Percy Jackson's Greek Gods by Rick Riordan, John Rocco Page A

reason, the roses didn’t even have thorns. Their intoxicating smell made Persephone giddy. She traipsed a little farther away and spotted a whole field of violets.
    “Oh, pretty!”
    She wandered through the violets, picking the best ones and dropping the roses, because they now seemed pale in comparison.
    Well, you can probably see where this is going, but Persephone was clueless. She didn’t realize Zeus was causing these flowers to grow—making each batch more colorful and fragrant than the last, leading Persephone farther and farther away from her chaperones.
    So how could Zeus, a sky god, make flowers grow? Dunno. Best guess: he still had some pull with Gaea the Earth Mother, even though she was asleep. I’m thinking Zeus could occasionally summon her power to make things happen on the earth—maybe not huge things, like creating mountains. But making flowers grow? Not a big deal.
    Persephone wandered from flower patch to flower patch, murmuring, “Ooh, pretty! Ooh, pretty!” as she picked her favorites.
    Before she realized it, she was miles away from her sleeping nymph friends. She meandered into a secluded valley filled with hyacinths.
    She was reaching down to pick a beautiful red one when the ground rumbled. A chasm opened at her feet, and four black horses pulling a massive chariot thundered into the sunlight. The driver was dressed in dark flowing robes. He wore iron gloves, with a huge sword at his side and a whip in his hand. His face was covered with an elaborate bronze helmet engraved with images of death and torture.



In retrospect, Hades wondered if it was such a good idea to wear his helmet of terror on a first date, but by then it was too late.
    Persephone screamed and fell backward into the grass.
    She should have run, but she was in shock. She couldn’t even fathom what was happening. Everything had always revolved around her, gone her way. She couldn’t be in danger. But she was pretty sure she hadn’t wished for a demonic-looking guy in a giant black chariot to come and trample her hyacinths.
    Truth be told, she’d occasionally had daydreams about some handsome young man sweeping her off her feet. She and the nymphs had spent a lot of time giggling about that.
    But this was not what she’d envisioned.
    Hades took off his helm. His complexion was even paler than usual. He had a bad case of helmet-hair. He was sweating and nervous and blinking like he had something in his eyes.
    “I am Hades,” he said in a squeaky voice. “I love you.”
    Persephone screamed again, much louder.
    Not knowing what else to do, Hades grabbed her arm, pulled her into the chariot, and spurred his horses. His dark ride disappeared into the earth. The chasm closed up behind him.
    The only person who actually saw the kidnapping was the Titan Helios, way up in his chick-magnet sun chariot, because he had a great view and could see pretty much everything. But do you think he got on the phone to Olympus to report a kidnapping?
    Nope. First, they didn’t have phones. Second, Helios didn’t like to get involved with godly dramas. He was a Titan, after all. He figured he was lucky just to have a job and not get thrown into Tartarus. Also, this kidnapping wasn’t the craziest thing he’d seen while crossing the sky every day. Those gods were always doing wild things. Man, the stories he could tell. Someday he should write a book.
    So Helios continued on his way.
    As for the nymphs who were supposed to be watching Persephone, they slept right through the abduction. The only person who heard Persephone screaming was the most unlikely person you could imagine.
    In a cave on a nearby mountainside, a Titan named Hecate was minding her own business. Hecate was into magic and spooky nighttime crossroads and ghosts. She was sort of the first super-fan of Halloween. Normally she only left her cave after dark, so that day she was sitting inside reading spell books or whatever when she heard a girl screaming.
    Hecate may have