This Cold Year ― Percy Jackson & Annabeth Chase²

―xi. through the temple of night

NAOMI WASN'T AFRAID OF THE DARK. She never had been, and she understood why, now, given that she was related to the concept itself. There had never been a reason to be afraid of the dark.

Nyx, on the other hand?

Yeah, Naomi was a little afraid.

The goddess was forty feet tall, with black wings, a whip made of stars, and a shadowy chariot pulled by vampire horses. Looming over the chasm, she was a churning figure of ash and smoke, as big as the Athena Parthenos statue, but very much alive. Her dress was void black, her face was hard to see except for the pinpoints of her eyes, which shone like quasars. When her wings beat, waves of darkness rolled off the cliffs.

The goddess's chariot was made of Stygian iron and pulled by two massive horses, all black except for their pointed silver fangs. The beasts' legs floated in the abyss, turning from solid to smoke as they moved.

The horses snarled and bared their fangs at Annabeth. The goddess lashed her whip—a thin streak of stars like diamond barbs—and the horses reared back.

"No, Shade," the goddess said. "Down, Shadow. These little prizes are not for you."

Percy eyed the horses as they nickered. "Uh, so you won't let them eat us?" he asked the goddess. "They really want to eat us."

Nyx's quasar eyes burned. "Of course not. I would not let my horses eat you, any more than I would let Akhlys kill you. Such fine prizes, I will kill myself!"

"Oh, don't kill yourself!" Annabeth cried. "We're not that scary."

The goddess lowered her whip. "What? No, I didn't mean—"

"Well, I'd hope not!" Annabeth looked at Percy and Naomi, forcing a laugh. "We wouldn't want to scare her, would we?"

"Ha, ha," Percy said weakly. "No, we wouldn't."

The vampire horses looked confused. They reared and snorted and knocked their dark heads together.

Nyx pulled back on the reins. "Do you know who I am?" she demanded.

Naomi swallowed her nerves. "Well, you're Night, right?" she said. "I mean, I can tell because you're dark and everything."

"But the brochure didn't say much about you," Annabeth added quickly.

Nyx's eyes winked out for a moment. "What brochure?"

Annabeth patted her pockets. "We had one, didn't we?"

Percy licked his lips. "Uh-huh." He was still watching the horses, his hand tight on his sword hilt, but he was smart enough to follow Annabeth's lead.

"Anyway," Annabeth said, "I guess the brochure didn't say much, because you weren't even spotlighted on the tour. We got to see the River Phlegethon, the Cocytus, the arai, the poison glade of Akhlys, even some random Titans and giants, but Nyx... hmm, no, you weren't really featured."

"Featured? Spotlighted?"

"Yeah," Naomi said. "We came for the Tartarus tour—like, exotic destinations, y'know? The Underworld is overdone. Mount Olympus is a tourist trap—"