I sat there for a long time. It could have been minutes or it could have been hours. Time passes strangely in the Underworld.

I sat there and stared out across the Asphodel Fields and thought about Orpheus and Eurydice. I wasn't sure if what had happened made me feel hopeful or sick. I mean, it was one thing to be willing to go down into the Underworld to get someone that you loved. I'd even tried it before, when Hades had held my mother captive three years ago. Granted, that wasn't why I'd been sent into the underworld, but the reason I'd been sent and the reason I'd gone had been completely different things that still ended up with the same result. I hadn't saved my mother that way, though. And I couldn't forget that.

Come to think of it, Orpheus hadn't succeeded either. That didn't exactly make for a great track record, when I thought about how likely it was that I could just reason or threaten my way past Hades to get Nico back. But regardless of all of that, my mind kept replaying over the much more recent past – the part where Orpheus and Eurydice had pretty much all but forgotten about each other until they were reminded.

To see them like that, and know that when I died, it would probably be the same…

I didn't know what to think about that. I mean, maybe it wasn't hopeless – I had just sent Eurydice on her way to see Orpheus, and with any luck they'd see each other and maybe that would help them remember. But who was to say that they wouldn't forget about each other again and wander off twenty minutes later? That was the part that made me feel sick. I mean, I was down here to get Nico and go home. But what was the point, if we were just going to forget about each other some day?

But all the same, I couldn't forget the way Eurydice's face had looked when she'd told me that she had a boyfriend who had come down here to try and get her out. Every time I closed my eyes I saw her face, with that look on it that was somewhere between love and sadness. I thought about what it would be like for Nico alone down here. Did he miss me? Did he even know who I was? Did I even matter to him anymore?

I sighed with frustration. All I was doing was chasing my thoughts and a fair amount of guilt around in my head and it was giving me a headache. Pull yourself together, Percy, I thought fiercely. You came down here to do something. You're not going to fail this quest! I couldn't just leave Nico down here. I wanted him back. I didn't care if I lived one more year or a hundred more, it would be long enough as long as it was with him.

I felt a new sense of resolve, but then I realized that resolve wasn't everything. I still didn't have a plan and I couldn't just waste time sitting here until I thought of one. I got to my feet. I'd been sitting here long enough. Just because I didn't have a plan didn't mean I was going to give up. I'd gone into plenty of situations without plans, and I always managed to find a way out. Even if I had to fight Hades hand to hand, I was going to go to wherever Nico was and I was going to get him back. Eurydice said that love had to be shared – well, I was going to get back the person that I wanted to share it with.

I still didn't know where he was, but now I knew how to find him. I put my hand on the hilt of his sword and closed my eyes. Nico, I thought, trying to clear my mind and picture his face in front of my closed eyelids. Where is Nico?

It took some concentration, but again the sword in my mind pointed to where he was and I started walking. Every so often I would close my eyes, feel for Nico again, and adjust my course. I crossed the Fields of Asphodel and came to what must be the edge of them – the black grass gave way to dust, and the dust to stone. I realized that I was approaching something large, a structure of some sort. Then I realized I'd been here before, too.

I was at Hades' palace. The black stone walls and giant bronze gate were familiar as I passed through them unhindered. The gate and courtyard were eerily silent. The whole place felt deserted, like a haunted house or something. I walked up the path to the marble steps, following it beneath the pomegranate trees in the courtyard. As I walked under branches covered in bright orange blooms, I felt a sense of gratitude. Persephone was on my side, I reminded myself. She'd helped me somehow, even if I wasn't sure what exactly eating the fruit she'd given me was supposed to do. As I walked up the steps to the palace, I wondered if I would find that out soon enough.

I'd been in the entry hall before, with its polished bronze floor and black columns beside the door. The walls supported no ceiling and the cavern roof was visible high overhead. Like the last time I'd been here, each doorway I passed through was guarded by a pair of skeletons in military gear from all sorts of time periods and locations. None of them paid any attention to me, and I didn't pay any attention to them. I needed to figure out where in the palace Hades was keeping Nico. I closed my eyes and followed the sword again, and found myself standing at the entrance to a dark, cramped stairway leading up into one of the towers.

Well, I thought, leaning forward and craning my neck to peer up the darkened staircase, there was nowhere to go but up.

I climbed the steps slowly – I wasn't sure what I would find at the top so I kept Nico's sword drawn and ready, feeling my way along the dark wall with my other hand. It felt like the air around me was growing thinner and colder, though I knew I couldn't be that high. I climbed for a good minute or two, until I finally saw a light at the top and managed to coax a little more speed out of my cramping legs and burst out of the staircase and onto the top of the tower.

I stopped just inside the arched doorway, confused. It took my eyes a couple of seconds to adjust to the dim light after the near-darkness of the stairway. The tower was open to the sky and there was a low wall running around the rim, though I didn't think it would really do anyone much good if they stumbled and fell over it. It only came about knee high.

But even as I saw all of that, my mind quickly disregarded it. Because standing directly across from me, maybe only fifteen feet away, was Nico.

He was only half-there, a spirit like everyone else here. But he wasn't murmuring or aimlessly wandering like the other spirits I'd encountered. He was just standing there listlessly and staring off into space. His hair seemed shaggier than I remembered and he looked even paler than usual. But it was Nico, all right. My heart started pounding and I could feel my skin prickling. I'd really found him. Now all I had to do was get him to follow me out of here.

He didn't seem to notice me as I approached. Even when I was standing right in front of him, his gaze went right through me like I wasn't even there. "Nico!" I waved a hand in front of his face but he didn't even seem to notice. He just kept staring straight ahead. His eyes were glassy. I didn't even know if he could see me. "Nico, we have to go," I tried again. "You have to come with me."

Nothing. No response. Suddenly my stomach felt like I was in an elevator dropping far too fast. I didn't know what to do. Could I carry him out? I was pretty sure that wasn't what I was supposed to do. I needed him to follow me. And to do that, I needed him to realize I was there. So I did the only thing I could think of to do. I grabbed him on either side of his head and kissed him, hard.

It was worse than the first time we'd tried to kiss properly. His mouth was there under mine, but it wasn't responding. It was like he didn't even notice I was kissing him. Just like he hadn't noticed my voice or my hand –

"Just what do you think you're doing here?"

I let go of Nico and turned around to see Hades standing behind us. He was normal person-sized (well, as normal person-sized as he got) and looking down his nose at me like he had the last time I had seen him, in the streets of New York. He looked disgusted, like he'd found a piece of hair in his dinner or something.

I felt my face start to grow warm. It felt weird that Hades had caught me kissing Nico, even if Nico hadn't exactly been kissing back. My fists curled at my sides as I forced myself to look up into his eyes. I wasn't going to let him intimidate me, not even here on his home turf. I was on a quest and he wasn't going to stop me. "I'm going to bring Nico back," I said.

Hades' expression darkened. It was pretty frightening, watching his face right then. Part of me wanted to run away. But the rest of me knew that if I did, I'd never see Nico again. I wasn't going to fail now. Not after I'd come this far. I raised my right hand, the one holding Nico's sword, and stood between Hades and his son.

"So you're going to try that, are you?" he asked, sneering down his nose at me. I could feel the silent command behind his voice – he wanted me to put down the sword and give up, just like he'd tried to exert his will over me before. But this time it was different. Just because I felt his will didn't mean I wanted to do what he wanted at all. It was weird – every time he'd tried to make me do something before it had taken a lot of effort to ignore it. This time it didn't take any effort at all. I knew what he was doing, but my body didn't care. It was easy to resist.

I took a step forward, trying to show much more confidence than I actually felt. "I'll do whatever I have to," I said.

Hades actually looked a little surprised that I didn't have to work to resist him at all. Then he sneered. "If you have any sense in that head of yours, you'll leave. Now."

But despite the fact that I could practically feel the command in his voice, I resisted it just as easily as I had the last time. I shook my head. "No. Not without Nico." I took another step and put both hands on the hilt of the sword. My heart was pounding so loudly that I wouldn't have been surprised if Hades could hear it.

"There's little you can do to me here," he said, with a sweep of his arm. "And I will not be swayed by words." He looked at me and laughed, darkly. "You're no Orpheus, boy. And you've tried this little quest before. You couldn't get me to release your own mother – Nico is my son. What makes you think you'll succeed this time?"

He just made me so angry – the way he looked down at me and the way he laughed and, well, the way he knew exactly the right thing to say to get me riled up. I hated him and I hated the way he made me feel. Without thinking I roared out a hoarse battle cry and lunged at him, not caring that it was probably one of the stupidest things I had ever done and that it might very well be the last thing I would ever do. I just wanted to destroy him, to make him hurt like I hurt and get him to let Nico go. I wasn't thinking about much else.

I hate to admit it, but I didn't even have the chance to get close to him with the sword. As I rushed at him, Hades' eyes turned dark and he swept his hand in front of him and there was a rush of darkness that sent Nico's sword flying away to clatter onto the stone behind me. My hands felt too hot and too cold all at once, and when I looked at them I saw that there were deep gashes on both palms that were starting to ooze blood.

"You cannot hurt me," Hades said, and despite my anger I knew it was true. My stomach clenched and I felt like I was going to be sick. If I couldn't fight for Nico, what else could I do? I suddenly felt a wave of anguish so powerful that it made me want to lay down and cry. But there was no way I was going to do that here. No – there had to be another solution.

I thought furiously about what else I could do. I thought about everything I knew about Hades, about the gods, about everything Annabeth had ever said or done that was clever…

But as I stood there thinking at what felt like a hundred miles an hour, it turned out to be Hades who came up with the solution to my problem. Looking down at me, the god of death began to smile. It was a slow, creeping smile that made my insides squirm.

"I can see you're serious," he said slowly, and I saw his eyes flick from me to Nico, who was still standing at the other end of the tower and staring into space. "I… could be willing to make some kind of deal."

A deal? I stared at him, incredulous.

"I would expect a fair trade for my son," Hades continued, eyes narrowing as he looked straight at me.

I didn't have anything to offer him and I knew it. All I had was a backpack full of spare clothes and a couple of squares of ambrosia in a Ziploc baggie. There wasn't anything else I had except for Riptide and Nico's sword, and neither of those would be something the god wanted. I had nothing to bargain with.

But apparently Hades didn't think so. "I see you're looking confused," he said, and the amusement in his voice was almost scarier than his anger. "It's really quite simple. You say you're willing to do anything. All I'm asking is something of equal value in exchange for what you want." He paused. "A half-blood for a half-blood, Percy Jackson. If you want me to set Nico free, then all you have to do is give me yourself in return." He looked down to the ground, to where he'd knocked Nico's sword out of my hands. He pointed to it. "Take that sword and kill yourself upon it. Then I will set Nico free."

"What?" I gasped. Kill myself? For Nico – ?

He just looked at me, and his eyes seemed to say it all. You heard me the first time. I won't say it again. "What will it be?"

I stared at him. My mind started racing again. The first thing that came to mind was where I'd come from – the Fields of Asphodel. I thought about Lee and Castor and Orpheus and every other spirit I'd seen wandering in the Fields. I thought about what it would be like to forget about everything I'd ever cared about or wanted in life and go around muttering about absolutely nothing for the rest of eternity. Because I was pretty sure you didn't end up in Elysium for killing yourself.

I thought about my mom – I thought about how she'd feel if I never came home. I had to admit, that made me feel pretty awful. She'd done a lot of selfless things for me, and a lot of them I hadn't even known about at the time. Could I really do something so selfish as to leave her alone for the rest of her life? But there was Paul Blofis, I thought. He was a good guy. He wanted to marry my mom. He'd take care of her. I guessed I'd have to trust him to do it for me, from now on. But maybe with me out of the picture… maybe my mom wouldn't ever be in danger again.

I thought about Annabeth and Grover and Tyson and Chiron, and how Camp Half-Blood would be if I wasn't there. I wasn't sure if it would be all that different or not. I could practically hear Annabeth's angry voice in my ear, telling me off for even thinking such a thing, but even her imaginary lecture didn't seem as persuasive as it should be. I mean, if Nico was alive, there was still a child of the Big Three to fulfill the prophecy. In a way, it was a fair trade.

And then I thought about Nico. He hadn't even lived as long as I had, not that I was under any illusions that I'd exactly lived a long time either. But I'd had a pretty okay life, considering. Nico hadn't. There was a lot of stuff he hadn't seen and done. Heck, I was pretty sure he'd never even had birthday cake until that night when he'd shown up outside my window.

I guessed he'd probably be pretty mad at me if I did this. But I also guessed that I wouldn't really be in any fit state to care whether he was mad at me, if I was going to end up wandering around the Asphodel Fields muttering about who knows what. I wasn't sure if that made it hurt more or less, though.

I turned to look at Nico, seeing his blank face and blank eyes and feeling like if my heart really were something that could break, it would be doing that right now. It made my chest hurt to see him there like this. I thought about Orpheus and Eurydice. And then I thought, I didn't come down here to fail.

I turned around to face Hades. "Okay," I said. "It's a deal."