Happy Friday! Whee! I'm in a great mood today, as per Friday-usual :D Enjoy this nice long, exciting chapter, everybody! Thanks for the reviews earlier this week!
XI
NICO
The dull ache in Nico's head sharpened as he stared at Moros, trying to recall everything he knew about the spirit. His fingers twitched at his side, but he resisted the urge to draw his sword. "Why are you here?" he demanded. "I thought you were overseeing the sigma division of the Fields of Punishment. How'd you even get out? It's chaos down there." Nico had managed to get into the Underworld only once since the start of the Shadow War, and it hadn't been pretty. Without Hades and Persephone to hold things together, disaster had begun tearing down the careful order that had been in place for so long. Hardly any new souls made it across the border—only the ones that had fully accepted death. Souls from the Fields of Punishment had started to rebel against their overseers, spreading uproar throughout the Underworld. So far none had escaped back to the world of the living—after all, the Doors of Death were shut tight after last summer. But the way things were going, who knew how long that would last.
"I know, ain't it great?" Moros replied, grin widening. "Talk about doom. Man, the world's never felt so awesome. I would'a been happy just watchin' the show downstairs, but you know how it is. When Mother calls, you gotta answer."
"Mother?" Reyna repeated, raising an eyebrow.
Though he had a feeling the others could guess who 'Mother' was, Nico said in a low voice, "Nyx." Moros was another of the Queen of Night's children, just like Hypnos and Thanatos. Though it seemed this son was much more willing to help her out.
"Like I said," Moros went on, absently flicking some dirt from under a ghostly, black-painted fingernail, "I've been waitin' for some of you to head this way. I've had to settle for scarin' squirrels in this boring forest, and it ain't half as rad as scarin' demigods. Though you do tend to squeal the same." His lip curled in a sneer as he chuckled at his own joke, and an intense dislike for the guy swelled in Nico's chest, hardening his face into a scowl.
"So you crashed Festus and almost killed us," Leo said angrily, "for fun?"
Moros shrugged. "Not just for fun. It's my job to stop you, you know? Not my fault the job happens to be right up my alley." He pulled his legs up and crossed them beneath him, so he was floating in the air sitting Indian-style. The chains hanging from his belts clinked when he moved. "Whoever said you gotta separate business from pleasure clearly wasn't in the right business."
Leo shook his head, looking mystified and furious at the same time. "I don't get it. How…?"
Moros leaned an elbow on his knee and rested his chin in his hand, grinning at Leo. "Like this," he said, before snapping his fingers. The sound of splintering wood immediately followed and Nico glanced around, searching for its source.
Reyna found it first. "Leo!" she yelled, throwing an arm out and pointing a finger. Nico followed her gaze just as Leo spun around to see a forty-foot tree tipping slowly toward him, picking up speed with each passing millisecond. He yelped in surprise and staggered backward, throwing himself out of the way as the tree crashed to the ground beside the metal dragon, inches away from squashing Leo like a bug.
"Impending doom," Moros said with a smile, looking like the term was music to his ears. "Ain't nothin' gets the blood flowing like it. Not that I've got blood to flow, but you catch my drift." He shrugged and waved off-handedly, as though they were having a perfectly normal conversation. "Anyway," he went on, stretching his arms and legs and returning to a standing position, "how 'bout let's get this show on the road? All this safety is really killing my buzz." Then without warning he snapped his fingers again, and a low, threatening growl sounded from the forest behind them. Nico, Leo, and Reyna spun around as the sound seemed to echo and intensify, joined by a small chorus of others just like it. Tiny pinpricks of light—about a dozen of them—blinked into existence through the darkness, and a chill crawled across Nico's skin as six snarling, gray wolves stepped slowly out from between the trees.
"Now it's a party!" Moros said gleefully, and Nico shot a glance over his shoulder to see the spirit fold his arms and grin. A loud growl brought his attention back to the wolves, all of whom had begun inching toward the trio of demigods with their teeth bared menacingly.
Hand reaching slowly for his sword, Nico started creeping back away from the animals, hoping Leo and Reyna would follow his lead. At the first sudden movement, he had no doubt the wolves would attack, and that would be better left until they had a bit more room to fight back. Thankfully, Leo and Reyna seemed to be thinking along the same lines, and they mirrored Nico's movements. The wolves followed them at the same slow pace, never breaking eye contact and occasionally snapping their jaws at empty air as though practicing a bite. The three had just barely stepped into the trench of loose dirt behind Festus when the lead wolf reared back on its haunches and Nico shouted, "Move!" the instant before it leapt for them.
As the animals all flashed into action, Nico quickly lost track of Leo and Reyna. He dove and rolled to the side as the lead wolf bounded toward him, and it landed in a slide in the dirt, twisting around to growl at him. By then he was back on his feet, turning to swing his sword at the wolf directly to his right. It ducked the blade, surprisingly fast, and lunged forward with open jaws. Nico jerked backward and the animal's teeth snapped closed right where he'd been standing. He sidestepped and swung his sword down, right over the wolf's back—but he stumbled in alarm when the blade swept harmlessly through its body without damaging it at all. He felt a little resistance, like he was slicing through water. But the expected solidity wasn't there. Stranger still, the animal seemed to flicker out of existence for a fraction of a second, like an old movie projection.
"What the—?" Nico stammered, throwing himself backward a few unsteady steps as the wolf turned and swiped at him, its fur appearing perfectly solid again.
"What the heck are these things?" he heard Leo say. Chancing a brief look around, he saw Leo standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Reyna, a heavy-looking staple gun in his hands. Four of the wolves had formed a half-circle around them and were closing in. That was all the time Nico had to take in the scene, though, because the next second both the remaining wolves were on him again, one leaping high from his right and another darting in low from his left.
With a frustrated growl, he turned and jumped over the lower attacker, somersaulting over the dirt and coming up in a crouch. He spun around in time to see a set of deadly-sharp claws springing toward him and he threw up his sword instinctively to block the attack, not sure if it would work. But then he heard a sharp, scraping clang as the wolf's claws scratched the iron surface. The wolf snarled and stepped back, aiming a bite at Nico's legs. He rolled to the side and swung his sword experimentally, clucking his tongue when again it slid harmlessly through the animal's back.
Mind and heart racing, Nico backed away from the pair of wolves, trying to figure out what to do. They must have been some kind of ghosts or spirits, called into being by Moros, because their color kept flickering and fading like they weren't really there. They seemed solid before an attack, and just vaguely transparent after. It didn't appear that they could be hurt, but for that brief instant he'd been able to connect with one. That had to mean something. There had to be a way to fight them. Unfortunately, they didn't seem keen on giving him much time to think of a solution. Not a few seconds later, they both leapt at him again. With little room to dodge, he ducked and stepped to the side, avoiding one animal and facing the other head-on. He swept his sword through the air just as it reached him, aiming to deflect it again, but he was half a second too late. The animal's gray fur seemed to brighten as it growled and its claws connected with Nico's outstretched wrist, tearing a pair of thin, bloody lines down his forearm. But at the same time, the wolf's growl rose in pitch to a wounded howl, and Nico realized that the blade of his sword had sliced cleanly across its neck. It collapsed onto the ground, black dust rising from the cut and disintegrating into the air. Then a second later, the wolf's body dimmed and disappeared like a light going out.
Nico staggered backward, clamping a hand over the cuts on his right arm and staring in shock. He'd beaten one. How had that happened? Every other time he'd struck one of the animals, his blade had passed through it as though it wasn't there. What had been different this time?
A crazy thought struck him as he replayed the scene quickly in his head. He might have figured it out, but he couldn't be sure—not until he tried it again.
As the second wolf leaned back on its haunches, growling more angrily than ever and showing all of its teeth, Nico braced his stance and switched his sword to his left hand, dull spikes of pain shooting up and down his right. He flipped it and swung the blade in a circle, getting used to the grip and waiting for the wolf to make a move. Its dim gray fur flickered and brightened, and when it lunged, he was ready. He dug his feet into the ground and dropped to a crouch, stabbing forward with his sword and—miraculously—burying the iron blade in the wolf's neck. It whined loudly, before fading to darkness.
Now absolutely certain, Nico stood up straight and turned toward Leo and Reyna, shouting, "They're solid right before they strike! Attack then!" Both Leo and Reyna shot glances at him and nodded, and he rushed toward one of the remaining wolves without a second thought. It was risky, waiting until they attacked to fight back. But in order to strike, the animals had to be solid—which also made them vulnerable. Then and only then could they be hurt—and killed.
Watching Leo duck a would-be-fatal slice to the head out of the corner of his eye, Nico dodged in front of one of the wolves, claiming its attention. It stepped to the side and aimed a quick snap of its jaws at his legs, but he jumped backward. It responded quickly by leaping up, its claws shooting too quickly toward his throat, and he lifted his sword to block. He successfully avoided being impaled, but the wolf's weight barreled toward him, tackling him and knocking him to his back on the ground. Still solid, it jerked its open jaws toward his face and he twisted to the side as best he could, slicing his blade across the wolf's front legs in the process. It whimpered, allowing Nico enough room to scoot backward a bit farther out of harm's way.
He was just leaning up from the ground when Reyna called from behind him, "Nico, stay down!" Trusting her, he dropped his shoulders back to the dirt just in time to see her dagger go flying through the air above him, embedding itself in the side of the wolf's head. It howled and disappeared, dropping Reyna's knife to the ground.
Nico was about to turn and thank her when suddenly she gave a strangled yell. He rolled over on the ground and pulled himself up to see that a long, ropy vine from a nearby tree had wrapped itself tightly around her neck like a snake and pulled her to the ground, dragging her across the dirt. She kicked and pulled at the vine, but it didn't seem to be having any effect.
"Reyna!" Leo shouted, and Nico shot him a glance to see that he had evidently disposed of another wolf, leaving only two remaining. Springing to his feet, Nico spun and looked for Moros, only to find him sitting midair above Festus and smiling at them. He shrugged as if to say 'Accidents happen!' and Nico threw him a glare before turning back around. A jolt of dread ran through him when he saw that the living vine had lifted Reyna into the air and was dangling her by the neck from a tree branch, at least fifteen feet above the ground.
Nico clucked his tongue anxiously. The two wolves were closing in, and Reyna wouldn't last long in that state. He turned toward the pair of wolves, who were standing together, and headed sideways into their field of vision, sword at the ready. "Leo," he said urgently, "cut the vine!"
"On it," Leo responded immediately, running toward where Reyna was struggling against her leafy captor. Nico quickly ducked and rolled beneath a leap of one wolf and used his sword to deflect a claw-swipe of the other, shoving it to the side. He glanced over as Leo threw what looked like a screwdriver toward the ropy vine holding Reyna and it bounced off, whacking her on the shoulder as it fell back to the ground. "Oops," Leo muttered, wincing.
Nico wanted to smack him. "Are you kidding me?" he yelled. "Burn it!" The guy could summon fire at will, for crying out loud, and he chose to try and break the vine with a screwdriver? What the heck was he thinking?
As Nico blocked another set of claws and tried to strike back, missing his mark, Leo responded dully, "Oh. Right." He raised a hand and his fingers twitched unsteadily. He seemed to hesitate for a brief moment, but before Nico could decide whether or not to yell at him to hurry his expression hardened and he thrust his arm upward, shooting a baseball-sized orb of orange flame into the air. It struck the middle of the vine and burned straight through, dropping Reyna like a sack of flour. Leo darted forward and caught her, dragging them both to the ground and breaking what would have been a nasty fall.
Nico breathed a short sigh of relief as he sidestepped a vicious bite, jabbing his blade into the wolf's shoulder at the same time and causing it to howl and vanish. Not a second later, something heavy slammed into him from behind and he felt the sharp sting of claws digging into his back as he was pushed face-first to the ground. He bit down hard on his tongue to keep from crying out and tried to twist around, but the snarling in his ear was way too close. A feeling of dread—of 'doom', even—washed over him for a brief second, but before the wolf struck a sudden and intense heat burned to life above Nico and he ducked, throwing his hands over his head as the wolf howled in pain. The next instant, the pressure of its paws against his back was gone.
Nico scrambled to his feet and looked around, noticing that all the ghostly animals had disappeared. Reyna was standing nearby, rubbing the bruise on her neck and glaring at Moros. Leo was beside her, wide eyes fixed on the empty air the last wolf had just vanished from. "Thanks," Nico said to him, realizing it must have been him who'd killed it.
Leo blinked as though he'd just realized Nico was there. Then his expression cleared and he grinned. "Don't mention…" He trailed off as his eyes shifted to something over Nico's shoulder and he suddenly yelled, "Hey!"
Nico spun around just in time to see something huge and bronze swinging toward him in a blur before a heavy hunk of metal crashed into him, throwing him off his feet and shoving him into the air. His back collided hard with the trunk of a tree and he slid to the ground, landing on his side and gasping for the breath that had been knocked from his lungs.
"Hey!" Leo yelled again from somewhere off to Nico's right. "Cut it out!"
Nico groaned and rolled over, pushing himself into a sitting position. His entire torso ached like he'd been hit by a bus. Looking up, he realized that the thing that had attacked him had in fact been Festus's tail—probably brought temporarily to life by Moros, who was doubled over in the air, laughing hysterically.
"No way, bro," Moros said when he'd calmed down enough to speak. He stood straight and Nico realized he was holding a flat, metal object the size of a CD in his hands. He flipped it in a circle and said, "You guys are off the rip. This is wicked."
By the time Nico struggled to his feet, Leo and Reyna were beside him. "You good, dude?" Leo asked, his eyes shooting toward Nico before returning to glare at Moros, eyeing the disc in the spirit's hands.
"More or less," Nico replied.
"Okay, 'cause we gotta go."
Nico frowned at Leo. "What?"
Leo turned to face him, his voice low. "I mean run. Lead Moros away from Festus. If that guy screws with him any more, I don't know if I'll get him fixed in time. Or at all." The seriousness in Leo's eyes told Nico he was genuinely worried, so Nico sighed shortly and stood up straight, wincing slightly.
"Alright," he said. "Let's go."
And with that, all three of them turned and bolted through the trees, ignoring Moros's shout of "Where ya goin'? We're just gettin' started!" Nico tried to keep track of Leo and Reyna as they ran, relying more on his senses than his eyes. They weaved through trees and around bushes, over dusty paths and up and down uneven hills. Nico saw Leo veer off to the side and he followed him, hoping Reyna noticed and did the same. After a minute or so, he shot a glance over his shoulder, wondering if Moros had come after them, but of course he couldn't see anything in the dark, and the only sounds were their own feet shuffling through leaves and snapping twigs and branches.
As Nico rounded a tree, Leo suddenly yelled "Whoa!" and skidded to a stop right in front of him, throwing his arms out to either side. Nico stumbled and collided with his back, nearly knocking him over, as Reyna pulled to a stop beside them so quickly she momentarily lost her balance and tipped forward. Leo reached out and snatched her by the shirt, yanking her backward. She twisted to the side and grabbed onto his arms, using them to steady herself, and Nico stepped around Leo to see why he'd stopped so suddenly. He understood at once. Even through the darkness, he could see the steep, rocky hill that dropped off less than two feet in front of them. A few more steps would have sent them tumbling headlong over the edge to the uneven ground fifty feet below.
Once they'd all regained their balance, each of them out of breath from running, Leo gave a nervous laugh. "That was close."
From behind, an amused voice added, "Not close enough," and the trio spun around to see that Moros had indeed followed them. The spirit grinned mischievously and Nico felt his stomach drop in dread, knowing what was about to happen even before Moros lifted a hand and snapped his fingers. Nico tried to take a step but suddenly the ground beneath him felt as slippery as ice, and instead of going forward his feet were swept out from under him and he, Leo, and Reyna slid backward over the crest of the hill, falling with surprised yells onto the steep, rocky incline. Nico tried to reach out and grab onto something as an anchor, but there was nothing to grab. The complete lack of control as he rolled sideways down the hill was maddening, and when the ground finally leveled out he realized he'd been holding his breath the entire time.
With a pained groan, Nico rolled onto his back and sat up, dull jabs of pain shooting through what felt like every inch of his body. The arm he'd injured fighting the wolves was scraped even worse, dirt rubbed into the thin, open cuts in his skin. He felt a sharp pain in his side—broken ribs, probably. Though, for all he knew, that could have happened when he'd been attacked by Festus's tail.
Nico blinked a few times and realized that most of the ache was already subsiding, which luckily meant nothing had been too serious. He climbed shakily to his feet and looked around for the others. Leo was lying on his side close by, so Nico stumbled toward him and said, "Leo, hey. You okay?" When he didn't move, Nico frowned and dropped to a crouch beside him, grabbing his shoulder and pushing him onto his back. He was alive and breathing, though unconscious, and looked okay except for a nasty cut on the side of his head that was trickling blood over his ear. "Aw, man…" Nico muttered under his breath, swallowing a jolt of worry.
A low groan behind Nico had him looking over his shoulder to see Reyna dragging herself into a sitting position, a hand on her head. "Hey," he called to her. "You alright?"
"I'm not dead," she responded wryly, rising to her feet and testing all her limbs. "That's something." She started to stretch her left arm and winced, a hand going to her shoulder. When she stepped over to Nico and Leo, she glanced down and a deep frown covered her dirty face, her eyebrows stitching together apprehensively. "Is he…?"
"He'll be fine," Nico assured her. "But he's not moving anytime soon. We should find Moros before—"
"You buzzed?" an all-too-familiar voice interrupted, and Nico twisted around to see the spirit of doom floating an inch above the ground at the base of the rocky hill he'd just thrown them down. Nico climbed to his feet, picking up his sword, and shot Moros a silent glare, fighting the immense urge to rush in and smack the cocky smirk from the guy's face. "You guys left early," the spirit went on lightly. "Rest of the guests hadn't even showed up yet." A snap of his fingers brought another small host of ghost-wolves into existence on either side of him, and Nico bit back an annoyed groan.
"They're not real," he reminded Reyna, sensing her tense beside him. "We can take 'em."
"Real?" Moros repeated. He studied Nico for a long second, twisting his left lip ring with his tongue, and a cruel grin spread across his face. "You want something real?" he asked, voice low. Then he snapped his fingers again, and unexpectedly the new wolves vanished. For a second or two, nothing else happened.
Somewhere between nervous and irritated, Nico took a step toward Moros. He opened his mouth to throw back a retort but froze as a sharp, searing pain cut through his stomach, killing his voice before it escaped his throat. He glanced down, suddenly afraid the spirit had thrown a knife at him or something, but he looked perfectly fine. He frowned, confused, until the pain spiked, spreading up his chest and tying his insides in tight knots. Crying out through gritted teeth, he staggered backward and doubled over, dropping his sword and wrapping both arms reflexively around his stomach.
"Nico," Reyna said in surprise, appearing beside him. But he could barely focus on her. It felt like tiny shards of rusted metal were crawling slowly up his esophagus, tearing everything in their path. He sank to his knees, then leaned over and coughed violently, vomiting mouthfuls of blood onto the dirt.
"What are you doing to him?" Reyna yelled at Moros, her angry voice dull in Nico's ears. "Stop it!"
"Nah," was Moros's half-hearted reply. "Kid wanted 'real'. Don't get much more 'real' than the last stage of the African Ebola virus." And then he laughed like he'd just made the best joke in the world, and Nico wanted nothing more than to tackle the spirit and punch his lights out. But he could barely breathe, let alone stand. It was like someone had lit a fire inside him and it was burning his organs to ashes. His entire body was shaking. He could feel his strength fading fast, his vision swimming with blinding, colored dots. He lifted his head, which felt like it weight at least six hundred pounds, and threw everything he had into a weak glare at the spirit of doom.
Moros's sneer was positively ecstatic. "You know what the best part is?" he said quietly. "When you can actually see death coming, and there ain't nothing you can do. It's that moment of panic, right before the end." His eyes seemed to glow with excitement as he asked mockingly, "You feel it yet, Nico?"
Hearing the spirit say his name felt like an insult and filled Nico with an intense wave of fury. He wanted to attack the guy—to scream at him, to make him pay somehow. But the virus wreaking slow and painful havoc in his body wouldn't let him. His throat had constricted so tightly he could no longer breathe, and he was starting to get lightheaded. The last bit of strength in his arms gave out and he fell to his side on the dirt, the world around him seeming hazy with fog and tinged with blackness. He thought he heard Reyna yell something, but the dull roar in his ears was too deafening to make it out. Even through all the pain, all Nico could feel was anger. He'd known this quest would be dangerous, but he'd at least counted on making it to Death Valley and confronting Nyx. That was supposed to be the hardest part. But here he was, dying of a fatal disease in Indiana, less than 700 miles from home. They hadn't even made it halfway.
And then, all of a sudden, it stopped. His vision cleared; he could breathe again. The pain in his chest and stomach was receding, dulling to a slow, almost ghostly ache. Blinking in mild surprise, Nico pushed himself up on his hands, wincing at the soreness in his limbs. His arms were still shaking, though not as badly as before. It was like everything he'd felt in the last two minutes was being gradually reversed, bringing him back to normal health.
"You alright?" a voice asked sharply, and Nico looked up as Reyna dropped to a crouch beside him.
"I think so," he replied, his voice so rough and gravelly it sounded completely alien. He sat back on the ground and rolled his shoulders experimentally. He still felt weak, but at least he no longer felt like he'd swallowed a vat of hot lava. That had to be a good sign. "What happened? How did you—?"
"He's like the animals," Reyna explained quickly, her eyes rising to search the shadows around them. "He solidifies when he uses magic. I got close enough to injure him and it stopped whatever he was doing to you."
"Clever," Moros's voice said coldly right before he flickered into existence a few yards away. The grin was gone from his face, his expression stony. "But what now? You can't beat doom. Doom always brings death."
Nico didn't like the look in the spirit's dead eyes. "When I tell you," he said to Reyna, his voice low and still sounding annoyingly weak, "grab onto me and don't let go." She frowned a bit, but nodded in understanding and shuffled just a bit closer to him. He shifted his position on the ground so he could reach the spot where Leo still lay unconscious, glowering at Moros all the while.
"You don't get it, do you?" Moros went on, seemingly oblivious. "I own this forest. Nothing gets in without my knowing. And nothing gets out. Period." He took a step closer, boots floating above the uneven ground. "Sorry, dudes, but I—actually, you know, I'm not sorry." He grinned, but the smile didn't reach his eyes. "This is gonna be fun."
"NOW!" Nico yelled, before stretching to the side and grabbing Leo's ankle with all the strength he had. The instant he felt Reyna's fingers close around his left arm, he shut his eyes and reached toward the shadows with his mind, picturing his destination as clearly as he could in his head and remembering the welcome sign Festus had crashed into when they'd arrived. He caught the very beginning of Moros's furious scream before all sound disappeared and they were yanked into a tearing whirlwind of blackness.
When the shadows thinned, they found themselves on a grassy hill beneath the open sky. Nico threw his arms out to keep from rolling more than a few feet, feeling the buzzing ache in his head spike to a constant throb. He gritted his teeth and clutched a hand to his head as a small wave of dizziness passed over him and quickly faded.
"You shouldn't have done that," Reyna said seriously, fixing Nico with a pointed look from where she sat on the grass. "You were already hurt."
"When are you guys gonna learn that I can handle more than you think I can?" Nico shot back, not angry with her so much as irritated by the situation and sick of his headache. "Just because I look weak doesn't mean I am."
Reyna breathed out shortly, giving up the argument. Instead, she stood and looked around. "Where are we?"
"Outside the forest," Nico answered. He sat up straight and rested his arms on his knees, eyes going to the line of trees a half-mile or so in the distance. "A little farther than I aimed for, but I'll take it."
"How'd you know where to go?"
"The welcome sign. It said this section of the reserve was just under thirteen thousand acres."
Reyna raised her eyebrows, for a second looking mildly impressed. Then she trudged past Nico and knelt beside Leo, examining the cut above his ear. "You don't have any ambrosia, do you?"
Nico shook his head with a heavy sigh, thinking they could all use some god-food right about now. "Not on me. Everything's back with the dragon."
Reyna scowled in disappointment, brushing her fingers through Leo's hair. He groaned suddenly, his face contorting in a grimace, and Reyna jerked her hand away like she'd been burned. Leo shifted his arms without opening his eyes and started to sit up, but Nico said shortly, "Don't. I don't think you wanna move just yet."
He'd barely finished the sentence before Leo grunted in pain and dropped back to the ground, a hand going to his head. "Don't gotta tell me twice," he muttered hoarsely, and when he finally opened his eyes they looked a bit dull and cloudy. "What happened? Where's the rocker dude?"
"In the forest," Nico answered. He absently pulled a handful of grass from the dirt and started tearing the blades apart as a way to try and alleviate some of his frustration. "We're safe for now."
"Not for long, though," Reyna said gravely. She sat back behind Leo and her eyes surveyed him carefully. "We can't stay out here. We've got to get back to the dragon so we can get moving. There has to be a way through the forest that Moros can't see, a way to get by him somehow."
Leo gave a noncommittal grunt in response, and Nico didn't answer. He knew she was right; they would need to return somehow. But if what Moros said was true, he would know as soon as they reentered the forest. And chances were he wasn't lying. He had been in charge of overseeing one of the deeper and more dangerous sections of the Fields of Punishment. All of its overseers had boundary senses in case someone tried to escape or cross divisions. It made sense that if he set this region of the Hoosier National Forest as his new domain, the same principle would apply. It was frustrating, the more Nico thought about it. Moros wasn't a god; he was a spirit—the soul of a long-since-dead demigod who'd been given unnatural power after his life had ended. And yet here he was, toying with them like he was some—
Nico's train of thought screeched to a halt. Moros was a spirit, a soul. He didn't belong on earth. He belonged in the Underworld. That meant that maybe—just maybe—they could force him back.
"What's wrong?" Reyna asked in a sharp tone, frowning at the look on Nico's face.
"We can't escape him," he said, staring at the ground in front of him as his mind began to formulate a plan. "We need to lure him out."
"You're not serious," Leo argued. "That guy's a nutcase. Way too crazy and powerful to—"
"To fight, yeah. But we aren't gonna fight him." He glanced sideways at the others and explained, "We're gonna banish him back to the Underworld."
Reyna's eyebrows shot up. "How? With the god of death asleep, we haven't been able kill things very effectively. How could that possibly work?"
"Because Moros is already dead," Nico pointed out. "It's not the same. Thanatos' absence keeps new souls from crossing over unless they want to, but what I'm talking about would bypass that entirely. We're gonna open a direct route to the Underworld—send him straight back without the messy induction process."
The corner of Leo's mouth twitched upward. "Straight back, huh? As in 'Do not pass GO, do not collect two hundred dollars'."
Nico smirked. "Exactly."
Leo rested an arm over his eyes and reached the other hand into the air, giving a weak thumbs-up. "I'm in."
Reyna bit her bottom lip, looking apprehensive, but after a minute she sighed and conceded, "Alright, it's as good a plan as any. What do we need?"
"For starters," Nico answered, stretching his arms out and cracking his knuckles, "a graveyard."
Sounds like fun, huh? How 'bout droppin' a review on your way out? Have a good weekend, everybody! Later days!
-oMM