LOVE THE WAY YOU LIE . . . hoo

III.

THEY'D ONLY TRAVELED a few hundred yards when Mia heard voices.

She plodded along, half in a stupor, trying to stay awake. It was hard to even imagine falling asleep in hell, but she really wanted to. Sadly, her stomach growling and her throat drying kept her awake. The fiery water of the Phlegethon may have healed her and given her strength, but it didn't do anything for her hunger or thirst. The river wasn't about making you feel good, Mia knew. It just kept you going so you could experience more excruciating pain.

Her head started to droop with exhaustion. Then she heard them — female voices having some sort of argument — and she was instantly alert.

She whispered, "Down!"

She dove behind the nearest boulder, wedging herself so close against the riverbank that her shoes almost touched the river's fire. Percy and Annabeth quickly followed her. On the other side, in the narrow path between the river and the cliffs, voices snarled, getting louder as they approached from upstream.

Mia tried to steady her breathing. The voices sounded vaguely human, but that meant nothing. She assumed anything in Tartarus was their enemy. She didn't know how the monsters could have failed to spot them already. Besides, monsters could smell demigods — especially powerful ones like her, because she was fucking powerful and she knew it. But she doubted that hiding behind a boulder would do any good when the monsters caught their scent.

Still, as the monsters got nearer, their voices didn't change in tone. Their uneven footsteps — scrap, clump, scrap, clump — didn't get any faster.

"Soon?" one of them asked in a raspy voice, as if she'd been gargling in the Phlegethon.

"Oh my gods!" said another voice. This one sounded much younger and much more human, like a teenaged mortal girl growing exasperated with her friends at the mall, which was really just a self-inflicted attack on Mia's past life. For some reason, the girl sounded familiar to her. "You guys are totally annoying! I told you, it's like three days from here."

Percy looked at her and Annabeth with alarm, as if he recognized the mall girl's voice too.

There was a chorus of growling and grumbling. The creatures — maybe half a dozen, Mia guessed — had paused just on the other side of the boulder, but still they gave no indication that they'd caught the demigods' scent. She wondered if demigods didn't smell the same in Tartarus, or if the other scents here were so powerful, they masked a demigod's aura.

"I wonder," said a third voice, gravelly and ancient like the first, "if perhaps you do not know the way, young one."

"Oh, shut your fang hole, Serephone," said the mall girl. "When's the last time you escaped to the mortal world? I was there a couple of years ago. I know the way! Besides, I understand what we're facing up there. You don't have a clue!"

"The Earth Mother did not make you boss!" shrieked a fourth voice.

More hissing, scuffling, and feral moans — like giant alley cats fighting. At last the one called Serephone yelled, "Enough!"

The scuffling died down.

"We will follow for now," Serephone said. "But if you do not lead us well, if we find you have lied about the summons of Gaea—"

"I don't lie!" snapped the mall girl. "Believe me, I've got good reason to get into this battle. I have some enemies to devour, and you'll feast on the blood of heroes. Just leave one special morsel for me — the one named Percy Jackson."

Mia fought down a snarl of her own. She forgot about her fear. She wanted to jump over the boulder and slash the monsters to dust with her swords.

"Believe me," said the mall girl. "Gaea has called us, and we're going to have so much fun. Before this war is over, mortals and demigods will tremble at the sound of my name — Kelli!"