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Morris

Nico was an oddball, but Morris liked him. His sword fighting was wicked cool, not that Morris would let him know that, but Morris was intrigued by Nico's personality as well. There was more to him than met the eye and Morris decided he wanted to find out what – which was why he agreed to shadow-travel around Europe to train and fight monsters instead of staying with Anne-Marie.

He would miss home, but he got the impression Nico wasn't comfortable and besides, Morris didn't like to spend too much time in the cottage these days. Not since Erin had died too. Ana had been hard enough, but losing his other sister was almost too much to deal with. Anne-Marie needed space to grieve and deal with her own demons – maybe travelling with Nico would help Morris exorcise his.

Two weeks into the trip and Morris had realised he wasn't the only one with skeletons in his closet. Nico's skeletons were actual skeletons – bones broke the surface of the ground during his nightmares. Every few days, while Morris kept watch and Nico slept, Nico would sleep talk, lost in dreams. Sometimes he mumbled about his sister, Bianca, or about being trapped – in a jar, in Tartarus, in a hotel. Morris wasn't sure what was true and he wasn't brave enough to ask, but there was one other thing Nico's terrors had shown, something Morris had more than enough experience with.

"So you're gay."

Nico sat so far back against the wall that he almost disappeared – Morris wouldn't have been surprised if he had started to shadow-travel in his anxiety. It was the end of another training day and they were in an underground lake in the UK, combining hotspots for both their powers so they could practice together. Unless Nico killed Morris, which was a distinct possibility going by his expression.

"I guess." His voice was clipped and his tone sharp.

"Well, you don't have to be gay or straight," Morris pointed out. "You could be neither."

"What's that even supposed to mean?" Hmm. Obviously the concept of bisexuality hadn't existed in the 1940s.

"Well, I had a friend who sometimes liked girls and sometimes liked guys and he got to the point where he stopped trying to analyse who he liked and why. He just enjoyed it."

Nico snorted. "That must be nice."

"What, finding lots of people attractive or enjoying finding lots of people attractive?"

"Both."

"How many people back home know?"

"One or two."

Nico seemed as haunted as Anne-Marie did when she dwelled on Ana and Erin's deaths. He had picked up a suntan from training outside, but his olive skin had turned chalky white when Morris had started talking. Morris decided he had gone as far as he dared… his Stygian trident was pretty cool, but the Hades kid really knew how to work the metal and Nico's sword arm was twitching.

"One or two… and you."

His tone was more contemplative than accusatory and Morris looked up, surprised. But Nico's eyes were glazed over, staring through the cavern wall at demons only he could see.

"Why did you never go to Camp Half-Blood?"

They were deep in Lechuguilla Caves in New Mexico, sitting with their backs against the damp wall, sharing a soda. They had travelled to America because Nico wanted to see his friends, which was fine with Morris. She wanted to meet more demigods. As usual, they had spent the day pushing each other's magical limits; Morris had levitated almost an entire lake into a wall of water, through which Nico had summoned a legion of the dead. They had to be careful not to upset the natural order of the cave too badly, partly because it would alert locals to their presence and partly because they didn't want the entire cave system to collapse. Weeks into their 'training', Nico's curiosity was clearly starting to win out over his deep distrust of all living things.

Morris smiled slightly and adjusted her bandana. She had stuck to female form lately, because she sensed that Nico was more comfortable fighting in close proximity alongside a girl than a guy. Poor kid. As long as she switched back before PMS kicked in, she was good in either form. "I don't think there is one in Europe – or if there is I was never told about it."

"Would you have liked to have gone?"

Morris considered the question for a moment, thinking back to her childhood, to Ana and Erin. Would she have chosen to grow up around all that violence? Would a camp have been any better? She had heard stories about the Battle of Manhattan and the Battle of Mount Tam.

"I don't know. Truthfully… I'm not sure I'd be welcome. I have such a lot of godly blood, of old godly blood… they might not want me. I'm too powerful, when I was a child I was a liability." In the half light, Morris could see Nico's eyebrows spike into his hair. He did that a lot when she talked about her powers. "What?"

"Camp Half-Blood could have taken you. They could handle the most powerful demigods… they have." Morris felt a surge of irritation.

"What, am I not powerful enough for your camp? I just raised a wall of water out of rocks." Nico raised his hands in a defensive gesture.

"No, no, of course you're powerful. I didn't mean that. You're just not the most powerful demigod I've met."

"Oh really?" Before she knew what she was doing, Morris had stood up. The lake rippled as anger washed over her and she wondered how well Nico could swim. "Want to put that to the test, zombie boy? Bring out the most powerful demigod you've met and put them in a fight with me. We'll see who's summoning rivers then." Nico was standing too, hands still up. It was hard to tell in the gloom, but Morris got the feeling that he hadn't meant to pick a fight. He really did know someone more powerful than she was. But now she was too angry to care. All her frustrations, all her nerves, all the crap that had been festering inside her since Erin's death bubbled to the surface. "Which minor godling does this kid belong to?"

"Poseidon."

Oh. Morris opened her mouth to apologise, but now Nico was angry too.

"He can raise hurricanes and sink ships. He has walked through Tartarus and survived. He was one of the Seven who defeated Gaia and he could take you down in an instant." His voice was cold and hard, and before Morris could catch her breath he had turned into the wall and disappeared.

Great. Now how was she supposed to get home?

After she had whipped the lake into a whirlpool long enough that her anger subsided, Morris was exhausted and also a little worried. She could control the lake easily but underground was Hades' domain. Her maternal grandfather, Arawn, might have been the Celtic god of the Underworld, but Morris was pretty sure he had never been worshipped in New Mexico, and she had no idea if he was on good terms with Hades. Her mythological knowledge was pretty limited, especially for someone with such "old blood"… Anne-Marie had never been hugely into explaining the family tree. Morris had always assumed it was because the more she and her sisters knew of their heritage, the more monsters they could attract. Now, trapped in an underground lake with no backup and only one weapon, Morris wondered if Anne-Marie had simply been scared of her inheritance as a demigod.

A rumble above the cave jerked her out of her reverie. It could have been mortals, but if it was a monster she couldn't even shadow-travel to the surface. She had drawn her trident and taken a deep breath when she heard a rustle directly behind her. She whipped around and almost stuck her trident up Nico's nose. Before she could open her mouth to apologise, he had pulled her into the shadows.

Nico

Nico felt bad for Morris. It was clear she regretted picking a fight. Now they were deep in the desert, somewhere in Mexico. It was beyond the realm of the gods so, hopefully, there were less monsters around. They decided to stay out under the stars, since it would be light soon, and they made camp pretty quickly.

"The son of Poseidon… he's the guy you like, isn't he?"

Morris' voice cut into Nico's thoughts like Clarisse's electric spear. No one had ever guessed about Percy. Well, there was no point lying outright.

"Yeah."

"How long have you known him?"

"Longer than I've known I'm a demigod… just about. We go back a long way."

"And he doesn't like you that way?" Despite everything, Nico snorted with laughter.

"Not likely. He only has eyes for one person - his girlfriend, Annabeth." Before Nico knew what he was doing, he had outlined his entire history as a demigod; living in the 1940s, Westover Hall, losing Bianca, the Labyrinth, Percy's trip to the Styx, the Battle of Manhattan, finding Hazel, Camp Jupiter, Tartarus, Rome, Salona, Epirus, the Athena Parthenos, everything.

When he had finished, Morris applauded softly. Her hair glinted in the starlight and her eyes were as piercing as a god's.

"I thought I had a strange history."

Nico smiled without warmth. "Every demigod does. You should hear Frank's, or Luke's."

"Who?"

Now Nico really did smile. "I thought you knew about the wars. Luke Castellan was a son of Hermes…"

They ended up sharing stories until dawn. Nico looked up at the sky as the first hints of pink and gold streaked across the horizon, thinking back to his trip in Apollo's chariot all that time ago. He glanced back to the stars and thought of Bob. Then he looked back to Morris, who was starting to break camp.

They were a weird couple of demigods, even without being 'a couple'. Gods knew what his friends would make of her.

It was time to find out.

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