The_Sun_and_the_Star_-_Rick_Riordan
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About the Authors
Rick Riordan (he/him), dubbed ‘storyteller of the gods’ by Publishers
Weekly, is the author of five #1 New York Times best-selling middle grade
series with millions of copies sold throughout the world, including Percy
Jackson and the Olympians, soon to be a live-action series on Disney+. His
latest novel is Daughter of the Deep, a modern take on Jules Verne’s 20,000
Leagues Under the Sea. Rick is also the publisher of an imprint at Disney-
Hyperion, Rick Riordan Presents, dedicated to finding other authors of
highly entertaining fiction based on world cultures and mythologies. He
lives in Boston, Massachusetts with his wife and two sons. Follow him on
Twitter at @RickRiordan.
Mark Oshiro (Author)
Mark Oshiro (they/them) is the author of the young adult books Anger Is a
Gift, winner of the 2019 Schneider Family Book Award, and Each of Us A
Desert, an NPR Best Book of 2020. Their middle grade books include The
Insiders, a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year; and You Only Live
Once, David Bravo. Mark also contributed a short story to the Star Wars
anthology Empire Strikes Back: From a Certain Point of View. Mark is
based in Atlanta, Georgia and can be found on Twitter @MarkDoesStuff.
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Contents
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
CHAPTER 27
CHAPTER 28
CHAPTER 29
CHAPTER 30
CHAPTER 31
CHAPTER 32
CHAPTER 33
CHAPTER 34
CHAPTER 35
CHAPTER 36
CHAPTER 37
CHAPTER 38
CHAPTER 39
CHAPTER 40
CHAPTER 41
CHAPTER 42
CHAPTER 43
CHAPTER 44
CHAPTER 45
CHAPTER 46
CHAPTER 47
CHAPTER 48
CHAPTER 49
CHAPTER 50
CHAPTER 51
GLOSSARY
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To all the Nicos, Wills, Pipers and everyone in
between: this is for you.
May you shine as bright as the sun and the stars.
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‘Nico di Angelo, why don’t you tell me a story?’
Nico bristled at that. A story? Any old story? That seemed too easy after
everything they’d been through.
After all the suffering.
He looked to Will briefly, and his boyfriend arched an eyebrow. He
looked tired. Too tired. And his bandages …
Nico’s stomach rolled. The gauze strips were soaked through with blood
again.
He turned back to Gorgyra. ‘A story about what?’ he asked.
The nymph examined Nico’s face, then Will’s. Was she going to pull soul
threads out of them again?
Nico felt something brush his knuckles. He glanced down and saw that
Will was trying to hold his hand. He opened his fingers and let Will slip his
in between.
Nico’s heart sank. Will’s grip was very weak.
Nico had to do this. He had to finish what they had started.
The whispers called out to him.
And then Gorgyra did, too.
‘Tell me about the two of you,’ she said.
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Nico faced the worst decision of his life, and he was certain he was
going to mess it up.
‘I can’t do this,’ he said to Will Solace, the stunningly beautiful
son of Apollo, who stood across from him. But it was Austin Lake – one of
Will’s half-siblings – Nico chose to focus on. He was pacing behind Will,
which only made Nico more nervous.
‘Stop moving, Austin,’ said Nico. ‘I can’t concentrate.’
‘Sorry, dude,’ said Austin. ‘This is just so stressful.’
‘You gotta choose,’ Will said to Nico. ‘Those are the rules.’
Nico frowned. ‘I’m the son of Hades. I don’t live by most rules.’
‘But you did agree to these,’ said Kayla Knowles, another child of
Apollo. She twirled a cherry lollipop in her mouth. ‘Are you a demigod
without honour, Nico di Angelo?’
Austin kept pacing. ‘To be fair, I don’t think this task requires any actual
honour.’
‘Quiet!’ said Nico, running his hands through his hair. What if he made
the wrong choice? Would Will be disappointed in him?
But studying Will’s face, Nico saw only anticipation. The good kind. Will
was ready for whatever Nico would say, and no matter how this ended, Will
would still think just as highly of him.
What did I ever do to deserve him? Nico wondered. He asked himself
that question a lot.
‘Okay, I’ve made my decision,’ said Nico.
‘I might explode,’ said Austin.
‘The world might end,’ said Kayla, now holding the lollipop at her side,
her eyes bright with anxiety. ‘Like, actually end this time.’
‘So,’ said Nico, ‘if I had to choose …’
‘Yes?’ prompted Will. ‘You would choose …?’
Nico took a deep breath.
‘Darth Vader.’
Will and Kayla groaned, but Austin looked like Nico had just given him a
Ferrari as a birthday present.
‘Dude!’ Austin screamed. ‘That is the best answer!’
‘It is the worst answer!’ said Kayla. ‘Why would you choose Vader when
Kylo Ren is right there?’
‘I was hoping for a deep cut,’ Will mused. ‘Maybe someone like General
Grievous or Dryden Vos.’
‘Hold on,’ said Nico. ‘I just finished watching all those movies yesterday.
I can barely remember what happened in the prequels at this point.’ He
paused. ‘Were those all actual characters in Star Wars, or are you joking?’
‘Don’t distract from your truth, Nico,’ said Kayla. ‘Darth Vader? You’d
go on a date with Darth Vader?’ She crunched on her lollipop. ‘I’ve lost all
joy, Nico. All of it.’
‘Welcome to my world,’ Nico joked. He caught Will grimacing – a brief
flicker of one, but he still caught it.
‘This is a safe space,’ said Austin. ‘No judgement allowed for our
answers, remember?’
‘I take it back,’ said Kayla. ‘It’s an all-judgement space.’
‘You’re very quiet, Will,’ said Nico. ‘Especially as the number one Star
Wars fan in the group.’
‘I’m considering all the reasons why you’d give that answer,’ he said.
‘You might be onto something.’
‘He’s powerful,’ said Nico.
‘And decisive,’ added Will. ‘He’d always know exactly where to go for
your date. No arguing about that.’
‘Does he take off his helmet to eat?’ said Kayla.
Nico laid his hand over his heart. ‘Imagine Darth Vader removing his
helmet over dinner and then staring longingly into your eyes over the table.
Now that is romance.’
Will laughed hard, then flashed that brilliant smile of his.
Why, oh why, did it feel like such a victory to make Will laugh? For a
long time, Nico had assumed he himself did not have a heart. He was the
son of Hades, after all. Love didn’t find people like him. But then came …
Will. Will, who could melt Nico’s iciness with a smile. Anyone could have
guessed which god was Will’s father – he radiated energy and light.
Sometimes literally, as they had learned in the troglodytes’ caverns earlier
that year. Will was Apollo’s son, through and through.
Maybe that whole saying about opposites attracting was true, because
Nico didn’t know a single person who was more his opposite. Despite that,
they were coming up on a year. A year together. Nico had an actual
boyfriend.
He still wasn’t sure he believed it was real.
The four demigods continued their walk through Camp Half-Blood.
There was no fire burning in the amphitheatre. Maybe, since it was starting
to cool down on Long Island, Nico and Will would light one tonight. No
campers were rushing off to the armoury or the forge; no one was visiting
the Cave of the Oracle. The cabins were empty (aside from Hades’s and
Apollo’s), and that was the clearest sign summer was over.
Nico didn’t want to admit it out loud, but he was going to miss … well,
pretty much all the campers, even though it was at times exhausting to be
one of their counsellors. He especially didn’t want to say goodbye to Kayla
and Austin.
As they passed through the strawberry fields, Nico sensed Kayla’s and
Austin’s tension growing. They’d had to make a difficult decision about
their travel arrangements earlier that day, and as the four of them climbed
Half-Blood Hill, Kayla and Austin slowed.
‘I’m thinking that maybe we should have chosen differently,’ said Kayla.
‘You sure we’ll be fine, Nico?’ asked Austin.
‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘I mean … no one has ever died or anything.’
‘That’s not nearly as comforting as you think it is!’ said Kayla.
‘You’ll be okay,’ said Will, and he put his hand on Austin’s shoulder.
‘I’ve heard it’s chaotic, maybe a bit nauseating, but you’ll make it home
safely.’
They reached the summit of the hill, where the Golden Fleece glittered
on the lowest branch of the pine tree. Below, Farm Road 3.141 curved
around the base of the hill, defining the outer border of camp. On the gravel
shoulder, next to a pile of boxes and duffle bags, stood Chiron, the Camp
Half-Blood activities director, his equine lower half gleaming white in the
afternoon light.
‘There you are!’ the centaur called out. ‘Come along, then.’
None of them hurried. It was obvious to Nico that Kayla and Austin
weren’t in a rush to leave camp. Almost everyone else had already returned
to their ‘normal’ lives, except … well, what was normal for someone like
Nico?
Epic battles.
Constantly facing the threat of defeat and death.
The dead talking to him.
Prophecies.
The voice from his dreams bubbled up inside him again now, calling out
for help.
Rachel Dare’s words haunted him, too. Only he and Will had heard what
the Oracle had prophesied a few weeks ago, and Nico hadn’t shared it with
anyone else yet, not even the other counsellors. Why should he? It hadn’t
warned of any doomsday threats to Camp Half-Blood. The world was – as
far as he knew – safe for now from angry gods or rebellious Titans.
Resurrected maniacal Roman emperors were no longer a thing to worry
about.
The prophecy merely concerned that lone voice in his dreams, begging
for help.
Specifically Nico’s help.
‘Some of the satyrs collected your things,’ said Chiron as the four
demigods joined him at the road. ‘They wish you well on your journey.’
‘We might need it,’ Kayla grumbled. ‘Chiron, just tell us the truth. The
Grey Sisters aren’t going to kill us, are they?’
‘What? No!’ He looked aghast. ‘At least, they haven’t killed anyone so
far.’
‘You and Nico!’ cried Austin, throwing up his hands. ‘Both of you think
that’s an acceptable thing to tell us?’
Chiron’s smile lines crinkled around his eyes. ‘Now, now, you’re
demigods. You’ll be fine. Try tipping them a few extra drachmas at the start
of the trip, though. I’ve heard that helps make the experience less …
intense?’
He fished in the pocket of his archery vest, pulled out a golden coin and
threw it into the road. ‘Stop, O Chariot of Damnation!’
No sooner had Chiron finished speaking than the taxi arrived.
It did not putter or cruise up to the group. It appeared. The coin sank into
the road, tendrils of dark smoke curled upward, the tarmac twisted, and the
Grey Sisters’ taxi erupted into being. It looked like a taxi all right, but its
edges swirled and wafted if you stared at it too long. Nico had heard all
about Percy’s, Meg’s and Apollo’s experiences with this particular mode of
transportation. They’d repeatedly told him that they even preferred his
shadow-travel to the bumpy, vomit-inducing nightmare that was riding in
that car. The Grey Sisters had a long history of detesting heroes, and at this
point they viewed every inhabitant of Camp Half-Blood as a potential hero
to be detested.
Nico didn’t want to admit it to the others, but he had met the sisters
several times on his own, and he kind of liked them. They were thorny.
Difficult. Stuck in their ways. Chaotic, yet weirdly dependable. They wore
their darkness on their sleeves. For Styx’s sake, they all shared a single eye.
How could Nico not appreciate them?
The sisters were in the midst of an argument as one of the rear doors
swung open.
‘I know exactly what I’m doing, Wasp,’ said the old lady sitting shotgun,
her stringy grey hair swaying over her face. ‘When have I ever not known
what I’m doing?’
‘Oh, oh!’ screeched Wasp, who sat up front in the middle. ‘That’s lush.
That’s a real lush opinion, Tempest!’
‘Do you even know what lush means?’ Tempest shot back.
The driver groaned dramatically. ‘Are you two children? Will you please
stop talking?’
Tempest threw her hands up and put on her best imitation of the driver
(which confused Nico, since they all sounded identical). ‘Oh, my name is
Anger, and I’m sooooo mature.’
‘I will eat the eye,’ warned Anger. ‘I’ll do it.’
‘You wouldn’t,’ said Wasp.
‘With salt and pepper and a little paprika!’ Anger threatened. ‘I’ll do it.’
‘Hi,’ said Austin, hoisting his saxophone case. ‘Is there any way you
could pop the trunk? We have some luggage.’
All three Grey Sisters spun towards Austin and spoke in unison: ‘NO!’
They fell back into arguing. Nico decided right then and there that these
were his favourite people in the whole world.
Still, he sympathized with Kayla and Austin. As Chiron worked to open
the trunk, both demigods looked more frightened than they ever had in the
last year.
‘You sure you don’t want me to shadow-travel you to Manhattan?’ Nico
offered.
Will sighed. ‘Nico, you can’t use shadow-travel like public
transportation. It’ll drain you dry.’
‘It’s okay, Nico,’ Kayla said, sounding like she was trying hard to believe
it. ‘We’ll be fine.’
‘Plus, we’re going to different places,’ said Austin. ‘My mom’s meeting
me uptown. I actually got into an academy up in Harlem, and she found an
apartment for us close by!’
‘Sounds like a good place to end up,’ said Will. ‘Not too far from here.’
‘And there’s so much history in Harlem to explore,’ added Austin.
‘Apparently, one of the clubs where Miles Davis used to play has
reopened!’
Nico nodded halfheartedly. He had no idea who that was. It was one of
the downsides of not being in the ‘human’ world for very long.
‘What about you, Kayla?’ asked Chiron, loading her archery gear into the
trunk.
‘Back to Toronto,’ she said. ‘Dad wanted me to come home, and it’s
actually been a while. I’m pretty excited, to be honest.’ Her eyes glinted.
‘Especially to prove that I’m now better than him at archery!’
Austin turned to Nico and Will. ‘So … you two are really staying here?’
Nico hoped Will would answer first. The sun falling behind the western
hills made Will’s curly blond hair look like it was aflame. For a moment,
Nico wondered if Will was using his glow-in-the-dark power.
Either way, it made Nico a little annoyed. Why did Will have to be so
beautiful all the time?
‘I think we are,’ said Will, taking Nico’s hand. ‘Mom’s touring for her
new album this autumn, and I don’t know if I want to bounce around the
country in the back of a van.’
‘Could be fun,’ said Austin. ‘I hope I get to travel because of my music
one day.’
Kayla nodded. ‘I wonder what it would be like to see other places
without worrying whether some murderous statue is going to kill you.’
‘Oh, come on,’ said Nico. ‘Where’s the fun in that?’
‘Are you going to get in the car?’ Tempest growled. ‘Or are you paying
us to listen to your boring conversation?’
She was hanging out of the window with an open palm extended towards
them. Austin paid her with three drachmas, tipping her heavily as Chiron
had suggested. Tempest examined the coins for a moment – Nico didn’t
know how, as she had no eyes behind that thick grey curtain of hair – then
grunted. She pulled herself back into the car.
‘Get in,’ she said.
There were quick hugs and cheek kisses, and then Austin and Kayla
climbed into the back seat of the Grey Sisters’ taxi. All the while, the sisters
continued to argue.
Kayla looked around the cab. ‘We’ve been on worse adventures,’ she
said to those outside the car.
‘Have we?’ asked Austin.
‘Anyway, hope to see you soon,’ said Kayla. ‘And don’t get into any
trouble, you two.’
Austin leaned across Kayla to poke his head out of the window, a
mischievous excitement on his face. ‘But if there is trouble …’
Will waved at them. ‘You’ll know. Promise.’
‘Be safe yourselves!’ Chiron called out.
‘Drive, Anger! Drive!’ screamed Wasp. ‘Isn’t that what you do?
Honestly, why do you even sit in that seat if you don’t –’
Her words were lost as the taxi jerked forward and disappeared in a blur
of grey.
Yep. Nico loved the sisters.
‘So, that’s it,’ said Will. ‘They were the last, weren’t they?’
‘Indeed,’ said Chiron. ‘Aside from some of the staff, the satyrs, and the
dryads, Camp Half-Blood is actually … empty.’
The old centaur sounded a bit lost. As far as Nico could recall since he’d
started coming here, this was the first time that there were no demigods
present. Aside from him and Will, that is.
‘This is weird,’ said Nico. ‘Really weird.’
‘A lot has happened over the past few years,’ said Chiron wistfully. ‘I
understand more than ever why campers would want to go home to be with
their families, or to see the world.’
‘I guess …’ said Nico.
‘Now, gentlemen,’ said Chiron, dusting off the front of his vest, ‘I’ve got
a meeting with Juniper and the dryads about tree rot. Exciting stuff, I assure
you. I’ll see you at dinner?’
They nodded, then waved as Chiron galloped off.
‘So,’ said Nico, ‘what do we do next?’
Will, still holding Nico’s hand, guided him back up the hill. ‘Well, we
don’t have any monsters to slay.’
‘Boo. I could raise a skeleton army to perform a choreographed dance. I
bet I could teach them “Single Ladies”, if you like.’
Will chuckled. ‘We don’t have any Roman emperors to locate and
dethrone, either.’
Nico flinched. ‘Ugh. Don’t remind me. If I could go the rest of my life
without even thinking Nero’s name again, I’d be happy.’
‘That’s a funny joke,’ said Will as they reached the summit.
‘What is?’
‘You,’ said Will. ‘Being happy.’
Nico rolled his eyes.
‘My grumpy little ball of darkness,’ added Will, poking him in the ribs.
‘Ew, gross,’ said Nico, dancing away from him. ‘We are not making that
a thing.’
‘Did you already forget that I was once your – and I am quoting you here,
Nico – “significant annoyance”?’
‘Oh, you’re still that,’ said Nico, and then Will was chasing him down
the hill, back into camp. In that moment, Nico allowed himself to enjoy the
sensation. Will was right: there were no threats whatsoever on the horizon.
No Big Bads. No lurking demigod traitors, no hidden monsters waiting to
destroy Camp Half-Blood.
But then dread prickled across Nico’s skin. His body was warning him,
wasn’t it? Don’t get too comfortable, it was telling him. He’s waiting for
you in Tartarus. Or have you forgotten about him like everyone else did?
Maybe this period of rest wasn’t such a good thing. If Nico didn’t have
some terrible monster or villain to fight, then what excuse did he have to
ignore the voice any longer?
The truth was, he couldn’t ignore it even if he wanted to. He’d been
visited by so many ghosts over the years. The dead wanted to be heard, and
who better to listen to them than the son of Hades?
But this voice … it did not belong to someone who had passed on. And
Nico had never heard someone sound as desperate for help.
So his mood was muted by the time he and Will made it to the dining
pavilion after stopping by their cabins to freshen up first. It felt strange to
be in this place that was normally so alive. Now there were only a few staff
dryads and harpies spread unevenly around the various tables. The camp
director, Dionysus – Mr D to all of them – was lounging at the head table
with Chiron, who had somehow beaten them to dinner. The two
administrators were so deep in conversation that they barely acknowledged
Will when he waved.
Even the satyrs who served Nico and Will didn’t seem all that thrilled to
be doing so. ‘This whole place feels like my soul,’ Nico joked to Will. ‘You
know, empty and dark.’
Will swallowed some chicken kebab pieces. ‘You’re not empty,’ he said,
then pointed the skewer at Nico. ‘You are definitely dark, though.’
‘Dark as the pits of the Underworld.’
Will looked down, focusing on his food like it was the most interesting
thing he’d ever seen.
‘We don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to,’ said Nico.
Will managed a smile. His warmth was genuine – like it always was,
since he was basically a literal ray of sunshine – and it softened Nico just a
bit. ‘We can,’ he said. ‘Just maybe not now, Nico. Austin and Kayla just
left. The camp is calm. Serene. Quiet. Let’s just appreciate the break,
okay?’
Nico nodded, but he wasn’t sure how he was supposed to do what Will
had requested. When had he ever got a break before? If it wasn’t dead
Roman emperors, it was his father. Or Minos. Or his stepmother,
Persephone. It had been years since that particular incident had happened,
but he was still annoyed about being turned into a dandelion. A dandelion!
It was an affront to his aesthetic!
And there were other things he didn’t want to remember. Darker things.
Ghosts who would probably visit him eventually. Nico stuffed it all down –
making a grumpy little ball of darkness inside his chest. Then he forced a
smile as he listened to Will talk about all the things they could do that
autumn while they stayed at camp.
It would be fine. Everything would be fine.
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It always came rushing back to Nico in his dreams.
When he’d first confessed to Will that he was hearing a particularly
haunted voice from the Underworld, Nico worried he shouldn’t have
said anything. Sometimes Will didn’t seem to understand what it meant for
Nico to be … well, Nico. The Underworld spooked Will, to be frank, but
Nico needed to tell someone what was happening to him.
Months earlier, Nico had sensed his friend Jason Grace’s death, which
had sent him into a tailspin of grief and rage. By the time Lester and Meg
had arrived at Camp Half-Blood at the start of summer, Nico’s emotions
were so volatile that he’d raised the dead more than once by accident.
(There is nothing more disconcerting than waking in the morning and
finding a freshly incarnated zombie standing over you, ready to take your
breakfast order.)
Will had listened to him attentively, like he always did. Afterwards he’d
posed a few questions, mostly about whether the voice had anything to do
with the flashbacks Nico had also been having lately. Will had stayed quiet
for a while and then asked, ‘Are you sure it’s not post-traumatic stress
disorder?’
Sometimes Nico’s brain thought of a joke and it came out of his mouth a
second later without any sort of filter at all. That’s exactly what happened
when he blurted out, ‘My whole life is a disorder!’
Will hadn’t laughed at that.
Instead, he’d suggested that maybe Nico should talk to Mr D. For all
Dionysus’s faults, he was an Olympian god with experience in these
matters: dreams, visions and altered states of consciousness.
He’s also the god of madness, Nico thought. He tried not to dwell on that,
or the implications of Will making such a suggestion.
‘I’d rather do almost anything else,’ Nico countered. ‘Can the guy even
make it through a single conversation without sarcasm, an insult, or a
combination of the two?’
Will grinned. ‘Can you?’
Nico had spent the rest of the day trying to recover from Will murdering
him with those two words. Still, there was some truth to what Will had said.
This wasn’t the first time Nico had dealt with flashbacks or PTSD. He
remembered coaching his sister Hazel Levesque through her own
devastating flashbacks after she’d spent time in the Underworld. He’d even
had a frank conversation with Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano about post-
traumatic stress and how it related to the memories of her father. Yet he’d
never really turned that gaze inwards. Was he dealing with the same kind of
thing? Honestly, how could he not be? But he was sure the voice was
something else.
After dinner on the day he’d confided to Will, Nico got up the nerve to
speak with Mr D. He told the director about his flashbacks during the day,
the repetitive dreams, the voice from deep within Tartarus. (He did not,
however, tell Mr D the details of the Oracle’s prophecy. That still felt too
raw, too personal for a first conversation.)
Mr D sat back in his deck chair, turning his can of Diet Coke in his
fingers. With his unkempt black hair, blotchy complexion, and wrinkled
leopard-pattern camp shirt, Dionysus looked more like a hung-over Vegas
conventioneer than a god.
To Nico’s surprise, Mr D didn’t tell him to go away or make any snarky
comment at Nico’s expense.
‘We need to get to the bottom of this.’ Mr D’s violet eyes were unsettling,
like crystallized wine … or blood. ‘I want to see you each morning at
breakfast. You are to report on your dreams and keep me apprised if
anything new comes up.’
The ball of darkness in Nico’s chest pressed against his stomach. He
would’ve preferred Mr D being dismissive and rude. Seeing the god so
serious was disturbing.
‘Every day?’ he asked. ‘Are you sure that’s necessary?’
‘Believe me, Nico di Angelo, I’d rather not have my breakfast spoiled
with your silly mortal problems, but, yes, it is necessary if you’d like to
keep your consciousness intact. And try to have some interesting dreams,
will you? Not the usual boring I was flying, I was being chased, I was
singing onstage in my underwear tripe.’
So it had become a routine. Mr D talked to Nico each morning, the god’s
plate piled high with sausage and eggs while Nico’s was usually empty
except for a few strawberries. That too concerned Mr D, who, as the god of
festivity, disapproved of anyone not enjoying food. ‘I know you’ve got the
whole gaunt-and-pale-son-of-Hades thing going on, but you’re still human.
You need to eat.’
Nico shrugged. ‘I guess I’m used to being hungry. It doesn’t really bother
me.’
Mr D grunted. ‘But your appetite is getting worse. Along with the
flashbacks, and the voice in your dreams –’
‘It’s nothing I can’t handle,’ Nico insisted.
Mr D pushed his plate away. He turned his whole body towards Nico.
‘Look here, boy. After living in exile at Camp Half-Blood all these
wretched years, I’ve learned that you mortals are surprisingly resilient.’
‘Exactly –’ Nico began.
Mr D held up a hand. ‘I’m not done. You may be resilient, but you’re still
human. There is no need to punish yourself with hunger just because it’s
what you’re used to. For your mind to heal, your body must also.’
Nico grumbled. Then his stomach followed with some grumbling of its
own.
Some days, Nico couldn’t share his dreams with Mr D. They were too
painful, too vicious, dredging up old memories he didn’t want to examine.
But other times Nico had to admit that talking helped. He found that he
didn’t have to sugarcoat anything with Dionysus. The same crudeness he’d
found annoying in the camp director was actually really helpful when Nico
was recounting his flashbacks.
‘My goodness,’ Mr D once said after Nico described a spate of dreams
that had less to do with singing in his underwear and more to do with
simultaneously being burned, drowned and crushed inside a giant bronze
vase filled with ants. ‘That’s marvellous! I must remember to give my worst
enemies that nightmare.’
But none of the talks got to the heart of the matter: why were these
visions happening to Nico?
Did he deserve them?
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On the night after Kayla and Austin left, Nico stayed awake long
after Will had retired to Apollo’s cabin. His mind was still buzzing,
and he was dreading sleep. Demigods always had vivid – and
occasionally prophetic – dreams, but when he slept, the voice became
almost unbearable.
Help me, please! it called out. I need you, Nico di Angelo. I need you.
Well, so did every ghost who visited him. The dead just wanted to be
heard, especially if they hadn’t been listened to during their time on earth.
The Underworld was full of souls wandering the Fields of Asphodel, crying
out for attention.
But this voice wasn’t dead. It felt further away than even Asphodel, and
more tortured than any ghost’s. This voice was calling out from Tartarus,
the darkest and deepest area of the Underworld. And nobody called out
from Tartarus.
It had to be Bob the Titan.
Nico remembered their first meeting: Christmas Day nearly three years
ago, when Nico, Percy Jackson and Thalia Grace were tasked by
Persephone to retrieve Hades’s missing sword. To do so, they’d had to
battle Iapetus, a Titan unleashed from the depths of Tartarus. The Titan
might have killed all three of them, but, with the last of his strength, Percy
had pulled Iapetus into the River Lethe, wiping him of all his memories.
Then Percy renamed him Bob and convinced the Titan they were good
friends. Strangely, the new identity stuck.
Nico had visited Bob several times since then down in the Underworld.
The newly gentle Titan had taken a janitorial job in Hades’s palace and
seemed quite happy to spend his time sweeping up bones and dusting
sarcophagi. He and Nico struck up a strange friendship. Both felt
disconnected from their pasts, uncomfortable around others, and
melancholy about their mutual ‘friend’ Percy Jackson, who never seemed to
remember they existed.
Then, a year and a half ago, Percy and Annabeth had fallen into Tartarus.
Bob had sensed their peril and plunged into the abyss to help them. He had
held off an army of monsters to give Percy and Annabeth a chance to return
to the mortal world. No one was sure what happened to Bob after that –
whether he had died or somehow survived.
But almost every day for the last three years, Nico had thought about
Bob. He felt guilty. They should have saved him. Someone should have
rescued him from Tartarus. How could they have just left him there after
he’d saved Percy and Annabeth and … well, pretty much the entire world?
Maybe Will and Mr D were right. Maybe Bob’s voice was a false echo, a
manifestation of Nico’s own PTSD.
But that didn’t explain the prophecy.
That’s what Nico was thinking about when sleep finally came for him.
Nico was in darkness. What else was new?
He’d had this dream so many times he thought he knew where it was
leading.
Except … not this night.
In the void, Nico heard his name.
Nico.
A different voice than before, but so familiar …
Caro Niccolo.
He stirred as shadows wrapped around him. No one ever called him
Niccolo. No one except …
Niccolo, vita mia …
The shadows pressed tighter against his face. He couldn’t breathe.
He hadn’t heard that voice in years. Decades.
Mamma.
I’m here! he tried to call out. Please, don’t go!
Vita mia, she repeated. Devi ascoltarmi.
Nico struggled to understand what she was saying. He was Italian, yes.
This was his native language. But his mind moved sluggishly, as if the
darkness had seeped into his skull.
Finally, the meaning came to him.
‘I am listening, Mamma!’ he answered.
He thrashed, trying to free himself from the thick cocoon of shadows.
ASCOLTA! the voice cried.
LISTEN!
Nico fell.
He plummeted into a soft, warm nest of blankets. Was he back in his bunk
at camp? He sat up and –
Light. On a lacquered brown nightstand, an ugly steel desk lamp cast a
yellow glow over an oddly familiar room. Thick blackout curtains. A
flatscreen TV. Striped gold-and-cream wallpaper like gilded prison bars.
Wait. No. Was this –?
He grabbed a laminated card from the nightstand.
LOTUS HOTEL AND CASINO: IN-ROOM BREAKFAST OPTIONS
No. No, no, no!
He turned slowly in the gigantic king-size bed, remembering how the
mattress made hollow, tinny creaks whenever he moved.
He sensed her before he saw her, asleep in the bed next to him.
His sister Bianca. She looked so peaceful there, her chest rising slowly
with her breath, her dark hair fanned across her pillow. Nico tried to open
his mouth, tried to call to her, but his voice didn’t work. There was
something poking out from the edge of the duvet at Bianca’s shoulder. Was
that … her quiver? Nico ripped back the covers and saw that his sister was
dressed as if ready for battle, complete with boots, jacket and arrows.
This was all wrong. Bianca hadn’t become a Hunter of Artemis until
after their time in the Lotus Casino. Then she’d taken the pledge … and left
Nico for the last time. If he could just warn her, keep her from making those
choices –
Wake up! he tried to yell, but his lips wouldn’t open. His right hand flew
up to his mouth. Fear curdled in his stomach.
He bolted out of bed, tripping as his legs tangled in the duvet, and then
staggered into the harsh fluorescent light of the bathroom. He braced his
hands on the make-up mirror. Once his eyes adjusted –
Nico wanted to scream, but he couldn’t. He literally had no mouth.
Beneath his nose, where his lips had been, was a pale line of scar tissue.
This is a dream, he told himself. A dream. Wake up, wake up, wake up!
His terrified, marred reflection continued to stare back at him. For the
thousandth time, Nico wished he had inherited Hades’s dream magic. Then
he could control what he saw. He would already be awake. He could tell
Will or Mr D about his nightmares, downplay their importance and revert to
being in denial about the voice from Tartarus. That would be so much
easier.
Instead, he stumbled back into the room. The bed was now empty.
Bianca? Where did you go?
But he couldn’t yell it. He couldn’t say anything.
Nico took another step towards the bed and plunged through the floor.
Again he fell.
This time when he landed, he smacked against something very solid. The
air rushed out of his lungs, and he opened his eyes to find himself looking
at –
Sky.
Bright blue sky, framed by rows of steel suspension cables.
What? he thought. Where am I?
His hands pushed against the surface beneath him. It was warm and
scratchy. Tarmac. A road. Then he saw the cars on either side of him. Nico
scrambled to his feet in a panic, certain that he was about to be run over.
But the cars remained still.
He hesitantly approached one and was further confused to discover that
the driver’s seat was empty. All the cars seemed deserted – two frozen lines
of traffic, and in the distance the Manhattan skyline. The wind buffeted
Nico’s clothes. The tarmac swayed gently, while above him the grey-blue
metal support cables thrummed like giant guitar strings. Pedestrian paths on
either side of the road were blocked off with dull red barriers. But there
were no people anywhere. Far below, the East River rippled in the sunlight.
‘Okay, dream,’ he muttered to himself. ‘Why am I on a New York City
bridge?’
As soon as he said it, Nico had two realizations.
First, he could talk again. His mouth was no longer fused shut.
Second, this was the Williamsburg Bridge.
Oh, no, he thought. No, I won’t relive this day.
There was a roar behind Nico, and his blood ran cold. He turned and saw
the impossible.
The figure was tall and golden – but not in an attractive way like Will,
more in an unnatural, terrifying, I’m going to kill you sort of way. He stood
three metres tall, with a cruel ageless face, molten-gold eyes, and shining
armour. In his hands gleamed an enormous scythe.
Kronos.
‘This doesn’t make sense.’ Nico edged back, his pulse racing as the Titan
strode towards him, a horde of monsters and allied demigods at his back.
Dreams rarely made sense, but this one … Nico hadn’t even been on the
Williamsburg Bridge during the Battle of Manhattan. He’d only heard how
Percy had collapsed the centre of the bridge to keep Kronos’s invasion at
bay.
Kronos locked his eyes on Nico. The Titan smiled hideously, as if he
could read Nico’s thoughts. He raised his scythe.
‘No!’ Nico turned to run towards Manhattan, away from Kronos’s
advancing army.
But they stood in his way.
Percy.
Michael Yew.
Annabeth.
Will … looking so much younger, and so terrified.
Nico froze, trapped between the lines of battle. The bridge swayed
beneath him.
‘This isn’t real,’ Nico told himself. ‘I’m not here.’
‘Listen.’ Percy stepped forward, forcing Nico back in Kronos’s direction.
‘Percy, what is this?’ Nico held up his hands defensively. ‘What are you
doing?’
‘You have to listen,’ said Michael Yew, his intense brown eyes brimming
with tears. ‘If you don’t, you will share my fate.’
‘Ominous much?’ Nico snarled. He spun around, but Kronos was nearly
on top of him, wielding the scythe like a guillotine blade.
‘Listen!’ commanded the Titan.
‘I am!’ Nico was furious. ‘Whoever is trying to reach me, just tell me
what you want!’
Kronos’s scythe hurtled towards his face.
Nico was in darkness. Again.
By this point, he was just irritated. A person could only take so much terror
and misery before it started to get really annoying. This weird dream-
jumping through memories and events seemed so unnecessary.
I get the message! he thought. I will listen! Isn’t that good enough?
A light appeared, soft and purple.
‘What the –?’
Nico grabbed his Stygian iron sword and let its glow illuminate his
surroundings. He was wedged into an egg-shaped space barely large enough
to hold him. The gleaming metallic walls were cool to the touch. In front of
him, etched into the bronze, were three long hash marks.
‘No,’ he said aloud, and the sound of his own voice echoed back at him.
‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’
Nico’s dream had taken him back to the jar that the giants Ephialtes and
Otis had stuffed him into so he could serve as bait for the seven demigods
of the prophecy. It was, all things considered, not exactly Nico’s favourite
memory.
‘Here?’ Nico called out. ‘Why are you making me relive this?’
He shut his eyes and smacked the side of his head. Wake up, Nico! Wake
up!
He opened his eyes again. He was still in the jar, and there, at his feet,
was one lone pomegranate seed. His stomach contracted. Panic swelled in
his throat. He remembered his endless hours in this jar, racked with hunger
and thirst, wondering how long he could hold out before eating that
pomegranate seed – his last bit of sustenance.
‘Hey, subconscious?’ said Nico. ‘If you’re trying to get me to realize
something, this is a terrible way to go about it.’
He was met with silence.
Suddenly a terrible screeching sound filled the vessel as the lid was
prised open. Harsh light spilled in. Nico winced and covered his eyes. This
hadn’t happened in the real world. The jar hadn’t been opened until it tipped
over, just before the fight with Ephialtes and Otis.
Nico tried to uncover his eyes, but the light above was still too bright.
Given the strange logic of this dream ride, he wouldn’t have been surprised
if Cookie Monster appeared over the mouth of the jar, reached inside and
gobbled up Nico like the chocolate-chip cookie he was.
Cookie Monster did not, in fact, show up.
Percy Jackson did.
Nico gazed up into Percy’s face, which was framed by tousled black hair.
His green eyes looked stormy, his mouth twisted down in concern.
There was a time when just the thought of Percy had made Nico feel an
intense pit of desire in his gut. It was an unrequited desire, of course,
because Percy was never going to have the same feelings for Nico. It had
torn up Nico for a long, long time. After a while, though, he became used to
the idea that he wanted things he couldn’t have: Percy, Bianca, his mother,
stability … it was all the same. Getting over Percy was easier than Nico
expected. What was one straight boy when you spent your whole life
longing for the impossible?
As bizarre as this dream was, the sight of Percy was comforting to Nico.
He missed his friend and was eager to get out of this stupid jar. He
remembered how frail and sickly he’d been when Piper had rescued him in
real life. This time felt just as difficult. He tried to untangle his stiff legs and
stand so Percy could help pull him out.
The other demigods must have defeated Otis and Ephialtes already. Nico
couldn’t hear anything outside the confines of his bronze prison.
Nico reached up to take Percy’s hand.
But Percy was now further away. Even standing with his arms
outstretched, Nico couldn’t reach the mouth of the jar.
Nico looked down, and his heart leaped into his throat. Either that
pomegranate seed had swollen to the size of an apple … or Nico was
shrinking!
He cast another glance at Percy …
No, no! His friend was even further away! The mouth of the jar now
seemed like a skylight at the top of a cathedral’s dome, and Percy was the
size of a Titan, peeking in to see what the little mortals were up to.
Percy reached in with his gigantic hand. Nico jumped high, desperate to
grab hold of one of Percy’s fingers, but he just kept shrinking smaller and
smaller, the walls of the jar looming around him.
‘Stop it!’ Nico cried out.
Percy pulled his hand out of the jar. His face disappeared for a few
seconds. When it returned, his eyes were red and glassy.
He was crying.
‘Nico,’ he said. ‘Nico, listen!’
Nico wanted to scream. ‘I have literally been doing nothing else!’ His
voice came out tinny and high-pitched, like he’d sucked down the helium
from a million balloons. It only sounded worse as it echoed throughout the
jar.
‘You have to go,’ Percy said.
Nico’s heart seemed to be shrinking at a slower rate than his ribcage. It
pressed against his sternum, hammering with each beat.
‘Go where?’ he asked, though he dreaded the answer.
‘We made a mistake,’ said Percy. ‘You have to fix it.’
The jar shattered.
Again, Nico fell.
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Nico slammed hard into a stone column. Then he tumbled to the
ground, breathless, and grasped for his blade. But it wasn’t there.
He groaned, and the sound reverberated in a long, haunting echo.
His skin felt sticky and damp. Was that sweat? Blood? He decided he didn’t
want to know.
As his eyes adjusted to the low light, he saw a smoke-stained ceiling
overhead, barrel arches stretching between rows of limestone columns.
He rolled to his side. Bright bands of sunlight filtered through a row of
high-set barred windows, making stripes of shadow across the floor. It was
that image that triggered Nico’s memory and revealed where he was.
Nico had never dreamed about this before. In fact, he’d done everything
in his power to avoid thinking about that day ever again.
He slowly pushed himself to his feet. ‘Brain, if you’re doing this, this is
the worst mental vacation of all time,’ he said bitterly.
Nothing.
‘If this is a god or a demigod or something else,’ Nico added, ‘you’re
really starting to annoy me.’
Still no response.
So here he was, back in the basement of that cathedral whose name he
did not remember, looking for …
Right. The sceptre of Diocletian.
Except … someone else had been here with him.
Oh.
Jason Grace.
A new pit opened in Nico’s stomach. Most of the time, emptiness was his
best friend, but there was a vacancy in his heart that had never been filled
since Jason … Ever since he …
Nico gulped. Even in this ridiculous dream, Jason was gone.
Nico wiped a tear from his cheek. ‘Okay, this has to stop,’ he said.
‘Please. Just let me wake up.’
‘You still think this is a dream?’
Nico spun towards the voice. ‘Who’s there?’
‘Come now, Nico di Angelo. Don’t you remember?’
He inched forward until the voice’s source came into view.
A marble bust of Diocletian, sitting atop its pedestal, staring right at
Nico.
The emperor’s head was still on his shoulders, no signs of it ever having
been broken. Which made sense in the weird logic of this dream. Without
Jason here to smash it, the bust would still be in one piece. Nico’s memories
of this day poured over him, a waterfall of images and sensations that he
had kept locked deep in his mind.
One of them rose to the surface.
Jason, grabbing Nico and lifting him in the air while they chased down
Favonius, the strange winged man who had been buying an ice-cream cone
in Dalmatia. Things had seemed so much simpler then. When you saw a
wind god buying ice cream, you chased him. When anyone tried to touch
you, you lashed out. Nico had always hated being touched. As soon as
Jason set him down that day, Nico had barked, Don’t ever grab me again.
Now, staring at that unnerving bust of Diocletian, Nico wished for
nothing more than to feel Jason Grace’s protective arms around him.
But Jason wasn’t here.
Behind Nico, a different voice said, ‘Are you ready?’
Nico spun once more, and there, leaning against one of the columns,
stood Favonius, the Roman god of the West Wind. He was dressed exactly
as he had been that day: a red tank top over an aggravatingly bright set of
Bermuda shorts and huarache sandals.
‘You,’ Nico snarled. ‘Get out of my dreams.’
‘Oh, Nico,’ said Favonius, shaking his head. ‘If only it were that easy.’
‘Nothing is easy for me,’ Nico said. ‘I’ve come to expect that.’
‘Then you know I have to take you to see someone.’
There was no joy in the god’s face, none of the excitement or eagerness
that Nico had seen last summer.
Favonius looked scared.
‘Please, no,’ Nico began.
‘You have to fix it, Nico.’
Nico’s heart hammered even harder against his ribs. What came next in
the real world had been … well, truly one of the worst things Nico had ever
been through, which was saying a lot for him. He’d had to endure Cupid,
who was no adorable little winged cherub. The intense, intimidating god of
desire had forced Nico to confess his crush on Percy Jackson in front of
Jason, all so they could acquire the sceptre.
The ordeal had proved vital to winning the war against Gaia.
It had also torn a wound in Nico that still hadn’t healed.
‘Whatever this is,’ said Nico, ‘I get the message. I need to listen. I am
listening. So I don’t need to go through this again.’
‘You have to talk to him,’ said Favonius. ‘But not for the reason you
think.’
Nico tried to steady his breathing. He forced himself to ask, ‘Will Jason
be there?’
He wasn’t sure which answer would be more painful: yes or no.
The god’s expression darkened. ‘No, Nico. He’s gone.’ Then he added
softly, almost to himself, ‘They’ll all be gone eventually.’
Without another word, Favonius dissolved into a swirl of dust and
sunlight. The wind wrapped around Nico and lifted him off the floor. Even
in a dream, Nico hated this sensation, like his entire body was being torn to
atoms. They zipped through the smallest cracks in the church windows,
then raced across the Croatian countryside without regard for gravity or
mass or his stomach. All Nico’s thoughts and feelings collided with one
another, vying to exist simultaneously in his mind. He had literally fallen
apart into a mess of emotions.
At least I am #OnBrand in my dreams, he thought. Then: Will would
hate that joke.
The wind deposited him on a hill overlooking the ruins of Salona. Put
back together again, Nico’s thin body trembled with nausea. He felt like he
had Sisyphus in his throat, eternally pushing his stone up the steep incline.
‘Ugh,’ he coughed. ‘That feeling is just as bad in a dream.’
Favonius’s disembodied laughter floated around him. ‘Look at you, still
thinking this is a dream. You are so cute when you’re delusional, Nico di
Angelo!’
Nico really, really hated being called cute. He had no time for retorts,
though. The wind faded, and Favonius was gone.
Nico scanned the ruins. They looked exactly as they had before:
crumbling, decaying shells of buildings, moss-covered lines of stone – a
once-great Roman city reduced to a field of rocks. Nico still wasn’t
impressed. He’d seen too many ruins just like these over the years,
reminders of how quickly mortal creation could turn to rubble.
He raised his hands. ‘Let’s get on with it, then! Cupid, I’m here!’
Nico waited. But there was nothing. No booming, rushing voice taunting
him, coercing him to reveal his most painful secret.
Then, suddenly, Cupid’s voice was everywhere: You know what you need
to do.
The words whizzed past Nico’s ear.
Nico tried to act unfazed. It was just a dream. About a god who had left
Nico wounded, shattered and exposed … but still a dream. This time, he
would not be Cupid’s chew toy.
He crossed his arms. ‘I get it,’ he said. ‘I don’t need convincing any
more! I’ll go to Tartarus!’
That’s not enough, Nico di Angelo. Look upon me.
‘Look upon you? But I thought no one could see you in your true form!’
Unseen, Cupid slammed into him, hurling Nico backwards into a broken
column.
Look upon me!
Cupid was now so close that Nico could feel his breath on his face.
‘I can’t see you!’ Nico screamed. ‘Stop with these games!’
I AM HERE.
The voice came from behind him now, and all the hair stood up on Nico’s
arms. It was an instantaneous reaction – a fear so primal that without even
thinking it, without issuing the command, Nico called forth skeletons. They
rose from the earth beneath his feet, moss and dirt and decay hanging from
their bones. They ringed Nico, their sticklike arms in defensive postures,
ready to fight for him.
Turn around, Nico. Look upon me.
The voice had shifted direction again. Nico did not want to look. He had
no rational reason to believe this, but he was convinced that if he actually
did see Cupid, he would die.
‘Please, Nico. Look at me.’
The voice had changed. It was warm, like honey, like a late-summer
sunset, like the first rush of heat from a campfire.
It was Cupid.
No.
It was love.
Nico turned slowly, and there stood Will Solace, his golden hair lit oh-so-
perfectly in the dreamlike daylight of Salona. He wore the red smiling-sun
T-shirt that Nico had bought him as a joke, and that pair of camouflage
shorts with the frayed hems. He strode barefoot over to Nico.
Deep inside, Nico suspected that this was still Cupid, playing games with
him, but his anger softened anyway.
‘Will,’ said Nico. ‘I don’t understand. What is this?’
‘Listen,’ said Will, stepping closer.
‘I’ve been listening! Why won’t anyone tell me what I’m listening for?’
Will reached out and Nico did, too, but just before Will’s hand touched
Nico’s, he pulled back.
‘You have to do something, Nico,’ said Will, his eyes soft and sad.
‘I know.’
Will shook his head. ‘It’s more than you think. When the time comes, tell
me the truth.’
Nico laughed. There was an edge of hysteria to his voice, but laughter
was the only reaction that made sense at this point. ‘Sure, Will. Cupid.
Cwill? Wupid? What do I call you?’
Will’s face elongated like putty, his mouth opening wide, wider, so that
Nico could see sharp, needlelike teeth lining his gums. Nico tried to back
up, but the thing, whatever it was, leaped forward and screamed one last
command:
WAKE UP!
‘Nico!’
He opened his eyes with a jolt but couldn’t make out the figure looming
over him. Nico kicked out with his right leg, unfortunately landing a foot
square in his boyfriend’s stomach.
Will howled and tumbled off the edge of the bed, then curled up on the
floor of Hades’s cabin. ‘Nico, I swear,’ he groaned. ‘How do you pack all
that energy into your body?’
‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry!’ said Nico. ‘You scared me!’
Will winced as he sat upright. ‘I think you have that backwards. I could
hear you screaming bloody murder from my cabin!’
Nico put his head in his hands. ‘I – I had a bad dream. Bad dreams,
plural. Really bad dreams.’
Nico felt a weight settle on the bed next to him, and he looked up to see
Will there. ‘I’m really sorry about the kick in the gut.’
Will smiled, and warmth washed over Nico. ‘Can I hold you? Would that
be okay with you?’
Shame burned Nico’s cheeks. He didn’t like Will seeing him so
vulnerable, but he nodded because what he needed overrode his pride. Will
pulled him close, and Nico quietly cried into his boyfriend’s chest.
‘It’s all right.’ Will ran his hand up and down Nico’s back. ‘They were
just dreams.’
But were they? Nico thought. Before he could tell Will any of the details,
the door to the cabin burst open. Chiron stood there, his eyes wide. ‘Oh –
oh, no, have I interrupted something?’
Nico pulled away from Will and wiped his face with the back of his hand.
‘No, no, it’s okay,’ he said. ‘We were just talking.’
‘Well … uh, that’s fine,’ said Chiron awkwardly. ‘I’m sorry to barge in so
late at night, but we have an emergency.’
Nico grimaced. ‘Was it my screaming? Did I accidentally summon a
battalion of skeletons while I was sleeping?’
‘What? No!’ Chiron hesitated. ‘At least, I hope not. Let’s revisit that in a
bit. First, we have a visitor who urgently needs to speak to you.’
Chiron stepped aside, and Nico’s heart twisted with dread as Rachel
Elizabeth Dare, the current Oracle of Delphi, entered the cabin.
She pulled back the hood of her sweatshirt, and her long, gorgeous red
hair spilled out. She looked flushed and exhausted, as if she’d run here all
the way from Brooklyn.
‘Nico,’ she said. ‘Thank the gods. You have to listen.’
Before he could protest that he’d already received that particular message
loud and clear, like, a MILLION times already tonight, dark green smoke
began to pour out of Rachel’s mouth.
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The smoke had a bitter, sulphuric smell, and Nico, Will and Chiron all
started coughing.
Rachel’s pupils dilated. Then her eyes turned completely black as
the words slithered out of her mouth in the rasping voice of the Oracle:
‘Go forth and find the one who calls out your name,
Who suffers and despairs for refusing to remain;
There leave something of equal value behind,
Or your body and soul no one will ever find.’
Rachel’s knees buckled, and Will dashed forward to catch her before she
hit the floor.
Chiron gripped the doorframe with one hand. His face looked as pale as
the grey flecks in his beard.
‘After all these years,’ he said grimly, ‘I have never got used to hearing
those. Nico, are you all right?’
Nico nodded, his heart thumping.
Chiron clopped into the cabin, lowering his head to fit. ‘I know these
prophecies can be hard to understand when you first hear them,’ he said.
‘Take all the time you need. We don’t have to discuss and dissect it now.’
Nico caught the sharp, chastising look that Will cast his way.
‘Well, this is awkward,’ Nico muttered.
Chiron tilted his head. ‘Why? Do you know what this prophecy is
about?’
Nico exhaled, trying to purge the last remnants of his dreams. He
wondered if he could still be trapped in a nightmare.
‘Chiron, I wanted to tell you and Mr D at some point, but … well, I just
never found the right time.’
‘It’s not a new prophecy,’ Will explained. ‘We’ve already heard it.’
Chiron glanced at Rachel, who was now breathing more steadily in Will’s
arms.
‘I’m sorry,’ the centaur said. ‘Are you telling me that Miss Dare just
rushed here in the middle of the night to give you a rerun prophecy?’
‘They’re telling the truth,’ said Rachel, sounding miserable. ‘This
prophecy … it keeps coming back. Again and again.’
Nico’s heartbeat stumbled. ‘Keeps coming back … You mean this isn’t
just the second time?’
Rachel winced, then started to cough.
Will helped her sit up. ‘I’ll get you some water.’
He dashed to the bathroom and came back a moment later with a cup that
Nico really hoped was clean.
Rachel took it gratefully. ‘I guess someone really needs your attention,
Nico.’ Her expression was strained but sympathetic. ‘The previous times, I
thought maybe I was just caught in a feedback loop or something. Maybe a
glitch left over from Apollo’s fight with Python. I didn’t want to worry you.
But this time … the urge overwhelmed me. I had to come find you.’
Will placed his hand on her shoulder. ‘How many times has the prophecy
repeated?’
Rachel’s cheeks flushed. She took a sip of water. ‘Twelve.’
‘Twelve times?’ said Nico. ‘Are you serious?’
Chiron scowled. ‘This is an alarming situation. In all my years, I’ve
never heard of something like this.’
Rachel nodded and took another sip. ‘It’s like a constant reminder that
the quest needs to be fulfilled – that it hasn’t been undertaken yet.’
Nico frowned. ‘So, you’ve basically become like one of those annoying
notifications in a video game reminding me to complete a side mission.’
She glared at him.
Nico silently cursed himself. ‘That came out wrong. I’m sorry. You’re
not annoying, Rachel. You know what I meant.’
Rachel mustered a weary smile. She nodded her thanks to Will as he
helped her to her feet. ‘This prophecy is definitely annoying. Whatever you
need to do, Nico, it would be great if you could get started. Then maybe I
can turn off my notifications.’
Nico glanced at Will. ‘It’s him. There’s no way it’s not.’
‘Who are you talking about?’ said a new voice.
Mr D stood in the doorway. He had on a leopard-print tank top, bright
yellow board shorts and pink flip-flops. Basically a typical outfit for the god
of partying. In one arm, he was cradling a large metal mixing bowl.
Nico sniffed the air. ‘Is that popcorn?’
‘I figured there might be a show happening out here.’ Mr D tossed a
kernel into his open mouth. ‘What’s a good show without popcorn?’
Nico bit back an angry comment. ‘A repeating prophecy isn’t exactly a
show.’
Mr D’s eyes widened. ‘Oh, there’s a repeating prophecy? Perfect!’ He
walked over to Nico’s bed and plopped down at the foot. ‘And here I
thought it was going to be a boring autumn at camp. I was even thinking
about staging a cage match for the dryads.’
Chiron glared at the camp director. ‘We’ve talked about that, Mr D.’
‘You can participate if you like, Chiron,’ the god said cheerfully. ‘I’d
love to see you go hoof-on-fist with a few feisty mulberry bushes.’
Chiron sighed. ‘Could we please focus on the problem at hand?’
‘Absolutely!’ Mr D shovelled popcorn into his mouth with glee. ‘Tell me
about this repeating prophecy. Is it about me? Do I finally gain my freedom
from this miserable camp and once more become the toast of the gods,
preferably with a bottle of 1945 Château Mouton Rothschild?’
‘Dionysus, please,’ said Chiron. ‘I don’t think this is a joking matter.’
‘I’m not sure about that,’ grumbled Nico, ‘given that Rachel has been
more or less forced to become a prophecy voicemail system.’
‘Nico …’ said Will in a warning tone.
‘Well, he isn’t wrong,’ said Rachel. ‘It’s like all those annoying calls my
dad gets about renewing his car warranties.’
‘Except … this is Bob,’ said Nico, finally saying his name out loud.
‘That’s who the prophecy is about.’
‘You mean the Titan Iapetus?’ asked Chiron. ‘I thought he was still in
Tartarus.’
‘Tartarus, eh?’ Mr D grabbed another fistful of popcorn. ‘This is getting
better by the second.’
Chiron ignored that. ‘Do you think Iapetus has become a threat again? A
rogue Titan would certainly be cause for concern.’
‘Bob isn’t like that any more,’ said Nico. ‘He changed after his dip in the
River Lethe. He’s nice now. Considerate. He wants to be helpful.’
The others regarded him in silence. The scent of their scepticism was
almost as pungent as Mr D’s popcorn.
Nico wanted to believe what he was saying, but doubts gnawed at him.
What if Bob had died helping Percy and Annabeth? If he’d regenerated
from the primordial landscape of Tartarus, the way monsters did, would he
be Iapetus again?
The prophecy had called him the one who suffers and despairs for
refusing to remain. Could this be some sort of trick, luring Nico down to the
worst place in the cosmos only to help a hostile Titan escape?
‘He’s my friend,’ he said, mostly to himself. ‘I’ve been hearing his voice
for months, even before the prophecy. He needs my help.’
‘Or it could be a trap,’ suggested Mr D. ‘Which would be very exciting.
By which I mean it would be terrible, of course.’
Chiron frowned. ‘Must you be so negative, Dionysus?’
‘Must you ignore the obvious?’ the god shot back. ‘I’m not saying it’s the
only explanation, but we have to consider the possibility.’ He turned a
kernel of popcorn in his fingertips as if it might hold the answer. ‘Nico and
I have been talking about some things he’s been experiencing: dreams,
waking visions, a voice calling out to him from Tartarus. Now I learn there
is a repeating prophecy? I haven’t even heard it yet, and I’m already
sceptical. I don’t want to see him get hurt, Chiron.’
Nico felt an unexpected surge of gratitude. He’d never heard Mr D come
so close to admitting that he cared about another person.
‘Does that mean I can share your popcorn?’ Nico ventured.
‘Absolutely not.’
‘Aren’t we ignoring the bigger issue?’ Will asked. ‘Because I feel like
we’re ignoring it.’
‘You mean me going to Tartarus,’ said Nico. ‘You’ve already made your
feelings about that clear many times.’
Will stared at the ceiling as if wondering why he had to be the voice of
reason. ‘Whether or not it’s a trap,’ he said, ‘it’s still a trip to Tartarus. And
I’m not a fan of those lines in the prophecy: There leave something of equal
value behind / Or your body and soul no one will ever find.’
‘Bit of a forced rhyme structure there,’ Mr D noted between crunching.
Chiron shot him a dirty look. ‘I’m not ignoring that part,’ he said to Will.
‘And I agree: without more information, we could never sanction such a
dangerous quest.’
‘I don’t need a quest.’ Nico stood. Hearing Rachel’s prophecy again,
hearing it discussed aloud, made him feel suddenly resolved. Or maybe he
was just feeling contrary and cranky after enduring Nico’s Greatest
Nightmare Hits, vols. I and II. ‘I have to go.’
Chiron’s expression was heavy and sad. Perhaps he was remembering all
the other heroes he had trained over the centuries, who had said I have to go
and then never returned. ‘Nico, we are in a period of relative peace. In
recent months, we have learned at great personal cost that prophecies can be
manipulated or just plain malicious … No offence to Miss Dare.’
‘None taken,’ Rachel muttered. ‘I’m just happy to be spewing green gas
again.’
‘It would be better for you to enjoy this time off,’ Chiron continued, ‘to
heal instead of running after –’
‘You’re not the one being tormented in your dreams!’
Nico immediately wished he hadn’t blurted it out like that. If Bob really
was in danger, doing whatever he could to reach out for help, then he was
the one being tormented. No matter how painful Nico’s dreams were,
Tartarus was worse.
On the other hand, if something were tormenting an immortal Titan like
Bob, a being older than the gods, what chance would Nico stand against
such a force?
‘Is that what you were dreaming about?’ Will’s voice stirred him from his
thoughts. ‘Bob in Tartarus?’
‘Not exactly,’ said Nico. ‘At least … not directly.’
He decided to tell them everything. He started with the long summer of
frequent flashbacks and nightmares. Clearly, Mr D wasn’t as interested in
that part, since he’d heard all about it already. Instead of listening, he
continually tossed popcorn into the air and tried to catch it in his mouth.
(He missed. A lot. Which Nico took as proof that he was not the god of
hand-eye coordination.)
As soon as Nico got to last night’s greatest-hits parade of trauma, though,
Mr D hung on every word.