XIV

Percy and Annabeth climb down a precarious cliff beside a roaring firefall, pausing when exhaustion threatens to make them slip. Huddled together, they trade grim optimism; Annabeth mentions the River Lethe, prompting Percy to recall his amnesia and the Titan Iapetus, whom Percy once renamed Bob after wiping his memory.

Determined to keep moving, they continue the descent until they reach the bottom, blistered and starving. The plain ahead seethes with monstrous larvae, insect-hair trees, and branching streams of the Phlegethon. Percy realizes the ground beneath a thin crust is a single warm membrane, and he feels a vast, malevolent awareness—Tartarus itself—surrounding them.

Skirting cave mouths and keeping near the river, they witness a telkhine claw out of the ground only to be snatched by a swift, reptilian predator from a cave. The display underscores the ecosystem’s brutality. Percy longs for Frank’s shapeshifting help but presses on with Annabeth, avoiding obvious dangers.

A flicker of movement among rocks reminds Percy of their true quarry: the empousai. Before he can react, five empousai encircle them in a perfect trap. Kelli, limping but triumphant and bloodstained, steps forward and taunts Percy, making clear that the hunters have become the hunted.