The House of Hades(Heroes of Olympus, Book 4)

HAZEL



HAZEL’S INTERNAL COMPASS SPUN WILDLY.

She remembered when she had been very small, in New Orleans in the late 1930s, her mother had taken her to the dentist to get a bad tooth pulled. It was the first and only time Hazel had ever received ether. The dentist promised it would make her sleepy and relaxed, but Hazel felt like she was floating away from her own body, panicky and out of control. When the ether wore off, she’d been sick for three days.

This felt like a massive dose of ether.

Part of her knew she was still in the cavern. Pasipha? stood only a few feet in front of them. Clytius waited silently at the Doors of Death.

But layers of Mist enfolded Hazel, twisting her sense of reality. She took one step forward and bumped into a wall that shouldn’t have been there.

Leo pressed his hands against the stone. ‘What the heck? Where are we?’

A corridor stretched out to their left and right. Torches guttered in iron sconces. The air smelled of mildew, as in an old tomb. On Hazel’s shoulder, Gale barked angrily, digging her claws into Hazel’s collarbone.

‘Yes, I know,’ Hazel muttered to the weasel. ‘It’s an illusion.’

Leo pounded on the wall. ‘Pretty solid illusion.’

Pasipha? laughed. Her voice sounded watery and far away. ‘Is it an illusion, Hazel Levesque, or something more? Don’t you see what I have created?’

Hazel felt so off-balance she could barely stand, much less think straight. She tried to extend her senses, to see through the Mist and find the cavern again, but all she felt were tunnels splitting off in a dozen directions, going everywhere except forward.

Random thoughts glinted in her mind, like gold nuggets coming to the surface: Daedalus. The Minotaur locked away. Die slowly in my new domain.

‘The Labyrinth,’ Hazel said. ‘She’s remaking the Labyrinth.’

‘What now?’ Leo had been tapping the wall with a ball-peen hammer, but he turned and frowned at her. ‘I thought the Labyrinth collapsed during that battle at Camp Half-Blood – like, it was connected to Daedalus’s life force or something, and then he died.’

Pasipha?’s voice clucked disapprovingly. ‘Ah, but I am still alive. You credit Daedalus with all the maze’s secrets? I breathed magical life into his Labyrinth. Daedalus was nothing compared to me – the immortal sorceress, daughter of Helios, sister of Circe! Now the Labyrinth will be my domain.’

‘It’s an illusion,’ Hazel insisted. ‘We just have to break through it.’

Even as she said it, the walls seemed to grow more solid, the smell of mildew more intense.

‘Too late, too late,’ Pasipha? crooned. ‘The maze is already awake. It will spread under the skin of the earth once more while your mortal world is levelled. You demigods … you heroes … will wander its corridors, dying slowly of thirst and fear and misery. Or perhaps, if I am feeling merciful, you will die quickly, in great pain!’

Holes opened in the floor beneath Hazel’s feet. She grabbed Leo and pushed him aside as a row of spikes shot upward, impaling the ceiling.

‘Run!’ she yelled.

Pasipha?’s laughter echoed down the corridor. ‘Where are you going, young sorceress? Running from an illusion?’

Hazel didn’t answer. She was too busy trying to stay alive. Behind them, row after row of spikes shot towards the ceiling with a persistent thunk, thunk, thunk.

She pulled Leo down a side corridor, leaped over a trip wire, then stumbled to a halt in front of a pit twenty feet across.

‘How deep is that?’ Leo gasped for breath. His trouser leg was ripped where one of the spikes had grazed him.

Hazel’s senses told her that the pit was at least fifty feet straight down, with a pool of poison at the bottom. Could she trust her senses? Whether or not Pasipha? had created a new Labyrinth, Hazel believed they were still in the same cavern, being made to run aimlessly back and forth while Pasipha? and Clytius watched in amusement. Illusion or not: unless Hazel could figure out how to get out of this maze, the traps would kill them.

‘Eight minutes now,’ said the voice of Pasipha?. ‘I’d love to see you survive, truly. That would prove you worthy sacrifices to Gaia in Athens. But then, of course, we wouldn’t need your friends in the elevator.’

Hazel’s heart pounded. She faced the wall to her left. Despite what her senses told her, that should be the direction of the Doors. Pasipha? should be right in front of her.

Hazel wanted to burst through the wall and throttle the sorceress. In eight minutes, she and Leo needed to be at the Doors of Death to let their friends out.

But Pasipha? was an immortal sorceress with thousands of years of experience in weaving spells. Hazel couldn’t defeat her through sheer willpower. She’d managed to fool the bandit Sciron by showing him what he expected to see. Hazel needed to figure out what Pasipha? wanted most.

‘Seven minutes now,’ Pasipha? lamented. ‘If only we had more time! So many indignities I’d like you to suffer.’

That was it, Hazel realized. She had to run the gauntlet. She had to make the maze more dangerous, more spectacular – make Pasipha? focus on the traps rather than the direction the Labyrinth was leading.

‘Leo, we’re going to jump,’ Hazel said.

‘But –’

‘It’s not as far as it looks. Go!’ She grabbed his hand and they launched themselves across the pit. When they landed, Hazel looked back and saw no pit at all – just a three-inch crack in the floor.

‘Come on!’ she urged.

They ran as the voice of Pasipha? droned on. ‘Oh, dear, no. You’ll never survive that way. Six minutes.’

The ceiling above them cracked apart. Gale the weasel squeaked in alarm, but Hazel imagined a new tunnel leading off to the left – a tunnel even more dangerous, going in the wrong direction. The Mist softened under her will. The tunnel appeared, and they dashed to one side.

Pasipha? sighed with disappointment. ‘You really aren’t very good at this, my dear.’

But Hazel felt a spark of hope. She’d created a tunnel. She’d driven a small wedge into the magic fabric of the Labyrinth.

The floor collapsed under them. Hazel jumped to one side, dragging Leo with her. She imagined another tunnel, veering back the way they’d come, but full of poisonous gas. The maze obliged.

‘Leo, hold your breath,’ she warned.

They plunged through the toxic fog. Hazel’s eyes felt like they were being rinsed in pepper juice, but she kept running.

‘Five minutes,’ Pasipha? said. ‘Alas! If only I could watch you suffer longer.’

They burst into a corridor with fresh air. Leo coughed. ‘If only she would shut up.’

They ducked under a bronze garrote wire. Hazel imagined the tunnel curving back towards Pasipha?, ever so slightly. The Mist bent to her will.

The walls of the tunnel began to close in on either side. Hazel didn’t try to stop them. She made them close faster, shaking the floor and cracking the ceiling. She and Leo ran for their lives, following the curve as it brought them closer to what she hoped was the centre of the room.

‘A pity,’ said Pasipha?. ‘I wish I could kill you and your friends in the elevator, but Gaia has insisted that two of you must be kept alive until the Feast of Hope, when your blood will be put to good use! Ah, well. I will have to find other victims for my Labyrinth. You two have been second-rate failures.’

Hazel and Leo stumbled to a stop. In front of them stretched a chasm so wide, Hazel couldn’t see the other side. From somewhere below in the darkness came the sound of hissing – thousands and thousands of snakes.

Hazel was tempted to retreat, but the tunnel was closing behind them, leaving them stranded on a tiny ledge. Gale the weasel paced across Hazel’s shoulders and farted with anxiety.

‘Okay, okay,’ Leo muttered. ‘The walls are moving parts. They gotta be mechanical. Give me a second.’

‘No, Leo,’ Hazel said. ‘There’s no way back.’

‘But –’

‘Hold my hand,’ she said. ‘On three.’

‘But –’

‘Three!’

‘What?’

Hazel leaped into the pit, pulling Leo with her. She tried to ignore his screaming and the flatulent weasel clinging to her neck. She bent all her will into redirecting the magic of the Labyrinth.

Pasipha? laughed with delight, knowing that any moment they would be crushed or bitten to death in a pit of snakes.

Instead, Hazel imagined a chute in the darkness, just to their left. She twisted in midair and fell towards it. She and Leo hit the chute hard and slid into the cavern, landing right on top of Pasipha?.

‘Ack!’ The sorceress’s head smacked against the floor as Leo sat down hard on her chest.

For a moment, the three of them and the weasel were a pile of sprawling bodies and flailing limbs. Hazel tried to draw her sword, but Pasipha? managed to extricate herself first. The sorceress backed away, her hairdo bent sideways like a collapsed cake. Her dress was smeared with grease stains from Leo’s tool belt.

‘You miserable wretches!’ she howled.

The maze was gone. A few feet away, Clytius stood with his back to them, watching the Doors of Death. By Hazel’s calculation, they had about thirty seconds until their friends arrived. Hazel felt exhausted from her run through the maze while controlling the Mist, but she needed to pull off one more trick.

She had successfully made Pasipha? see what she most desired. Now Hazel had to make the sorceress see what she most feared.

‘You must really hate demigods,’ Hazel said, trying to mimic Pasipha?’s cruel smile. ‘We always get the better of you, don’t we, Pasipha??’

‘Nonsense!’ screamed Pasipha?. ‘I will tear you apart! I will –’

‘We’re always pulling the rug out from under your feet,’ Hazel sympathized. ‘Your husband betrayed you. Theseus killed the Minotaur and stole your daughter Ariadne. Now two second-rate failures have turned your own maze against you. But you knew it would come to this, didn’t you? You always fall in the end.’

‘I am immortal!’ Pasipha? wailed. She took a step back, fingering her necklace. ‘You cannot stand against me!’

‘You can’t stand at all,’ Hazel countered. ‘Look.’

She pointed at the feet of the sorceress. A trapdoor opened underneath Pasipha?. She fell, screaming, into a bottomless pit that didn’t really exist.

The floor solidified. The sorceress was gone.

Leo stared at Hazel in amazement. ‘How did you –’

Just then the elevator dinged. Rather than pushing the UP button, Clytius stepped back from the controls, keeping their friends trapped inside.

‘Leo!’ Hazel yelled.

They were thirty feet away – much too far to reach the elevator – but Leo pulled out a screwdriver and chucked it like a throwing knife. An impossible shot. The screwdriver spun straight past Clytius and slammed into the UP button.

The Doors of Death opened with a hiss. Black smoke billowed out, and two bodies spilled face-first onto the floor – Percy and Annabeth, limp as corpses.

Hazel sobbed. ‘Oh, gods …’

She and Leo started forward, but Clytius raised his hand in an unmistakable gesture – stop. He lifted his massive reptilian foot over Percy’s head.

The giant’s smoky shroud poured over the floor, covering Annabeth and Percy in a pool of dark fog.

‘Clytius, you’ve lost,’ Hazel snarled. ‘Let them go, or you’ll end up like Pasipha?.’

The giant tilted his head. His diamond eyes gleamed. At his feet, Annabeth lurched like she’d hit a power line. She rolled on her back, black smoke coiling from her mouth.

‘I am not Pasipha?.’ Annabeth spoke in a voice that wasn’t hers – the words as deep as a bass guitar. ‘You have won nothing.’

‘Stop that!’ Even from thirty feet away, Hazel could sense Annabeth’s life force waning, her pulse becoming thready. Whatever Clytius was doing, pulling words from her mouth – it was killing her.

Clytius nudged Percy’s head with his foot. Percy’s face lolled to one side.

‘Not quite dead.’ The giant’s words boomed from Percy’s mouth. ‘A terrible shock to the mortal body, I would imagine, coming back from Tartarus. They’ll be out for a while.’

He turned his attention back to Annabeth. More smoke poured from between her lips. ‘I’ll tie them up and take them to Porphyrion in Athens. Just the sacrifice we need. Unfortunately, that means I have no further use for you two.’

‘Oh, yeah?’ Leo growled. ‘Well, maybe you got the smoke, buddy, but I’ve got the fire.’

His hands blazed. He shot white-hot columns of flame at the giant, but Clytius’s smoky aura absorbed them on impact. Tendrils of black haze travelled back up the lines of fire, snuffing out the light and heat and covering Leo in darkness.

Leo fell to his knees, clutching at his throat.

‘No!’ Hazel ran towards him, but Gale chattered urgently on her shoulder – a clear warning.

‘I would not.’ Clytius’s voice reverberated from Leo’s mouth. ‘You do not understand, Hazel Levesque. I devour magic. I destroy the voice and the soul. You cannot oppose me.’

Black fog spread further across the room, covering Annabeth and Percy, billowing towards Hazel.

Blood roared in Hazel’s ears. She had to act – but how? If that black smoke could incapacitate Leo so quickly, what chance did she have?

‘F-fire,’ she stammered in a small voice. ‘You’re supposed to be weak against it.’

The giant chuckled, using Annabeth’s vocal cords this time. ‘You were counting on that, eh? It is true I do not like fire. But Leo Valdez’s flames are not strong enough to trouble me.’

Somewhere behind Hazel, a soft, lyrical voice said, ‘What about my flames, old friend?’

Gale squeaked excitedly and jumped from Hazel’s shoulder, scampering to the entrance of the cavern where a blonde woman stood in a black dress, the Mist swirling around her.

The giant stumbled backwards, bumping into the Doors of Death.

‘You,’ he said from Percy’s mouth.

‘Me,’ Hecate agreed. She spread her arms. Blazing torches appeared in her hands. ‘It has been millennia since I fought at the side of a demigod, but Hazel Levesque has proven herself worthy. What do you say, Clytius? Shall we play with fire?’
LXXV





HAZEL



IF THE GIANT HAD RUN AWAY SCREAMING, Hazel would’ve been grateful. Then they all could have taken the rest of the day off.

Clytius disappointed her.

When he saw the goddess’s torches blazing, the giant seemed to recover his wits. He stomped his foot, shaking the floor and almost stepping on Annabeth’s arm. Dark smoke billowed around him until Annabeth and Percy were totally hidden. Hazel could see nothing but the giant’s gleaming eyes.

‘Bold words.’ Clytius spoke from Leo’s mouth. ‘You forget, goddess. When we last met, you had the help of Hercules and Dionysus – the most powerful heroes in the world, both of them destined to become gods. Now you bring … these?’

Leo’s unconscious body contorted in pain.

‘Stop it!’ Hazel yelled.

She didn’t plan what happened next. She simply knew she had to protect her friends. She imagined them behind her, the same way she’d imagined new tunnels appearing in Pasipha?’s Labyrinth. Leo dissolved. He reappeared at Hazel’s feet, along with Percy and Annabeth. The Mist whirled around her, spilling over the stones and enveloping her friends. Where the white Mist met the dark smoke of Clytius, it steamed and sizzled, like lava rolling into the sea.

Leo opened his eyes and gasped. ‘Wh-what …?’

Annabeth and Percy remained motionless, but Hazel could sense their heartbeats getting stronger, their breath coming more evenly.

On Hecate’s shoulder, Gale the polecat barked with admiration.

The goddess stepped forward, her dark eyes glittering in the torchlight. ‘You’re right, Clytius. Hazel Levesque is not Hercules or Dionysus, but I think you will her find just as formidable.’

Through the smoky shroud, Hazel saw the giant open his mouth. No words came out. Clytius sneered in frustration.

Leo tried to sit up. ‘What’s going on? What can I –’

‘Watch Percy and Annabeth.’ Hazel drew her spatha. ‘Stay behind me. Stay in the Mist.’

‘But –’

The look Hazel gave him must have been more severe than she realized.

Leo gulped. ‘Yeah, got it. White Mist good. Black smoke bad.’

Hazel advanced. The giant spread his arms. The domed ceiling shook, and the giant’s voice echoed through the room, magnified a hundred times.

Formidable? the giant demanded. It sounded as if he were speaking through a chorus of the dead, using all the unfortunate souls who’d been buried behind the dome’s stelae. Because the girl has learned your magic tricks, Hecate? Because you allow these weaklings to hide in your Mist?

A sword appeared in the giant’s hand – a Stygian iron blade much like Nico’s, except five times the size. I do not understand why Gaia would find any of these demigods worthy of sacrifice. I will crush them like empty nutshells.

Hazel’s fear turned to rage. She screamed. The walls of the chamber made a crackling sound like ice in warm water, and dozens of gems streaked towards the giant, punching through his armour like buckshot.

Clytius staggered backwards. His disembodied voice bellowed with pain. His iron breastplate was peppered with holes.

Golden ichor trickled from a wound on his right arm. His shroud of darkness thinned. Hazel could see the murderous expression on his face.

You, Clytius growled. You worthless –

‘Worthless?’ Hecate asked quietly. ‘I’d say Hazel Levesque knows a few tricks even I could not teach her.’

Hazel stood in front of her friends, determined to protect them, but her energy was fading. Her sword was already heavy in her hand, and she hadn’t even swung it yet. She wished Arion were here. She could use the horse’s speed and strength. Unfortunately, her equine friend would not be able to help her this time. He was a creature of the wide-open spaces, not the underground.

The giant dug his fingers into the wound on his biceps. He pulled out a diamond and flicked it aside. The wound closed.

So, daughter of Pluto, Clytius rumbled, do you really believe Hecate has your interests at heart? Circe was a favourite of hers. And Medea. And Pasipha?. How did they end up, eh?

Behind her, Hazel heard Annabeth stirring, groaning in pain. Percy muttered something that sounded like, ‘Bob-bob-bob?’

Clytius stepped forward, holding his sword casually at his side as if they were comrades rather than enemies. Hecate will not tell you the truth. She sends acolytes like you to do her bidding and take all the risk. If by some miracle you incapacitate me, only then will she be able to set me on fire. Then she will claim the glory of the kill. You heard how Bacchus dealt with the Alodai twins in the Colosseum. Hecate is worse. She is a Titan who betrayed the Titans. Then she betrayed the gods. Do you really think she will keep faith with you?

Hecate’s face was unreadable.

‘I cannot answer his accusations, Hazel,’ said the goddess. ‘This is your crossroads. You must choose.’

Yes, crossroads. The giant’s laughter echoed. His wounds seemed to have healed completely. Hecate offers you obscurity, choices, vague promises of magic. I am the anti-Hecate. I will give you truth. I will eliminate choices and magic. I will strip away the Mist, once and for all, and show you the world in all its true horror.

Leo struggled to his feet, coughing like an asthmatic. ‘I’m loving this guy,’ he wheezed. ‘Seriously, we should keep him around for inspirational seminars.’ His hands ignited like blowtorches. ‘Or I could just light him up.’

‘Leo, no,’ Hazel said. ‘My father’s temple. My call.’

‘Yeah, okay. But –’

‘Hazel …’ Annabeth wheezed.

Hazel was so elated to hear her friend’s voice that she almost turned, but she knew she shouldn’t take her eyes off Clytius.

‘The chains …’ Annabeth managed.

Hazel inhaled sharply. She’d been a fool! The Doors of Death were still open, shuddering against the chains that held them in place. Hazel had to cut them free so they would disappear – and finally be beyond Gaia’s reach.

The only problem: a big smoky giant stood in her way.

You can’t seriously believe you have the strength, Clytius chided. What will you do, Hazel Levesque – pelt me with more rubies? Shower me with sapphires?

Hazel gave him an answer. She raised her spatha and charged.

Apparently, Clytius hadn’t expected her to be quite so suicidal. He was slow raising his sword. By the time he slashed, Hazel had ducked between his legs and jabbed her Imperial gold blade into his gluteus maximus. Not very ladylike. The nuns at St Agnes would never have approved. But it worked.

Clytius roared and arched his back, waddling away from her. Mist still swirled around Hazel, hissing as it met the giant’s black smoke.

Hazel realized that Hecate was assisting her – lending her the strength to keep up a defensive shroud. Hazel also knew that the instant her own concentration wavered and that darkness touched her, she would collapse. If that happened, she wasn’t sure Hecate would be able – or willing – to stop the giant from crushing her and her friends.

Hazel sprinted towards the Doors of Death. Her blade shattered the chains on the left side like they were made of ice. She lunged to the right, but Clytius yelled, NO!

By sheer luck, she wasn’t cut in half. The flat of the giant’s blade caught her in the chest and sent her flying. She slammed into the wall and felt bones crack.

Across the room, Leo screamed her name.

Through her blurry vision, she saw a flash of fire. Hecate stood nearby, her form shimmering as if she were about to dissolve. Her torches seemed to be flickering out, but it might just have been that Hazel was starting to lose consciousness.

She couldn’t give up now. She forced herself to stand. Her side felt like it was embedded with razor blades. Her sword lay on the ground about five feet away. She staggered towards it.

‘Clytius!’ she shouted.

She meant it to sound like a brave challenge, but it came out as more of a croak.

At least it got his attention. The giant turned from Leo and the others. When he saw her limping forward, he laughed.

A good try, Hazel Levesque, Clytius admitted. You did better than I anticipated. But magic alone cannot defeat me, and you do not have sufficient strength. Hecate has failed you, as she fails all of her followers in the end.

The Mist around her was thinning. At the other end of the room, Leo tried to force-feed Percy some ambrosia, though Percy was still pretty much out of it. Annabeth was awake but struggling, barely able to lift her head.

Hecate stood with her torches, watching and waiting – which infuriated Hazel so much, she found one last burst of energy.

She threw her sword – not at the giant but at the Doors of Death. The chains on the right side shattered. Hazel collapsed in agony, her side burning, as the Doors shuddered and disappeared in a flash of purple light.

Clytius roared so loudly that a half-dozen stelae fell from the ceiling and shattered.

‘That was for my brother, Nico,’ Hazel gasped. ‘And for destroying my father’s altar.’

You have forfeited your right to a quick death, the giant snarled. I will suffocate you in darkness, slowly, painfully. Hecate cannot help you. NO ONE can help you!

The goddess raised her torches. ‘I would not be so certain, Clytius. Hazel’s friends simply needed a little time to reach her – time you have given them with your boasting and bragging.’

Clytius snorted. What friends? These weaklings? They are no challenge.

In front of Hazel, the air rippled. The Mist thickened, creating a doorway, and four people stepped through.

Hazel wept with relief. Frank’s arm was bleeding and bandaged, but he was alive. Next to him stood Nico, Piper and Jason – all with their swords drawn.

‘Sorry we’re late,’ Jason said. ‘Is this the guy who needs killing?’
LXXVI