{EVANGELINE}

Nine days.

They had been falling for nine days...or at least that was what she was estimating.

She'd lost track of how long she and Percy had been falling. All she could think about was the impact. She wanted was to hit the ground as quickly as possible. She didn't want to see what was awaiting her in the depths of Tartarus.

She tried not to cry.

Her plan hadn't involved Percy falling with her. It hadn't involved him risking his entire future for her. He wasn't supposed to die.

She was.

The wind whistled in her ears. The air grew hotter and damper as if they were plummeting into a volcano. Her broken ankle throbbed, and her head grew dizzier.

She tightened her grip around Percy as their surroundings changed. She tried to catch her breathing as she whispered, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

The darkness took on a gray-red tinge. The whistling in her ears turned louder. The air became intolerably hot, permeated with a horrible stench.

Suddenly, the chute they'd been falling through opened into a vast cavern. Half a mile below them, she could see the bottom which didn't give her the relief she had needed.

The cavern could have fit the entire island of Manhattan, but even then it would have room. Red clouds hung in the air like vaporized blood. The landscape was rocky black plains, punctuated by jagged mountains and fiery chasms. To her left, the ground dropped off in a series of cliffs, like colossal steps leading deeper into the abyss.

The stench of sulfur made it harder to concentrate, but she managed to see a ribbon of glittering black liquid—a river.

She knew it was practically suicide to jump into the rivers of the Underworld, but this was their only chance at surviving the impact. That was if their souls weren't turned to dust from the river.

"Percy!" She yelled. "Water!"

It was hard to see his face in the dim red light even for her, but she could see the fear in his expression. The river hurtled toward them. At the last second, he yelled defiantly. The water erupted in a massive geyser and swallowed them whole.

The freezing water shocked the air right out of her. Her limbs turned rigid, and she lost her grip on Percy as she was tugged underwater.

She tried to swim to the surface but something wrapped around her broken ankle tightly, dragging her deeper and deeper into the depths. Strange wailing voices filled her ears as if the river was made of distilled sadness.

Don't resist. They told her. Just accept your fate.

She knew what it was. It was misery. They were in the river of Lamentation—a river made of pure misery.

Dark green tendrils coiled around her arms and legs, restricting her movements. She struggled but it only made its grip tighten as it dragged her deeper below the water to the point where she could hardly see the red light of the cavern.

The heartbroken voices weighed her down. You're dead anyway, they said. You'll never leave this place, you were always destined to be here.

She could stop fighting. She could just sink to the bottom and drown, let the river carry her away. This was her way out, away from the gods, away from the monsters, away from all the pain and suffering.

She finally had the chance to escape it all. A chance to get the peace she'd always yearned for. All she had to do was close her eyes...

Percy tugged her out of the tendrils' grip and jolted her back to reality. They broke the surface and Evangeline gasped, coughing at the poisonous air. The water swirled around them, and she realized Percy was creating a whirlpool to buoy them up.

It might have been a river of pure misery but it was still a river. Rivers had shores.

"Land," she croaked. "Go sideways."

Percy looked on the verge of death. The whirlpool around them began to dissipate. She hooked one arm around his waist and struggled across the current. The river pushed back: thousands of weeping voices whispering in her ears.

Life is despair, they whispered. Everything is pointless, and then you die.

"Pointless," The raven-haired boy muttered. His teeth chattered from the cold. He stopped swimming and began to sink.

"No!" She cried. "Don't—don't listen to them. It's supposed to cloud your mind, it's the Cocytus. It's made of pure misery."

"Misery," he agreed.

"Percy!"

She tried her best to keep them both afloat. She could hear one of the voices louder than the rest: You failed. It wailed. You've failed everyone.

She gripped Percy tighter, ignoring the voices, she kissed him. "Tell me about—about New Rome. Tell me about that college,  just don't listen to the misery!"

"New Rome...For us..."

Evangeline nodded. "You said you wanted to go there, right? With me?"

He nodded. "I thought...I thought we could live there in peace, like the others."

"Yeah," she gasped. "And what else? What did you want to study? Marine Biology? Oceanography?"

"Dunno," he admitted. "Surfing, maybe?"

She sniffled. "I don't think that's an option, waterboy."

Percy laughed, and the sound sent a shock wave through the water. The wailing faded to a background noise.

She used the last of her strength to reach the river bank. Her feet dug into the sandy bottom. The children of Hades and Poseidon hauled themselves ashore, shivering and gasping, and collapsed on the dark sand.

The sulfurous air stung her lungs and prickled her skin. Evangeline let out a broken sob as jagged black-glass chips dug deep into her palms. She heard a deafening screech in the distance and she blinked away her tears.

When she'd been new to Camp Half Blood, some of the Ares kids would to tell her to go Tartarus because that was where a monster like her belonged.

Deep down she wondered if they had been right. She'd been dragged right into the depths of her worst nightmare as if it had been waiting for her.

Evangeline was ready to give up and stay there until she became a ghost herself, but she could hear her mother's voice in her head. I didn't raise you to be weak. The woman would tell her. You are not a child. Get up and save yourself.

She wasn't a child anymore, nobody would be coming to help her and Percy out of Tartarus. They wouldn't survive off of luck like they always had.

The others weren't going to help them. Her father wouldn't be of any help either, if he could let his son stay in Tartarus for days and be tortured, then why would he help her?

All she had was herself, just like she always had.

The brunette placed her other hand on the glass and sat up, gritting her teeth as more glass chips dug into her skin. She managed to sit up, glancing at her right ankle.

It had swollen and turned blue. Five scratches ran around her ankle like bands, blood smeared across each gash. Her eyes wandered around their surroundings, all she could see was darkness until...

In the far distance, she saw a pair of red eyes, glowing in the darkness, watching her.

She reached for her necklace but it wasn't there. She told herself to dwell on it later. Swallowing the bile in her throat, she glanced at Percy.

"Are you okay?" She asked the son of Poseidon.

His dark hair was plastered across his forehead, and his T-shirt was ripped to shreds. His fingers were scraped raw from holding onto that ledge before they had fallen. He was shivering and his lips were blue.

"Percy," she reached for him. "We have to get out of here. Can you walk?"

He managed a slight nod. They struggled to their feet. She wrapped her arm around his waist, though she wasn't sure who was supporting whom.

The black glass shore stretched inland about fifty yards, then dropped off the edge of a cliff. The eyes that had been watching her from the distance had disappeared. Evangeline couldn't see what was below the cliff, but the edge flickered with red light as if illuminated by huge fires.

Percy inhaled sharply. "Look." He pointed downstream.

A hundred feet away, she saw a baby-blue Italian car that had crashed headfirst into the sand. She remembered when Coach Hedge had blown up the parking lot, she figured one of the cars had crashed into the building and fallen into the pit.

She gripped Percy's hand, and they stumbled toward the wreckage. One of the car's tires had come off and was floating in a backwater eddy of the Cocytus. The windows had shattered, sending brighter glass like frosting across the dark beach.

Under the hood lay the tattered, glistening remains of a giant silk cocoon. Slash marks in the sand made a trail downriver, as if something heavy with multiple legs, had scuttled into the darkness.

"Arachne," she muttered.

She heard a loud thud behind her, followed by blood-curdling screams echoing off of the walls of the cavern, and the veins on her hands spread to her shoulders. Evangeline looked around but there was nobody in sight.

The blood from her palms trickled down to the glass, spreading around like wildfire as if sending out a signal.

It was Tartatus after all, it was her father's domain. Thousands of spirits he had tortured and punished roamed around them. Monsters that she had killed were probably not that far away either, just waiting for the right moment before they attacked.

"Do you think she's alive?" The brunette murmured.

"It is Monster home court," Percy said. "Down here, maybe they can't be killed."

He gave her an embarrassed look. "Or maybe she crawled away to die."

"I doubt that," Evangeline said.

She glanced over at the inland toward the cliff, illuminated by flames from below. There were five rivers of the Underworld. She knew one of them better than any other. She'd seen dreams of countless souls being dragged into it as punishment, Phlegethon.

She could practically feel her skin burning in the flames of the river just at the thought of it. It was a stupid idea but it was their best chance at survival.

"Come on," she said. "We stay here any longer, the place will kill us."

"Where are we going?" He asked.

"To the River of Fire."

The cliff dropped more than eighty feet. At the bottom, a river of fire cut the path through a jagged obsidian crevasse, the glowing red current casting horrible shadows across the cliff faces.

Her face felt raw and sunburned. With every breath she took, she felt like she was being filled with gasoline. The cuts on her hands bled more rather than less. Each step she took made her wince. The scar on her wrist began to open once again.

"Uh..." The son of Poseidon pointed to a tiny fissure running diagonally from the edge to the bottom. "We can try that ledge there. Might be able to climb down."

He managed to sound hopeful, but she was more concerned about him rather than their awaiting demise. Fear was etched across his expression, his hands were shaking.

"You'll be okay," she whispered, grabbing his hand.

"You mean, we'll be okay," he raised a brow. "Right?"

Evangeline blinked, her body tensing. "Yeah," her voice was lower than a whisper. "That's...that's what I meant."

She heard a heartless chuckle. That's sweet. The voice mused. But I wouldn't give the boy false hope, my dear.

Blisters had started to form on her arms from the exposure to the air, with each breath she took she felt like she was swallowing gasoline. The air was killing them. Literally, killing them.

She went first. The ledge was barely wide enough to allow a toehold. Their hands clawed for any crack in the glassy rock. Every time she put pressure on her bad ankle, she wanted to scream. It was hard to keep her grip on the rock, her fingers were slippery, weak, and covered in blood.

A few steps above her, Percy grunted as he reached for another handhold. "So...what is this fire river called?"

"The Phlegethon," she stated.

"The Phlegethon?" He shinnied along the ledge. They had made it roughly a third of the way down the cliff—still high enough to slip and fall to their deaths. "Sounds like a marathon for hawking spitballs."

"I don't know what that means," The brunette spared him a glance.

They kept going, one step at a time. Her eyes stung with sweat. Her arms trembled. But still, they made it to the bottom of the cliff.

She stumbled when she reached the ground. Percy caught her. She shuddered at how feverish his skin felt. Red boils had erupted on his face, he looked like a smallpox victim.

Evangeline's throat burned, and her stomach clenched tightly as her vision blurred. She managed to keep her focus and continue.

They staggered over slick glass ledges, around massive boulders, avoiding stalagmites that would've impaled them if they lost their footing.

Their tattered clothes steamed from the heat of the river, but they kept going until they crumpled to their knees at the banks of the Phlegethon.

"We have to drink," The brunette told him.

Percy swayed, his eyes half-closed. It took him a three count to respond. "Uh...drink fire?"

"It might be—" Evangeline tried to breathe, but her throat was closing up from the heat and the acidic air. "It might be used to punish souls, but in some legends, it's called the River of Healing."

"Some legends?"

She glared at him. "This river is meant to keep souls in one piece so that they can endure the torment of the Fields of Punishment. It's the closest thing we have to ambrosia and nectar."

The raven-haired boy winced as cinders sprayed from the river, curling around his face. "But it's fire. How can we—"

"For the love of gods," With a deep breath, she thrust her hands into the river.

The fire wasn't painful. It felt cold, which meant it was hot enough to overload her nerves. She cupped the fiery liquid in her palms and raised it to her mouth.

Evangeline managed to swallow it down. Her sinuses filled with liquid flame. Her mouth felt like it was being deep-fried. Boiling tears fell from her eyes, and every pore on her face popped. She collapsed, gagging and retching, her whole body shaking violently.

"Evangeline!" Percy grabbed her and just managed to stop her from rolling into the river.

Once the convulsions passed, she took a shaky breath and sat up. She felt weaker and nauseous, but she was able to breathe again. The blisters on her arms were starting to fade.

"Your turn, come on," she panted.

"I..." His eyes rolled up in his head, and he slumped against her.

Her eyes widened. Percy's limp body slipped from her and to the ground. Evangeline reached into the river, her hands burned but she cupped the fire in her palms. She dripped the liquid into Percy's mouth but he wasn't moving.

"Percy?" she asked, cradling his face, tilting it up to hers. "Perseus...?" Still no response.

Evangeline poured a handful down his throat. This time he spluttered and coughed. She held him as he trembled, the fire flowing through his system. His fever disappeared. His boils faded. He sat up and smacked his lips.

"Ugh," He grimaced. "Spicy, yet disgusting."

The brunette kissed him. "Don't ever do that again,"

"You saved us," Percy said.

"Yeah, I know." Evangeline said, helping him to his feet. "But we're still stuck here."

The raven-haired boy blinked. He looked around as if just coming to terms with where they were. "Holy Hera. I never thought...well, I'm not sure what I thought. Maybe that Tartarus was just empty space, a pit with no bottom. But this is a real place."

"Of course it is," she frowned. "This is just the tiny part of the whole place."

"The welcome mat," Percy muttered.

"Exactly," Evangeline gazed up at the blood-colored clouds, swirling in the gray haze. They wouldn't be able to climb back up that cliff even if they tried to.

"We'll find a way out," said the son of Poseidon. "The Doors of Death."

"That's a long shot," she said. "It could take months for us to even reach there, and there's a big chance we might not."

"We have to," He said. "Not just for us. For everybody we love. The Doors have to be closed on both sides, or the monsters will just keep coming through. Gaea's forces will overrun the world."

Evangeline reluctantly sighed. "We should stay close to the river, it's going to help heal us. But—"

Percy's eyes locked onto something behind the brunette. Evangeline spun around as a massive dark shape hurtled toward her—a snarling, monstrous blob with spindly barbed legs and glinting eyes. Arachne.

The daughter of Hades ducked as she heard the familiar sound of Percy's ballpoint pen transforming into a sword. His blade swept over her head in a glowing bronze arc. A horrible wail echoed through the canyon.

She straightened, and yellow dust rained around her like tree pollen.

"You okay?" Percy scanned the cliffs and boulders, alert for more monsters, but nothing else appeared. The golden dust of the spider settled on the obsidian rocks.

All she could do was stare at him. "Evangeline?" he grabbed her arm.

She blinked out of her daze. "Yeah, I'm fine," she assured.

Percy kicked the dust on the rocks, his expression grim and dissatisfied. "She died too easily, considering how much torture she put Annabeth through. She deserved worse."

She couldn't disagree with him, but something about his voice unnerved her. He didn't sound like himself. "How did you move so fast?" She asked.

He shrugged, the cold metal of her ring around his finger pressing against her skin. "We watch each other's back, remember? Now what were you saying?"

She looked away from him, gazing at the river. "Downstream, the river comes from the upper levels of the Underworld, so it should flow deeper into Tartarus—"

"So it leads into more dangerous territory," Percy finished. "Which is probably where the Doors are. Lucky us."

They'd made it a few hundred yards. Her ankle felt a lot better, and the cuts on her had stopped bleeding. The fiery water of the Phlegethon may have healed her but it didn't do anything for the exhaustion.

Evangeline felt like she was holding the sky again. Her head started to droop, she would've let herself collapse had it not been for the voices in the distance having some sort of argument.

She yanked Percy back and pushed him behind the nearest boulder, she placed her hand over his mouth as he opened it to speak. "Shh," she hissed.

Her feet were so close to the riverbank that her shoes almost touched the river's fire. On the other side, in the narrow path between the river and the cliffs, voices snarled, getting louder as they approached from upstream.

Evangeline tried to stay as silent as possible. The voices sounded vaguely human, but she knew it was a trap. She didn't understand how monsters hadn't already discovered them. They were two powerful children of the Big Three, monsters could smell them from thousands of miles away, so why hadn't they been attacked yet?

As the monsters neared, their voices didn't change in tone. Their uneven footsteps didn't get any faster.

"Soon?" One of them rasped.

"Oh my gods!" said another. She sounded like a teenage girl, it sounded familiar. "You guys are totally annoying! I told you, it's like three days from here."

Percy's hand grabbed hers. He looked at her with alarm, she figured he recognized the voice.

There was a chorus of growling and grumbling. The creatures had paused just on the other side of the boulder, giving no sign that they'd caught their scent.

"I wonder," said a third, gravelly and ancient voice. "if perhaps you do not know the way, young one."

"Oh, shut your fang hole, Serephone," said the younger one. "When's the last time you escaped to the mortal world? I was there a couple of years ago. I know the way! Besides, I understand what we're facing up there. You don't have a clue!"

"The Earth Mother did not make you boss!" Shrieked a fourth voice.

More hissing, scuffling, and feral moans—like giant alley cats fighting. At last, the one called Serephone yelled. "Enough!"

The scuffling died down.

"We will follow you for now," Serephone said. "But if you do not lead us well, if we find out you have lied about the summons of Gaea—"

"I don't lie," The younger one snapped. "Believe me, I've got a good reason to get into this battle. I have some enemies to devour, and you'll feast on the blood of heroes, Oliver promised me we would. Just leave one special morsel for me—the one named Percy Jackson."

Evangeline fought the urge to set the creature on fire.

"Believe me," said the girl. "Gaea has called us, and we're going to have so much fun. Before this war is over, mortals and demigods will tremble at the sound of my name—Kelli!"

The brunette scowled. She glanced at Percy, his face seemed waxy. "The cheerleader Empousai?" she mouthed.

Her boyfriend nodded grimly.

She remembered Kelli. Two years ago, Kelli had attacked Percy and Rachel during their freshmen orientation, she'd also helped Luke kidnap Landon from camp. Evangeline had stabbed the empousai in Daedalus's workshop and sent her...here. To Tartarus.

The creatures shuffled off, their voices getting fainter. Evangeline heard their footsteps wander off into the distance, once they disappeared, she moved her hand away from Percy's mouth.

The Empousai were dangerous, a lot more dangerous than the other monsters. They had the ability to control the Mist. They could change shape and charmspeak, tricking mortals into letting their guard down. Men were more likely to fall for that trap.

The monster's favorite tactic was to make a guy fall in love with her, then drink his blood and devour his flesh. When she'd asked Landon how he'd gotten kidnapped, he told her Kelli's voice had sounded like someone he knew.

Although he hadn't told her whose voice it had been, Evangeline had a pretty good idea of who it was.

"They're heading for the Doors of Death," he murmured. "You know what that means?"

"We need to follow them," she grumbled.

------✧------

A/N: I wanted to make some more jokes in this chp but this is a serious situation so limited shits and giggles ig.

Landon's POV next chapter and it's going to be lannabeth city. (still not getting a kiss tho)