LOVE THE WAY YOU LIE . . . hoo

IV.

AS THEY STARTED down the cliff, Mia concentrated on the challenges at hand: keeping her footing, avoiding rockslides that would alert the empousai to their presence, and of course making sure she and her . . . friends didn't plummet to their deaths.

About halfway down the precipice, Annabeth said, "Stop, okay? Just a quick break."

Mia glanced over at her, seeing her legs wobble. Mia wanted a break really badly, even in this hellhole of a place.

They sat together on a ledge next to a roaring fiery waterfall.

Mia's stomach felt like it had shrunk to the size of a flower petal. If they came across any more monster carcasses, she was afraid she might pull an empousa and try to devour it. She missed having her backpack with her with the amount of food she'd stashed in there.

But she would find a way out of Tartarus. She had to. She hasn't survived so much just to get killed now. Besides, she had multiple oaths to fulfill when she got back.

"Things could be worse," Annabeth ventured.

"Yeah?" Percy asked.

"We could've fallen into the River Lethe," Annabeth said. "Lost all our memories."

Mia shuddered just thinking about it. Nico's memories of his childhood were wiped from the Lethe, and they'd spent a while trying to find out more information about it. And, honestly, she debated jumping into the Lethe a couple of times when she was in the Underworld, forgetting everything bad that had happened to her — but she didn't. She never could do that to her, and to the people who needed her.

"Yeah, the Lethe," Percy muttered. "Not my favorite."

"What was the Titan's name?" Annabeth asked.

"Uh . . . Iapetus. He said it meant the Impaler or something."

Mia frowned, thinking about when she and Nico would keep a Titan in the Underworld company because he, Percy, and Thalia had gotten into some shenanigans before the war had ended. Then she realized, right, of course Percy would tell Annabeth. He'd told Mia back then about that mission that her mother had sent them on.

"No, the name you gave him after he lost his memory," Annabeth chided. "Steve?"

"Bob," Mia said.

They both turned to her. "You know him?" Percy asked.

"Of course I do," she said, pointedly not looking at him. "Nico and I kept him company in the Underworld when we were there. He . . ."

Mia shook off her memories, deciding that she probably shouldn't dwell back on Nico or her mother. "Never mind."

She gazed across the ashen plains. The other Titans were supposed to be here in Tartarus—maybe bound in chains, or roaming aimlessly, or hiding in some of those dark crevices. She'd heard that Percy, Annabeth, and the rest of Camp Half-Blood had destroyed the worst Titan, Kronos, but even his remains might be down here somewhere — a billion angry Titan particles floating through the blood-colored clouds or lurking in that dark fog.

Percy nudged Mia. "We should keep moving. You want some more fire to drink?"

"Ugh. I'll pass."

They struggled to their feet. The rest of the cliff looked impossible to descend — nothing more than a crosshatching of tiny ledges — but they kept climbing down.

Mia's body went on autopilot. Her fingers cramped. She felt blisters popping up on her ankles. She got shaky from hunger.

She wondered if they would die of starvation, or if the firewater would keep them going. She remembered the punishment of Tantalus, who'd been permanently stuck in a pool of water under a fruit tree but couldn't reach either food or drink.