February 15th 1941
Nonno's house was old-fashioned. In the attic level of the house was a suite of rooms designated for Nico and Bianca which included a day nursery a night nursery. Their nanny had her own room in the suite as well.
It was Bianca's eleventh birthday and Mama had dismissed their nurse early for the night so that she could tuck them into bed herself. Nico and Bianca's beds were side by side with a nightstand in between them.
Nico bounced up and down on his bed. "I want a story!"
Maria laughed. "Sit down, tesero. Get into bed."
Nico jumped extra high and landed on his bottom on top of the covers. Then he wriggled underneath them and looked at his mother expectantly.
"Which story would you like to hear tonight?"
"Tell us about soulmates again," Bianca said with a wistful smile.
Nico wrinkled his nose. He didn't like that story but it was Bianca's birthday so she always got to pick.
"Very well. Are you both warm enough?" When they nodded, Maria sat down on the edge of Bianca's bed. "In the beginning–"
"No Mama!" Bianca protested. "You have to start with 'once upon a time'."
Maria laughed. "Of course, my love. Once upon a time, when the gods first formed humans, we looked very different than we do today. Each person was both man and woman and had four arms, four legs, and two faces. These humans were powerful, fearless, and strong. They were so fierce that they dared to challenge the gods themselves. The humans threatened to conquer them and rule the world instead, becoming gods themselves. So the gods thought of how they could protect their power and combat the human threat.
"Zeus, the king of the gods, wanted to strike the humans down with lightning but his daughter, the wise Athena, reminded him that if there were no more humans there would also be no more tributes to the gods. So Zeus thought of another solution. To punish the humans for daring to challenge him, he would split them all in half. Man and woman were separated. These new humans, with only two arms, two legs, and one face, were so miserable and lonely that they did not care if they lived or died. They forever longed for their other half. The humans spent their entire lives searching the earth for their missing half, their soulmate. According to the myth, when the two halves find each other, there will be a silent understanding of one another, they will feel joined and exist with each other in perfect unison and there will be no greater joy."
"Mama?"
Maria's hands paused in the middle of smoothing the blankets. "Yes, Bianca?"
Bianca peeked out from the blankets pulled up to her chin. "Is Papa your soulmate?"
Maria gave her a small smile. "Bianca, my love, you and Nico are the greatest joys of my life, and you always will be."
"I love you."
Mama smiled. "I love you too."
She pressed a kiss to Nico's forehead.
"Goodnight, sweethearts."
She kissed the top of Bianca's hair.
"Happy birthday."
She looked back over her shoulder at her children, smiling once more, before leaving the room. The door clicked shut.
Nico wasn't sure if it had been five minutes or more than an hour when he heard voices in the day nursery beyond their bedroom.
"Am I too late?" A familiar deep voice sounded from somewhere beyond the door.
"Hush," Mama rebuked, "I have already put the children to bed." Mama's voice was uncharacteristically cold.
Bianca and Nico looked at each other. Then they each crawled out of their beds and edged to the door. Bianca pressed her eye to the keyhole and Nico crouched down on all fours to peek under the edge of the door. He could see a pair of shiny black leather men's shoes alongside Mama's fluffy house slippers. Papa?
"I had hoped to see Bianca today. Maria, she is already eleven — the attacks will only become more frequent and with Nico's scent so strong as well…" He stepped closer to her. "I cannot protect you all from so far away forever."
"No." Mama stepped back. "No, Ade, you ask for the one thing I cannot give. Bianca and Nico are already so isolated from other children. They need as close to a normal life as I can give them. Perhaps that camp–"
"The camp is not safe." Papa sounded desperate. "Maria, you must listen to me. Zeus is already threatening… they cannot be found. If you will not come with me to the Underworld, you must go into hiding."
"Do you have any idea what has been happening?" Mama's voice was a hushed whisper. There was a pause and a rustle. "You see what we are being reduced to? Registered and tagged like dogs. We cannot go into hiding because we are alwayswatched. If you will not allow the children to go to the camp, you must do something to stop those men."
"The war is mortal. Direct interference is forbidden by the ancient laws."
"Then your children will be caught in the crossfire," Mama hissed. "It will not matter if the Germans never attack American soil, Nico and Bianca will be fighting a war of their own here in their own city."
Nico inhaled a nose full of dust. He sat bolt upright and buried his nose in the crook of his elbow. Bianca shot him a look full of warning.
"Do you think that I do not know that? I–"
Nico couldn't hold it back. "Achoo!"
Conversation paused in the sitting room.
"Are you certain that they are asleep?"
Then footsteps. Nico and Bianca scrambled and threw themselves onto their beds. The doorknob turned and Nico yanked the covers up over his head. He held his breath as the door creaked open.
"I know you are awake." Mama did not sound very angry anymore so Nico peeked over the edge of his blanket.
Mama and Papa stood in the doorway. Nico blinked at the unexpected brightness of the room. His parents must have turned the lights on.
"You are supposed to be asleep."
"Did you bring Bia a birthday present, Papa?"
"Bianca." Papa corrected. He had never liked that nickname. "Yes, I have." He looked to his daughter. "Would you like your gift now, my dear?"
Bianca nodded eagerly. "Please."
Papa's lips quirked into a small, rare smile. He reached into the inside pocket of his coat and pulled out a rectangular gift box wrapped in shiny silver paper and tied with a purple silk ribbon. The box looked too large to have fit inside his coat at all but where else could it have come from?
When he handed it to her, Bianca pulled the end of the ribbon and released the bow. She gasped as she lifted the lid off the top of the box. Eagerly, she reached inside and pulled out… a knife. The hilt was made of white bone and the sheath was dark leather. Bianca unsheathed the dagger to reveal a black iron blade that gleamed in the light.
"Ade, no." Mama sounded scandalized. "She is too young."
"She is plenty old enough," Papa countered. "She should be able to protect herself."
"Protect myself from what?" Bianca asked.
"You will know when the time comes. I want you to promise me that you will keep that knife with you at all times."
Bianca blinked up at him with wide, dark eyes. She nodded. "Yes, Papa, I promise."
March 1947
Since summoning Pietro, Plutus had become a regular fixture of Nico's training. After a morning of combat, Quintus would return to his workshop and leave Nico in the arena with his half-brother. They would spend the afternoon honing Nico's powers until he ran out of energy. When Nico did eventually exhaust himself, he would go back to his room and read whatever chapters of whichever book Quintus had assigned for the night. In the morning, they would discuss the night's reading as Nico warmed up for training and the routine would begin again.
It occurred to Nico that for someone who was expected to save the world from some as yet unknown to him supernatural enemy, he had not actually performed very many heroics. The same thought had apparently struck Quintus since he had begun to procure real monsters for Nico to fight.
In the mornings when Nico arrived in the training room, he could expect to see some new creature in a stygian iron cage for him to fight. Quintus had purchased a bulk supply and kept them in storage in Hades' dungeons to be brought out one at a time for Nico to fight. He did not warn Nico about which monsters he would be facing, instead Nico had to come up with his attacks on the run. The exercise was not unlike his experience at Camp Half-Blood where Chiron had let him try his luck in the woods that were always kept fully stocked with monsters.
Plutus himself had dialled Nico's training up a notch. They perused the journal for new skills Nico could learn. He progressed quickly with his half-brother's guidance. They practiced his precision with the skeletons he summoned. He learned to do more than create graves and soon could create great rifts in the earth of the training arena and shoot stalagmites up from the ground.
Nico's favourite of all of his newfound powers was shadow travel. Despite the incredibility of the rest of his powers, he had hardly dared to believe it when they began to practice shadow travelling. Of course, since Chiron had given him the book, Nico had spent hours poring through its pages over the years. He had struggled through each line of chicken scratch prose until he had it almost memorized. He hadn't quite dared to believe that he, scrawny "Bianca's little brother" di Angelo, could bend the very shadows to his will and slip through them as if they were mere doorways.
At first, Nico had struggled with his new power. The shadows were temperamental and unpredictable. He could be overwhelmed by the rushing darkness. More than once he emerged from the dark in a completely foreign country and promptly fainted. On those occasions, Plutus had enlisted Zagreus' help to track him down before their father found out that his ticket to Olympian familial approval had been mislaid.
Nico was surprised that Zagreus could be bothered. He still had not grown any more tolerant of Nico's presence, but he did seem fond of Plutus – even if that fondness was a begrudging one. Not to mention Nico's sneaking suspicion that there was nothing Zagreus enjoyed more than being able to hunt him like a hapless deer through the woods.
When Nico had finally gotten the hang of his new gift, he and Plutus would slip into the shadows in the training room and reappear in the upper world in the middle of Los Angeles. Nico had never been so far west before. It was so much warmer than a New York spring. The business and the sheer size of the buildings reminded Nico of New York but the heat and blue skies reminded him of Italy. They would walk the streets together and Plutus would always produce an endless amount of money to buy ice cream or sweets. Was this what it felt like to have a sibling? To have a friend? Nico had almost forgotten.
The responsibility of the prophecy seemed far off, despite the daily training. He was doing all he could, Nico would remind himself in the quiet hours before he fell asleep. If there was something more he needed to do he would receive orders from Quintus, or Hades, or the Olympians. Still, he had the nagging thought that, even if he need not concern himself with the prophecy immediately, there must be something else he could do to make use of his powers and skills. For someone who was supposedly destined to be a hero, he hadn't performed many heroics.
When he was in New York, he had hunted monsters on his own – despite James' warnings against such recklessness. He had killed dracaena warriors, telekhines, even a hippalectryon! Quintus' prepackaged opponents didn't give him the same buzz of adrenaline. There was no real risk with Quintus and Plutus standing by to assist. He was supposed to be proving himself to the gods. How was he going to do that if no one ever let him taken any chances?
Nico raised this point to Quintus several times in training and bemoaned his restlessness to Plutus on many a walk under the palm trees. It took weeks of nagging for anything to come of it.
Until one day, Quintus met him in the training area with a new spring in his step.
"You're going to the Upperworld," he announced, as though he wasn't fully aware that Nico had been sneaking out with Plutus for weeks already. "There's a nasty hydra in D.C that could do with clearing out. I've gotten permission for you to take care of it on your own."
Nico had to restrain himself from punching the air in triumph. Finally. This was his chance to show everyone what he could do, that all of their time and effort had not been in vain. He knew how to hunt a monster, he knew how to kill one, and now he could harness the powers of the Underworld to do it.
As soon as Quintus had informed him of the mission, Nico was chomping at the bit to leave. He wasn't good at sitting still and waiting. He never had been. The nonstop training was good for him; he loved the challenge, the action, the variety of new skills.
When it was finally time for him to leave, Nico was practically clawing at the walls. The Underworld had never felt like a prison to him before.
Since he was leaving as soon as he had gathered his weapons and very basic first aid supplies, Nico didn't have much time to strategize. Fighting a hydra by himself and making the plan up as he went along probably went against most people's self-preservation instincts but Nico couldn't help his feeling of anticipation.
This could be it. This could be his chance. If he took out this hydra, it would be his first deed as a real fully trained hero. Killing a hydra had been one of the labours of Heracles! With that on his resume, the gods would have to grant him immortality. They would just have to.
It was already evening in D.C when Nico stepped out of the shadows. Quintus had told him where to go and one glance at the gates in front of him was enough to confirm that Nico had made it to the right location. A huge stone sign proclaimed: ZOO, and underneath in smaller lettering: NATIONAL ZOOLOGICAL PARK.
He pushed the cuffs of James' old aviator jacket up to his wrists. It almost fit him now but James was much more built than he was so he doubted it would ever be a perfect fit.
He had not brought much with him. He had the sword that he used for training with Quintus, a bronze shield, a square of Ambrosia and a little canteen full of nectar both of which were tucked into the inside pocket his jacket, and a few bandages.
He found the hydra, as he had guessed, near the reptile house.
The reptile house was unnaturally warm, which Nico assumed the lizards appreciated but made him uncomfortable in his fur-collared jacket.
It was passed closing time so the main lights were off in the building. The exhibits were lit by only a few dim bulbs that Nico assumed were for the benefit of security personnel and any zookeepers that might need to enter the exhibit after hours – not in case a demigod decided to try his luck with the resident hydra.
The hydra was almost too big for the building. Its body was long, thick and mottled brown like a python's but it walked on four heavy, clawed feet. Its huge body was bent into a crouch so it could fit inside. Tattered and charred pieces of official park uniforms littered the ground around the hydra as well as what might have been bones. Nico tried not to think about who or what the bones had belonged to.
Luckily for Nico, it was asleep. Its nine necks were intertwined with each other like the weirdest hug Nico had ever seen.
Taking out a fully grown hydra alone wasn't exactly the same as the occasional telkhine or Scythian dracaena like he had hunted in New York. A hydra had nine heads that spat acid and breathed fire. Its blood was poisonous as well. He wasn't sure if poison blood was corrosive but either way he probably didn't want any to get on his skin.
If the hydra was anything like Cerberus, the heads would also be capable of acting independently so he would essentially be fighting nine opponents at once.
Eight of the heads could be killed but one was immortal. How he was supposed to handle the immortal part, Nico wasn't sure. In Chiron and Quintus' lessons, the hero Heracles had trapped that head under a giant rock so it couldn't hurt anyone anymore. Nico wasn't sure if there would be a big enough rock on hand or how he would be able to get it on top of an immortal, acid-spitting, fire breathing dragon head.
The hydra was almost entirely armoured in iron-hard scales that would deflect most blows from Nico's sword. Its weak points were the more delicate scales of its face, the eighteen slitted eyes, and a crack in the scales just behind each of the heads. His gut instinct would be to slash at the head as it lunged at him, but he knew that would do no good. Once severed, the hydra would just grow two new ones to replace it. If he had any decent munitions he might have been able to blow it up — even if it could deflect machine-gun fire, he was pretty sure that it couldn't withstand an actual bomb.
Heracles had killed it by cauterizing each severed neck with a firebrand before it could regrow two heads. How was he supposed to find hot enough fire in the zoo?
Nico cast his gaze around the park for an answer. A couple of little cars that looked kind of like golf carts were dotted around the premises.
Huh, thought Nico. Now there's an idea.
He pulled the wad of bandages out of his pocket and examined the closest vehicle for a gas tank. When he found it, he stuffed the bandages inside, leaving a tail hanging out the side of the vehicle. Now for a spark.
Nico went back to the door or the reptile house without bothering to be quiet this time.
"Hey!" he yelled, slamming his sword and shield together. "Hey!"
The hydra's nine noses twitched. Eighteen yellow eyes flickered open. Nine hungry mouths yawned in unison, their fangs dripping with venom.
Nico swallowed. He could do this.
The central head was slightly larger than the other eight. It flicked its tongue out in Nico's direction, tasting his demigod scent on the air.
"Hungry? Come and get me!"
The hydra apparently thought that was a great suggestion. It pushed itself up to its four reptilian legs. Its scaly back hit the roof of the building and a few of the heads hissed in frustration. It couldn't move very fast in the closed confines of the reptile house but Nico ran anyway.
Idiot idiot idiot idiot, Nico chanted to himself with every step. The hydra's heavy footfalls pounded along behind him. Gods, he was going to get himself killed.
The hydra screeched when Nico skidded out the doors. He swung around, shield raised, expecting a spray of acid or fire. The monster was too large for the doorframe. Had this incarnation of the hydra lived its entire life within the confines of the reptile house? Eating zookeepers, animals and park visitors?
He clanged his sword and shield together again. "Come on, dinnertime!"
The hydra began to back up and Nico felt frustration bubbling up in his chest. Then it charged forward on its dragon legs. The doorframe splintered as the hydra's shoulders slammed into it. It reared back again and this time, when it hit the walls, it broke free. Chunks of wood flew through the air, one narrowly missing Nico's face as it sailed passed.
Nico turned on his heel and ran. He made it back to the parked golf carts before the hydra and turned to face it, shield raised. He had to time this part just right.
One of the snake-like heads lunged for him. Nico hit the pavement and rolled. That was not exactly the plan. He rolled up to his feet.
"Gonna have to do better than that!"
The central head hissed at him. The four heads on either side of it all spat acid. Nico leapt forward under the angle of the acid spray and lunged for the nearest head with his sword. The ground was sizzling where the acid had landed, turning the pavement into bubbling goo. The stench of poison burned his eyes.
Nico's sword met scales. He didn't cut the head clean off, but he gave it a good slice across the face. The head reared back and Nico skirted backwards and away towards the golf carts again. All nine heads roared in rage. Deep in the maw of the central head, Nico could see a glow.
Come on, just one little spark.
Fire bloomed from the hydra's throats. Nico flung his shield arm up to protect his face and threw himself sideways at the very last second. He hit the ground hard and rolled to absorb some of the impact. The heat of the flames had seared the side of his face. He thought he could smell burning hair.
But it had worked. The golf carts went up in flames that billowed high into the sky. The hydra hissed and darted away from the fire.
Source of fire: acquired. Time to start slashing.
He so did not want to give up his shield but he didn't really have much choice. He sent it spinning through the air to collide with the hydra's central head.
He slashed at a decorative flagpole on the side of the building, severing it from its base. He ripped the remaining bandages out of his pocket and wrapped them around the ball at the tip of the pole.
Rolling his sleeve down over his hand, he dipped the end of the torch into the pool of acid on the pavement. It should be flammable enough. Hopefully. Then he stuck the torch as close to the billowing flames as he dared.
It lit.
Nico didn't have time to celebrate.
All nine hydra heads loomed over him, ready to melt him into a lump of hydra breakfast. When the nearest head lunged for him, Nico let his instincts take him. He slashed at the neck, severing the head clean off. It fell to the ground with a THUD. Blood splattered his front. Some sprayed up onto his face and stung the skin. Nico could only hope that hydra blood was not as corrosive as its venom.
As the monster reeled back, Nico leapt for the bloody stump with his torch and seared the spurting wound. Nothing sprouted from the blackened stump
One head down, eight to go.
Nico didn't have time to cheer his first success.
He had miscalculated his original fire idea. The flames were spreading. He could hear sirens and yelling in the distance. People had started to notice the destruction at the zoo. At least he didn't need to worry about being responsible for the deaths of he didn't even know how many exotic animals if the mortals were coming to their rescue, but he would be responsible if the hydra hurt a single hair on just one mortal head. He had to draw it away from them.
Nico clanged his sword and shield together. "This way, ugly!"
The hydra's nine heads swung around to him. It lumbered after him as Nico ran, zigzagging to avoid the sprays of acid. The hydra hissed and charged after him.
He didn't know the layout of the zoo but he did know that it was surrounded by parkland. He prayed to all the gods it would be deserted by now.
When he guessed he had gone far enough into the park and his lungs were burning with exertion, Nico lurched off of the path. The hydra lumbered passed him. It took the huge lizard barely a heartbeat to realize that it was no longer pursuing anything. It stopped and turned back to face him, eight remaining tongues licking the air.
Nico braced himself for another attack. When the head lunged, he slashed and cauterized the wound.
Two down, seven to go.
He slashed and hacked. Ducked and rolled. Relit his torch in the flames of a hedge the hydra set blazing. He severed heads and cauterized the wounds.
The monster reeled backwards and Nico caught his breath. He was doing it. Gods, he was actually doing it. There was only one head left.
The hydra reared back and blew flames at the sky. It was terrifying: headless, snakelike necks writhing in the air, a gaping fanged mouth just waiting to rip Nico to shreds.
He raised his sword again.
This time the head lunged passed him. It swiped into his side, knocking him to the ground. He rolled, fighting to keep his torch in the air and lit. The neck wrapped around his legs and hoisted him into the air.
Nico did not like being hung upside down in midair. It happened to him more than was reasonable and he had had enough.
He yelled. It was an animalistic noise. The earth under the hydra's clawed feet trembled. The creature threw Nico high into the air as it backtracked away from the rumbling ground.
Nico hit the ground head first.
The world was white.
Then black.
Then searing colour as his leg erupted in pain. His pant leg was on fire. The hydra's remaining head swayed following his movement as Nico rolled on the ground to beat out the flames.
The final head lunged in close, venom dripping just inches from Nico.
He sliced through the neck. The monster's body collapsed in a heap of golden powder. The still-living head flopped around in the mud, hissing and spitting poison.
With a grunt of effort, Nico wrenched a hole in the earth. It was almost pitifully small — maybe three feet square — but it led straight to Tartarus. He kicked the final head into the hole and didn't bother trying to hear it hit the bottom.
He was breathing hard. Had he really done it? The hydra was dead? Fires still flickered around the park but Nico found he couldn't hear the crackle of the flames. He couldn't hear much of anything except the tinny ringing in his ears. The blow to his head must have done some damage. The world seemed strangely dark around him. He knew it was evening but usually the night didn't look like dark splotches across his vision.
He swayed a little as he took in the park. The air stank of smoke and poison. The area around him was vaguely familiar.
"Time to go home, Tesero!"
"Tag, you're it!"
"Bianca! Wait for me!"
He had come to this park before. More than once. Maybe lots of times? It was hard to remember. His head felt like it was stuffed with cotton. Wasn't a head wound supposed to hurt more?
He felt around in his coat pockets. In one of the inside pockets was a, now squished, square of ambrosia. Nico stuffed it in his mouth and chewed. It warmed him from his head to his toes with memories of warmth and family and quiet evenings at home.
The ringing in his ears lessened some and he found himself able to focus. He did know the park. He had come to the zoo often with his grandparents. He was within walking distance of their home. Could he… could he go home? Was it that simple?
No.
Maybe the ambrosia hadn't cleared his thoughts as much as he had first believed. Bianca was still gone, his mother was still dead, and he still had a prophecy to fulfil. He would stop at his grandparents' house to rest until he could shadow travel back to the Underworld. Where he belonged. The Underworld was his home. Not with his grandparents. Not at school with other boys his age. Not training at Camp Half-Blood with the rest of the demigods. Not exploring Los Angeles with Plutus. He liked the Underworld. He was safe, and he belonged, and he had a purpose.
His head hurt.
What had Chiron said that day before Mary had died and Kenneth had been thrown from the chariot? A serious concussion is when the brain is bruised. Someone with a concussion might vomit or pass out. They'll be confused, and they'll probably insist that they're fine.
No, he didn't have a concussion. He hadn't blacked out and he hadn't really hit his head that hard. Besides, the ambrosia should have taken care of it.
What did you do when someone has a concussion? No sleeping. Lots of rest.
That didn't make sense.
Nonno. That's where he was going. He was already in the park. If he took the path east for long enough he would reach a housing area. If he kept going, he'd find 16th avenue and the Italian embassy. From there he could probably remember the way to his Nonno's townhouse.
He started walking. He wasn't fast but now that the hydra was dead speed didn't seem that important. His sword arm was sore. He was thirsty. Could he shadow travel straight there? Could he shadow travel home to Quintus?
Don't be stupid.
If he tried to shadow travel he would probably end up lost in the ether. Or dead from the effort somewhere no one would ever think to look for his body.
Walk.
Like a mortal.
Was he a mortal?
Yes, he hadn't turned sixteen yet.
He was tired.
He kept walking.
The street outside the embassy was busier than he had expected. People were running in every direction to get away from the destruction in the park or running toward the danger to help.
He probably should have told them the monster was dead now.
They probably would have thought he was crazy.
His Nonno's home was a white-fronted townhouse. Lights were on in the front windows. He didn't recognize the woman who opened the door. She was much younger than Nonna.
When she saw Nico, her face creased in alarm. "What happened to you?"
"Fire," he said. Trying to explain anything more would be exhausting. "At the zoo. Can I come in?"
"Yes, yes. Here, lean on me." Nico didn't really want to lean on her but the ground was tilting unpleasantly so he let her lead him inside.
The house was like he remembered it when he was a child. The lower half of the walls were wood panelling which matched the floors, and the upper half was green floral wallpaper. Stairs were immediately ahead as he came in the door. The woman pulled him through the arched doorway to the left before the stairs and into the parlour. She deposited him on a familiar, comfortable sofa.
When the woman wasn't looking, Nico took a swig of nectar from his canteen.
"'m Nico," he mumbled. "I used to live here. Who are you?"
"My name's Betty Mildred. I'm Mr di Angelo's nurse."
"Nurse? Why does he need a nurse?"
She stared at him for a moment. "He hasn't been well, Nico. Mr di Angelo hired me years ago to care for his wife but when she passed I stayed on to care for him as well. Do you know Mr di Angelo?"
"I'm his grandson."
He heard his own words distantly. Why hadn't anyone thought to tell him that Nonna had died? How could he not have sensed it? He had been so caught up in his own training, his own plans, that he hadn't even considered what was left of his mortal family. True he had no great love for his mortal family lately. His grandparents had turned him and Bianca away after their mother died and their aunt had been distant, though kind, during the summer holidays they had spent with her in Venice. How could he grieve a woman he hadn't seen for over four years?
"I want to see him."
"He isn't all there," Betty murmured, "but of course you may see him. I will let you know when he's ready, he needs his rest, but you are welcome to make yourself at home. You look like you need rest as well."
Nico slept on the sofa until noon the next day. Betty Mildred had been surprisingly accommodating. She had made him toast and tea, and washed the blood off of his coat. It was especially surprising since the story he had fed her was faulty at best.
He had not seen his Nonno in years – that was true. He had been away at boarding school in Italy – again, true – and had only just returned. Not so true. He had been out in the park when the zoo caught fire. He had tried to help and been burned. There were no medics at the scene so he came to his grandparent's house hoping help would be there – all true. Apparently the di Angelo name was still so out of fashion that no one would care to impersonate him so Betty required absolutely no proof whatsoever to substantiate his claim.
Nonno was having a nap when Nico woke so Nico spent the afternoon going through his grandparents' belongings. There were an awful lot of books, photos, and phonograph records. The entire house was ripe with memories of his childhood.
He and Bianca had carved their names into a banister halfway up the staircase When Nico ran his fingers over the worn, uneven scratches, he barely remembered the scolding that had come afterwards. Instead, he remembered the feeling of hushed giggles and keeping harmless secrets.
Upstairs, the nursery was left disturbingly intact. Nico's old toy pirates and their ships were still clustered in a battle formation on the rug and Bianca's hair ribbons were neatly arranged in a rainbow on her bedside table. The beds were neatly made with hospital corners as if they were waiting for little Nico and Bianca to crawl into them for the night. The old sheets must have long since grown musty and stale.
A fur blanket was folded neatly at the foot of Nico's bed. He trailed his fingers lightly through the dark fur and a memory of a cold night in early February came unbidden into his mind.
"It's zibellino. Sable. From Russia."
"I'm five now. Five and two whole weeks."
In a drawer in Bianca's bedside table, was a stygian iron dagger with a bone handle.
"Promise me you will keep this with you at all times."
"Yes, Papa, I Promise."
She must have left it when they went away with Mama before the explosion.
The blanket had been a late birthday present for Nico and the had been a gift Bianca's eleventh birthday. Hades had always brought them gifts when he visited; chocolate or a new toy, a blanket or a stygian iron dagger.
"Nico?" Betty's voice called from the floor below. "Your grandfather is awake now."
Nico gathered what items he wanted to keep including the knife, the sable blanket, and his favourite pirate figure, the one with the peg leg and eye patch.
"I'm coming!" he called back.
What he saw in Nonno's room made him feel ill. Nonno was thin and his skin grey. He did not look like the man Nico had left only a few years ago.
Nico remembered him being such an imposing figure. He was a broad man, though not very tall, with a large belly and a clean-shaven face. He was often strict with Nico and Bianca but he had been kind — at least until he had turned them away and sent them to Italy alone. It was strange to see him lying in a sickbed when he had once been one of the people Nico looked up to most in the world.
Nico knelt beside the bed. He reached for his grandfather's hand. "Nonno–"
"You!" The old man recoiled and pulled his hands back. Nico's stomach lurched. Nonno looked nothing short of revolted. "You did this. You killed Maria!"
"No! It wasn't my fault!"
"She thought she loved you." Nonno's grey eyes were clouded. "She wouldn't listen to me. I told her to leave you. To take the children and leave you."
The realization dawned on Nico. Nonno didn't even know he was talking to. He thought that Nico was–
"She could have been safe. My poor girl…"
A lump rose in Nico's throat. "Nonno, it's me, Nico."
It was like Nonno couldn't even hear him. "I took care of those children." He nodded to himself. "I raised them for years in your absence. You took them from me too!"
"Please– please listen to me. I'm not who you think."
"I think Mr di Angelo needs to rest." Betty, summoned by the loud voices, was back in the doorway.
Nico forced himself to nod and pushed himself to his feet. He was doing more harm than good, and, besides, he couldn't bear to be compared to his father like that any longer. In any other situation, being compared to Hades was a matter of pride for Nico. Hades was powerful, strong, the king of all dead souls. Nico had wanted to be like that for as long as he could remember. The way Nonno spoke, all he could think about was that day at the hotel when Hades had been too slow.
"Wait!" Nonno's voice was a rasp. "You may as well know. My affairs in Italy go to my sister. There's an account for Bianca. The rest is left to Nico." He hacked a cough and fell back deeper against the pillows. "You aren't getting a single centesimo." He spoke the last with grim satisfaction.
"I didn't come here for your money!"
Betty cleared her throat. "Please, it's time to go now."
Nico blinked hard to clear his stinging eyes. "Yes. Yes, I'm going."
"I'm sorry," said Betty as they took the stairs back down to the main floor, "I didn't expect him to become so agitated."
"He thought I was someone else."
"That has been happening more and more these days. If you'd like to come back at another time…"
"No." Nico shook his head. "I– I should go home."
He had to make his report to Quintus and he had a lot to think about.
Nico didn't entirely remember how he got to his father's office. The trek there after shadow travelling back to the Underworld was a blur. His footsteps on the stone floors pounded with the rhythm of his heart.
Nico had thought he was oh so mature for understanding, for not holding a grudge against his grandparents. He and Bianca were living reminders of the child Nonno had lost and the embarrassment of their illegitimacy. Ultimately they had been much safer from Zeus and the Americans in Italy anyway. It had been for their own good.
Now he saw the truth. Hades had taken them from the wreckage and sent them to Italy without their grandparent's consent. Their aunt had not been helping them out of the kindness of her heart but was a pawn in Hades' schemes. He and Bianca had been stolen from their mortal family, not rescued when no one else would have them as they had been lead to believe. It was all a ruse.
He let himself into the office without knocking. Hades glared up at the uninvited visitor from his desk where he was perusing a stack of files.
"Son."
Nico pointed a shaking finger at him. "You– I thought we were sent to Italy as a last resort. Our mortal family wanted us! You stole us from them."
Hades sighed and set down his fountain pen.
"I take it that you visited your grandfather."
"Why did you send me there? I know it wasn't a coincidence that I just so happened to be assigned a monster within walking distance of my old house."
"I had no way of knowing you would seek out your mortal family after your battle with the hydra."
"But you guessed. You should have just told me! You didn't have to manipulate–"
"I thought it would do you good to see for yourself what Zeus had done."
Nico paced back and forth. Bianca's dagger still sheathed was in his left hand, the sable blanket trailed from his right. He probably looked ridiculous but he didn't care.
"I saw enough. Mama's death broke him. He's– he isn't the man I remember. It's only been a few years!"
"The events of the war took its toll on both of your grandparents."
"So you were watching them."
Hades casually rearranged a few papers on his desk. "Not closely. When the wife descended I had the story from her. The Americans were not kind to them."
"I know," Nico snapped. "I was out there too. I know what they think of m– of us. Italians."
"Your grandparents were arrested, Nico, interrogated and tagged as 'enemy aliens'. The combined loss of his family and the poor treatment from the mortal government was too much for your grandfather. He is only mortal."
"Is there anyone in my family Zeus hasn't thoroughly screwed over?" Nico demanded.
Hades' gaze was steady but he said nothing.
"I know what happened to my mother too," Nico spat out impulsively. "Zeus would have blasted me and Bianca too if you hadn't– if–" He swallowed hard. "We didn't have to be taken away from the rest of our family. You could have found another way. I know. I've seen it. You had so many plans. You were going to build my mother a palace by the River Styx! We could have all been safe. We could have been together."
Nico stopped. He was breathing sharp and fast high in his chest. He needed to seriously calm down or he would start another earthquake.
But now Hades was starting to look angry himself.
"Just what has Plutus been showing you these past weeks?" he demanded. "I warned you not to contact your mother under any circumstances."
"I didn't! I dreamt it. A long time ago I had a dream about that night at the hotel. I saw what happened. I saw you tell Alecto to take us to Italy."
He had summoned Pietro which was also technically against Hades' orders. After how disastrous that had been, Plutus had refused to help him with any future summonings so he was fresh out of luck when it came to finding his mother.
"Is that all you saw?" Hades growled
Nico felt pinned under his father's gaze. He had the distinct sensation that he and his story were being judged. What would Hades do if Nico was found wanting?
"If you, as you claim, have 'seen it'," Hades continued when Nico didn't answer, "you will also know that Maria had no desire to relocate to the Underworld despite my efforts to convince her otherwise. What would you have had me do? Drag the three of you to the Underworld in chains? Keep you as prisoners here in my palace until I deemed the Upperworld safe again?
"Maria was adamant that you and your sister would have as close to a normal childhood as was possible. I disagreed but I obliged for as long as I could in honour of her memory."
Nico glared daggers at his father. How dare Hades be so calm? Nico wanted to see him rage. He wanted the palace to shake. He wanted his indignation to mean something.
"It wouldn't be the first time," Nico sneered. "Persephone, me, how many others have you trapped down here, Father?"
"Perhaps it has slipped your mind," Hades hissed, "that it was you who came to me asking for my protection."
"And if I changed my mind and wanted to go back to Camp? Back to James, even?"
"Then you would be a fool."
Nico's hands curled into tight fists. "The most foolish thing I've ever done was trusting anything you've ever said. All you've done is lie to me!"
The tension in the room was palpable.
Nico was aware of the line between Hades acting as his father or him acting as a god who could blast a mortal like him to smithereens on a whim. If this was the outburst that threw him over that line, it was honestly a little pathetic. Nico was sure Hades had heard worse in his immortal life since his occupation as basically a warden didn't paint him in the best light to his subjects. A teenage son yelling about honesty shouldn't be the final straw. Besides, in Nico's experience and according to Plutus' stories, when it came to his family Hades' bark was always worse than his bite.
Hades held out his hand. "The blanket."
Nico blinked. What? He looked down at the blanket in his hand and back at his father.
Cautiously, like offering a morsel to an easily startled animal, Nico handed it to him.
In Hades' hands, the blanket transformed before Nico's eyes. The fur undulated and writhed like a living thing until Hades' held it up to present its new form. It had shaped itself into a hooded cloak with silver fastenings.
Nico wrapped the fur cloak around his shoulders when Hades handed it back to him. It fit perfectly. The weight of it was comfortable and warm like being wrapped in an embrace. He remembered the day Hades had first given it to him. He had been so scared of the strange man in his family's house. When he looked at his father now, he didn't feel afraid.
"Thank you."
"You were too old for it as it was." That was probably Hades' way of saying 'you're welcome'.
Nico took that as his dismissal and turned to leave. They hadn't exactly resolved the issue Nico had brought but he had some answers he hadn't even known he was looking for. It was probably as good as he was going to get.
"And Nico."
He paused and looked back at his father.
"Do not enter my study without invitation again. It is very irritating."
"I won't," Nico said, even though he knew he probably would at some point.
From the outside, Hades' palace appeared to be a palace transported directly out of ancient Greece with its marble porticos and enormous columns. On the inside, it was a mishmash of architectural styles from throughout history. The upper levels of interior courtyards were run with Gothic arcades. The windows of all of the bedchambers were set with diamond-paned glass.
The palace library was largely Tudor in style. Dark wooden panelling ran the lower half of the white plaster walls. The high ceiling was supported with arched beams. Large chandeliers were lit with candles and the fireplace was recessed into the wall rather than a hearth in the centre of the room. The room was enormous with its towering bookshelves and pigeon-hole slots for scrolls.
Nico sat cross-legged on a rug in front of the lit fireplace, resting his back against a heavy armchair. His sable cloak was spread over his lap like the blanket it had been less than an hour before. The flames warmed his face. For once, they were regular orange instead of the green of Greek fire. It was nice to feel something human just then.
Bianca's stygian and bone dagger was heavy in his hands. Hades hadn't commented on it during their… conversation in his office. Did she even remember that she owned it? She must. They hadn't seen their father very often as children and every gift from him was special. Maybe he could track her down and return it to her. Plutus would probably help if he asked, or he could wait until the next winter solstice and return it then.
The door creaked open and Nico lifted his head. Quintus was in the doorway.
"You didn't think that you ought to report back to me when you returned?"
Nico shrugged. He had, but he couldn't focus on that when he had so much else on his mind.
"I'm sure you'd have found out if I died."
Quintus sat in the chair opposite Nico. "You're in a bad mood," he observed. "You should be excited, Nico. You slew a hydra."
"Why did you send me there? Why that monster? Why that city?"
Quintus paused. "It was suggested to me." Of course it had been. "I had originally thought of a nest of dracaena in Chicago but I was told that would be too simple for you."
It probably would have been. Nico had killed his first dracaena when he was thirteen. With two more years of training and actually being able to control his powers, it would have been a cakewalk.
The hydra had been a challenge. One mitigated by already knowing how to kill the monster, but still a challenge. Most heroes failed against the hydra because they didn't know how to slay it.
"I'll take a wild guess at who told you about the hydra."
Quintus paused. "From whom I receive my orders has never been a secret."
Nico laughed hollowly. "Yes, he's very good at giving orders, isn't he?"
"Are you going to tell me what this is all about?"
Nico stared at the fire.
"People keep secrets from me," he finally said. "They manipulate me."
"Do you think I have manipulated you?"
"I don't know. You never wanted to teach me. Neither of us had a choice in that. I know you've never told me the whole story about why you're here or who you are. I've already been to see my father since I've been back. I know why I was sent to D.C. I don't know why you won't ever tell me the whole story."
"There are some things that–"
"I'm better off not knowing," Nico finished. "You've said that before."
"Your grandfather is still alive, Nico, you do not need to mourn him."
"He's gone! The man I saw… that isn't the man I remember."
Quintus was quiet for a moment.
Then he said, "I know what it is to feel a lack of control over your life, to not know who to trust. All that I can say, is that those are things you learn with time and experience."
"Yea, and who knows how much of that I'll have."
Quintus' eyes twinkled. "Nico, you may not believe me yet but I am certain that you will have many many years to learn. Especially so if you continue to fight as you did against that hydra. Now up, Enough brooding. Your victory was an impressive one, but it is no excuse to rest on your laurels. To the training room with you."
Nico smiled bitterly and stood, gathering up the folds of his new fur cloak. To the training room indeed.