down, holding his ears while Nico followed him, waving his arms.

 

"You have to!" Nico insisted.

 

Demeter and Persephone sat behind them at the breakfast table. Both of the

goddesses looked bored.

 

Demeter poured shredded wheat into four huge bowls. Persephone was magically

changing the flower arrangement on the table, turning the blossoms from red to

yellow to polka-dotted.

 

"I don't have to do anything!" Hades s eyes blazed. "I'm a god!"

 

"Father," Nico said, "if Olympus falls, your own palace's safety doesn't matter.

You'll fade too."

 

"I am not an Olympian!" he growled. "My family has made that quite clear."

 

"You are," Nico said. "Whether you like it or not."

 

"You saw what they did to your mother," Hades said. "Zeus killed her. And you

would have me help them? They deserve what they get!"

 

Persephone sighed. She walked her fingers across the table, absently turning the

silverware into roses. "Could we please not talk about that woman?"