Where You Go ― Jason Grace

xx. tricks

LEO STARED AT HAZEL IN AMAZEMENT. "How did you—?" 

Just then the elevator dinged. Rather than pushing the UP button, Clytius stepped back from the controls, keeping their friends inside. 

"Guys!" Hazel yelled. 

They were thirty feet away—too far to reach the elevator. 

At least, Leo and Hazel were. 

Ophelia ran faster than she had ever run in her life. She felt vaguely like she had when she had been the wind in Croatia—she was no more than a blur. 

Not even half a second passed, and her finger slammed into the UP button. 

The Doors of Death opened with a hiss. Black smoke billowed out, and two bodies spilled face-first onto the floor—Percy and Annabeth, limp as corpses. 

Hazel sobbed. "Oh, gods..." 

Ophelia moved to help them, but the giant thrust a hand out. Like an invisible force had slammed into her, she was thrown backward, right into Leo and Hazel. 

Clytius lifted his massive reptilian foot over Percy's head. The giant's smoky shroud poured over the floor, covering Percy and Annabeth in a pool of dark fog. 

"Clytius, you've lost," Hazel snarled. "Let them go, or you'll end up like Pasiphae." 

The giant tilted his head. His diamond eyes gleamed. At his feet, Annabeth lurched like she'd hit a power line. She rolled onto her back, black smoke coiling from her mouth. 

"I am not Pasiphae." Annabeth spoke in a voice that wasn't hers—the words as deep as a bass guitar. "You've won nothing." 

"Stop that!" Hazel shouted. 

Clytius nudged Percy's head with his foot. Percy's face lolled to one side. 

"Not quite dead." The giant's words boomed from Percy's mouth. "A terrible shock to the mortal body, I would imagine, coming back from Tartarus. They'll be out for a while." 

He turned his attention back to Annabeth. More smoke poured from between her lips. "I'll tie them up and take them to Porphyrion in Athens. Just the sacrifice we need. Unfortunately, that means I have no further use for you two." 

"Oh, yeah?" Leo growled. "Well, maybe you got the smoke, buddy, but I've got the fire." His hands blazed. He shot white-hot columns of flame at the giant, but Clytius's smoky aura absorbed them on impact. 

Tendrils of black haze traveled back up the lines of fire, snuffing out the light and heat and covering Leo in darkness. 

"Leo!" Ophelia cried. 

"No!" Hazel and Ophelia ran toward him, but Gale chattered urgently on Hazel's shoulder—a clear warning. 

"I would not." Clytius's voice reverberated from Leo's mouth. "You do not understand, Hazel Levesque. I devour magic. I destroy the voice and the soul. You cannot oppose me." 

Black fog spread farther across the room, covering Annabeth and Percy, billowing toward Hazel and Ophelia. 

"F-fire," Hazel stammered in a small voice. "You're supposed to be weak against it." 

The giant chuckled, using Annabeth's vocal cords this time. "You were counting on that, eh? It is true I do not like fire. But Leo Valdez's flames are not strong enough to trouble me." 

Somewhere behind Ophelia and Hazel, a soft, lyrical voice said, "What about my flames, old friend?" 

Gale squeaked excitedly and jumped from Hazel's shoulder, scampering to the entrance of the cavern where a dark-haired woman stood in a black dress, the Mist swirling around her.