I guess I could read next my friend Jake said so we gave him the book.

NINE DAYS.

As she fell, Annabeth thought about Hesiod, the old Greek poet who'd speculated it would take nine days to fall from earth to Tartarus.

"Only Annabeth would be thinking about ancient poetry as we fall into the deepest part have the underworld and the homeland have everything that wants to kill us" I said while sighing at my overly smart girlfriend.

She hoped Hesiod was wrong. She'd lost track of how long she and Percy had been falling—hours? A day? It felt like an eternity. They'd been holding hands ever since they dropped into the chasm. Now Percy pulled her close, hugging her tight as they tumbled through absolute darkness.

"Um... Can someone recap what happened before this because I am really confused?" My friend Lucy asked.

I was surprised when Nico stood up "I'll do it I guess." He sighed. "Ok so we had been on our quest for a while and we're stopping to do a kind have detour quest and missions. We had a prophecy we we're following that said:

'Wisdom's daughter walks alone,

The Mark of Athena burns through Rome.

Twins snuff out the angel's breath,

Giants' bane stands gold and pale,

Won through pain and a woven jail.'

Annabeth went on a solo quest from her mother Athena to find the Athena Parthenos that the romans stole and hid thousands have years ago. Athena has sent lots have her kids on this quest to follow the Mark have Athena over the years but none have found or survived to tell about it. She ended in a chamber under Rome with the statue guarded by the spider Arachne. The room was so old that it was falling apart and was only being kept intact by Arachne's thread. Annabeth tricked Arachne into weaving her own jail just like the prophecy said.

I had been captured ages ago by the twin giants and had been trapped in a sealed bronze jar which explains the other line. My last name Di Angelo is italian for Angel so, yeah. Percy, Jason and Piper went on a quest to save me and kill the twin giants before they destroyed Rome. Leo, Hazel and Frank went to find some supplies for Leo since he figured out Archimedes secret and basically raided his old workshop and came back with cool new stuff. After all that we all met up with Coach Hedge who was Manning the ship or Goating it really and went to find Annabeth. We found he just as the room was going to collapse and we secured the giant 40 foot statue while Percy helped Annabeth. We we're about to get out when the floor gave way and the webbing that was on Annabeth's foot started to drag her to the giant pit that we had found led all the way to Tartarus. She fell and Percy grabbed her and fell in too but he grabbed a ledge so he could try to pull them out but it was useless. He told me to lead everyone else to Espirus the place we were headed to and he would meet us there after they had closed the doors have death from the Tartarus side. And then he let go have the ledge and they fell." He said before sitting down. We we're all just silently staring at him until Jake broke the silence by reading again.

Wind whistled in Annabeth's ears. The air grew hotter and damper, as if they were plummeting into the throat of a massive dragon. Her recently broken ankle throbbed, though she couldn't tell if it was still wrapped in spiderwebs.

That cursed monster Arachne. Despite having been trapped in her own webbing, smashed by a car, and plunged into Tartarus, the spider lady had gotten her revenge. Somehow her silk had entangled Annabeth's leg and dragged her over the side of the pit, with Percy in tow.

Annabeth couldn't imagine that Arachne was still alive, somewhere below them in the darkness. She didn't want to meet that monster again when they reached the bottom. On the bright side, assuming there was a bottom, Annabeth and Percy would probably be flattened on impact, so giant spiders were the least of their worries.

"Wow you guys are so optimistic" Jason said sarcastically while I retorted "Hey we we're falling to Tartarus! Would you have been anymore optimistic"

He replied with "Touche"

She wrapped her arms around Percy and tried not to sob. She'd never expected her life to be easy. Most demigods died young at the hands of terrible monsters. That was the way it had been since ancient times. The Greeks invented tragedy. They knew the greatest heroes didn't get happy endings.

Still, this wasn't fair. She'd gone through so much to retrieve that statue of Athena. Just when she'd succeeded, when things had been looking up and she'd been reunited with Percy, they had plunged to their deaths.

Even the gods couldn't devise a fate so twisted.

"I'm sure we could if we wanted to but it's not as if we actually wanted you to die" Hades said

But Gaea wasn't like other gods. The Earth Mother was older, more vicious, more bloodthirsty. Annabeth could imagine her laughing as they fell into the depths.

Annabeth pressed her lips to Percy's ear. "I love you."

She wasn't sure he could hear her—but if they were going to die she wanted those to be her last words.

"Aww" A lot have girls and Aphrodite said while I just rolled my eyes.

She tried desperately to think of a plan to save them. She was a daughter of Athena. She'd proven herself in the tunnels under Rome, beaten a whole series of challenges with only her wits. But she couldn't think of any way to reverse or even slow their fall.

Neither of them had the power to fly—not like Jason, who could control the wind, or Frank, who could turn into a winged animal. If they reached the bottom at terminal velocity…well, she knew enough science to know it would be terminal.

"You know a lot more science than that!" Athena said

She was seriously wondering whether they could fashion a parachute out of their shirts—that's how desperate she was—when something about their surroundings changed. The darkness took on a gray-red tinge. She realized she could see Percy's hair as she hugged him. The whistling in her ears turned into more of a roar. The air became intolerably hot, permeated with a smell like rotten eggs.

"Oh my gods that is so gross" Aphrodite said while gagging.

Suddenly, the chute they'd been falling through opened into a vast cavern. Maybe half a mile below them, Annabeth could see the bottom. For a moment she was too stunned to think properly. The entire island of Manhattan could have fit inside this cavern—and she couldn't even see its full extent. Red clouds hung in the air like vaporized blood. The landscape—at least what she could see of it—was rocky black plains, punctuated by jagged mountains and fiery chasms. To Annabeth's left, the ground dropped off in a series of cliffs, like colossal steps leading deeper into the abyss.

The stench of sulfur made it hard to concentrate, but she focused on the ground directly below them and saw a ribbon of glittering black liquid—a river.

"Percy!" she yelled in his ear. "Water!"

"No what are you thinking even I can't control the rivers have the underworld! Especially not the ones in Tartarus" My dad yelled.

She gestured frantically. Percy's face was hard to read in the dim red light. He looked shell-shocked and terrified, but he nodded as if he understood.

Percy could control water—assuming that was water below them. He might be able to cushion their fall somehow. Of course Annabeth had heard horrible stories about the rivers of the Underworld. They could take away your memories, or burn your body and soul to ashes. But she decided not to think about that. This was their only chance.

"Oh I can't look" My dad said and hid behind Hades who was starting to look annoyed by his brother.

The river hurtled toward them. At the last second, Percy yelled defiantly. The water erupted in a massive geyser and swallowed them whole.

"No! Percy! My dad said crying as he hugging Hades who was giving off a murderous aura before he yelled "Poseidon he is fine and right over there!" He said pointing at me. "Oh" was all my dad said.

"Um... I finished the chapter who wants to read next" Jake said.

"I will" Hades said.