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This time, Nico didn’t let him finish. He lurched forward and wrapped his arms around his father.

Who was solid.

Who wasreally there.

Nico had never been one to show affection towards Hades in the past, but he was raw from what he’d just been through. He was alsoafraid. If the god was here in his dream, then he had to know where Nico was in real life.

‘Father,’ he muttered into Hades’s suit, ‘I’m sorry. I know you said not to return to Tartarus, but Ihadto.’

‘I know, Nico,’ he said, and Nico felt his father’s hands on his back, running up and down his bomber jacket.

‘I promise I wouldn’t have done it if –’

‘I said I know.’

Those words sounded more like the Hades that Nico knew – gruff and cold. He pulled away. ‘Are you mad at me?’

Hades sighed. ‘I could hardly be angry with you after I sent you that prophecy.’

‘What?’

Hades gestured to the bed. ‘Sit, my son. We must talk.’

‘Yousent it to me?’

His father raised an eyebrow. ‘You have no idea howloudBob was getting towards the end.’

Nico sat on the edge of the bed nearest his mother, and sheimmediately reached out to him. When he took Maria’s hand, he trembled.

Somehow she was both there andnotthere.

‘I don’t understand,’ said Nico. ‘The prophecy, Bob,this. What’s going on?’

‘Though the Underworld is my realm, I am often restricted in my movements,’ said Hades. He sat to Nico’s left and put his hat aside, then gazed at him with his dark eyes. ‘I believed there was no demigod better suited to rescuing Bob from Nyx’s clutches than you.’

Nico barked a laugh – he couldn’t help himself.

‘I fail to see what is so amusing,’ said Hades.

Nico grinned. ‘I just remember a time when you were annoyed that I wasn’t as good as Bianca at being a demigod.’

Hades frowned. ‘I never said that.’

‘Totally did,’ said Nico.

‘That doesn’t sound like me.’

Bianca hid a laugh in a cough, and Maria scowled at Hades.

‘Okay, perhaps that is true,’ the god allowed. ‘But you have grown so much over the years and have proven yourself time and time again.’

‘But … Father, it’sTartarus,’ said Nico. ‘You know I got captured there once. You know what I went through. Why would you want to send me back?’

Hades looked to Maria again, and this time she glared at him, as if to sayI’d like to know the answer, too.

Hades squared his broad shoulders and turned back to Nico. ‘Sometimes we gods can be a bit … calculating. We see things in a way that makes logical sense to us, yet our actions can have disastrous consequences for mortals.’

He nodded at Maria. ‘And sometimes mortals end up paying the price for our actions.’