Read Online The House of Hades (Heroes of Olympus Book 4) by Rick Riordan - Free Book Online

half-brother, Nico di Angelo. Dang, that kid gave Leo the freaky-deakies. He sat back in his leather aviator jacket, his black T-shirt and jeans, that wicked silver skull ring on his finger and the Stygian sword at his side. His tufts of black hair stuck up in curls like baby bat wings. His eyes were sad and kind of empty, as if he’d stared into the depths of Tartarus – which he had.
    The only absent demigod was Piper, who was taking her turn at the helm with Coach Hedge, their satyr chaperone.
    Leo wished Piper were here. She had a way of calming things down with that Aphrodite charm of hers. After his dreams last night, Leo could use some calm.
    On the other hand, it was probably good she was above deck chaperoning their chaperone. Now that they were in the ancient lands, they had to be constantly on guard. Leo was nervous about letting Coach Hedge fly solo. The satyr was a little trigger-happy, and the helm had plenty of bright, dangerous buttons that could cause the picturesque Italian villages below them to go BOOM!
    Leo had zoned out so totally he didn’t realize Jason was still talking.
    ‘– the House of Hades,’ he was saying. ‘Nico?’
    Nico sat forward. ‘I communed with the dead last night.’
    He just tossed that line out there, like he was saying he got a text from a buddy.
    ‘I was able to learn more about what we’ll face,’ Nico continued. ‘In ancient times, the House of Hades was a majorsite for Greek pilgrims. They would come to speak with the dead and honour their ancestors.’
    Leo frowned. ‘Sounds like Día de los Muertos. My Aunt Rosa took that stuff seriously.’
    He remembered being dragged by her to the local cemetery in Houston, where they’d clean up their relatives’ gravesites and put out offerings of lemonade, cookies and fresh marigolds. Aunt Rosa would force Leo to stay for a picnic, as if hanging out with dead people were good for his appetite.
    Frank grunted. ‘Chinese have that, too – ancestor worship, sweeping the graves in the springtime.’ He glanced at Leo. ‘Your Aunt Rosa would’ve got along with my grandmother.’
    Leo had a terrifying image of his Aunt Rosa and some old Chinese woman in wrestlers’ outfits, whaling on each other with spiked clubs.
    ‘Yeah,’ Leo said. ‘I’m sure they would’ve been best buds.’
    Nico cleared his throat. ‘A lot of cultures have seasonal traditions to honour the dead, but the House of Hades was open year round. Pilgrims could actually
speak
to the ghosts. In Greek, the place was called the Necromanteion , the Oracle of Death. You’d work your way through different levels of tunnels, leaving offerings and drinking special potions –’
    ‘Special potions,’ Leo muttered. ‘Yum.’
    Jason flashed him a look like,
Dude, enough.
‘Nico, go on.’
    ‘The pilgrims believed that each level of the temple brought you closer to the Underworld, until the dead would appear before you. If they were pleased with your offerings,they would answer your questions, maybe even tell you the future.’
    Frank tapped his mug of hot chocolate. ‘And if the spirits
weren’t
pleased?’
    ‘Some pilgrims found nothing,’ Nico said. ‘Some went insane or died after leaving the temple. Others lost their way in the tunnels and were never seen again.’
    ‘The point is,’ Jason said quickly, ‘Nico found some information that might help us.’
    ‘Yeah.’ Nico didn’t sound very enthusiastic. ‘The ghost I spoke to last night … he was a former priest of Hecate. He confirmed what the goddess told Hazel yesterday at the crossroads. In the first war with the giants, Hecate fought for the gods. She slew one of the giants – one who’d been designed as the
anti
-Hecate. A guy named Clytius.’
    ‘Dark dude,’ Leo guessed. ‘Wrapped in shadows.’
    Hazel turned towards him, her gold eyes narrowing. ‘Leo, how did you know that?’
    ‘Kind of had a dream.’
    No one looked surprised. Most demigods had vivid nightmares about