The House of Hades (Heroes of Olympus Book 4)

if she could prevent the revelations she saw in the Mist – Leo falling through the sky; Frank stumbling through the dark, alone and gravely wounded; Percy and Annabeth at the mercy of a dark giant.
    She hated the gods’ riddles and their unclear advice. She was starting to despise crossroads.
    ‘Why are you helping me?’ Hazel demanded. ‘At Camp Jupiter, they said you sided with the
Titans
in the last war.’
    Hecate’s dark eyes glinted. ‘Because I
am
a Titan – daughter of Perses and Asteria. Long before the Olympians came to power, I ruled the Mist. Despite this, in the First Titan War, millennia ago, I sided with Zeus against Kronos . I was not blind to Kronos’s cruelty. I hoped Zeus would prove a better king.’
    She gave a small, bitter laugh. ‘When Demeter lost her daughter Persephone , kidnapped by
your
father, I guided Demeter through the darkest night with my torches, helpingher search. And when the giants rose the first time I again sided with the gods. I fought my arch-enemy Clytius, made by Gaia to absorb and defeat all my magic.’
    ‘Clytius.’ Hazel had never heard that name –
Clai-tee-us
– but saying it made her limbs feel heavy. She glanced at the images in the northern doorway – the massive dark shape looming over Percy and Annabeth. ‘Is he the threat in the House of Hades?’
    ‘Oh, he waits for you there,’ Hecate said. ‘But first you must defeat the witch. Unless you manage that …’
    She snapped her fingers, and all of the gateways turned dark. The Mist dissolved, the images gone.
    ‘We all face choices,’ the goddess said. ‘When Kronos arose the second time, I made a mistake. I supported him. I had grown tired of being ignored by the so-called
major
gods. Despite my years of faithful service, they mistrusted me, refused me a seat in their hall …’
    The polecat Gale chittered angrily.
    ‘It does not matter any more.’ The goddess sighed. ‘I have made peace again with Olympus. Even now, when they are laid low – their Greek and Roman personas fighting each other – I will help them. Greek or Roman, I have always been only Hecate. I will assist you against the giants, if you prove yourself worthy. So now it is your choice, Hazel Levesque. Will you trust me … or will you shun me, as the Olympian gods have done too often?’
    Blood roared in Hazel’s ears. Could she trust this dark goddess, who’d given her mother the magic that ruined herlife? Sorry, no. She didn’t much like Hecate’s dog nor her gassy polecat either.
    But she also knew she couldn’t let Percy and Annabeth die.
    ‘I’ll go north,’ she said. ‘We’ll take your secret pass through the mountains.’
    Hecate nodded, the slightest hint of satisfaction in her face. ‘You have chosen well, though the path will not be easy. Many monsters will rise against you. Even some of my
own
servants have sided with Gaia, hoping to destroy your mortal world.’
    The goddess took her double torches from their stands. ‘Prepare yourself, daughter of Pluto. If you succeed against the witch, we will meet again.’
    ‘I’ll succeed,’ Hazel promised. ‘And Hecate? I’m not choosing one of your paths. I’m making my own.’
    The goddess arched her eyebrows. Her polecat writhed, and her dog snarled.
    ‘We’re going to find a way to stop Gaia,’ Hazel said. ‘We’re going to rescue our friends from Tartarus. We’re going keep the crew and the ship together
and
we’re going to stop Camp Jupiter and Camp Half-Blood from going to war. We’re going to do it all.’
    The storm howled, the black walls of the funnel cloud swirling faster.
    ‘Interesting,’ Hecate said, as if Hazel were an unexpected result in a science experiment. ‘That would be magic worth seeing.’
    A wave of darkness blotted out the world. When Hazel’s sight returned, the storm, the goddess and her minions weregone. Hazel stood on the hillside in the morning sunlight, alone in the ruins except for Arion, who paced next to her, nickering impatiently.
    ‘I agree,’ Hazel told the horse. ‘Let’s get out of here.’
    ‘What happened?’ Leo asked as Hazel climbed aboard the
Argo II
.
    Hazel’s hands still shook from her talk with the goddess. She glanced over the rail and saw the dust of Arion’s wake stretching across the hills of Italy. She had hoped her friend would stay, but couldn’t blame him for wanting to get away from this place as fast as possible.
    The countryside sparkled as the summer sun hit