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‘Tyson chicken?’ said Will.

She glared at him. ‘The ability to shift someone’s luck.’

‘That makes more sense than frozen chicken,’ he said, grinning.

‘Well, you will all need it,’ she said. ‘Getting out of here … It won’t be pleasant. You’ll have to ride the Acheron until it circles back to the top of the Underworld.’

‘We know,’ said Nico. ‘But how?’

To Nico’s great surprise, a boat rounded the bend upstream.

Gorgyra’s white canoe.

‘Promise me something,’ said Nemesis, sweat pouring down her face. For a minor god, she lookedawful, which made Nico remember that she couldn’t spend much time in Tartarus. ‘Promise me you’ll never come back to this place.’

‘Oh, I’m ready to swear that on the Styx,’ said Will.

‘Don’t worry,’ said Nico. ‘Two trips to Tartarus is two trips too many.’

The corner of her mouth turned up. ‘It’s just that … well, luck won’t be on your side if there is a next time.’

And then, just like Nico did when he shadow-travelled, she folded herself into darkness.

Bob reached out and snagged the bow of Gorgyra’s boat. ‘Where did this come from?’

‘It’s a long story!’ said Nico. ‘But right now we just need to get in.’

Will climbed in first, and Bob and Small Bob hopped in next. The Titan shrank down as he did to fit inside the narrow canoe. Nico finally vaulted over the gunwale. Bob used the handle of his broom to push them off the bank, and the boat began to drift quickly down the rivers.

‘Did we do it?’ said Will, collapsing against one of the wooden benches. ‘Did we really escape her?’

No sooner had he finished speaking than Nyx’s screech tore through Tartarus.

Nico spun around and looked up at the cliff’s edge above them. One smoky tendril snaked over the side. And another. Then the rest of Nyx leaped into the air, plummeted and slammed down onto the riverbank across from them.

No! he thought.

Nyx spread her wings wide, and the void on her dress grew. The impenetrable darkness swelled and lashed out from her body, and Nico watched in horror as skeletal bushes and stones were sucked up into it.

She had become an enraged black hole, and she was heading right for them.

Nico frantically searched the floor of the boat. ‘Where are the oars?’ he cried out. ‘Will, do you see them?’

‘Nico, I’m really sorry, but I kinda … lost them? Back before the swamp.’

‘We don’t need them,’ said Bob stoically. ‘We’ll be fine.’

Nyx roared again, then fell to all fours as the darkness she was creating grew bigger and bigger.

‘Are you sure?’ Nico shouted. ‘Because it looks like she’s going to absorb us!’

The boat drifted slowly down the river, and Nyx began to crawl forward, screaming at them, her dress devouring all that it touched.

‘Yes,’ said Bob. ‘She doesn’t realize that we are safe.’

Nico scowled at first, then realized something he hadn’t noticed before.

The river wasn’t talking.