Book excerpt: I'm trapped in actual hell. And just about everything here is trying to kill me. Even the god who claims he once loved me has come pretty close to ending my life. But things are about to change. I'm fed up of being Persephone - human underdog in the Hades Trials. I've managed to awaken a little bit of goddess inside me, and now I have power, I'm not afraid to use it. Although I don't actually have a clue how to. Nor do I know what I did to get cast out of Olympus twenty-six years ago, or why strangers are seeking to punish me for it. All I know for sure is that I survived the first round of the Hades Trials, and now I need to survive another. One step at a time I will get back to New York. Olympus is filled with monsters, and ruled by monsters, and I do not fit in. The trouble is, the more I discover about the mysterious King of the Underworld, the less sure I am that he fits in either. If I can survive, I'm a step closer to getting home. But if I spend much more time with Hades, I'm not sure I'll ever be able to leave.