BLOOD OF OLYMPUS

waste, carnage shall answer. We shall complete your cure.
The flames vanished along with the cornucopia, and the chained statue of Ares crumbled into dust.
‘Foolish girl!’ Mimas charged her, Annabeth at his heels. ‘The makhai have abandoned you!’
‘Or maybe they’ve abandoned you,’ Piper said.
Mimas raised his hammer, but he’d forgotten about Annabeth. She jabbed him in the thigh and the
giant staggered forward, off balance. Piper stepped in calmly and stabbed him in the gut.
Mimas crashed face-first into the nearest doorway. He turned over just as the stone face of Panic
cracked off the wall above him and toppled down for a one-ton kiss.
The giant’s cry was cut short. His body went still. Then he disintegrated into a twenty-foot pile of
ash.
Annabeth stared at Piper. ‘What just happened?’
‘I’m not sure.’
‘Piper, you were amazing, but those fiery spirits you released –’
‘The makhai.’
‘How does that help us find the cure we’re looking for?’
‘I don’t know. They said I could summon them when the time comes. Maybe Artemis and Apollo
can explain –’
A section of the wall calved like a glacier.
Annabeth stumbled and almost slipped on the giant’s severed ear. ‘We need to get out of here.’
‘I’m working on it,’ Piper said.
‘And, uh, I think this ear is your spoil of war.’
‘Gross.’
‘Would make a lovely shield.’
‘Shut up, Chase.’ Piper stared at the second doorway, which still had the face of Fear above it.
‘Thank you, brothers, for helping to kill the giant. I need one more favour – an escape. And, believe
me, I am properly terrified. I offer you this, uh, lovely ear as a sacrifice.’
The stone face made no answer. Another section of the wall peeled away. A starburst of cracks
appeared in the ceiling.
Piper grabbed Annabeth’s hand. ‘We’re going through that doorway. If this works, we might find
ourselves back on the surface.’
‘And if it doesn’t?’
Piper looked up at the face of Fear. ‘Let’s find out.’
The room collapsed around them as they plunged into the dark.