The gods love to play with us mere mortals. And every hundred years we let them... I have never been favored by the gods. Far from it , thanks to Zeus. Living as a cursed office clerk for the Order of Thieves , I just kept my head down and hope the the capricious beings who rule from Olympus won't notice me. Not in easy feat, given San Francisco is Zeus patron city, but I make do. I survive. Until the night I tangle with a different god. The worst god. Hades. For the first time ever, the ruthless, mercurial King of the Underworld has entered the Crucible-the deadly contest the gods hold to dertemine a ruler to sit on the throne of Olympus. But instead of fighting their own battles, the gods name mortals to complete in their stead. So why in the Underworld did Hades chose me- a sarcastic nobody with a curse on her shoulders- as his champion?