The Last Olympian

chance. He won’t allow my demigod children to reach sixteen. He’ll find a way to destroy them, and I won’t risk that!”
    “Certamente,” Maria said. “We will stay together. Zeus is un imbecile .”
    I couldn’t help admiring her courage, but Hades glanced nervously at the ceiling. “Maria, please. I told you, Zeus gave me a deadline of last week to turn over the children. His wrath will be horrible, and I cannot hide you forever. As long as you are with the children, you are in danger too.”
    Maria smiled, and again it was creepy how much she looked like her daughter. “You are a god, my love. You will protect us. But I will not take Nico and Bianca to the Underworld.”
    Hades wrung his hands. “Then, there is another option. I know a place in the desert where time stands still. I could send the children there, just for a while, for their own safety, and we could be together. I will build you a golden palace by the Styx.”
    Maria di Angelo laughed gently. “You are a kind man, my love. A generous man. The other gods should see you as I do, and they would not fear you so. But Nico and Bianca need their mother. Besides, they are only children. The gods wouldn’t really hurt them.”
    “You don’t know my family,” Hades said darkly. “Please, Maria, I can’t lose you.”
    She touched his lips with her fingers. “You will not lose me. Wait for me while I get my purse. Watch the children.”
    She kissed the lord of the dead and rose from the sofa. Hades watched her walk upstairs as if her every step away caused him pain.
    A moment later, he tensed. The children stopped playing as if they sensed something too.
    “No!” Hades said. But even his godly powers were too slow. He only had time to erect a wall of black energy around the children before the hotel exploded.
    The force was so violent, the entire mist image dissolved.
    When it came into focus again, I saw Hades kneeling in the ruins, holding the broken form of Maria di Angelo. Fires still burned all around him. Lightning flashed across the sky, and thunder rumbled.
    Little Nico and Bianca stared at their mother uncomprehendingly. The Fury Alecto appeared behind them, hissing and flapping her leathery wings. The children didn’t seem to notice her.
    “Zeus!” Hades shook his fist at the sky. “I will crush you for this! I will bring her back!”
    “My lord, you cannot,” Alecto warned. “You of all immortals must respect the laws of death.”
    Hades glowed with rage. I thought he would show his true form and vaporize his own children, but at the last moment he seemed to regain control.
    “Take them,” he told Alecto, choking back a sob. “Wash their memories clean in the Lethe and bring them to the Lotus Hotel. Zeus will not harm them there.”
    “As you wish, my lord,” Alecto said. “And the woman’s body?”
    “Take her as well,” he said bitterly. “Give her the ancient rites.”
    Alecto, the children, and Maria’s body dissolved into shadows, leaving Hades alone in the ruins.
    “I warned you,” a new voice said.
    Hades turned. A girl in a multicolored dress stood by the smoldering remains of the sofa. She had short black hair and sad eyes. She was no more than twelve. I didn’t know her, but she looked strangely familiar.
    “You dare come here?” Hades growled. “I should blast you to dust!”
    “You cannot,” the girl said. “The power of Delphi protects me.”
    With a chill, I realized I was looking at the Oracle of Delphi, back when she was alive and young. Somehow, seeing her like this was even spookier than seeing her as a mummy.
    “You’ve killed the woman I loved!” Hades roared. “Your prophecy brought us to this!”
    He loomed over the girl, but she didn’t flinch.
    “Zeus ordained the explosion to destroy the children,” she said, “because you defied his will. I had nothing to do with it. And I did warn you to hide them sooner.”
    “I couldn’t! Maria would not let me! Besides, they were innocent.”
    “Nevertheless, they are your children, which makes them dangerous. Even if you put them away in the Lotus Hotel, you only delay the problem. Nico and Bianca will never be able to rejoin the world lest they turn sixteen.”
    “Because of your so-called Great Prophecy. And you have forced me into an oath to have no other children. You have left me with nothing!”
    “I foresee the future,” the girl said. “I cannot change it.”
    Black fire lit the god’s eyes, and I knew something