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‘No!’ Nico cried. ‘Not here, please!’

‘I can’t,’ said Will. ‘I can’t be here.’

‘Please, get up,’ begged Nico, his arms under Will’s armpits, trying to lift him, but it was hopeless.

‘This place,’ said Will. ‘It’s not meant for someone like me.’

‘Do you need your sunlamp?’ Nico’s heart raced faster. ‘Why is this happening sosuddenly?’

Nico looked up and –

No.No!

Darkness was seeping into his field of vision. The world around him – the cavern walls, Erebos, the River Styx – began to fade away.

‘Not again!’ Nico called out. ‘Stop it!’

When he looked down at Will, his boyfriend’s internal light had extinguished and he seemed to be completely asleep on the –

What?

The grass. Will was curled up on a bed of wetgrass.

With a rising wave of horror, Nico scanned his surroundings.

They were back in Central Park.

Again.

A voice floated through the trees:Help me, Nico!

Bob.

It wasBob.

Why won’t you help me, Nico?

Nico screamed in frustration, his eyes squeezed tight, and then –

Will was relieved to have his feet on something other than the slimy stone steps, even if it was the banks of the Styx. The air here was thick with … something; he wasn’t sure what, but at least they were out of that dark tunnel.

Nico had been right about the Underworld having some light. Its sky – could he call it a sky? – was a glowing hazy red, punctuated with flashes of orange and veins of dark shadows. Where was the light coming from? The air seemed polluted, even worse than he’d experienced in cities like Houston or Los Angeles while touring with his mom. In the distance, across the river, towering stone walls with black battlements stretched as far as he could see, blocking off access to … the land of the dead? Hades’s home? Will didn’t want to find out. The fortress wasterrifying.

‘Welcome to the Underworld,’ Nico said, sweeping his arm towards the horizon like he was showing off something he was proud of. He actually lookedhappyto be here.

Well, thiswashis home, technically.

Will couldn’t escape the sense of dread crawling over his skin as he peered around. He had a confused feeling that he had beenhere before … But he also didn’t remember how he’d got here. His instincts told him this was all wrong. He should run. But he had to endure it … He had totryif this quest was going to succeed.

‘Impressive,’ he said weakly. ‘Where do we go now?’

‘This way.’ Nico tucked his sword away and ran off to the right, bounding over the boulders that jutted along the river’s edge.

Will hesitated. He was enjoyingnotmoving, and his limbs felt like lead. How did Nico have so much energy? Will wondered if this was whathelooked like to Nico in the world above.

‘Hey, wait up!’ Will called out, pulling the straps on his knapsack to keep it tight against his back.

He chased after Nico, who moved like a mountain goat over the jagged rocks. Will wasn’t sure that Nico had even heard him yell, as the roar of the River Styx was impossibly loud here, the churn of the rapids booming off the cavern walls. Nico stopped at the top of a boulder, where the River Styx widened into a swirling back eddy five metres below.