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‘My darling,’ said Nyx, and she moved closer, her wings fluttering. ‘You already have.’

Nico’s sword was at his feet. He bent down and picked it up; it was still warm to the touch after they’d freed Bob.

He pointed it at Nyx. ‘No, I have not,’ he said. ‘And now I’ve got a Titan on my side. Just let us go, Nyx. It’s the easiest solution.’

Nyx rolled her eyes. Well, Nico wasn’t quite sure that’s what she was doing – hefeltmore than saw it. Still, he could tell she was annoyed, and she waved a hand in his direction.

‘Fine, then. Kill the son of Apollo and the Titan.’

At her word, the telkhines in the front charged.

The sea demons looked a little silly, what with their dog heads, flipper hands and flopping rhythm as they galloped towards Nico, Will and Bob. Nico wondered if they knew that. They certainly didn’t inspire the kind of fear Nyx was hoping for. He kept his sword up, not sure which one he’d attack first and, out of the corner of his eyes, he saw Will bringing his finger up to his lips.

Before the telkhines could do any damage at all, Bob stepped forward. He raised his enormous broom high, then swept it to the side. With that one swoop he managed to smack the telkhines so hard that they flew off into Nyx’s garden, howling as they sailed through the air.

‘You are a bully,’ Bob said to Nyx. ‘I won’t let you hurt my friends.’

Without a word from Nyx, more monsters charged forward. The basilisks slithered over the ground, and Bob stomped on one of them, grinding his heel into the dirt. Small Bob was now a glowingsabre-toothed tiger, roaring and hissing, tearing at the throats of telkhines and wolves. Nico cried out as he brought down his Stygian iron blade and chopped a basilisk in two. He turned and watched as Will slammed a large rock into the head of a snapping cynocephalus.

‘Behind me!’ Nico called to Will. ‘We have to do it together!’

Will’s face broke out in a smile, and he twisted out of the path of a manticore’s spines. Nico swiped and slashed as Will started singing. Nico felt the notes vibrate in his sword, and he channelled them through the iron until the blade began to glow purple and hum again.

He stabbed another basilisk as Bob roared and tossed a blood-red pegasus at Nyx. She didn’t even flinch. The creature simply disappeared within the void of her dress.

Nico didn’t let the disturbing image distract him from the onslaught. He slammed the tip of his blade into the ground. ‘I am the ghost king!’ he cried, and the earth erupted beneath him. A hand clawed at the dirt, and then the dead began to pull themselves up, one after the other. Soon Nyx’s army wasveryoccupied with the many skeletons that were assaulting them. A rotting human ripped a pit scorpion in half, and Bob used the handle of his broom to impale them both, creating the world’s weirdest kebab in the process.

Nico pointed his sword at Nyx and …

Smoke rose from the end of it. The purple glow was intact, but it no longer hummed with Will’s music.

‘Will?’

He turned around to see Will’s face twisted in rage. ‘I’m sick of you tormenting my boyfriend through his dreams!’ he cried. ‘Leave. Him. Alone!’

Before Nico could stop him, a ray of light shot out of Will. It crossed the space between him and Nyx in an instant, and Nicocould tell the primordial goddess was genuinely shocked. The beam hit an upper joint on one of her wings and she shrieked loudly. Her wing was singed, and she pulled it tighter to her body.

‘I … I got her,’ said Will.

Then he dropped like a sack of potatoes.

‘Will!’ Nico sprang forward, but he wasn’t quick enough.

Will’s head smacked the ground, and he groaned, his eyes fluttering. ‘Nico,’ he slurred.

‘I’m here,’ said Nico, cradling Will’s head with one hand. ‘I’m not going anywhere.’

‘No, you’re not,’ said Nyx, and then, just as before, Nico was lifted into the air. His sword fell out of his right hand, and he thrashed against Nyx’s hold.

But it was no use.

‘Now,’ she said, twisting Nico around until he stared into those horrible burning eyes of hers, ‘are you ready to accept your fate?’

‘No!’ he screamed. He shut his eyes tightly, but he couldn’t get the image of Nyx’s non-face out of his thoughts. ‘There’s nothing you could say or do that would make me give up my life!’

He opened his eyes and saw Will’s limp body on the ground on his right. To the left he saw Bob thrashing and flailing as he was swarmed by pit scorpions. He turned back to face Nyx, whose very posture was a promise.

She would do anything to force him to stay in Tartarus.