𝐌𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐢━━Nico di Angelo

58

"Congratulations. Assuming the poison doesn't kill us, we should be able to find our way through the Necromanteion's first level."

"Just the first level?" Piper asked.

Nico turned to Hazel and gestured at the stairs. "After you, sister."

In no time, Ajax felt completely lost. The stairs split in three different directions. As soon as Hazel chose a path, the stairs split again. They wound their way through interconnecting tunnels and rough-hewn burial chambers that all looked the same—the walls carved with dusty niches that might once have held bodies. The arches over the doors were painted with black cows, white poplar trees, and owls.

"I thought the owl was Minerva's symbol," Jason murmured.

"The screech owl is one of Hades's sacred animals," Nico said. "Its cry is a bad omen."

"This way." Hazel pointed to a doorway that looked the same as all the others. "It's the only one that won't collapse on us."

"Good choice, then," Leo said.

Ajax began to feel like he was leaving the world of the living. His skin tingled, and he wondered if it was a side effect of the poison. It felt familiar, but not violent like dying. It felt like passing away in his sleep, surrounded by people he loved. In the eerie glow of their magic weapons, his friends looked like flickering ghosts.

Cold air brushed against his face. He heard other voices whispering in the side corridors, beckoning him to veer off course, to come closer and listen to them speak.

Finally they reached an archway carved in the shape of human skulls—or maybe they were human skulls embedded in the rock. Ajax looked away. In the purple light of Diocletian's scepter, the hollow eye sockets seemed to blink.

Beside him, Frank started when Hazel put a hand on his arm. It was a little comical, so it was no surprise that Leo and Ajax giggled, looking at each other in the dark.

"This is the entrance to the second level," Hazel said. "I'd better take a look."

Frank hadn't even realized that he'd moved in front of the doorway.

"Uh, yeah..." He made way for her.

Hazel traced her fingers across the carved skulls. "No traps on the doorway, but...something is strange here. My underground sense is—is fuzzy, like someone is working against me, hiding what's ahead of us."

"The sorceress that Hecate warned Ajax about?" Jason guessed. "The one Leo saw in his dream? What was her name?"

Ajax bit his lip. Nico wanted to bite it too "It would be safer not to say her name. But stay alert. One thing I'm sure of: From this point on, the dead are stronger than the living."

The voices in the darkness seemed to whisper louder. He caught glimpses of movement in the shadows. From the way his friends' eyes darted around, he guessed they were seeing things too.

"Where are the monsters?" Frank wondered aloud. "I thought Gaea had an army guarding the Doors."

"Don't know," Jason said. His pale skin looked as green as the poison from the chalice. "At this point I'd almost prefer a straight-up fight."

"Careful what you wish for, man." Leo summoned a ball of fire to his hand, it should have been comforting, but all Ajax wanted to do was shuffle towards Nico. In the darkness, the light seemed unnatural.  "Personally, I'm hoping nobody's home. We walk in, find Percy and Annabeth, destroy the Doors of Death, and walk out. Maybe stop at the gift shop."

"Yeah," Frank said. "That'll happen."

The tunnel shook. Rubble rained down from the ceiling.

Hazel grabbed Frank's hand. "That was close," she muttered. "These passageways won't take much more."