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‘Don’t try to distract me,’ said Nyx. ‘You have nowhere to go. I will capture you again, and I will forceallof you to choose!’

‘All this talk of choosing is soboring,’ said Nico, mustering all the strength he had left to appear truly disinterested. ‘You did all this to force Bob to choose to be a Titan? Give it up, Nyx! You’re never going to succeed!’

‘He can never stop being Iapetus!’ she screeched. ‘This new name, this new personality … it’s all alie!’

‘She’s right, Nico,’ said Bob.

‘What???’ said Nico and Will in unison.

‘About the first part,’ he said. ‘I can never stop being a Titan. It is a piece of my past.’

Then Bob – with Small Bob growling at his side – stepped towards Nyx.

‘But what Nyx does not know is that it is possible tochange,’ he said. ‘Because she never has. She has spent eternity as the Queen of Darkness, the protogenos of night.’ He turned to address her directly. ‘Has it never occurred to you to be anythingdifferent?’

‘Why would I be?’ Nyx snarled. ‘I am perfect as I am. The entirety of existencerequiresme. What would the world be without night?’

‘And so you trapped Bob?’ yelled Nico over the roar of the clashing rivers. The cliff’s edge was way too close for comfort. ‘Just because you don’t want to change doesn’t mean everyone else shouldn’t either! How does that make any sense?’

‘How does it make any sense that no matter what obstacle wasthrown at you, you still came here to Tartarus, knowing this was a trap?’ countered Nyx.

Nico’s stomach flopped like a fish on a hook. ‘What?’

‘You and your boyfriend have known throughout your entire journey that this was a trap,’ she said. ‘And yet you still came. You still fought my children when they tried to stop you.’

‘Hey, youtoldme to do it!’ said Epiales, shuffling forward, their appendages pulled close to their body.

‘Bequiet, child!’ barked Nyx.

Epiales shrank back.

‘You persisted, Nico,’ continued Nyx, ‘because it is in your nature. You are drawn to the darkness. You are drawn to others in pain. It isallyou know.’

Nico swallowed his fear. ‘It’s not all I know,’ he said, but even he had to admit he didn’t sound too convincing.

Nyx lowered her wings and glided forward. Nico instinctively took a step back, then stopped. He looked over his shoulder.

The edge of the cliff waswaytoo close.

‘As you cower before me,’ said Nyx, ‘you know I am right.’

‘Remember what you told me,’ said Will, gripping Nico’s hand tightly. ‘Don’t listen to her or this place, Nico. We’ll find a way out.’

‘Even if you do, Nico di Angelo isn’t leaving,’ she said. ‘Isn’t that right, my child?’

‘I’m not your child.’ Nico seethed. ‘My mother is Maria di Angelo, and she loved me and my sister.’

‘And where are they now?’

It was like she had slapped him across the face.

Don’t give in to her, he thought, and he felt Will squeeze his hand again.It’s what she wants.

Still, Nico couldn’t stop the tear that rolled down his cheek. ‘They’re dead,’ he said. ‘They have been for a while.’

‘And it burns you up inside, doesn’t it?’

She moved closer, and Bob took a step in front of Nico.