you that she's injured.' A loud snarl cut across her words, and all the hairs on my skin stood on end.
'I'll win because I deserve to, not because she dies,' I said quietly, vines snaking from my palms. 'Where's Cerberus?' I asked again, before she could say anything else on the subject.
'He doesn't normally guard the inside of the gates,' she said. 'Persy, if you get bitten by him, you're not going to have long to fix it. His power over fear is as strong as Hades' is, and that almost killed you once.'
'OK,' I nodded. 'I won't let him bite me.' My stomach clenched in anxiety, and I flexed my fingers, my vines turning black. 'I'm ready.'
As if on cue, a creature melted through the iron gates, and I felt my knees go weak.
He was a combination of the other two hounds, in the worst possible way. Thirty feet tall, his dark body was covered in dancing flames. At his shoulders his neck split into three, and each broad, snarling head had angular eyes that looked like blood-red gemstones, and dark red liquid dripped from lethal fangs. Terror gripped my chest as I stared at the beast, fear spreading through my body all the way to my bones. Cerberus' ears pricked up, and all three heads barked. The sound rocked through me, and I clapped my hands over my ears as dread coursed through my veins. Fire, flesh, blood... I was drowning.
'Persy!' Hecate caught me as my legs buckled.
I snapped my magical shield up, and for a moment it did nothing. But then light broke through the dark spots in my eyes, the desire to run and run and run fading. My legs steadied, and Hades' face filled my mind, fierce and passionate. I was here for a reason, I couldn't run.
I had to win.
'Where's the gem?' I said, breathing hard. Morpheus pointed, and my insides clenched again. Glinting in the orange light, on a silver chain around Cerberus's middle head, were two gems the size of my fist. One green, and one red. I gaped, looking between Hecate and Morpheus.
'How the hell am I supposed to get onto his neck? He's on fucking fire!' They both stared back at me, Hecate's eyes filled with apology.
'We can't help you, Persy,' she said eventually.
'But Minthe has a plan, so you'd better come up with something fast,' said Morpheus, and I spun to see the other chariot powering toward the giant dog.
There was no way I could land on top of him, I'd be burned instantly, I thought, trying to play out scenarios as fast as I could in my head. But from underneath him, perhaps I could use my vines to reach the silver chain collar.
'Take me down,' I asked Morpheus, and he nodded, the chariot immediately dropping to the rock. I wasted no time, sprinting toward Cerberus. He snarled as I approached, then his right head moved up sharply, snapping at Minthe's chariot. Taking advantage of the distraction, I threw myself to the ground and slid. One huge flaming head came down, fangs terrifying as they chomped at me, but I made it underneath his massive chest before he could reach me. He barked again, the sound so loud I thought my head might explode. I wriggled around on my back, looking up at the underside of his body as his clawed paws stamped around me. The flames didn't extend under his chest, and I saw a pendant on a chain that was stretched over his barrel shaped ribs, bouncing against his black fur. Squinting, I made out the image of a skull, with a rose wrapped around it. Without thinking, I leaped into a crouch and jumped for the pendant. The second my hand closed around it, Cerberus howled.
It was so much worse than his bark. The sound instilled a terror that I had simply never felt in my life, waves of fear beating against my shield, impulses to run and hide and cry pulsing through my mind as I fought them.
After what seemed like an age, the howling mercifully stopped. Gasping, I inched forward, trying to get under his heads to see the collar, and I realized with a start that he was no longer on fire.
The pendant... Had it somehow stopped the fire? Mind racing, I changed course, running instead for his tail. If he wasn't on fire, I could climb up his back.
But so could Minthe.
As I emerged from underneath him, I twisted, launching my