I start to back out away from the alcove, but the giant’s eyes blink open. I expect him to yell for help or make a grab for me. But when his gaze doesn’t find me—doesn’t even look for me—I notice that he has no irises. No pupils.

He’s blind.

“Who seeks to pass?” the blind giant asks, his deep voice echoing in the small alcove.

I glance back over my shoulder. Xander shrugs and gives me a helpless look.

No turning back now.

“Nicole Matios,” I say, and mentally cross my fingers.

“Speak the password, Nicole Matios,” the giant says.

“Password?” I echo.

Crap. I don’t know the password. Nothing ever said anything about a stupid password. I knew things were going too smoothly.

“I, um—” I glance back at Xander, who shrugs and shakes his head. He’s just as clueless as I am.

“I forgot,” I say. “Sorry.”

“Then you must solve the riddle,” the giant says. “None but my master and his bride can know the answer.”

Great. How on earth—or in Hades—am I supposed to solve a riddle that only Hades himself and dingbat Persephone could know the answer to? It’s not like I have any other options, though. The ruby pomegranate seeds I need are in the hall somewhere behind this guard. I have to try.

“Okay,” I say. “Shoot.”

“Name the power that binds Queen Persephone to the underworld.”

“Name the power?” I echo. “Um, give us a sec.”

I grab Xander by the sleeve and pull him a few feet away from the alcove, letting the curtain fall back into place to give us some privacy for discussion.

“What does he mean?” I ask. “The power that binds her? What keeps her in Hades?”

Xander jams his hands into his jeans pockets. “I don’t know. It could mean the pomegranate seeds,” he suggests. “She has to stay here nine months a year because she ate them.”

“That seems too simple.” And again, when it comes to the gods nothing is simple. “It could be Olympic decree. The gods decided the terms of her sentence.”

“Or the Fates.” Xander’s face lights up with inspiration. “Supposedly, it was the Fates who decided that anyone who ate something while in Hades could never leave.”

Pomegranate seeds. The Olympians. The Fates?

They all seem possible.

But they all seem . . . easy. Nothing about those choices is a secret. They’re not things only Hades and Persephone would know. Those are details from the common myths.

“It has to be something more obscure,” I insist.

I start pacing.

How am I going to figure this out? I’ve come this far, collected two of the three objects. I can’t fail now. I won’t give up.