembered.
    The story was so revolting and grotesque Hazel had always shut her ears when they told it at Camp Jupiter. Pasiphaë had been cursed to fall in love with her husband’s prize bull. She’d given birth to the Minotaur – half man, half bull.
    Now, as Pasiphaë glared daggers at her, Hazel realized why her expression was so familiar.
    The sorceress had the same bitterness and hatred in her eyes that Hazel’s mother sometimes had. In her worst moments, Marie Levesque would look at Hazel as if
Hazel
were a monstrous child, a curse from the gods, the source of all Marie’s problems. That’s why the Minotaur story bothered Hazel – not just the repellent idea of Pasiphaë and the bull but the idea that a child,
any
child, could be considered a monster, a punishment to its parents, to be locked away and hated. To Hazel, the Minotaur had always seemed like a victim in the story.
    ‘Yes,’ Pasiphaë said at last. ‘My disgrace was unbearable. After my son was born and locked in the Labyrinth, Minos refused to have anything to do with me. He said I had ruined
his
reputation! And do you know what happened to Minos, Hazel Levesque? For his crimes and his pride? He was
rewarded
. He was made a judge of the dead in theUnderworld, as if he had any right to judge others! Hades gave him that position.
Your father
.’
    ‘Pluto, actually.’
    Pasiphaë sneered. ‘Irrelevant. So you see, I hate demigods as much as I hate the gods. Any of your brethren who survive the war, Gaia has promised to me, so that I may watch them die slowly in my new domain. I only wish I had more time to torture you two properly. Alas –’
    In the centre of the room, the Doors of Death made a pleasant chiming sound. The green UP button on the right side of the frame began to glow. The chains shook.
    ‘There, you see?’ Pasiphaë shrugged apologetically. ‘The Doors are in use. Twelve minutes, and they will open.’
    Hazel’s gut trembled almost as much as the chains. ‘More giants?’
    ‘Thankfully, no,’ said the sorceress. ‘They are all accounted for – back in the mortal world and in place for the final assault.’ Pasiphaë gave her a cold smile. ‘No, I would imagine the Doors are being used by someone else … someone unauthorized.’
    Leo inched forward. Smoke rose from his fists. ‘Percy and Annabeth.’
    Hazel couldn’t speak. She wasn’t sure whether the lump in her throat was from joy or frustration. If their friends had made it to the Doors, if they were really going to show up here in twelve minutes …
    ‘Oh, not to worry.’ Pasiphaë waved her hand dismissively. ‘Clytius will handle them. You see, when the chime sounds again, someone on
our
side needs to push the UP button or theDoors will fail to open and whoever is inside –
poof
. Gone. Or perhaps Clytius will let them out and deal