Page 52 of The Court of the Dead (The Nico di Angelo Adventures #2)

Will gave Nico a pointed look. “Thank you! I thought the same thing.”

Nico crossed his arms. “I hope you know just how bizarre this is for me. You and your mom are barely different people. She’s just a bit extra.”

As if on cue, they both smiled ear to ear.

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” said Naomi. “And you’re right. Will does take after me the most.”

That boggled Nico’s mind. In the equation Naomi Solace + Apollo, Apollo had contributed the calmer half of Will’s personality.

Naomi turned to Johan again. “By the way, this Darjeeling blend is excellent.”

Johan’s enormous eyes teared up. “It is so rare to meet a fellow tea enthusiast. Would you like to tour the archive downstairs? I’ve just re-cataloged our entire collection of magic dangly straps!”

“Maybe later, Johan,” said Frank, who seemed a bit in over his head. “We have to do some planning.”

“Oh.” Johan pouted with his entire chest. “Of course, Praetor.”

Naomi winked at the blemmyae. “But I’m sure the dangly straps are amazing.”

The group circled around the praetors’ desk.

“Okay, Mom, tell us everything you can about what you saw and heard,” said Will. “No matter how small the detail. Everything is going to help us.”

Naomi launched into a thorough and animated recounting of her morning in the park—the mythics, the barrier, her talk with Hazel and Asterion.

Nico realized that she was a natural storyteller, so it made sense that she related stories through music for a living.

He also loved getting to see his boyfriend interact with his mom.

It was like the last piece of the Will Solace puzzle had finally fallen into place.

When Naomi was done, Semele was the first to speak. “Breaking the Mist…Is such a thing possible?”

Johan sipped his tea, which he managed to do daintily, despite the tiny cup and his huge mouth.

“I would have to do more research. The closest parallel I can think of is the Trojan War. So many gods and spirits were involved on both sides of that battle, the Mist became unreliable. Mortals ended up seeing the gods in action. Rivers boiled from the intense magic. The earth shattered. Storms raged for months. Homer wrote a book about it.”

Frank scowled. “I’d like to avoid that scenario, and also not have a book written about us. Why would Pirithous want to get Pluto’s attention like that? It seems…suicidal.”

“He must have a plan,” Nico said. “Some way to force Hades’s—er, Pluto’s—hand. Maybe he wants to threaten him or imprison him somehow?”

“Ah…” Johan patted his stack of dusty manuscripts.

“I don’t believe a dodecahedron would have that power.

Nor do I know what plan Pirithous might have, exactly.

But I did find out more about him. He was the best friend of Theseus.

Pirithous was considered by many to be his equal in skill and strength. ”

“I know about Theseus,” Naomi volunteered. “He killed the Minotaur, right? I mean…your friend Asterion. But I’ve never heard of Pirithous.”

Johan poured her more of his Darjeeling blend.

“Indeed, that is part of the problem. Pirithous has been nearly forgotten. In life, he always felt like he was in Theseus’s shadow.

No one took him seriously. The two friends once made a pact to help each other win wives, no matter what it took. Theseus chose Helen of Sparta.”

Will’s eyes widened. “As in ‘the face that launched a thousand ships,’ the most beautiful woman who ever lived— that Helen?”

Johan gave him a bow-nod. “Pirithous helped Theseus kidnap her. Then Pirithous felt the need to one-up Theseus…but whom could he choose who was even more beautiful and difficult to capture?” The blemmyae paused dramatically, waiting for their guesses.

“I don’t know,” Naomi said at last. “But I’m loving the drama.”

Johan turned to Nico. “He chose Persephone, the wife of your father.”

Suddenly Nico was glad for his hot cup of tea, because his whole body felt cold. “That explains why he has a grudge against my dad. I assume the kidnapping failed, and Hades punished them?”

“Quite so,” said the blemmyae. “Theseus and Pirithous stopped in the Fields of Asphodel to rest on their way to the palace. They fell asleep on a large slab of rock. When they woke, they had both sunk halfway into the stone. Hades left them there for daring to try kidnapping his wife. Eventually, Hercules came along….”

Will huffed in irritation. “It’s always Hercules.”

“He freed Theseus,” Johan continued. “But when he tried to pull out Pirithous, the entire Underworld shook. Hades would not let him be released, so Hercules had to leave him there. And so Pirithous remained…forever, according to the stories.”

Naomi sipped her tea with great appreciation. “I am so writing a song about that.”

The rest of the group sat in pensive silence.

“Okay,” Frank said, “we know why this guy is angry. He thinks he was punished unfairly. Now he wants to punish literally everyone else, especially Pluto and every soul and mythic in his kingdom. He wants to set himself up as the ultimate judge of the dead. He’s got delusions of grandeur.”

Semele’s column of smoke drifted across the table, mixing with the steam from the teapot.

“That does not make him any less dangerous. He has minor gods in his employ. He has managed to imprison hundreds. We must rescue our friends, but we must assume the Court of the Dead has a plan for this…and tricks they have not yet revealed.”

“So what’s the plan?” asked Naomi.

Will frowned. “The plan is that you will stay far, far away from this, Mom.”

“What?” she protested. “Are you really trying to tell your mother she can’t come along?”

Will pressed his lips together, and despite the grim situation, Nico had to hold back a laugh.

“Ms. Solace—” Frank began.

“Naomi.”

He sighed. “Naomi, this isn’t exactly a field trip. We’re going to face real danger.”

“Hmph.” She sipped more tea. “You’ve clearly never been a woman on a concert tour. I can handle myself.”

“I like her,” said Semele. “She’s scrappy.”

“Mom…” Will squirmed. “Like you said, this is my world. I have demigod abilities to help keep me alive, but you…I don’t want you getting hurt.”

Will’s mom was quiet for a moment. “Okay,” she said. “I hear you. Let me at least hitch a ride with you back to the city. How are you getting there?”

It was Frank’s turn to squirm. “We have a Chevy Express van….”

“Well, there you go!” Naomi said. “My first truck was a Chevy! I’ll be your wheel girl! And right there’s another song—‘Wheel Girl.’ My goodness, I’m gonna get a whole album out of this.” She started typing notes into her phone.

Will wrinkled his nose but finally nodded in agreement.

“All right, then,” Frank said. “As far as breaking this dodecahedron cage…”

“Oh, that part is easy enough from the outside,” Johan assured him. “We will have to be careful, of course, but it can be done. I must assume, however, that as soon as the cage is broken, the Court of the Dead will know. And they will come to investigate.”

“And then I will eat them all!” Orcus exclaimed. “Er, one at a time, of course.”

Naomi leaned over to her son. “Is this the kinda stuff you deal with regularly? It’s very exciting!”

“I mean…not all the time,” he said. “At camp, I’m mostly teaching field-medic skills or making sure campers get to bed on time. This dramatic stuff only happens, like, once a year.”

“Twice,” said Nico. “Tartarus was only a few months ago.”

“Three times,” said Frank. “We defeated Nero just prior to that.”

Will’s smile was eroding. “So…yeah! Not all the time.”

Naomi raised an eyebrow. “Well, we’ll talk more about this later.”

His face flushed red again. “Yes, Mom.”

Nico had never seen his boyfriend blush so many times in one day. It was the greatest gift he could imagine.

“So,” said Semele, “when do we leave?”

“I need to stop by the armory at some point,” said Will. “To stock up on arrows and get my bow.”

“Let’s meet in half an hour, then,” said Frank. “I’ll have the demigods ready. Nico, gather the Cocoa Puffs, okay?”

“Half an hour,” said Nico. “We’ll be there.”

With that, the group dispersed. Will and Nico led Naomi back toward the mess hall to collect the cacodemons before they could completely gorge themselves on table scraps. If they went into nap mode, they’d be useless for the rest of the day.

“Semele seems nice,” Naomi mused. “Don’t you think so, Will?”

He smiled. “Mom, you know I like pretty much everyone .”

She kissed his cheek. “Just like me.”

Nico smiled, and not only because of the great company. For the first time in days, the hope he was clinging to felt very real.