Nico di Angelo wasn't exactly an emotive person—a trait he'd inherited from his father—but despite his typically immaculate façade of apathy and frigidity, there were some things in this world that even he couldn't avoid reacting to. Horrible things, like the death of his sister. Embarrassing things, like having one of his deepest secrets torn from within him and freely given away to another demigod.

Unequivocally catastrophic things, like his father sending him back to the mortal world for the summer.

"You have to socialize," Hades intoned, not sounding the least bit interested in his own words. "You have to, I don't know, be a normal child. Or something." He glanced to his wife, Demeter, who gave a curt nod to let him know he'd gotten something right.

"Normal child!?" Nico demanded. "Normal child?! I'm a demigod! I'm the son of one of the most powerful Olympians in the universe!"

"I'm not an Olympian," Hades interjected. "But the flattery is still appreciated."

"Nico," Demeter sighed. Her eyes drifted around the throne room in which the three of them were situated, lingering everywhere but on him. Typically, his stepmother went out of her way to avoid talking to him, which was understandable, considering he was living proof of her own husband's infidelity, but today she seemed determined to converse with him, if not make eye contact with him. Baby steps.

"This is for your own good," she insisted. "You spend too much time down here. No living being, neither god nor mortal, was built to withstand such long periods of time in the Underworld. None but your father."

Hades grunted.

"I'm half him," Nico reminded her, jabbing an accusatory finger at the Lord of the Dead. "And I happen to prefer the underworld."

The Queen of the harvest's eyes narrowed, though she still wouldn't look directly at Nico. "Maybe that is true, but it isn't good for you."

"Besides, we all know why you prefer it here." Hades turned his cool, dark gaze on his son, sending a shiver down Nico's spine. Was that a disapproving look? What did mean, exactly? What did he know?

"Oh, do we?" Demeter asked, sounding irritated that Hades had just now chosen to join the argument—willfully, at least.

"Sure." Hades straightened a little on his throne, running a hand over his carefully slicked-back hair. "Isn't it obvious? Tell her, Nico."

The son of Hades froze, all of his cocky defiance drying up as he glanced between the two gods before him. The silence stretched on for what felt like an eternity, growing heavier with each passing moment. Demeter still refused to look at him, but he could tell her attention was focused on him. Hades arched an eyebrow.

"I—I don't know what you mean." Nico muttered. Was he flushing? He felt like he was flushing. "I don't know why I like it here. Maybe I just have more of you than—than mom in me." Demeter made a displeased sound, and he flinched. "Bianca didn't seem anything like a child of the underworld. Maybe our genetics were unbalanced. Maybe she was mostly mom, and I'm just mostly you."

"That's…not how human genetics work." Hades answered, frowning. "Come on. We both know the real reason."

He turned to his wife then, and Nico ran a hand through his hair, wanting to speak up and stop him from saying…whatever he was about to say. You didn't interrupt gods, though. Not unless you had a death wish.

"He prefers being here," Hades began. "Because everyone up on the surface world is an obnoxious, idiotic, arrogant, self-centered piece of trash, and he knows he's better than them."

"Oh." Nico said. "Oh, okay."

Demeter waved a hand dismissively, a look of agitation on her face. "I'm going to pretend I didn't here any of that. And I'm tired of discussing this."

She truly did turn her gaze on Nico then, and he shivered in response, wishing she had kept passive aggressively ignoring him. Her eyes were dark and filled with power. "Your possessions have already been sent to your cabin. You're not to return to the underworld until I—" She cast a challenging look at her husband. "—explicitly give you permission to do so."

"But I can still require you to do missions for me." Hades added.

"No!" Demeter leapt to her feet. Her voice exploded into the room, and Nico flinched. "He needs to be a normal child, Hades! He needs to have at least one summer free of death and divine schemes!" Her eyes flickered to him. "At least, inasmuch as a child of yours can."

"That's not possible." Nico sighed. "Please, your majesty, just let me stay here. I promise, I'll stay out of your way. I'll—"

"No." Demeter turned to him, and beside her, Hades sighed and sunk into his throne. "You will leave, and you will not return or have any contact with your father at least for the summer. Longer, if you don't behave."

Nico opened his mouth to argue again, but Demeter interrupted. "Enough. We are done here."

With that, she snapped her fingers, and the son of Hades disappeared.

Shadow travel was one thing. It always exhausted Nico, but at least he was familiar enough with the sensation by now that he knew what to expect. Plus, he was the son of Hades. He was built for it.

Divine teleportation was an entirely different thing. It happened much more quickly, and while it didn't really require any effort or concentration on Nico's part, it did hurt. A lot. The world exploded around him, flashing colors, blurred shadows, and blinding lights rushing by as the everything fell apart and reassembled itself around him. He hadn't even managed a gasp of surprise before he felt himself thrust back into the mortal world, and as soon as his body felt whole again, he collapsed.

The first thing he noted was the feel of the sun on his skin. It was warm. Warmer than anything that existed in the underworld. Even the light of Elysium couldn't compare to this—the natural glow of the sun, filtered and softened by the trees overhead.

The second thing he noticed was the feel and smell of the Earth beneath him. The underworld either smelled of nothing or of rotting flesh. Though he supposed it was technically a part of the Earth, it lacked that fresh, natural smell that Nico suddenly couldn't seem to get enough of.

He took a deep breath, closing his eyes and tipping his head back to let the sun caress his face. He wasn't sure where Demeter had sent him, but for that one moment, he didn't really care. He was warm. He was safe. Everything around him was quiet and peaceful, and—

"Nico?"

Nico's eyes snapped open, tension racing into his muscles as he spun around and jumped to his feet. He realized, as his senses returned to him, that he'd been wrong earlier. This place wasn't quiet. Far off in the distance, he could hear the sound of young, delighted squeals and swords clashing. There was also a deep rumble that, unfortunately, was all to familiar.

"Oh my god, Nico!" A form shimmered into existence a mere ten feet from him. "You're alive! You're here!"

Before Nico—still stunned from the sickening feel of the teleportation—could even react, Annabeth Chase threw herself forward, wrapped her arms around him, and pulled him a crushing hug.