"Annabeth Does Obedience School." Ares mused. "At least someone is taking charge. About time..."

"cough*whipped*cough, cough" Connor looked away from Annabeth's direction.

Katie looked at him incredulously. "Do you want a death wish? Like really... 'cause by the look on her face right now I'm sure Annabeth would have no problems delivering it."

Connor stole a glance at Annabeth's face and he paled considerably. Annabeth's face was a mixed painting of anger, cold and unmerciful eyes, but most of all she looked like she was about to break down. Like everything that had happened to her in the past couple of days and in the past couple of months (in their time) was about to break loose in one giant emotional heap.

He decided that it would be best to keep quiet.

We stood in the shadows of Valencia Boulevard, looking up at gold letters etched in black marble: DOA RECORDING STUDIOS.

"Oh great." Hades mumbled. "They found the studio." He sighed. "Now after they 'supposedly' leave Persephone will nag me about left over traces of dna from living godlings. We'll have to sanatize the entire Underworld."

He face-palmed while the other gods started chuckling at his demeanor. He looked up at them with an irritated look on his face. "Oh, don't act like your wife or girlfriend never nagged you about cleaning up something!"

The room got considerably quiet. The gods found interest in their thrones while the demigods laughed quietly.

Underneath, stenciled on the glass doors: NO SOLICITORS. NO LOITERING. NO LIVING.

Hades frowned even more. "Stupid godlings... sanatize...Underworld...Persephone...overcrowded domain...stupid brothers...stupid lots..."

It was almost midnight, but the lobby was brightly lit and full of people. Behind the security desk sat a tough-looking guard with sunglasses and an earpiece.

Hades perked up. Maybe Charon would keep them from entering the Underworld. He'd raise Charon's pay if he did that.

I turned to my friends. "Okay. You remember the plan."

The demigods who knew Percy personally sucked in their breaths worriedly.

"This is not going to end well." Thalia frowned.

Zeus nodded along with the rest of the gods. If they knew Poseidon well enough and if Percy was exactly like Poseidon then this plan would backfire a couple times before it had a chance at working.

Annabeth said, "What happens if the plan doesn't work?"

"It won't."

Poseidon glared at the occupants of the room.

"Don't think negative."

Hades looked at Poseidon with an unbelievable look on his face. "The son of the person that is a complete pessimist is telling the other person not to think negative?"

Poseidon shrugged in return. "I'm only a pessimist when no one else is. When someone else is a pessimist I have to balance it out."

All the goddesses rolled their eyes at him.

"Right," she said. "We're entering the Land of the Dead, and I shouldn't think negative."

Hades smirked a little. "No matter how unnerving it is to think like a daughter of Athena-" Annabeth frowned- "I knew I was right."

I took the pearls out of my pocket, the three milky spheres the Nereid had given me in Santa Monica. They didn't seem like much of a backup in case something went wrong.

Poseidon frowned. If only Percy knew how powerful they were.

Annabeth put her hand on my shoulder. "I'm sorry, Percy. You're right, we'll make it. It'll be fine."

"And now Percy has to be a pessimist again."

She gave Grover a nudge.

"Oh, right!" he chimed in. "We got this far. We'll find the master bolt and save your mom. No problem."

Hades scowled. He'll make sure that there are many 'pets' to look forward to in the Underworld.

I looked at them both, and felt really grateful. Only a few minutes before, I'd almost gotten them stretched to death on deluxe water beds,

Annabeth frowned while the older counselors snickered.

and now they were trying to be brave for my sake, trying to make me feel better.

I slipped the pearls back in my pocket. "Let's whip some Underworld butt."

Hades' scowl increased.

We walked inside the DOA lobby.

Music played softly on hidden speakers. The carpet and walls were steel gray. Pencil cactuses grew in the corners like skeleton hands. The furniture was black leather, and every seat was taken. There were people sitting on couches, people standing up, people staring out the windows or waiting for the elevator. Nobody moved, or talked, or did much of anything. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see them all just fine, but if I focused on any one of them in particular, they started looking ... transparent. I could see right through their bodies.

Apollo shivered. "That is so depressing. How do you live like that?"

Hades rolled his eyes. "Not everyone wants to be a high school cheerleader like you Apollo."

"Yeah." Apollo replied. "You want to cheer for emo, goth, punk, and flat out depressing people."

"And what's wrong with that?" Thalia and Nico asked at the same time.

"Everything..." Rachel mumbled. She got glares from the two kids but didn't seem to register them.

Hades frowned. "We do not cheer, we simply sit at a table and snapplause when someone finishes reciting a poem."

"See?" Apollo nearly yelled. "That's what I'm talking about. It's so disturbing... so-"

"How many centuries do you two have to argue over that subject?" Poseidon sighed. "Just let it go."

Ares scoffed. "This is coming from the person who's been arguing with Athena for the last three thousand years."

Poseidon scowled at Ares. "This is coming from the person who's competing with Hephaestus for Aphrodite but is obviously losing."

Hephaestus looked up and paled a little. He didn't want to be put in the middle of everything.

The two gods glared at each other before Aphrodite cleared her throat and Ares started to read again.

The security guard's desk was a raised podium, so we had to look up at him.

He was tall and elegant, with chocolate-colored skin and bleached-blond hair shaved military style. He wore tortoiseshell shades and a silk Italian suit that matched his hair. A black rose was pinned to his lapel under a silver name tag.

I read the name tag, then looked at him in bewilderment. "Your name is Chiron?"

Several people face-palmed.

Hades shook his head. "Charon will not like that. He hates it when people confuse him with Chiron."

Poseidon sulked. He considered taking out his blanket again but he decided that he had taken it out too many times during the day.

He leaned across the desk. I couldn't see anything in his glasses except my own reflection, but his smile was sweet and cold, like a pythons, right before it eats you.

"Depressing much..." Apollo mumbled.

"What a precious young lad." He had a strange accent—British, maybe, but also as if he had learned English as a second language. "Tell me, mate, do I look like a centaur?"

"N-no."

"Sir," he added smoothly.

"Sir," I said.

He pinched the name tag and ran his finger under the letters. "Can you read this, mate? It says C-H-A-R-O-N. Say it with me: CARE-ON."

"Charon."

"Amazing! Now: Mr. Charon."

"Mr. Charon," I said.

"Well done." He sat back. "I hate being confused with that old horse-man.

Rachel frowned. "He acts like he's not old."

And now, how may I help you little dead ones?"

His question caught in my stomach like a fastball. I looked at Annabeth for support.

"Like he always does." Travis smiled. The other demigods smiled at Annabeth also.

Athena kept a blank face on but in the inside she was freaking out.

Annabeth smiled faintly but didn't answer. She felt like she was about to collapse from hearing about Percy so much. She looked outside and noticed that it was getting dark. Snow was falling lightly on the ground. She wanted to just go back to her room and probably cry herself to sleep. This was highly unlike her but she just couldn't help it any more. Reality was crashing on her harder than it had ever been before and it hurt so bad. She needed Percy back so much.

Out of the corner of her mind she saw Aphrodite glancing at her with worry but before the goddess could question her Ares continued reading.

"We want to go the Underworld," she said.

Nico snorted. "That's a new one. People who want to go to the Underworld."

Charon's mouth twitched. "Well, that's refreshing."

"Pfft."

"It is?" she asked.

"No."

"Straight forward and honest. No screaming. No 'There must be a mistake, Mr. Charon.'" He looked us over. "How did you die, then?"

Piper grimaced. They probably hadn't thought about that part.

I nudged Grover.

"Oh," he said. "Um ... drowned ... in the bathtub."

The room erupted into fits of laughter.

"All three of you?" Charon asked. We nodded.

"Big bathtub." Charon looked mildly impressed.

Leo frowned. "You could've just said that it was a jacuzzi. That would've made more sense."

"I don't suppose you have coins for passage. Normally, with adults, you see, I could charge your American Express, or add the ferry price to your last cable bill. But with children ... alas, you never die prepared. Suppose you'll have to take a seat for a few centuries."

"Oh, but we have coins." I set three golden drachmas on the counter, part of the stash I'd found in Crusty's office desk.

"Well, now ..." Charon moistened his lips. "Real drachmas. Real golden drachmas. I haven't seen these in ..."

"Two thousand years..." Nico muttered.

Rachel knit her eyebrows. "How do you know that?"

Nico sighed. "It's the same speech every time I go there. It gets on my nerves every time."

His fingers hovered greedily over the coins.

We were so close.

Poseidon grimaced and Hades smiled brilliantly. Zeus started whimpering again.

Then Charon looked at me. That cold stare behind his glasses seemed to bore a hole through my chest.

"Here now," he said. "You couldn't read my name correctly. Are you dyslexic, lad?"

"No," I said. "I'm dead."

Hermes grimaced. "And that's how he knows you're alive."

Charon leaned forward and took a sniff. "You're not dead. I should've known. You're a godling."

"We have to get to the Underworld," I insisted.

Charon made a growling sound deep in his throat.

Immediately, all the people in the waiting room got up and started pacing, agitated, lighting cigarettes,

"That's probably how they died." Aphrodite wrinkled her nose.

running hands through their hair, or checking their wristwatches.

"Leave while you can," Charon told us. "I'll just take these and forget I saw you."

He started to go for the coins, but I snatched them back.

"No service, no tip." I tried to sound braver than I felt.

"Probably didn't work." Ares muttered.

Charon growled again—a deep, blood-chilling sound. The spirits of the dead started pounding on the elevator doors.

"It's a shame, too," I sighed. "We had more to offer."

I held up the entire bag from Crusty's stash. I took out a fistful of drachmas and let the coins spill through my fingers.

Hermes grinned. Now he was really starting to like Percy.

Charon's growl changed into something more like a lion's purr. "Do you think I can be bought, godling?

"Yes." Hades muttered irritably.

Hermes smiled. "That guy is so easy to bribe. I'll just show up and give him a twenty and he wont even glance at me."

"And he wants me to raise his pay..."

Eh ... just out of curiosity, how much have you got there?"

"A lot," I said. "I bet Hades doesn't pay you well enough for such hard work."

"Pfft."

"Oh, you don't know the half of it. How would you like to babysit these spirits all day? Always 'Please don't let me be dead' or 'Please let me across for free.' I haven't had a pay raise in three thousand years. Do you imagine suits like this come cheap?"

"I don't care much."

"Lighten up Hades. Suits like that do cost a lot of money. I should know."

"I don't care Zeus. No one told him to buy expensive suits to wear at work. He could get a regular suit for free."

"You deserve better," I agreed. "A little appreciation. Respect. Good pay."

With each word, I stacked another gold coin on the counter.

Hermes nearly fainted. He was glowing faintly. "So much bribery..."

Charon glanced down at his silk Italian jacket, as if imagining himself in something even better.

Hades face-palmed.

"I must say, lad, you're making some sense now. Just a little."

I stacked another few coins. "I could mention a pay raise while I'm talking to Hades."

"He better not."

He sighed. "The boat's almost full, anyway. I might as well add you three and be off."

He stood, scooped up our money, and said, "Come along."

Hades frowned. And now he was going to have to sanitize the Underworld and deal with three unwanted kids.

We pushed through the crowd of waiting spirits, who started grabbing at our clothes like the wind, their voices whispering things I couldn't make out. Charon shoved them out of the way, grumbling, "Freeloaders."

He escorted us into the elevator, which was already crowded with souls of the dead, each one holding a green boarding pass. Charon grabbed two spirits who were trying to get on with us and pushed them back into the lobby.

"Right. Now, no one get any ideas while I'm gone," he announced to the waiting room. "And if anyone moves the dial off my easy-listening station again, I'll make sure you're here for another thousand years. Understand?"

Ares rolled his eyes. "So harsh. I wouldn't want to meet this guy in an alley."

Nico raised his eyebrows. "Actually, he's a pretty good body guard and friend."

Jason looked at Nico. "How would you know that?"

"It's a really long story..."

He shut the doors. He put a key card into a slot in the elevator panel and we started to descend.

"What happens to the spirits waiting in the lobby?" Annabeth asked.

"Nothing," Charon said.

"For how long?"

"Forever, or until I'm feeling generous."

"Oh," she said. "That's ... fair."

"Yeah right."

Charon raised an eyebrow. "Whoever said death was fair, young miss? Wait until it's your turn. You'll die soon enough, where you're going."

"We'll get out alive," I said.

Poseidon nodded furiously while Hades grumbled.

"Wait," Clarisse knit her eyebrows. "If he doesn't get out alive then doesn't that mean that he'll come out dead?"

Her response was a whimper from Poseidon, a worried look on Athena and Dionysus' face, and a bunch of shrugs from the rest of the occupants in the room.

"Ha."

I got a sudden dizzy feeling. We weren't going down anymore, but forward. The air turned misty. Spirits around me started changing shape. Their modern clothes flickered, turning into gray hooded robes. The floor of the elevator began swaying.

Apollo swallowed nervously. This was really ruining his mood.

I blinked hard. When I opened my eyes, Charon's creamy Italian suit had been replaced by a long black robe. His tortoiseshell glasses were gone. Where his eyes should've been were empty sockets—like Ares' eyes, except Charon's were totally dark, full of night and death and despair.

Apollo sulked in his chair. "Hey Poseidon? Do you have another blanket that I could borrow?"

Poseidon shook his head at Apollo but took out a spare blanket. "Thanks." As soon as the blanket touched Apollo's fingers the design of seahorses and star fish changed to the sun and sky.

He saw me looking, and said, "Well?"

"Nothing," I managed.

I thought he was grinning, but that wasn't it. The flesh of his face was becoming transparent, letting me see straight through to his skull.

The floor kept swaying.

Grover said, "I think I'm getting seasick."

When I blinked again, the elevator wasn't an elevator anymore. We were standing in a wooden barge. Charon was poling us across a dark, oily river, swirling with bones, dead fish, and other, stranger things—plastic dolls, crushed car nations, soggy diplomas with gilt edges.

"Dreams that never came true." Thalia muttered.

Athena shook her head. "Diplomas thrown in the River Styxs? What do people plan to accomplish in their lives if they don't get an education? They'll sit around with a laid back expression all day long-" subconsciously she glanced at Poseidon, who was trying to tell Ares to read- "and do nothing. They'll waste their potential-"

Ares started reading.

"The River Styx," Annabeth murmured. "It's so ..."

"Polluted," Charon said. "For thousands of years, you humans have been throwing in everything as you come across—hopes, dreams, wishes that never came true. Irresponsible waste management, if you ask me."

Poseidon nodded with Hades. "So it happens in the Underworld too? Such a shame."

Mist curled off the filthy water. Above us, almost lost in the gloom, was a ceiling of stalactites. Ahead, the far shore glimmered with greenish light, the color of poison.

"Wow..." Piper breathed. "That's so depressing."

Jason nodded. He felt quesy and by the look on Apollo's face he was feeling the same thing to.

Panic closed up my throat. What was I doing here? These people around me ... they were dead.

Annabeth grabbed hold of my hand.

Aphrodite grinned like a cheshire cat. Athena sighed, would this torment ever end? She hoped that this was just a thing that Annabeth was going through and that she would see that she didn't like the son of Poseidon.

Under normal circumstances, this would've embarrassed me,

"Yup."

but I understood how she felt. She wanted reassurance that somebody else was alive on this boat.

I found myself muttering a prayer, though I wasn't quite sure who I was praying to. Down here, only one god mattered, and he was the one I had come to confront.

The shoreline of the Underworld came into view. Craggy rocks and black volcanic sand stretched inland about a hundred yards to the base of a high stone wall, which marched off in either direction as far as we could see. A sound came from somewhere nearby in the green gloom, echoing off the stones—the howl of a large animal.

Nico grinned. "Cerberus!" Then he sighed. "I miss the dog so much..."

Annabeth nodded. She had a sad smile on her face. She remembered playing with Cerberus. Just like the Doberman.

"Old Three-Face is hungry," Charon said. His smile turned skeletal in the greenish light. "Bad luck for you, godlings."

The bottom of our boat slid onto the black sand. The dead began to disembark. A woman holding a little girl's hand. An old man and an old woman hobbling along arm in arm. A boy no older than I was, shuffling silently along in his gray robe.

Apollo stood up. "I'm going to go early today. I can't take more of these depressing descriptions."

Ares scowled. The second Apollo took a step forward a whole bunch of chains erupted from the back of his throne and pinned Apollo to the seat.

"Hey! What's going on?"

"Man up Apollo." Ares replied. "It's just a description. It's not like you're actually going there."

He ignored the glare Apollo was giving him and continued reading.

Charon said, "I'd wish you luck, mate, but there isn't any down here. Mind you, don't forget to mention my pay raise."

Hades frowned.

He counted our golden coins into his pouch, then took up his pole. He warbled something that sounded like a Barry Manilow song as he ferried the empty barge back across the river.

We followed the spirits up a well-worn path.

I'm not sure what I was expecting—Pearly Gates,

"Seriously? Pearly Gates? This isn't Apollo's mansion." Hades frowned.

"I wish it was." Apollo said. "It's more cheerful there." He snuggled under his blanket.

or a big black portcullis,

"That would make more sense." Hades mused. "I should add that shouldn't I?"

"No." Apollo grumbled.

or something. But the entrance to the Underworld looked like a cross between airport security and the Jersey Turnpike.

There were three separate entrances under one huge black archway that said YOU ARE NOW ENTERING EREBUS. Each entrance had a pass-through metal detector with security cameras mounted on top. Beyond this were tollbooths manned by black-robed ghouls like Charon.

The howling of the hungry animal was really loud now, but I couldn't see where it was coming from. The three-headed dog, Cerberus, who was supposed to guard Hades' door, was nowhere to be seen.

"Then where is he?" Leo questioned. "Is he like, hidden or something?"

"He's either," Nico started. "At the tree where the minotaur is trying to wake it up with it's loud barks or 'playing' with Mrs. O'leary."

"Who's that?" Artemis asked.

"You'll see soon."

The dead queued up in the three lines, two marked ATTENDANT ON DUTY, and one marked EZ DEATH. The EZ DEATH line was moving right along. The other two were crawling.

"What do you figure?" I asked Annabeth.

"The fast line must go straight to the Asphodel Fields," she said. "No contest. They don't want to risk judgment from the court, because it might go against them."

"Wussies." Ares muttered.

"There's a court for dead people?"

"Yeah. Three judges. They switch around who sits on the bench. King Minos,

Nico's demeanor worsened.

Thomas Jefferson, Shakespeare—people like that. Sometimes they look at a life and decide that person needs a special reward—the Fields of Elysium. Sometimes they decide on punishment. But most people, well, they just lived. Nothing special, good or bad. So they go to the Asphodel Fields."

"And do what?"

Grover said, "Imagine standing in a wheat field in Kansas. Forever."

Ares gaped at the book. "So... like, no action or anything. Just standing?"

At the nods he received he sulked. "My worst nightmare..."

"Harsh," I said.

"Not as harsh as that," Grover muttered. "Look."

A couple of black-robbed ghouls had pulled aside one spirit and were frisking him at the security desk. The face of the dead man looked vaguely familiar.

"He's that preacher who made the news, remember?" Grover asked.

"Oh, yeah." I did remember now. We'd seen him on TV a couple of times at the Yancy Academy dorm. He was this annoying televangelist from upstate New York who'd raised millions of dollars for orphanages

"Then why is he being stopped?" Hades questioned.

Nico shrugged. "Probably one of the gangs in the Underworld."

and then got caught spending the money on stuff for his mansion, like gold-plated toilet seats, and an indoor putt-putt golf course.

"Oh."

He'd died in a police chase when his "Lamborghini for the Lord" went off a cliff.

Nico started chuckling. "'Lamborghini for the lord', that's a new one."

Katie shook her head at him. "You are so weird."

"I embrace it."

I said, "What're they doing to him?"

"Special punishment from Hades," Grover guessed. "The really bad people get his personal attention as soon as they arrive. The Fur—the Kindly Ones will set up an eternal torture for him."

The thought of the Furies made me shudder. I realized I was in their home territory now. Old Mrs. Dodds would be licking her lips with anticipation.

"But if he's a preacher," I said, "and he believes in a different hell..."

Grover shrugged. "Who says he's seeing this place the way we're seeing it? Humans see what they want to see. You're very stubborn—er, persistent, that way."

"Nice save."

We got closer to the gates. The howling was so loud now it shook the ground at my feet, but I still couldn't figure out where it was coming from.

Then, about fifty feet in front of us, the green mist shimmered. Standing just where the path split into three lanes was an enormous shadowy monster.

I hadn't seen it before because it was half transparent, like the dead. Until it moved, it blended with whatever was behind it. Only its eyes and teeth looked solid. And it was staring straight at me.

My jaw hung open. All I could think to say was, "He's a Rottweiler."

"Well what else would he be?" Hades said. "A poodle?"

I'd always imagined Cerberus as a big black mastiff. But he was obviously a purebred Rottweiler, except of course that he was twice the size of a woolly mammoth, mostly invisible, and had three heads.

Rachel rolled her eyes. "Oh yeah. Those little details."

The dead walked right up to him—no fear at all. The ATTENDANT ON DUTY lines parted on either side of him. The EZ DEATH spirits walked right between his front paws and under his belly, which they could do without even crouching.

Nico looked at Hades. "How do you take him for a walk if he's so big?"

Hades sighed. "The people in New York will believe just about anything when the mist is active. They think he's a miniature blimp that I've somehow managed to tie to a rope and parade around New York in. When he pees everyone thinks it's raining."

Everyone scrunched their noses at the last comment.

"I'm starting to see him better," I muttered. "Why is that?"

"I think ..." Annabeth moistened her lips. "I'm afraid it's because we're getting closer to being dead."

The dog's middle head craned toward us. It sniffed the air and growled.

"It can smell the living," I said.

Poseidon's hair started to turn gray.

"But that's okay," Grover said, trembling next to me. "Because we have a plan."

"Right," Annabeth said. I'd never heard her voice sound quite so small. "A plan."

"A plan that probably bites." Thalia mumbled. Annabeth nodded.

We moved toward the monster.

The middle head snarled at us, then barked so loud my eyeballs rattled.

"Can you understand it?" I asked Grover.

"Oh yeah," he said. "I can understand it."

"What's it saying?"

"I don't think humans have a four-letter word that translates, exactly."

"Tsk, tsk." Poseidon said. "And you all say I have bad language."

I took the big stick out of my backpack—a bedpost I'd broken off Crusty's Safari Deluxe floor model. I held it up, and tried to channel happy dog thoughts toward Cerberus—Alpo commercials, cute little pup pies, fire hydrants. I tried to smile, like I wasn't about to die.

Thalia frowned. "That's really hard to do." The other demigods smiled at her sympathetically.

"Hey, Big Fella," I called up. "I bet they don't play with you much."

"GROWWWLLLL!"

"Good boy," I said weakly.

I waved the stick. The dog's middle head followed the movement. The other two heads trained their eyes on me, completely ignoring the spirits. I had Cerberus's undivided attention. I wasn't sure that was a good thing.

"Sometimes."

"Fetch!" I threw the stick into the gloom, a good solid throw. I heard it go ker-sploosh in the River Styx.

Travis shook his head. "Epic fail."

Cerberus glared at me, unimpressed. His eyes were baleful and cold.

So much for the plan.

Thalia sighed. "I knew it would bite."

Cerberus was now making a new kind of growl, deeper down in his three throats.

"Um," Grover said. "Percy?"

"Yeah?"

"I just thought you'd want to know."

"Yeah?"

"Cerberus? He's saying we've got ten seconds to pray to the god of our choice. After that... well ... he's hungry."

"Wait!" Annabeth said. She started rifling through her pack.

Uh-oh, I thought.

Annabeth frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Five seconds," Grover said. "Do we run now?"

Annabeth produced a red rubber ball the size of a grapefruit. It was labeled WATERLAND, DENVER, CO.

"Oh."

Before I could stop her, she raised the ball and marched straight up to Cerberus.

Ares stared at Annabeth with newfound respect.

She shouted, "See the ball? You want the ball, Cerberus? Sit!"

Cerberus looked as stunned as we were.

All three of his heads cocked sideways. Six nostrils dilated.

"Sit!" Annabeth called again.

"I'll be surprised if he actually listens." Ares said.

I was sure that any moment she would become the world's largest Milkbone dog biscuit.

But instead, Cerberus licked his three sets of lips, shifted on his haunches, and sat,

Everyone gaped at Annabeth except for Nico and Hades. Hades sniffed along with Nico. "That's my dog."

Everyone ignored the two slightly insane figures that were dressed in black and sniffing over a dog.

immediately crushing a dozen spirits who'd been passing underneath him in the EZ DEATH line. The spirits made muffled hisses as they dissipated, like the air let out of tires.

"Ohh!"

Annabeth said, "Good boy!"

She threw Cerberus the ball.

He caught it in his middle mouth. It was barely big enough for him to chew, and the other heads started snapping at the middle, trying to get the new toy.

"Drop it." Annabeth ordered.

Cerberus's heads stopped fighting and looked at her. The ball was wedged between two of his teeth like a tiny piece of gum. He made a loud, scary whimper,

"Scary?" Hades questioned. "Is he scared off you? What have you done to my dog?"

Demeter sent a glare to Ares, who started to read.

then dropped the ball, now slimy and bitten nearly in half, at Annabeth's feet.

"Good boy." She picked up the ball, ignoring the monster spit all over it.

"Eww." Aphrodite pursed her lips.

She turned toward us. "Go now. EZ DEATH line—it's faster."

I said, "But—"

"Now.'" She ordered, in the same tone she was using on the dog.

Grover and I inched forward warily.

The throne room erupted into laughter. Athena smiled proudly at Annabeth while Poseidon rolled his eyes.

Connor was about to exaggerate how whipped Percy and Grover were but then he remembered how Annabeth had looked earlier on and decided for once that he would let an oppurtunity go.

Cerberus started to growl.

"Stay!" Annabeth ordered the monster. "If you want the ball, stay!"

Cerberus whimpered, but he stayed where he was.

"What about you?" I asked Annabeth as we passed her.

"I know what I'm doing, Percy," she muttered. "At least, I'm pretty sure..."

"That's not very reassuring." Chris muttered.

Grover and I walked between the monster's legs.

Please, Annabeth, I prayed. Don't tell him to sit again.

Poseidon nodded furiously.

We made it through. Cerberus wasn't any less scary-looking from the back.

Annabeth said, "Good dog!"

She held up the tattered red ball, and probably came to the same conclusion I did—if she rewarded Cerberus, there'd be nothing left for another trick.

She threw the ball anyway. The monster's left mouth immediately snatched it up, only to be attacked by the middle head, while the right head moaned in protest.

Hades hung his head. "My ferocious dog has been turned into a grade A softy by a twelve year-old." He face-palmed.

While the monster was distracted, Annabeth walked briskly under its belly and joined us at the metal detector.

"How did you do that?" I asked her, amazed.

"Obedience school," she said breathlessly, and I was surprised to see there were tears in her eyes.

"When I was little, at my dad's house, we had a Doberman... ."

Some people raised an eyebrow at Annabeth.

"Never mind that," Grover said, tugging at my shirt. "Come on!"

We were about to bolt through the EZ DEATH line when Cerberus moaned pitifully from all three mouths. Annabeth stopped.

She turned to face the dog, which had done a one-eighty to look at us.

Cerberus panted expectantly, the tiny red ball in pieces in a puddle of drool at its feet.

"Eww."

"Good boy," Annabeth said, but her voice sounded melancholy and uncertain.

The monster's heads turned sideways, as if worried about her.

"I'll bring you another ball soon," Annabeth promised faintly. "Would you like that?"

"Too bad that never happened." Annabeth muttered. The silence in the room was overbearing and the goddesses glanced at her sympathetically.

The monster whimpered. I didn't need to speak dog to know Cerberus was still waiting for the ball.

"Good dog. I'll come visit you soon. I—I promise." Annabeth turned to us. "Let's go."

Annabeth sighed.

Grover and I pushed through the metal detector, which immediately screamed and set off flashing red lights. "Unauthorized possessions! Magic detected!"

"Oh great."

Cerberus started to bark.

We burst through the EZ DEATH gate, which started even more alarms blaring, and raced into the Underworld.

A few minutes later, we were hiding, out of breath, in the rotten trunk of an immense black tree as security ghouls scuttled past, yelling for backup from the Furies.

Grover murmured, "Well, Percy, what have we learned today?"

"That three-headed dogs prefer red rubber balls over sticks?"

"That's true." Hades muttered absent-mindedly.

"No," Grover told me. "We've learned that your plans really, really bite!"

Thalia smiled. "I knew it."

I wasn't sure about that. I thought maybe Annabeth and I had both had the right idea. Even here in the Underworld, everybody—even monster—needed a little attention once in a while.

I thought about that as we waited for the ghouls to pass. I pretended not to see Annabeth wipe a tear from her cheek as she listened to the mournful keening of Cerberus in the distance, longing for his new friend.

Demeter shook her head. This book was extremely depressing.

"Let's stop here today." Zeus said. Ares handed Athena the book and flashed out before any one else could.

Everyone raised an eyebrow. They were surprised that Ares didn't try to take Aphrodite from Hephaestus.

As everyone started to leave the throne room Aphrodite turned to Annabeth hoping that she could talk to her because she seemed really sad but Annabeth was already out the door and heading to her room.