Chapter 10

Adriana and Nico slept on and off throughout the night, Adriana was nervous for their escape and Nico was worried he would have another nightmare about Tartarus or receive another Iris message dream. Nico didn't know who had sent him the Iris message but he had a feeling it was either his sister Bianca -who once used to send Percy Iris messages- or Olivia Belshaw. Olivia and Leo obviously didn't believe Annabeth, those two had a feeling it was Hades fault but they didn't bring it up. They decided to give the two a couple more days before starting a search. But the thing was, everybody at camp was starting to dislike Adriana, even if they had never met her. Olivia wondered how she was going to cope.

Nico rolled over onto his back and decided he was done trying to sleep, last night they had picked out some armor to wear. They originally were going to try to sneak out but after witnessing the talk Hades and Alecto had, it was going to be more of a battle then he had intended.

Nico had also realized he couldn't shadow travel when he was on Hades territory, he could shadow travel when he was above but so far, no longer in the underworld. Hades must have tried to take the power away completely.

Nico started to strap on his armor, he had a breast-plate, shin plates, elbow plates and fingerless sword gloves. He left his helmet off for now.

He bit his lip as he watched Adriana sleep restlessly, she turned to one side but quickly turned back. Her expression was frustrated.

He gently shook her awake.

The first thing Adriana saw when she woke was Nico's face, she liked the view. He had a determined but concerned expression.

"Morning" Adriana spoke, Nico wanted to awe at the cute morning voice but he composed himself, they were going into battle. There was no time for that.

"Morning, want to get your armor on"? Nico asked cutting to the chase, he knew what he was doing Adriana encouraged herself.

She stood up and stretched before walking over to her pile of found armor. Nico helped strap her up and in no time both demigods were ready for battle.

"Look before we go out there... I just wanted to say..." Adriana struggled for words, she wanted to confess to Nico. Confess she liked him, like, REALLY liked him. Unfortunately she couldn't bring herself to do it.

"I just wanted to say good luck" Adriana said sadly, she was scared he'd laugh in her face and reply something like 'i'm a son of Hades, we can't date. Plus you're as ugly as Alecto'!

Nico frowned, he was sure she was going to say something much more important, but he nodded.

The two crept through the palace, it was eerily silent. Adriana's heart was beating faster and faster, like a trapped bird in a cage, the feeling made her dizzy and sick to the stomach.

"I think their positioned outside the palace Addy" Nico whispered, he crouched behind a wall and peered around the side. Nico frowned again as no one was there, motioning for Adriana to follow he straightened up and walked through he huge throne room. Their foot steps echoed and finally they reached the front doors, no sign of guards yet. Nico placed both hands on the doors.

"Once we open the doors Addy, their going to have a clear shot at us, run to the sides of the doors and wait for my signal. We'll charge them together" Nico explained quickly. Adriana nodded and took the big door on the left, Nico took the door on the right. Adriana was nervous, this was her first battle ever and if she was a bad fighter neither of them would make it back to camp.

Her palms sweated on the door and she kept readjusting her hands as they left sweaty marks, she didn't know what to say anymore either. Her mouth like a sand bag, her cross-bow suddenly felt heavy.

Nico didn't know what compelled him to do it, but when he saw how nervous Adriana was he felt responsible. Her beautiful hair was tied back into a high pony tail and her dark eyes glinted in the light. He forgot all about the signal and timing and basically the world as he moved closer to her.

Nico was never a nervous person but it felt like the world was on his shoulders at the moment.

"Adriana" he said softy, she turned her head to look up at the son of death, his body much closer than before, she realized he didn't have his hands on the door anymore either.

"Yes Nico" she replied back quietly.

Nico didn't know what he was doing or what would follow but he cupped her cheek in one hand and pulled her closer by the waist with his other. Nico looked into her eyes, Adriana wasn't thinking anymore, she didn't' know what to think.

Nico leaned down, they were so close. Adriana could feel his breath on her lips,and her eyes fluttered shut. They waited for someone to make the move.

Suddenly Nico couldn't take it, he pressed his lips to hers. Adriana felt like she was in heaven, no other kisses compared to this. Fireworks exploded behind her eyelids every thing was forgotten, nothing mattered but Nico. Quickly she sent a hand into his black silky hair, she had wondered for so long what it felt like, her other hand lightly touched the hand cupping her cheek.

Their lips moved, softly biting and pulling, Nico loved the taste of her lips, it was fresh and warm like spring. He didn't want to stop, he wanted to pulled her closer, kiss her harder, tell her how much she meant to him, he wanted her soft lips to stay on his.

Finally Nico pulled away, he opened his eyes and watched as Adriana slowly opened her eyes, he waited for her reaction. She smiled from ear to ear, she had wanted to kiss the boy for so long.

Adriana went to say something but someone cut her off, or should she say something.

"Oh so cute" a voice cackled, Adriana and Nico spun around and behind them perched on Hades and Persephone's throne were the three furies.

"Yes, yes. I can't wait to capture them and tell Hades about this" one cackled. Adriana couldn't tell the difference between the hags, they all looked like old bats.

"You won't be able to tell them anything if you're in the pits of hell"! Adriana snarled, she was furious, they had interrupted a moment she had been waited for!

Nico unsheathed his black sword, the three sisters eyed it cautiously.

"Run now you old hags before you become dust" Nico threatened, they started to laugh with glee as if they had already won.

Suddenly something from Adriana's direction whistled by and impaled the sister on the far right.

She looked shocked, then it morphed to angry as she screamed and disintegrated. They would take a long time to reform.

Nico's head snapped to Adriana and she had her cross-bow drawn and aimed another arrow.

The two sisters looked enraged now, they suddenly took to the air, Adriana tried to shot another but missed by a centimeter.

They flew over the demigods and pushed open the grand palace doors.

Adriana's mouth fell open, monsters and skeleton soldiers were all lined up as if they expected this to happen.

Without a signal, warning call or battle cry the army of 80 charged.

Nico sliced a skeleton in half and their bones clattered to the floor. Adriana aimed her bow and shot two down. Majority of their army were skeleton warriors but their were probably ten hell hounds.

Nico went in head to head combat, he swung his sword around like a pro, he paired and sliced like a demon. His hair flew all over as he spun around to check on Adriana, the warriors couldn't seem to get close enough to her. Her cross-bow kept them at bay.

The underworld was dark and gloomy and Nico could barely see the two furies flying over head instructing the army. Nico needed to think of a way out and fast, ten hell hounds was going to be hard to hold off.

Nico paired another sword and the skeleton sneered at him, Nico kneed him and pushed him to the ground hard, his head popped off and rolled away. Suddenly a sword cut his skin. Nico whirled around, someone had sliced horizontally across his lower back, his skin burned but it only fueled his angry.

Nico felt a familiar pull in his gut, a mound of stygion rock erupted from the ground. It wasn't just a blob like usual though, it looked like stalagmites. Three pierced the ground and got one soldier and impaled a hell hound in the stomach. Both died.

Adriana watched in awe as Nico raised rock from a flat surface, but she hadn't realized how close she had let the skeletons get. Too close for a cross-bow, that's for sure.

She whipped out her dagger and yelled as she stabbed a warrior through the chest.

Suddenly the hair on her neck stood up as a deep growl pierced the air behind her, Adriana slowly turned around and a hell hound's face was near inches from hers.

Frozen in fear Adriana stared into the beasts red eyes, slobber dripped from his massive jowls, he bared huge fang.

Without warning a huge black paw swiped her to the side, Adriana screamed as she was sent flying, she landed hard on her back.

For a second she only saw darkness.

Nico whirled around as he heard her scream pierce the underworld, he saw her land and skid backwards. He winced in sympathy, but he saw the hell hound advancing on her. Nico wanted nothing more then to kill the monster, it hurt Adriana!

Nico charged through the massive swarming crowd of skeletons, he probably got a bunch of paper cut sword slashed but he didn't care. Adriana was about to get mauled by a truck sized dog!

"AHHHH"! Nico yelled and jumped onto the hounds back, the black fur was thick and long. The demon dog reared up and jumped around, Nico hung on for life as he tried to drive his sword into the hounds back. The dog was running around and he crushed a couple of by standing skeletons too. Finally the dog reared up again and Nico took the opportunity to stab it.

The dog wailed and disintegrated, Nico screamed as he fell from the sky. Adriana had started to pull herself up but a skeleton put a foot on her chest and pointed a sword at her chin.

Adriana quickly kicked the skeleton in the crotch and it made her laugh when it discombobulated his bones and he broke apart. Unfortunately she had gotten a bad cut across her cheek though.

She rushed over to Nico and shot two skeletons with her cross-bow along the way. The dark ground raced under her feet and nothing seemed to get in her way.

Nico lay on the ground groaning.

"NICO"! She yelled, she quickly fell onto her knees and winced as she kneeled on a bruise.

Nico groaned and sat up, his eye widened as he saw the long cut across her cheek. His hand cupped her cheek and his thumb gently ran across the cut smearing the blood.

"Are you ok? We need to get you nectar or..." Nico trailed off worried, he had lost everybody he cared about and he wasn't taking the slightest of chances with Adriana.

Adriana grabbed his hand and held it, "I'm fine, you on the other hand" Adriana inspected him, he had tiny sword cute everywhere on his torso and she saw blood pooling under him.

Her eyes widened, "Nico your back" she said. Nico shook his head.

"Lets just get up and fight" he encouraged

Adriana hesitantly nodded and stabbed a skeleton behind her without looking, Nico swung his sword over his head and spun around knocking a couple heads off. Adriana swiftly pulled out her cross-bow and shot a hell hound in the eye, he howled in pain. As it's head was pulled back in a howl Adriana shot another arrow into it's throat, the beast disintegrated.

Nico sliced another skeleton in half, he pulled a dagger out of his belt and whipped it, it got stuck in a skeleton's skull, the skeleton looked at it and his bones clattered to the ground.

Suddenly Nico saw a familiar face by the judging arena and traffic zone, he was hiding like the rest of the dead. Nico knew what to do.

To Be Continued!

Nuff said ^

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