Untitled Part 15
At sunset, Asterion and his friends gathered outside the mythics' quarters. They had dressed for bed, though no one expected to get any sleep tonight. Orcus wore his tiny nightcap, while Asterion had donned a handmade blue sleeping gown. Semele...well, she was smoke.
Johan wore briefs and a bathrobe, open at the chest so he could see. His large pectoral eyes shifted from side to side, so his whole midsection looked like the face of a paranoid neighbor peeking out from between terry-cloth curtains. Nico couldn't blame Johan for feeling afraid. In his position, Nico would've felt the same way.
He instinctively looked down, expecting to see Fear hugging his ankle, but no. The Puffs were likely fast asleep in the guest barracks. Nico wondered if the cacodemons were linked somehow to his own exhaustion. That might explain why they'd been sleeping so much the past few days. Or it simply could have been all the physical activity and shadow-travel.
The thought of how much Nico had done in such a short span of time made him tired all over again.
Will went over the plan once more with the mythics. Usually when he overexplained like this—telling everyone not to be nervous, assuring them that the plan would work—it meant he himself was nervous and unsure the plan would work. But Nico didn't judge. He appreciated the calming sound of his boyfriend's voice.
"Nico and I will be roving," he said. "He'll shadow-travel us wherever we're needed. Frank's going to be directing operations from the principia. The Second and Fifth Cohorts have deployed groups of sentries along the boundaries of camp. Terminus will be on speed dial. If anyone detects anything, he'll personally check it out and go 'minor god' on any intruders. Don't worry. We are going to find out how your friends disappeared."
"Disappeared." Semele added a hint of disgust to the word. "That's a funny way to describe what happened. Our friends were stolen."
"Maybe so," said Nico. "But if the mythic-napper tries again tonight, this whole plan is designed to catch them."
Asterion studied the tessera that now hung from his wrist. Savannah had spent the day collecting, modifying, and redistributing every bracelet in camp. Now each mythic had one (except Semele, who couldn't handle physical objects) and so did at least one person in every sentry group. Nico wasn't sure how Savannah had done it, but she'd managed to turn the brightness down to zero so the Iris-messages conveyed voices only— because it would be a little hard to run night surveillance and catch an intruder if the sentries were communicating with giant glowing rainbow spheres.
"We just whisper into it?" Asterion asked.
Will nodded. "All the tesserae will be linked in one big Iris-network. Don't speak into it unless you absolutely need to, but you should be able to hear anything going on at any location."
"Ingenious," Johan said.
Will smiled. "Occasionally, my boyfriend has a brilliant idea."
There was no reason for Nico to blush. He blushed anyway.
Orcus flapped his wings. "So while you're roving around, who's here protecting us?"
"Here they come now." Nico gestured across the field, where Hazel was marching toward them with Yazan and a goat-legged guy with the unlikely name Maynard Thee Faun.
Semele hissed like steam from a kettle. "And they'll actually protect us?"
Heat rose to Nico's face again. He wanted to yell, That's Hazel! Do you know how much she's done for you?
"Of course," he said instead. "But I understand why you're asking."
"Then you'll understand why I don't trust mortal guards." She fumed, literally, and drifted into the house.
"Please excuse her," said Asterion. "She is the oldest among us and has the most reason to hate the upper world. She is trying, but her journey is her own. I cannot ask her to speed it up."
"I don't take it personally," Nico said, though he wondered what had left Semele so bitter. If she was older than the legend of the Minotaur...that was old.
"Are we going to be safe?" asked Orcus.
"As safe as we can make you," Hazel said, joining the group. "You already know Yazan. He's a child of Vesper, the god of dusk."
"Nighttime is the right time," Yazan said with a grin. "Nobody is going to sneak past me in the dark."
"And this is Maynard Thee Faun, who is...well, a faun, obviously," Hazel continued. "He's our best tracker."
Maynard flashed the mythics a peace sign. He wore night-vision goggles and a tie-dye T-shirt in camouflage colors. " 'Sup, dudes," he said. "When it comes to tracking, I'm like the dude, dudes."
"And of course Hazel," Nico added, "who's the best in camp when it comes to manipulating the Mist."
"The three of us will be inside with you all night," Hazel said. "Hidden, of course. Centurion Lavinia will be outside with three of her best people, hunkering down in covered foxholes."
Orcus farted. "I am glad Yazan is here."
"Me, too, little guy," said the legionnaire. "Nobody's going to steal my buddy."
"We appreciate you all," Asterion said. "I am just sorry it has come to this."
"Ditto," said Nico. "All of you belong here."
"No, we don't!" Semele cried out from inside.
Asterion rolled his eyes. "Whatever happens, I thank you, demigods." He gathered Hazel and Nico into a tender hug. He smelled of wool and cowhide...not unpleasant odors at all. Sheltered in his massive arms, Nico felt safe and cared for, but also sad. If this huge and powerful mythic couldn't protect his companions, what hope did Nico have?
"You have done everything you could for us," the bull-man said. "I am honored to have you as friends."
A lump formed in Nico's throat. Asterion released him and led the others inside. From the threshold, Hazel glanced back at Nico one last time and mouthed Good luck. Then she closed the door behind her.
Will and Nico stood alone on the porch.
"I hate this," said Nico. "The whole situation makes me feel bad."
"I know," said Will. "It's bringing out the paranoia in everyone."
"Yeah, that's part of it." Nico watched the sunset turn to dark purple over the western hills. "There's more going on, though, and I can't piece it together."
"Then it's a good thing you're not doing this alone." Will smiled, hefting his backpack of endless supplies. "And I've got Kit Kats."
Nico's heart fluttered. A couple of years ago, he could not have imagined having an actual boyfriend. It hadn't even been a dream of his. He'd never dared to think that someone would stick with him through so many experiences like this. And yet here that someone was, ready to accompany him on every twist and turn of his journey.
It was going to be a long, nerve-racking night. But in that moment, Nico let Will be the balm to his scattered soul. The promise of Kit Kats didn't hurt, either.
Around midnight, a terrible, chilly wind whipped through the Berkeley Hills. Nico was grateful for his thick wool beanie—a gift from Asterion. In an upsetting turn of events, Will had actually had to change into pants. They were cargo pants, of course, and Nico was sure they were stuffed to the gills with first aid supplies, snacks, hand warmers, and whatever else Will thought they might need in the next four hundred years. (That boy was prepared for anything.) Nevertheless, Will seemed uncomfortable in fulllength trousers, as if he was worried the Surfer Boy Vibe Police might give him a citation for ruining his aesthetic.
When they'd stopped by the guest barracks for warmies, some of the Puffs had decided to join their adventure. Now, as Nico and Will stood with the forward sentries above the Caldecott Tunnel, the Puffs bounced around Will's feet, looking up at him with their demonic puppy-dog eyes, probably hoping he'd drop some food they could gobble up. The Puffs were smart. They knew Will was the guy with the snacks. Nico wondered if he should train them not to beg, but he decided it would be way funnier if he didn't.
Deion and Savannah were on duty at the tunnel entrance. It was a pretty miserable assignment on a blustery winter night, but both had volunteered. Nico doubted any intruder would march right up to the main entrance of camp, but he appreciated that the two demigods wanted to help.
Savannah in particular had been indispensable. She'd spent much of her watch talking over the Iris-network with teams who were having trouble, offering tessera tech support. "No, you don't have to shout." "Yes, just whisper the name." "No, please don't 'reply all.' " "Have you tried taking the bracelet off and putting it back on again?"
"That's gotta be overwhelming," Nico observed when she finished a service call.
Savannah smirked. "It's fine. Better once I figured out how to mute and hold messages so I'm not overhearing everyone's conversations at once."
"Smart," said Will. He poured her more hot chocolate (with marshmallows, naturally) from his thermos. Nico knew he and Will should probably shadow-travel elsewhere and check on the other teams, but he'd been popping around the valley all night. He would have passed out hours ago if not for adrenaline, sugar, and caffeine. Besides, the Caldecott sentries were allowed to keep a fire going in their brazier. Fire was warm.
Deion took off his helmet and tied back his locs. He peered across the lights of the East Bay flats, glittering in the cold like diamonds on black velvet.
"So, what exactly are we watching for?" Deion asked. "I've seen zilch."
"Anything out of the ordinary," said Will.
"That doesn't narrow it down." Savannah squinted at Nico. "Do you really think someone is sneaking into camp and capturing monst—" She caught her choice of words. "Sorry. Mythics."
Nico leaned against the parapet. "We don't exactly know. But we'll find out."
Savannah still looked troubled. The cacodemon Guilt skittered toward her, its long legs making it look like a tarantula wreathed in inky black vapor. It stared up at Savannah as if it recognized a fellow sufferer.
"This isn't your fault," Nico told her. "It kinda feels like it is," she murmured.
"Come on," said Deion. "Don't say that."
Savannah faced him. "Easy for you to say. You make friends with everybody, even a farting griffin. Me? I had a meltdown. I blamed Arielle for something she didn't do! I hurt her. I wished she would go away. I wanted them all to go away, and now..."
Deion didn't reply. He just stood beside her, scanning the hillside. Guilt rolled around at her feet, showing off his smoky belly.
"Sorry," Savannah said softly. "I didn't mean to take out my problems on you. I seem to be doing that a lot."
"It's cool." Deion gave her a smile. " 'Least you don't fart when you're nervous. As far as I can tell."
Savannah punched him playfully. Will refilled everybody's cups, because there was no problem hot chocolate couldn't make better.
"We all do it," Will said. "I mean, lash out sometimes. Not fart. Although I guess we all do that, too."
Nico cleared his throat. "I think what my boyfriend is trying to say, in his fumbling but adorable way, is that we all make mistakes. Will can attest to how many times I've said something completely out of line when I've been upset."
"But not like this," said Savannah. "If something has happened to Arielle..."
Sadness washed over Nico. "You know, I once blamed a really good friend because my sister died. Blamed him for a long time, too."
He could sense both Deion and Savannah staring at him, but he pushed past his discomfort. He knew he needed to talk about this.
"She died so far away from me. There was nothing I could do about it, but I thought that my friend...I thought he could have done something and simply didn't try hard enough. And I hated him for it."
Despite the fact that it had been years since Bianca's death—and only months since the last time he'd spoken with her in the Underworld—Nico's eyes blurred. He swayed a little.
He turned to the campers with a sorrowful smile. "I'm still grieving. But I realize that I was so angry and afraid, I found the easiest person to blame. I gave him every ounce of my rage and my sadness."
"And now?" Savannah asked.
Nico shrugged. "It was a process, but we're friends again. The hardest part was learning to live with that little guy." He pointed to Guilt, which was rolling on its back, legs flailing, just begging for Savannah to scratch its shadowy tummy.
Will gazed at the city below them. "I've learned that grief is...weird. I lost a lot of friends in the Battle of Manhattan. One was a sibling—an older brother from the Apollo cabin. I was so furious that he was gone. Then, right after he died, I got the chance to save someone else. Inexplicably, that healed a part of me. I think I would have been so much worse off if that hadn't happened."
Savannah wiped away a tear. "I guess I haven't even really had a chance to be sad about my parents. I was with Lupa so soon after they died. Then I came here."
"And then you saw Arielle." Deion patted her shoulder. "After what happened to your folks, that would mess up anybody. You shouldn't be so hard on yourself. When we find Arielle, you two can talk. I'm sure that will make you both feel better."
He winked at Nico and Will. "And we will find her, right? You two survived Tartarus. You can do anything."
"Oh, gods, that's right." Savannah sniffled. "Here I am talking about my own problems, and you guys have been through so much worse."
"Hey," Nico said, "everyone's pain is valid. Dionysus told me that, and he should know. He is a pain."
Savannah laughed for the first time Nico had heard. "Still," she said, "you're both kind of celebrities."
Deion nodded. "For real. Everyone is talking about you all time. You must have noticed?"
Nico and Will exchanged a look.
"Is that what the legionnaires have been whispering about?" asked Will. "I kind of assumed they were complaining about Asterion and his friends."
"I mean...okay, that's most of it," Deion admitted. "But you two are a big deal!"
Savannah sipped her hot chocolate. "To be fair, we'll gossip about anything. Don't you guys do that over in the Greek camp? The boys are especially bad."
"We are not!" said Deion. Then he glanced at Nico and mouthed We are.
Nico smiled. It made him feel better to know that not all the whispering and gossiping he'd noticed in the mess hall was about the mythics.
He knew Asterion's group meant no harm. The bigger problem was getting the legionnaires to believe that. If Deion and even Savannah could learn to be more open-minded, maybe there was a chance, and that could change everything.
Bob had done that for Nico. The Titan had chosen to be something different than what he had been destined for at birth. And wasn't that exactly what Nico had done himself over the past six months?
He'd been known as many things over the years: Death Boy, the Ghost King, Grumpy Little Ball of Darkness. Inherent in all of them: He was different. He was not like anyone else. He certainly had no aversion to being associated with darkness. He loved that part of himself. But sometimes being on the outside was hard. It made it easy for him to empathize with Asterion and his friends, who'd been rejected by their own kind and were now struggling in a world that couldn't see them as anything but monsters.
Nico wanted to bridge that gap. He wanted to show the Romans and mythics that it was possible to choose something better than fear and mistrust. If Bob could do it, maybe there was hope for the rest of them.
He watched the younger demigods chat while their eyes kept scanning the horizon for any threats, but there was nothing out of the ordinary within sight.
And at that moment, for no reason Nico could see, the Cocoa Puffs went into a frenzy. They raced around him, crashing into one another. Fear and Guilt grabbed on to Nico's bootlaces. Jealousy prodded his ankle with its pointy tusks, flooding his mind with bitter images: Annabeth reaching for Percy's hand. Sally Jackson speaking fondly about her son while handing out homemade blue cookies.
The hairs rose on the back of Nico's neck. Jealousy's touch seemed to sharpen his senses. He felt something moving toward them from the west, like a low-pressure zone before a storm.
"Nico?" asked Will. "Why are the Puffs so upset?"
"I sense something," he said. "We're being watched."
Deion frowned. "Are you sure?"
Nico glanced down at the freeway. He didn't see anything, but dread was building in his stomach.
"Hold on," Savannah said, setting down her cup. "Frank's calling."
She raised her bracelet and listened.
The temperature dropped as if Nico had stepped into a freezer. His breath steamed. The Puffs mewled and howled.
Will shivered. "I think you're right. I can feel it now too."
Savannah spoke urgently into her tessera. "Hold on. What? Wait, someone else is calling."
Nico raised his own tessera. "Terminus! We need you here now."
CRASH! The sound came from Nico's tessera. A split second later, another one echoed from Savannah's pendant. A cacophony of voices shattered the night air. "Something's here!" "Terminus!" "Hazel!" "Where is it?" "Frank!" "Terminus!"
Deion gripped his spear, looking around wildly for some invisible foe to fight.
Light exploded from their tesserae. Every Iris-message from every pendant blazed overhead at full brightness, blinding Nico and burning the afterimage of a hundred rainbow spheres onto his eyes.
Just as suddenly, the lights flickered out. From Nico's tessera came a noise like wet breathing into a microphone, followed by a distorted voice.
"What is this shiny toy?" The speaker sounded like an old woman...like La Befana, the Christmas witch from the fables Nico had grown up with. "Oh, how clever! I think I'll keep it. And Hazel Levesque...interfering with a duly appointed officer of the court? Tsk, tsk. You shall be next!"
The voice went silent. The tesserae grew so hot that the demigods had to pull them off and throw them to the ground, where they lay smoking like blown fuses.
"What just happened?" Savannah asked.
Panic constricted Nico's throat. "Hazel. Hazel's in trouble!" He grabbed Will's hand, summoned a hasty mental image of the mythics' quarters, and pulled his boyfriend into the shadow world.
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