NICO’S POV
It’s right around midnight when a vibration throws Jade and I awake. We both sit up on the bed, breathing hard, before another vibration knocks us to our feet, followed by muffled screams. She grabs krypton and runs outside without a jacket or even shoes. I grumble, grab the stuff nearest to me, cram it in our bag, grab my sword septer and sprint out after her.
The door that to josh, piper and leo’s room was blown out, leaving a smoky firey room with no people inside. I cuss to myself and sprint as fast I can after them. When I get out to the parking lot I can barely make out the image of jade running full sprint after what looked like a couple of harpies. And if that were true we were screwed. I curse again, jumping into the jeep, and drive after her as fast as I can, because I knew I could not catch up to her running. As I near her she doesn’t let up, just hops right in and breathes heavily.
“They’re heading down to the pits, we have to follow them” she says, and I don’t respond, just look forward and push on the gas pedal.

It looks like the harpies slow down when were a few miles out from civilization. I can just see the twinkling stars of sunny downtown San Diego on the horizon. I slow the car until I know that they have landed in what looks like a small scale version of the archedeneom. I park the car off to the side of a dirt road and we both soundlessly get out.
“Shit” she mubles when she realizes she’s wearing pajama shorts and one of my shirts that looks comically big on her. I look in her bag and hand her some jeans, a tank top, her jacket, and her pair of boots. She smiles sadly at me and changes in the car while I scope out the place.
It didn’t look guarded, but there looked like there was only one entrance, by a small door that I could barey make out, which seemed to be heavily guarded/
“She knew I was coming, we don’t have to sneak in, there’s only two ways in and both will have a trap. We might as well walk through the front door and hope luck is on our side” she says, putting her hair up in a ponytail and standing next to me.
“Do you have a plan?” I ask, rubbing my chin.
“When do I ever have a plan?” she asks, looking at me. I turn my head and look down at her, she was impossibly even more beautiful in the moonlight, the whites of her eyes sparkling so brightly you would think she added chemicals to them as well as her teeth.
“You faced yours, its time to face mine” she says. I nod silently and walk behind her as she marches determidely towards the place where she was forced to fight tooth and nail for her life everyday.

When we get into shouting distance of the front door, one of the empousi who was guarding it whispers to her sister, then slides inside to probably tell Mme. Graceou or whatever that we were here. Jade doesn’t miss a step, just shakes out her shoulders, takes a deep breath, and plunges her head forward, walking even faster than before. I have to elongate my strides to keep up with her.
“I could shadow travel us in” I say to her in a low voice.
“You wouldn’t be able to shadow travel us all out. No, I have to do this, I owe it to Josh. I left him here last time, and I won’t do it again.” Hearing her mention Josh’s name sends a pang through my heart. It was hard enough watching her hug him, but did she have to say his name with such sorrow and love. Couldn’t she see what she was doing to me.
I’ll admit I was being unfair, she was just about to walk in to the most horrible childhood any kid could ever think of, but still. Hades kids were downright selfish most of the time.
“I’m here to see Mme. Graceou” she says when we get up to the door. Leaving my mixed feelings about her and Josh aside, I look as threatening and dangerous as I can, which is really really really threatening and dangerous.
The empousi giggles when she sees me, and her big blue eyes instantly remind me of Kelly’s. I just narrow mine and glare at her. “We’ve been expecting you Jade Rhodes, but I didn’t think you would bring such fine compay.” She says seductively. I would be lieing if I said it didn’t work a little, empousi were just about the most attractive, seductive women when they weren’t In their natural form, which is with one goat leg, a metal leg, a snake tail, and a split tongue.
“Where are they, Myrtle?” she ask, her voice growling, her tone scary enough to make the empousi flinch and step back, taking her eyes off of me and back towards Jade. I smile a little.
“You’ll see them soon enough, but Madame Graceou has asked to see you first, you know, for old times sake” she says, and opens the door, walking inside, waiting for us to follow.
Jade doesn’t even hesitate, slamming open the door and marching right behind her, her eyes narrowed and killer, her shoulders set. I follow as nonchalantly as I can behind her, even though I was just as strung out.
The inside looked like a bar, filled with cigar smoke and the sickly sweet scent of not over the counter drugs. I try not to inhale to much, it’s been a long time since I’ve been subject to that weakness.
It was mostly men sitting around in lounge chairs, playing cards, laughing loudly, and placing best on the oncoming fight. I eavesdropped on one of them, “You’ve never seen her though! Kids a beast, never lost a round” and I know exactly what we’ve just walked into. I thought about warning Jade, but by the set of her hands, I knew she already knew, maybe even before they were kidnapped. She figured it out as soon as she saw them, I realized. She knew the only reason they escaped is beuase Mme. Graceou let them because she knew Jade would try to be the hero and follow her back. I didn’t like this, I didn’t like this one bit.
Empousi were walking around serving drinks and offering lap dances for a lot of money. I thought about buying one, but when I turned my head I saw Jade glaring at me, already knowing what I was thinking. I give her a smirk, which seems to calm her down a little. It felt nice to know my little quirks and man whore manners were so familiar to her she actually calmed down in the situation. It felt good to know that me being here with her was better than worse for her.
The first empousi leads us around the bar and to an old engraved door that you could barely make out in the smoke. She opened it without knocking, and we were blasted by a flash of clean air. I tried my hardest not to gulp down the cleanliness when we walked in, but I did take a little exaggerated gasp.
The room was covered in little trinkets, horns, teeth, scales, purges of war. There were vials everywhere filled with deep dark liquids, and all kinds of old looking stuff that couldn’t do anything good. A woman sat at the front, and I didn’t want to make any wild guesses but I’m pretty sure it was Mme. Graceou, both because she’s exactly how Jade described her, and because Jade tenses even more when she sees her, and says with the thickest most terrifying voice I had ever heard come out of her, “Madame graceou.”I got admit, I was pretty darn proud of the kid.
“Jade Rhodes” she says in the most sickly sweet voice that made me want to puke. She was old, like sixty, and covered in wrinkles and warts, she looked like a gypsy with the amount of bracelets and bright scarves she was wearing. Jade had told me she used all the money she got from the pits to buy extravogent potions that are supposed to make her look younger and make her immortal, but apparently non of it was working.
“Come, come, sweet child, sit, oh and look, you have such fine company.” She says standing up from her desk and coming over to greet us. Thank the gods she didn’t try to touch Jade becuas I would have tackled her at once, and Jade probably would have stabbed her, and then we were really done for. Instead she just smiled at her and turned her attention to me. “Some of your blood will probably leave me beautiful for ages. Although, I really don’t need it, don’t I dear” she says, pumping up her hair and looking at me, a threat in her eyes.
“My parents told me never to lie, especially to old women” I say lazily, crossing my arms and looking around the room unimpressed. The truth was, she was thousand times more terrifying then Jade could ever set her out to be.
She slams her hand down on the table, knocking over some vial filled with a white powder, which Myrtle and her sister instantly pounce on, licking the dust off the floor. In fact, now that I look around, the white powder was everywhere. And it wasn’t cocaine or meth, it was something much much worse.
“You will respect me young man!” she yells, her voice becoming so shrill it almost puncturd my ear drum. She fixes her wig and takes a deep breath, she must have smelled the death and decay on me because she turns and smiles. “Your dad could not have taught you very many matters, son of Hades” she spits. “Interesting, I’ve never met one before, never even heard of one. I didn’t even know any other children of the big three existed, besides Jade and Josh of course.” She places her wrinkled old finger with a long witches nail on my chest, and then crawls up to my chin, grabbing it, and making me look at her in the eyes.
“I’ll make you wish you had never met me” I snarl. She cackles wickedly.
“Oh you poor boy, you think you're so invinclible because your father is the god of the dead, well guess what boy, you're just as immortal as me and you're little girlfriend here!” I knew how immortal the children of hades were, I experienced it myself firsthand, I resisted the urge to punch her. “I’ll make you regret you ever following her in here. Very noble of you as well, I didn’t think children of hades could be noble. Man whores sure, but noble, did my sweet little innocent Jade change your ways? I bet she lost all of her innocene around you didn’t she. I know I would kill to have you hold me, kiss me, rub m-”
“Don’t you dare talk about her like-”
“Nico!” Jade interjects, which just makes the old woman switch her attention from me to her.
“Well, now now, if you're so impatient to get back in the ring, why didn’t you just say so?” she asks, and when no one answers her she continues. “I have a special challenge for you today, one that will make me twice the amount of money any of your last victories might have given me! You're the only one who might have a possibility of winning, since he’s your brother of course, many have tried, my best have died, but after Josh ran away, I knew you would be the only one. So I’ll make you a deal-“
“I’m never making a deal with you again” Jade snarls, completely ignoring the part about her brother, maybe she was trying to not act like she had a brother, because if this woman found out about percy, and the camp, we would never stop being chased. Which leaves me wondering what their initial deal was.
“Oh sweetheart you have to get over it. I was just crunching numbers, and profitally, your deal was heroic of course, but it didn’t benefit me, so” she shrugs as if to say you can’t do anything about it. I see Jade holding back her spit. “Anyway!” she sits back in her chair, puffing up a cloud of the white powder. “I swear I’ll go through with this one, you defeat this challenge, and I’ll let you and your little friends go” she says, as if it were that simple.
“All of them?” Jade asks. The woman scoffs.
“I’m surprised you care about the other two but yeah all of them sure” she says waving her hands.
“You're lieing” Jade says after careful consideration. The woman looks shocked, but I can see the tiny vein in her jaw pop that threw Jade off in the first place.
“Why in hades would you think I would ever lie to you?” she asks incredilious.
“You raised me, as hard as it is for me to admit, I know when your lying, you're a terrible liar.” Jade says casually, but her demeanor was cut throat.
“Fine so I’m lying.” Mme. Graceou says.
“What else do you want?” Jade asks.
“what I said I initially wanted, your boyfriends blood. And yousr as well.” What the hell was the thing with everyone wanting our blood!
“What for?”
“I’m this close to finding it Jade! And I know mixed with the blood form the offspring of the three most powerful gods I will live forever in beauty!”
“I would rather die than grant you immortality!”
“Then do. But just know if you do, you are sentencing all of your friends to death.” Jade thinks about it, looking to me for help. I don’t move, but I know she can tell from my eyes that I’ll do whatever she needs me to do.
“Deal” Jade says sticking her hand out, and that’s when she makes her first mistake. She was too greedy, she didn’t feel as if the compromise was too great, and Mme. Graceou pounced on it.
“Hold on now!” she says, and stands back up, thinking of what else she could want. Jade stands back and bites her lip, noting her mistake.
“Wht else do you want?” She says gruffly, not wanting to seem unsure in front of her. The woman turns and inspect her again, and then her eyes land on Jades waist.
“When did you get that” she asks, motioning towards krypton. Jade instantly puts her hand over her most prized possession, but hangs her head in defeat.
“It is my fathers” she mutters.
“I will be merciful, I will grant you one last battle with such an incredibly valuable weapon, and then you must hand it over, along with your blood, after your hopeful victoy, in exchange for the escape of you and your friends. If you don’t die of course, in which case I still make money from selling seats, it’s a packed house you know, can still collect your blood from your dead body, and will be able to not only keep one but both your man toys here to entertain me.” She says, holding out her hand, happy with her deal, because either way, she won, and boh ways Jade lost. I didn’t trust her one bit, but I knew that we had no alternative choice. I doubted she would let us leave ever, but when it came to that, we would figure something out, right now we just needed to step forward.
Jade holds out her hand and shakes it with the wicked old lady. Her hand looked like an old twig you would see in the classic horror movies that turn into claws in a blink of an eye and then back. Damning swears don’t work with mortals, which is why Jade couldn’t be able to trick her into one as she had with Hades. The old woman laughs gleefully and sits down one more time as if she got even more than she wanted. Jade hangs her head and curls her hands by her side. I had never seen her so deafeated.
“I expect you out at the ring in half an hour, Josh and his friends are in the dungeon, supply room is open. I expect you behind the gate in half an hour, don’t try to pull any funny stuff” she says, and cocks her head, dismissing us.
Jade leaves without another word and I follow her down the hall, a couple of steps, to the back of the bar, whirling down the steps by the field, where I got small little peeks at it, dirt, big, oval, with nothing else for protection. She bursts into one door and down another staircase until we were well underground, a few more hallways, enough to make me lose orientation. I wish I could figure out exact distances and stuff like Jade did when she was by water underground, but it was a mess of numbers in my head. They were there, I just didn’t know how to make sense of them.
Finaly we get to one small door, which she kicks open, and she bursts into the dungeon without one word to me. She sprints across the room into Joshs arms, again, and shakes uncontrollably while he holds her. I shake my head in disgust to find Piper staring at me, and she smiles sadly, she knew exactly what I was going through. I sit with Piper and Leo while Jade and Josh talk to each other about what she was up against, what she should do, what our plan should be, how were going to get out etc. Piper and Leo try their best to help me caught up on the rules and regualtions of the fights. Basically there were none, except for no one leaves until someone or something is dead.
Jade finally shakes her head, gives Josh one last hug that might have lingered too much, waves goodbye to Piper and Leo, and walks out of the door. I almost think for one second she forgot about me, but she steps back inside and motions for me to follow her. I want to get mad at her, I do, but I remind myself that she has a lot on her mind, and I tell myself not to mess up the only semi-functional relationship I’ve ever had.
“So are you going to tell me the plan?” I ask while we walk towards some other remote part of the place. She motions nicely for me to shut the hell up and opens the door to another room and pushes me inside. We were in a modest armory, with heavy armor gear, old swords, beat up shields, and bloody spears.
I help Jade into the armor as she tells me her plan. “So, wait for my signal. You're the most important part of the plan, but with three children of the big three, I mean how can we not get out of here, right?” she asks, a worried expression on her face. She was trying to smile but it came out more as her looking queasy. I tighten the shoulder strap hard enough for her to stumble forward and into my lap.
“If there was anyone who could pull this off, it’s you” I whisper confidentally in her ear. She shivers, from fear, anticipation, or pleasure I don’t know, probably a mixture of all three.
“I know” she says, still looking queasy but more confident. “What’s your guess on the monster?” she ask, checking the time, five minutes till.
“My guess, I have no idea. But you’ve already killed the chimera, mother of monsters, I mean how bad can it be?” I ask, flashing her a confient lazy hald smile. She smiels back, visibly relaxing again.
“Since when did you become so supportive? You're supposed to be a jerk and man whore.” She says, punching my arm. I put a hand over my heart and act like she’s punctured it, which gets a small giggle out of her.
“I still am, but when you're about to die, I feel it is my duty to make you feel better” I say, and she punches my arm again. “Ouch” I say smiling a little and putting my foreheads against hers. “ok” I whisper to her gently “how about you changed me.” she curls her fist ready to punch me again but I catch and gently uncurl it. “I’m serious-“ I get cut off by a shrill dinging sound, and I see her tense up again, whatever I had helped with earlier completely gone.
“thirty seconds, any last words?” she asks me, looking up at me, scrunching her eyebrows. She looked nervous, but not afraid. She looked like the strongest warior I had ever seen.
“You’ll do great. I’ll be right here” I say, she nods, and maybe she looked a little disspointed, but that might have been a trick of the light. She took a deep breath, walked through a side door, and stood in a metal cylinder while the clock counted down from ten, raising her up a little with every second.

Notes