The House of Hades - Clytius In Action

The Doors of Death opened with a hiss. Black smoke billowed out, and two bodies spilled face-first onto the floor—Percy and Annabeth, limp as corpses.

Hazel sobbed. “Oh, gods…”

She and Leo started forward, but Clytius raised his hand in an unmistakable gesture—stop. He lifted his massive reptilian foot over Percy’s head.

The giant’s smoky shroud poured over the floor, covering Annabeth and Percy in a pool of dark fog.

“Clytius, you’ve lost,” Hazel snarled. “Let them go, or you’ll end up like Pasiphaë.”

The giant tilted his head. His diamond eyes gleamed. At his feet, Annabeth lurched like she’d hit a power line. She rolled on her back, black smoke coiling from her mouth.

“I am not Pasiphaë.” Annabeth spoke in a voice that wasn’t hers—the words as deep as a bass guitar. “You have won nothing.”

“Stop that!” Even from thirty feet away, Hazel could sense Annabeth’s life force waning, her pulse becoming thready. Whatever Clytius was doing, pulling words from her mouth—it was killing her.

Clytius nudged Percy’s head with his foot. Percy’s face lolled to one side.

“Not quite dead.” The giant’s words boomed from Percy’s mouth. “A terrible shock to the mortal body, I would imagine, coming back from Tartarus. They’ll be out for a while.”

He turned his attention back to Annabeth. More smoke poured from between her lips. “I’ll tie them up and take them to Porphyrion in Athens. Just the sacrifice we need. Unfortunately, that means I have no further use for you two.”

“Oh, yeah?” Leo growled. “Well, maybe you got the smoke, buddy, but I’ve got the fire.”

His hands blazed. He shot white-hot columns of flame at the giant, but Clytius’s smoky aura absorbed them on impact. Tendrils of black haze traveled back up the lines of fire, snuffing out the light and heat and covering Leo in darkness.

Leo fell to his knees, clutching at his throat.

“No!” Hazel ran toward him, but Gale chattered urgently on her shoulder—a clear warning.

“I would not.” Clytius’s voice reverberated from Leo’s mouth. “You do not understand, Hazel Levesque. I devour magic. I destroy the voice and the soul. You cannot oppose me.”

Black fog spread farther across the room, covering Annabeth and Percy, billowing toward Hazel.

Blood roared in Hazel’s ears. She had to act—but how? If that black smoke could incapacitate Leo so quickly, what chance did she have?

“F-fire,” she stammered in a small voice. “You’re supposed to be weak against it.”

The giant chuckled, using Annabeth’s vocal cords this time. “You were counting on that, eh? It is true I do not like fire. But Leo Valdez’s flames are not strong enough to trouble me.”

Somewhere behind Hazel, a soft, lyrical voice said, “What about my flames, old friend?”

Gale squeaked excitedly and jumped from Hazel’s shoulder, scampering to the entrance of the cavern where a blond woman stood in a black dress, the Mist swirling around her.

The giant stumbled backward, bumping into the Doors of Death.

“You,” he said from Percy’s mouth.

“Me,” Hecate agreed. She spread her arms. Blazing torches appeared in her hands. “It has been millennia since I fought at the side of a demigod, but Hazel Levesque has proven herself worthy. What do you say, Clytius? Shall we play with fire?”

[...]

IF THE GIANT HAD RUN AWAY SCREAMING, Hazel would’ve been grateful. Then they all could have taken the rest of the day off.

Clytius disappointed her.

When he saw the goddess’s torches blazing, the giant seemed to recover his wits. He stomped his foot, shaking the floor and almost stepping on Annabeth’s arm. Dark smoke billowed around him until Annabeth and Percy were totally hidden. Hazel could see nothing but the giant’s gleaming eyes.

“Bold words.” Clytius spoke from Leo’s mouth. “You forget, goddess. When we last met, you had the help of Hercules and Dionysus—the most powerful heroes in the world, both of them destined to become gods. Now you bring…these?”

Leo’s unconscious body contorted in pain.

“Stop it!” Hazel yelled.

She didn’t plan what happened next. She simply knew she had to protect her friends. She imagined them behind her, the same way she’d imagined new tunnels appearing in Pasiphaë’s Labyrinth. Leo dissolved. He reappeared at Hazel’s feet, along with Percy and Annabeth. The Mist whirled around her, spilling over the stones and enveloping her friends. Where the white Mist met the dark smoke of Clytius, it steamed and sizzled, like lava rolling into the sea.

Leo opened his eyes and gasped. “Wh-what…?”

Annabeth and Percy remained motionless, but Hazel could sense their heartbeats getting stronger, their breath coming more evenly.

On Hecate’s shoulder, Gale the polecat barked with admiration.

The goddess stepped forward, her dark eyes glittering in the torchlight. “You’re right, Clytius. Hazel Levesque is not Hercules or Dionysus, but I think you will find her just as formidable.”

Through the smoky shroud, Hazel saw the giant open his mouth. No words came out. Clytius sneered in frustration.

Leo tried to sit up. “What’s going on? What can I—”

“Watch Percy and Annabeth.” Hazel drew her spatha. “Stay behind me. Stay in the Mist.”

“But—”

The look Hazel gave him must have been more severe than she realized.

Leo gulped. “Yeah, got it. White Mist good. Black smoke bad.”

Hazel advanced. The giant spread his arms. The domed ceiling shook, and the giant’s voice echoed through the room, magnified a hundred times.

Formidable? the giant demanded. It sounded as if he were speaking through a chorus of the dead, using all the unfortunate souls who’d been buried behind the dome’s stelae. Because the girl has learned your magic tricks, Hecate? Because you allow these weaklings to hide in your Mist?

[...]

Hazel gave him an answer. She raised her spatha and charged.

Apparently, Clytius hadn’t expected her to be quite so suicidal. He was slow raising his sword. By the time he slashed, Hazel had ducked between his legs and jabbed her Imperial gold blade into his gluteus maximus. Not very ladylike. The nuns at St. Agnes would never have approved. But it worked.

Clytius roared and arched his back, waddling away from her. Mist still swirled around Hazel, hissing as it met the giant’s black smoke.

Hazel realized that Hecate was assisting her—lending her the strength to keep up a defensive shroud. Hazel also knew that the instant her own concentration wavered and that darkness touched her, she would collapse. If that happened, she wasn’t sure Hecate would be able—or willing—to stop the giant from crushing her and her friends.

Hazel sprinted toward the Doors of Death. Her blade shattered the chains on the left side like they were made of ice. She lunged to the right, but Clytius yelled, NO!


- The House of Hades, Chapters 74-75