The Demigod Diaries (The Heroes of Olympus)(4)

“Who are you?” I shouted.

“Hurry,” the voice called down, but he didn’t sound excited about it.

To my right, the same voice echoed, “Hurry.” Clack, clack, clack.

I did a double take. The voice seemed to have come from the thing in the hallway—the thing with the glowing red eyes. But how could one voice come from two different places?

Then the same voice called out from the hallway on the left: “Hurry.” Clack, clack, clack.

Now I’ve faced some scary stuff before—fire-breathing dogs, pit scorpions, dragons—not to mention a set of oily black man-eating draperies. But something about those voices echoing all around me, those glowing eyes advancing from either direction, and the weird clacking noises made me feel like a deer surrounded by wolves. Every muscle in my body tensed. My instincts said, Run.

I grabbed Thalia’s hand and bolted for the stairs.

“Luke—”

“Come on!”

“If it’s another trap—”

“No choice!”

I bounded up the stairs, dragging Thalia with me. I knew she was right. We might be running straight to our deaths, but I also knew we had to get away from those things downstairs.

I was afraid to look back, but I could hear the creatures closing—snarling like wildcats, pounding across the marble floor with a sound like horse’s hooves. What in Hades were they?

At the top of the stairs, we plunged down another hallway. Dimly flickering wall sconces made the doors along either side seem to dance. I jumped over a pile of bones, accidentally kicking a human skull.

Somewhere ahead of us, the man’s voice called, “This way!” He sounded more urgent than before. “Last door on the left! Hurry!”

Behind us, the creatures echoed his words: “Left! Hurry!”

Maybe the creatures were just mimicking like parrots. Or maybe the voice in front of us belonged to a monster too. Still, something about the man’s tone felt real. He sounded alone and miserable, like a hostage.

“We have to help him,” Thalia announced, as if reading my thoughts.

“Yeah,” I agreed.

We charged ahead. The corridor became more dilapidated—wallpaper peeling away like tree bark, light sconces smashed to pieces. The carpet was ripped to shreds and littered with bones. Light seeped from underneath the last door on the left.

Behind us, the pounding of hooves got louder.

We reached the door and I launched myself against it, but it opened on its own. Thalia and I spilled inside, face-planting on the carpet.

The door slammed shut.

Outside, the creatures growled in frustration and scraped against the walls.

“Hello,” said the man’s voice, much closer now. “I’m very sorry.”

My head was spinning. I thought I’d heard him off to my left, but when I looked up, he was standing right in front of us.

He wore snakeskin boots and a mottled green-and-brown suit that might’ve been made from the same material. He was tall and gaunt, with spiky gray hair almost as wild as Thalia’s. He looked like a very old, sickly, fashionably dressed Einstein.

His shoulders slumped. His sad green eyes were underscored with bags. He might’ve been handsome once, but the skin of his face hung loose as if he’d been partially deflated.

His room was arranged like a studio apartment. Unlike the rest of the house, it was in fairly good shape. Against the far wall was a twin bed, a desk with a computer, and a window covered with dark drapes like the ones downstairs. Along the right wall stood a bookcase, a small kitchenette, and two doorways—one leading into a bathroom, the other into a large closet.

Thalia said, “Um, Luke…”

She pointed to our left.

My heart almost burst out of my rib cage.

The left side of the room had a row of iron bars like a prison cell. Inside was the scariest zoo exhibit I’d ever seen. A gravel floor was littered with bones and pieces of armor, and prowling back and forth was a monster with a lion’s body and rust-red fur. Instead of paws it had hooves like a horse, and its tail lashed around like a bullwhip. Its head was a mixture of horse and wolf—with pointed ears, an elongated snout, and black lips that looked disturbingly human.

The monster snarled. For a second I thought it was wearing one of those mouth guards that boxers use. Instead of teeth, it had two solid horseshoe-shaped plates of bone. When it snapped its mouth, the bone plates made the jarring clack, clack, clack I’d heard downstairs.

The monster fixed its glowing red eyes on me. Saliva dripped from its weird bony ridges. I wanted to run, but there was nowhere to go. I could still hear the other creatures—at least two of them—growling out in the hallway.

Thalia helped me to my feet. I gripped her hand and faced the old man.

“Who are you?” I demanded. “What’s that thing in the cage?”

The old man grimaced. His expression was so full of misery I thought he might cry. He opened his mouth, but when he spoke, the words didn’t come from him.

Like some horrific ventriloquist act, the monster spoke for him, in the voice of an old man: “I am Halcyon Green. I’m terribly sorry, but you are in the cage. You’ve been lured here to die.”

We’d left Thalia’s spear downstairs, so we had just one weapon—my golf club. I brandished it at the old man, but he made no threatening moves. He looked so pitiful and depressed I couldn’t bring myself to smack him.