The Blood of Olympus (The Heroes of Olympus #5)(51)

‘Very good, child of Aphrodite.’ The giant smiled. ‘This is indeed the Temple of Fear. And I am here to make you believers.’

XX

Piper

PIPER KNEW FEAR, BUT THIS WAS DIFFERENT.

Waves of terror crashed over her. Her joints turned to jelly. Her heart refused to beat.

Her worst memories crowded her mind – her father tied up and beaten on Mount Diablo; Percy and Jason fighting to the death in Kansas; the three of them drowning in the nymphaeum in Rome; herself standing alone against Khione and the Boreads. Worst of all, she relived her conversation with her mother about what was to come.

Paralysed, she watched as the giant raised his sledgehammer to smash them flat. At the last moment, she leaped to one side, tackling Annabeth.

The hammer cracked the floor, peppering Piper’s back with stone shrapnel.

The giant chuckled. ‘Oh, that wasn’t fair!’ He hefted his sledgehammer again.

‘Annabeth, get up!’ Piper helped her to her feet. She pulled her towards the far end of the room, but Annabeth moved sluggishly, her eyes wide and unfocused.

Piper understood why. The temple was amplifying their personal fears. Piper had seen some horrible things, but it was nothing compared to what Annabeth had experienced. If she was having flashbacks of Tartarus, enhanced and compounded with all her other bad memories, her mind wouldn’t be able to cope. She might literally go insane.

‘I’m here,’ Piper promised, filling her voice with reassurance. ‘We will get out of this.’

The giant laughed. ‘A child of Aphrodite leading a child of Athena! Now I’ve seen everything. How would you defeat me, girl? With makeup and fashion tips?’

A few months ago that comment might’ve stung, but Piper was way past that. The giant lumbered towards them. Fortunately, he was slow and carrying a heavy hammer.

‘Annabeth, trust me,’ Piper said.

‘A – a plan,’ she stammered. ‘I go left. You go right. If we –’

‘Annabeth, no plans.’

‘W-what?’

‘No plans. Just follow me!’

The giant swung his hammer, but they dodged it easily. Piper leaped forward and slashed her sword across the back of the giant’s knee. As the giant bellowed in outrage, Piper pulled Annabeth into the nearest tunnel. Immediately they were engulfed in total darkness.

‘Fools!’ the giant roared somewhere behind them. ‘That is the wrong way!’

‘Keep moving.’ Piper held tight to Annabeth’s hand. ‘It’s fine. Come on.’

She couldn’t see anything. Even the glow of her sword was snuffed out. She barrelled ahead anyway, trusting her emotions. From the echo of their footfalls, the space around them must have been a vast cavern, but she couldn’t be sure. She simply went in the direction that made her fear the sharpest.

‘Piper, it’s like the House of Night,’ Annabeth said. ‘We should close our eyes.’

‘No!’ Piper said. ‘Keep them open. We can’t try to hide.’

The giant’s voice came from somewhere in front of them. ‘Lost forever. Swallowed by the darkness.’

Annabeth froze, forcing Piper to stop, too.

‘Why did we just plunge in?’ Annabeth demanded. ‘We’re lost. We did what he wanted us to! We should have bided our time, talked to the enemy, figured out a plan. That always works!’

‘Annabeth, I never ignore your advice.’ Piper kept her voice soothing. ‘But this time I have to. We can’t defeat this place with reason. You can’t think your way out of your emotions.’

The giant’s laughter echoed like a detonating depth charge. ‘Despair, Annabeth Chase! I am Mimas, born to slay Hephaestus. I am the breaker of plans, the destroyer of the well-oiled machines. Nothing goes right in my presence. Maps are misread. Devices break. Data is lost. The finest minds turn to mush!’

‘I – I’ve faced worse than you!’ Annabeth cried.

‘Oh, I see!’ The giant sounded much closer now. ‘Are you not afraid?’

‘Never!’

‘Of course we’re afraid,’ Piper corrected. ‘Terrified!’

The air moved. Just in time, Piper pushed Annabeth to one side.

CRASH!

Suddenly they were back in the circular room, the dim light almost blinding now. The giant stood close by, trying to yank his hammer out of the floor where he’d embedded it. Piper lunged and drove her blade into the giant’s thigh.

‘AROOO!’ Mimas let go of the hammer and arched his back.

Piper and Annabeth scrambled behind the chained statue of Ares, which still pulsed with a metallic heartbeat: thump, thump, thump.

The giant Mimas turned towards them. The wound on his leg was already closing.

‘You cannot defeat me,’ he growled. ‘In the last war, it took two gods to bring me down. I was born to kill Hephaestus, and would have done so if Ares hadn’t ganged up on me as well! You should have stayed paralysed in your fear. Your death would’ve been quicker.’

Days ago, when she faced Khione on the Argo II, Piper had started talking without thinking, following her heart no matter what her brain said. Now she did the same thing. She moved in front of the statue and faced the giant, though the rational part of her screamed, RUN, YOU IDIOT!