This Dark Night ― Percy Jackson & Annabeth Chase¹

―vii. the first (and maybe the last)

NAOMI AND HER MOTHER APPEARED IN A BEDROOM that looked nothing like her old one. It was a very large, very Underworld-y bedroom, with obsidian furniture and marble floors. Laying on a dog-bed that took up a quarter of the huge room was Skia, who popped up as soon as she spotted Naomi, running to greet her.

Naomi scratched Skia's ears, but she maintained a glare at her mother. "Where are we?" she demanded.

"Your new bedroom," Persephone said. "Your grandmother and I just finished up the renovations. Do you like it?"

Naomi could clearly see her mom and grandmother's touches throughout the black room—every windowsill had a plant-box with flowers already growing out of them, and the bedding was a deep, pomegranate pink with black designs of flowers and vines.

But it could've been the world's best bedroom, and Naomi still would have been pissed.

"What's Hades going to do to Percy?"

Persephone sighed softly. "He'll be locked away for a few decades, but he'll live," she said. "It's better this way, Kore. I know of the choice you are meant to make, and I know you are struggling with it. So long as Percy stays down here, there will be no need to make it."

"That's not how prophecies work and you know that," Naomi said sharply.

Persephone looked down. "I know more of prophecies than you do, dear," she said, but she didn't sound angry—more mournful than anything.

"Then you know locking Percy up will only delay the inevitable," Naomi said. "The longer we're down here, the more time Kronos has to gather his forces and attack Olympus. Are you really okay with watching them all fall?"

Persephone said nothing.

"Please, Mom," Naomi said, her voice growing softer.

Her mother studied her face, not unlike how Hestia had looked at her hours before. Naomi wondered what Persephone saw—the helpless little girl she was when they first reunited? Or someone different—someone stronger?

"Hades has made himself clear," Persephone murmured. "Percy Jackson is to remain in the dungeons. Nico will be the child of the Great Prophecy."

"There won't be a world to save by the time he turns seventeen," Naomi insisted. "You know that."

"I know many things," Persephone said. "I know that there are few who would dare to defy Hades' orders. And even fewer who would do it successfully."

Her tone sounded strange, but before Naomi could examine it any further, her mother placed a warm hand on her cheek. She bent down, pressing her lips to Naomi's forehead. "We will have breakfast in an hour," she told her. "Until then, I'll leave you to rest."

She dropped her hand from Naomi's cheek, scratched gently at Skia's ears, then left the bedroom with a flourish of her floral dress, closing the door behind her.

Naomi listened to her mother's footsteps retreat down the presumably marble hallway, her heels clicking against the floor until Naomi couldn't hear it anymore.

She counted ten seconds, then tried the doorknob.

It wasn't locked.

Naomi looked back at Skia, who stared back at her with her wide brown eyes. Despite the dismal circumstances, a smile spread across Naomi's lips.

"Meet me at the River Styx," she whispered to her hellhound. "I'll be there as soon as I can."

She poked her head out of her doorway as Skia bounded into the nearest shadow, checked for any security ghouls or skeletons walking around, then stepped into the hallway.