The House of Hades (Heroes of Olympus Book 4)

polished frozen Mist.
    His wedding ring, Hazel thought. But Pluto had never married Hazel’s mother. Gods did not marry mortals. That ring would signify his marriage to Persephone.
    The thought made Hazel so angry, she shook off her dizziness and stood.
    ‘What do you want?’ she demanded.
    She hoped her tone would hurt him – jab him for all the pain he’d caused her. But a faint smile played across his mouth.
    ‘My daughter,’ he said. ‘I am impressed. You have grown strong.’
    No thanks to you
, she wanted to say. She didn’t want to take any pleasure in his compliment, but her eyes still prickled.
    ‘I thought you major gods were incapacitated,’ she managed. ‘Your Greek and Roman personalities fighting against one another.’
    ‘We are,’ Pluto agreed. ‘But you invoked me so strongly that you allowed me to appear … if only for a moment.’
    ‘I didn’t invoke you.’
    But, even as she said it, she knew it wasn’t true. For the first time, willingly, she’d embraced her lineage as a child of Pluto. She’d tried to understand her father’s powers and use them to the fullest.
    ‘When you come to my house in Epirus,’ Pluto said, ‘you must be prepared. The dead will not welcome you. And the sorceress Pasiphaë –’
    ‘Pacify?’ Hazel asked. Then she realized that must be the woman’s name.
    ‘She will not be fooled as easily as Sciron.’ Pluto’s eyes glittered like volcanic stone. ‘You succeeded in your first test, but Pasiphaë intends to rebuild her domain, which will endanger
all
demigods. Unless you stop her at the House of Hades …’
    His form flickered. For a moment he was bearded, in Greek robes with a golden laurel wreath in his hair. Around his feet, skeletal hands broke through the earth.
    The god gritted his teeth and scowled.
    His Roman form stabilized. The skeletal hands dissolved back into the earth.
    ‘We do not have much time.’ He looked like a man who’d just been violently ill. ‘Know that the Doors of Death are at the lowest level of the Necromanteion. You must make Pasiphaë see what she wants to see. You are right. That is the secret to all magic. But it will not be easy when you are in her maze.’
    ‘What do you mean? What maze?’
    ‘You will understand,’ he promised. ‘And, Hazel Levesque … you will not believe me, but I am proud of your strength. Sometimes … sometimes the only way I can care for my children is to keep my distance.’
    Hazel bit back an insult. Pluto was just another deadbeat godly dad making weak excuses. But her heart pounded as she replayed his words:
I am proud of your strength.
    ‘Go to your friends,’ Pluto said. ‘They will be worried. The journey to Epirus still holds many perils.’
    ‘Wait,’ Hazel said.
    Pluto raised an eyebrow.
    ‘When I met Thanatos,’ she said, ‘you know … 
Death
 … he told me I wasn’t on your list of rogue spirits to capture. He said maybe that’s why you were keeping your distance. If you acknowledged me, you’d have to take me back to the Underworld.’
    Pluto waited. ‘What is your question?’
    ‘You’re here. Why don’t you take me to the Underworld? Return me to the dead?’
    Pluto’s form started to fade. He smiled, but Hazel couldn’t tell if he was sad or pleased. ‘Perhaps that is not what
I
want to see, Hazel. Perhaps I was never here.’

XXIX
     

PERCY
     
    P ERCY WAS RELIEVED when the demon grandmothers closed in for the kill.
    Sure, he was terrified. He didn’t like the odds of three against several dozen. But at least he understood
fighting
. Wandering through the darkness, waiting to be attacked – that had been driving him crazy.
    Besides, he and Annabeth had fought together many times. And now they had a Titan on their side.
    ‘Back off.’ Percy jabbed Riptide at the nearest shrivelled hag, but she only sneered.
    We are the arai
, said that weird voice-over, like the entire forest was speaking.
You cannot destroy us.
    Annabeth pressed against his shoulder. ‘Don’t touch them,’ she warned. ‘They’re the spirits of curses.’
    ‘Bob doesn’t like curses,’ Bob decided. The skeleton kitten Small Bob disappeared inside his coveralls. Smart cat.
    The Titan swept his broom in a wide arc, forcing thespirits back, but they came in again like the tide.
    We serve the bitter and the defeated
,
said the
arai .
We serve the slain who prayed for vengeance with their final breath. We have many curses to share with you.
    The