The Demigod Files(26)

‘A creepy cave,’ I said. ‘The goddess of ghosts. What’s not to like?’

As if in response, a hissing sound echoed down the mountain. White mist billowed from the cave like someone had turned on a dry-ice machine.

In the fog, an image appeared – a tall woman with dishevelled blonde hair. She wore a pink bathrobe and had a wine glass in her hand. Her face was stern and disapproving. I could see right through her, so I knew she was a spirit of some kind, but her voice sounded real enough.

‘Now you come back,’ she growled. ‘Well, it’s too late!’

I looked at Nico and whispered, ‘Melinoe?’

Nico didn’t answer. He stood frozen, staring at the spirit.

Thalia lowered her bow. ‘Mother?’ Her eyes teared up. Suddenly she looked about seven years old.

The spirit threw down her wine glass. It shattered and dissolved into the fog. ‘That’s right, girl. Doomed to walk the earth, and it’s your fault! Where were you when I died? Why did you run away when I needed you?’

‘I – I –’

‘Thalia,’ I said. ‘It’s just a shade. It can’t hurt you.’

‘I’m more than that,’ the spirit growled. ‘And Thalia knows it.’

‘But – you abandoned me,’ Thalia said.

‘You wretched girl! Ungrateful runaway!’

‘Stop!’ Nico stepped forward with his sword drawn, but the spirit changed form and faced him.

This ghost was harder to see. She was a woman in an old-fashioned black velvet dress with a matching hat. She wore a string of pearls and white gloves, and her dark hair was tied back.

Nico stopped in his tracks. ‘No…’

‘My son,’ the ghost said. ‘I died when you were so young. I haunt the world in grief, wondering about you and your sister.’

‘Mama?’

‘No, it’s my mother,’ Thalia murmured, as if she still saw the first image.

My friends were helpless. The fog began thickening around their feet, twining around their legs like vines. The colours seemed to fade from their clothes and faces, as if they too had become shades.

‘Enough,’ I said, but my voice hardly worked. Despite the pain, I lifted my sword and stepped towards the ghost. ‘You’re not anybody’s mama!’

The ghost turned towards me. The image flickered, and I saw the goddess of ghosts in her true form.

You’d think after a while I would stop getting freaked out by the appearance of Greek ghoulies, but Melinoe caught me by surprise. Her right half was pale chalky white, like she’d been drained of blood. Her left half was pitch black and hardened like mummy skin. She wore a golden dress and a golden shawl. Her eyes were empty black voids and, when I looked into them, I felt as if I were seeing my own death.

‘Where are your ghosts?’ she demanded in irritation.

‘My… I don’t know. I don’t have any.’

She snarled. ‘Everyone has ghosts – deaths you regret. Guilt. Fear. Why can I not see yours?’

Thalia and Nico were still entranced, staring at the goddess as if she were their long-lost mother. I thought about other friends I’d seen die – Bianca di Angelo, Zoë Nightshade, Lee Fletcher, to name a few.

‘I’ve made my peace with them,’ I said. ‘They’ve passed on. They’re not ghosts. Now let my friends go!’

I slashed at Melinoe with my sword. She backed up quickly, growling in frustration. The fog dissipated around my friends. They stood blinking at the goddess as if they were now seeing how hideous she was.

‘What is that?’ Thalia said. ‘Where –’

‘It was a trick,’ Nico said. ‘She fooled us.’

‘You are too late, demigods,’ Melinoe said. Another petal fell off my carnation, leaving only one. ‘The deal has been struck.’

‘What deal?’ I demanded.

Melinoe made a hissing sound, and I realized it was her way of laughing. ‘So many ghosts, my young demigod. They long to be unleashed. When Kronos rules the world, I shall be free to walk among mortals both night and day, sowing terror as they deserve.’

‘Where’s the sword of Hades?’ I demanded. ‘Where’s Ethan?’

‘Close,’ Melinoe promised. ‘I will not stop you. I will not need to. Soon, Percy Jackson, you will have many ghosts. And you will remember me.’

Thalia notched an arrow and aimed it at the goddess. ‘If you open a path to the world, do you really think Kronos will reward you? He’ll cast you into Tartarus along with the rest of Hades’s servants.’

Melinoe bared her teeth. ‘Your mother was right, Thalia. You are an angry girl. Good at running away. Not much else.’

The arrow flew, but as it touched Melinoe she dissolved into fog, leaving nothing but the hiss of her laughter. Thalia’s arrow hit the rocks and shattered harmlessly.

‘Stupid ghost,’ she muttered.

I could tell she was really shaken up. Her eyes were rimmed with red. Her hands trembled. Nico looked just as stunned, like someone had smacked him between the eyes.

‘The thief…’ he managed. ‘Probably in the cave. We have to stop him before –’

Just then, the last petal fell off the carnation. The flower turned black and wilted.