The problem with taking Persephone's offer was, Nico had no idea how to lead an investigation. That, and there wasn't much going on in New Orleans all of a sudden. Even ghosts were rarer than usual, and the few Nico and Bianca dealt with weren't demigods.

Weeks passed, then over a month, and Nico did was staying in touch with the demigods who were in town. Cecil was hard to avoid at all, since he lived with Nico. Kayla dropped by almost daily to talk to Will—and her reaction to meeting Cecil was about on par with meeting Nico and his sisters. Lou Ellen was the most elusive of the three, when she wasn't sticking by Kayla's side; but Hazel assured Nico that the two of them were more in touch—Nico could easily guess why, since their powers were more similar.

Nico was pretty sure he could count all of them as friends now, but there was still an uneasiness between them all. The death of Kayla and Cecil's brothers was part of that, but it wasn't all of it; some had to do with Nico investigating them and feeling like he couldn't relax, but he was also fairly certain a part of it was them being descended from different gods. Throughout the years, Nico hadn't really questioned that the gods remained apart from one another. He wondered if the tension between them was related to that isolation—and if so, was it a cause or a consequence of it? It would explain the unrest caused by demigods' arrival in New Orleans.

It was little more than speculation, but it was the most Nico had. Still, Persephone didn't seem to mind the lack of results, although Nico guessed that had more to do with the sudden quiet. And, well, perhaps she was happy to keep Nico in her employ for a while longer. For a few days, Nico entertained the idea that this was all her crazy scheme to force Nico's hand, but he dismissed it; Persephone, while she was capable of being cold—especially towards her husband's illegitimate children—wouldn't be cruel enough as to cause deaths as she had for something she could have offered Nico first. Could she? Nico wasn't sure it was reasonable to put anything past one of the gods, but he still didn't see it.

So Nico bid his time. And he had to admit, the quiet was nice for very selfish reasons. His relationship with Will had started in drama—almost dying counted—and they hadn't really had a moment to catch their breaths since then, figuratively speaking. Cecil's presence came with a lack of privacy, but in the grand scheme of things, having to deal with a roommate felt like such a normal relationship problem that Nico was thankful for it at times. Normalcy was what he needed, especially after Persephone's warning regarding Will.

He hadn't told Will anything about it so far. He wasn't sure why—in fact, he knew it was a mistake not to tell him, if only for the sake of honesty—but he couldn't bring himself to explain that Will may well be trapped among the living forever. Especially because he had no idea how to explain to Will why this was bad, regardless of how long Will managed to avoid becoming a harmful ghost.

Besides, it was hard to bring up anything that could bring down the mood. Bianca had said they were in the honeymoon phase, but to Nico, it had only really started once the monsters stopped showing up. He and Will could finally forget that Will was a ghost and just be together. They were in love, in a way Nico hadn't been in so long and Will had never been, and they were high off of that and each other.

Nico wouldn't have let go of that for anything.

The first lead came completely by chance—which had been Nico's hope all along. A month and a half after Nico took Persephone's offer, Kayla had come over and stayed as evening turned into night. Will had managed to be corporeal enough around his sister to drink with her—which confused Nico, since she couldn't see him beyond the beer bottles in his hand. Cecil had joined the festivities and offered to relay Nico as Will's interpret, which turned out to be a small mercy when all three of them started being tipsy and the slurring began.

Nico had mostly tuned them out as he mindlessly browsed the Internet, when an exchange caught his attention.

"You know what's crazy? Me coming here." It was Kayla, laughing at her words as if they were some obscure joke. "I mean, I'd never left camp since I was a kid. And suddenly I'm crossing the country—for revenge! How stupid is that?"

"Right?" Cecil replied. "We moved here because I blew up like my dad about—fuck, I don't even remember what it was." His smile died on his lips. "Not worth it."

Nico perked up at that—Cecil had never said a word about why he couldn't see Hermes anymore. "You blew up at him?"

"Yeah, I got angry because—" He paused, frowning. "I think it was about Mom? How much he'd fucked her over? I mean, she got remarried and had Evan, but she still wasn't over him. And he wouldn't even see her, even when he came to see me at her home."

"At least he let you stay with her," Will pointed out.

Nico held up his hand, silencing him. He wasn't interested in them trying to out-sob story each other, especially while drunk. "Was that a new thing? You being angry at your dad, I mean?"

Cecil's gaze remained vacant for a moment before he nodded. "Yeah, I guess. I mean, it's always been there, you know, but I was okay about it before."

"And it all went really fast after that, didn't it? The move, I mean? All in a few days?" Cecil nodded. "So you came here because of an impulse decision made in anger." It wasn't really a question, but Cecil nodded again. Kayla did too, even though Nico wasn't really asking her. He turned to her anyway. "Do you know what pushed Lou Ellen?"

"She came for me. We're kind of dating, you know."

Next to her, Will let out a loud gasp, and Nico let him berate his sister for not telling him. He had a theory now. All he needed was a way to confirm it.

It wouldn't have done to show up to Kayla and Lou Ellen's hotel room in the middle of the night, so Nico had to wait until the next day—and hope that she would be willing to answer to him at all. Nico wasn't sure he would have gotten information out of Kayla or Cecil if not for the alcohol in their system, after all.

He went early in the morning, while Kayla was still out on their couch, Will cuddled against her even though she probably couldn't feel it. Hopefully Lou Ellen was a morning person, because Nico didn't want to talk to her in front of anyone if he could avoid it.

At least she was awake, since she opened her door. On the other hand, she didn't seem happy to see him. "The hell do you want?"

"Good morning to you too," Nico retorted without missing a beat. They were dating siblings, didn't that technically make them family of some kind? She could be nicer to him. Especially since she had no trouble being nice to Hazel. "Mind if I come in?"

"Kind of, actually."

"Okay, we can do this here too. Is there any reason you came here? In a hurry, maybe, because you'd done something really—impulsive? In anger, maybe?"

She raised an eyebrow at him. "And I should tell you because—?"

"I'm trying to figure out who worked so hard to get demigods in a Hades stronghold and stir up chaos." Better the truth, he guessed. She would probably figure it out if he lied.

"I just followed Kayla. I'm not very impulsive myself."

Nico sighed. "Okay. How did you know you should follow Kayla?"

"She told me. We're girlfriends. Wouldn't you—well, I guess you can't follow him, since he's more or less stuck around here. But if your boyfriend was alive, you'd follow him if he needed to go somewhere, wouldn't you?"

"Fair enough." Nico couldn't help but wince at her words regarding his and Will's relationship—accurate as they were. "So…how did you two get together? Kayla said you're the one who told her about the other gods, so I guess you found her?"

Lou Ellen sighed. "You're not going to give it up until you have an answer, right?" She finally stepped back from the door and opened it wider, letting Nico in.

"It could be important." Nico didn't mention Persephone as he came in—he had no idea what Lou Ellen's relationship with her mom was, and Hecate and Persephone were supposed to be allies.

Lou Ellen sat on the bed, waving at the sole chair in the hotel room for Nico to sit on. "You're right. I found Kayla. Well, it'd be more accurate to say that I found their camp, and then she found me. She's kind of a good tracker."

"I got to see that for myself," Nico said, remembering how she'd first shown up at his own door without notice. "Were you looking for the Apollo camp?"

She nodded. "I wanted to prove to my mother that I could do it. Pierce the Mist surrounding another Olympian stronghold. And I picked Apollo because I knew he didn't tell his kids about the rest of us. I think—I justified it to myself as a strategic decision, but really, I think I just wanted to piss everyone off by blowing the whole story to Apollo's kids."

"But–you didn't," Nico pointed out. "I mean, you told Kayla, but not the others."

"Yeah." She shrugged. "I don't know. When I got through the Mist barrier, it didn't sound as fun anymore."

"Do you think Kayla felt the same once she got here? About her revenge?"

"Well, you did take care of that, so there was no point anymore, was there?"

Nico nodded, but he wondered if there wasn't more to it. He doubted he would be fine with just being told that Bianca or Hazel's murderer was dead. And there was Cecil, too, who sounded a lot less vehement about his issues with his father—maybe losing his mom and stepdad had an influence too, but it was a pattern.

"Does that help?"

Nico nodded. "I think so. It's all about—anger, I think. Or something similar. And whoever's responsible, their powers can't make it through the Mist barriers surrounding most of our strongholds."

"Except Kayla was at home when you contacted her."

"But she met you outside of her camp, right?"

Lou Ellen paused, cocking her head to the side. "Yeah."

"And that's when she decided to rush here?"

"I—don't really remember. She wanted to go the whole time, but maybe she did rush her decision? It's hard to be sure."

"I know. That's the issue—whoever is plotting all this is subtle." Which ruled Ares out—too bad, he would have been a perfect suspect, especially since war was the end goal. "I have to confirm this."

"With whom? Do you know any other demigods in town?"

"Not at the moment, but I knew a few." Taking in her confused stare, he added, "I have a few séances to organize."

Calling ghosts was never a fun process. Calling three in a row—Nico had opted for that rather than all at once—was downright the worst thing that Nico had had to go through. Well, maybe almost dying took the cake. Maybe. Nico wasn't entirely sure he wasn't almost dead by the time he'd sent the last of them back to the Underworld.

The pattern fit, though. All three ghosts Nico knew of had come here on an impulse, and they'd lost that drive once they were here. The only flaw in Nico's theory was that only one of them was angry. One of the other two had come with a similar purpose as Lou Ellen going to the Apollo camp, to stir trouble, but he'd only meant it as a prank—or so he claimed. The third had come running from a bad relationship—she had held no anger, only fear and sorrow.

And there was Will, too, leaving after seeing what his father had caused his mother to become. He had sounded angry at his father, but mostly aimless and confused. Maybe the anger was just a catalyst of some kind for something else?

It was wonky at best, but there was still a common thread. All Nico needed was to find what exactly it was. It felt obvious, like Nico shouldn't miss it—and yet, here he was, missing it.

He was busy looking up Greek gods online to see if any of them struck him as a possible culprit when the doorbell rang. Cecil and Will had been out in the town, and they had a key, so Nico wasn't sure who it could be. Curious, he went to open the door—only to find Hazel here.

"I have a lead," she said, "as promised. But you're not going to like it."

"I'll take anything at this point."

She shook her head, dubious, but continued anyway. "How familiar are you with…other mythologies?"