Anthízo, Percy Jackson

VI. death and love are not so different

UNDERGROUND WAS not karina's favorite place.

sure, she's in her natural element, and feels slightly at ease since she's surrounded by the earth— but ever since her trip beneath rome with jason, piper, and percy, fighting those twin giants in the hypogeum under the colosseum, she'd been reluctant to step foot into something below the surface.

to jason, having nico along was not reassuring— but to karina, she seemed to be completely fine with the son of hades beside her. his stygian iron blade seemed to make the shadows even gloomier, as if the infernal metal was drawing the light and heat out of the air.

they crept through a vast cellar with thick support columns holding up a vaulted ceiling. the limestone blocks were so old, they had fused together from centuries of moisture, making the place look almost like a naturally formed cave.

karina could feel the history of the rocks beneath her palms as she dragged her hand across the limestone. the history pulsated through her body, and she saw centuries of wars, pain, suffering, and weathering all in a matter of seconds, making her retract her hand with a flinch— not used to that feeling. she blinked, and stared at her hand for a moment, coming to a realization about the weird ability that she had just discovered she had.

"what's wrong?" nico asked, and karina's head snapped up in surprise, not realizing that she'd spaced out.

she cleared her throat. "nothing," she said hollowly, "let's keep moving."

the two boys gave her a disbelieving look, but chose to just ignore it— not really wanting to deal with her arguing right now, because they both know that they would lose the fight that she gave them.

jason and karina drew their gladius's. the three made their way under the low archways, their steps echoing on the stone floor. barred windows lined the top of one wall, facing the street level, but that just made the cellar feel more claustrophobic. the shafts of sunlight looked like slanted prison bars, swirling with ancient dust.

karina passed a support beam, looked to her left, and almost let out a scream. staring right at her was a marble bust of diocletian, his limestone face glowering with disapproval.

this seemed like a good place to leave the note jason had written for reyna, telling her of their route to epirus. it was away from the crowds, but she trusted reyna would find it. she had the instincts of a hunter. she took the note from jason and slipped it between the bust and its pedestal, and stepped back.

diocletian's eyes sent shivers down her spine. karina couldn't help thinking of terminus, the talking statue-god back at new rome. she hoped diocletian didn't bark at him or suddenly burst into song.

"hello!"

before karina could register that the voice had come from somewhere else, she sliced off the emperor's head. the bust toppled and shattered against the floor.

"that wasn't very nice," said the voice behind them.

karina turned. the winged man from the ice cream stand was leaning against a nearby column, casually tossing a small bronze hoop in the air. at his feet sat a wicker picnic basket full of fruit.

"i mean," the man said, "what did diocletian ever do to you?"

"you scared the shit out of me," karina stated, "and i thought the statue was talking. my bad."

vines slithered around her feet. they split into tinier ropes and picked out the individual shards of marble, brought them back to the pedestal, and reassembled into a complete bust, the note still tucked underneath.