Chapter 7
"Long Ride"
Nico's POV:
"I'm going with the boy. I have to help him find his mum. I'll catch up with you guys later." As soon as those words left Destiny's lips fearlessly, a flashback from my talk with Chiron replayed in my mind.
"Don't leave her side. Keep her safe."
"I'm coming, too." I announced determinedly, waiting for her disapproval. It wasn't like I would ask for her permission, I was stating a fact.
But she didn't look angry or disagreed like I thought she was going to be. Shen was more like shocked, not sure if it was in a bad or a good was to be honest. I'm not going to lie, it was pretty logical for her to be surprised that me, "the player" and "the douche", suddenly cared about her.
With a simple "Okay." she passed by me with confidence and followed the path, not even glancing at the rest of us.
I turned around and followed her while shaking my head at her, a ghost of a smile tagged on my lips. The way she was playing hard to get was almost irresistible.
The boy kept pointing at different directions and exclaiming "That way!" before following the path he had just pointed at. I hoped I wasn't the only one who was wondering how the hell he knew which way we should follow so surely. I mean, how was he lost if he knew the freakin way?
And just like that, a few beats later he suddenly stopped and turned to look at us with a mischievous smirk on his face.
"You know…you should consider the power of the mist more. It makes you so much easier to be lied to." These words were coming out of his mouth while his black hair started turning into snakes.
There was a small pause before he added "I think it's pretty obvious that my mother was never lost. She was killed by someone of your kind. Percy Jackson. Now, I shall take revenge for her sake, and prevent you from succeeding at your stupid quest. Oh, and don't worry in case I'm not successful, more monsters are yet to come."
And without another word he took his glasses of. Destiny seemed zoned out, probably from the shock. I couldn't just let her like that, I had to do something.
I shouted "Destiny don't look at him!" and without hesitation I pushed her out of the monster's sight.
He both leaned behind a tree each, one very close to each other one. It was until several seconds later when I heard the sound of snakes hissing coming from Destiny's side.
Blood froze in my veins and my heart started beating faster at the thought of Destiny getting hurt. Wait, why was I so worried? Why did I care so much for her? I had no idea but what I did know was that I wanted her to be safe more than anything and I would do anything to do that.
I glanced at her direction and viewed her. She had her beautiful kaleidoscope eyes closed and took a slight step back as soon as she realized the creature was next to her.
Having her eyes closed didn't help her as she didn't notice the rock that caused her to fall on the ground, giving the monster the opportunity to pin her to the ground.
"Come on, open your eyes, they are pretty, too, aren't they? What do they call them? Kaleidoscope?"
That was it. That was my cue to teach that little kid a lesson.
I took my sword and didn't hesitate to attack it from behind, by jumping on its back and slicing its head.
It didn't need more than a second for the monster to vanish into ashes and leaving me on top of Destiny.
Destiny's POV:
I slowly opened my eyes, afraid of what was I was going to view on top of me.
It wasn't that idiotic move, was it? I mean, I felt a weigh falling on me, but no action. Wouldn't have the kid already killed me if it was it?
I was relieve to view Nico staring at me and I stared back. We both had a surprised look on our face and immediately blushed, something I never thought I would have the chance ti see Nico do.
"Sorry." We both again muttered at the same time as we quickly stood up.
He was running his hand through his hair, flipping them to the side while he kept his stare at the ground. It was at that point when I realised he wasn't being arrogant, but still managed to be hot.
How he did that, I have no clue.
"You know... You saved me you shouldn't be sorry unless you hate me that much." I teased him but what I didn't expect at all was him not wasting a second to reply back "I don't hate you."
A complete silence fell upon us that was once again broken by Nico when he said "We should go find the others."
Before I even had the chance to agree he was already off, leaving be no choice but to follow him.
We had been walking for about half an hour and I started to wonder how far the others had walked in such a short period of time, when suddenly a quite murmuring echoed to my ears.
"Guys..?" I shouted as I approached the sound of who I supposed were my friends. The murmurs stopped to the sound if my voice and, luckily I was right.
My friends turned around and waited for me and Nico to catch up with them.
Only when we finally reached them Tyler asked us "So did you find the boy's mother?" I shrugged and turned to look at Nico, only to realise he was already staring at me.
I tried to push away the butterflies from my stomach when we made eye contact. Of course since him being Nico, his expression changed and he gave me an I-told-you-so look, right before he muttered "tell them."
Of course he was staring at me to make me feel even more useless for being so naive! What did you think, Destiny? That we was staring at you cause you have nice eyes or something?
I crossed my arms and took a deep breath, my sight to the ground. "The kid was a monster, the son of Medusa to be exact. He tried to kill us. More monsters are yet to come. Nico was right, I was wrong. I shouldn't have trust him. Happy?" I murmured quickly with an irritated tone rolling through my voice. I once again turned to fave Nico. He nodded his head, his expression blank.
"Oh my, Destiny are you okay?" Nathan asked me and embraced me into a warm hug.
I heard a scoff and didn't surprised me when I realised it came from Nico. "Well, she is cause I saved her."
"You don't have to brag about it, jackass." Anna exclaimed rolling her eyes at him.
Thank goodness someone told him.
Nathan pulled from the hug "Seriously, dude?". Nathan frowned.
Nico opened his mouth, probably to protest but he was stopped from someone's fake cough.
All four of us turned towards Tyler, the one person who hadn't said anything until now. Once he had everyone's attention he gave us a little smile. "Well, the good news is that we found the train station and it's not too far from here."
We all glances at each other, realising how stupid we were to fight with each other, well me at least. We started following Tyler and we were off to the train station.
•
I leaned against the wall of the train station, looking at Nathan and Tyler, who were talking to the young lady behind the desk. I watched them as they came back, fortunately with a smile on their faces.
"There is a train to Colorado in ten minutes." Nathan informed us proudly.
That is an optimistic guy right there, I thought to myself.
"What is that about?" Nico asked me from my right side annoyed.
"What?" I asked him back.
What did I do now?
"Why are you smiling?" It was only then when I realised I was smiling at Nathan while having my thoughts.
I had to confess that was something I did pretty often without realising it.
"I wasn't... I didn't rea- Why do you care anyways?" The question obviously caught him off guard.
"I don't. It was just creepy."
I could tell my face went red. I was just relieved that Nathan didn't hear our short conversation as he was having his own with Anna and Tyler.
I couldn't help but feel a little hurt by Nico's comment but I wasn't dumb enough to show it to him.
If everything that had happen the last couple of days involved a guy besides Nico I would suspect that he was jealous, but knowing how Nico is I was sure there was no way. Besides I had no doubt that everything I felt for Nathan was in a friendly way.
"Should we get going?" I asked loud enough for everyone to here me with a bright smile forming on my lips.
•
As we hopped on the bus I was surprised at how full it was.
I mean we were on time, do so many people really want to visit Colorado?
There were only six seats left and they were ordered like the bus's ones, meaning that we should seat together by two.
Nathan and Tyler took two seats together, not bothering telling us first.
I made a move to sit next to Anna, but I was stopped when she told me "I would like to sit alone if you don't mind."
"Oh." Was all that came in my mind to reply.
Was she mad at me,or something? Was it something I said?
I glanced at her one more time before leaving and I was sure she had a smirk on her face.
What was that about?
I turned around and reminded myself that there was a bigger problem; there were only two seats next to each other and only me and Nico left standing.
Wasn'titjustgreat?
Note the sarcasm.
Our eyes glued together and the awkwardness fell upon us.
None of us moved from our spot until Tyler spoke up.
"Guys you know you'll have to take a seat or someone else will take it." He explained to us like it was something so obvious and we were the dumbest people alive.
We glanced at each other once more and took the two seats left.
As soon as I took a seat I couldn't help but inhale the smell of his cologne.
He was looking out the window, avoiding my presence. Needless to say, i did the same.
I looked at our team; Tyler was laughing at something that Nathan said and Anna was reading a book called "Greekmythologicalcreaturesandeverything about them."
A feeling of happiness rushed through me as I looked over my new friends and just like before I smiled at my thoughts.
I knew that as Anna noticed me and mouthed "What?" from the distance while smiling.
I shook my head at her, mouthing "Nothing" and turning my head back were it originally was, meaning next to none other than Nico.
Thiswasgoingtobealongride.
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A/N: Okay, I know that it took me took forever to upload this chapter but I think it was worth it.
So what do you think of the team? Got a favourite character or a ship yet? Let me know!
