LOVE THE WAY YOU LIE . . . hoo

V.

MIA RECALLED HOW dangerous Kelli had been the last time they'd fought in the Labyrinth. Despite those mismatched legs, she could move fast when she wanted to. She would've killed Percy and Annabeth had Mia not stabbed her from behind.

Now she had four friends with her.

"And your friends Annabeth and Amelia are with you!" Kelli hissed with laughter. "Oh, yeah, I totally remember them."

Kelli touched her own sternum, where Mia's sword had exited when she stabbed her in the back. "What happened to you, little traitor? How does it feel to be on the losing side?"

Mia tried to think. She, Percy, and Annabeth stood shoulder to shoulder as they had many times before, ready to fight. But none of them were in good shape for battle. Annabeth was empty-handed, and Mia couldn't give her one of her swords because non-chthonic demigods couldn't wield Stygian Iron weapons. They were hopelessly outnumbered. There was nowhere to run. No help coming.

She kept her mouth shut, though, so Kelli couldn't goad her into doing anything that was stupid. If she'd learned something from her time on Kronos's side, it was that ego brought out the worst in people.

"So . . ." Percy started, "I guess you're wondering what we're doing in Tartarus."

Kelli snickered. "Not really. I just want to kill you."

Lovely. That would've been it, but Annabeth chimed in.

"Too bad," she said. "Because you have no idea what's going on in the mortal world."

The other empousai circled, watching Kelli for a cue to attack; but the ex-cheerleader only snarled, crouching out of reach of Percy and Mia's swords.

"We know enough," Kelli said. "Gaea has spoken."

"You're heading toward a major defeat." Annabeth sounded so confident, even Mia was impressed. She glanced at the other empousai, one by one, then pointed accusingly at Kelli. "This one claims she's leading you to a victory. She's lying. The last time she was in the mortal world, Kelli was in charge of keeping my friend Luke Castellan faithful to Kronos. In the end, Luke rejected him. He gave his life to expel Kronos. The Titans lost because Kelli failed. Now Kelli wants to lead you to another disaster."

The other empousai muttered and shifted uneasily.

"Enough!" Kelli's fingernails grew into long black talons. She glared at Annabeth as if imagining her sliced into small pieces.

Mia knew that Kelli had had a thing for Luke Castellan. It was very obvious, even Mia could see it and she hadn't spent that much time around Luke's vanguard. He had that effect on girls — even donkey-legged vampires — and she wasn't sure bringing up his name was such a good idea.

"The girl lies," Kelli said. "So the Titans lost. All because of that girl, who couldn't carry out the simplest requirements." She glared at Mia. "But that was part of the plan to wake Gaea! Now the Earth Mother and her giants will destroy the mortal world, and we will totally feast on demigods!"

The other vampires gnashed their teeth in a frenzy of excitement. Mia seriously hated it here.

"The demigods have united!" Annabeth yelled. "You'd better think twice before you attack us. Romans and Greeks will fight you together. You don't stand a chance!"

The empousai backed up nervously, hissing, "Romani."

Mia guessed they'd had experience with the Twelfth Legion before, and it hadn't worked out well for them.

"Yeah, you bet Romani." Percy bared his forearm and showed them the brand he'd gotten at Camp Jupiter — the SPQR mark, with the trident of Neptune. "You mix Greek and Roman, and you know what you get? You get BAM!"