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Annabeth loomed into view, pushing Percy out of the way. ‘What’s going on? Do we need to come fight someone?’ Then her expression brightened. ‘Oh, hey, Nico. And is that Will? Will Solace! How are you?’

‘We’re good,’ said Will, beaming. ‘How’s college life?’

‘Shockingly normal,’ said Annabeth. ‘Aside from the stray monster or two, the biggest worry we’ve had is getting to class on time.’

‘OnlyIseem to have trouble with that,’ grumbled Percy.

‘You’re not missing classes, are you?’ said Sally.

Percy’s eyes went wide. ‘No! Definitely not. Never missed a class in my life.’

‘Didn’t you set your high school on fire once?’ said Annabeth. ‘I bet you missed class that day.’

‘I – You know that isn’t what happened! They wereempousai! How was I supposed to know that Hecate was setting me up?’

Annabeth smirked at the others. ‘He’s so easy to wind up.’

Percy grunted. ‘Anyway …’ he said, peering at Nico and Will. ‘What’s up?’

‘So, we wanted to get your advice,’ said Nico. ‘About a quest.’

‘Whoa, you guys got one?’ said Annabeth. ‘Oooh, tell us about it!’

‘Well,’ said Nico, grimacing, ‘we’re going down to Tartarus.’

There was a long silence. If it wasn’t for Annabeth and Percy blinking, Nico would have believed there was some type of problem with the Iris-message connection. They’d recently gone almost a year without magical communications because of the evil Triumvirate, so it wasn’t like that was impossible.

Still … Nico should have anticipated their reaction.

Finally, Annabeth turned to Percy. ‘He said Tartarus, right?’

‘Maybe it’s a quest for tartar sauce,’ Percy said. ‘Something low-stakes and delicious.’

‘Yeah, I’m going with that.’ Annabeth looked back at Nico. ‘So, a tartar-sauce quest. Good for you. Goes great with fish and chips.’

‘Come on, guys,’ said Nico. ‘I’m being serious.’

‘Oh, we know,’ said Annabeth. ‘So are we! You shoulddefinitelytake up a tartar-sauce quest. Maybe consider a nice lemon aioli? That could be exciting.’

‘Annabeth, please –’ Will began.

‘I saw a kid in the dining hall the other day mix every condiment available into a masterful nightmare of a sauce,’ said Percy. ‘He called it the Explosion.’

‘Because it would be an explosion in the mouth,’ said Annabeth. ‘Makes a lot of sense.’

Nico groaned, and Estelle giggled in her mother’s arms.

‘Sounds like you all need to discuss this among yourselves,’ said Sally, bouncing Estelle gently on her hip.

‘There’s nothing to discuss!’ said Percy.

‘Love you, Percy!’ Sally called out. ‘Stop missing classes!’

There was another awkward bout of silence once Sally and Estelle left the room.

Nico sat on the edge of Percy’s bed. ‘Will and I are going whether we discuss this or not,’ he said. ‘I was hoping you two could give Will something in the way of advice so that the journey isn’t as hard on him.’

Annabeth shook her head. ‘It’s Tartarus, Nico. You almost lost your mind there once before. We weren’t even in Tartarus that long, and it nearly destroyed us.’