Chapter 13: The Flower Goddess

Will was sure they were about to get in trouble when they passed a small group of Romans.

This is how my life is going to end. Will told himself, accepting his doom.
He was surprised when the Romans didn't stop them. They didn't ask them where they were going and they didn't yell at them that it was after curfew. One of them even nodded at Nico, kind of like a sign of respect. Will was awestruck. He had seen very few Romans do that and only to people like Reyna or Jason.

"People around here really like you, don't they?" Will asked once the Romans were out of earshot.

Nico stared down at his shoes sheepishly. "They didn't used to. They used to hate me more than the Greeks. I guess it's just one of the aftereffects of stopping the war."

Used to hate him more than the Greeks. That phrase took a stab at Will's heart. The Greeks had never hated Nico. Nico had hated himself, so he assumed everyone else did too. Will felt his heart breaking.

"Nico, we never hated you."

Nico scoffed. "Yeah right."

"Please, don't do this again." Will practically begged. "I'm tired of you treating yourself like a disease. You think everyone hates you. You think you hurt people just by being alive and none of that's true. You're not worthless. I thought you had realized that."

Nico was silent for a moment as they continued to climb through the hilly streets of New Rome. They were completely alone at this point and an awful awkward silence was growing between them. By the time Nico spoke again, they were strolling by the shrines and temples.

"I'm sorry I keep wasting your time." Nico practically winced at his own words.
Will had not known real emotional pain until he heard Nico's broken voice whisper that sentence. Will's heart broke so much, it was pretty much dust.
Will stopped dead in front of the Pluto shrine, mouth hanging open, staring at Nico, looking utterly hurt. Nico stopped too and stared at Will with sad, sulken eyes that Will had tried so desperately to fix.
Will was prepared to do something insane.

"Don't you ever think something like that again." Will said, grabbing Nico by the collar and kissed him. Will closed his eyes because he couldn't bare to watch Nico's probably utter disgusted face. Will wasn't sure if Nico was going to talk to him ever again after this.

Will's heart almost stopped beating when he felt Nico kiss back. His cheeks, which were already heated like an oven, became hotter than volcanoes. He could feel heat radiating off of Nico's cheeks too. Butterflies were causing havoc in Will's stomach, trying to break free.

Will didn't let go of Nico's collar until he was gasping for air. Will almost laughed when he saw Nico, who had basically been on his tippy-toes, shrink back to his normal height. He felt so giddy. At the same, He felt like he was about to throw up from the butterflies.

Nico stared at Will in shock for a moment. He began to open his mouth to speak but before either of them had the chance to say anything, they plummeted into pitch black darkness.

...
Nico was sure he had passed out. Or died. Neither would've surprised him at the moment.

But when Nico realized he had full control over his body, he knew something was wrong. Strong wind blew threw his clothes and his hair. When he looked up, he saw a round circle of light and color that was getting smaller with every second. The ground had literally been ripped out from underneath his feet. He was falling. Where he was falling to, he had only the slightest idea.

It was pitch black all around him. He couldn't see his hand two inches from his face. The wind swirled around him. All the heat that had just been on his face a moment ago was extinguished by freezing gusts of air.

Was Will falling too or was he still on top of the Earth far above? Did the hole just swallow Nico? A faint whimpering coming from somewhere near him told him no.
They fell for at least a solid 3 minutes. Nico was grateful when they hit the rock hard ground. Free-falling was not his forte.

Nico scanned his surroundings. There was barely any light, but at least it was better than no light. It was like a cavern, tinted slightly green by the light, with massive stone walls surrounding them. He knew this place all too well. This was the underworld.

Will struggled to his feet next to Nico, brushing pebbles out his hands from the landing. Nico felt so horrible that Will was here, about what Will was probably about to be dragged into.
"Nico, did you use your powers?" Will accused.
"No!" Nico tried to defend himself. "I didn't do this! I swear on the River Styx!"

Will didn't try to argue with that.
Nico was positive that this was the work of some God or goddess and unfortunately, he had a suspicion of who. When a dim figure in a silky chiton stepped into view, all of Nico's hunches were confirmed.
The torch she was holding cast wicked shadows across her, making her look like a monster, which Nico knew wasn't far from the truth.

"Persephone." He practically snarled.
"That's no way to talk to your step-mother." She growled back.
Anger was already starting to boil up inside of Nico. She treated Nico like crap, but then always called him to come fix her problems. Now she had decided it would be a perfect time to interrupt Nico's personal life for more of her issues that she could deal with by herself. She hated Nico just because he was Hades's son. She had turned Nico into a flower at least twice. Besides all that, Nico was allergic to her. Literally.

"What is it this time?" Nico snapped at her. Will stood an inch or so behind Nico, not exactly sure what was going on.
Persephone put on a pleasant voice, trying to act nice in front of Will. "Must you always be so rude?"

Nico was almost tempted to use his powers to shadow travel him and Will back to Camp Jupiter, but he'd probably kill himself in the process. What would happen to Will if Nico died mid-shadow travel? Would he die too? Nico really didn't want to find out.

"Let's just get this over with." Nico grinded his teeth.

Persephone led the way towards Hades's palace. She spoke as she walked, explaining Hades had been acting quite strange lately. It was like he was hiding a secret and mad at Persephone at the same time.

"So you want us to go talk to him?" Nico asked. "And you couldn't do that yourself?"

"Its different when you talk to him. You're his son. You two can have 'guy talk' or whatever."

"You brought us all the way down here to talk to him?" Nico crossed his arms. "Also, why are you even still down here anyway? There's still a few weeks of summer left."

She looked at Nico like he was crazy. "There's a war going on up there! You know that I stay in the underworld during times of war!"
Nico felt taken back. "Persephone, the war ended over two weeks ago."

Persephone's features deflated. It was obvious that this was news to her. "It did?"

Nico almost felt bad for Persephone, but then he remembered who she is and what she had done to him. She deserved it. It was karma.

Will and Nico both nodded at her, not making a noise. A horrible fire started brewing in her eyes that Nico knew on sight. She was furious and bad things were about to happen to whoever was closest to her. Unfortunately, Nico and Will were closest to her.

Nico stood in front of Will in an attempt to guard him. The look in Persephone's eyes told him that if he wanted to live, he needed to run. Now.

He grabbed Will by the hand and started tugging him along, sprinting towards Hades's palace. Nico was practically praying to his father at this point. Please don't let her kill us. Please don't let her kill us.

Finally, they reached one of the side doors. Luckily, it automatically swung open for Nico. He dragged Will inside and frantically tried to close the door. Was this made of solid marble?
After a few seconds, Nico gave up on trying to close the door. It would probably just swing open for her too. He and Will continued to run, in desperate need of air. They ran straight into Hades's throne room.
"You..didn't...tell..her...the war...ended." Nico said in between breaths.

Hades, who had been pacing the floor, was clearly surprised Nico was even there. "I thought you were staying at Camp Half-Blood."

"I was! I was at Camp Jupiter because they invited us to a feast and then your psychotic wife opened up a hole in the Earth and dragged us down here!"

Hades was quiet for a minute, contemplating Nico's words. Then, obviously trying to change the topic, he said "Well, aren't you going to introduce us?"

Nico gaped at his father. Now was not the time, but with a twinge of reluctance, he said "Fine. Will, this is Hades. Hades, this is Will. Now, can we concentrate on what's important at the moment, like the fact that your wife is going to kill all of us."

As if on cue, Nico heard a deafening crash, which sounded a lot like a door being kicked in not too far away. He had never seen Hades scared until that moment.

"Why didn't you tell her?!" Nico yelled at his father. Nico had thought before that telling Will his feelings was terrifying. Nico now knew that there was nothing more terrifying than being chased by an angry flower goddess who was kicking down marble doors.

"I didn't want her to leave!" Hades shouted back, a mix of fear and sadness in his eyes. Hades then moved towards his throne, ripping open part of the wall beside it. A hidden door. Through the door was a stairwell leading down to who knows where. "This way."

"How long has that been there?" Nico questioned his father.

Hades sighed. "Do you know how long I've been married to Persephone? There's a lot of hiding places in this palace."

After some more loud crashes, Nico decided there was no more time for questions. He grabbed Will by the arm and raced down the twisting stairwell.