BLOOD OF OLYMPUS

Nico wanted to yell, Like you know what I feel?
Instead he asked, ‘How do we stop him?’
‘You cannot,’ Hades said. ‘Your only hope is to outrun him, accomplish your quest before he
reaches you. Apollo or Artemis might be able to slay him, arrows against arrows, but the twins are in
no condition to aid you. Even now, Orion has your scent. His hunting pack is almost upon you. You
won’t have the luxury of more rest from here to Camp Half-Blood.’
A belt seemed to tighten around Nico’s ribs. He’d left Coach Hedge on guard duty with Reyna
asleep. ‘I need to get back to my companions.’
‘Indeed,’ Hades said. ‘But there is more. Your sister …’ Hades faltered. As always, the subject of
Bianca lay between them like a loaded gun – deadly, easy to reach, impossible to ignore. ‘I mean
your other sister, Hazel … she has discovered that one of the Seven will die. She may try to prevent
this. In doing so, she may lose sight of her priorities.’
Nico didn’t trust himself to speak.
To his surprise, his thoughts didn’t leap first to Percy. His primary concern was for Hazel, then for
Jason, then for Percy and the others aboard the Argo II. They’d saved him in Rome. They’d
welcomed him aboard their ship. Nico had never allowed himself the luxury of friends, but the crew
of the Argo II was as close as he’d ever come. The idea of any of them dying made him feel empty –
like he was back in the giants’ bronze jar, alone in the dark, subsisting only on sour pomegranate
seeds.
Finally he asked, ‘Is Hazel all right?’
‘For the moment.’
‘And the others? Who will die?’
Hades shook his head. ‘Even if I were certain, I could not say. I tell you this because you are my
son. You know that some deaths cannot be prevented. Some deaths should not be prevented. When the
time comes, you may need to act.’
Nico didn’t know what that meant. He didn’t want to know.
‘My son.’ Hades’s tone was almost gentle. ‘Whatever happens, you have earned my respect. You
brought honour to our house when we stood together against Kronos in Manhattan. You risked my
wrath to help the Jackson boy – guiding him to the River Styx, freeing him from my prison, pleading
with me to raise the armies of Erebos to assist him. Never before have I been so harassed by one of
my sons. Percy this and Percy that. I nearly blasted you to cinders.’
Nico took a shallow breath. The walls of the room began to tremble, dust trickling from the cracks
between the bones. ‘I didn’t do all that just for him. I did it because the whole world was in danger.’
Hades allowed himself the faintest smile, but there was nothing cruel in his eyes. ‘I can entertain
the possibility that you acted for multiple reasons. My point is this: you and I rose to the aid of
Olympus because you convinced me to let go of my anger. I would encourage you to do likewise. My
children are so rarely happy. I … I would like to see you be an exception.’
Nico stared at his father. He didn’t know what to do with that statement. He could accept many
unreal things – hordes of ghosts, magical labyrinths, travel through shadows, chapels made of bones.
But tender words from the Lord of the Underworld? No. That made no sense.