Lie Beneath Lie

Nico Di Angelo did not want to do this.

Not at all.

It was stupid. So horribly stupid. What Thalia wanted him to do might just make him lose his mind in frustration. A book—a damned book; that was why they were doing this. If Nico was a little bit more sane, he would have walked out the moment Thalia had told him she needed a diversion to help hide it.

No matter what Nico used as an excuse to stop her from doing this, Thalia seemed to have a whole list of reasons as to why what they planned was wholly necessary. In all honesty, if it were up to Nico, he would've just hid it under a pile of dirt or something.

He staggered over to the Apollo table, where he was welcomed with warm remarks. Nico had not been eating at his table for a long time ever since he'd gotten himself tangled in a relationship with Will Solace. The son of Hades did not regret it, but he did wish Will did not get involved in whatever Nico and Thalia planned to do.

He tilted his head at his boyfriend, avoiding to meet his eyes as Nico stiffly sat down next to him. "Did you sleep well? You don't look too good," said Will, edging a bit closer to the boy. Nico suppressed a taut smile, nodding.

Liar, sang a little voice in the back of his head, you stayed up all night.

Kayla, a daughter of Apollo Nico had fairly grown to get irritated at, grinned cheerily at them as she raised a piece of her omelette to her mouth. She stopped halfway, lightly teasing at the couple, "Looks like our little Nico has been deflowered overnight. I'm just wondering who wears the pants in your relationship."

A burst of giggles and snickers escaped from those who heard. Nico bared his teeth, scowling. In fairness, he did look dead. Quite literally. Nico and Thalia have been so busy plotting yesterday that they had forgotten the aspects of sleeping.

Nico forced a devilish smirk on his lips with one eyebrow raised at the others. "See, unlike others, we like switching," he joked, earning sniggers from them. Will snorted, elbowing the son of Hades in plain embarrassment.

Kayla, like Nico, was grinning innocently. "Depends on the mood, I suppose?" The daughter of Apollo yelped when Will kicked her in the shin under the table. This time, Nico joined in on the laughter that echoed around him.

Nico did not know what in Hades he was about to do in the next few moments, but he was going to make sure no one got hurt with this little insane stunt of his.

*.·:·. ✧ ✦ ✧ .·:·.*

Any moment now.

Any moment now, that familiar ringing sound from the conch shell would parrot in the sky, causing a stir from the campers.

Thalia had a right to be terrified. She could be brave in a situation where she needed to demolish numbers and numbers of enemies. But for this instance, if her plan backfired and she and Nico got caught in the act—

No. Thalia frowned to herself, shaking her head loftily. No; getting caught in the act was not an option.

"Thals?" said Caille, setting down her toast of bread as little brown crumbs showered her plate. Thalia looked up at her, sheepishly realising that she had never touched her food.

Caille set a pointed look towards Thalia's untouched toast. "You haven't eaten. Last time I've seen you act like this was when Percy disappeared in Camp Jupiter." Caille paused, now staring at an astonished Thalia with curiosity gleaming in her eyes. "You're not worried about him, are you? He'd come back, no need to worry."

I know, thought Thalia, gritting her teeth. He better come back.

"It's not that," the daughter of Zeus said out loud on accident, hating how her breath was shaky. She felt a feeling of panic arise in her veins when Caille took close notice of how Thalia glanced around too many times. The other hunters turned their heads towards her with glimpses of both amusement and wonder.

Thalia continued hurriedly, "I just thought that, er—that maybe—"

"MONSTERS! MONSTERS INSIDE THE BORDER!" yelled a distant voice, followed by a feline scream that rang in their ears. The campers had stopped eating; their noisy chattering began impersonating the deafening quiet around them that hung like a thick blanket. Thalia's heartbeat pounded in her ears, eyes wide, her conversation with Caille forgotten.

A growl echoed, then another followed.

Then another.

When Chiron trudged through the clinking stony floors, eyes wide and alert, everyone had followed almost instantly. Questions and pure panic fired up at once as a lion's head appeared in their vision, along with a goat and a snarling snake on its backside—Chimeras.

Thalia stood up, giving the hunters a quick subtle nod as she watched the Hunt file out, instinctively drawing out their weapons with deadly efficiency. Caille dragged a wide-eyed Estelle by the arm, pulling the young brunette away.

Oh, gods—oh, fuck. They were actually doing this.

Ignoring the building fear setting in her stomach, Thalia cut a sharp glance to the Apollo table. Nico blurred within the running panicked campers, but once she saw him yell a word they knew no one else would hear because of all the commotion—Thalia made a run for it.

No one questioned Thalia or even dared look her way as she ran past, darting through the growing numbers of campers as swift as a doe. Her breath hitched when she stumbled upon someone—purple robes entailed with gold and—

"Where are you going?" demanded the praetor of Camp Jupiter, her dark eyes wild yet calm, despite the situation. "I don't know how the Chimeras got in, but Hades, there's an awful lot of them."

Yells and shouts lead by a ferocious rasp rose up in the air. Let's see how good of an actor your monsters really are, she'd once told the son of Hades.

Thalia's thoughts whipped past, washing over her wave after wave. Panicking, she invented wildly, "How many? Twenty of them?" Oh, gods. Time was running.

Reyna gave her a side-glance, narrowing her eyes to slits with what seemed like suspicion in her face. "Twenty, or something like that—how'd you know? Ah, never mind; what are you waiting for? Come on!"

The raven almost sighed in relief when the Roman dodged by the crowd, shouting commands and stopping anyone who willingly flung themselves to their deaths.

Anything, Thalia vividly remembered the words she had told Nico that night as her eyes laid upon the familiar oak-wood that belonged to the Artemis cabin. Any monster would do. Make sure they don't hurt anybody—we only need them as a distraction.

It was almost as if all the campers had gone to where the fight was. If Thalia did not know better, she'd claim the area was deserted.

Closing her eyes for a quick second, she fumbled around in her pocket until something cold and steel brushed against her delicate fingertips. Thalia glanced around, pulling out a fragile iron key that looked awfully corroded.

Bringing her hand up to the keyhole, the door swung open almost instantly with a loud, creaky sound that drowned within the triumphant yells and cries that rung in her ears.

Thalia fervently rushed to her bunker, madly lifting her loose-ended mattress which concealed the Book of Fyrmarcs with no much effort. Carrying what might possibly be the end of her, the hunter eyed the tall manor of what was best known as the Big House.

"Oh, gods," she rasped when in the corner of her eye, a high-pitched scream echoed. Someone could've possibly been hurt—no, Thalia would have to think of that later.

Upon swinging the massive doors of the Big House open with a great heave of breath, Thalia did not waste a second the stop and breathe. She, having memorized every corner and inch of the manor last night, ran up the stairs; she took threes and fours when she could.

Thalia cursed vehemently, tripping over a crooked step on the stairs whilst the Book of Fyrmarcs tumbled down. Swearing loudly, she made a quick grab for it and kicked open another door opposite to the stairwell.

On top, the engraved words were written, Room Number Three. A piece of paper hung aloft to the side, where the words Abandoned Items were written.

Despite her haste, her panic, she could not help but be overawed by what she was looking at. It was definitely far more from what Thalia imagined when Nico described the room to her.

Thanks to the prospects of magic, just like the metafora, the room was the size of a large cathedral. Its high windows were sending shafts of light down upon what looked like a city with towering walls, build of what Thalia knew must be the objects hidden by generations of Camp Half-Blood inhabitants. There were alleyways and roads bordered by teetering piles of broken and damaged furniture, stowed away, perhaps, to hide the evidence of mishandled incidents.

There were thousands and thousands of books, no doubt banned or graffiti-ed or stolen. There were winged catapults and various lampshades laying about, some with enough life in them for its dim light to hover weakly over the mountains of other forbidden items; there were what looked like eggshells laid about, corked bottles whose contents still shimmered, several rusting swords, and a heavy, bloodstained axe.

Thalia hurried forward into one of the many alleyways between all this hidden treasure. She turned right past an enormous stuffed troll, ran on a short way, took a left at a broken mannequin, and finally pausing beside a large cupboard that seemed to have had acid thrown at its blistered surface.

She opened one of the cupboard's creaking doors; it looked as if it had already been used as a hiding place for something in a cage that had long since died—its skeleton had the odd shape of a slithering snake.

Thalia stuffed the Book of Fyrmarcs behind the cage and slammed the door. She paused for a moment, her heart thumping horribly, gazing around at all the clutter . . .

Would she be able to find this spot again amidst all the junk?

Seizing the chipped bust of an ugly old warlock from on top of a nearby crate, Thalia placed it on top of the cupboard where the book was now hidden.

To make it more distinctive and easy to remember when she returned, Thalia perched a dusty old wig and a tarnished tiara on the statue's head then sprinted back through the alleyways of hidden junk as fast as she could go.

Back to the door, she slammed it shut as hard as she could. From the high window up on the side with dust hovering over the glass, Thalia panicked as the campers began scattering. All of them looked fine but she was late, she was too late—she should be back there—

Rushing out the Big House in a hurry, hoping no one would see her, Thalia yelped when a figure stood there—blocking her way.

"What are you doing here?" questioned a confused and curious Katie Gardner. Thalia, hoping the daughter of Demeter wouldn't notice the fact she was out of breath, merely shook her head.

"I—er, just needed to find something real quick. I thought . . . I thought maybe it would help, but the ambush was already over before I could find it," said Thalia hurriedly, praying in her mind that Katie would let her be. Giving her a look Thalia could not comprehend, the girl huffed and walked away.

Her heartbeat racing, the hunter shouted, "Wait!" Pausing in her tracks, Katie craned her neck far enough to face her. Thalia lowered her voice, rasping, "Did anybody get hurt?"

"I'm sorry. It was all such in a hurry, and everyone was in a panic. You might want to check it for yourself."

Ghosts, Thalia could hear Nico saying, they're going to be like ghosts. Realistic, but would not be able to hurt anyone. Expect them to be fairly easy to kill, because just as I said, they are only like ghosts.

"Thanks, Gardner." The hunter offered a grisly nod before walking away in a brisk pace. Thalia gulped the tight knot in her throat, her head racking with alarm—oh, she didn't prepare for this. She hadn't known she would be late.

Lifting her chin, Thalia tapered her blank stare at whoever passed by and dared look her way. When she had arrived in the Artemis cabin though, despite the hammering in her head, the daughter of Zeus was more than relieved that the rest of the hunters did not bother to question her.

Thalia sat down on her bunker, eerily satisfied that the annoying book of Fyrmarcs would not be causing problems in her sleeping schedule anymore.

"Where did you go?" A swish of leafy brown hair caught Thalia's eye. Estelle proceeded to plop herself slackly beside her, shuffling a lot of times before saying again, "Before Caille dragged me here, I saw you go to the opposite direction to—"

"Thals!" shouted Phoebe, hurrying over and swinging the door open. "Council meeting. In the Big House. Now. No one knows how the Chimeras got through the borders; I think that's what y'all would be discussing—we all have our suspicions."

And I really hope I'm not one of those suspicions, thought Thalia brusquely, nodding away. Estelle looked vividly disappointed, so the daughter of Zeus promised they'd talk about it after the meeting.

Striding towards the Big House, Thalia let out a shuddering breath, realizing the Roman Praetor she had stumbled upon in the midst of the ambush was also going to be attending the meeting as well.

Walking a little bit faster, Thalia finally reached the Big House, her thoughts seeming to slam against one another in her head. She cursed, wishing her damned headache would appear before the meeting began.

"Do you think Thalia's tree is weakening?" pondered Piper, pursing her lips. Many others glanced Thalia's way. "I heard it has before, and might be happening again . . ."

"No," said Chiron firmly, his voice rough against their ears. "That is not possible, I'm afraid. As far as I know, the golden fleece rests on the tree—if it is not, then we just might be in the same situation five years ago."

Five. It's been five years when Thalia was revived once more, breathing and living as a human being. She felt as if it's been too long. Too soon. Those moments years and years ago were now blurry—they were no longer as fresh as her memories now.

Leo raised a meekly hand, then quickly put it down when he caught everyone's full attention. "I was on guard duty this morning, and Calypso was with me. The border looked absolutely fine, and the golden fleece was still being protected by Peleus. You know, the dragon. The cameras—"

"Chimeras," corrected Calypso, her dainty pouty lips forming an amused smirk.

"—er, the Chimeras did not appear from the forest; they appeared behind us," finished Leo, failing to notice the stilled expressions from the others. Thalia took notice of how she and Nico had been carefully silent in the meeting, not daring to say a word. She doubted she could get away with even speaking for a little; unlike others, she had a very noisy mouth that liked to expose things here and there. And, she was not exactly convincing in acting all that much.

Biting her lips, Thalia glimpsed at Jason. They haven't talked all that much—mainly because she hasn't still got over the fact he and his friends that Percy had once called family did not do anything to prove the son of Poseidon was innocent. Though, they'd have to talk about that after the damning Lady Aphorei returned their memories back.

"You're saying," began Jason anxiously, "someone inside the camp had summoned about a literal dozen of Chimeras to attack us? Why?"

"It's been done before," said Nico, all eyes on him now. Thalia remained still, mentally praying he would not spill anything important before the son of Hades spoke gravelly, "Luke Castellan once planned an ambush similar to this one. I won't be surprised if someone has done it again—what I want to find out is why they did it. Pretty pathetic, if you ask me."

Thalia would've snorted. She knew one thing now—Nico Di Angelo is one hell of a force to be reckoned with. The cabin counselors glanced around, as if asking for anyone to speak up. Once no one did, for a long ten seconds, Chiron coughed aloud.

There was a soft clicking sound that reverberated amongst the walls as Chiron walked about slowly. Thalia pursed her lips, waiting. A Roman with a neatly combed black hair and a rather buffed bodice that, if Thalia admitted, made him look less intimidating spoke up, "Did any of you notice how . . . easy it was to get rid of those Chimeras? From what I saw, it was as if the monsters didn't even bother—"

"Running away," said Hazel, eyes wide. "The Chimeras were running away from us, making it harder to get rid of them—if the person who organized this attack was smart, they would like the ambush to buy them enough time to . . ."

Thalia muttered an almost inaudible curse, a wisp of breath escaping her. They were catching on too quickly. She shared a split-second glance with Nico, who wore a hard mask that looked horrendously soulless. As if answering a wordless question, Thalia raised an eyebrow and cocked her head up—referring to the hidden book that was now in Room Number Three.

"I have to agree," said Reyna, her elegant eyebrows furrowed, "there's a chance Hazel is right. A distraction—that was a distraction. A harmless one, at that. No one was hurt."

A heartbeat. Then another. If Nico could hear Thalia's thumping heartbeat, she wouldn't be surprised. Calm down. They won't suspect you.

What if they do? whispered that familiar sing-song voice in her head, Reyna and Katie saw you acting oddly. They might think this is all your doing.

"No."

Almost instantly, as if they'd practiced, everyone snapped their gaze towards Thalia. The daughter of Zeus grimaced, having not knowing she spoke out loud as Nico visibly rolled his eyes at her. Thalia failed in pulling a stern face, saying, "I meant that . . . I mean, er, I misheard. Sorry."

Yes, if she had known better, she'd say Nico was trying to hide his flair of plain amusement. The son of Hades chortled softly, then a harsh choked cough followed. His boyfriend, or as Thalia would daringly call his fiancé, glimpsed at Nico with a look that said: I'm worried for you, but dear gods, that was hilarious.

"We're getting nowhere," said Chiron finally, giving Thalia that hard stare of his. "The assailants have covered up their tracks quite well. Time will only be the one to tell us of why this has happened." Thalia peered up the centaur, vaguely noticing how he said assailants.

Assailants. As if he knew.

A firm fist banged on the table roughly, yearning their undivided attention. Jason stared at the centaur in disbelief, his eyebrows seeming to go lower and lower. "You're saying we should just ignore this random attack?"

Chiron met the son of Jupiter's gaze, a small smile on his face. "Yes, I do say we should ignore this attack as if it were simply nothing, Jason Grace. I'm sure the people who planned this did not mean any harm to any of us—and I am absolutely certain their intentions are far from helping the Dark side."

Thalia's eyes darted from Chiron and Nico, who was also astonished that the ancient centaur had put two and two together so quickly. She did not know if she should be glad or slightly concerned for her sake when the meeting had ended and Chiron made her and Nico stay a little bit while longer.

They didn't reveal anything.

*.·:·. ✧ ✦ ✧ .·:·.*

"I thought we were screwed, if I'm being honest," she told Nico, an appeased grin on her face as the hunter raised her hands outwardly. "The only reason Chiron had suspected us was because you were too obvious with all your eye-rolling and fake-coughing!"

"Me?" Nico kept his voice a little lower for eavesdroppers not to hear as they walked back to their cabins in a slow pace. "It's not really my fault you made such a pathetic excuse a while ago! Oh, I'm sorry, I misheard you!" he mimicked in a high-pitched tone, meriting a huff from Thalia.

When they got closer to the well-recognized U-shape of the godly cabins, more and more campers seemed to surround them. Nico instinctively turned to the Apollo cabin before Thalia made a gentle grab for his shoulder. Secretly annoyed that it would take a longer time to see his ball of sunshine, Nico tilted his head a little to face the hunter.

Thalia gave him a look. "You're not going to tell anyone, are you?"

"Of course not." Liar. Liar, liar.

"It's only between the two of us, all right?" spoke the hunter again, visibly tense. Nico mutely nodded, watching as Thalia's figure became smaller and smaller until it reached the Artemis cabin.

A pair of arms enveloped him, a yelp escaping his lips. Nearby campers who'd seen this snickered, or made wolf-whistles. Nico, knowing very well who it was, did not look up to meet Will Solace's gaze. The son of Hades said quietly, "I'll be gone. For a while. I'm sorry I can't tell you, even though I wish I could."

The son of Apollo glimpsed at him, pursing his lips. "I'm not going to get in the way of whatever you're about to do, Neeks—" Nico lightly beamed at this. "—just promise me you're gonna return, safe and sound."

"All right. I can do that."

"Also, don't shadow travel too much. You know I hate it when you do that."

"I know," breathed Nico, eyeing the Big House skeptically. "I better go. Underworld business and stuff. I'll see you later, yeah? Will?"

The latter unveiled his lean arms away from the son of Hades, giving him a quick kiss on the forehead before saying their farewells. What Nico hated was they had said it as if he was going to be gone—forever.

No. Nico would return. One way or another.

Stalking amongst the dark edges of the camp, just behind the bent cabins, his eyes fluttered shut as he ambled through the shadows. The next second Nico opened his eyes to look around, a knotty walnut door stood before him. Room Number Three was engraved on top of the antique threshold.

Nico stood in mere silence for a few seconds, listening for any signs of movement and looking out the tall dusted window that showed most of the campers outside now and then. Once he was sure, Nico's throat bobbed as he swung the door open.

A figure stood amidst all the scattered junk—varying from books to broken weaponry. The figure had matted blond hair; everything the mysterious boy wore were nightly shades of black—from his boots to his neck.

Nico, whose hand found its way to his sword, stared at the stranger. Slowly, the boy turned, that familiar tanned skin—no, that was not Will, the boy had a thinner complexion—

"Hello," said Malcolm nonchalantly. Nico had already eyed the ridiculous thing the boy wore; and unfortunately, a lot of honed daggers lay tightly strapped to his waist. There was very little chance the son of Hades would win a fight in these circumstances.

Raising his chin, Nico unsheathed his own Stygian Iron blade and whispered, "What are you doing here." It was a demand, not a question.

The blond stared back at Nico's dark browns in a challenging manner. Malcolm looked terribly pleased as he said, "I'm genuinely surprised Lady Aphorei did not tell you. You see, you should know your allies before attacking."

No; this wasn't right. Nico did not lower his sword. "Stop speaking in riddles, Pace."

"We both, fortunately, happen to be under the commands of Lady Aphorei."

"You're lying."

Malcolm shrugged, as if Nico was nothing but a piece of dirt he didn't bother to clean. The blond said coolly, "Lady Aphorei told me of my only alliance here at this very camp. I have to say, you are one very daring person, Prince."

It was almost as if Nico could hear the insane goddess whispering the same word over and over again like a lullaby. Lady Aphorei had made him her slave, forcing him to do something that he would object to at any given moment, but—

Will Solace. The goddess of memory promised to hurt Will if Nico failed in accomplishing his given task, which was to claim the Book of Fyrmarcs itself and place it right in her hands.

That was what scared Nico most. Knowing that his loved one's dear life was at risk—that Will could die at any given moment—

"In whose orders are you doing this?" was what the son of Hades said after a deemed moment of wordless quiet.

Malcolm assessed the pale boy, aware of the fact that if he made a move to hurt Nico, the son of Hades won't hesitate to plunge his blade in his throat. The blond wore a wry face, saying, "I don't follow orders, Di Angelo. I am with the Dark to help the Light."

It took Nico a while to consider the boy's words.

A spy.

Malcolm Pace, probably the most foolish half-blood Nico had ever encountered at that exact moment, was a spy. What made Nico lower his honed weapon and tuck it away was the simple fact that he, too, was not entirely working for the Dark. No; Nico only did so because he was forced, and Lady Aphorei used Will's life as a weapon against him.

If he wished to escape the goddess's sadistic wrath without risking Will's life, Nico would have to play this little game of theirs a bit more smartly.

"That's foolish," Nico said finally to the son of Athena, taking a sharp intake of breath, "screw that. We're both foolish. It happens so we have the same intentions, Pace."

Malcolm gazed at him, his eyebrows furrowed deeply. "How do I know you're not lying?"

Nico only gave him the exact sweet smile that usually sent people running in the other direction. "Funny, you saying that," he said, almost inaudibly, "I should be the one asking you the same thing."

The two exchanged half-hearted glances, knowing very well the other was saying the truth. They both were risking a lot at the moment—for a better future that Nico hoped was worth everything.