“What?” Superman screamed back.
“Hello?”
“What?”
It was scintillating conversation, but Nico left them to it. He pushed past a person in an inflatable T. rex costume, and then a zombie with fake blood on his face.
The entire plaza was now a Halloween party.
“Defiance!” he called out. “Where are you?”
Defiance didn’t answer, probably because it was being defiant.
We must keep going, said Semele.I will do my best to help you focus.
Nico growled in frustration, but he knew she was right. He turned toward the central fountain. Floating over it now were a couple in elaborate Day of the Dead costumes—La Catrina with her lacy hoopskirt and floppy hat bedecked with flowers, El Catrin with his rhinestone-studded black mariachi suit, both with their faces painted like jewel-encrusted skulls. They were dancing a waltz in midair, singing to each other as the world around them disintegrated into a series of psychedelic nightmares.
Dolus and Apate. Obviously.
Nico sprinted toward them, determined to end the gods’ reverie.
Hazel gasped.
Suddenly, the world made sense again. One minute, she’d been surrounded by cute, whimpering puppy dogs. Now the puppies were gone, turned back into confused-looking people. She was holding a Cocoa Puff in her hands, and Frank was grinning at her.
“Welcome back,” he said. “I gave you Anger. He’s a good friend of mine.”
Sure enough, Hazel felt supercharged with rage. Of course, she’d felt that way ever since she’d met the accursed Court of the Dead, so it didn’t bother her much. Her senses were all on high alert—like ADHD-plus-twelve-espressos high alert.
“I am really angry,” she announced. “But also, I really love you.”
Frank laughed. “Same. Will ran off to help Nico. Give me a hand distributing more Puffs?”
Hazel surveyed the plaza. The mythics seemed be having varying degrees of success seeing through this new veil of superthick Mist. Some were standing around in a daze like they were trying to remember where they’d parked their chariots. Others were still fighting, although a few were locked in mortal combat with trees or park benches.
Asterion seemed to still have his wits about him. He continued to herd the mythics away from danger, stopping only long enough to fling an aggressive gigantic ant into an abandoned hot dog cart.
Hazel spotted Nico racing toward the central fountain, where Dolus and Apate were dancing a waltz in the air. Will was trying to catch up to him, dodging and weaving through a flock of hallucinating harpies.
Then she remembered who had started this chaos in the first place:Pirithous.Where was that pompous pile of…? There. Running away, of course, with his two skeletal guards trailing behind him. And they were headed straight for Camp Jupiter’s Chevy van, which Frank’s crew must have driven here.
“Oh, Hades, no,” she muttered. “Frank, keep at it with the Puffs. I have a judge to catch.”
Before he could protest, she sprinted off, Anger barking its approval in her arms.
Even with the Cocoa Puff heightening her senses, the Mist was harder to navigate than she’d ever experienced. Her skin tingled all over like she was running through a cold fog.
It kept throwing illusionary obstacles in her path—puppies to trip on, brick walls to crash through, fiery pits to jump over—but she forged ahead, ignoring what her eyes tried to tell her.
She knew the Mist. She could navigate these currents of weirdness.
Come on, Hazel!she told herself.You can do this.
With a cry of determination, Hazel shoved the Mist away, creating a small radius in front of her where reality shifted back into place.
She heard the flutter of leafy wings behind her, and Quinoa perched on her shoulder. “Hazel, why was everything and everyone adogjust now?”
“Mist,” she said, sweat pouring down her face. “Sorry. I need to concentrate. This is so much more powerful than what I’m used to.”