The Games Gods Play

Lyra wakes with muddled feelings and Hades gone. She finds Charon and Cerberus in the kitchen for breakfast. When Hades arrives, he is cold and impassive. Rima arrives with the champions’ answer before the next Labor. She tells Lyra they unanimously decline her proposal because her blessing from Apollo is the gift of prophecy, and she’s seen a future wherein Hades, as King of the Gods, burns the whole world, and no one can stop him.

Athena greets the champions in a colosseum where they will need to face a maze. To shake their morale, she creates an illusion where the heads of Neve, Isabel, Dae’s grandmother, and Boone sit on spikes. Lyra calls Athena a monster multiple times, while Dex seems off and adamant about wanting Lyra dead. Athena fills the maze with overgrown insects and tells them the first champion to conquer the maze will win her Labor.

With a snap of Athena’s fingers, the champions are transported in the maze. Lyra runs the maze and is soon caught in a spider’s web. She untangles herself, and as she’s running, summons her tarantula, fox, and panther to help her.