The fields of Asphodel were crowded with dull, flat faces of the dead in the fields of darkness. They whispered among one another, but Evangeline couldn't hear a word they were saying. After a few miles of walking, she began hearing a familiar screech in the distance. Looming on the horizon was a palace of glittering obsidian, above the parapets swirled three dark bat-like creatures, the Furies. She had a feeling they were waiting for them.

"I suppose it's too late to turn back now," Grover said wistfully.

"We'll be okay." Percy tried to sound confident but failed.

"Maybe we should search some of the other places first," the satyr suggested. "Like Elysium, for instance..."

Annabeth grabbed his arm, stopping him from running off. "Come on, goat boy."

Grover yelped. His sneakers sprouted wings and his legs shot forward, attempting to pull himself out of her grip, but she didn't let go and then he landed flat on his back in the grass.

"Grover," Evangeline said. "Stop messing around."

"But I didn't-" He yelped again. His shoes were flapping like crazy, they levitated off the ground and started dragging him away from them.

"Maia!" He yelled, but the magic word wasn't working. "Maia already!" he said.

Percy was the one to move first, grabbing Grover's outstretched hand, but he was too late. Grover was picking up speed, skidding downhill like a bobsled.

The three ran after him.

Annabeth shouted, "Untie the shoes!"

It was a smart idea, but not so easy when the shoes are pulling you along feet-first at full speed. Grover tried to sit up, but he couldn't get close to the laces.

They kept after him, trying to keep him in sight as he zipped between the legs of spirits who chattered at him in annoyance. Evangeline was sure Grover was going to barrel straight through the gates of her father's palace, but his shoes veered sharply to the right and dragged him in the opposite direction.

The slope got steeper and Grover picked up speed. The three had to sprint to keep up, now. The cavern walls narrowed on either side, and Evangeline realized they had entered some kind of side tunnel. No black grass or trees now, just rock underfoot, and the dim light of the stalactites above.

"Grover!" Percy yelled. "Hold on to something!"

Grover was grabbing at the gravel, but there was nothing big enough to slow him down.

The tunnel got darker and colder, then she saw what was ahead of them. Percy skitted to a stop, looking in terrified astonishment at what was awaiting them.

The tunnel widened into a huge dark cavern, and in the middle was a chasm the size of a city block. Grover was sliding straight toward the edge.

"Come on!" Evangeline yelled, grabbing the boy from the back of his shirt, to keep him moving.

"But that's—"

"Not now!" Evangeline shouted.

"Grover's going to fall if we don't catch him," Annabeth yelled, sprinting for the satyr.

Grover's predicament got Percy moving again, running after the girls. The satyr was yelling, clawing at the ground, but the winged shoes kept dragging him towards the pit, and it didn't look like they could possibly get to him in time.

The flying sneakers had always been a loose fit on him, and finally, Grover hit a big rock and the left shoe came flying off. It sped into the darkness, down into the chasm. The right shoe kept tugging him along, but not as fast. Grover was able to slow himself down by grabbing onto the big rock and using it like an anchor.

He was ten feet from the edge of the pit when Evangeline and Annabeth caught him and hauled him back up the slope. The other winged shoe tugged itself off, circled around them angrily, and kicked their heads in protest before flying off into the chasm to join its twin.

The four collapsed, exhausted, on the obsidian gravel. Evangeline looked at the entrance to Tartarus, she got up and backed away, wrapping her arms around herself for comfort.

Grover was scratched up. His hands were bleeding. His eyes had gone slit-pupilled, goat style, the way they did whenever he was terrified.

"I don't know how ..." he panted. "I didn't ..."

"Wait," Percy said. "Listen."

   Annabeth said, staring at the pit, "This place—" The son of Poseidon shushed her, standing up.

The sound was getting louder, a muttering, evil voice from far, far below them. Coming from the pit.

Grover sat up. "Wh—what's that noise?"

"Don't listen to it," The daughter of Hades told him, "That's Tartarus, an entrance to it."

Percy uncapped riptide. The bronze sword expanded, gleaming in the darkness, and the evil voice seemed to falter, just for a moment, before resuming its chant. Ancient words, older even than Greek. As if ...

"Magic," Percy said.

"Let's leave," she insisted. "It's dark magic."

"We have to get out of here," Annabeth agreed.

Together, Percy and Annabeth dragged Grover to his hooves and started back up the tunnel. Evangeline followed them as she looked back one more time. The voice got louder and angrier behind them.

A cold blast of wind pulled at their backs as if the entire pit were inhaling. For a terrifying moment, Percy lost ground, his feet slipping into the gravel. Evangeline reached around, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt. If they had been any closer to the edge, they would've been sucked in.

The four kept struggling forward and finally reached the top of the tunnel, where the cavern widened out into the Fields of Asphodel. The wind died. A wail of outrage echoed from deep in the tunnel. Something was not happy they had gotten away.

"What was that?" Grover panted when they'd collapsed in the relative safety of a black poplar grove. "One of Hades's pets?"

Evangeline shook her head. Percy capped his sword and put the pen back in his pocket. "Let's keep going." He looked at Grover. "Can you walk?"

The satyr swallowed. "Yeah, sure. I never liked those shoes, anyway." He tried to sound brave about it, but he was trembling badly.

The Furies circled the parapets, high in the gloom. The outer walls of the fortress glittered black, and the two-story-tall bronze gates stood wide open.

Up close, Evangeline saw that the engravings on the gates were scenes of death. Some were from modern times—an atomic bomb exploding over a city, a trench filled with gas mask-wearing soldiers, a line of African famine victims waiting with empty bowls—but all of them looked as if they'd been etched into the bronze thousands of years ago. She had to wonder if she was looking at prophecies that had come true.

The four walked up the steps of the palace, between black columns, through a black marble portico, and into the house of Hades. The entry hall had a polished bronze floor, which seemed to boil in the reflected torchlight. There was no ceiling, just the cavern roof, far above.

Every side doorway was guarded by a skeleton in military gear. Some wore Greek armor, some British redcoat uniforms, and some camouflage with tattered American flags on the shoulders. They carried spears or muskets or M-16s. None of them bothered the questers, but their hollow eye sockets followed them as they walked down the hall, toward the big set of doors at the opposite end.

Two U.S. Marine skeletons guarded the doors. They grinned down at the questers, rocket-propelled grenade launchers held across their chests.

Grover said, "I bet Hades doesn't have trouble with door-to-door salesmen because of it."

"Well, guys," Percy said, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down. "I suppose we should ... knock?"

A hot wind blew down the corridor, and the doors swung open. The guards stepped aside.

"I guess that means entrez-vous," Annabeth said.

The room inside looked just as Percy described it, except this time the throne of Hades was occupied. Evangeline took a deep breath to calm herself down.

The god was at least ten feet tall, dressed in black silk robes, and a crown of braided gold. His skin was as white as paper, his hair shoulder-length and jet-black. He wasn't bulked up like Ares, but he radiated power. He lounged on his throne of fused human bones, looking lithe, graceful, and dangerous as a panther.

"You are brave to come here, Son of Poseidon," Hades said in an oily voice. "After what you have done to me, very brave indeed. Or perhaps you are simply very foolish."

Evangeline looked at her father and he met her eyes, his eyes softened for a quick second as he glanced at her and then turned his attention back to Percy.

Percy stepped forward. "Lord Hades, I come with two requests."

Hades raised an eyebrow. When he sat forward on his throne, shadowy faces appeared in the folds of his black robes, faces of torment, as if the garment were stitched of trapped souls from the Fields of Punishment, trying to get out.

"Only two requests?" Hades said. "Arrogant child. As if you have not already taken enough. Speak, then. It amuses me not to strike you dead yet.'

She glanced around the throne room and saw Persephone's throne next to her father's.

Annabeth cleared her throat. Her finger prodded Percy in the back, a poke that told the son of Poseidon to keep talking.

"Lord Hades," Percy said. "Look, sir, there can't be a war among the gods. It would be ... bad."

"Really bad," Grover added helpfully.

"Return Zeus's master bolt to me," Percy said. "Please, sir. Let me carry it to Olympus,"

Hades's eyes grew dangerously bright. "You dare keep up this pretense, after what you have done?"

The son of Poseidon glanced back at the people who had traveled with him across the country. They looked just about as confused as Percy looked.

"Um ... sir," said the son of Poseidon. "You keep saying 'after what I've done'. What exactly have I done?"

The throne room shook with a tremor so strong they probably felt it upstairs in Los Angeles. Debris fell from the cavern ceiling. Doors burst open all along the walls, and skeletal warriors marched in, hundreds of them, from every time period and nation in Western civilization. They lined the perimeter of the room, blocking the exits.

Hades bellowed, "Do you think I want war, godling?"

"You are the Lord of the Dead," Percy said carefully. "A war would expand your kingdom, right?"

"A typical thing for my brothers to say! Do you think I need more subjects? Did you not see the sprawl of Asphodel?"

Percy tilted his head, looking over the lines of skeleton warriors blocking the doors they had walked through. "Well ..."

"Have you any idea how much my kingdom has swollen in this past century alone, how many subdivisions I've had to open?"

"More security ghouls," he moaned. "Traffic problems at the judgment pavilion. Double overtime for the staff. I used to be a rich god, Percy Jackson. I control all the precious metals under the earth. But my expenses!"

"Charon wants a pay raise," the boy blurted. As soon as the words escaped his mouth, Evangeline covered her face in embarrassment.

"Don't get me started on Charon!" Hades yelled. "He's been impossible ever since he discovered Italian suits! Problems are everywhere, and I've got to handle all of them personally. The commute time alone from the palace to the gates is enough to drive me insane! And the dead just keep arriving. No, godling. I need no help getting subjects! I did not ask for this war."

"But you took Zeus's master bolt."

"Lies!" More rumbling. Hades rose from his throne, towering to the height of a football goalpost. "Your father may fool Zeus, boy, but I am not so stupid. I see his plan."

"His plan?" Percy asked.

"You were the thief on the winter solstice," the god said. "Your father thought to keep you his little secret. He directed you into the throne room on Olympus. You took the master bolt and my helmet. Had I not sent my Fury to discover you at Yancy Academy, Poseidon might have succeeded in hiding his scheme to start a war. But now you have been forced into the open. You will be exposed as Poseidon's thief, and I will have my helmet back!"

"But ..." Annabeth spoke. "Lord Hades, your helmet of darkness is missing, too?"

"Do not play innocent with me, girl. You and the satyr have been helping this hero—coming here to threaten me in Poseidon's name, no doubt—to bring me an ultimatum. And my daughter has been manipulated into helping this hero. Does Poseidon think I can be blackmailed into supporting him?"

"No!" Percy protested. "Poseidon didn't—I didn't—"

"I have said nothing of the helmet's disappearance," Hades snarled, "because I had no illusions that anyone on Olympus would offer me the slightest justice, the slightest help. I can ill afford for word to get out that my most powerful weapon of fear is missing. So I searched for you myself, and when it was clear you were coming to me to deliver your threat, I did not try to stop you."

"Father!" Evangeline yelled.

"Return my helmet now, or I will stop death," Hades threatened. "That is my counter-proposal. I will open the earth and have the dead pour back into the world. I will make your lands a nightmare. And you, Percy Jackson—your skeleton will lead my army out of Hades."

The skeletal soldiers all took one step forward, making their weapons ready.

"You're as bad as Zeus," Percy said, his eyebrows furrowing together. "You think I stole from you? That's why you sent the Furies after me?"

"Of course," Hades said.

"And the other monsters?"

The god curled his lip. "I had nothing to do with them. I wanted no quick death for you—I wanted you brought before me alive so you might face every torture in the Fields of Punishment. Why do you think I let you enter my kingdom so easily?"

"Easily?"

"Return my property!"

"But I don't have your helmet. I came for the master bolt." Percy said.

"Which you already possess!" Hades shouted. "You came here with it, little fool, thinking you could threaten me!"

"But I didn't!" Percy protested.

"Open your pack, then."

The son of Poseidon slung the bag off his shoulder and unzipped it. Inside was a two-foot-long metal cylinder, spiked on both ends, humming with energy.

Evangeine's jaw dropped. "Oh, you have got to be kidding me," she said.

"I—I don't know. I don't understand."

"You heroes are always the same," Hades said. "Your pride makes you foolish, thinking you could bring such a weapon before me. I did not ask for Zeus's master bolt, but since it is here, you will yield it to me. I am sure it will make an excellent bargaining tool. And now ... my helmet. Where is it?"

"This has to be a mistake," Evangeline said.

"A mistake?" Hades raised a brow.

The skeletons aimed their weapons. From high above, there was a fluttering of leathery wings, and the three Furies swooped down to perch on the back of the god's throne. The one next to Mrs. Dodds grinned eagerly at the former math teacher.

"There is no mistake," Hades hissed. "I know why the son of Poseidon came here—I know the real reason he brought the bolt. He came to bargain for her."

Hades loosed a ball of gold fire from his palm. It exploded on the steps in front of them, and there was Percy's mother, frozen in a shower of gold, looking as if she was about to be squeezed to death.

The raven-haired boy reached out to touch her, but he retracted his hand.

"Yes," Hades said with satisfaction. "I took her. I knew, Percy Jackson, that you would come to bargain with me eventually. Return my helmet, and perhaps I will let her go. She is not dead, you know. Not yet. But if you displease me, that will change."

Percy looked like he was wrestling with a thousand different emotions.

"Ah, the pearls,"' Hades said as if reading the boy's mind. "Yes, my brother and his little tricks. Bring them forth, Percy Jackson."

Percy brought out the pearls given to him.

"Only four," Hades pointed out. "What a shame. You do realize each only protects a single person. Try to take your mother, then, little godling. And which of your friends will you leave behind to spend eternity with me? Go on. Choose. Or give me the backpack and accept my terms."

"We were tricked," Percy said. "Set up."

"Yes, but why?" Annabeth asked.

"I don't know yet," Percy said. "But I intend to ask."

"Decide, boy!" Hades yelled.

"Percy." Grover put his hand on the son of Poseidon's shoulder. "You can't give him the bolt."

"I know that."

"Leave me here," said the satyr. "Use the fourth pearl on your mom."

"No," Evangeline said. "I'll stay, I'll be fine."

"What? No, you can't." Percy shook his head.

Annabeth and Grover started arguing with her but she shot them a look. "It's the wisest choice, I'm his daughter, you guys would get hurt if you stayed, and he won't hurt me."

"Evangeline," Percy said.

She shook her head. "Just go,"

"I'll be back. I'll find a way." the boy promised. The other three ran away from her.

The smug look on Hades's face faded. He said, "Godling ...?"

"I'll find your helmet, Lord Hades," Percy promised him. "I'll return it. Remember about Charon's pay raise."

"Do not defy me—"

"And it wouldn't hurt to play with Cerberus once in a while. He likes red rubber balls."

"Percy Jackson, you will not—"

"Be nice to Evangeline!" And with that, the son of Poseidon shouted, "Now, guys!"

The three smashed the pearls at their feet. For a scary moment, nothing happened. The skeleton army attacked the three but they disappeared in time. "Find them!" And with that, the army took off to find them.

Evangeline turned to her father, silence filled the room. She shifted on her feet. "I like your throne," she broke the silence.

"I think we are long overdue for a conversation, daughter." Hades got off his throne and reduced his height to six feet, Evangeline blinked and they were in a dining room on opposite sides of each other.

"You are so much like your mother," Hades told her, as he took a seat at the head of the table.

"That's all you have to say to me?" She asked him.

He leaned back in his chair, "besides the attitude, of course... that's on me." he told her.

"Are you even listening to me?" She asked as she stepped closer.

"Yes, I am," he sighed, "I have been listening to you, I've heard your payers, I've heard everything."

She raised a brow. "So you've been spying on me?"

"You're being raised by an alcoholic and a centaur, of course, I'm going to keep an eye on you. I've protected you more than that camp has, they didn't even give you a proper weapon," he said as he opened the drawer next to his seat and pulled out a black rectangle box. "Here." He gave it to Evangeline.

She hesitantly opened it, there was a necklace with a black snake pendant and a silver chain. "Wow, gee, thanks Dad for giving me a necklace." her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Press the snake." He told her. She looked at him skeptically, wondering if this was a trick.

She took the necklace out of the box and pressed the pendant, and it turned into a pitch-black sword with round black obsidian attached at the end of its silver hilt. Evangeline eyes widened, at the sword in her hand, she looked up at Hades, who had an amused look on his face. "What's it made of?"

"Stygian Iron," He said, eating some pomegranate seeds. "We have to talk about the company you keep,"

Evangeline looked up at the god. "What?"

"Percy Jackson is not good company. Neither are the other two and that unbearable camp, that you stay in, is not safe."

"Those other two are my friends and that unbearable camp is my home, something I never had because of you." The brunette sat down on the chair at the other end after she pressed the obsidion at the end of the hilt causing the sword to turn back into the necklace.

"They have blinded you," Hades sighed. "Manipulated you into thinking that I'm the monster."

"They haven't done anything like that, whatever I think of you is because of what you have done."

Hades interlocked his fingers as he sat up. "You have no idea what I have done and risked for you."

"Please, do tell," She rolled her eyes.

"Who do you think sent 'Mrs Grayson' to keep an eye on you?" He arched a dark brow.

"Mrs Grayson was a mortal... what are you saying?"

Hades shook his head. "Mrs Grayson was one of my fury. You have already met Alecto, on the bus, I was told you fought her."

The brunette's eyes widened as she faltered. "What?"

"Did you really think I would leave my daughter all alone? I sent Alecto to keep an eye on you, to protect you."

"Then why did she disappear and leave me alone in that hotel?" Evangeline demanded.

The god of the dead clenched his jaw. "Something else had to be taken care of."

"And what was that?" She knitted her eyebrows in confusion.

"It's not something to worry about," He shook her off. "But I did what any father would do and I protected you."

"Yeah, by taking away my life. Trapping me in that stupid hotel. I'm supposed to be dead by now."

"It worked, did it not?" He continued. "You were safe and protected from Zeus and monsters, you would have still been safe if you had just stayed there. I had a plan for when I was going to get you out."

"Plan? What plan?" She asked.

"I had planned a time when I was going to get you out but you had already left when Alecto came back to get you. And then you came here with the boy who stole the bolt and made everyone assume it was I who did."

"He didn't make anyone assume anything," She shook her head.

"You could have at least defended me, my little raven."

She looked at the necklace in her hands. "I have to know you, so I can defend you. Anything that I have heard about you is that you're greedy and heartless and that I'm an abomination."

His eyes softened as he sighed. "They will always make us the villains, whether we like it or not, child."

"We will speak of this no more," Zeus said. "I must go personally to purify this thunderbolt in the waters of Lemnos, to remove the human taint from its metal."

He rose and looked at Percy. "You have done me a service, boy. Few heroes could have accomplished as much."

"I had help, sir," Percy said. "Grover Underwood, and Annabeth Chase—"

"To show you my thanks, I shall spare your life. I do not trust you, Perseus Jackson. I do not like what your arrival means for the future of Olympus. But for the sake of peace in the family, I shall let you live."

"Um... thank you? Percy said. "I have one more thing to ask, I have this friend, Evangeline Merlyn, she's the daughter of Hades, she stayed back in the Underworld to help us escape. I made a promise to her that I would get her out. And-"

"Evangeline Merlyn? That's not possible she's dead."

Percy knitted his eyebrows. "Dead? Evangeline's not dead."

Zeus watched him, he looked like he was shocked and surprised for some reason. Then he finally spoke. "If she stayed in the Underworld with her father, then there is nothing I can do. I see it fit that she stay there with Hades. And I doubt my brother would let her go, he's always wanted her to live with him in the Underworld, he's got his wish."

Percy's eyes hardened as he started getting angry. "But she-"

"There is nothing I can do about it, end of discussion. Now-"

"If it wasn't for her you would have never gotten your stupid bolt back!" Percy spat.

Zeus glared at the boy as thunder rumbled from afar Poseidon held his hand out to stop Zeus and spoke calmly. "Perseus, give us a moment."

The sea god turned to his brother and had a discussion in Ancient Greek. Poseidon turned to his son. "We have thought about it and Zeus will have the girl returned to you." He glanced at Zeus who held a scowl. "Right, brother?"

"Very well, but do not think of speaking to me like that again, boy." Zeus threatened.

The son of Poseidon looked side to side. "Aren't you going to do something?"

"Be patient," Zeus said. Thunder shook the palace. With a blinding flash of lightning, Zeus was gone.

"My brother has always had a flare for the dramatics." Poseidon sighed.

"He said he'd get her back!" Percy snapped.

"Oh, don't worry," Poseidon waved a hand. "She's probably nearby or back at Camp. Now, we have a lot to talk about, my boy."

One second Evangeline was watching as the dead soldiers stood guard outside the doors, the next she dodged a taxi on the road.

The driver yelled something at her as he drove past, she stumbled back onto the sidewalk, taking in the new scenery around her.

She was back in New York, right outside the Empire State Building. She glanced down at the new necklace in her hand and tucked it into the pocket of her jeans.

Without sparing another glance, she made her way into the building. She pushed her way through a crowd and stopped in front of the desk in the lobby, a guard posted behind it, reading the newspaper.

She rang the bell, he didn't look up from the paper. She rang it again, and he still didn't glance at her.

Evangeline looked around, shifting her weight from one foot to another, she glanced at the elevator and the security gate in the way.

She started to make her way toward it when the guard spoke, "Not happening," he said. "Move along."

The brunette stepped back in front of the desk, "I really need to get up there. My uh..." she blanked. "My dad hired a clown for my birthday and he's up there. I just need to tell him the party moved to another location."

The guard folded up the paper and raised a brow. "Is that so?"

She nodded. "And which floor are they on?" he narrowed his eyes.

"The six-hundredth floor," she stated.

"There is no six-hundreth floor, kid." He repeated. "Move along."

Evangeline scowled, her hand clenching into a fist. "There is one."

"No, there isn't,"

"Yes, there is."

The guard straightened in his seat, crossing his arms. "Young lady—"

The elevator dinged and a familiar face walked out. Percy halted, staring at her like he'd seen a ghost. He blinked a few times before he ran to her, aiming to give a hug.

She held up a hand, stepping back. "I'm good," she said.

Percy nodded, his arms falling to his side. "Oh, okay," he said. "You okay?"

"Yeah," she retorted, glancing at the guard, pointing at the son of Poseidon. "I told there was a clown."

The guard rolled his eyes and returned to his newspaper. "What?" Percy blinked.

"Nevermind, let's go." Evangeline pushed her through the crowd, the raven-haired boy falling in step. "Did you give it back?"

"Yeah," Percy said. "Met my dad too."

"Anything else?" She raised a brow.

"I fought a god."

"Right," she shot him a look. "You fought a god."

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