The House of Hades (The Heroes of Olympus #4)(58)

“Bob, you okay?” Percy asked. “No curses?”

“No curses for Bob!” Bob agreed.

The arai snarled and circled, eying the broom. The Titan is already cursed. Why should we torture him further? You, Percy Jackson, have already destroyed his memory.

Bob’s spearhead dipped.

“Bob, don’t listen to them,” Annabeth said. “They’re evil!”

Time slowed. Percy wondered if the spirit of Kronos was somewhere nearby, swirling in the darkness, enjoying this moment so much that he wanted it to last forever. Percy felt exactly like he had at twelve years old, battling Ares on that beach in Los Angeles, when the shadow of the Titan lord had first passed over him.

Bob turned. His wild white hair looked like an exploded halo. “My memory… It was you?”

Curse him, Titan! the arai urged, their red eyes gleaming. Add to our numbers!

Percy’s heart pressed against his spine. “Bob, it’s a long story. I didn’t want you to be my enemy. I tried to make you a friend.”

By stealing your life, the arai said. Leaving you in the palace of Hades to scrub floors!

Annabeth gripped Percy’s hand. “Which way?” she whispered. “If we have to run?”

He understood. If Bob wouldn’t protect them, their only chance was to run—but that wasn’t any chance at all.

“Bob, listen,” he tried again, “the arai want you to get angry. They spawn from bitter thoughts. Don’t give them what they want. We are your friends.”

Even as he said it, Percy felt like a liar. He’d left Bob in the Underworld and hadn’t given him a thought since. What made them friends? The fact that Percy needed him now? Percy always hated it when the gods used him for their errands. Now Percy was treating Bob the same way.

You see his face? the arai growled. The boy cannot even convince himself. Did he visit you, after he stole your memory?

“No,” Bob murmured. His lower lip quivered. “The other one did.”

Percy’s thoughts moved sluggishly. “The other one?”

“Nico.” Bob scowled at him, his eyes full of hurt. “Nico visited. Told me about Percy. Said Percy was good. Said he was a friend. That is why Bob helped.”

“But…” Percy’s voice disintegrated like someone had hit it with a Celestial bronze blade. He’d never felt so low and dishonorable, so unworthy of having a friend.

The arai attacked, and this time Bob did not stop them.

“LEFT!” PERCY DRAGGED ANNABETH, slicing through the arai to clear a path. He probably brought down a dozen curses on himself, but he didn’t feel them right away, so he kept running.

The pain in his chest flared with every step. He wove between the trees, leading Annabeth at a full sprint despite her blindness.

Percy realized how much she trusted him to get her out of this. He couldn’t let her down, yet how could he save her? And if she was permanently blind… No. He suppressed a surge of panic. He would figure out how to cure her later. First they had to escape.

Leathery wings beat the air above them. Angry hissing and the scuttling of clawed feet told him the demons were at their backs.

As they ran past one of the black trees, he slashed his sword across the trunk. He heard it topple, followed by the satisfying crunch of several dozen arai as they were smashed flat.

If a tree falls in the forest and crushes a demon, does the tree get cursed?

Percy slashed down another trunk, then another. It bought them a few seconds, but not enough.

Suddenly the darkness in front of them became thicker. Percy realized what it meant just in time. He grabbed Annabeth right before they both charged off the side of the cliff.

“What?” she cried. “What is it?”

“Cliff,” he gasped. “Big cliff.”

“Which way, then?”

Percy couldn’t see how far the cliff dropped. It could be ten feet or a thousand. There was no telling what was at the bottom. They could jump and hope for the best, but he doubted “the best” ever happened in Tartarus.

So, two options: right or left, following the edge.

He was about to choose randomly when a winged demon descended in front of him, hovering over the void on her bat wings, just out of sword reach.

Did you have a nice walk? asked the collective voice, echoing all around them.

Percy turned. The arai poured out of the woods, making a crescent around them. One grabbed Annabeth’s arm. Annabeth wailed in rage, judo-flipping the monster and dropping on its neck, putting her whole body weight into an elbow strike that would’ve made any pro wrestler proud.

The demon dissolved, but when Annabeth got to her feet, she looked stunned and afraid as well as blind.

“Percy?” she called, panic creeping into her voice.

“I’m right here.”

He tried to put his hand on her shoulder, but she wasn’t standing where he thought. He tried again, only to find she was several feet farther away. It was like trying to grab something in a tank of water, with the light shifting the image away.

“Percy!” Annabeth’s voice cracked. “Why did you leave me?”

“I didn’t!” He turned on the arai, his arms shaking with anger. “What did you do to her?”

We did nothing, the demons said. Your beloved has unleashed a special curse—a bitter thought from someone you abandoned. You punished an innocent soul by leaving her in her solitude. Now her most hateful wish has come to pass: Annabeth feels her despair. She, too, will perish alone and abandoned.