Page 22 of The Court of the Dead (The Nico di Angelo Adventures #2)

D inner that night was tense. Stories about what had happened to Savannah had spread through camp, and from the whispers and snippets that Nico caught, most of them were false.

One claimed that Arielle had attacked Savannah and taunted her about her parents’ death.

Another said that Arielle had come to Camp Jupiter specifically to torment her victim further.

Nico did his best to set the record straight, but gossip was harder to kill than the Lernaean Hydra. As he sat at the head table with Will, Hazel, and Frank, he was angry.

He stabbed his hamburger with his fork, which wasn’t fair to the burger. “If I’d known Savannah had lost her parents to an empousa attack, I would never have asked her to train with Arielle.”

Hazel and Frank exchanged an embarrassed look.

“We didn’t know ourselves until you told us,” said Hazel. “All Savannah ever shared was that her parents died shortly before Lupa found her.”

Frank turned to Will. “Lupa’s the wolf goddess who finds Roman demigods and leads them to camp. She, ah, doesn’t usually give us much context about the recruits she brings.”

Hazel pushed around her French fries half-heartedly. “This is a disaster. What have I done?”

Will squeezed her hand. “There’s no point in trying to assign blame. We just have to figure out what to do now.”

“And what is that, exactly?” Nico grumbled.

The table fell into silence. The four demigods stared at their food.

Frank sighed. “Hazel, you know I love you, and you know that I think you did the right thing by letting Asterion and his friends stay here.”

Her face fell. “But now you think I should ask them to leave?”

“No,” he said. “I mean…Gods, I don’t know. It’s just…as praetor, I have to put the safety of our demigods first, right?”

Hazel glared at her boyfriend. “Do you think I’m not?”

“That’s not what I said!”

“Hey,” Will interceded. “We’re all on the same side here. Let’s take a breath.”

Hazel scowled, clearly in no mood to take a breath. “Arielle did nothing wrong. Can we at least agree that she is not the empousa who killed Savannah’s parents?”

“Of course she isn’t,” said Frank, but then he hesitated. “I think?”

Nico shook his head. “I saw the way she reacted when Savannah accused her. She was surprised, shocked, even insulted. There’s no way it was her.”

“And yet…” Frank scanned the room. No laughter tonight. No smiles. Just hushed conversations and grim expressions. Fear hung in the air, sharp and heavier than the grease from the deep fryers.

With impeccably bad timing, Asterion and Johan chose that moment to walk into the mess hall. The whispering died. Heads turned. Asterion froze like…well, a bull in headlights. He touched Johan’s arm, perhaps about to suggest they turn around and settle for tea and cookies back at their quarters.

Nico’s anger boiled to the surface. He stood and called, “Asterion! Johan! Come join us!”

“Nico…?” Will murmured. Nico assumed the rest of his question would have been are you trying to start a riot?

After a moment’s hesitation, Asterion and Johan made their way to the praetors’ table.

The legionnaires returned to their meals, trying to ignore the mythics.

Nico had to give the Romans credit for one thing: they were more disciplined than the Greeks.

If this had been Camp Half-Blood, he was pretty sure the mess hall would have devolved into name-calling, hamburger-throwing, and fistfights.

“Hello, demigods,” Asterion said, his voice somber. “I’ve told Arielle to stay within the confines of our shelter tonight. How is the girl?”

“She’s okay,” said Will. “She’s resting in her barracks right now.”

“I am glad.”

The bull-man remained standing. It was clear to Nico that Asterion didn’t know what to say or do next, any more than they did.

“Ooh,” Johan said, apparently not reading the mood. “Will Solace, I would like to eat your hamburger.”

Will pushed his tray over. “Have at it.”

Johan took a seat and rubbed his hands eagerly. “Thank you. I am learning to set boundaries!”

Nico started to say something about boundaries not extending to other people’s food, but he decided not to. It wasn’t polite to correct people. Also, at least one of them should enjoy dinner.

“Asterion,” Frank said, shifting in his chair, “there isn’t any possibility that Arielle—?”

“No.”

“You didn’t let me finish my question.”

“Because I already know what you will ask. Could Arielle indeed be the empousa who stole that young girl’s parents from her? The answer is no. Arielle is my oldest friend. She was, in fact, the one who convinced me that we did not have to hunt and kill demigods.”

Hazel gave Frank a pointed look. Nico tried not to do the same, because he didn’t want to kill the guy with pointed looks.

“I’m sorry for doubting,” Frank said.

The bull-man bowed his head. “I do not blame you, Praetor Zhang. We were once monsters. Our entire purpose was to bring torment and death to your world. Many of us have returned over and over to act out this destiny. And, let us be honest, my friends and I are the exceptions. Most of our kindred in Tartarus are still monsters. Can we blame mortals for despising the sight of us?”

“I think I’ve been too hung up on that,” said Frank, and he bowed his head. “My anger…sometimes it gets the best of me.”

“That is understandable, demigod,” said Asterion. “We mythics are constantly in touch with our anger, and we know how easily it can distract us.”

“But I should know better,” he said, and then looked to Hazel. “Remember how hard it was for me to control my shape-shifting when I was younger?”

Her eyes went wide. “Oh. Oh . I kinda forgot about that. You’re such an expert these days!”

Johan furrowed his mighty, muscular brow, which was a sight that Nico’s mind couldn’t quite wrap itself around. “I am confused, Praetor Frank. Shape-shifting? Is that something all demigods can do?”

Frank laughed. “Very few, actually. It’s one of the neat things about being a legacy. My family is descended from Poseidon’s grandson Periclymenus, so most of us can shape-shift.”

“That’s so cool !” said Will, his eyes alight with awe. “Quick, change into a blueberry muffin!”

“He can’t shape-shift into food, only living creatures,” said Hazel.

“Well, not with that attitude,” said Nico, grinning.

“One time he destroyed the barracks by morphing into a large, angry hippopotamus.” She shook her head. “Certainly no Moo Deng.”

“Not the point!” said Frank, and he gazed at Johan and Asterion again. “What I was trying to say is that I remember how hard it was to be different, especially when I couldn’t control my changes. It was so isolating and lonely .”

“Yes,” said Asterion somberly. “That is…how most of us feel. This is why Arielle wants us to leave.”

“And…what do you think of that idea?” asked Will. He was probably the best of them to ask that question. He was able to make it sound simply interested, rather than hopeful or disapproving.

Asterion’s hesitation filled Nico with dread. “I do not believe she is right. There is nowhere for us to go. We have been rejected by our own kind. We would not be welcomed back to Tartarus.”

Johan had been trying to savor Will’s hamburger, eating it in small bites, but this was difficult since his mouth was so enormous. Finally, he emptied the whole plate into his abdominal cavity and chewed with gusto.

“Yum!” he said. “I will now eat everyone else’s food.”

“No,” Will said gently. “Because I am setting boundaries.”

“Oh!” Johan looked delighted. “That was very good, Will Solace! We are learning together!”

Nico was hesitant to bring down the one person who was enjoying himself, but he felt like he needed to ask. “Johan…yesterday Semele told me you might know more about, er, the threats you would face if you left camp. Is there anything you can tell us?”

The blemmyae turned his huge blue eyes toward Asterion.

“Speak freely.” The bull-man sounded melancholy.

Johan dabbed his mouth with Will’s napkin. “This may be difficult for you to understand, but we mythics often see and hear things while we sleep. Sometimes these experiences are quite vivid. We call them dreams .”

The demigods all looked at one another like, Who’s going to tell him?

“We have those too,” Nico said at last.

Johan gasped.

Asterion looked startled. “Truly?”

“Fascinating,” Johan said. “It seems demigod brains are almost mythic-like in their complexity! But perhaps your dreams are not glimpses of actual events, or omens, or voices of enemies taunting you.”

“No,” Hazel said. “For demigods, they are.”

Johan’s entire chest transformed in an expression of wonder. “I should be writing this down. This is groundbreaking!”

“Tell them about the warnings,” Asterion urged.

Johan looked around nervously, as if spies might be eavesdropping. “Ever since we began our climb from Tartarus, we have been hearing a voice in our dreams—a man’s voice, issuing dire threats.”

Nico’s mouth felt dry. “Does this voice say you’ll be judged? Found guilty?”

Everyone at the table stared at him.

“How did you know that?” Johan asked.

“I’m curious too,” said Will, a hint of reprimand in his voice.

“I’ve had similar dreams,” Nico admitted. “Ever since I got here. I didn’t think…Well, I didn’t know what to make of them, so I haven’t mentioned them. Also, we’ve been kind of busy.”

Asterion grunted. “I suppose we did not mention them for much the same reason. In our dreams, it is difficult to know what is real and what is”—he searched for the right word—“noise.”

Hazel looked troubled. “But if you’re all having similar dreams…”

“That’s what I said!” Johan leaned forward until his sternum-nose touched the table.

“I’ve been doing some reading. There’s a remarkable bookstore in New Rome run by a Cyclops and a harpy—lovely people!

Anyway, I found some old stories, accounts of something like this happening before to other mythics. ”