*   *   *

“We should go after them. It’s been too long.”

“Athena said to wait here,” Hermes said. He paced at the doorway’s dark mouth, but Odysseus was right. It had been too long. Athena should’ve been able to grab Cassandra by the shirtsleeve and drag her back minutes ago.

“What are we waiting for?” Odysseus growled.

“This is bad,” Andie whispered. “This is bad.”

“What if Aphrodite got them? What if she got Athena like she did Aidan?” Henry asked, holding his spear at the ready. “We’ve got to go after my sister!”

Hermes pressed his hands against his skull. His voice grew louder with every progressive word. “My sister said that we should wait, and we will give her another goddamn minute!” He closed his eyes. But he above all the others should keep his eyes wide open. He was what they had, if Athena didn’t come back. It would be up to him to lead them farther in, or beat a hasty retreat.

But he couldn’t retreat. He couldn’t leave Athena and Cassandra stuck inside. He looked at Calypso. She could take the mortals out, and he and Achilles could go on alone.

“They’re picking us off, one by one,” Odysseus said. “Just like she said they would. They’ll kill her if we don’t hurry. I’ll go by myself if I have to.”

“You will not.” Hermes stared him down and silently cursed Athena for leaving them. For getting him into this. The god of thieves was never meant to lead.

*   *   *

“Well?” Cassandra asked as Athena walked the edges of their chamber.

“Well, what?” Athena snapped. “They’ve separated us. Granted, if they had to do it, this is the way I would’ve wanted to be broken up. But Hermes and the others…”

“They have Achilles,” Cassandra said.

“Yes. At least they have that.”

“Look, can you get us out of here or not?” Cassandra flexed her fingers. The heat inside them ebbed with Aphrodite out of sight.

Athena stopped pacing and stared over Cassandra’s left shoulder.

“Don’t need to,” she said. “The doorway’s back.”

Cassandra turned. The doorway was back, leading to a familiar marble hall. But somehow she knew that it didn’t lead back to the others.

“Starting to think it was a bad idea to come here?” she asked.

“No,” Athena replied stubbornly. “There was only ever going to be one way out of here anyway.”

*   *   *

Leading Calypso and the mortals through the halls of Olympus, Hermes had never felt quite so glaringly inadequate. Athena would say a god should never feel inadequate.

“Athena,” he whispered. “Where are you?”

He turned a corner, and the hall changed from white marble to black. Sconces lit the way every few yards with small flames. An ominous hallway. Dark and gold. So ominous that when the growling started behind them, it almost felt appropriate.

“Do you hear that?” Andie asked. She shoved and twisted and tried to see.

“Andie, come up here by me,” Hermes said. He held his hand out.

The wolf struck as Andie moved through the line, clogging any route Hermes might have taken to get to the back before it did. And it was so fast. A flash of mangy gray fur, matted together with blood and pus. It rose onto two legs just as it hit Calypso, to sink its teeth into her shoulder. She screamed as it pulled her down.

The close corridor became a cacophony of shouts and shrieks, growls and the sounds of claws on marble, fangs ripping through skin. Hermes pushed Andie to the side, against the wall. Henry jumped for the gray wolf.

It was an impressive jump. He cleared ten feet with barely any momentum and landed straddling Calypso’s torso. He jammed the spear down, but the beast dodged, and instead of finding a home in its spine, the spear tip sliced deep along its rib cage. Henry pulled the spear free to try again, but the wolf leaped and fled through a door that hadn’t existed a moment before.

“Pain,” Calypso hissed through clenched teeth. Henry knelt to help her up, and Odysseus was by their side in an instant.

“I know,” Henry said. “Is it bad? Hermes, bring the med bag!”

Calypso waved him off and leaned against Odysseus.

“Don’t waste a dressing on me,” she said. “I meant that the wolf was Pain. Revenge for my saving you in the woods.” She put her hand on Henry’s chest. “Thank you.”

Odysseus glared at the blood. “This is bollocks. We can’t keep on strolling through their funhouse. We came to fight.”