The stairs, carved from dark stone, spiraled downward. Halfway down, Jason paused, sensing something odd, like the air was electrified. Annabeth didn't seem to notice.

  "Hold up a second," he murmured.

  She stopped and gnced back. "Everything okay?"

  "Not sure."

  As he raised the mage light, strange symbols appeared on the walls, etched deeply as if carved by a trembling hand.

  Annabeth traced one with her fingers. "What do they mean?"

  Jason studied the markings. "A warning, I think. It's that older dialect again."

  "Looks a lot like hieroglyphics."

  "It does, doesn't it? That bird symbol—the one next to what looks like a 'G'. It's definitely a warning of some kind."

  "Still can't read it?"

  "Not exactly."

  She leaned closer, then shrugged. "Do we keep going?"

  Jason nodded. "Might as well."

  The stairwell led into a small chamber with an archway dispying the familiar symbol of two overpping circles, one silver and one bck, etched into the keystone.

  They hesitated briefly, then stepped through.

  The next room was enormous. Its ceiling had partly colpsed, making the passage dangerous. Cloaked statues, faceless, lined the walls, their hands reaching out toward the center.

  A circur pit opened in the center of the chamber. Even from the archway, the two could see a rge number of bones scattered around its rim.

  Jason knelt. "Thoughts?"

  Annabeth scanned the room. "Nothing good."

  A faint sound echoed from the pit below, scraping, like cws on stone.

  They exchanged a gnce.

  Jason gestured toward the wall. "Let's not get too close."

  Keeping to the edges, they circled the pit until they reached a doorway half-buried in rubble.

  "I can fit," Jason offered, peering through. "You might need to take off your armor. Pass it to me once I'm through."

  Annabeth nodded.

  "Let me try something first." He closed his eyes and extended his hand. The mage light flickered, then reappeared inside the next room.

  Jason grinned. "Nice."

  Beyond the colpsed doorway y a small chamber. Two stone sbs stood side by side, each bearing a skeleton. Bits of cloth clung to the bones, remnants of ancient wrappings, long decayed.

  Once on the other side, Jason eyed them for a moment, and when they didn't move, he looked around.

  "There's another door," he pointed out, gesturing across the room.

  Annabeth started pushing their packs, armor, and other gear ahead as she climbed through with Jason's help.

  Once across, she quickly dressed, and they pushed forward.

  "Noticed that many of these rooms are very different from one another," Jason said, sliding behind a colpsed wall. "Even the nguage on the walls is different. It's almost as if they were built by two different cultures with different purposes in mind."

  "No, and I really don't care," Annabeth replied tiredly. "I'm gd you find it interesting, but I just want to get the fuck out of here."

  Turning, he gave her a concerned look, then nodded. "Okay."

  Annabeth led the way through another doorway, the mage light bobbing ahead. Beyond y more chambers, more rubble, more dust. It felt like a forgotten corridor.

  She then scanned another room, which was a dead end. "Shit, we're going to have to go back upstairs, aren't we?"

  Jason checked the map. "Maybe, but we're not done. There's got to be something. Look, we've got two more corridors."

  "Fine," she sighed.

  After a short break, the two ducked beneath a low arch, stepping into a partially colpsed chamber.

  Annabeth took a few steps forward, her boots crunching against shattered tiles. "This whole pce is falling apart," she said.

  Jason raised a hand. "Wait. Step back."

  He knelt, brushing away dust and loose stones. "Careful. This whole floor is unstable. Help me with this."

  Grabbing part of the broken sb, they cleared debris together, revealing a natural break in the rock. A narrow shaft descended into darkness.

  "Heard a weird echo," Jason expined before she could ask.

  Annabeth peered over his shoulder. "That's not carved."

  Jason nodded. "Yep, looks natural."

  He dropped a pebble. It cttered, then spshed.

  "Water."

  They then watched as the mage light descended.

  Annabeth bit her lip. "What do you think?"

  "It's dangerous." Jason leaned forward. "Does that look like a ledge to you?"

  "What are you doing?" she asked, watching him rummage through his pack.

  "Making a rope out of my shirts. You can lower me down, and I'll get a better look."

  "I think it's a stupid idea," she muttered, arms crossed.

  "Worst case, you pull me back up," he replied, passing her the end of the makeshift rope.

  "No, worst case, you fall to your death."

  Jason rubbed the back of his head with a grin. "Yeah, right."

  "Fine. Whatever."

  The shaft twisted, then widened. Jason found several spots where Annabeth could climb down with her longer reach.

  "All good," he called up.

  "I still think it's stupid," she called out. "Okay, since you're down there, what do you see?"

  Jason dropped the mage light.

  "A fountain."

  It took several tries, with Annabeth struggling the most, before they reached the bottom safely. Once there, they found themselves in a room with a fountain in the center, carved from the same stone as the passage above.

  Jason washed his arms and face, gulping water greedily. "That was exhausting."

  Annabeth nodded, cupping water in her hands. "It's cold at least."

  He then turned slowly, inspecting the chamber. The walls had faint carvings, scratched in with knives or other tools. Most were simple names, and some were prayers.

  "Let's stop for the night," he offered.

  Both fell asleep hungry. Most of the meat they had gathered was gone, and they would soon be eating the st of their dried food. By this point, neither cared what kind of monster they met next, as long as it was edible.

  Since entering the Necropolis, Jason has experienced many strange dreams. Although he hardly remembered these visions of ancient pces, people, and events the next morning, they had never been erotic. Female moans of pleasure caused him to open his eyes when he realized they were his own.

  Jason then froze.

  Annabeth had shifted again during the night and was snuggling against him. He could feel her firmness grinding into his ass, while a hand slipped up inside his tunic, rolling a nipple between her fingers.

  He didn't need the hard nipples or wetness between his legs to tell him that he was aroused. Nor did it help that part of him wanted to push back and allow her to continue. Instead, he jabbed an elbow backward.

  "Annabeth."

  Jason waited another second before pushing harder. "Annabeth!"

  He felt the hand withdraw as she sat up, "Why did you wake me?"

  "You were groping me," Jason grumbled, pushing his tunic back down.

  "Sorry," Annabeth said, although it didn't sound like she was really. "What time is it?"

  "Late, early, go back to bed," he said, rising and heading toward the fountain.

  "What are you doing?"

  "Going to pee, then wash up. Let's take a longer break. I know we're both still tired."

  Soon, Jason pulled off his sleeping tunic and began to wash himself and his clothes. He was well aware of the eyes watching in the darkness, but too tired to care.

  While Annabeth slept, Jason quietly went through both of their packs. He counted and split the coins, putting equal amounts into two small bags. The torches were lined up side by side as he checked the remaining time on each light stick, gd neither was needed.

  Deciding Annabeth could clean her own armor, he inspected his clothes and repacked them carefully. The enchanted bag still held most of their supplies, but now neither carried everything.

  While preparing a small meal, he set some aside for Annabeth when she woke. After filling the water bottle, Jason turned his attention to the two doors leading out of the room.

  "Leaving?" she called out groggily.

  "Just noticing these doors aren't as rotted as the others we've come across," Jason replied. "I left food for you."

  "Thanks," she muttered, sitting up, stretching, then heading to the far corner of the room.

  After a quick wash, she finished her meal. "So, where to next?"

  &&&&&&

  A couple of days ter, they reached a flight of stairs that ended in a long, narrow tunnel that led into another rge chamber.

  Inside, the air was foul, sickly sweet with the stench of death.

  Jason stopped Annabeth, pulling back the mage light.

  They exchanged a gnce, weapons ready, and moved forward.

  At first, the light revealed only a vast room with tall pilrs stretching toward the ceiling. But something on the floor made them stop.

  Scattered gear: a torn pack, a helmet, shredded cloth, a broken bde.

  Jason stepped beside her, eyeing the debris. "Looks recent."

  Annabeth crouched near a dark stain on the stone. "Yeah."

  The light shifted and illuminated something across the room.

  Two bodies y crumpled near the far wall. One slumped back against a broken pilr, the other not too far off, faced down, a severed arm reaching toward a long bde.

  As the two approached slowly, Jason knelt beside the nearest man, who was in armor. "Nasty wounds,"

  "Looks like they went through a blender," Annabeth grimaced, leaning in.

  Jason pointed to the first corpse. "This is odd."

  The man wore a smooth, shiny metal colr fused to his skin at the base of his neck, and the second body had a matching bracelet.

  Jason examined the colr. "Magical."

  Annabeth reached over and touched the bracelet. It clicked and opened.

  "Weird," she murmured. Before Jason could intervene, she touched the colr. It released with a gentle hiss and fell to the floor.

  Jason sighed, brushing dust from his dress. "Let's check their packs."

  Both had a decent stash of still-edible dry foods, extra clothes, a coin purse, along with the usual gear for exploring the necropolis.

  "We could have used this rope earlier," Annabeth said as she pulled it off one of the bodies.

  Jason looked thoughtful, finding a leather journal. "This is helpful. Some maps and notes. Oh, listen to this."

  Daduhepa returned, foolish woman. She will never settle her family's debt to the Master.

  Lelwani be praised, we found a hidden passage.

  Luke heard something. We're going in anyway. We can't return empty-handed.

  Annabeth stood up, looking around. "That was a mistake, apparently."

  Jason gnced down at the bodies and nodded.

  Suddenly, a faint sound echoed in the hallway beyond.

  Annabeth stepped forward, drawing her weapon. "We've got company."

  Jason raised the mage light, illuminating the entire chamber.

  From the shadows, a figure crawled forward on all fours. Its limbs were too long, ending with bck nails. Its spine arched unnaturally, and its skin was mottled, stretched thin, almost translucent over the bones. A cracked mask, once ceremonial, now fused to flesh, covered half of its face.

  It began to circle them, eyes glowing faintly.

  Annabeth stepped back, bde raised. "Jason."

  Then it lunged.