"Your life is kind of empty," was Will's way of greeting Nico the next morning.

Nico was already grumpy at being woken up by a client calling him, and this wasn't improving his mood. "I beg you pardon?"

"No need to beg," Will teased. "I may have Facebook-stalked you. Which is kind of your own fault for leaving your laptop logged in without any protection."

Annoyance was slowly giving way to anger. "There's usually no one to go through my laptop in my sleep. And don't blame me because you couldn't respect boundaries."

"Yeah, but that's my point. There's no one who comes here. Ever. It's sad."

"My sisters visit me all the time. And I'm sorry my life doesn't meet your standards of quality. I like it as it is."

"Do you?"

His question may have been rhetorical, but it gave Nico pause. Did he like his life? It was comfortable, with more than enough excitement. "I guess."

"You've never wanted for someone to share it with?"

Great, the ghost was starting to sound like Hazel now. "If you find a guy who wants to date a medium, be sure to let me know." He wasn't sure why he'd let out the implication that he was gay—maybe as an attempt to shock Will?

It failed miserably. "I would date a medium. And I would tap that ass, too. I've seen it, remember?"

His grin was met with Nico's glare, which quickly turned into a full-blown, patented Death Kid Glare. It was only when Will stumbled backwards through the stained sofa that Nico stopped. "Don't remind me of that."

"Too forward? Sorry. I mean, I'm dead, I'm not expecting— I was just trying to boost your ego." Will's puppy dog eyes were a little too irresistible for Nico's good.

"I don't need an 'ego boost'. I need my apartment to myself. And I can't, because there's a ghost I can't deal with until I have a day off, and I can't just take one because I am still a member of the living who needs to make a living."

"What, your dad doesn't provide? Isn't he also the god of wealth?"

Nico paused in his rambling. Hazel had suggested to use her powers to give Bianca and Nico a source of income, but he'd always refused it before. He'd never even considered asking his dad. Maybe it was foolish of him—but having that foolishness pointed out to him by this ghost was the last thing Nico wanted right now. "That is none of your concern."

"It's just—Apollo used to help us financially. Sorry if I struck a nerve. Or how about your mom?"

That was one thing too many for Nico to bear. "How about you don't speak to me? Preferably ever again? Find your own way to the Underworld. Most people do."

He came home early, this time. Helping young children was always heartbreaking—because, well, they were small children—but it also tended to be an easier job. They needed guidance, not convincing. The boy he'd sent to the other side this time had reminded him so much of himself at the same age he'd almost burst into tears. Especially when his little sister asked him if he was her brother from the future.

That was hardly a worthy price to pay for coming home by noon on a normal day. And it definitely wasn't when coming home meant having to deal with another ghost. He wondered what Will had been up to this time.

But there was nothing. No disaster waiting for Nico to clean up, no sarcasm. No dinner cooking, either. Nico still didn't know where Will had gotten the ingredients the night before—or how he'd known when to start cooking.

In fact, there was no trace of Will himself. Had he really found his way to the other side? Nico knew he had the ability to force a ghost to move on—and, on one occasion, he'd even forced a living person's spirit to go straight to the Underworld—but it drained him more than any of his other talents.

Well, whatever it was, Will was seemingly gone. It was odd, considering how strong his presence had been in the world of the living, but not to the point where Nico would dwell on it. He was a demigod—odd was nothing out of the ordinary to him. Sometimes he wondered if the supernatural world really had any defined rules at all.

The rest of the week was unusually busy. On top of his job, which took at least half of each day, meeting Hazel while he could, Nico suddenly had to deal with three monster attacks in the span of a few days. None of them had even targeted him or Hazel directly, which was odd enough as it was; they'd always been surprised to find demigods fighting back.

Five of the ghosts he had to work with were actually victims of two of those monsters—the third had just arrived in New Orleans when Nico found it, and Nico doubted it had killed anyone yet. Even more surprising, two of those victims were demigods—just like Will. Hazel, who had never gotten the opportunity to speak to Will after his disappearance, was delighted to come as quickly as possible when Nico met the second one, a girl named Drew Tanaka, a daughter of Aphrodite. The girl did little to appease their curiosity, though, and moved on relatively quickly—which was even weirder, considering the trouble Nico usually had to go through.

Those demigods couldn't be a coincidence, though. Three, from three different parents, coming to New Orleans, one of Hades's stronghold, in the span of a week? And they all died, too? There had to be something here.

Bianca came back at the end of the week—a couple days too late to see Hazel and complete their small family, but still good to have around. Nico wasted no time and immediately told her about the demigods and the influx of monsters.

"That's why I came home early," she said.

"So you know what's going on?"

"Not exactly. But something is going on, that much is certain. There's no more monsters in Los Angeles, they all…left. It's like they're focusing on a single place."

"What, they're laying siege to New Orleans?"

"Possibly, yes. Each of Hades's stronghold has a door to the Underworld, right? Maybe someone is directing them to take control of a door."

"And you think the other gods are sending their kids to stop them? Because none of the three I met seemed to know anything. Apollo's son didn't even know about other gods. And I hope Dad would have warned me if my home city was attacked."

Bianca sighed. "I don't know. Maybe it's more of an instinctual thing, like they're drawn to the monsters in the area? There's so much we don't know. But something's happening, and I'm sure we can deal with it together."

"Yeah." With Bianca by his side, Nico felt confident he could deal with anything. "You're right."

He came home unusually late that night, after spending the entire evening with Bianca. He missed his sister more than he could ever tell her, so staying with her was the least he could do. But her apartment didn't have room for the two of them—any more than his did—and Nico wasn't keen on sleeping on the couch, especially if there was going to be more and more monsters to deal with.

Half-dazed with sleep already, he made a beeline to the kitchen to grab a bite—some of those industrial cakes that were objectively terrible but so convenient when he was hungry and tired, which was often—then straight to the bathroom before heading to bed.

He was barely done with brushing his teeth when a faint clicking came from outside the door, followed by a voice calling out. "Look out!"

Before a more precise warning could follow, the door was torn off its hinges and thrown straight at Nico, sending him flying against the wall. Stunned, he still managed to push the door off himself, and take in the sight of its attacker: a giant spider, one of Arachne's children.

Nico wouldn't be able to fight off the monster without some serious advantage, especially since he was unarmed and tired. He scrambled to his feet and jumped on the sink as the monster struggled with the small doorframe; just as it was in the room, Nico managed to tear the lamp off the ceiling, plunging the room in the dark. Nico had no idea if spiders could see in the dark, but he didn't care—shadows were his realm. He heard the spider coming towards him, but before it could reach him, Nico had already vanished.

He reformed in his living room, crouching behind the couch, his sword materializing in his hand from the shadows. He'd arranged the furniture to make sure there were always a few shadows in the place, no matter if it was day outside or if he turned on all the lights—something he was rather proud of, and now, very grateful for.

The source of the voice who had alerted him was nowhere to be seen, but Nico couldn't worry about that right now. The spider was already out of the bathroom, and it leaped at him at blinding speed. Nico was forced to shadow-walk again, reappearing behind the kitchen counter. Maybe the smart move would be to appear at Bianca's place, but she was probably asleep, and leaving would mean letting the monster go after other people—mortals. He couldn't do that.

From his position, he easily reached the switch to turn off all the lights in his apartment, giving him a greater freedom of movement. The noise immediately alerted the monster, but Nico was ready now, and as the spider leaped into the air, Nico vanished again, re-forming in the air right below the monster. He landed on the spider's abdomen, sword first, and it tore into the flesh with a disgusting yet satisfying sound. He jumped off immediately, hacking to both sides and cutting off two of its legs from the back. He knew it wouldn't do much to stop the creature, but he'd take any advantage he could.

The monster reared back, and turned around in record speed, way too close for comfort—Nico could see faint light reflecting off its eight eyes. It lunged forward, and Nico couldn't shadow-travel on time before the creature laid a leg on him, pinning him down with unfair ease. Nico hacked at the limb, rolled to avoid the spider's stinger coming down, and vanished once again in the shadows. He appeared right next to it, and hacked the three remaining legs on that side.

Finally, the spider stumbled and fell, but even then, it tried to drag itself with its remaining two legs, pushing and pulling to move across the floor. Nico stabbed it through the head, and then, for good measure, dragged its blade through the spider's abdomen, cutting it lengthwise. It thrashed for a few more seconds, before finally vanishing in golden particles of dust.

Panting, Nico stood still for a moment. He'd shadow-stepped… three, four times? Five? He'd lost count. Even on short distances, this was way too much, especially in his current state. The sword clattered as it fell to the floor, but Nico wasn't aware of letting go. Moments later, he fell to the floor as well, landing on his back and hitting his head.

Semi-conscious, he thought he saw a face staring at him—blurred, with blue eyes and golden hair, vaguely familiar. Sound reached him, but his brain couldn't process the words. He tried to push himself off the floor, but his hand couldn't find the ground—they just passed through it. "'M fading," he muttered, unsure if there really was someone or if he was imagining it.

Consciousness slipped from Nico, and the shadows closed around him.