The House of Hades

Frank helps Hazel up from the deck where they see a turtle the size of an island eating the Argo II. They try to stop it, but nothing works. Nico sees a strait and tells Leo to go there. Leo starts the jet engines, and they shoot across the water toward the strait, but the turtle gains on them. Hazel calls Arion and asks Piper to come with her. They gallop around the turtle, with Hazel attacking and Piper yelling commands in charmspeak until the Argo II is safe.

The turtle waits outside the strait, and, surrounded by cliffs, they realize it’s a dead end. An arrow sinks into the mast with a note telling them to send two of their crew up the cliff with their valuables or they will be destroyed. Gale looks at her and Hazel realizes this is her test, but she still doesn’t know how to manipulate the Mist. Hazel volunteers to go because she can summon gold and jewels from the earth to pay off the threat. Jason wants to go because he can use the wind to keep them from falling.

Jason walks behind Hazel with Gale on her shoulder to catch her if she falls. Hazel wishes somebody else was her backup because she is nervous around Jason. Jason asks Hazel if she can control the Mist, and Hazel says she can’t. Jason believes in her. At the top, Gale jumps off Hazel’s shoulder. Sciron, son of Poseidon greets them, and swears on the River Styx if they give him what he wants he will send them down the cliff. Jason suggests fighting, so Sciron shoots a groove through Jason’s hair and a hole between Frank’s legs at the same time. Hazel tries to stall, and Sciron gets angry because Gaea promised he could rob demigods. Hazel summons treasure from the earth. Sciron is delighted but asks for the Athena Parthenos. Hazel tells him if Gaea gets the statue, she will rise, and Sciron will die. He agrees not to take the Athena Parthenos, but they must wash his feet before they leave, which makes Hazel remember how he kills his victims. She tells Jason that Sciron kicks his victims off the cliff into the mouth of the giant turtle when they kneel to wash his feet. Jason wants to fight, but Hazel says he’s too fast. Hazel sees Gale, remembers Pluto in her dream, and tells Jason the plan.

Hazel realizes the key to using the Mist is letting someone see what they want to see. Sciron sits on a rock facing the ocean, and Jason washes his foot as Hazel imagines what Sciron sees when he kicks Jason. In her mind, Hazel sees Jason fall, get eaten by a turtle, and Piper wailing on deck. She acts upset that Sciron killed Jason, and Sciron promises he won’t kill Hazel. She reluctantly kneels and forces Sciron to turn so the sea is at his back but manipulates the Mist so he still thinks Hazel is on the cliff’s edge. She cleans his foot, and Sciron kicks her away from him on the grass as the Mist falls away. Jason flies up and slams Sciron over the cliff into the turtle’s mouth.

Hazel collapses and wakes in the Mist on the cliff with Pluto. Pluto warns her the sorceress Pasiphaë in the House of Hades won’t be fooled as easily as Sciron. Hazel must make Pasiphaë see what she wants to see, but it will be harder in the maze. Pluto is proud of her, and the only way he can care for his children is to keep his distance. Hazel asks why he isn’t taking her to the Underworld since she’s an escaped spirit. He says perhaps it’s because that isn’t what he wants to see.

The arai are spirits of curses. If they kill one, they get a curse, but if they don’t kill them, the demons rip them to shreds. Bob swings his broom forcing them back, but they surge forward again. Percy cuts one in half, which leaves him with pain from an arrow wound straight through his side. He remembers killing the monster Geryon with an arrow through all three of his hearts at once. The arai remind Percy of all the curses that have been leveled at him and ask him to choose how he will die. Annabeth kills one with a rock, and she goes blind, a curse from Polyphemus who she tricked with her invisibility cap in the Sea of Monsters. Percy pulls Annabeth close, and Bob sweeps the arai back, killing a few with no negative effect. The arai say Percy has already cursed Bob by destroying his memory. Bob is shocked Percy took his memory, and Percy pleads with him that he tried to be his friend. Only Nico visited Bob and said Percy was a good friend, which is why Bob helped. Bob doesn’t stop the arai’s next attack.

Percy kills arai and leads Annabeth into the forest away from them. Percy pulls Annabeth away from a cliff’s edge just in time, and they are trapped by the arai. One grabs Annabeth, so she kills it, but she can’t see or get to Percy, and the arai won’t let Percy help her. Annabeth unleashes a curse from Calypso to feel her despair and perish alone and abandoned. Percy decides to protect Annabeth for as long as he can no matter how many curses he suffers.

Percy cuts down many arai but slows as he feels the effects of the curses. As he tries to get Annabeth, he kills a demon and gets the curse of Phineas, a painful death by Gorgon’s blood. Percy calls out for Bob even though he knows he doesn’t deserve his help or friendship. He’s close to death and thinks of Nico. Percy knows he didn’t treat Nico well, and he only made it this far because Nico was friends with Bob. Percy whispers an apology to Bob for not being a better friend to die with a clear conscience. Percy wants to go out fighting. He raises Riptide, but before he can strike the arai start exploding.

Percy watches Bob kill all the arai who don’t flee. Bob gets Annabeth and heals her of her curses. Bob studies Percy and all his curses, and Annabeth begs Bob to heal Percy. Bob says his name was Iapetus before. Annabeth likes Bob better and asks which name he likes, but he doesn’t know. Bob promised Nico he would help, and he doesn’t break promises. Bob touches Percy and slows the poison, but he can’t cure him. They hear Polybotes, the monster who hates Poseidon and his children, call for Percy. Bob says there is one good giant, and he will take them unless Polybotes and his crew catch them first.