A 1

“A death trance?” Annabeth scowled. “That doesn’t sound fun.”
“It keeps him from consuming all his air,” Hazel said. “Like hibernation, or a coma. One seed can
sustain him one day, barely.”
“And he has five seeds left,” Percy said. “That’s five days, including today. The giants must have
planned it that way, so we’d have to arrive by July first. Assuming Nico is hidden somewhere in
Rome—”
“That’s not much time,” Piper summed up. She put her hand on Hazel’s shoulder. “We’ll find
him. At least we know what the lines of the prophecy mean now. ‘Twins snuff out the angel’s breath,
who holds the key to endless death.’ Your brother’s last name: di Angelo. Angelo is Italian for ‘angel.’”
“Oh, gods,” Hazel muttered. “Nico…”
Percy stared at his jelly donut. He had a rocky history with Nico di Angelo. The guy had once
tricked him into visiting Hades’s palace, and Percy had ended up in a cell. But most of the time, Nico
sided with the good guys. He certainly didn’t deserve slow suffocation in a bronze jar, and Percy
couldn’t stand seeing Hazel in pain.
“We’ll rescue him,” he promised her. “We have to. The prophecy says he holds the key to endless
death.”
“That’s right,” Piper said encouragingly. “Hazel, your brother went searching for the Doors of
Death in the Underworld, right? He must’ve found them.”
“He can tell us where the doors are,” Percy said, “and how to close them.”
Hazel took a deep breath. “Yes. Good.”
“Uh…” Leo shifted in his chair. “One thing. The giants are expecting us to do this, right? So we’re
walking into a trap?”
Hazel looked at Leo like he’d made a rude gesture. “We have no choice!”