by Rick Riordan
‘The first time?’ Percy repeated.
Nico glanced at Hazel. He probably wasn’t meaning to make her feel guilty, but she couldn’t help it. If Percy knew the truth about her, and the horrible things she’d done …
‘Last summer,’ Nico continued, ‘Saturn tried to make a comeback. There was a second Titan war. The Romans at Camp Jupiter stormed his headquarters on Mount Othrys, across the bay, and destroyed his throne. Saturn disappeared –’ He hesitated, watching Percy’s face. Hazel got the feeling her brother was nervous that more of Percy’s memory might come back.
‘Um, anyway,’ Nico continued, ‘Saturn probably faded back to the abyss. We all thought the war was over. Now it looks like the Titans’ defeat stirred up Gaia. She’s starting to wake. I’ve heard reports of giants being reborn. If they mean to challenge the gods again, they’ll probably start by destroying the demigods …’
‘You’ve told Reyna this?’ Percy asked.
‘Of course.’ Nico’s jaw tensed. ‘The Romans don’t trust me. That’s why I was hoping she’d listen to you. Children of Pluto … well, no offence, but they think we’re even worse than children of Neptune. We’re bad luck.’
‘They let Hazel stay here,’ Percy noted.
‘That’s different,’ Nico said.
‘Why?’
‘Percy,’ Hazel cut in, ‘look, the giants aren’t the worst problem. Even … even Gaia isn’t the worst problem. The thing you noticed about the gorgons, how they wouldn’t die, that’s our biggest worry.’ She looked at Nico. She was getting dangerously close to her own secret now, but for some reason Hazel trusted Percy. Maybe because he was also an outsider, maybe because he’d saved Frank at the river. He deserved to know what they were facing.
‘Nico and I,’ she said carefully, ‘we think that what’s happening is … Death isn’t –’
Before she could finish, a shout came from down the hill.
Frank jogged towards them, wearing his jeans, purple camp shirt and denim jacket. His hands were covered with grease from cleaning weapons.
As it did every time she saw Frank, Hazel’s heart performed a little skip-beat tap-dance – which really irritated her. Sure, he was a good friend – one of the only people at camp who didn’t treat her as if she had a contagious disease. But she didn’t like him in that way.
He was three years older than she was, and he wasn’t exactly Prince Charming, with that strange combination of baby face and bulky wrestler’s body. He looked like a cuddly koala bear with muscles. The fact that everyone always tried to pair them up – the two biggest losers at camp! You guys are perfect for each other – just made Hazel more determined not to like him.
But her heart wasn’t with the programme. It went nuts whenever Frank was around. She hadn’t felt like that since … well, since Sammy.
Stop it, she thought. You’re here for one reason – and it isn’t to get a new boyfriend.
Besides, Frank didn’t know her secret. If he knew, he wouldn’t be so nice to her.
He reached the shrine. ‘Hey, Nico …’
‘Frank.’ Nico smiled. He seemed to find Frank amusing, maybe because Frank was the only one at camp who wasn’t uneasy around the children of Pluto.
‘Reyna sent me to get Percy,’ Frank said. ‘Did Octavian accept you?’
‘Yeah,’ Percy said. ‘He slaughtered my panda.’
‘He … Oh. The augury? Yeah, teddy bears must have nightmares about that guy. But you’re in! We need to get you cleaned up before evening muster.’
Hazel realized the sun was getting low over the hills. How had the day gone so fast? ‘You’re right,’ she said. ‘We’d better –’
‘Frank,’ Nico interrupted, ‘why don’t you take Percy down? Hazel and I will be along soon.’
Uh-oh, Hazel thought. She tried not to look anxious.
‘That’s – that’s a good idea,’ she managed. ‘Go ahead, guys. We’ll catch up.’
Percy looked at Nico one more time, as though he were still trying to place a memory. ‘I’d like to talk with you some more. I can’t shake the feeling –’
‘Sure,’ Nico agreed. ‘Later. I’ll be staying overnight.’
‘You will?’ Hazel blurted. The campers were going to love that – the son of Neptune and the son of Pluto arriving on the same day. Now all they needed was some black cats and broken mirrors.
‘Go on, Percy,’ Nico said. ‘Settle in.’ He turned to Hazel, and she got the sense that the worst part of her day was yet to come. ‘My sister and I need to talk.’
‘You know him, don’t you,’ Hazel said.
They sat on the roof of Pluto’s shrine, which was covered with bones and diamonds. As far as Hazel knew, the bones had always been there. The diamonds were her fault. If she sat anywhere too long, or just got anxious, they started popping up all around her like mushrooms after a rain. Several million dollars’ worth of stones glittered on the roof, but fortunately the other campers wouldn’t touch them. They knew better than to steal from temples – especially Pluto’s – and the fauns never came up here.
Hazel shuddered, remembering her close call with Don that afternoon. If she hadn’t moved quickly and snatched that diamond off the road … She didn’t want to think about it. She didn’t need another death on her conscience.
Nico swung his feet like a little kid. His Stygian iron sword lay by his side, next to Hazel’s spatha. He gazed across the valley, where construction crews were working in the Field of Mars, building fortifications for tonight’s games.
‘Percy Jackson.’ He said the name like an incantation. ‘Hazel, I have to be careful what I say. Important things are at work here. Some secrets need to stay secret. You of all people – you should understand that.’
Hazel’s cheeks felt hot. ‘But he’s not like … like me?’
‘No,’ Nico said. ‘I’m sorry I can’t tell you more. I can’t interfere. Percy has to find his own way at this camp.’
‘Is he dangerous?’ she asked.
Nico managed a dry smile. ‘Very. To his enemies. But he’s not a threat to Camp Jupiter. You can trust him.’
‘Like I trust you,’ Hazel said bitterly.
Nico twisted his skull ring. Around him, bones began to quiver as if they were trying to form a new skeleton. Whenever he got moody, Nico had that effect on the dead, kind of like Hazel’s curse. Between them, they represented Pluto’s two spheres of control: death and riches. Sometimes Hazel thought Nico had got the better end of the deal.
‘Look, I know this is hard,’ Nico said. ‘But you have a second chance. You can make things right.’
‘Nothing about this is right,’ Hazel said. ‘If they find out the truth about me –’
‘They won’t,’ Nico promised. ‘They’ll call a quest soon. They have to. You’ll make me proud. Trust me, Bi–’
He caught himself, but Hazel knew what he’d almost called her: Bianca. Nico’s real sister – the one he’d grown up with. Nico might care about Hazel, but she’d never be Bianca. Hazel was the simply the next best thing Nico could manage – a consolation prize from the Underworld.
‘I’m sorry,’ he said.
Hazel’s mouth tasted like metal, as if gold nuggets were popping up under her tongue. ‘Then it’s true about Death? Is Alcyoneus to blame?’
‘I think so,’ Nico said. ‘It’s getting bad in the Underworld. Dad’s going crazy trying to keep things under control. From what Percy said about the gorgons, things are getting worse up here, too. But look, that’s why you’re here. All that stuff in your past – you can make something good come out of it. You belong at Camp Jupiter.’
That sounded so ridiculous Hazel almost laughed. She didn’t belong in this place. She didn’t even belong in this century.
She should have known better than to focus on the past, but she remembered the day when her old life had been shattered. The blackout hit her so s
uddenly she didn’t even have time to say, Uh-oh. She shifted back in time. Not a dream or a vision. The memory washed over her with such perfect clarity that she felt she was actually there.
Her most recent birthday. She’d just turned thirteen. But not last December – 17 December 1941, the last day she had lived in New Orleans.
VI
Hazel
Hazel was walking home alone from the riding stables. Despite the cold evening, she was buzzing with warmth. Sammy had just kissed her on the cheek.
The day had been full of ups and downs. Kids at school had teased her about her mother, calling her a witch and a lot of other names. That had been going on for a long time, of course, but it was getting worse. Rumours were spreading about Hazel’s curse. The school was called St Agnes Academy for Coloured Children and Indians, a name that hadn’t changed in a hundred years. Just like its name, the place masked a whole lot of cruelty under a thin veneer of kindness.
Hazel didn’t understand how other black kids could be so mean. They should’ve known better, since they themselves had to put up with name-calling all the time. But they yelled at her and stole her lunch, always asking for those famous jewels: ‘Where’s those cursed diamonds, girl? Gimme some or I’ll hurt you!’ They pushed her away at the water fountain, and threw rocks at her if she tried to approach them on the playground.
Despite how horrible they were, Hazel never gave them diamonds or gold. She didn’t hate anyone that much. Besides, she had one friend – Sammy – and that was enough.
Sammy liked to joke that he was the perfect St Agnes student. He was Mexican American, so he considered himself coloured and Indian. ‘They should give me a double scholarship,’ he said.
He wasn’t big or strong, but he had a crazy smile and he made Hazel laugh.
That afternoon he’d taken her to the stables where he worked as a groom. It was a ‘whites only’ riding club, of course, but it was closed on weekdays and, with the war on, there was talk that the club might have to shut down completely until the Japanese were whipped and the soldiers came back home. Sammy could usually sneak Hazel in to help take care of the horses. Once in a while they’d go riding.
Hazel loved horses. They seemed to be the only living things that weren’t scared of her. People hated her. Cats hissed. Dogs growled. Even the stupid hamster in Miss Finley’s classroom squeaked in terror when she gave it a carrot. But horses didn’t mind. When she was in the saddle, she could ride so fast that there was no chance of gemstones cropping up in her wake. She almost felt free of her curse.
That afternoon, she’d taken out a tan roan stallion with a gorgeous black mane. She galloped into the fields so swiftly, she left Sammy behind. By the time he caught up, he and his horse were both winded.
‘What are you running from?’ He laughed. ‘I’m not that ugly, am I?’
It was too cold for a picnic, but they had one anyway, sitting under a magnolia tree with the horses tethered to a split-rail fence. Sammy had brought her a cupcake with a birthday candle, which had got smashed on the ride but was still the sweetest thing Hazel had ever seen. They broke it in half and shared it.
Sammy talked about the war. He wished he were old enough to go. He asked Hazel if she would write him letters if he were a soldier going overseas.
‘’Course, dummy,’ she said.
He grinned. Then, as if moved by a sudden impulse, he lurched forward and kissed her on the cheek. ‘Happy birthday, Hazel.’
It wasn’t much. Just one kiss, and not even on the lips. But Hazel felt like she was floating. She hardly remembered the ride back to the stables, or telling Sammy goodbye. He said, ‘See you tomorrow,’ like he always did. But she would never see him again.
By the time she got back to the French Quarter, it was getting dark. As she approached home, her warm feeling faded, replaced by dread.
Hazel and her mother – Queen Marie, she liked to be called – lived in an old apartment above a jazz club. Despite the beginning of the war, there was a festive mood in the air. New recruits would roam the streets, laughing and talking about fighting the Japanese. They’d get tattoos in the parlours or propose to their sweethearts right on the sidewalk. Some would go upstairs to Hazel’s mother to have their fortunes read or to buy charms from Marie Levesque, the famous gris-gris queen.
‘Did you hear?’ one would say. ‘Two bits for this good-luck charm. I took it to a guy I know, and he says it’s a real silver nugget. Worth twenty dollars! That voodoo woman is crazy!’
For a while, that kind of talk brought Queen Marie a lot of business. Hazel’s curse had started out slowly. At first it seemed like a blessing. The precious stones and gold only appeared once in a while, never in huge quantities. Queen Marie paid her bills. They ate steak for dinner once a week. Hazel even got a new dress. But then stories started spreading. The locals began to realize how many horrible things happened to people who bought those good-luck charms or got paid with Queen Marie’s treasure. Charlie Gasceaux lost his arm in a harvester while wearing a gold bracelet. Mr Henry at the general store dropped dead from a heart attack after Queen Marie settled her tab with a ruby.
Folks started whispering about Hazel – how she could find cursed jewels just by walking down the street. These days only out-of-towners came to visit her mother, and not so many of them, either. Hazel’s mom had become short-tempered. She gave Hazel resentful looks.
Hazel climbed the stairs as quietly as she could, in case her mother had a customer. In the club downstairs, the band was tuning their instruments. The bakery next door had started making fritters for tomorrow morning, filling the stairwell with the smell of melting butter.
When she got to the top, Hazel thought she heard two voices inside the apartment. But when she peeked into the parlour, her mother was sitting alone at the séance table, her eyes closed, as if in a trance.
Hazel had seen her that way many times, pretending to talk to spirits for her clients – but not ever when she was by herself. Queen Marie had always told Hazel her gris-gris was ‘bunk and hokum’. She didn’t really believe in charms or fortune telling or ghosts. She was just a performer, like a singer or an actress, doing a show for money.
But Hazel knew her mother did believe in some magic. Hazel’s curse wasn’t hokum. Queen Marie just didn’t want to think it was her fault – that somehow she had made Hazel the way she was.
‘It was your blasted father,’ Queen Marie would grumble in her darker moods. ‘Coming here in his fancy silver-and-black suit. The one time I actually summon a spirit, and what do I get? Fulfils my wish and ruins my life. I should’ve been a real queen. It’s his fault you turned out this way.’
She would never explain what she meant, and Hazel had learned not to ask about her father. It just made her mother angrier.
As Hazel watched, Queen Marie muttered something to herself. Her face was calm and relaxed. Hazel was struck by how beautiful she looked, without her scowl and the creases in her brow. She had a lush mane of gold-brown hair like Hazel’s, and the same dark complexion, brown as a roasted coffee bean. She wasn’t wearing the fancy saffron robes or gold bangles she wore to impress clients – just a simple white dress. Still, she had a regal air, sitting straight and dignified in her gilded chair as if she really were a queen.
‘You’ll be safe there,’ she murmured. ‘Far from the gods.’
Hazel stifled a scream. The voice coming from her mother’s mouth wasn’t hers. It sounded like an older woman’s. The tone was soft and soothing, but also commanding – like a hypnotist giving orders.
Queen Marie tensed. She grimaced in her trance, then spoke in her normal voice: ‘It’s too far. Too cold. Too dangerous. He told me not to.’
The other voice responded: ‘What has he ever done for you? He gave you a poisoned child! But we can use her gift for good. We can strike back at the gods. You will be under my protection in the north, far from the gods’ domain. I’ll make my so
n your protector. You’ll live like a queen at last.’
Queen Marie winced. ‘But what about Hazel …’
Then her face contorted in a sneer. Both voices spoke in unison, as if they’d found something to agree on: ‘A poisoned child.’
Hazel fled down the stairs, her pulse racing.
At the bottom, she ran into a man in a dark suit. He gripped her shoulders with strong, cold fingers.
‘Easy, child,’ the man said.
Hazel noticed the silver skull ring on his finger, then the strange fabric of his suit. In the shadows, the solid black wool seemed to shift and boil, forming images of faces in agony, as if lost souls were trying to escape from the folds of his clothes.
His tie was black with platinum stripes. His shirt was tombstone grey. His face – Hazel’s heart nearly leaped out of her throat. His skin was so white it looked almost blue, like cold milk. He had a flap of greasy black hair. His smile was kind enough, but his eyes were fiery and angry, full of mad power. Hazel had seen that look in the newsreels at the movie theater. This man looked like that awful Adolf Hitler. He had no moustache, but otherwise he could’ve been Hitler’s twin – or his father.
Hazel tried to pull away. Even when the man let go, she couldn’t seem to move. His eyes froze her in place.
‘Hazel Levesque,’ he said in a melancholy voice. ‘You’ve grown.’
Hazel started to tremble. At the base of the stairs, the cement stoop cracked under the man’s feet. A glittering stone popped up from the concrete like the earth had spat out a watermelon seed. The man looked at it, unsurprised. He bent down.
‘Don’t!’ Hazel cried. ‘It’s cursed!’
He picked up the stone – a perfectly formed emerald. ‘Yes, it is. But not to me. So beautiful … worth more than this building, I imagine.’ He slipped the emerald in his pocket. ‘I’m sorry for your fate, child. I imagine you hate me.’
Hazel didn’t understand. The man sounded sad, as if he were personally responsible for her life. Then the truth hit her: a spirit in silver and black, who’d fulfilled her mother’s wishes and ruined her life.