Never since Pandora opened her pithos had so many emotions exploded from a container so quickly. In the back row, Will’s backpack burst in a shrapnel cloud of canvas, nylon, and Kit Kat bars, unleashing a tiny cavalry of darkness. The cacodemons swarmed over the rows of spectators, jumping from shoulder to shoulder, head to head, causing even more confusion in the crowd of half-blind monsters as the Puffs triggered every emotion from rage to despair.
Nico swung his sword, slicing the Cyclops Suzanne across her thighs—not a lethal strike, but painful enough to make her howl in surprise and drop her club. Will turned on the nearest skeletal guard, grabbed the shaft of his spear, and screamed in the skeleton’s face, blasting the guard with such intense light that he blew apart in a bleached-white swirl of dust.
The Cocoa Puffs arrived, bouncing around Nico’s feet and chittering proudly as if to sayDad, we did a thing!
“Let’s get out of here!” Will yelled. “Shadow-travel!”
Nico grabbed his hand and started toward Hazel.
She was only twenty feet away. They could do this.
He’d barely taken a step when the second red-robed guard grabbed Hazel’s throat with one hand and lifted her off her feet. The other hand pinned Hazel’s spatha against her side.
“No, Nico di Angelo!” cried Pirithous. “You can’t stop the wheels of justice!”
The trio of death gods were in motion now, their eyes fixed on Nico. The monsters in the gallery were beginning to recover from their shock. They howled for blood.
Hazel caught Nico’s eye. She looked strangely calm, which terrified him.
“Go!” she croaked. “Nico, don’t believe it.”
The red guard jabbed her with his spear. Hazel cried out, and the entire cavern shook. Precious gems rained from overhead—more riches than Nico had ever seen Hazel summon from the earth, burying the courtroom under a hailstorm of diamonds, rubies, and emeralds.
Nico screamed as his sister disappeared, her form burning into ash and fire. Gems kept falling—smashing the skulls of monsters, forcing the judges to hide under their bench, causing howls of rage and pain. The ceiling began to crack. Nico glanced up in time to see an entire stalactite hurtling toward him like a diamond-encrusted ballista bolt.
In utter despair, he gripped Will’s hand and dove into the nearest shadow, and the world melted to darkness.
Don’t believe it.
As Nico came to, Hazel’s words floated through his head.
His hands pressed against cold concrete. The thrum of traffic filled his ears. The air smelled of eucalyptus. Someone was tugging on the sleeve of his jacket.
“Nico!” Will’s voice sounded far away. “Nico, get up!”
Don’t believe it, Hazel had said.
Then fire and ash.
Nico was crying. He reached out with his senses, trying to locate his sister’s life force. He felt nothing.
“I know,” said Will, his voice cracking. “But we can’t do anything for her right now. We have to tell Frank.”
Nico managed to sit up.
They had shadow-traveled back to where they’d started—the sentry post outside the Caldecott Tunnel. Deion and Yazan were still on duty, staring down at Nico with shocked expressions.
In a single morning, in less time than one changing of the guards, Nico’s world had turned inside out. Asterion…gone. Hazel…
He wanted to scream. He wanted to summon every restless soul from the Underworld—to rip apart the entire East Bay until there was nothing left but overturned earth and roaming skeletons. But he barely had the energy to stand, even with Deion and Yazan’s help.
The Cocoa Puffs swarmed him, hissing and growling in agitation. Will pulled him into a fierce hug.
Nico buried his face in the crook of his boyfriend’s neck. Will’s whole body trembled as they both sobbed. Nico could smell traces of soot and smoke in his hair.
Nico tried again to reach out for Hazel—to see if he could feel the ripples that her death should have caused.
He had lost so very many people over the years, he’d become adept at sensing when someone important to him had died.
