Will stood still for a moment after he'd closed the door on Detective Grace, trying to catch his breath.

Jason Grace. The Bolt's son. In his apartment. Asking about Nico.

Will was almost surprised he was still alive.

He had to call Nico, but he couldn't move. He remained where he was, leaning against the door, for a couple minutes. When he opened it, the hallway was empty—either Grace was gone, or he'd moved to one of his neighbors.

It wasn't good enough. If Jupiter Grace was a super, his son might be too, and Will had no way of knowing what kind of abilities he had. He could listen in on the call, and find out Will was in contact with Nico. Then he'd come back and—Will shuddered at the thought.

He had to keep his mind clear, and think.

Will's eyes drifted to the clock hanging on his wall. If he didn't leave now, he'd be late for his shift—but he had to call Nico, and he couldn't do that while Grace was still potentially around. Except Grace wouldn't know to follow him to the hospital, would he?

Will rushed to get ready, and left his apartment in just as much of a hurry to head for the hospital. It was the middle of the day, and he chose to take the narrow streets that formed a more direct route to the hospital. Not only would he get there faster, but if he was being followed, he'd notice more easily.

He reached the hospital without seeing anyone following him, and only then did he relax. He locked himself in an exam room, and pulled out his phone, finding Nico's number in his contacts.

"Will? Is everything okay?" Nico's voice was as panicked as Will felt.

"I am. I'm fine—I'm at the hospital. I just wanted to call you because some guy came by my place."

"Some guy?"

"Detective Jason Grace. If he's even a real detective. He asked about—you know."

"Jupiter's son. Yeah, he's a real detective." Nico scoffed. "Well, depends how you define 'real'. He has a badge and he's on the payroll. But he only solves crimes when it benefits his family."

"Like what you did."

Nico sighed loudly. "Like what I did."

"And Percy Jackson's disappearance."

"He asked you about Percy? Fuck! The Bolt must be getting desperate if he lets his son look for him so openly."

"Couldn't you use that? At least show the conflict of interest and get Detective Grace suspended, or off the case, or something like that?"

"But then you'd have to testify against him. And I'd have to protect you, just like I'm protecting Percy against his father."

"I'd do it."

"You have no idea what you're talking about. Jason Grace is his father's top hitman. You don't want to be his enemy."

Will gasped. Letting a corrupt cop in his apartment had already made him anxious—but a hitman? "I—so what now?"

"I don't know." Nico sighed again. "Look, thanks for letting me know. It's really helpful of you. Now I need to figure out what to do about it."

"Call me if you need anything."

"I think I'll call you to make sure you're not dead first."

Will almost laughed, but he realized Nico was absolutely serious. "I—okay. Thanks." Then, remembering his talk with Cecil the previous night. "And, Nico—is it okay if the name 'Night Angel' became public?"

Nico was silent for a moment, and when he spoke, he couldn't hide his irritation. "What did you do?"

"It's my friend, Cecil. Cecil Castellan? You might have seen him on the news? He figured out I was there that night. I just said we talked, and that you wanted to be called Night Angel. I swear that's all."

More silence—Will almost thought Nico had hung up on him. "Okay. Okay, that's fine. Just—don't tell him anything else. Especially not about Jason."

"All right. Also, he said if you needed someone to build you a reputation—"

"Will."

"Just kidding. Though he did offer. And you said you didn't have anyone taking care of your PR, so—"

"I'm not feeding information to a journalist. I'm trying to hide who I am, not turn it into a political ploy."

"Okay. Okay, I'm—sorry. Forget I asked."

There was more silence between them—which Will was starting to find a little awkward.

"I have to go," Nico finally said. "Are you gonna be okay?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I think so."

"Okay. Stay safe, Will. Call me if anything happens."

Percy didn't have to ask any questions after Nico hung up—he'd heard enough from what Nico was saying over the phone. "Problems with a groupie?"

"Will saved my life after I almost died saving yours," Nico snapped. "He's not a 'groupie'. I don't even have groupies."

"Well, you won't get any if you keep your existence a secret. Maybe it's good that someone can speak up for you being a hero. A journalist? That can be good for you image."

Nico paused at those words, then shook his head. "I don't give a damn about public opinion. Too many people know too much about me already."

"If you say so." As far as Percy knew, he was one of only two people who knew anything about Nico—himself the other being Leo Valdez, a superhacker who was outfitting Nico with his gear. And that Will guy, maybe—Percy had no idea what he knew. He paused, hoping Nico would tell him more about he'd said about Jason Grace, but he remained resolutely silent. "So what was that call about? Aside from the journalist issue, I mean."

"Jason Grace is looking for you."

"I'd gathered as much. That's bad, right?"

"It means Jupiter Grace wants to put in more resources to find you than we originally thought."

"Well, it means he really believes that my—my testimony will put a stop to him, right?" He still felt uncomfortable about the whole thing—especially the thought that he'd have to dig up his memories of that night—but he couldn't help but feel a hint of satisfaction that he could help Nico in his work combating crime. He'd been dying to help. Metaphorically speaking, of course.

Nico's face dampened his enthusiasm. "He believes it will be easier to brush things under the rug by disposing of you. Maybe he just doesn't want his image to be tarnished by a trial, even if he wins. He is a Senator, after all."

"You're just a peach, aren't you?"

Nico ignored him, and walked to the laptop open on his desk. It looked like an ordinary computer, but Percy knew it was connected to a cluster set up by Leo on the upper floor of the penthouse Nico lived in, giving it enough power to rival any supercomputer. "I'm more worried that he was asking questions about your disappearance. I need to know if it's an official investigation yet, or if Grace is doing it on the down low, using the murder case as an excuse."

"Does it matter?"

"If you're officially a missing person, you can't exactly testify. We'd have to bring you out of hiding, or use official means of witness protection, and—well, neither option is optimal."

"I couldn't just show up to the trial anyway?"

"You probably could, but it might give grounds for a vice of procedure. Or something like that. I'm not a lawyer." An alert popped up on the screen. "Oh, shit!"

"What? What is it?"

"The call was monitored."

"The Bolt?"

"Who else could it be?" Nico got up, pulling his shirt over his head as he walked over to the locker where he stored his suit.

Percy stood there, staring in confusion. "But he can't track you down, right? You said Leo's algorithm was foolproof."

"It is. Completely unhackable—I trust Leo for that. It's not you I'm worried about. Now Grace knows that Will has my phone number. He'll go after him." He sighed. "And I can't even call to warn him, because they'll just listen in again."

"So you're heading out? In daylight?"

Nico was down in his underwear by now, and was already putting on his suit—tight, dark fabric hugging his lean body. "You see an alternative?" he asked as he pulled his mask on, stylized after Ancient Greek helmets.

Nothing happened during Will's shift. Maybe Jason Grace really had let him off the hook—after all, it wasn't like he had any reason to suspect Will. Right?

He was still jittery when he walked out of the hospital, but he got to his apartment complex unharmed. The entrance hall was badly lit and dim in the waning light, but Will was used to it, so he didn't bother turning on the lights as he crossed it.

If he had, he'd have run away screaming. Instead, he walked right into a bulky man, whose hands clasped around Will's mouth and kept him silent as he emerged from the shadows. Will's eyes darted around to find two women flanking him, each holding a gun pointed at him—one at his head, one at his legs. Pretty clear message.

"You're coming with us, and you're telling us everything you know, this time," said one of the women. She was the one pointing her gun at his head, and stood in front of Will, tower over the other woman and making even Will feel unusually small, even if she was a few inches shorter than him. He couldn't make out her face in the dark, only the way her dark hair was pulled back in a severe ponytail.

Will froze, his eyes wide. They were clearly working for the Olympian gang—Will could feel the sparks trailing on the hand that kept him quiet. How did they know about his involvement with Nico? And what could he do to get himself out of this situation?

He didn't have to worry about that last part. A small object—a knife—flew at gun that the woman in front of Will held, while the other woman collapsed with a muffled sound. The man holding Will retreated to a corner, holding Will in front of him like a human shield.

His position gave Will a perfect vantage point to what happened next: from behind the henchwoman left standing, appeared a figure clad in a black suit, materializing out of thin air. Will immediately recognized it—it was Nico, his suit deeply familiar after Will had had to remove it from his wounded body.

Nico struck at the woman with a quarterstaff, and she took the hit with a cry, but she remained standing, pulling another gun from a hidden holster and firing at Nico. But he moved too fast, his movements blurry, as if parts of him blinked in and out of existence as he maneuvered around the woman. She fired again, let out a huff of frustration, and put the weapon back in its holster. The next time Nico struck, she was ready, catching his staff and wrestling with him over it.

Before either of them could win, the other henchwoman was back on her feet, and she crept in on Nico from behind. Will tried to yell, in spite of the thug holding him still and silent, and his the muffled sound that came out was enough for Nico to roll out of the way just as the woman was shooting.

Nico had lost his staff in the process, but as he backed away, keeping both women in front of him, he held out his hand, and a sword materialized in it, its blade a glossy black unlike anything Will had seen before.

The henchwomen exchanged a look, and aimed at Nico, but he moved as they were firing, his figure melting with the shadows, not quite there at times, moving too fast to catch. In a second, he was on the shorter woman, cutting her down with one fell swing of his sword—dead, or incapacitated, Will couldn't say. The taller woman leapt at Nico, unfazed by her colleague's demise, putting herself too close for Nico to use his sword.

The thug holding Will didn't seem as cold. He tensed, hesitating briefly, then hit Will on the back of his head. By the time Will's vision cleared, he was on the floor, both thugs engaged with Nico in close combat. His sword had vanished, and Nico's movements were still unnaturally fast—enough so that he could take on both thugs—but they were slowly backing him up against a wall, depriving him of space to move to.

Will barely felt able to move, let alone stand up, but he couldn't just do nothing. He dragged himself across the floor, towards the fallen henchwoman. It took him a moment to reach her, letting him take in the bubbles formed by her breath in the blood pooled around her nose—she was still alive. He felt awful for the relief he felt at that.

Her gun was right there, and Will reached for it, pushing himself up on his knees and lifting the weapon. But when he tried to aim it at the thugs, it felt too heavy in his hands. His hands shook too much, echoing the thoughts in his mind—could he really risk killing someone? And what if he hit Nico? Part of his brain was whispering to just do it, pull the trigger, but he couldn't do it.

His gaze fell on Nico's staff, abandoned on the floor on the other side of the woman's body. He carefully reached for it, tossing the gun behind him, unsure what he was going to do exactly. Using the staff for support, he managed to stand up, and he slowly walked to the thugs in the far corner of the room, with Nico trapped between them. Every movement was accompanied with a stabbing pain in Will's skull, but he walked forward, slowly, careful to be as silent as possible.

Finally, he came within reach, and swung the staff like a baseball bat, with no expertise or even any idea if it would work, hitting the remaining henchwoman on her back. She cried out, falling to her knees, just in time for Nico to kick her square in the temple, knocking her unconscious.

The last man showed a moment of hesitation, and it was enough for Nico: he leapt at the thug, his whole body blending with the shadows. He tackled the thug, even though he was easily a foot shorter, flipping him over with his momentum. The man hit the floor with a thud, and didn't stand back up.

Will realized he was standing in place, completely useless, only when the fight was over. Well, not completely useless, he thought, looking down at the staff in his hands.

Nico turned to him. "You okay?"

Will nodded, even though the movement was enough to remind him of the hit he'd taken. "I'll live."

"Not if we stay here. You're coming with me. But I need your phone first."

"My—" Will froze, and it hit him. He'd called Nico, and the thugs had sounded like they knew. It wasn't just intimidation—and it couldn't be a coincidence. He reached into his pocket, pulling out his phone from it. As he did, something else slide into his hand, too—Jason Grace's business card. "They're from the Olympian gang, aren't they?"

Nico ignored his question, snatching Will's phone and the business card out of his hand. He held up the card, and tore it into scraps. "It's bugged."

Will let out a sigh. "I should have known."

"You had no way of knowing. I'm sure he bugged everyone he talked to."

"So—are you gonna break my phone?" It wasn't exactly brand new, but Will was attached to it—though not to the point of being attacked by gang members.

"No. I'll just turn it off until I can get a friend to take a look at it. Come on, we're leaving." Nico held out his hand, but Will paused.

"Leaving?"

"You can't stay here now that they know you know me."

Will breathed in deeply, trying to find something to retort. "I'm not even worth sending the top assassin. Maybe I'll be fine?" Nico stood unflinching, though Will thought he heard him take in a sharp breath. Maybe he was growing impatient. "But where are we going?"

"Somewhere safe. Trust me."

Will held Nico's gaze for a moment, then he nodded, and took Nico's hand. Of course he trusted him.

The next thing he knew, everything was fading to dark around them.

When Percy heard footsteps coming from the cluster room above, he thought Nico had finally come home. It was weird that he'd choose to arrive there, but maybe he'd shadow-stepped blindly. Maybe he was in trouble—that happened a lot. So Percy rushed to see if he needed help.

Instead, the moment he opened the door, he was pinned against the wall, a sharp blade pressed against his throat. His heartbeat suddenly racing, Percy looked up to meet the sky blue gaze of the man holding him—and a name fell out of his lips, almost unbidden.

"Jase?"