Chapter 8: The Curse

Nico walked through the disbanding crowd of campers, all chatting happily after the events of the night. Pretty much everyone was happy, you know, except the Ares campers who had not accepted their defeat. Even Nico was still smiling.
Nico tried to look over the heads of the crowd but most people were too tall for Nico to see over. Nico suddenly felt really, really short. Finally, he spotted the person he was looking for.
Jason Grace limped among the crowd still retreating from the woods, chatting happily to Piper. Nico weaved his way through the crowd to get to him.
"Hey Jason, I have two questions." Nico said. "First, why are you limping?"
Jason grinned. "I was just talking to Piper about that actually. Your boyfriend did quite the number on the back of my knee."
Nico felt his face turn scarlet. "No. He's not my boyfriend. Don't even say that."
Piper objected by saying "but you want him to be."

Nico felt the urge to kick Piper in the shin, but he decided against it last minute. He also wanted to deny it, but there was no lying about this kind of stuff to a daughter of Aphrodite. Instead, she received a life-threatening glare.
"You didn't deny it." Jason's grin changed to be wicked, but only to a slight degree. "Oh, don't worry, Neeks, I'll have a talk with him tomorrow."
Nico groaned in agony. "First off, don't ever call me that again. Second off, no, you won't. Third off, can I just ask you my second question now?"
Piper was smiling too now. "You're trying to change the subject."
Nico decided it was just best to ignore them. "So, Jason, you know how you always have drachmas? Well, I need a few."
"What for?" Jason raised his eyebrow with curiosity.
Nico wasn't sure if he could tell anyone else. Reyna made it seem like Nico was the only person she told. She made Hazel and Frank leave the room when she told him, which they didn't even know.
"I've got to make a few calls." Nico tried to keep it vague and boring.
Jason shook his head. "You know what? I don't even want to know what that means." Jason dug a few golden coins out his pockets and dropped them into Nico's hands. "Here you go. Don't spend it all in one place. Night Nico, see you at breakfast."

"See ya." Nico said as Piper and Jason strode off to who knows where.
Nico searched for ages for someplace to send an iris message (the camp store was closed), but couldn't find one, except maybe the Iris cabin, but he didn't think they'd like him intruding at 11:30 at night.

Finally, with reluctance, Nico decided he'd just have to send it first thing tomorrow morning, when the camp store opened.
Somehow, Nico's mood still hadn't been dampened yet. He laid down in his black coffin-like bed and smiled at the ceiling. Nico was sure this was the first time he had smiled while laying in his coffin bed, maybe the first time he had smiled in his cabin. For the first time in a very long time, Nico felt genuinely happy.

The next morning, Nico woke up and sleepily got dressed. What time was it? 6? 7?
Nico was sure breakfast hadn't passed yet, so it must've been before 8. Ugh, Nico hated mornings. Nico stumbled out the door, half asleep, and shielded his eyes from the blinding light. Nico stood there, letting his eyes adjust for a minute.
Nico went off to the camp store to get a bottle of Iris's Rainbow, not even waiting for the clerk to pay attention to him. He practically threw the coin onto the counter.

Nico went back to his cabin and sat down on the floor. He twisted off the plastic bottle cap and let the mist float out of the bottle. Finally, the mist settled and a small rainbow appeared. Nico tossed the drachma into the rainbow and said "Show me Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano."
The mist shimmered to a new image. It was a dark room filled with bunks. In the center of the picture was praetor Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano, snoring, sound asleep, her dogs sleeping not far from her bed.
"Reyna!" Nico whispered-yelled. Nico was surprised when Reyna came out of her coma.
"Nico, it's 4 in the morning here. Go away." Reyna said, sitting up but still half asleep. Under other circumstances, Nico might have laughed at Reyna's hair which was sticking out in just about every direction, but this seemed like it was some pretty serious business.
"I told you I was going to interrogate you."
Reyna glared to the best of her ability while half asleep. "You said later, Not 4 in the morning."
"Well, it's later." Nico said blandly. He felt bad for waking Reyna up, but it was better he talked to her when no was around. Or at least, no one awake.
Reyna got up and poked at the iris message. "Is there a way to move it?"
"Move it?" Nico had never thought of that. "I'm not sure." Was there a way to move it?
A look of deep concentration formed on Reyna's face as she tried to wrap her hands gently around the silver mist. She picked it up and started carrying it around.

Nico was completely bewildered. "How did that even work?"
"Nico," Reyna said sternly. "We live in a world full of monsters and gods and goddesses and a whole bunch of unrealistic things, and this is what you choose to question? That was probably the most normal thing I've done in a long time. I flew across the Atlantic on a pegasus, for Bellona's sake."
Reyna had a good point. Nico couldn't argue with that.

Nico watched as Reyna carried the Iris Message outside. There were still stars in the sky. The first lights of dawn hadn't even emerged from the horizon yet. It was the polar opposite of what it was like on Long Island. Reyna shivered as a night breeze flowed lazily through the Californian fields.
"Okay," Reyna said, very serious. "Let's get down to business."

Reyna told Nico about what had been happening since she had returned home. In short, things had been dying, randomly, with practically no cause of death. The creatures dying were slowly going up in size. Reyna was scared that soon, there would be demigod lives taken.

Reyna said she didn't think it was a plague or a disease, or else it would probably also affect the mortals living around them. Reyna was sure it had something to do with the gods, specifically, Nico's dad, being the God of the dead.
Nico cursed at the gods. Always causing drama. They had just gotten through with a war and the gods couldn't relax for more than a week?

Nico was furious at Reyna. She had waited this long to tell him when there were lives on the line? At the rate the deaths were going, who knew when the first demigod was going to die. It could be next week. It could be tomorrow. "I need to get to California now." Nico said coldly.

"Nico," Reyna said. "It takes at least 2 days to get here by car. And don't even think about shadow traveling here. You can't help if you're dead."

"Why did you wait this long to tell me?!" Nico shouted. Nico could feel his powers at the tip of his fingers. He almost always lost control of his powers when he was upset. He was trying to control his temper, but it was a difficult task. He couldn't allow himself to slip up.
Reyna was starting to shout too. "Because I knew you'd react like this and try to use your powers so you can help, but using your powers won't help, because it will kill you!"

Nico took a few seconds to breathe. He had to calm down. He had to. "Look," Nico said as calmly as he could. "Send the cars for the feast first thing morning. Ill tell the others to be ready to leave on Tuesday. Tell them to take the minimal amount of stops possible. Ill see you in 4 days."
Nico swiped his hand through the sparkling mist, leaving his cabin lonely again.

...
Nico was sure it was almost time for breakfast. Nico wasn't much of a breakfast person, but he knew Will would kill him if he skipped.
Nico arrived in the surprising noisy dining pavilion to find a sleeping Will Solace at the Zeus table, his face in his food. Nico send a questioning look to Jason, who wasn't far away. Jason shrugged.
"He's basically been like that since I got here. He woke up once when I sat down, asked if you were here yet, and then went back to sleep. I haven't even be able to give him the talk yet."

Nico sighed. He was pretty much done with life. "Okay, Jason, look at me. You are not giving him a talk, okay?" Nico said, as he set his plate down. He shook the sleeping nerd awake. Will jolted up with a start.
"Whoa!" Will said with surprise. Will sat back down at the table and began to wipe whipped cream off his face. "Oh, you're finally here."

Will didn't look like he was having a good day either. He had big purple bags under his eyes that weren't there before, like he had gotten little sleep.

"Nice to see you too. What happened?" Nico asked.
Will leaned his head on his elbow. "The was a pegasus in the stables last night and I stayed up for what seemed like hours, trying to heal it. It completely drained me. In the end, there was no saving it though."Will shook his head sadly. "The oddest part was, it just started dying. I couldn't even find anything wrong with it."
Nico, who had sat down and was in the midst of biting into a piece of a blueberry waffle, nearly choked to death when will said that.
Oh gods. Nico thought. It's not just happening at camp Jupiter. It's starting here too.