The Games Gods Play

Lyra wakes in her room in Hades’s home, hooked to medical equipment as Hades watches over her. They discuss who else she might ally herself with for the next Labors, but her injury pains her again. Asclepius orders she rest another day. The scars on her arm will remain despite his treatment. When Asclepius leaves, Lyra asks to see Hades’s wound—a cut from the Dagger of Orion—by the Daemones as punishment for her use of the pomegranate seeds. Lyra feels guilt, which Hades feels is unwarranted given how he chose her as his champion. He shows concern for her, which Lyra wonders at given her curse. On the television, a reporter introduces Lyra’s parents.

Lyra watches as the man meant to be her father speaks of his concern for her. She doesn’t recognize him or her alleged mother, especially since “Lyra” became her name only after she joined the Order of Thieves. Her alleged father spins a tale about how Lyra volunteered to pay off their debts. In reality, she had been only three years old when she came to the Order. Fury rises in Lyra as they lie about her. Hades offers to smite them for making her upset, but she declines. She tells him the truth of her past and how she’d already paid off their debt. The only reason she’s remained with the Order is because she has nowhere to go. She and Hades discuss the meaning of family, and Hades admits that Cerberus, Charon, and Persephone were more of a family to him than his own brothers.

Hades confirms it hurts to speak of Persephone, but he was never in love with her. Rather, he loved her like a sister or daughter. Lyra asks if she is the reason for his participation in the Crucible, and Hades answers cryptically about the added power he will gain when he is King of the Gods. Lyra admits that she trusts him and sees him as someone with a soft heart who guards his real self from the world. He kisses her, and Aphrodite walks in on them. She warns them not to show their affection for one another to the other gods and informs them that her Labor will begin in an hour.

While in a bed, Lyra and the other champions listen as Aphrodite explains her Labor: With the help of the gods Hypnos and Morpheus, the champions will be put to sleep. In their dreams, they must find the person they love the most, tell them they love them, and bring them back to Olympus before sundown. If they fail, they will die; if they succeed, that person will help them in the next Labor as their partner. Lyra worries who will appear in her dreams, and she fleetingly thinks of Hades. As she sleeps, she meets Morpheus, who brings her to a pegasus she can use to find her loved one. Lyra deduces the person waiting for her is probably Boone, and with the pegasus, she goes to find him in Muir Woods, where he has a cabin. With the help of her fox tattoo, she finds the cabin—but it’s guarded by two large spiders.

Her fox points to her tarantula tattoo. Lyra summons it, and the tarantula negotiates with the spiders. They allow her to pass. She finds Boone and wakes him, as she wonders whether she really loves Boone. Awkwardly, Lyra explains the situation and manages to tell him she loves him. Boone responds that he doesn’t feel the same, which Lyra accepts, but neither of them wakes up from the dream after her confession as they are meant to. The spiders begin to attack the cabin, and Lyra tries again, telling him the truth about her crush and what he’s meant to her. Boone disappears, and Lyra thinks she’s killed him.

Morpheus orders Lyra to open her eyes and brings her back to her body. When she wakes, she finds Boone alive. They return to Olympus with the pegasus, and during the trip, she tells him everything that’s happened to her so far. When they arrive, Artemis is crying while clutching her champion, Dae, as he’s caught in a nightmare. Zai tells her that Amir’s blessing from Hera is revenge against anyone who hurts or hinders him. Since Dae is the reason Amir lost his Strength flag in Artemis’s Labor, the blessing has trapped him in his body, and he cannot save his loved one. He can only watch as his grandmother dies. When the sun sets, Dae wakes up and sobs.

When they return to Hades’s house, he and Boone face off, but as they have a party to attend, Hades teleports them to Zeus’s house. Zeus makes them all introduce their loved ones, which Hades mocks. Zeus asks Lyra to control him, and she refutes the idea that she has any sway over Hades. As the champions introduce their person, Lyra finds Dex more human when he presents his nephew, who explains how Dex takes care of him since his mother is sick. Lyra notices that Hades pays little attention to her, focusing instead on Neve’s sister Nora. Lyra stumbles in her introduction of Boone, but Athena begins to prod her as she tries to imply she has multiple relationships, one with Boone and one with Hades. Boone regales them with stories about Lyra and how she devised the Order’s whistling communication system when she was six.

That night, Boone returns after exploring Olympus and stealing Dex’s Helm of Darkness. He and Lyra argue over her not using her thieving skills. When Boone sounds like he cares about her, she reveals her curse to him. Boone admits that he’s always wanted to work with her. He asks to be her friend, which she accepts. Lyra convinces Boone to return the helm—but only after they use it. He kisses her as thanks for loving him. He asks her about the rumors of her relationship with Hades and advises her against pursuing anything with him.

Lyra and Boone walk around Olympus while using the Helm of Darkness. They come to Hephaestus’s house and stumble on a gods meeting. The gods berate Hades for entering the Crucible, and they quickly speak of Lyra and the chaos she creates. He dismisses their questions and leaves. As he exits, he looks directly at Lyra, and she knows they’ve been discovered.

They creep back into Hades’s house, and Lyra tells Boone to return the Helm before Hades notices. But Hades is already in the room with them. Boone tries to take the blame and protect Lyra, but she states with certainty that Hades would never hurt her. When Boone insists on staying, Hades uses his shadows to whip Boone away from Lyra. Though Boone is unharmed, Hades separates them with a wall of fire and confronts her for her recklessness. They argue, and Lyra reveals she took the risk to protect him from any future punishments. Touched, Hades draws back but somehow notices that Boone has kissed Lyra.

Hades kisses Lyra, exhibiting a possessiveness over her. She reminds him that she is only temporarily his. When he kisses her again, she sees how he makes a show of it for Boone, and she pushes him away. Hades pulls away and orders Boone never to touch her again and to return the Helm. Boone, however, blames Hades for everything since he made Lyra his champion. Hades tells Boone to look after Lyra in the next Labor, which Lyra objects to since she can take care of herself. Hades admits that she terrifies him.

Hades disappears for three days while Trinica and Amir officially join Lyra’s alliance. They gather at Hephaestus’s home for his Labor, and he explains they must go to a tower as staggered teams and face off against Hephaestus’s automatons within four hours. Hephaestus gives them the option of confronting his tower with their partner or leaving them behind. Lyra wants to leave Boone behind, but he refuses.

Boone and Lyra argue, but he reminds her that he’s always wanted to work with her. She eventually concedes, while the other champions decide whether or not to bring their partners. Hephaestus calls them up, and Lyra tries one last time to dissuade Boone. He is adamant. As they pass the gate, it reads, “Be Bold. Be Bold. But Not Too Bold” (358). Boone and Lyra step inside the tower.

Inside, Lyra and Boone face off against an automaton that looks like a three-year-old child. It attacks them with a butcher knife. Together, Lyra and Boone overcome the automaton with wire twine. On the next floor, they play and win at a game of chess against an automaton owl. Boone reminds Lyra to stop humming or it will get her killed. Instead of going to the third floor, however, Boone proposes to scale the tower’s walls instead of doing each level. Eventually, she agrees. Boone reminds her to stop humming as they scale the wall. Just as Lyra is looking for a different handhold, an automaton lunges for her through a window opening, and Boone blocks the attack. He loses his hold on the wall, however, and falls on spikes, impaling his body. Lyra destroys the automaton and hurries to climb the tower for help. Hades gathers her before she can look for Boone again and teleports her to the Underworld. She realizes Boone is truly dead.

Lyra despairs at Boone’s death as she remembers moments she shared with him. As Hades comforts her, she asks him if he can find Boone a good place in Elysium. When she asks to see him, however, Hades declines, as it might confuse Boone’s soul. He tells her that if she wins the Crucible, he could save Boone.

Hades explains that the King or Queen of the Gods has the power to create new gods and offers to make Boone a god should Lyra win the Crucible. Otherwise, he would need to transfer all of his godly power and title to a mortal to save them. Lyra promises to win for Boone, but as she goes to hug Hades, she realizes she’s been heavily wounded in her abdomen from the automatons. Hades calls for Charon to rally every doctor from the Underworld.

Lyra relives the nightmare of seeing Boone fall over and over again. Feverish, she’s incoherent as Hades tries to keep her alive. When she wakes from her nightmare, Boone’s soul is there.

Boone tells Lyra not to blame herself for his death and to fight for her own life instead of his. They make a promise to see each other in 80 years. Boone leaves, and Hades admits that he brought him in hopes that Lyra would sleep and heal. She doesn’t have nightmares any longer, but she only wakes temporarily to witness Hades in various forms of disarray.

When she next wakes up, Lyra finds that she’s healing as a wave of alien sensations enter her body. She realizes that, somehow, she’s feeling Hades’s emotions.

Hades explains to Lyra that she isn’t getting better, and he gave her some of his blood so that he can give her water from the Styx. The water is typically a poison to mortals, but he believes his blood will protect her from fatal damage. Before dousing the water on her wounds, he promises to take care of her if she dies. The pain from the water is too much, and Lyra loses consciousness.

When Lyra wakes, Charon is reading a book beside her. They joke about her being like Snow White or Sleeping Beauty. Charon admits that he’s never seen Hades so distraught. They discuss the prospect of having a life with him, and Charon asks how much she knows about Persephone. Hades comes in with Cerberus. Lyra finds that she can still feel Hades’s emotions.

Hades tells Lyra he had to judge souls in the Stygian Marshes while she rested, and she sympathizes with his burden. He tells her how much she’s missed: Samuel won in Hephaestus’s Labor; Neve died in Demeter’s Labor; Rima and Zai won Hera’s Labor; and Diego won Ares’s Labor, while Samuel was left severely injured. As it stands, Diego is in the lead with three wins. Though she could only tie Diego, Lyra insists on participating in the final two Labors.

Lyra falls in love with Hades’s home in the Underworld while she waits for all the champions she’s invited over. She reflects on the careful distance between her and Hades following Boone’s death. Lyra’s allies arrive first, and she tells them of her gambit.

When the others arrive, they tell Lyra how Neve died, and Samuel lost his hand in Ares’s Labor. When Dex doubts her intentions, she showcases her own wounds and tells them she has a proposal for them.

After her conversation with the other champions, Lyra ponders her proposal as Hades joins her. Should Hades be made king of the gods, she offered, he would give those who perished a choice: to be given a home in Elysium or be brought back from the Underworld. While they wait for their answer, Hades shows her Elysium, with each part made perfect for one soul. Lyra is awed and asks Hades if he can see what his perfect place would be, but he only gives her a vague answer about seeing many things. He tells her that souls in Elysium can interact if they have similar ideas of paradise. They return to a grotto, and they talk about Boone and whether he would want to return to the living. Hades admits to having already asked Boone for Lyra’s sake, and she feels affection for him.

Lyra kisses Hades and disrobes before she enters the pool of water in the grotto. She asks Hades to join her and addresses their sexual tension. She dives, and when she emerges, Hades is gone. She despairs for a moment, but he returns quickly and warns her that there are limits to what their relationship can be.

Hades tells her he can’t give her a future or care for her in the ways of mortals. After Lyra confirms that Hades wants her for who she is, despite her curse and her role as his champion, they have sex.

Lyra and Hades continue to have sex.