After dinner Chiron pulled me aside and put his hand on my shoulder, I figured he would be explaining something about the Labyrinth, "Due to the fact that time runs differently in the maze, after lunch is when we'll send everyone into it. For now the extent of it is finding one of the numerous checkpoints laid out within the maze, and getting out again. Will, I'm counting on you if anything happens in there. Find whoever is in danger and get them back here. Kayla is the second best medic here at camp, so she'll be staying out here." He explained, and even though I was telling Nico everything would be fine with the coming day…Well, it was a relief to know my little sister would be safe regardless.
"Got it, thanks Chiron." I replied, trying for a reassuring smile, and he nodded. "You're welcome, Will. Now get some rest, tomorrow will prove to be interesting. I'm sure of that."
He wasn't the only one who was sure of that.
Nico was waiting for me at the edge of the pavilion, but he wasn't watching my conversation with Chiron.
The Son of Hades was staring out at the ocean and horizon where you could just see the Manhattan skyline. His arms were crossed, and he was leaned up against a column, his dark eyes flicked from place to place as if he were imagining the battle that had happened here only a few months prior.
I walked over and looked at him before asking with a faint laugh. "Still worried about tomorrow, or thinking about the past?" He ran a hand through his feathery black hair, messing it up more than it already was, and he closed his eyes. "Bit of both you could say."
He reached over for my hand and started to walk, "Right now the last thing I want to do is think, so talk. You're pretty good at keeping me from worrying." He said as I walked beside him. I raised an eyebrow at him and poked his cheek with my finger.
"What's this 'pretty good' business? I am fantastic at keeping people from worrying, what are you talking about?" I asked, pursing my lips and a ghost of a laugh escaped him as he shook his head.
He looked over at me, with a faint smile, "You're an idiot, you know that Solace?" "In this relationship, I am certainly not the idiot." I told him firmly, rolling my blue eyes at him and his smile faded.
"Are you accusing me of being the idiot then?" He asked, in a matter-of-factly kind of way. "I didn't say that-" I started to tell him then groaned and looked up at the sky that was lit ablaze with the fading light of the sun.
"This is like arguing with the Aphrodite kids." I mumbled and Nico had a look of triumph on his face.
A little known fact, you wouldn't expect it at first, but arguing with Aphrodite kids is a bit like arguing with the captain of a debate team. They know exactly what to say to flip the conversation around so you're arguing against the point you were originally trying to make.
Back when Drew was the head counselor, if you listened closely against my cabin walls you could hear our angry yells and rants about her. When we had to inspect the cabins, once, the Aphrodite Cabin had the worst cabin.
This was right after the Battle of Manhattan so they were still assimilating to Drew being the head counselor instead of Silena (may she rest in peace) and it looked like the Ares cabin had set off one of their grenades in their cabin.
I was still adjusting to being the head counselor of the Apollo Cabin, and was trying to fill the shoes Michael Yew had left for me to fill. It was a mess, but I organized everybody enough and got the cabin cleaned, thank the gods.
Since they had the worst cabin, naturally they had to do dishes that week.
But Drew got other ideas. She came over to me, batting her glittery pink eyes at me, and my mind went to mush.
"Hun, would you mind doing the dishes this week? After all of the tragedy we've gone through I'm sure you understand we've just had a rough time." She cooed, her voice like silk.
Before I realized what I was doing I spent the next hour and a half doing the dishes by myself.
The night before she left during the school year Austin, Kayla and I turned up the music so loud it made the walls vibrate, and she stormed into our cabin.
"What are you doing?!" She screeched, her hair looking like something out of Annie and I pointed to the music. "Too loud! I can't hear you!"
She hated me after that, but I didn't give a damn about that.
Finally, Nico and I arrived at the Hades cabin, the green flames sent shadows against our faces as the sun had finally dipped below the horizon and now our surroundings were becoming darker by the minute.
My boyfriend looked at me, and then looked over at my cabin. "Are you ready for tomorrow?" He asked, and I shrugged, "What happens happens. It'll be fine."
I leaned down and kissed his cheek and told him in a whisper. "Sleep well, big day head of us tomorrow."
His eyes followed me as I left to head back to my cabin, something I knew he was doing even if I hadn't have looked over my shoulder to wave goodbye.
Austin was sitting on his bunk and Kayla looked at me with a sigh. "He's gone on a vow of silence until the curse wears off." She grumbled and a sigh escaped me, mimicking hers.
I flopped down onto my bed and shrugged, "Once it's on, it has to wear away by itself. Sorry Austin." He frowned and pulled out a piece of paper before he scribbled quickly on it and wrote in all capital letters: IF YOU DO THIS TO ME AGAIN I SWEAR TO ZEUS
A laugh escaped me seeing that, and Kayla rolled her eyes. "I will never understand boys. Anyhow, what's your plan of action for tomorrow, Will?" "I'll be with Nico, that's just about it. I haven't been in the maze so he's the only one here at camp that's personally been in there." I replied, sitting up as I went over to water the plants in the windowsill.
The hyacinth was starting to droop; I knew the old stories about how my father had fallen for the beautiful man but jealously tore them apart.
Well if dad ever got off of his high horse in my lifetime and actually spoke to me, at least he wouldn't disown me for dating another guy. That seemed like the only silver lining to that myth.
After watering the flower that perked up almost instantly, I fell onto the bed and Austin wrote something else on his notepad: Doesn't that mean you'll have the advantage if Nico's with you?
"Yes, but mind you I also have to have a quick way to get out of the maze being the medic. If something happens he can just shadow travel us out of there, as much as I dislike shadow traveling there are some perks to it." I added, putting my hands behind my head.
Kayla flipped off the lights in the cabin and poked my side. "Get some sleep, Will. You'll need it."
Austin sighed louder than usual and crawled underneath the covers. Kayla walked over and crossed her arms at him. "There are worse things than rhyming curses, do you see this?" She held up her hand and pressed her pointer finger and thumb together and rubbed them together. "This is the world's tiniest violin, playing just for you."
That earned my little sister a pillow in the face, and she just laughed before climbing into her own bed and she quickly fell asleep.
I got changed and hopped into bed, hoping maybe tonight I wouldn't have to deal with bad dreams, or any dreams at all at the very least.
Ever since the Giant War I hadn't had many nightmares about anything but myself and the people who had died because I didn't do my job well enough, but that night rattled me up.
I was standing in an alley way, looking up at the sky and saw a burst of lightning even though there weren't any rain clouds in the area for miles. Zeus no doubt, was playing at something, what it was that he was doing though...I had no idea.
Then a figure fell out of the sky, a limp figure, and the only reason I knew what that looked like is because I saw Ethan Nakumura fall from Olympus. One of the pegasi caught him as he fell so we could give him a proper funeral.
What I noticed as the figure fell, is that they seemed to have fallen out of the sun. As if the sunlight had just spat him out.
"What in the…?" I murmured as the dream changed and I stood in the woods surrounding camp, feeling as though the trees were about to consume me. My heart hammered in my chest, mind you, I don't have claustrophobia, but standing there in the dark woods, I felt a crippling fear engulf me. Something shoved my shoulder and I nearly screamed when-
I woke with a start, finding Kayla stand over me. "Morning, sunshine, up and at 'em."
Joy. I thought, rubbing my eyes as I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes with the back of my hand. "Also, you have a visitor." She added, nodding to the door where I found an even grumpier looking Nico di Angelo waiting for me with his arms crossed. I held up a finger as a yawn escaped me and I got out of bed, realizing I was wearing one of my gray, sleeveless t-shirts and boxer shorts.
"Get changed." Nico said in an exasperated tone, as Kayla left and she shut the door behind her.
Austin seemed to be out already probably out at the archery range, practicing, knowing him at least.
I got changed into my usual type of clothes and pulled on my sandals before I tied my hair back and Nico was wearing his ever so familiar scowl to greet me.
He was wearing his Ramones shirt, navy blue jeans (he added a bit of color!), his aviator jacket, skull ring; his hair was partially tied back, and cold, jet black Stygian Iron sword strong to his belt.
That look never failed to make me glad I was on his good side. Besides, it suited him.
"You seem cheery." I noted, raising an eyebrow at him and he looked over in the direction of Zeus's Fist, which is where we were planning on entering the maze. "Sue me." He replied, with an eye roll.
He walked over to me then locked eyes with me, "Today, in the maze, I need you to promise me something on the River Styx." It looked like he was pretty serious.
His dark eyes bore into mine, and any person in their right mind would have high tailed it out of their, the Son of Hades was intimidating to demigods, monsters, and gods alike.
Luckily, I was just as stubborn as he was, and if he wanted a stare off I wouldn't back off. I knew him well enough to know that he wouldn't do anything to me. (Least I hoped so, you could never tell with Italians.)
"Depends on what that is." I replied, not backing down as Nico took a step towards me.
"When we're in the maze, I don't care if it's mellowed, something will happen. I need you to promise me that whatever I tell you to do once we're in there you'll do." He said in a firm voice and his face softened.
It was obvious he hadn't got any sleep, and worry was the only thing I could register on his face. His dark brows were drawn together and it felt like he was trying to warn me about the dangers of the maze. Little did he know I was the one who helped fix Clarrise up after she stumbled out of the maze, looking like she had been through hell and back.
Ares and Apollo may not have go alone but when Silena didn't know what to do she came to me, surprising me in the process. Here's the girl who could calm down any animal, who knew exactly what to say to mellow out any of the campers, coming to me. A lowly son of Apollo, who fails miserably with archery and only has a half decent gift of healing people.
He sighed and took a step back, shoving his hands in his pockets. "Sorry, that sounded like I was trying to order you around or something. I just…"
The Son of Hades' voice cracked and his eyes fell. "I don't want to lose you too."
I walked over and wrapped my arms around him; he looked up at me, surprised. I smiled at him softly and murmured, "You won't, and I plan on sticking around for a good long time. Whatever happens I'll do what you say, no Styx needed."
He buried his face in my chest for a moment, silent, and I wished I knew what was going on inside his head. "Thank you." He mumbled, it was slightly muffled due to the fact that he was speaking into my shirt but I didn't mind.
He pulled away and scratched the back of his head, his cheeks looking slightly pink. Was he embarrassed?
"Anyhow, we'd…better eat. Come on." He turned and started to walk without even waiting for me, and there wasn't a doubt in my mind he was embarrassed.
How adorable.
The rest of the morning passed relatively slowly, everybody seemed to have a few jitters about the coming afternoon.
Chiara walked over to Austin before lunch and slung an arm around his shoulder, "I have a feeling we should be partners, what do you say?"
Before he could stop himself he smiled up at her (Chiara is quite tall for a girl, but she didn't care) and said, "Great! Don't be late." Then his face fell and he shot me daggers once again.
Chiara Benvenuti raised a confused eyebrow at him, but shrugged and walked over to her table.
Holly and Laurel Victor naturally decided to pair up.
Harley and Nyssa paired up, as did Shane and Jake Mason.
It seemed most people were sticking to siblings.
Damien White and Paolo ended up together and he frowned at Travis Stoll. "I can't even understand the guy!" He complained, and Paolo slapped Damien's head with the back of his hand with a frown. "Ow!" Damien complained giving Travis a look of: help me.
Nico cracked a smile seeing their little dispute. "I love that guy." He said, gesturing to Paolo, and I reached over for his free hand. "I sure hope you don't."
That earned me an eye roll.
Finally everybody was standing in front of Zeus's Fist, the pile of boulders that I have only once seen resemble anything remotely close to a fist. Maybe Minotaur Droppings would be a more accurate name.
Though I doubt Thunderpants would like that.
Thunder rolled overhead and I silently regretted thinking that, the gods never communicated but they seemed to have acute hearing when it came to themselves. Primadonna little immortals beings they are.
"Around the maze there are numerous checkpoints set up, you'll know it's a checkpoint by the laurel wreath there. You are to find one, and get back to camp." Chiron explained.
"Simple enough." Chiara murmured, shrugging softly and Austin looked at the gap in Zeus's Fist with apprehension.
Kayla stood beside Chiron with a whistle orange enough to make Gleeson Hedge drool buckets. "The winner gets a day out in Manhattan with their partner. Go!" She blew the whistle, and half of the people covered their ears while I grinned.
I wanted that day out with Nico in Manhattan.
Without thinking I grabbed Nico and pulled him along so we were the first into the gap. "Hades' gym-shorts, Will!" Nico yelled, as I started to pull him through the gap until we were standing in what looked like a maintenance tunnel.
Nico glanced over his shoulder as did I, the other pairs were trying to squirm through the gap unsuccessfully.
We had the advantage in this race, let's do this. I looked ahead of us and started to walk, and Nico's grip seemed to tighten. "We're here." He murmured, looking around as our pace picked up.
We took a few turns, knowing full well we'd eventually made it out, if the maze moved it moved, at the minute our biggest concern was finding one of those checkpoints. There didn't seem any point in keeping track of where we came from.
After around three minutes of walking, we walked into a room full of white marble. There weren't any torches so it seemed like everything was a brown. Neither one of us could see, I could make out Nico squinting, and a few shadowy outlines on the far wall of the room but it felt like suicide to do anything in the dark.
For a while I had wanted to try something, and being as though we were in the dark, it was the perfect time.
"Where do we go?" Nico asked and I let go of his hand. "Hold on, I have an idea."
I focused on the image of the sun, the feeling of warmth from it, the pale light that always seemed to relax me and then-
There was the sound of a faint breeze, and my hair flew around my face as if I were underwater before it settled and a small ball of yellow, pale light bobbed above my hand. It was the size of softball, and it was just enough to see our surroundings.
Nico couldn't care less about our surroundings at the minute; he was staring at my face then the ball of light. "Since when have you been able to do that?" He asked, his jaw dropping slightly. I put my finger underneath his chin and closed his mouth with a small laugh.
"Since just now, figured dear old pops is the sun god, maybe something like that would be passed along to me being as though I have almost no skill with archery." I gave my best guess at explaining and looked around once more.
"Anyhow, we have more important matters," I started to say when I got a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. I glanced around the room looking for an exit, there were only two wooden doors and the point that we came in from.
Apparently, Nico sensed it too, because he pulled out his Stygian Iron sword and whispered urgently to me. "Put the light out, Will." I did just that as some familiar voices echoed around the tunnels that seemed to twist and turn at will. We couldn't tell where the voices were coming from, so we were stuck being sitting ducks.
"Stop walking, Paolo, you can't even see where you're going-and yes I know you thought you saw some sort of light, but this maze messes with your head-" Damien's aggravated voice said and I saw two murky figures in the dark come into view.
Nico sighed and looked at me, "It's just them." He murmured and I heard Paolo say in his thick Brazilian accent ask, "Nico?"
I willed the light to return and gave them a small wave. "Hey you two." I said and Damien looked at me suspiciously. "Why aren't you trying to throw us off of your trail?" He asked, narrowing his eyes at us as he crossed his arms.
My boyfriend nodded to the door, seemingly on the same page as I was. "There are two doors so the chances of us getting to a checkpoint are just as good as yours." He explained, folding his arms together, in almost a mirror fashion of Damien.
Paolo looked at the two doors for a moment before he pointed to the one on his right. Damien sighed, "He's made himself leader, so that's where we're going I guess." A sigh escaped the Son of Nemesis and I could tell he wasn't happy with being the follower instead of the leader in this case.
Hard to be happy when you're in this weird maze, though, I'll admit.
Nico waited for them to go through the right door before he started to walk to the left one, with me on his tail.
The sinking feeling in my stomach still hadn't faded; at least if we met whatever was causing this we had a better chance at fighting and surviving. If Damien and Paolo meet whatever it was…well I hope that they hang in there.
For the first time, I was praying that Nico and I would meet the-whatever we feared.
"I don't like this…" I murmured, following Nico through the door where was walked on old mosaics that resembled the ones from ancient times.
Nico nodded but stayed silent, walking in front of me with his sword drawn and ready. My light barely penetrated the darkness surrounding us and only lit up enough of the tunnel so that we could see where we were walking without tripping over the numerous random stones that seemed to exist only to make me trip.
The tunnel opened up into what seemed like an arena, but it reeked of dust and blood. How could that be? It didn't look like it had been touched in years. The stench of blood normally faded after a short time, being a doctor I knew that at the very least. "Hm...no laurel." I murmured, casting my light around, there seemed to be another opening on the arena on the far end opposing us but other than that it seemed empty. Above us there were only a few chains hanging from the very high ceiling. It was a very odd set-up, like something out of a modern gladiator.
Nico frowned deeply, it seemed as if somebody who was born from the god of darkness even this place felt unsettling.
Only at that minute did I notice the human skeletons propped up on the walls of the place. Then I realized the dust must be the remains from monsters, and the question of how long this place was in use pried on my mind heavily.
"Let's get out of here, something doesn't feel right." The Son of Hades mumbled, looking ready to spring into action at any minute. I felt pretty useless having no weapons and no ability to fight. If anything happened I would be forced to hide behind Nico and cheer him on like, "Yeah, don't mess with us, i have a dangerous boyfriend I'm not afraid to use!"
That would be pathetic.
We had started to walk to the opening on the far end of the area when there was a blood curling scream, no doubt it was from the Son of Hebe, Paolo.
"The hell, did the two doors lead to similarly close places?" Nico asked, his eyes flashing dangerously as he steadied his sword in front of him and took a step in front of me protectively.
There was another yell, this time Damien, his voice sounded desperate. "No!"
Something was wrong, very, supremely, and utterly wrong.
"Nico we have to find them." I said, seeing an exit on the opposite end of the weird arena. He nodded and we started to sprint whenever I saw Damien dragging an unconscious Paolo in through that exit. He saw us and relief flooded his face.
"Will, Nico! Get Paolo out of here, he-his arms-" He stuttered, Damien was shaking. I gently pushed away Nico's sword before sprinting over to the two figures. My light only extended so far, but even from the distance that I was at I could tell there was blood. Not a lot of it seemed to be Damien's.
Nico was still a bit behind me when I arrived and finally saw Paolo's body finally.
Sweat was beading his forehead, he was blacked out and…his arms were nearly decapitated, just barely holding on with a piece of thin tissue. Blood had soaked through his shirt, was still pouring out of his shoulder with every heartbeat, and he was paler than the light bobbing in front of me.
With my concentration broken it flicked, and I forced my mind to do two things at once.
Nico ran up beside us and saw Paolo.
Then there was a cackle of laughter, and a woman with long hair that came down past her face, and a seemingly regular body approached us. Her face, was anything but normal, it seemed deformed and she didn't have any eyes. It was like some weird indie horror monster, and she was nearly as unsettling as Paolo's arm's.
"Who are you?" Nico challenged, leveling his sword as I ripped off strips of my shirt and wrapped it around Paolo's practical numbs of arms, his body shook as I wrapped it up and his nerves seemed to be in disarray from how he reacted. Like they were ten times more sensitive than they should have been.
"Oh, nobody remembers me," She whispered, her voice barely reaching us, and she swept her hair over her shoulder, her fingernails resembled claws. They were bloody, with Paolo's blood and anger gripped me. "Lamia was my name so many centuries ago." She murmured, and Nico frowned, "You're one of the bases for the vampire legends." Her smiled faded and she launched forward at him.
"Cursed!" She shrieked and Nico glanced back at me for a moment before looking back at her.
At the very last second he slashed upwards and she exploded into dust. "All of that, and you weren't even a fight." He murmured before running over to us.
My light flickered out as he knelt down and put his hand on my shoulder, and on Damien's. "Close your eyes." He told me, knowing full well my distaste when it comes to shadow traveling.
"No." Though I had to make sure Paolo didn't make his way down to Hades while we were engulfed by the very things he controlled.
The shadows crept towards the four of us and suddenly we reappeared in the infirmary where Kayla nearly fell off of the cot that she had been sitting on. "Whoa, a little warning next...oh."
"Get the ambrosia." I told her, throwing off the scraps of my shirt as I ran to get gloves and my tools, she sprinted to get some ambrosia and Damien left as soon as he stood up. Outside I could hear him wrenching his guts up.
Whatever helped him cope, I guess. As I ran past him I pointed in the direction of the Big House, "Find Chiron, go!"
I couldn't afford to think though, normally whenever a thing like this happens my mind shuts off and I move without having to think.
Nico sat by Paolo, watching carefully.
I pulled on my scrub, some gloves and sprinted back over. I pulled off the bandage and dripped some ambrosia into his mouth.
A bit of his color seemed to return, but it seemed like a fever had set in. His eyes opened a bit, something that made me want to curse. This was going to be painful, and if he was awake it would make things even worse. Damn.
I grabbed the disinfectant and looked at Kayla and Nico. "Help hold him down."
He looked around, confused and then his eyes landed on his arms and he looked like he wanted to be sick. For all of our sake, I prayed he didn't. It would be messy to clean up and wouldn't help me make sure he didn't die.
They came over Nico put two hands on him, one on his stomach, and the other on his head. Kayla put her hands on his legs and I nodded before pouring some over the stubs.
There were a lot of Portuguese words I didn't understand, but that I am completely sure were not pleasant things that I heard in that thirty seconds and he bit on his lip. His breathing was ragged and was growing slower by the minute. I knew we were on a time crunch and if I didn't either take off his arms entirely or reattach them somehow, he'd be on his way to Hades. I didn't want to add him to what seemed like my ever growing list.
Considering what was happening to him at that minute, he was doing pretty well. Hang in there, Paolo. I thought silently as I grabbed his arm.
It was an odd thing to do, I had never done anything quite like this, but people reattached thumbs and fingers and such. Couldn't we do the same with limbs?
I set both of his arms back where they should be and looked at him. "I'm sorry, this is going to suck." I apologized before I grabbed the needle and Paolo therefore blacked out once again. At least that would make my job easier. I prayed to Apollo that it was from shock and not from blood loss because if it was the latter we would have a major problem.
Nico took a step back and watched with an unreadable expression on his face. Kayla helped me poke the thread through the needle and handed it to me.
Thirty minutes later, both of his arms were attached, and I knew I would be rubbing the stench of blood off of me for hours. I sang a hymn to my father and the area around us glowed slightly, and Paolo's expression softened a bit and his breathing evened out considerably. I sat down, feeling as if I had run a marathon as I always felt after doing that last bit.
Hymns to my father normally help, as it did with Annabeth when she had been stabbed in the back. Literally.
Kayla told me to take a break and that she would make a cast for Paolo so that he wouldn't injure himself while his arms were reattaching themselves to his shoulders.
I walked over to the bathroom in the infirmary and felt physically and mentally exhausted, in the mirror as I looked at myself something seemed alien. That's how I normally felt after doing these things, while I was attending to whoever was hurt it was smooth sailing.
As soon as I sat down, or allowed myself even a moment to relax I came crashing back into reality.
What if Paolo isn't able to fight anymore from my incompetence as a doctor and medic? I thought, taking off the gloves as I threw them into the trash and ran a hand through my hair. I pulled off the scrub and saw my bare chest, noticing some of the pale scars on my chest and sighed.
I looked at myself in the mirror, my freckles, my eyes, my hair, and felt my chest closing up, that familiar doubt that seemed to bite away at me when-
"Will." Said Nico from behind me, and I realized I left the door open. Oh, great.
He walked over and held up something, a laurel.
"Damien said we could have it, apparently we were the first out." He told me before he placed it on my head with a sympathetic look, sweeping a bit of my hair out of my face. "If not for you Paolo would have died. You're allowed to take some credit for that."
He gave me a small smile, and put his hand on my shoulder, "Keep your head high, but if you can't know I'm here for you."
There were no words to explain how grateful I was for him at that moment. All I could do was nod, and he reached over for my hand. "Come on, let's get you cleaned up." "Thank you Nico." I murmured, running my thumb over his hand and he raised an eyebrow.
"What for?" He asked, and I managed a smile. "Would it be wrong to say everything?" A small laugh escaped him as we walked to his cabin, he glanced up at me and murmured, "Idiot."
Well, it certainly was an interesting go at the maze. Maybe next time we won't have to worry about somebody potentially dying. Then again, we are demigods.
Dying seems to be what we do the best.