I leaned over Blackjack's neck, trying to urge him faster. It had taken two days of pretty solid flying to get to Rising Star, but I didn't think my nerves would last another two days. And Nico might not either. That thought made me flatten even more against the stallion's back, trying to reduce the wind resistance as much as possible.

I would've ridden all night and into the next day until we got there, if Blackjack hadn't started faltering under me. But as it was, I suddenly realized that we were descending. "Wha…?"

Sorry, boss. We gotta rest for a little while. We weren't ready to turn around and go right back, Blackjack told me apologetically. We were heading for a little clearing in some foothills where it looked like we could stop without anyone noticing us. I guessed we might be someplace in West Virginia. We'd been following what looked like mountains up to the north and east for a while.

"… Oh," I said slowly. "Yeah." I didn't want to admit it, but he was right. Flying our mounts to foundering wouldn't do Nico any good. But every time I thought about him sitting around alone at camp, I heard the Oracle's words about death and my stomach would suddenly fill with acid all over again. I'd spent most of the ride feeling sick.

When Blackjack landed I slid off his back and waited nervously for the others to land. We'd flown in silence ever since we left Rising Star. It was pretty hard to talk with the wind whistling in your ears, so it was a pretty good excuse. But now we weren't flying anymore. And as Annabeth and Grover dismounted I could practically feel their gazes boring a hole thought the back of my head.

For a long minute nobody said anything. My own thoughts zipping around in my head sounded way too loud. I had two options. I could either tell them what was going on, or I could play dumb. But this was Annabeth and Grover. I guessed they were pretty much my two best friends ever. They deserved to know, right? And if they thought it was gross, then… Well, I didn't know what I would do.

I turned around, not quite looking at either of them. "Look, I –"

"I've already figured it out," Annabeth said, cutting me off. I stared at her, my mouth still open. She just kept going. "I'm not dumb, Percy. And neither is Grover, you know."

Grover just shuffled his fake feet a bit, glancing at me from underneath his shaggy brown bangs. "We have that empathic link," he finally said. "I mean, it's not like I can spy on you or anything. You know that. But the first time I felt something weird, I…" His cheeks turned kind of red. "Well, then Annabeth mentioned it to me. You could've just told us."

I just stood there with my mouth hanging open. I was probably going to start catching flies. Or mosquitoes.

"Stop acting like it was sooooo secret!" Annabeth huffed, pushing past me to sit down on a nearby rock. The sun was just starting to set and everything around us was tinted with orange, including her hair. It looked a little like flames, framing her face. "You should've told us!"

I finally managed to get my mouth closed. Annabeth was glaring at me now, and Grover just looked uncomfortable. I was pretty sure they expected an apology, because that was pretty much what I wanted to give them. "I'm sorry," I said, glancing at each of them in turn. "I just… I didn't know how you'd, you know, take it, exactly."

"Well you could've given us the benefit of the doubt!" Annabeth said, crossing her arms. "Instead of making me figure it out on my own!"

I wasn't exactly sure how that meant she was taking it, but I didn't know if she wanted to talk anymore. Grover didn't look mad, at least. Just a little embarrassed. I turned to him instead. "Look, man. I didn't really get the chance to talk to you anyway, so…"

He shrugged, glancing down at the grass beneath his sneakers. "Don't worry about it. I guess I didn't really get the chance to tell you about Juniper ahead of time either, right? So we're even." He offered me a small grin, but tilted his head in the direction of Annabeth.

I guessed that meant resolving things now. I turned back to her. "Look. Annabeth. I really was going to tell you." That was pretty much the best I could offer her. "And – look, we've got worse things to worry about right now. I don't even know if he's going to be all r–"

Suddenly the tugging feeling was back. It was like when the Oracle had died, only probably a million times worse. I felt like someone had just sunk a hook into my stomach and pulled it out through my belly button.

The next thing I knew, I was lying on the ground. Annabeth and Grover were both leaning over me. They looked worried. I blinked, groaning, and tried to move my arms and legs. They felt like stone. I felt like I was going to throw up. But that was nothing compared to what I felt like on the inside.

"Percy!" Annabeth reached down, taking hold of my arm. "Percy you – ah!" She pulled her hand away, staring at it. Then she looked at my arm. "Percy, you're cold as ice. What happened? Are you okay?"

"You just went white and fell over," Grover said, his brow furrowed and his hat askew. "You didn't even make any noise."

Most of what they were saying registered, but it didn't matter. None of it mattered. I guess my face must have been blank, or they'd expected a response or something. Annabeth reached out again and shook me. "Percy! Percy, can you hear me?"

"Nico," I managed to croak, staring at my friends with wide eyes. "It's Nico – he's dead."

Annabeth frowned. "What? You can't know that, Percy." But she looked even more worried as she and Grover helped me to sit up.

I shook my head. She didn't understand. "But I do. I know." I knew that as certainly as I knew my own name.

And I didn't know what to do about it. Or how I felt about it, except for empty. I felt horribly empty. I mean, he'd been my friend for at least a year and a half now. And I guess we hadn't been, well, doing whatever we'd been doing for very long, but it had started to feel so right that I'd kind of started to take it for granted. Just because you know something can't last forever doesn't mean you don't start to convince yourself otherwise. I mean, especially when you're fifteen.

What were you supposed to do when someone like that died? I felt sick to my stomach again. I wanted this feeling to be wrong. I didn't want to know with such certainty that Nico was dead. But I did know, and I wanted to lie down and go to sleep and never wake up. I wanted to cry or scream or something. Anything.

"He looks kind of sick," Grover whispered to Annabeth.

"I feel sick," I said loudly. Grover jumped, like he hadn't thought I would be able to hear him. I swallowed, trying to tell my stomach to calm down. Throwing up wasn't going to help anything right now.

After a minute, Annabeth spoke. "Percy," she asked quietly, "how do you know Nico's dead?"

"I felt it," I tried to explain. "It was like… I just knew. I don't know. I wish I was wrong." I swallowed. There was a lump in my throat that made it hard to talk. "But I just know I'm not."

She frowned, then turned to Grover. "Can you ask the pegasi if they're rested enough yet?" she asked.

"I can do it," I croaked, trying to push myself to my feet. It was harder than I thought it would be. It was like my body really did just want to lie down and sleep. It would be so easy to do just that…

But I couldn't. I had to know what had happened. I had to see with my own eyes, to confirm that this feeling was right. And then I would decide what to do after that. Maybe it was wrong. Maybe I really was crazy and Nico was just fine. But the only way to know anything was to get back to camp.

Blackjack and the others had wanted to rest for longer, but he took one look at me and immediately shifted his weight to make it easier for me to mount. He glanced worriedly back at me once I was mounted, but all he said was, We'll get you back as fast as we can, boss. And then he leaped into the air, with Annabeth and Grover right behind us.

I honestly don't remember the rest of the ride back. All I knew was that the pegasi got us back in only three-quarters of the time it had taken to get us to the Oracle.

As soon as we circled the camp from the air I knew something was wrong. The field around the Big House was in ruins. The grass was scorched and the ground looked like it had been dug up and thrown around by an angry giant with a shovel. Near the Big House, in a line near the front door, there was a jagged, broken wall of black rock that hadn't been before. Part of the ground near the rock wall was sunken, and the hole had filled with muddy water. I heard Annabeth gasp, "What happened?" as we neared for a landing, but I didn't have any kind of answer for her.

I practically fell off of Blackjack as he hit the ground, prancing in the dirt. I stumbled once but kept running, heading for the door of the Big House. Nico. I had to find Nico. I knew there was no way the feeling in my stomach could be wrong, but until I saw with my own eyes, I still had this wild hope that maybe it was. I scrambled over the rocks, sliding down the face of them and just barely landing on my feet.

Before I could get to the door, it opened to reveal Chiron. His face was dark and drawn. My heart felt like it had stopped, then started again, and I almost staggered as I ran the last few yards to the porch. I opened my mouth to ask about Nico but he spoke before I could get a word out.

"Percy," he began. His voice was calm, but I could tell it was a fake calm. Annabeth and Grover pounded up behind me, having gone the long way around the rocks. Chiron looked from me to Annabeth to Grover. I opened my mouth to ask again, but this time Annabeth beat me to it.

"What happened here?" Annabeth asked, a little out of breath. "It looks like there's been an earthquake!"

"Come inside," he said, stepping back into the house. I wanted to ask him about Nico now, but Annabeth and Grover glanced at me and before I knew it they'd swept me inside. We went to the same room we'd been in before, where Chiron had first given us our quest.

I couldn't be quiet any longer. As soon as the door was closed I burst out, "Where's Nico?" Chiron looked at me again, and the look on his face told me everything I needed to know. "He's dead," I heard myself say, my voice sounding hollow even to me. "He really is dead."

I'd known he was dead before. I'd known it for a day, but somehow it still hadn't seemed completely real until just now. I felt myself stagger, and Chiron took my shoulder in his strong grip and led me over to one of the couches. I sat down. Annabeth and Grover were looking worried again.

"It was Kronos' doing. He sent assassins. We didn't realize they were after Nico specifically until it was too late," Chiron said, his hand still on my shoulder.

"What – what happened to him? Where's his body? I want to see him." My throat felt like it was closing up and my eyes stung, but I was not going to cry. Not in front of Chiron and Annabeth and Grover.

"We've already disposed of his body," Chiron said quietly. "It seemed the best course of action. I'm sorry," he said, speaking to all three of us.

I tried to picture what Nico's funeral pyre must have looked like, but it just seemed all wrong, burning his body like it wasn't important anymore.

"What about the Oracle?" Chiron asked, using my silence to ask about our quest. "You're back much sooner than I expected.

"She's dead," Annabeth said quietly. "We were ambushed by two dracaenae and a half-blood. She had a bow – she shot the Oracle. We tried – " She stopped, biting her lip, like she still felt guilty for what had happened. We all did.

Chiron nodded gravely. "I'm glad you three are safe, at least. And we know that she cannot turn on us." It was pretty small consolation, I thought.

"She wouldn't have, anyway," I said quietly. "I know she wouldn't have."

"And then Percy – he said – " Annabeth went on, glancing at me again, "He said that we needed to get back here because Nico was in danger."

"He said he knew Nico was dead," Grover said.

That got Chiron's attention. "You knew he was dead?" I nodded dumbly. He sighed. "Then perhaps things aren't as disconnected as I first thought." I frowned. I didn't know what he meant by that at all. How was anything connected? And where were we supposed to go from here?

"Percy," Chiron finally said after a moment, "I have some questions for you. About Nico, and the night you felt him die."

To my right, Annabeth coughed a little and Chiron looked at her. "He… he already told us a little," she said quietly, glancing at me like she was afraid I wouldn't want her to tell my secret for me. But I didn't care. It wasn't like it really mattered anymore. When I didn't say anything, she went on. "Percy and Nico were… well. You know. Seeing each other."

It had been a lot more than just "seeing each other", but it wasn't like that mattered now. We could never do it again, I thought miserably.

Chiron sighed. "That does make a certain amount of sense. Nico managed to divert nearly half the lake during the battle. There wasn't much other explanation."

"But there's no way he could do that!" Grover protested, shuffling nervously as he wrung his hat in distress. "Percy's the only one who can use water like that."

"Nico made the wall of rock, didn't he?" Annabeth asked. She was obviously trying to make some sense of the situation. And we'd seen him do something like that before, on Mount Othrys.

"Oh, the rock is his doing, too," Chiron said wryly, but he was still looking at me. "The rock and the sunken ground, I'd expected. But not the lake."

I stared at him, feeling like I was supposed to answer some sort of question that he hadn't even asked. I didn't know what he expected me to say. I didn't know how Nico could have possibly done that.

But suddenly I realized that wasn't the only trick of mine he'd picked up. This kind of thing had happened before. The day we left for camp, he hadn't gotten wet in the shower. That was something I could do, too. I'd been planning to talk to him about it, but we'd never gotten the chance. And now we never would. But the question was still, how?

"Percy, there are very few ways for half-bloods to acquire powers not their own," Chiron finally said, breaking me out of my thoughts. "Usually it involves the exchange of blood. I need to know, did you two exchange blood somehow?"

I shook my head, frowning. "No."

Chiron's brow furrowed. I thought again about what he'd said – there were "very few" ways. That meant more than one. Were the others even weirder than blood? We hadn't done anything that weird.

"… Percy," Annabeth suddenly spoke up. Her voice sounded strange. "You guys didn't… you know." She paled. "Did you?"

She hadn't said it, but I knew what she meant anyway. "Uh." I could feel my face start to turn red. I mean, having sex with another guy wasn't exactly something I'd have put on the top of my list of things I wanted to talk to Annabeth about. Actually, I wouldn't have put it on the bottom, either. It wouldn't have made the list at all. Especially not when you added in the fact that not only was Annabeth in the room, but Chiron and Grover too, and now all three of them were looking at me. And I didn't see why that was important, exactly. There hadn't been any blood.

She apparently took that as a yes. "Think about it," she said, glancing from me to Chiron and back again. "You haven't shared blood, but…" Annabeth's face was still pale. "You have shared," she swallowed, "something, right? Something more basic than blood. I guess you could call it the essence of life itself."

I frowned. Well, when she put it like that…

"That's what the Oracle said," Grover put in. "Something 'baser than blood', right?"

"Right," Annabeth said. "And something about being prepared."

"She gave you a prophecy?" Chiron interrupted, his face suddenly much more concerned, if that could happen.

"She gave Percy one, anyway," Grover said, picking up a doily that was sitting on one of the tables and taking a bite out of it. "We didn't understand most of it. Something about Hades, and the gods being angry."

"'The gods are not lightly defied'," Annabeth quoted, looking distinctly more worried. "Percy, you said that Hades did something, didn't you?"

Chiron moved so that his whole figure was pretty much all I could see. Then he bent down so that his face was right in front of mine. He looked very serious – more serious than I remembered seeing him look in a very long time. "Percy," he said quietly, "I think you'd better start at the beginning."