Wildfires, Heroes of Olympus ₂

057, fish are friends not food

CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN
SILVIANA           DUVALL

Sylvie literally stumbled over the second Titan.

After entering the storm front, they plodded on for what seemed like hours, relying on the light of their two Celestial bronze blades, and on Nemo, who glowed faintly in the dark like some sort of crazy angel.

Sylvie could only see about five feet in front of her. The fog was made of ink. Rocks loomed out of nowhere. Pits appeared at their feet, and Sylvie barely avoided falling in.

Monstrous roars echoed in the gloom, but Sylvie couldn't tell where they came from. All she could be certain of was that the terrain was still sloping down.

Down seemed to be the only direction in Tartarus. If Sylvie backtracked even a step, she felt tired and heavy, as if gravity were increasing to discourage her. Assuming that the entire pit was the body of Tartarus, Sylvie had a nasty feeling they were marching straight down his throat.

She was so preoccupied with that thought, she didn't notice the ledge until it was too late.

Percy yelled, "Woah!" He grabbed for her arm, but she was already falling.

Fortunately, it was only a shallow depression. Most of it was filled with a monster blister. She had a soft landing on a warm bouncy surface and was feeling lucky—until she opened her eyes and found herself staring through a glowing gold membrane at another, much larger face.

She screamed and flailed, toppling sideways off the mound. Her heart did a hundred jumping jacks.

Percy helped her to her feet. "You okay?"

She didn't trust herself to answer. If she opened her mouth, she might scream again, or cry, and that would be undignified. There wasn't room for screaming, and especially not crying, when there were things far more important than Sylvie going on.

But gods of Olympus... Curled in the membrane bubble in front of her was a fully formed Titan in golden armor, his skin the color of polished pennies. His eyes were closed, but he scowled so deeply he appeared to be on the verge of a bloodcurdling war cry. Even through the blister, Sylvie could feel the heat radiating from his body.

"Hyperion," Percy said. "I hate that guy."

Sylvie's shoulder suddenly ached from an old wound. During the Battle of Manhattan, she and Percy fought this Titan at the Reservoir. It had been the first time Percy had summoned a hurricane—which was something Sylvie would never forget—and the first time she summoned an earthquake. "I thought I turned this guy into a maple tree."

(This was the moment Sylvie realized she had a rather ruthless track record when it came to defeating Titans.)

"Yeah," Percy agreed. "Maybe the maple tree died, and he wound up back here?"

Sylvie remembered how Hyperion had summoned fiery explosions, and how many satyrs and nymphs he'd destroyed before she and Percy stopped him.

She was about to suggest that they burst Hyperion's bubble before he woke up. He looked ready to pop out at any moment and start charbroiling everything in his path.