Page 29 of The Court of the Dead (The Nico di Angelo Adventures #2)

“Were you in physical contact with a Puff at the time?”

Nico remembered Jealousy prodding him with its tusks. “Yep.”

Hazel looked like she was running an equation in her head. She faced Semele. “Okay, so…as the daughter of Pluto, one of my abilities— growing abilities, I should say—is that I can manipulate the Mist.”

“I’m aware,” Semele said. “You made yourself and your comrades invisible tonight while you were on watch. It did not help.”

“Except it wasn’t really invisibility,” Hazel said. “That’s not how the Mist works.”

Johan stopped his pacing. “ ‘The Mist works more on the mind than the eyes.’ I read that in a treatise by Aristides of Pergamon!”

Nico had no idea who that was, but the comment seemed to make sense to Hazel.

“Right,” she said. “Usually, the Mist is generated when mortal minds encounter something magical that they can’t understand. That…friction, I guess you’d call it, creates alternate perceptions.”

Will frowned. “Okay, but…I thought that, as demigods, we see right through the Mist.”

“You see through it more easily ,” Hazel corrected. “But you can still be fooled, especially if someone is actively trying to manipulate you. You’ve encountered plenty of creatures that you didn’t realize were mythical at first, right?”

Will nodded sheepishly. “Point taken.”

Frank leaned against the stone wall. He looked like he was having trouble following Introductory Mist Theory with Hazel Levesque, especially since it was one o’clock in the morning. “Sorry…how does this help us?”

“Whatever is abducting the mythics,” Hazel said, “it has to be using the Mist. To put an entire room full of people asleep, to cause disturbances all around our borders, to kidnap someone as huge as Asterion—and to do all of that at once? Terminus must be right. We’re dealing with something like a minor god. ”

“Then it’s hopeless,” Johan said.

“No,” Frank said. “Terminus is a minor god. He’s not perfect.”

Until that moment, Nico had never really appreciated the power of understatement. But Frank had made his point. Everyone in the room nodded and looked thoughtful, as if imagining all the ways that a minor god might fail spectacularly.

“When multiple people are trying to manipulate the Mist,” Hazel said, “it becomes sort of like a poker game. It’s all about bluffing and calling, not necessarily who has the most powerful hand.

Tonight, the intruder got the drop on me.

I’d created a general illusion that I was blending in with the couch, but even that took a lot of energy.

The intruder called my bluff and convinced everyone in the room that they were super tired and needed to pass out.

I couldn’t respond because I didn’t know we were being attacked.

But maybe if I’d had a Cocoa Puff in my lap… ”

“The Puff would have warned you,” Nico said. “And being in contact with one heightens your emotions.”

“Which makes you more aware.” Hazel smiled. “That’s why you felt the intruder’s presence before anyone else did. Altogether, that should be enough warning for me to be prepared this time. At the very least, I can stay awake and put all my energy into revealing this intruder’s true form.”

Frank cracked his knuckles, which seemed like a very son-of-Mars thing to do. “And the rest of us will take them down, even if I have to throw Terminus at them.”

Orcus stomped his front two eagle feet impatiently. “I only understood about ten percent of that. But none of it explains why Arielle, Quinoa, and Asterion were taken!”

“One step at a time, child,” said Semele. Her tone had become less irritated, more pensive. She floated closer to Hazel. “We need to figure out who before we figure out why . Do you really think you can catch whoever has been kidnapping our friends, Praetor Levesque?”

“I do.”

“Using us as bait again,” Semele guessed.

“Not exactly.” Hazel turned toward Nico. “What did the voice in the tesserae say about me?”

The memory gave Nico goose bumps.

“That you would be next,” he said.

Frank grunted. “That’s not going to happen. We can wait in the principia’s vault tonight. It’s the most secure location in camp.”

Hazel nodded. “I’d like the mythics to join us there.

For safety in numbers. But your people aren’t the target tonight, Semele— I am.

That gives us the edge. We know who this intruder is coming for, which means we know they will appear wherever I am.

We won’t have to spread out trying to guard the whole valley. ”

“And if they try to take us on in the middle of Camp Jupiter, surrounded by the entire legion…” Frank bared his teeth.

Nico usually thought of Frank as a big, cuddly teddy bear. He’d forgotten how scary the guy could be when he showed his teddy-bear fangs.

Hazel focused on the gray smoke of the eidolon. “So…will you consider staying?”

Orcus and Johan stood motionless, waiting for Semele’s decision.

“It is dangerous,” she said. “But perhaps no more dangerous than striking out on our own. We will stay one more night.”

Nico exhaled with relief. Johan crouched, offering his hand to Orcus, who gave the blemmyae the tiniest of high fives.

“Now, if it is all right with you,” Semele continued, “we mythics need time to ourselves—to grieve, to rest, to prepare.”

The demigods got the message. They filed out of the mythics’ quarters into the night. On the Field of Mars, Terminus had conjured up several hundred feet of yellow police tape and had created a perimeter around the building.

“This is an active crime scene!” he announced. “No one may leave without my permission!”

“I’m going to bed,” Hazel said, walking past him.

“Okay, fine,” Terminus grumbled. “You can go.”

Will walked up to the nearest line of tape.

“And you, too,” said Terminus.

When Nico smirked at the minor god, he sighed. “And you. You can ALL go, but only because I gave permission.”

As they headed back to camp, the last thing Nico heard was Terminus ordering a very confused Maynard Thee Faun to start dusting the scene for godly fingerprints.

Maybe Frank was right. Minor gods weren’t unbeatable.

Nico put a hand on Hazel’s shoulder. “That was impressive back there. Can we strategize more over breakfast?”

She yawned. “Actually, let’s make it lunchtime. I should get some real, not-Mist-induced sleep.”

“Sleeping late doesn’t sound very Roman,” he noted.

“Zip it, di Angelo.”

He smiled. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

“And we’re going to keep her okay,” Frank vowed. “I just hope you two know what you’re doing. All this cacodemon and Mist talk…” He shook his head. “I’d prefer a straight-up fight.”

“So would I,” Will admitted, “and I hate fighting. But one thing I’ve learned about children of the Underworld: they are very resourceful, and they make excellent partners.” He winked at Nico.

“Hmm,” Frank said. “Well, I can’t disagree with that, or Hazel will punch me.”

She laughed and punched him regardless, in the most loving way possible.

“See you at lunch,” she told Nico and Will. “We’ll take it one step at a time, okay?”

She looped her arm through Frank’s and led him toward the principia.

Nico tried to stay positive. He tried not to think about Asterion’s empty room, or their utter failure tonight, or the witch’s voice over the tesserae.

She had called herself an officer of the court…

but what court? Who was judging, and what were the crimes?

Even more worrisome, what were the punishments?

He would have to trust in their plan for tonight. Hazel would be fine. They would get their answers.

One step at a time , he repeated to himself. He could do that.