“What the fuck are you saying to my wife?” Kharon asked.
I signed back jerkily. “If you saw what I did, what theydidto her, you would have done the same.”
“Never.” He slashed his hand violently.
“That’s because all you care about in life is Patro,” I said as I signed. “To hell w-with everyone else. Right?”
“Correct,” he signed, nodding. “No one cares about her.”
“I care,” I whispered, my throat sore from yelling, from screaming at Titans, from fighting with Zeus.
Dizziness hit me and the floor seesawed.
Kharon grabbed my shoulders, steadying me. “I care,” I repeated numbly.
Augustus rubbed my back soothingly. “How … did this even happen?” There was no condemnation in his tone. He seemed genuinely curious.
My legs gave out and Kharon caught me.
Achilles and Patro stood together, the former glaring at me, the latter still toe-to-toe with Medusa.
Gorgon snakes rattled.
Everyone wanted answers.
I took a deep steadying breath. “My last leap during the initiation hunt—I tried to get to Hades at Crete. But I was injured and … something went wrong. I ended up in … the Underworld.”
48
MEDUSA
ALEXIS: MAY, ONEMONTHEARLIER
Iswiveled my head, vision blurring.
Before me, a tunnel forked.
One side led to a light; it looked like an exit. The other was dark—a woman’s screams echoed down it.
“We need to get out of here—run, Alexis. Now,” Nyx hissed as she slithered down my legs onto the floor.
With a deep steadying breath, I made my choice.
Stumbling forward, I half ran, half limped through the humid rocky corridor. Blood gushed from the bullet wound in my leg.
I ran toward the woman’s wails.
“Do you hear that?” I whispered. “Or am I imagining—”
“I hear it,” Nyx said.
Fear wrapped its fingers around my heart.
The floor was slanting downward, torches spaced out further, darkness rising. Pain throbbed through my calf, my knee, and my head.
I grabbed at the wall, leaving a trail of blood across the stone that had strange skeleton symbols drawn on it.
“Do you know … where we are?” I asked, unsure if I wanted to know the answer.
