Riordan Wiki:Featured Articles/The House of Hades

The House of Hades is the fourth book in The Heroes of Olympus series. It was released on October 8th, 2013. The book takes place where The Mark of Athena left off.

he Argo II has been relentlessly attacked for two days by rock gods called numina montanum in Latin (or ourae in Greek). Leo Valdez defends the ship by firing celestial bronze canons at them. Once his attacks fail, they fly away from the Apennine Mountains. Leo wants to wake Frank Zhang, Piper McLean, and Jason up, but Hazel vetoes his idea because barely any of them have been able to sleep due to the attacks. Hazel blames the attacks on the fact that earth spirits do not like children of Hades/Pluto, as they are children of the Underworld. The trio throw around suggestions on how to get over the mountains. Hazel prays to her dad to give her a sign of help and in the distance she spots Arion. Hazel then tells Leo to get close enough to the ground where she can talk to Arion.

She meets Hecate, the goddess of magic. Hecate tells her that her mother, Marie Levesque was gifted in magic. She tells Hazel that she will also learn sorcery, or the ability to manipulate the Mist, in order to save Percy and Annabeth. Hecate shows Hazel 3 doorways, telling her to choose her path. The western doorway shows Roman and Greek demigods fighting one another on a hillside under a pine tree. Hazel was riding Arion trying to stop the fight. The eastern doorway shows the Argo II above the Apennines, but the ship is badly damaged. The northern doorway shows Leo, Frank and herself severely injured. Percy and Annabeth lay unmoving. Hecate then tells her to choose one of these doorway or go backward. Hazel picks the middle doorway, but tells Hecate that she is not choosing any of her choices, and that she will save Percy and Annabeth, stop Gaea and the Giants, and prevent the Greek-Roman war at the same time, with the others. She then returns to the Argo with Arion.

Meanwhile, Annabeth and Percy are still falling into Tartarus. Annabeth tells Percy, as her supposed last words, "I love you". Annabeth then sees the bottom and a river flowing below, so she tells Percy to try and control the water from it to survive. They succeed in cushioning their fall, but the river is Cocytus, the River of Lamentation. The pair feel all of the sorrow and misery of bitter souls. The spirits from the river urge them to succumb, but Annabeth tells Percy to fight back, telling him of their dream future in New Rome. They barely survive, and collapse onto the shore.

The two then realize that the shore is made out of glass shards, and the air of poison. Percy and Annabeth are badly intoxicated. Annabeth remembers that the River of Fire in Tartarus has healing properties. They find the river, and drink from it, temporarily healing themselves. Suddenly, Arachne appears and tries to attack, but Percy kills her with Riptide.

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