Page 23 of The Court of the Dead (The Nico di Angelo Adventures #2)

Asterion placed his meaty fists on the tabletop. He lowered his voice. “When we first met, Nico, I told you there had been rare exceptions among the denizens of Tartarus before—mythics who did not want to be monsters.”

“Exactly,” said Johan. “And it appears that things did not end well for them.”

“What does that mean?” Frank asked.

“I’m not sure,” said Johan. “They were judged . Punished. Never seen again.”

Nico suddenly felt as cold as his hamburger. “Who would do that? Whose voice are we hearing?”

Johan shrugged, which looked very strange on a guy with no head. “Honestly, Nico di Angelo, my first thought was your father. Pluto—er, Hades—is the king of the Underworld.”

“No,” Nico said. “I know Hades’s voice. I know the way he works. This isn’t him.”

“Agreed,” Hazel said. “Could it have been another god or Titan? Lots of possibilities down in Tartarus.”

Nico and Will locked eyes. They’d had plenty of firsthand experience with cranky primordials in the abyss. But that didn’t feel like the right answer to Nico.

“I don’t think so,” he said.

Johan turned up his palms. “Well, we don’t know that someone is hunting us.

This voice could be some sort of echo from Tartarus itself, warning us to return home.

And who knows what happened to those previous mythics who tried to flee?

Even with the Mist hiding our presence, the mortal world will never be safe for us. ”

“But…” Asterion left that thought unfinished.

“But the voice has become harsher,” Johan said.

“More insistent the longer we stay in the upper world. The dreams have been worst for Arielle and Semele. I don’t know why.

The last one Semele had…the voice warned her that she should come out from Camp Jupiter and surrender.

If she didn’t do so willingly…she would be forced. ”

Frank’s expression hardened. “That settles it.”

Asterion lowered his snout. “If you wish us to leave, we shall.”

“What? No!” Frank slapped the table. “You have to stay. Until we figure out what’s going on, we need to keep you safe. You’re guests of the legion. Nobody threatens our guests!”

Hazel put her hand on Frank’s. “I agree.”

Asterion’s shoulder muscles unknotted. “Again, we are in your debt. Orcus will be especially relieved. He enjoyed making friends today with those two sentries.”

“And I still have lots of filing to do in the archives!” Johan added.

Nico couldn’t help but smile. Maybe it wasn’t much of a victory. The challenge of settling the mythics at Camp Jupiter seemed more difficult and dangerous than ever. But he felt a little hope, both at Johan’s excitement and at Frank’s epiphany.

“A lot to think about,” said Hazel. “Maybe we should sleep on it and pick up this conversation tomorrow?”

“Agreed,” said Asterion. “And thank you, Praetors. I am honored to call you my friends.”

With that, he and Johan left the mess hall, ignoring the frowns and muttered comments from the legionnaires.

Will pressed his fingers against his temples. “Remember when we thought this was only going to take a couple of days?”

Nico chuckled. “Yeah. Good job, Hazel. This somehow feels harder than an actual quest.”

She smiled sheepishly. “I definitely know how to pick ’em.”

“Hey.” Frank leaned over and kissed her cheek. “We’re learning— I’m learning. And we know that the right choice is never easy.”

“Thanks,” she said. “I appreciate you saying that.”

The two couples finished their meal with no more talk about mythics or threatening nightmares. Nico tried to hold on to that glimmer of hopefulness.

We’re going to figure this out , he told himself. He just wished he could make himself believe it.

That night, he had another dream. He was sitting in a cold metal chair in the middle of a dark room. The only exit was a closed door just in front of him. Light seeped in around its edges. The shadows of two feet shifted restlessly across the threshold. Someone—or some thing —knocked.

Nico wanted to answer, if only to confront his fears. But he couldn’t stand. Couldn’t even speak. The most horrible feeling filled him: this was the final moment of his life. As the son of Hades, he could sense death. That was what waited for him on the other side of the door: his final judgment.

The knob rattled. Nico braced himself. The knocking became more insistent. Something heavy banged against the door….

Nico woke with a start. His Cocoa Puffs were cuddled around him in his bunk, but they’d woken up too, their glowing white eyes like polka dots in the darkness.

The door of the guest barracks swung open. Standing there, silhouetted in the moonlight, was Hazel, still in her sleep bonnet.

“Nico, Will.” Her voice trembled with emotion. “Get dressed. Arielle is missing.”

Nico was thankful he’d grabbed his bomber jacket.

The predawn air was cold and damp. On their way across the Field of Mars, Hazel deflected their questions with “I don’t know” and “Asterion will explain.” The Puffs bounced along excitedly behind Nico, perhaps wondering where they were going and whether there would be new emotions to play with.

When they arrived at the mythics’ quarters, they found the whole group standing outside on the porch in various states of undress. Asterion wore a blue knit sleeping gown that must have required the wool of an entire sheep’s herd.

“Thank you for coming,” he said. “I sent Semele to wake Hazel as soon as I realized Arielle wasn’t here.”

“What happened?” asked Nico, his nerves still jangling from his nightmare. “Where could she have gone?”

Quinoa crossed his pudgy little arms. “If we knew that, genius, we wouldn’t have raised the alarm, and we wouldn’t be standing out here in our pajamas!”

The karpos’s loincloth looked no different than usual, but Nico decided that wasn’t the most important matter at hand.

“Okay,” Will said. “Could she just be, I don’t know, taking a walk? Trying to clear her head?”

Orcus squawked. He wore the world’s tiniest nightcap, which under different circumstances would have made Nico pass out from cuteness overload.

“A walk?” The griffin practically spat the words at him. “One does not simply walk through the Field of Mars at four in the morning! It’s a literal minefield!”

“Please, Orcus,” said Johan. Strapped across the top of his shoulders was a sleeping mask that looked like a giant bra. “I know we are on edge, but yelling at each other isn’t polite.”

The griffin glared at the blemmyae. “I’m going to fly another circle around the valley. Just to be sure.”

Before Nico could remind him about the dangers of highways, Orcus launched himself into the dark sky.

Hazel scanned the fields, as if she might be able to make Arielle show herself just by concentrating hard enough. “Frank is organizing search groups. We’ll sweep the camp and the city, but it’s a big area.”

Nico grimaced. If the legionnaires disliked the mythics before, they weren’t going to love getting up even earlier than usual to search for the missing empousa.

“What if she chose to leave, like she’s been threatening to do?” Nico hated asking, but he had to. “I mean, after yesterday, I wouldn’t blame her.”

Asterion’s nostrils flared. “I do not believe she was in any condition to leave. Her wounded arm was in a sling. She was listless and depressed. She had not eaten in several days.”

“Besides,” Johan said, “I made her a nice cup of herbal tea to help her relax. She was the first one of us to fall asleep. And all her things are still in her room.”

Quinoa grunted. “Not that she has a lot of things. Mostly just stuff Asterion knitted for her.”

Asterion nodded. “Surely she would have taken the ‘I Luv Demigods’ sweater.”

Nico’s head spun. It wasn’t unheard of for people to disappear from a demigod camp.

Nico had heard stories of similar occurrences at Camp Half-Blood a few years ago.

But something wasn’t adding up. He felt like he was back in his nightmare.

Someone was knocking insistently on the door, trying to get in, but he couldn’t reach the knob.

Right next to him, Semele said, “What if someone took her?”

The eidolon’s voice nearly gave Nico a coronary. Once he knew where to look, he could discern the telltale signs of gray smoke, but Julius Caesar! He wondered if smoke could be spray-painted, maybe neon orange.

“You mean whoever has been speaking in your dreams?” he asked.

“Perhaps.” Semele sounded both angry and weary. “Although it’s clear some of you demigods hate Arielle and her kind.” She paused. “ Our kind. Is it so unbelievable that someone could have taken revenge on her?”

None of the demigods had an immediate response. Nico didn’t want Semele to be right. Would anyone in Camp Jupiter actually do that?

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” said Hazel. “I’ll go into the city and talk to Terminus.” She glanced at Will. “He’s the Roman god of boundaries. If anyone knows whether Arielle left the valley, he will. Meet you back at the mess hall for breakfast?”

Nico watched as she trudged away. He felt terrible for her, knowing she’d soon have to make an announcement to the whole legion, and if she didn’t have any hard information to share, the legionnaires would jump to more wild conclusions.

Meanwhile, Will did his best to console the other mythics. He assured them Arielle would be found.

“I hope you are right,” said Asterion. “I do not think a demigod harmed Arielle. I cannot believe she was taken by a dream voice. But we will stay in our quarters today, just to be safe.”

“Hey!” Quinoa protested. “I got an audition with the New Rome kindergarten today. I even made pots of dirt and seedlings for the kids! I ain’t missing my big chance!”

“Besides,” Semele said bitterly, “staying in our quarters won’t keep us safe. Arielle was taken from our quarters. We need to leave this place.”

“We will discuss this in private,” Asterion commanded, his voice gruff. “Come, all of you. Inside.”

Once the mythics were gone, Nico surveyed the Field of Mars. Gray light was just giving definition to the surrounding hills.

A feeling of danger needled his skin.

He sensed that someone was watching him.

Not Semele…something more powerful—larger, more malicious.

The last time he’d felt this was back in Tartarus, in the presence of Nyx.

He glanced down at his Puffs, who also seemed agitated.

They huddled around his ankles, pushing and shoving to get closer to Nico.

“What is it?” Will asked.

“I’m not sure,” Nico admitted. “Let’s get back to camp. I want to check on Savannah.”