KITTY WOULD'VE FELT BAD about causing explosions in the Magic Kingdom, but she had too much to worry about. As the air turned bitter cold, the Lyre of Orpheus offered warmth against her chest. With one hand she held it to her body, with her other she grabbed a sword off a fallen Empousa.

She couldn't keep track of everything. Ophelia's shadow magic made it hard to see beyond their immediate space. But she did see Alex shove his sword through Phoebe and face down Cole. If he had the demigods handled, Ophelia could hold off the monsters, and she could hang on to the Lyre.

They could win this. They had to win this. Too much was riding on Alex returning the lyre to Olympus.

"Don't hesitate."

Kitty shivered as she heard Tyche's voice in her left ear. Like sparks, her body filled with electricity. They could win this. They would.

She felt Ophelia at her back. Two empousai tried to push through the wall of black shadow tendrils that Ophelia turned into weapons. But they couldn't. Spitting curses at the "spawn of evil Hecate," she kept them occupied.

Kitty focused on Alex. She caught glimpses of him dodging Cole's spear, unable to close the distance to land his own hits. Focusing, she tried to see his luck.

At the moment, Cole had the mastery, wrapped in a golden aura. That wouldn't do. Reaching out, she willed a golden thread of luck to form between herself and the son of Nike. Her head began to sting but she drained him as best she could. He stumbled here. He lodged his spear in a crate there.

They could do this.

A clawed hand dug into her shoulder. Kity screamed. She swung blindly as she turned around, her sword making contact with a harpy. It dissintegtared, leaving Kitty to clutch her shoulder and hold on to the Lyre for dear life.

Shadows swirled around her. Her toes became so cold, she couldn't feel them. Five feet away, Ophelia stood with her legs set apart for stability, arms out and face hard as stone. Another wave of pain washed over her. Kitty knelt down.

Blood stained her hand as she grabbed her left shoulder. By the light of the Lyre, the only light to escape Ophelia's darkness, she could see four slashes from the harpy's claws. Her stomach churned.

Kitty screamed in anger. The howling shadow-winds drowned it out. Kneeling on the red-orange pavement, she tried to breathe. Just breathe.

They'd run as soon as Alex told them to. Ophelia led the way, never wavering, never hesitating. Pounding monster feet and screeching calls overhead of harpies and empousai didn't allow them to hesitate. Kitty had no idea where to go, but Ophelia seemed to know.

A massive orange stone mansion reared up in front of them as they reached a hill. Ophelia had paused in her step outside the gates. She'd seemed glued to the ground.

Only the empousai who flew over Alex and tried to grab them had shaken her from her trance. Ophelia practically transformed. She didn't speak. She just drew all the blackness to her side and moments later, Kitty had found herself in the middle of this dome of winds of shadow.

Kitty tried to focus on her breathing as the pain of the harpy's wound hit her again. She placed one hand on the ground, trying to steady herself. In the other she clutched the Lyre.

The ground trembled as she touched it. In moments, her palm began to sting from how cold it felt. Kitty looked more closely. A tiny fissure in the earth began to snake its way from Ophelia's feet to her seat on the ground. Grey mist from the crack joined the shadows in the air.

She scrambled up. What was Ophelia doing? The girl gritted her teeth and tensed her hands as a fourth empousai started to attack. Kitty watched her hands go from pale as a ghost to black as the void.

Kitty abandoned the shadow dome. Clutching the lyre as tight to her chest as she could, she forced her way into Liberty Square. Coughing and sputtering, she fell against a wall. Out here she could breathe. The air felt cold, but not like ice.

To her left, Alex still fought Cole sword to spear. He had grabbed a broken piece of wood to use as a shield but she could see blood on his side. To her right, Kitty watched the dome of shadow thicken. To her alarm, the fissures in the ground began to expand out of the dome. The ground shook.

An icy blast of wind sent Kitty tumbling to the pavement. All the lights went out. Only the glow of celestial bronze weapons littering the ground or wielded by demigods cut through the darkness. Kitty's eyes widened as she heard Ophelia scream.

The scream tore sea and sky apart. Blood trickled from her ears as the ground began to crumble into an abyss. Ophelia barely managed to scramble to the edge.

The two remaining empousai shrieked in fear. They cursed the name of Hecate. Scrambling away, they abandoned the fight. They would not return to her service in the Underworld.

The Underworld. Kitty watched in horror as the fissures continued to expand. Across from her, Ophelia had black tears running down her face as she scooted backwards. But not in time. The ground gave way beneath her. As she fell, she grabbed onto a dangling wire and caught herself.

To her left, she saw Cole, eyes wide in fear, watching the destruction. Alex screamed.

Another quake, and more ground split. Kitty screamed as she backed further against the wall, ground giving way near her. She held on to the Lyre for dear life. They couldn't lose it. They couldn't come this far to fail.

She felt a warm hand cover the harpy's wound. An unseen presence. A whisper on the edge of hearing, drowned out by the crack of a thunderbolt.

Time seemed to slow. Ophelia dangled by the wire, half in the ground. Alex looked from her, to Cole. The man lifted his spear. He aimed for Ophelia.

All color faded from the world except for their Luck. Every aura twisted in a state of flux. One moment gold, another black. Kitty held the lyre to her chest. She watched as auras shifted. Cole brightened. Ophelia became black as night.

Kitty reached out her hand. The lyre slipped an inch in her grasp. She hesitated.

Alex screamed. As Cole threw the spear, he stabbed Vindication through the man's stomach.

"King of hearts."

The spear missed Ophelia. But it didn't miss the wire.

"Queen of spades."

Kitty, Lyre of Orpheus in her arms as she just escaped the destruction, watched Ophelia fall into the Underworld.

"Queen of clubs."

Silence fell. Nothing moved. A hole in the earth fifteen feet wide issued forth air as cold as ice and a tangible darkness.

"Kitty!"

She'd never heard Alex so angry and so scared. It tore her attention away from where Ophelia had disappeared. On the other side of the rift, Alex stood with Vindication covered in blood.

"How!"

Kitty scrambled up. Tears streaked down her face as she clutched the shining Lyre of Orpheus in her arms. She'd made a choice. She'd gambled. They needed the Lyre. They had a job.

Alex's grimey face had wet streaks from his eyes to his chin. His blonde hair looked as dirty as it had when they fought in New York. But he'd never looked so hurt, or scared, in New York.

The Alex she knew conquered fear with anger. No matter what came his way he turned it into power, refusing to let despair consume him. A hero couldn't allow that. And Alex was a hero. No matter what others said, Kitty knew that. She saw him willing to die, and to kill, to save those he cared about. Alex didn't get scared.

But now he looked scared. He stood above the darkness with none of the fire she knew him capable of. He shrunk back as lightning split the sky. Then his fists tightened. His knuckles turned white.

Alex screamed at the sky as another bolt of lightning cut through the air. Silence met his frustration. He shrunk Vindication down and tied it on his wrist. When he met her gaze again, she held her breath. She knew that look.

"Alex-"

But he had already jumped. The void swallowed him as it had swallowed Ophelia. Kitty looked around and found herself alone except for the corpses of Cole and Phoebe. Not even a monster disturbed her at the edge of the tomb.

Kitty took a labored breath. She grabbed some red ribbons that had fallen on the ground, decor from Liberty Square. Tying it around the Lyre, she fashion herself a sling. Ice cold air blasted her in the face as she stood above the bottomless darkness.

"Don't hesitate."

Kitty jumped.

Author's Note:

Alrighty! Upon request, I uploaded the last few chapters of part two.

We're heading into the final stretch! We will be taking a brief break before coming back with our third and final part, Part Three. I hope you're enjoying this story so far. I can't wait to take you the rest of the way!

Any predictions?

Any curses you want to sling my way?

Surprised?