Page 15 of The Court of the Dead (The Nico di Angelo Adventures #2)

Nico fought down his irritation. “Then what’s keeping you here?” he asked. “You can go anywhere, can’t you?”

“Of course we can’t,” she snapped. “They’d eventually find us and—” She stopped herself.

“And what?” Nico pressed. “Who is they ?”

Arielle shook her head in disgust. The mythics looked glum. Maybe she’d been talking in general about the gods and other immortals who summoned creatures from Tartarus to do their bidding, but Nico got the sense she’d had a more specific they in mind.

“The important thing,” Asterion said, “is that here we are safe. We have a chance to build something new.”

“But are we safe?” Arielle demanded. “How long will it be until demigods attack us? Weeks? Days?”

“No one is attacking anyone!” Hazel said desperately.

Will and Nico exchanged a concerned look of agreement. This is already way more complicated than we expected.

“Okay,” said Will. “Just for the sake of discussion, what would you like to do if you stayed at Camp Jupiter? Other supernatural beings have made it work. The Lares. The wind spirits in the mess hall—”

“You want me to serve food to mortals?” Arielle’s eyes flashed like lightning. “That’s your idea?”

Will held his hands up. “No. I just thought—”

“We empousai were forced to serve Kronos, you know,” she continued.

“And after that, Gaea. We weren’t given much of a choice in their terrible wars.

Either we fought for them and caused untold devastation, or we would be snuffed out.

I have no interest in serving anyone. Not a Titan or a god, and certainly not a mortal.

I don’t want to be forced to do anything ever again! ”

“You won’t be,” said Hazel.

“How can I trust you?”

“Because Gaea manipulated me , too!”

The group fell silent. The pain in Hazel’s voice made Nico’s heart ache.

The anger in Arielle’s eyes dimmed. “I did not know.”

“I don’t talk about it much,” said Hazel. “I lost my mother and my life because of Gaea. If it wasn’t for Nico here, I’d still be wandering the Fields of Asphodel.”

Orcus lifted his beak, sniffing the air around Hazel. “You died ? You smell very alive to me.”

“She is,” said Nico. “I found her down there and brought her back, gave her another chance at life. That’s what you all are looking for too, right?”

The mythics were silent, apparently pondering that idea.

Arielle’s expression softened. “I’m not promising anything, but I suppose I could help with combat training….” She talked like she was dipping a toe into a pool.

“She is fierce against her opponents,” confirmed Asterion.

Arielle kept her eyes still fixed on Hazel. “Also…I apologize for my hurtful comments, Praetor Levesque.”

“Thank you,” Hazel said. “And no pressure, but if you ever want to talk, I’m here.”

Arielle looked stunned, like she wasn’t sure how to process that offer. “I— Yes. That would be appreciated.”

Nico squeezed his sister’s hand, prouder than ever to be related to Hazel.

“Well,” he said, trying to keep the conversation moving, “what about anyone else? Any skills or powers that you feel like sharing?”

Quinoa hopped off his hydroponic bed, his leafy wings fluttering. He hiked up his burlap diaper and waddled over.

“Obviously, I’m a terror on the battlefield too,” he said in his gravelly voice. “But really, I wanna work with kids.”

“What?” cried Orcus, horrified. “Why would anyone want to work with children?”

Quinoa bared his fangs at the griffin, demonstrating just how cute and cuddly he would be with little ones. “You joking? Kids love me. We see eye to eye.”

Nico couldn’t argue with that. In fact, the grain spirit would’ve had to look up to most toddlers.

Will’s mouth twisted in confusion. “That’s— I mean…would you teach or—?”

“ ’Course!” Quinoa said. “I don’t want to criticize, but you mortals are absolute fertilizer when it comes to gardening.

Adults just don’t wanna hear it. You gotta start with the younger generation, teach ’em to respect the earth and whatnot.

That’s why you guys call it nursery school and kinder-garden, right? ”

Nico was pretty sure that’s not why kindergarten was called kindergarten, but he also didn’t want to get punched in the face by a pseudo-grain.

“Sounds great.” He looked at Hazel for support.

“Um, yes,” she said half-heartedly. “We do have primary school for the families in New Rome. I could ask.”

“RAWK!” Orcus let loose a nervous fart. “If that makes you happy, Quinoa. Me, I never want to be reminded of the young. Not wanting to have children is why I got exiled in the first place!”

“Wait, is that a bad thing among griffins?” Will asked.

“It is sacrilegious!” Orcus said, his voice rising in pitch.

“We griffins are expected to have as many hatchlings as possible to further our bloodline.” He shook his head and made a gagging sound.

“The idea makes me sick ! Sentencing others to this…this small, flatulent existence? I would rather do anything else than have children.”

“Oh, Orcus…” Asterion said in his deep, comforting voice, but the griffin’s next fart made it clear he did not want to be consoled on this subject.

“Well…” Hazel said into the awkward silence, “maybe you could help with camp surveillance. You’re pretty great at flying, right?”

Orcus immediately perked up. “Flying? I love flying!”

And with that, the griffin launched into the air. He looped around the rafters, dive-bombed Arielle, who shrieked in outrage, and then made a surprisingly delicate landing on Hazel’s shoulder, where he perched like a black-and-white cat parrot.

Nico offered him a wide smile. “You’re fast !”

Orcus preened. “I’m the fastest, boy!”

“Surveillance it is!” Hazel said excitedly. “I think you’d be a wonderful addition to the team.”

“I like the sound of that,” said Orcus.

Asterion smiled. “This conversation has been an excellent start. Now, Hazel, what will be the nature of our training with the Second Cohort?”

“Filing documents?” Johan said hopefully.

“Gardening?” asked Quinoa.

“Surveillance?” asked Orcus.

“Uh, well, just basic hand-to-hand combat today,” Hazel said. “You know, hitting each other with wooden swords and poles.”

“May I hit small children with these poles?” Quinoa asked. “They can hit me back.”

“No…no,” Hazel said, “just legionnaires.”

“Hmm.” Quinoa glowered. “Very well.”

Hazel’s shoulders sagged with relief. “Great. And I agree with Asterion. I think this is a good start!”

Asterion and his friends headed excitedly out the front door, except for Arielle, who trailed behind, literally dragging her bronze foot. As for Semele, Nico still had no idea if she was absent or observing quietly, but he supposed she could join in later….

They had to begin somewhere . So why not with a little light hand-to-hand combat training? Nico and Will would be there to supervise. What could possibly go wrong?

He would later ask Johan to file that in the archives under Famous Last Words.