Peace could only last so long for Nico. In that case, until the next morning. He and Will hadn't slept at all throughout the night—though there had been a few moments where Nico had to rest, halfway dozing off with his head rested in the crook of Will's neck. He'd tried resting it against his chest, but no matter how solid Will was to him, his lack of heartbeat was always disconcerting to Nico. That was one thing he could never face, like eating.

The first rays of sunlight were peering in through the blinds when the phone rang, loud, obnoxious, unwelcome, and startling the two of them right as Will was tentatively about to take Nico's cock in his mouth. The sound made them both freeze, killing the mood. More than frustrated, Nico half-limped out of his bedroom, searching for his phone in the mess that was the living room.

It was Bianca. "I hope there's a good reason for this," he said, picking up the call.

"Good morning to you too, Nico." She was no more of a morning person than he was, and her tone was about as murderous as Nico's.

He sighed. "Okay, sorry. Of course there's a good reason you'd interrupt my—" Will's arms came from behind, settling around his waist as the boy pressed himself against Nico's back, strong and warm—no ghost should be allowed to be this warm. The hard line of his erection was distracting, and when Will's hands found Nico's still half-hard dick, Nico couldn't hold back a soft sound, halfway between a sigh and a moan—

"What was that?" Bianca had been speaking, apparently, and she'd heard him. "Are you listening to me? Wait, what am I interrupting?"

It was all Nico could do to keep his breathing under control, because Will apparently had no intention of letting go of him—and Nico didn't really want him to stop. "It's—long story. Sorry, I didn't catch what you were saying."

Bianca hummed with unveiled skepticism. "Yeah, I'd figured as much. We have a situation here." She paused, but Nico was too busy biting his lips to stay silent to ask her to elaborate. "Demigods. Alive, this time."

Nico bit back a whimper. "Several of them?"

"Two. They want to talk to you." She lowered her voice. "So get up, get dressed, say goodbye to whoever you're with, and I'm sorry I'm ruining your date, but honestly, Nico, this looks pretty important. Come at my place."

Of course she'd have guessed. She hung up, right on time for Nico to collapse backwards, into Will's embrace.

He let go of the breath he'd been holding into a strangled cry, his body tensing with each of Will's strokes. His hand found Will's, reluctantly guiding his rhythm to a faster pace—as much as he wanted to take his time, he couldn't leave Bianca hanging for too long.

It wasn't long before he felt the familiar buildup, the pressure rising and finally peaking as Nico came in their linked hands, going limp in Will's arms, barely registering the kiss Will was pressing against his neck.

Will sat on the couch behind him, and Nico let himself be carried along, practically motionless for a moment to catch his breath.

"Did you really have to do that?" he said, his voice barely able to reach higher than a fake whine.

"Sorry, I hadn't noticed you were complaining."

Nico chuckled. "I meant while I was on the phone." He stood up, and Will followed the movement, catching him by the wrists. "I have to go. Demigods are in town—my sister's freaking out." Well, she probably was, even though she wouldn't let on.

Will sighed, and finally, let go of him. "Okay."

Nico turned around, taking in the sight of him, naked, golden and beautiful in the early sunlight—and still very aroused. He considered taking care of that last part, but rejected the idea. "Sorry I have to leave you hanging like that," he said, placing a kiss on Will's lips.

"You'll have to explain to me how you can take so long to come over when you shadow-travel."

Bianca's greeting got Nico to glare at her. "Sure, next time you call I'll appear in your apartment naked and gross. That'll do wonders with the demigods who want to meet me."

His sister sighed, but a half-smile formed on her lips. "You didn't tell me you had someone."

"It was our first time."

"Who is it?"

Nico should have anticipated the question, but he hadn't. How would Bianca react to him dating a ghost? "Can we talk about it after we deal with the demigods?"

She considered him silently for a moment. "Fine. But we will talk about it."

"'I'm so happy to hear you found someone, little brother'," Nico said, mockingly. "It's not like me dating is a problem. So where are those newcomers?"

"They're waiting at the Starbucks across the road. They insisted to wait there, not me." She glanced him up and down. "Was the exorcist getup really necessary?"

Nico looked down at the black jeans and leather jacket he was wearing. "They're just my clothes, Bianca. I wear them because I like them. And you're wearing practically the same thing." Her jacket was white, but underneath, she wore a black t-shirt like he did. They didn't look that different from each other at all: Nico was finally taller than her—the result of a very late and very recent growth spurt—and he'd finally cut his hair while hers was carefully braided, but aside from that, their features and even the frame of their bodies were similar.

"Exactly. Now it looks like we coordinated. And I'm wearing it better."

Nico scoffed. "Let's just go."

Finding the demigods in the Starbucks required no effort at all on Nico's part, even before Bianca pointed them to him: they stood out against the crowd, radiating power the way Nico had only ever seen his sisters do before. It was almost like they were the only ones in color, while everyone else around was dulled in comparison.

The demigods were two girls. The first stood up when she noticed them, her face serene but grave, and walked up to them. She had dark skin and darker hair, meticulously arranged in a multitude of cascading braids, swept to one side of her head. When she came up close, Nico noticed her startling green eyes, luminescent against her skin. "Hi again," she said. "And you must be Nico? I'm Lou Ellen. Nice to meet you."

She offered her hand, and Nico took it. "Likewise. But how do you know about me?"

"I don't—she does." She nodded back towards the table, and Nico followed her gaze, noticing the other girl.

Her skin was pale, with a slight tanned and covered in freckles, with curly golden hair cut short. That last detail had thrown off Nico when he'd first seen her, but now that he looked again, he saw more. He saw her delicate nose, and her full, red lips, and he recognized her. He recognized her because he'd seen the same features just moments ago—on Will's face. They had to be related, and knowing that, he realized where he'd seen her: on a picture, glimpsed the previous afternoon while he was sending a message.

"Kayla." The name escaped Nico's lips, and she lifted her eyes to meet his.

"Wait, you know that girl?" Bianca's incredulity matched the surprise in Lou Ellen's eyes, but Nico ignored them both. He walked to the table, and sat down across from Kayla.

"Hi," he said. Her eyes were the same shamed of blue as Will's, but were staring at him with a sorrow Nico had never seen in his. He could easily guess why. "I didn't think you'd come all the way here. Especially not overnight. How did you—"

"Did you really think I'd let my brother's death go unpunished?"

Her anger made Nico start, as did her voice, deep and raspy, so different from how melodious Will usually sounded. "I—that's already been settled. The monster that killed him attacked me, and I destroyed it."

"So I'm supposed to think that you"—she stared Nico up and down—"managed to defeat a monster when my brother didn't?"

"From what I understood, Will was taken by surprise." Technically, Nico had too, but he also would have died if it weren't for Will anyway, so he chose to skip that detail.

"And how do you know that?"

Nico tried to speak, but Bianca interrupted him. "Okay, can someone tell me what's going on?"

"I told you about the demigod ghost who haunts my apartment. He asked me to send a message to one of his half-siblings, to let them know he was gone. That's Kayla. As I said, I never thought she'd come over." Nico paused, and turned to Lou Ellen. "Although—you don't look like a child of Apollo. So I have no idea who you are."

"I'm a daughter of Hecate," she replied. "Kayla and I have known each other for a long time. I came for her sake."

Nico frowned. "But—Will didn't even know the other gods were real."

"He didn't," Kayla said. "I did. Dad would be really upset if he found out, though. That's why I never told Will, or the others."

Nico stared at her, puzzled, then exchanged a glance with Bianca. The idea to hide something that major from his own sisters was unthinkable to him, even if it went against Hades's wishes. Especially if it went against Hades's wishes. "Okay. So why are you here?"

"To avenge Will." Nico was about to protest again, but she interrupted him. "Yes, you killed the monster itself. But I want to know why it was there."

"What do you mean?" Bianca asked. "Monster attacks are pretty common against demigods in the mortal world."

Kayla stared at her, then at Nico, then finally at Lou Ellen, a question in her eyes. Only when her friend nodded did her expression soften. Will had hinted to Nico that they rarely left their camp: maybe Kayla didn't even know that monster attacks were frequent. "So—what am I supposed to do? Chalk it up to bad luck? He went into dangerous territory, was attacked, oh well, better luck next time?"

"I don't know," Nico said. "I can't tell you how to deal with his death." He wasn't even sure he was dealing with it himself.

"And why did he ask you to send me a message?"

Nico shrugged. "I told you in my message. I'm a son of Hades, I happened to rent his apartment, I saw his ghost." Will had asked him not to tell Kayla about their relationship, and he hadn't told Bianca either yet, so he certainly wasn't going to get into those details.

"Could I talk to them? I don't know, have a séance or whatever it is you guys do?"

"I—I'm not sure. I can't guarantee you Will's ghost will still be there. It's not an exact science." He glanced at Bianca, who was staring back, unreadable. But at least, she'd decided not to call him out on his obvious lie. "But if I do see him, I'll ask him if he wants to talk to you."

Kayla opened her mouth to speak, then seemed to change her mind for a moment. She took a deep breath, and finally said, "I guess that's all I'll get, isn't it? Thanks."

When they finally parted ways, with Kayla and Lou Ellen saying that they were going to stay in town for a while—and promising to watch out for monsters—Nico followed Bianca back to her apartment. Mostly because she practically dragged him there.

"What was that about? 'If I do see him, I'll ask him'? How can you not know if he's around or not?"

Lying to Bianca wasn't even an option—even if it would mean a really awkward conversation when he hadn't slept in more than twenty-four hours and had barely escaped death the night before that. "He asked me not to tell her in my message. I didn't know she'd actually come here to talk to him, but I couldn't just tell her she could talk to him. Not before asking Will first."

Bianca raised an eyebrow. "So he is still around. Which means your apartment is haunted. Wasn't that a problem, what with last n—" She froze, but she knew. "Oh, gods. Are you serious?"

Nico bit his lip, looking for the right way to present it. "Look, it's—complicated."

"Yeah, I bet it is. You slept. With a ghost."

"Actually we're dating. I think." Better to get it all out at once, he guessed. "Hold on before you start yelling. I didn't mean for this to happen. I thought he was actually gone, then the giant spider attacked me, and I did destroy it, but it almost killed me too, and Will—healed me, somehow. Bianca, he passed on his chance to move on to save me. And then, this morning—I mean, yesterday morning—he kissed me, and we went out, and I—"

"You almost died?" There was no anger in Bianca's voice—never anger, when she heard Nico's life was threatened.

"Yes."

"And he saved you."

Nico shrugged. "Children of Apollo can heal, right? I guess even as a ghost, he has some of that left."

"And then he kissed you?"

"Well I was out for a few hours first, but yeah."

"And all that was yesterday? So you wake up almost dead, and immediately go on a date, and end up not sleeping all night because you're too busy getting it on with a dead guy?"

Nico paused. "It does sound pretty rushed when you're putting it like that."

"Yeah, you're damn right it does."

"But—I really like him. I know, it's childish, but I do. Can't you be happy for me?"

Bianca sighed, and placed her hands on his shoulders. "I am. Of course I am. But I'm worried, too. Even if you're right for each other—Nico, he's dead."

"Don't you think I haven't thought of that?"

"What'll you do when he goes to the Underworld?"

"'If', not 'when'. I told you, he ignored his gateway. It may never happen again, you know that."

"Okay, 'if' he goes to the Underworld."

Not something Nico had wanted to think about. "I guess I'll—you know, mourn him. But it's not like that couldn't happen with anyone else."

"No, but in his case it's a lot less of a possibility. And what if he never goes in the Underworld and turns into a vengeful spirit? Could you exorcise the guy you've been dating?"

"He wouldn't. That's not who Will is—"

"You have to consider it. Even the nicest people can turn crazy after a time as ghosts."

Nico wanted to protest, but she was right. "I—I'll see then. If it happens. Which it may not."

They fell silent for a moment, before Bianca took him in her arms. "I'm just trying to look out for you, you know that, right?"

"I know. I just—I don't want to think about it right now."

"Fine. I guess you can enjoy the honeymoon phase." Nico glared at her phrasing, but she deflected it with a grin. "So when do I meet him? And Hazel! We've gotta call Hazel. She'll drop everything to meet your ghost boyfriend."

"I'm not sure it's a good idea for her to drop everything—"

"Don't you dare try to keep it from her, Nico!"

He rolled his eyes. "Fine, I'll call Hazel."