“You promised!”

He glared at me, his eyes rimmed with red. He closed his small fist around the god statue.

“I shouldn’t have trusted you.” His voice broke. “You lied to me. My nightmares were right!”

“Wait. What nightmares?”

He flung the god statue to the ground. It clattered across the icy marble. “I hate you!”

“She might be alive,” I said desperately. “I don’t know for sure—”

“She’s dead.” He closed his eyes. His whole body trembled with rage. “I should’ve known it earlier. She’s in the Fields of Asphodel, standing before the judges right now, being evaluated. I can feel it.”

“What do you mean, you can feel it?”

Before he could answer, I heard a new sound behind me. A hissing, clattering noise I recognized all too well.

I drew my sword and Nico gasped. I whirled and found myself facing four skeleton warriors. They grinned fleshless grins and advanced with swords drawn. I wasn’t sure how they’d made it inside the camp, but it didn’t matter. I’d never get help in time.

“You’re trying to kill me!” Nico screamed. “You brought these . . . these things?”

“No! I mean, yes, they followed me, but no! Nico, run. They can’t be destroyed.”

“I don’t trust you!”

The first skeleton charged. I knocked aside its blade, but the other three kept coming. I sliced one in half, but immediately it began to knit back together. I knocked another’s head off but it just kept fighting.

“Run, Nico!” I yelled. “Get help!”

“No!” He pressed his hands to his ears.

I couldn’t fight four at once, not if they wouldn’t die. I slashed, whirled, blocked, jabbed, but they just kept advancing. It was only a matter of seconds before the zombies overpowered me.

“No!” Nico shouted louder. “Go away!”

The ground rumbled beneath me. The skeletons froze. I rolled out of the way just as a crack opened at the feet of the four warriors. The ground ripped apart like a snapping mouth. Flames erupted from the fissure, and the earth swallowed the skeletons in one loud CRUNCH!

Silence.

In the place where the skeletons had stood, a twenty-foot-long scar wove across the marble floor of the pavilion. Otherwise there was no sign of the warriors.

Awestruck, I looked to Nico. “How did you—”

“Go away!” he yelled. “I hate you! I wish you were dead!”

The ground didn’t swallow me up, but Nico ran down the steps, heading toward the woods. I started to follow but slipped and fell to the icy steps. When I got up, I noticed what I’d slipped on.

I picked up the god statue Bianca had retrieved from the junkyard for Nico. The only statue he didn’t have, she’d said. A last gift from his sister.

I stared at it with dread, because now I understood why the face looked familiar. I’d seen it before.

It was a statue of Hades, Lord of the Dead.

Annabeth and Grover helped me search the woods for hours, but there was no sign of Nico di Angelo.

“We have to tell Chiron,” Annabeth said, out of breath.

“No,” I said.

She and Grover both stared at me.

“Um,” Grover said nervously, “what do you mean . . . no?”

I was still trying to figure out why I’d said that, but the words spilled out of me. “We can’t let anyone know. I don’t think anyone realizes that Nico is a—”

“A son of Hades,” Annabeth said. “Percy, do you have any idea how serious this is? Even Hades broke the oath! This is horrible!”

“I don’t think so,” I said. “I don’t think Hades broke the oath.”

“What?”

“He’s their dad,” I said, “but Bianca and Nico have been out of commission for a long time, since even before World War II.”

“The Lotus Casino!” Grover said, and he told Annabeth about the conversations we’d had with Bianca on the quest. “She and Nico were stuck there for decades. They were born before the oath was made.”

I nodded.

“But how did they get out?” Annabeth protested.

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “Bianca said a lawyer came and got them and drove them to Westover Hall. I don’t know who that could’ve been, or why. Maybe it’s part of this Great Stirring thing. I don’t think Nico understands who he is. But we can’t go telling anyone. Not even Chiron. If the Olympians find out—”

“It might start them fighting among each other again,” Annabeth said. “That’s the last thing we need.”

Grover looked worried. “But you can’t hide things from the gods. Not forever.”

“I don’t need forever,” I said. “Just two years. Until I’m sixteen.”

Annabeth paled. “But, Percy, this means the prophecy might not be about you. It might be about Nico. We have to—”

“No,” I said. “I choose the prophecy. It will be about me.”

“Why are you saying that?” she cried. “You want to be responsible for the whole world?”

It was the last thing I wanted, but I didn’t say that. I knew I had to step up and claim it.

“I can’t let Nico be in any more danger,” I said. “I owe that much to his sister. I . . . let them both down. I’m not going to let that poor kid suffer any more.”

“The poor kid who hates you and wants to see you dead,” Grover reminded me.

“Maybe we can find him,” I said. “We can convince him it’s okay, hide him someplace safe.”

Annabeth shivered. “If Luke gets hold of him—”

“Luke won’t,” I said. “I’ll make sure he’s got other things to worry about. Namely, me.”

I wasn’t sure Chiron believed the story Annabeth and I told him. I think he could tell I was holding something back about Nico’s disappearance, but in the end, he accepted it. Unfortunately, Nico wasn’t the first half-blood to disappear.

“So young,” Chiron sighed, his hands on the rail of the front porch. “Alas, I hope he was eaten by monsters. Much better than being recruited into the Titans’ army.”

That idea made me really uneasy. I almost changed my mind about telling Chiron, but I didn’t.

“You really think the first attack will be here?” I asked.

Chiron stared at the snow falling on the hills. I could see smoke from the dragon guardian at the pine tree, the glitter of the distant Fleece.

“It will not be until summer, at least,” Chiron said. “This winter will be hard . . . the hardest for many centuries. It’s best that you go home to the city, Percy; try to keep your mind on school. And rest. You will need rest.”

I looked at Annabeth. “What about you?”

Her cheeks flushed. “I’m going to try San Francisco after all. Maybe I can keep an eye on Mount Tam, make sure the Titans don’t try anything else.”

“You’ll send an Iris-message if anything goes wrong?”

She nodded. “But I think Chiron’s right. It won’t be until the summer. Luke will need time to regain his strength.”

I didn’t like the idea of waiting. Then again, next August I would be turning fifteen. So close to sixteen I didn’t want to think about it.

“All right,” I said. “Just take care of yourself. And no crazy stunts in the Sopwith Camel.”

She smiled tentatively. “Deal. And, Percy—”

Whatever she was going to say was interrupted by Grover, who stumbled out of the Big House, tripping over tin cans. His face was haggard and pale, like he’d seen a specter.

“He spoke!” Grover cried.

“Calm down, my young satyr,” Chiron said, frowning. “What is the matter?”

“I . . . I was playing music in the parlor,” he stammered, “and drinking coffee. Lots and lots of coffee! And he spoke in my mind!”

“Who?” Annabeth demanded.

“Pan!” Grover wailed. “The Lord of the Wild himself. I heard him! I have to . . . I have to find a suitcase.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” I said. “What did he say?”

Grover stared at me. “Just three words. He said, ‘I await you.’”

Don't miss the exciting new series The Kane Chronicles, by Rick Riordan