Wildfires, Heroes of Olympus ₂

056, she's three grapes tall

CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX
SILVIANA    DUVALL

Sylvie decided that if the monsters, poisonous atmosphere, or treacherous landscape with its pits, cliffs, and jagged rocks didn't kill her, the overload of weirdness would make her brain explode before anything else.

First, she and Percy had to drink fire to stay alive. Then they were attacked by a gaggle of vampires, led by a cheerleader Sylvie had killed two years ago. Finally, they were rescued by the same Titaness that had been trying to kill Sylvie mere days ago, but now lost all her memories and associated herself with the name Nemo.

Sure. Why not?

They followed Nemo through the wasteland, tracing the route of the Phlegethon, as they approached the storm front of darkness. Every so often they stopped to drink firewater, which kept them alive, but Sylvie wasn't very happy about it. Her throat felt like she was constantly gargling with battery acid. She'd reached a point where she was so hungry that she wasn't even hungry anymore, which was kind of sad.

Her only comfort was Percy. Every so often he would glance over and smile, or squeeze her hand and run his thumb across her wrist. He had to be just as scared and miserable as she was, and she loved him even more for trying to make her feel better.

"Do you think Nemo knows what she's doing?" Percy whispered.

"She's still a Titaness," Sylvie reminded him quietly. "I think so."

"You have interesting connections," he murmured.

"Nemo is interesting!" The Titan goddess turned and grinned. "Yes, thank you!"

Nemo still had good ears. Sylvie would have to remember that.

"So, Nemo..." She tried to sound casual and friendly, which wasn't easy with a throat scorched by firewater. "You were somewhere here in Tartarus, and you just came to us 'cause I said your name?"

"You needed me." Those silver eyes gleamed in the darkness. "It's okay. I was almost getting lonely with my windshield wiper."

"Didn't you..." Percy cleared his throat. "I mean, you just fell in though. Didn't you?"

Nemo sighed heavily. "Time works differently in Tartarus. It felt longer than that. Come along! We're almost at a rest stop."

A rest stop.

Sylvie couldn't imagine what those words meant in Tartarus. They barely meant anything in the mortal world. Even with all of her memories restored, Sylvie couldn't recall the last time she truly rested in life. Maybe last October when she surprised Percy in New York. That had been nine months ago.

Sylvie hobbled along, ignoring the rumble in her stomach. She stared at Nemo's back as she led them toward the wall of darkness, now only a few hundred yards away. Her white chiton dress was ripped, like she took a page out of Cinderella's book. The thick gold band along her collar started to peel off. The gold laurel wreath atop her head was crooked, but if Nemo noticed this, she didn't seem to care.

She's not your friend, Sylvie reminded herself.

Sylvie was terrified that Nemo would suddenly remember herself. Tartarus was where monsters came to regenerate. What if it healed her memory? If she become Mnemosyne again... well, Sylvie had been on the receiving end of the Titaness's wrath. Mnemosyne had taken all her memories, blasted Sylvie into bookshelves with her Titanic energy, sent pounds of books flying toward Sylvie's head, slammed Sylvie down onto the crumbling floor, ignored Sylvie's pleads to stop the torture, and turned all the ivy in her lair into the black strands of pure horror that landed them in Tartarus. Sylvie and Percy were in no condition to fight a Titaness—Sylvie had barely defeated her the first time.