Heroes of Olympus 4
Rick Riordan
From SuperSummary
1. The Argo II flies over mountains in Italy on a course from Rome to the House of Hades in Greece, where they hope to find Percy and Annabeth, who fell into Tartarus at the end of The Mark of Athena. Hazel, Nico, and Leo guard the ship against boulders thrown by the numina, mountain gods and sons of Gaea who are trying to stop their quest, while Jason, Piper, Frank, and Coach Hedge rest. The ship sustains damage, so Leo retreats out of the mountains. Leo wants to wake the others to discuss a plan to cross Italy, but Hazel knows they must figure it out without them because the group has been arguing since losing their leaders, Percy and Annabeth. Hazel asks for help from her father Pluto, and her magical horse Arion appears.
2. Hazel is amazed Arion came to help her because the Mediterranean is dangerous for demigods and their allies. She summons Arion a gold nugget to eat because she can extract precious metal from the earth. Leo is concerned because Arion wants to take Hazel to a Roman temple in a tornado. Hazel knows she must go because this is her chance to lead and save her friends, so she lets Arion take her.
3. Arion takes Hazel through a stone archway into a courtyard with a crossroad leading to three different doorways obscured by the Mist. Hazel slides off Arion, and he runs away. Hecate, goddess of magic, appears with two torches in her hands, a black dog, and a polecat.
4. Hecate offers her help as the goddess of crossroads because Hazel stands at one. Hazel compares Hecate to Janus, the god of doorways, but Hecate’s choices aren’t black and white. Hecate reminds Hazel that Gaea is supposed to wake soon. In one door, Hazel sees Roman and Greek demigods fighting each other at Camp Half-Blood while she tries to stop them. In another door, the Argo II explodes from boulders thrown by the numina. In the last door, an unconscious Leo falls through the clouds, Frank staggers through a tunnel in a blood-soaked shirt, Hazel struggles to break through a magical web, and Percy and Annabeth lay unmoving in a doorway. The last vision is the only one where Percy and Annabeth survive, and it’s the most dangerous. The Argo II must go to a secret mountain pass in northern Italy, to the town of Bologna to find two brothers, Passalos and Akmon, with a treasure to help them in the House of Hades, to Venice, and then finally cross the Adriatic Sea to Greece. Hecate is the goddess of the Mist and says Hazel must learn to use the Mist to defeat an enemy in the House of Hades. If Hazel defeats her enemy, Hecate will join her for the final battle. Hecate will send Gale to check her progress. Hazel agrees to go north but chooses to make her own path to stop Gaea, rescue Percy and Annabeth, and stop the war. On the ship, Hazel tells Leo and Nico about Hecate’s path and feels different. Leo sets the course.
5. Annabeth and Percy hug as they fall through a tunnel to Tartarus. Annabeth despairs because her wits can’t save her from death by falling. When the tunnel turns into a cavern, Annabeth sees a river beneath them and tells Percy. Percy yells, and they fall into a geyser.
6. The impact separates Annabeth from Percy. Voices tell her to give up, but Percy pulls her to the surface. The river drains Percy, and Annabeth grabs him as he starts to sink. They are in the River Cocytus, or lamentation, and it wants them to give up. Percy makes a joke, and Annabeth laughs sending a shockwave through the air and dispensing the voices. They collapse on the riverbank. Annabeth realizes her backpack and the celestial bronze dagger she’s had since she was seven are gone. She helps Percy up, and they walk until they find the blue Fiat that smashed Arachne into Tartarus, who is nowhere to be found. Annabeth is freezing, and her cuts are still bleeding despite their fast-healing blood. She realizes Tartarus will kill them unless they find the River of Fire.
7. They climb down a cliff and stagger to the edge of the Phlegethon, the River of Fire. Annabeth insists they drink because it flows from Hades’s realm to allow the wicked to endure torture, the Underworld equivalent of ambrosia and nectar, which demigods eat to heal on earth. Percy and Annabeth drink it and heal. They plan how to make it to the Doors of Death to meet their friends and close the Doors to stop Gaea’s forces from entering the world. Annabeth is overwhelmed by the impossibility of their task. Arachne attacks Annabeth, but Percy draws Riptide and kills Arachne. They head downstream toward the more dangerous parts of Tartarus.
8. After walking for a bit, Percy and Annabeth hear voices and hide. The voices discuss the journey to the Doors of Death. Annabeth and Percy recognize the voice of Kelli, an empousai, vampire, who Annabeth and Percy defeated in a previous battle. Annabeth hates empousai because they use charmspeak and the Mist to manipulate mortals. Percy and Annabeth follow the monsters since they know the way to the Doors of Death.
9. Leo tries to figure out the secrets of the Athena Parthenos because Annabeth said it’s the key to defeating Gaea and stopping the war between the Romans and Greeks. Leo finds nothing and feels guilty because he secured the statue before making sure Annabeth and Percy were on board. He goes to sleep next to Athena’s statue and dreams he’s in his mother’s old workshop. Gaea taunts that death is near. A shadowy giant chases Leo through a doorway to a decimated Camp Half-Blood. Gaea’s voice tells Leo the Romans can’t be stopped marching on Camp Half-Blood. Leo runs up the hill to find the world gone. A sorceress gives Leo a choice, jump off the cliff or into a cave beneath her. She tells Leo that he will be the first to die in the House of Hades unless he chooses to escape now. Jason wakes Leo and tells him Nico has information before they get to Bologna.
10. The mess hall walls are enchanted to show scenes of Camp Half-Blood, which makes Leo feel homesick. Jason, Hazel, Frank, and Nico round out the group. Piper and Coach Hedge guard the deck. Nico communed with the dead about the House of Hades. The ghost of a priest of Hecate spoke to Nico about Hecate’s foe in the first giant war, Clytius, waiting for them. Nico’s ghost said fire is Clytius’s weakness and everyone expects Leo and his fire magic to help, but Leo can’t shake the fear from his dream. The ship lurches, and the enchanted walls show two individuals stealing things while Piper and Coach Hedge are immobilized with duct tape. Leo runs to stop them.
11. Hazel stays to help Nico, who hit his head, while Jason and Frank go with Leo. The two thieves use a magic flash-bang grenade to immobilize Leo, Jason, and Frank and steal Leo’s tool belt before escaping. Frank, who shape-shifted into a gorilla, lies unconscious while Jason uses his wind power to fly him and Leo to Bologna to look for the Kerkopes, brothers that Zeus turned into monkeys. Leo climbs a statue of Neptune and finds the one of them at a nearby table while the other sits on top of the statue with Leo’s toolbelt. He introduces himself as Akmon and the one at the table as Passalos. Jason lunges at Passalos, but he jumps on Jason and steals Leo’s zipper, so his pants fall down. Leo summons fire and Jason summons thunder, but the brothers activate the statue. Leo ducks so the magical net misses him but hangs Jason upside down from the statue. The brothers run away, and Jason tells Leo to go.
12. Leo follows the brothers until they disappear up a tower. He buys stuff with chemicals to make explosives, a laundry cord for a belt, and some junk food at a grocery store. In a doorway, he makes the explosives and looks for Jason, who doesn’t show up. Leo finds the brothers in the top room with their treasure trove. Leo holds out his grocery bag. When they come close, Leo activates his explosives which temporarily blind them, grabs his tool belt, and uses a bungee cord inside to tie them up. Akmon and Passalos try to bargain with Leo as Jason flies in the window. Jason and Leo gather their stuff. Leo finds a damaged bronze navigation device the brothers say was Odysseus’s last invention but needs a crystal. He also finds a book they stole from a god in Venice, which must have been what Hecate meant for them to find in Bologna. Jason threatens the brothers to give them the address. Akmon and Passalos beg not to be killed. Leo feels bad about killing them and makes a deal with them to set them free if they will harass the Romans marching on Camp Half-Blood.
13. Percy and Annabeth stay far enough behind Kelli and her crew to avoid being seen. They periodically stop and drink firewater from the River Phlegethon to keep themselves healthy. The empousai disappear over a cliff and climb toward ground pocked with bubbles that birth monsters. The new monsters head toward black fog where the Phlegethon meets another river, which Percy assumes obscures the Doors of Death. Percy doesn’t see the empousai anymore, but now they know where to go.
14. Percy is so focused on climbing down that he doesn’t realize how tired Annabeth is until she asks to rest. He feels guilty and pulls her into his arms on a ledge. Annabeth tries to cheer Percy up by reminding him they could’ve landed in the River Lethe, which wipes memories. That makes Percy think about his amnesia and how he wiped the memory of the Titan Iapetus. Percy tells Annabeth he renamed Iapetus Bob and left him in Hades’s palace. They climb to the bottom, and Percy realizes he's standing on skin and feels a dark presence. Percy sees movement and realizes he doesn’t know where the empousai are. He draws his sword as they encircle him and Annabeth. Kelli announces she’s thrilled to destroy Percy.
15. Kelli recognizes Annabeth from stabbing her in the back to save Percy. Percy and Annabeth stall by talking and get Kelli to kill one empousai, but the rest prepare to attack. Percy attacks Kelli and kills an empousai, but Kelli charges Annabeth. One empousai grabs Percy’s arm, and the other jumps on his back. Percy tries to get to Annabeth, who evades Kelli by throwing rocks. Percy is startled by Annabeth’s scream when Kelli throws her to the floor. Percy stumbles toward Annabeth, but the vampires bite him, and he falls to his knees. Kelli and her friends go for the kill when a Titan drops onto the battlefield.
16. Bob the Titan in a janitor's uniform tramples Kelli to dust and uses a spearhead from his broom to kill the last two empousai. Bob says his friend Percy called him, so he left his janitor job in Hades’s palace and came to help. He heals Percy’s and Annabeth’s wounds by touching them. Bob says he will lead them to a safe place because monsters are coming to find them.
17. Frank goes to bed as a bulldog to stave off demigod nightmares but awakens as a python, which confuses him because he has never changed animals in his sleep before. When he turns human again, the voices of Mars and Ares argue in his head telling him to kill the Greeks or Romans. They’ve been hounding him since a possessed Leo fired on Camp Jupiter and started the war. The voices make it hard for Frank to function, and he isn’t sure why his friends aren’t having the same problem. He gets dressed and is glad he doesn’t have to wear a hoodie to protect the magical piece of firewood that controls his lifespan because Hazel keeps it safe for him. He grabs his quiver and bow, which Leo figured out was camouflaged as a backpack. Leo constantly teases Frank and makes him feel less worthy than the others, so Mars and Ares tell Frank to kill him. Frank joins everyone on deck and sees dozens of monsters that look like cows amidst the tourists in Venice. Frank, Nico, and Hazel volunteer to go find a god despite the monsters.
18. Frank notices the monsters eat green roots and is relieved they are vegetarian. He holds hands with Hazel and wonders if he can turn into a rhino to protect her. Nico leads them through the streets to the edge of a plaza with the god’s house and a dozen cow monsters. Halfway across the plaza, Hazel stumbles on a cobblestone, and green roots sprout up underneath her. The monsters stare, and Frank realizes their gaze is poisonous before the creatures attack. Nico and Hazel bolt while Frank tries to turn into a rhinoceros, but Mars’s and Ares’s voices distract him, so he stays human. Frank turns into a lion and starts killing monsters. They back off except for one, who charges and blasts him in the face with poisonous gas. Frank forces himself not to breathe and feels dizzy. Frank turns human and sees Hazel slumped against the wall. Nico says she got a blast of gas to the face. The monsters bellow for reinforcements, and Nico tells Frank to turn into an eagle and fly Hazel back to the ship. A man appears at the door of a black house and says he can cure her.
19. Safe inside, Frank sets Hazel on the bed concerned about her green appearance. The man says they were attacked by katobleps. Frank asks if the man can cure Hazel, so the man examines her. Frank wonders if Hazel is doing a death trance like Nico, and the man freaks out when he learns Nico and Hazel are Underworld children. He turns Nico into a corn plant and reveals he’s Triptolemus, the god of farming. He threatens to turn Frank into a plant, so Frank pulls out the book from Akmon and Passalos. Triptolemus is thrilled, so Frank asks him to heal Nico and Hazel. Triptolemus has a feud with Hades because Demeter gave him his powers. A child of Hades also killed one of his wheel pythons, so his chariot can’t go anywhere. Frank offers to fix his chariot in exchange for letting Nico and Hazel go and giving them aid in defeating Gaea. Triptolemus agrees to Frank’s terms, but if Frank fails, his friends die.
20. Frank doesn’t see any katobleps in the streets. Mars and Ares argue in his head, and Frank asks the war god about serpents. Ares and Mars say Frank must prove his worth and cleanse Venice like Horatio for them to turn an enemy into a snake. Frank gets a vision of Horatius the Roman general single-handedly holding off a horde of invaders on a bridge to save Rome. Frank unearths roots and ties them to his belt. The katobleps gather, and Frank runs through the city transforming into different animals and taunting the monsters until all of them follow. He leads them to a bridge empty of people where the monsters charge and Frank sees red surrounded by the blessing of Mars. He kills all the monsters except one, which he asks Mars to turn into a snake. The katobleps charges, Frank kills him, and it turns into a python. Mars appears and tells Frank he did well, but Frank’s greatest test will come when he faces Gaea’s armies at the House of Hades. Frank looks and feels different, which is a blessing from Mars. Frank takes the python to Triptolemus and demands healing for Hazel and Nico. Triptolemus dithers until Frank slams him into the wall and threatens him. Triptolemus heals Hazel with herbs and transforms Nico. He tells them to take barley to soak up the poison in the House of Hades then flies away.
21. Percy and Annabeth follow Bob through Tartarus, which Annabeth is convinced is the actual body of the god Tartarus. Bob explains he jumped into Tartarus because Percy needed him. Annabeth thinks about how Percy, Thalia, and Nico fought him as Iapetus, wiped his memory, and then dropped him at Hades’s palace where he became a janitor. She feels sorry for him and is scared he is going to remember his old identity, but they can’t survive without him, so she keeps following. Bob leads them to a Hermes shrine that fell into Tartarus long ago; monsters avoid it. Bob says giants are chasing them, but they can rest for a little bit. Annabeth is nervous about leaving Bob on guard, so Percy decides to keep watch also. Annabeth sleeps.
22. Annabeth has nightmares about her journey to Camp Half-Blood that change into Athena speaking through Reyna, the praetor of Camp Jupiter. She tells Annabeth the Athena Parthenos must be delivered to Camp Half-Blood by a Roman. Athena tells her to hurry and send the message, then she disappears as Gaea rises. Annabeth wakes up screaming. Percy brings her food that was sacrificed to Hermes from the mortal world. They eat and realize it’s from Camp Half-Blood. Bob says they should leave because the monsters will be here soon. Annabeth is angry Percy told Bob about their journey, but Percy says they need him. Bob says they can’t go because they need to get the death mist to hide them from monsters. Before they leave, Annabeth picks up a napkin and uses Riptide to write a message to Rachel, the Oracle of Delphi. Bob burns the message on the altar, and they leave.
23. Tartarus is so dark the only light is from Riptide and a glowing Bob. Annabeth trips and falls on the Titan Hyperion being reformed. Annabeth wants to kill Hyperion before he wakes up but sees Bob studying him. They are identical twins except Bob is silver and Hyperion is gold. Percy reminds Bob that some monsters are good, and some are bad. Bob is a good Titan, but Hyperion is a bad Titan because he tried to kill lots of people. Bob is still unconvinced because Hyperion looks like him, but Percy says he’s not good like Bob. Bob kills Hyperion with his broom saying he’s a bad Titan and can’t hurt Bob’s friends. Annabeth is concerned about Percy; either he trusts the Titan too much or he is calculating, and Annabeth doesn’t like either option.
24. After walking a long time, Bob senses something, and they surround it. Bob gets ready to spear it, but Annabeth stops him when she sees a calico kitten. It rubs against Bob, who picks it up. It climbs on the Titan’s shoulder and sleeps. It flashes to show its skeleton, and Percy realizes that the Titan Atlas raised it from a skeleton tooth in the Titan War. Bob calls him Small Bob and announces he’s a good monster. They keep walking and enter a forest where flying monsters called the arai, which means curses, surround them.
25. Hecate’s polecat Gale appears on Hazel’s chest two nights after Venice, so Hazel visits Coach Hedge because he can talk to animals. She overhears him tearfully sending an Iris-message. Gale communicates to Coach Hedge that she’s here to see how it goes. Hazel realizes she is about to be tested and is frustrated because she has been unsuccessfully trying to manipulate the Mist. In her dreams, her father Pluto told her, “The dead see what they believe they will see. So do the living. That is the secret” (190). Hazel doesn’t know what it means, and her dreams get worse with the sorceress she must defeat taunting her while her friends die. Frank checks on her, and they worry about Nico, who spends all his time perched on the foremast and refuses to use Percy’s cabin. Frank asks about Gale, and the ship lurches.
26. Frank helps Hazel up from the deck where they see a turtle the size of an island eating the Argo II. They try to stop it, but nothing works. Nico sees a strait and tells Leo to go there. Leo starts the jet engines, and they shoot across the water toward the strait, but the turtle gains on them. Hazel calls Arion and asks Piper to come with her. They gallop around the turtle, with Hazel attacking and Piper yelling commands in charmspeak until the Argo II is safe. The turtle waits outside the strait, and, surrounded by cliffs, they realize it’s a dead end. An arrow sinks into the mast with a note telling them to send two of their crew up the cliff with their valuables or they will be destroyed. Gale looks at her and Hazel realizes this is her test, but she still doesn’t know how to manipulate the Mist. Hazel volunteers to go because she can summon gold and jewels from the earth to pay off the threat. Jason wants to go because he can use the wind to keep them from falling.
27. Jason walks behind Hazel with Gale on her shoulder to catch her if she falls. Hazel wishes somebody else was her backup because she is nervous around Jason. Jason asks Hazel if she can control the Mist, and Hazel says she can’t. Jason believes in her. At the top, Gale jumps off Hazel’s shoulder. Sciron, son of Poseidon greets them, and swears on the River Styx if they give him what he wants he will send them down the cliff. Jason suggests fighting, so Sciron shoots a groove through Jason’s hair and a hole between Frank’s legs at the same time. Hazel tries to stall, and Sciron gets angry because Gaea promised he could rob demigods. Hazel summons treasure from the earth. Sciron is delighted but asks for the Athena Parthenos. Hazel tells him if Gaea gets the statue, she will rise, and Sciron will die. He agrees not to take the Athena Parthenos, but they must wash his feet before they leave, which makes Hazel remember how he kills his victims. She tells Jason that Sciron kicks his victims off the cliff into the mouth of the giant turtle when they kneel to wash his feet. Jason wants to fight, but Hazel says he’s too fast. Hazel sees Gale, remembers Pluto in her dream, and tells Jason the plan.
28. Hazel realizes the key to using the Mist is letting someone see what they want to see. Sciron sits on a rock facing the ocean, and Jason washes his foot as Hazel imagines what Sciron sees when he kicks Jason. In her mind, Hazel sees Jason fall, get eaten by a turtle, and Piper wailing on deck. She acts upset that Sciron killed Jason, and Sciron promises he won’t kill Hazel. She reluctantly kneels and forces Sciron to turn so the sea is at his back but manipulates the Mist so he still thinks Hazel is on the cliff’s edge. She cleans his foot, and Sciron kicks her away from him on the grass as the Mist falls away. Jason flies up and slams Sciron over the cliff into the turtle’s mouth. Hazel collapses and wakes in the Mist on the cliff with Pluto. Pluto warns her the sorceress Pasiphaë in the House of Hades won’t be fooled as easily as Sciron. Hazel must make Pasiphaë see what she wants to see, but it will be harder in the maze. Pluto is proud of her, and the only way he can care for his children is to keep his distance. Hazel asks why he isn’t taking her to the Underworld since she’s an escaped spirit. He says perhaps it’s because that isn’t what he wants to see.
29. The arai are spirits of curses. If they kill one, they get a curse, but if they don’t kill them, the demons rip them to shreds. Bob swings his broom forcing them back, but they surge forward again. Percy cuts one in half, which leaves him with pain from an arrow wound straight through his side. He remembers killing the monster Geryon with an arrow through all three of his hearts at once. The arai remind Percy of all the curses that have been leveled at him and ask him to choose how he will die. Annabeth kills one with a rock, and she goes blind, a curse from Polyphemus who she tricked with her invisibility cap in the Sea of Monsters. Percy pulls Annabeth close, and Bob sweeps the arai back, killing a few with no negative effect. The arai say Percy has already cursed Bob by destroying his memory. Bob is shocked Percy took his memory, and Percy pleads with him that he tried to be his friend. Only Nico visited Bob and said Percy was a good friend, which is why Bob helped. Bob doesn’t stop the arai’s next attack.
30. Percy kills arai and leads Annabeth into the forest away from them. Percy pulls Annabeth away from a cliff’s edge just in time, and they are trapped by the arai. One grabs Annabeth, so she kills it, but she can’t see or get to Percy, and the arai won’t let Percy help her. Annabeth unleashes a curse from Calypso to feel her despair and perish alone and abandoned. Percy decides to protect Annabeth for as long as he can no matter how many curses he suffers.
31. Percy cuts down many arai but slows as he feels the effects of the curses. As he tries to get Annabeth, he kills a demon and gets the curse of Phineas, a painful death by Gorgon’s blood. Percy calls out for Bob even though he knows he doesn’t deserve his help or friendship. He’s close to death and thinks of Nico. Percy knows he didn’t treat Nico well, and he only made it this far because Nico was friends with Bob. Percy whispers an apology to Bob for not being a better friend to die with a clear conscience. Percy wants to go out fighting. He raises Riptide, but before he can strike the arai start exploding.
32. Percy watches Bob kill all the arai who don’t flee. Bob gets Annabeth and heals her of her curses. Bob studies Percy and all his curses, and Annabeth begs Bob to heal Percy. Bob says his name was Iapetus before. Annabeth likes Bob better and asks which name he likes, but he doesn’t know. Bob promised Nico he would help, and he doesn’t break promises. Bob touches Percy and slows the poison, but he can’t cure him. They hear Polybotes, the monster who hates Poseidon and his children, call for Percy. Bob says there is one good giant, and he will take them unless Polybotes and his crew catch them first.
33. Jason kills the last wind spirits attacking the ship but forgets to hold his breath, so he blacks out into a dream. He sees his old comrades from Camp Jupiter, including Octavian and Reyna, on the roof of a Manhattan building. Grover the satyr and Rachel the Oracle of Delphi join them. Rachel has a message from Annabeth for Reyna, who is shocked that Annabeth wants her to bring the Athena Parthenos to Camp Half-Blood to prevent war. Reyna considers it while Octavian insists it's a Greek trick. Reyna decides to go and calls for her Pegasus, but she hasn’t forgotten the Greeks declared war first. Rachel and Grover leave as Octavian questions Reyna. She says it’s in the best interest of Rome, and she knows where to find Jason. Jason remembers a conversation with Reyna and knows what she’s talking about. Octavian says the Greeks sent the Kerkopes who have been terrorizing them and this is another trick. Reyna tells him not to attack Camp Half-Blood until she returns. She leaves, and Octavian tells the others there’s been a change of plans. Jason hears Piper tell him to wake up and sees the ocean hurtling toward him.
34. Jason has just enough time to summon the winds and avoid smashing into the water. He tells Leo to change course and tells the crew about his dream. They can’t believe Annabeth is still alive and that Reyna is risking being stripped of her position and life to find them. Jason thinks about Camp Jupiter and the changes he wants to implement to make it more Greek, but he also wants to go back to Camp Half-Blood with Piper. Jason says Reyna’s expecting them to go to Diocletian’s Palace and get Diocletian’s scepter to summon the ghostly Roman legions to fight in the House of Hades. He can leave a message for Reyna too. Nico agrees to go with Jason to help him speak to Diocletian’s ghost. Jason is uneasy around Nico because of Percy’s stories about him.
35. Jason sees an angel and points him out to Nico. When they get close, the angel gestures to Diocletian's palace and disappears. Jason picks Nico up and flies them into the courtyard. Nico reveals he’s been here with his family before. Jason tries to relate and mentions Percy, which causes Nico to clam up. Piper told Jason a rumor that Nico likes Annabeth, so Jason assumes that is the reason. They follow the angel underground to a bust of Diocletian where Jason leaves a note for Reyna. The angel reveals himself as Favonius, the god of the West Wind. He’s here because his master, Eros the god of love, took the scepter. Favonius says Nico must face a difficult trial to get it. Nico looks ill. Jason tries to encourage him, and Nico tells Favonius to take them to Eros.
36. Favonius brings Jason and Nico to the ruins of the town of Salona, the home of Cupid. Favonius warns Nico about lying to Cupid and disappears. The ground shakes, and Nico and Jason pull their sword as Cupid’s voice taunts them and tosses them around. Jason asks for the scepter, but Cupid says only an officer of Rome can lead dead Roman legions. Jason hesitates because he doesn’t feel Roman anymore. Nico asks for the scepter, and Cupid calls Nico a coward who can’t face his feelings. Nico summons dead soldiers and a wave of darkness rolls off him and envelops Jason, who almost loses consciousness from fear, hatred, and shame. Jason sees visions of Percy and Nico and realizes Nico is in love with Percy. Jason tries to tell Nico he understands, but Nico says he doesn’t belong. Cupid becomes visible when Nico admits his crush on Percy and then dissolves, leaving the scepter of Diocletian in his place. Nico tells Jason not to tell anyone. Jason imagines what it would be like for Nico to keep a secret that would’ve been unthinkable for him to share in the 1940s when he was born. He tells Nico he did the bravest thing he’s ever seen. Nico shadow-travels them to the ship.
37. Losing her sight and being isolated was terrible, but Annabeth decides watching Percy slowly die while not being able to help is worse. Bob carries Percy on his shoulder with Annabeth barely able to keep up. Bob leads her to a hut in the middle of a swamp where a drakon skull encircles an oak tree. She hears a roar before a drakon charges.
38. Bob tells Annabeth it’s a Maeonian drakon, and they can’t kill it. Annabeth decides to distract it while Bob takes Percy to safety. A giant emerges from the hut and kills the drakon. Bob introduces Damasen the giant. Annabeth asks him to help Percy, and Damasen invites them in for drakon meat stew.
39. Bob puts Percy in bed while Damasen makes stew, and Annabeth pleads with Damasen to heal Percy. When pleading doesn’t work, Annabeth goads that he isn’t talented enough to cure gorgon’s blood. Bob stirs the stew while Damasen makes medicine and feeds it to Percy. Percy wakes up before passing out. Annabeth tells Damasen about her life though he makes her uneasy. She hesitates when broaching Gaea because Gaea is Damasen’s mother, and his father is Tartarus. Damasen is a disappointment to them, but she should worry about Tartarus actively opposing them. He was created to oppose Ares, the god of war, so he is a peaceful giant who refused to fight the gods. When he avenged a mortal friend’s death by killing the Maeonian drakon, Gaea exiled him to the belly of Tartarus where he must kill that same drakon every day. Annabeth explains the plan to hide in the Death Mist, which Damasen thinks is a long shot. Annabeth tries to convince him to come with them as Bob puts her to sleep next to Percy.
40. Annabeth wakes to Damasen and Bob talking. Damasen doubts Bob can guide them past Night and questions his motives for helping. Bob counters with his reason for helping Percy. Damasen can’t help them further because it is not his fate. Bob questions the idea of fate and admits he liked being Bob better before remembering Iapetus. Damasen packs while Bob dreams about seeing the sun and stars again. The roar of the Maeonian drakon wakes a confused Percy. Damasen gives them supplies saying they must go because the drakon will lead others to them. Annabeth thinks about the Prophecy of Seven and realizes Damasen must come with them to close the Doors. Damasen thinks he can’t escape his fate. Annabeth tells him to find another fate that leads to seeing the sun and stars. The drakon roars again followed by the sound of Polybotes yelling for Percy. Damasen gives Annabeth a drakon bone sword and urges them to go. Annabeth wants to cry, but Bob and Percy hurry her out the door. She doesn’t look back as Damasen shouts his despairing battle cry once again.
41. There is an ice storm in July. Nico blames the scepter, but Piper fears it’s something worse. Frank, Hazel, and Nico go below deck because of the cold. Leo has shut the ship’s engine Festus the dragon down for maintenance. Jason, Piper, and Leo reflect on their quest together. Piper considers how different Jason and Leo are after going through hardships, and she doesn’t feel the same either. Piper has been thinking about the Prophecy of Seven and the line to storm or fire the world must fall. The world in Greek means Earth (Gaea), so Jason (storm) or Leo (fire) must destroy Gaea. Piper connects that with the later line, an oath to keep with a final breath. Piper thinks it means Jason or Leo will defeat Gaea and the other will die.
42. Leo starts to dissect Piper’s words while Jason cautions them not to think too hard about the prophecy. Piper hopes she’s wrong, but the quest started with them, so the war will probably end with them. She smells something familiar in the air and tells Leo to sound the alarm, but he can’t because Festus is disconnected. Piper tells him to get Greek fire and Jason to summon the southerly winds. Jason draws his sword but is frozen in place. Leo summons flames while clutching the Archimedes sphere, but icy wind douses his flames and launches him into the clouds. A block of ice seals the entrance from below deck, and Piper is alone. She wishes she had better weapons than a fortune-telling knife, a cornucopia of plenty, and her charmspeak as Khione the goddess of snow and the Boreads appear on deck.
43. Piper accidentally shoots blueberry muffins from her cornucopia, and Cal and Zethes eat them. The Boreads are under orders from Gaea to take her friends as ice sculptures to Quebec. Piper wonders how they are in the Mediterranean during summer, and Khione says their power grows as Gaea wakes. Zethes was promised Piper in exchange for his help. Piper refuses and tells him to let Jason go. Zethes defrosts Jason, and he falls to the floor alive, but Khione immediately refreezes him. Piper is relieved her friends are alive and tries to think of a plan to save them. Leo gets a special punishment; he was sent to a place which he can never return from because he insulted Khione. Piper thinks of Leo and realizes Festus can shoot flames, but he’s deactivated. Piper decides Annabeth would talk until she figured out a plan, so she asks about her fate. Khione says Piper is the daughter of a useless goddess, so she will be stranded on the Argo II blown off course by a sphere of northern winds. After Gaea rises, Zethes will retrieve her as his wife. Piper remembers all the mean girls she’s dealt with and hears her mother’s voice telling her to use their fear of her. Piper starts laughing and tells Khione she has a secret to stop Gaea. Khione demands to know, and Piper leads them toward the prow.
44. Piper pushes between the Boreads to Festus. Piper knows she can’t fight or outwit them, but she can use her charmspeak to manipulate people to do what she wants. She tells the Boreads about Khione’s humiliation in battle, and they laugh. Khione freezes their mouths and insists Piper show the secret. Piper touches Festus’s neck and tells him he’s a living creature and a good friend. She tells the Boreads that Khione underestimates them and if they put down the wind bomb, Khione will be humiliated. Zethes rolls it across the deck, and Piper reveals her secret weapon is a live Festus. The Boreads raise their swords, and Festus comes alive and vaporizes them. The wind sphere begins to crack as Piper charges Khione with her knife. Khione grabs her wrist and freezes her dagger and arm. Festus creaks, and Piper feels warm as she remembers her love for him and her friends. Piper believes in the superhuman power of love, which melts the ice on her blade and arm. Piper stabs Khione, making her explode. Piper dives for the bomb as the ice shatters.
45. Percy, Annabeth, and Bob journey in the darkness. They can’t see their pursuers, but Percy can sense Polybotes. It gets harder to fight dark thoughts, which means they are close according to Bob. Annabeth grabs Percy’s hand and reminds him they are together. The darkness opens into a clearing where a sobbing woman kneels on the ground.
46. Percy, Annabeth, and Bob trudge toward Akhlys. Bob says she has the Death Mist that can hide them. Akhyls doesn’t want to help, so Annabeth taunts her, saying she doesn’t have enough power to help them. Annoyed, Akhlys claims the Death Mist is the breath of Tartarus and shrouds mortals in misery as their souls pass into the Underworld. As goddess of poisons, she offers their pick of poisons as a less painful way to die than the Doors of Death. Annabeth points out that if they fail Akhlys can gloat over their spirits for eternity, or if they succeed Akhlys can relish in the monsters’ misery. Akhlys concedes and tells them to come. Bob disappears because only mortals can take the path of the Death Mist.
47. Percy and Annabeth follow Akhlys’s path of poisonous flowers until they arrive at a peninsula where Night meets the black void below, Tartarus which is as close to nothingness as a mortal can come. They are enveloped in the Death Mist and can barely move. Akhlys blossoms poisonous plants around them because death follows the Death Mist. Percy draws Riptide, but it passes through Akhlys like a breeze because they are the shadow before death and don’t have time to learn to control their new form.
48. Akhlys attacks Percy with her claws, and he stumbles back, unused to his misty form. Annabeth leads Akhlys on a chase until she is thrown to the ground. Percy starts calling Akhlys happy names to throw her off balance. Akhlys surrounds Percy with poisonous plants, and he starts choking on poison trickling from the plants toward him. He realizes it’s partly water and focuses until something cracks inside and he redirects the tide of poison toward Akhlys. She stumbles backward, surrounded, as Annabeth begs him to stop. Percy wills the poison to recede and tells Akhlys to leave. She flees as the poison evaporates. Annabeth runs to Percy and says some things aren’t meant to be controlled. They back away from the cliff as a presence emerges from the void calling herself Night.
49. Leo regains consciousness as he falls through the clouds with a hazy memory of Khione taunting him. He sees a tiny island in the ocean and realizes he will crash land in the water. Still holding the Archimedes sphere, he pulls things from his toolbelt and constructs a makeshift personal helicopter that explodes and flings him onto the island. Leo staggers across the beach until he finds the sphere on top of a smashed dining table. When he grabs it, a beautiful girl starts yelling that he blew up her dining table. Leo is annoyed because he didn’t mean to crash out of the sky. She tells the gods to take him back. She leads Leo across the beach complaining that he ruined the table. He crashes into her when she stops while he’s wondering where the one footpath leads. He’s supposed to say he wants to leave Ogygia, and a raft will appear to take him wherever he wants. He tries, but no magical raft appears. She yells at the sky and disappears down the path. Leo follows.
50. The path leads to a beautiful garden where Leo finds the girl crying. She tells him to leave her alone. She is Calypso, daughter of the Titan Atlas, whom she supported in his fight against the gods and was imprisoned on Ogygia as punishment. She allowed herself to hope after the Second Titan War when Percy made the gods vow to offer amnesty to their enemies, but nothing changed. Leo remembers Percy saying she was sweet and helpful. For 3,000 years the gods sent Calypso the greatest heroes to fall in love with before they leave, and now they mock her by sending Leo. Leo is angry because he knows if he was Jason she would fall in love with him. He agrees to leave her alone and build something to get off the island. She says the gods have closed Ogygia, so he can’t leave.
51. Leo has no idea what is happening in the outside world or how many days have passed. Calypso sends him food and clothes, and he makes camp near her footpath. One day Leo finds metal scraps from Hephaestus’s workshop, lugs them to his camp, makes a forge, and begins to work. Calypso brings him his fireproofed favorite clothes that burned up months ago. Leo teases her about liking him, and she says it’s in return for him fixing her things. He shows her the mirror he made to see his friends, but it doesn’t work. Calypso enchants it with song, and it shows Camp Half-Blood getting ready for war. Not far away, the Romans assemble, but their ranks are scattered by Akmon and Passalos who Leo sent. Octavian holds a Roman standard that shoots lightning according to Percy. Calypso tears up at his name, and Leo gets angry at Percy for hurting her. The mirror goes dark after showing Reyna being attacked by monsters while crossing the ocean. Leo begs Calypso to get the picture back, but she thinks Reyna is his girlfriend. Leo tries to explain when Gaea erupts from the earth and promises she will destroy Ogygia and let Calypso leave if she will kill Leo. Calypso tells Gaea she is trespassing, so Gaea disappears. Calypso says his friends need him if Gaea wants him dead and he must go back.
52. Calypso gathers supplies for Leo’s journey. He shows her the navigation device he’s making and offers to take him with her. Calypso is touched, but she’s cursed not to leave. He must go stop Gaea. Leo wonders why she cares, and Calypso knows the gods are better than the Titans and giants. Leo asks her to make a fireproof fabric bag and get him a crystal from her cave. She agrees and helps him twist screws. Leo tells her they could open their own machine shop, a dream he’s never shared with anyone else. Two nights later, they sit on the beach eating dinner. Leo plans to build a boat and leave in another week. Calypso asks if his navigation device works, and he tells her it will work to leave but getting back is complicated. Calypso says it’s impossible for any man to come to the island twice. Leo insists he’s always been a rule breaker and is coming back because he can’t leave her after she helped him. A raft appears in the waves, and Calypso hurries Leo to get everything on board before it disappears. Leo asks why the raft came since it only comes for people she loves. She kisses him and tells him to go. As Leo’s raft takes him away, he swears on the River Styx to come back for Calypso.
53. The goddess Night, Nyx, announces she wants to kill them. Annabeth stalls by talking about the Tartarus brochure, which barely mentioned her. Nyx is confused, and Percy and Annabeth explain they booked the Tartarus excursion to see cool stuff, but Nyx wasn’t important enough to be featured. Waves of darkness roll off Nyx, and Annabeth forces Percy to lower his sword because she can’t be defeated by force. Annabeth questions how many other demigods have visited on Nyx the tour because she isn’t newsworthy.
54. Nyx cracks her whip and calls her army of children to her side. Percy is on the verge of panic, but Annabeth, as a daughter of Athena, controls her mind and tells herself it’s a scary movie. She worries a photograph won’t come out and suggests going to a restaurant near the Doors of Death instead. Nyx claims they can only reach the Doors through the halls of her Mansion of Night, which appears in the abyss below. Annabeth knows it’s the way they must go, so she asks for a photograph of Nyx and her favorite child. They begin to fight, and all Nyx’s children release darkness until it is so dark no one can see. Annabeth and Percy hold hands and jump.
55. Annabeth and Percy hurtle toward the Mansion of Night and Annabeth envisions her death before hitting the floor. She pulls Percy into a run as Nyx and her children continue to argue. Annabeth uses her senses other than sight to guide them through the Mansion. She hears a throbbing heartbeat and runs toward it. Percy stops her before she falls over the edge.
56. Percy stops her from falling off a cliff. He can sense the River Acheron, the River of Pain, below them with no bridge across to the other side. The souls in the river remind Annabeth of all the deaths that were her fault, and Percy grabs her. They hear Nyx and her children, so Annabeth holds onto Percy, who uses the force of the river to propel them across to land on the heart of Tartarus. Between them and the Doors of Death is a plain crowded with monsters. Bob appears and greets them with a hug. Annabeth hopes the Death Mist works.
57. Piper jumped on the north wind sphere, which limited the damage to their ship and blew them to the harbor of the lord of the South Winds in North Africa. Jason waits for his daily audience with the South Wind, whose Roman and Greek personality changes day to day. Jason hopes he will let them go. Hazel, Frank, and Coach Hedge try to fix the ship, but without Leo, they are struggling. Nico says Percy is close to the Doors of Death and blames Jason for being here. Jason tries to be compassionate knowing Nico fears people accepting him, but Nico lashes out and Jason challenges him for hiding his feelings. Nico vows to take them to the Doors of Death and then leave forever. Jason is summoned to the wind god’s court as Nico disappears.
58. Auster, the stormy Roman South Wind, greets Jason. Auster accuses Jason of being undecided, easily blown by the wind like him, and Jason realizes he's talking about him wrestling with being Greek or Roman. Jason is torn over leaving Camp Jupiter but feels like Camp Half-Blood is the right choice. Auster lets Jason use his venti as wind horses to take the Argo II to Leo if Jason can control them. The horses run around Jason switching from hot dry winds to stormy winds unable to choose between their Greek and Roman forms until Jason chooses to be Greek. They settle down and allow him to lasso them. Auster changes to his Greek form, Notus, and tells him to go to Malta and release the horses. When Jason’s choice between storm or fire comes again, Jason is to remember the lord of the South Winds. The doors open, and the horses bolt.
59. The Argo II crew stays below deck as Jason lashes the venti horses to the prow, guides them to Malta, and lets them go. Piper feeds Jason ambrosia while the others wait for word to come on deck. Jason has been worried about Piper since her encounter with Khione because she’s practiced sword fighting nonstop with Hazel and started carrying Zethe’s bronze sword on her back. Piper reassures him as Festus guides them to the dock. Jason spots a makeshift raft with a Celestial bronze rudder and knows Leo’s here.
60. They find Leo in a café, and Jason is shocked at his appearance since Leo is wearing the same clothes that burned months ago. Everyone is happy to see him, but Jason notices he seems different. Jason tries to get him to share what happened, but Leo doesn’t want to and asks about their adventures instead. Frank mentions Malta was where the sorceress Calypso lived, and Leo goes white and insists they get back to the ship. Jason is concerned about Leo but tells everyone to wrap it up. Hazel, Jason, and Nico see a streak of darkness shooting in the sky in the distance. It’s from the House of Hades where the Doors of Death work overtime to let Gaea’s forces into the mortal world. Leo has a few tricks up his sleeve to get them there before it’s too late.
61. Bob leads Percy and Annabeth through the monster army. Bob can see them through the Death Mist because they are friends. Percy spots a defeated foe and wonders how many of the enemies he’s defeated are waiting to go back to the mortal world. Percy feels hopeless for a minute until he looks at Annabeth and feels hope again. A voice calls Iapetus.
62. Koios, Titan of the North, greets Bob as Iapetus and teases him about getting his memory wiped and Hades using him as a janitor. Koios talks about the good old days of them holding down their father Ouranos while Kronos killed him. All the giants are back in the mortal world with Polybotes being the last one to go. After Koios leaves, Bob is unsettled about being reminded of the past. Percy tells Bob he can choose what to do with the future; he doesn’t have to be chained to his past. Bob leads them toward the Doors, and Percy realizes the Underworld rivers run through the heart. They come over a ridge and see the Doors of Death flanked by the Titans Hyperion and Krios, Bob’s older brothers. Annabeth asks if Bob can fight them, and he doesn’t answer.
63. The Death Mist continues to camouflage them as they walk close to the Doors of Death, which are held to the ground by chains guarded by Hyperion and Krios. The doors open, a group of monsters rush in, and Krios holds the button after the doors close. The Doors are meant to roam, with only Thanatos, the god of death, knowing the location, but the Titans chained them down so they can get back to the mortal world. When someone is in the elevator, another person must hold the button for 12 minutes or the rider will be trapped between worlds. If they cut the chains and press the button, the Doors will reset and disappear from Tartarus. Percy and Annabeth decide to cut the chains while Bob distracts the Titans. Bob volunteers to stay behind and push the button for them. Percy wants to stay behind and help Bob while Annabeth goes to safety. Annabeth is suspicious of Percy’s motives, so he distracts her with the chains.
64. Hyperion teases Iapetus about being Bob while Percy and Annabeth get in position. Bob remembers cutting up Ouranos as Hyperion says Bob was always conflicted about it. The elevator doors open, and monsters rush in. Percy counts down with Annabeth while Bob agrees to take guard duty. Krios and Hyperion argue about who gets a break. Percy and Annabeth raise their weapons, but an explosion throws them backward. When they stand, their Death Mist is gone, and Krios and Hyperion have disintegrated. Tartarus appears as his physical self and announces he will destroy Percy and Annabeth.
65. The Argo II flies over Greece and stops close to the House of Hades. When Frank gets Coach Hedge for the battle, he overhears him talking to Mellie. Coach Hedge explains he married his girlfriend, and she’s expecting a baby at Camp Half-Blood. Coach Hedge wants to protect her but can’t. Frank promises not to tell anyone. Leo asks Hazel for the piece of firewood that represents Frank’s life and puts it in a fireproof bag. Frank is unconvinced it will work, so Leo asks if he trusts him. Frank hands it over, and Leo tries to set it on fire but can’t. Frank feels a huge weight off his chest and decides to carry it into the House of Hades. They see darkness emanating from the House of Hades. Nico holds Diocletian’s scepter, which makes Frank nervous because Nico still doesn’t know how to use it. Frank suggests Coach Hedge stay behind and guard the ship, and Jason leads the rest.
66. Nico leads the crew to the House of Hades where they eat the barley cakes from Triptolemus to protect them from the poison, and then they go inside to the chalice of poison. Hazel leads the way underground because she can sense the correct path in underground tunnels. Frank hears a voice that waits for him in Pylos, and it tells him that to survive the House of Hades he must lead and take charge at the break. When they arrive at a cavern with three passages, Nico and Hazel hesitate, and Frank points to a doorway with a Roman ghost that Nico and Hazel can’t see. The floor starts vibrating, and Hazel insists on going first to scout a path. Leo follows behind to provide light, but Frank’s gut tells him it’s too late. The ghost vaporizes, and hundreds of monsters enter the cavern. Some monsters throw stones that shatter the floor. Frank tackles Hazel and Leo into the tunnel free of monsters. The cavern shudders, and a chasm opens between them and Jason, Piper, and Nico, who are trapped by monsters. Frank remembers the ghostly voice that told him to take charge. He yells at Nico to use the scepter, and a ghostly Roman legion emerges. Jason tries to direct the ghosts, but they don’t listen. Frank tells Hazel and Leo to keep going and save Percy and Annabeth. Frank ducks to avoid more rocks, and when he gets up the entrance to the tunnel has caved in, and Leo and Hazel are gone. Frank hopes they are still alive as he charges the monster army.
67. The ghosts Nico summoned wander confused while the monsters attack. Frank shoots all his arrows as he makes his way to Jason, Piper, and Nico. An arrow pierces his bicep, and the pain makes it hard to focus, but he picks up a sword and starts slashing through monsters. He watches his friends fight, and Jason tries to rally the ghosts who won’t listen. Frank realizes this is his test of leadership and fights his way to his friends through pain. Frank tells the ghosts to lock shields, and a few listen. Jason resigns his post as praetor of the Twelfth Legion and promotes Frank. Frank feels the power of Mars and Ares come on him and orders the legion to form ranks. They form a defensive line in front of Frank, Jason, Piper, and Nico then advance on the monsters. Frank tells Jason to fly legionnaires over and flank the enemy, Nico to raise more ghosts, and Piper to counter the empousai demons who are trying to charmspeak the monsters. Frank grabs his sword and charges at the head of his legion.
68. Later, Jason tells Frank the blessing of Mars shrouded him in a red protective shield, but Frank doesn’t realize it as he cuts down the enemy. Soon all the monsters are dead. Piper feeds Frank ambrosia and bandages his arm. The ghosts wander aimlessly until Frank dismisses them. The blessing of Mars has faded, so Frank feels fatigued but knows they need to find Hazel and Leo. Nico senses something bad happening with Percy and Annabeth. Frank says there’s another way.
69. Annabeth doesn’t want Tartarus to kill her, but she is too terrified to speak as she waits for him to move. Percy drops his sword, and Tartarus reaches to grab him, but Bob stops him. Tartarus swats Bob aside and wonders why he doesn’t disintegrate. Bob gets strength from choosing to be Bob. Small Bob grows to a full-sized saber-toothed tiger and attacks Tartarus. Bob tells Percy and Annabeth to cut the Door chains while he fights Tartarus. Tartarus orders his monster army forward.
70. Annabeth hacks through the door chains while Percy fights monsters and Bob distracts Tartarus. Annabeth sticks her foot in before the Doors close. She calls Percy over, and he tells her to get in. Annabeth tells him he promised they would never be separated again. They fight back-to-back while Percy argues there isn’t another way. Bob gets knocked over by Tartarus but refuses to yield. The monsters turn to watch the death of a Titan, and Percy tells Annabeth to stay at the elevator while he helps Bob. Annabeth knows Percy won’t leave Bob to die, so she decides to go with him and die fighting side by side. Before they leave the doors, they hear a roar and see Damasen riding on the back of a Maeonian dragon.
71. With his eyes, Damasen tells Annabeth to go as he faces Tartarus. Bob stumbles with Small Bob toward Percy, who opens the blood vessels of the Underworld Rivers to give him a path through the monsters. Percy doesn’t want to go, but Bob says it’s their destiny to stop Gaea. Percy pleads that Tartarus will disintegrate them and they will never regenerate, but Bob says nobody knows the future. They can’t defeat Tartarus, but they can stall him for 12 minutes. Annabeth hugs Bob and promises to tell their children about him. He wants them to say hello to the sun and stars for him. Annabeth pulls Percy into the elevator as Tartarus yells at the monsters to stop them. Bob tells them to hold the doors shut as they close.
72. Annabeth and Percy each hold a shaking door shut. Percy is upset about leaving Bob and Damasen, and Annabeth feels guilty knowing it’s her burden to bear the knowledge of a tactical retreat. She tells Percy to keep his door shut. Percy’s eyes blaze with anger, and he vows to kill Gaea. Annabeth prays for Bob and Damasen to hold out for 12 minutes and for their friends to be waiting at the top.
73. Hazel cries and screams when the tunnel collapses until she notices Leo staring. Leo promises Frank will be fine, and Hazel knows they must continue. Gale the polecat joins them, and Hazel senses a presence. She hears a woman’s voice, and she and Leo magically move to the doorway of a cavern. Across the cavern, Leo and Hazel see the Doors of Death chained to the floor. The giant Clytius guards the Doors, and the sorceress Pasiphaë appears. The doors ding, and Pasiphaë reveals they have 12 minutes until Percy and Annabeth arrive. If someone doesn’t push the up button when they arrive, the Doors won’t open and they will disappear. Pasiphaë promises Percy and Annabeth can live if Hazel and Leo die because they need two demigods alive to be sacrificed to Gaea. The cavern dissolves into darkness.
74. Layers of Mist enfold Hazel and Leo into Pasiphaë’s new stone Labyrinth. Hazel knows it’s an illusion but doesn’t know how to break through. Hazel and Leo are forced to run and avoid the traps while Pasiphaë laughs. Hazel knows the only way to beat Pasiphaë is to make her see what she wants to see, which is a more dangerous maze. Hazel manipulates the Mist with her mind to turn the Labyrinth back to Pasiphaë. At a pit of snakes, Hazel and Leo jump. Hazel imagines a chute they fall through and land on top of Pasiphaë. The Labyrinth disappears. Hazel opens a trapdoor with the Mist under Pasiphaë. The elevator door dings, and Leo throws a screwdriver at the button, so the Doors open. Percy and Annabeth fall onto the floor. Clytius motions Hazel and Leo to stop. Since Percy and Annabeth are unconscious, they will be easy to tie up for the sacrifice. Leo shoots flames at Clytius, but he absorbs them and chokes Leo. Hazel runs to help, but Gale warns her to stop. Behind Hazel, Hecate appears with torches in her hands saying Hazel has proven herself worthy.
75. Clytius taunts Hecate through Leo’s mouth and makes him contort in pain. Hazel manipulates the Mist, so Percy, Annabeth, and Leo appear at her feet. The Mist envelopes her friends and counteracts Clytius’s darkness. Leo wakes up, and Hazel tells him to stay in the Mist. Hazel screams at a taunting Clytius. Dozens of gems assault him, and he howls in pain but regroups quickly. Clytius tells Hazel Hecate will discard her while Hecate counters it is Hazel’s crossroads. Annabeth wakes and reminds Hazel of the chains on the Doors of Death she needs to cut. Hazel charges and slides under Clytius to stab him. She cuts one chain on the Doors, but before she can cut the other Clytius sends her flying. Leo screams Hazel’s name, and she staggers to her sword. Hazel looks at her helpless friends and throws her sword at the Doors. The other chain severs, and the Doors disappear. Jason, Nico, Piper, and Frank appear from a door in the Mist.
76. Jason, Leo, Frank, Piper, and Jason attack Clytius from every direction while Percy and Annabeth get to their feet. The demigods force Clytius to his knees and encircle him. Hecate steps forward and kills him. Hecate tells Hazel to lead the group to Athens to stop the giants and Gaea from waking. The House of Hades is unstable, and she disappears. The crew hugs Percy and Annabeth while Frank tends to Hazel. Piper explains that Frank summoned the spirits of dead warriors to lead them to help, but Frank can’t manage to call ghosts to help them now, so Hazel helps Nico shadow-travel them out of the temple. They appear on the hillside outside and exchange stories. Hazel is thrilled Frank was promoted to praetor. Percy and Annabeth aren’t ready to tell their story yet. Coach Hedge flies the Argo II over with Reyna at the railing.
77. Leo lowers the Athena Parthenos onto the hillside. Reyna is upset because she had to kill her gravely injured Pegasus. Annabeth invites Reyna to join them for their picnic lunch. Reyna accepts Frank as praetor but wonders if the legion will accept him since they both broke the laws of the legion in coming to the ancient lands. They try to figure out what to do with the Parthenos because a Roman leader must return it to the Greeks as a symbol of peace, but the crew needs to go to Athens and stop the giants. Nico offers to take Reyna and the statue via shadow-travel, and Reyna agrees if someone else comes. Frank volunteers Coach Hedge, who agrees to go. Percy thinks about the prophecy and wonders if they made the right decision, and Annabeth says they can’t control the prophecies and can only do what they think is best.
78. Percy finds Nico tying ropes to the Athena Parthenos and thanks him for leading the group to the House of Hades and for visiting Bob, who saved his and Annabeth’s life. Nico brushes him off, and Percy is hurt. Annabeth joins Percy and wishes Nico luck. Reyna and Coach Hedge come, and Nico shadow travels them out. The Argo II starts sailing for Athens. Percy stands on deck with Annabeth and tries not to think about Tartarus. They promise to defeat Gaea. The sky darkens, and Percy looks up at the stars and tells them Bob says hello