LOVE THE WAY YOU LIE . . . hoo

IX.

FOR ONE EXCITING minute, Mia felt like she was winning. Regulus cut through the arai as though they were made of powdered sugar. One face planted on the ground and Mia kicked her and she disintegrated. Another flew in front of her face and she panicked and sliced it in half.

Each time a demon disintegrated, Mia felt a heavier sense of dread as another curse settled on her. Some were harsh and painful: a stab in her shoulder ( how nice, to get that phantom pain again ), a burning sensation like her arm was freezing over. Some were subtle: a chill in her bones, an uncontrollable itchiness on her back.

Seriously, who curses you with their dying breath and says: I hope you have an unreachable mosquito bite on your back!

Mia knew that she'd killed a lot of things, but she'd never really thought about it from their point of view. Now all their pain and anger and bitterness poured over her, sapping her strength.

The arai just kept coming. For every one she cut down, four more seemed to appear. She hated it here.

Her sword arm grew tired. Her body ached, and her vision blurred. She felt a demon jump on her back and she cried out, shoving the monster off of her and stomping on it.

She regretted that instantly. She fell to her knees, clawing at her throat. Something was strangling her.

Did you miss me, Amelia?

No. Not again. Mia tried to sob, but she found she couldn't.

You have chosen, said the voice of the arai, the curse of Vincent Starfury . . . an excellently painful death.

Percy collapsed next to Mia, and she thought, well, this was it.

I told you that you'd die, her father told her. And it was by my hand. Goodbye, corruptor.

Mia had watched as she'd strangled her father to death, and she'd enjoyed it. He'd wanted to kill her and end the Starfury line with her.

Now she was in Tartarus, dying from the same thing he'd died from plus a dozen other agonizing curses, truly ending the Starfury line here, right now. She clutched her sword. Her knuckles started to steam. White smoke curled off her forearms, probably from other curses.

I won't die like this, she thought.

Not only because it was painful and insultingly lame, but because she refused to die just like her father did. At least when she died, she'd be a martyr.

The arai clustered around her and Percy, snickering and hissing.

His head will erupt first, the voice speculated.

No, the voice answered itself from another direction. He will combust all at once.

They were focused on Percy. Now was Mia's chance.

"Bob," she heard Percy croak. "I need you."

Mia raised her eyes one last time. Her surroundings seemed to flicker. The sky boiled and the ground blistered.

She'd known that Tartarus was like a living thing, but she could see it more clearly now. The air was the breath of Tartarus. All these monsters were just blood cells circulating through his body. Everything Mia saw was a dream in the mind of the dark god of the pit.

This must have been the way Nico had seen Tartarus, and it had almost destroyed his sanity. Nico . . . for a while, he was the only reason why she was still alive. She needed to see him again.

You see the horror of the pit? the arai said soothingly. Give up, Amelia Starfury. Isn't death better than enduring this place?

She couldn't talk. Couldn't say anything.