Morris
"London." Morris found her voice, but it caught in her throat. "You brought me to London."
"Yeah. There's a museum exhibit I want to see." Morris smiled at the total lack of awareness in Nico's words. He really had no idea how cool it was to shadow-travel to London for the afternoon.
"Have you ever been here before?" Growing up on the Irish coast, Morris had always wanted to visit the big local cities—Dublin, Belfast, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and London—but life had gotten in the way. Until she met Nico, the most exciting travels she had experienced had been in the sea. Thinking back, she had probably been to a lot of countries without realizing it because she had rarely wanted to leave the water. Nico had a lot to answer for.
"Once or twice. Demigod travels." Nico smiled briefly.
The exhibit turned out to be in the British Museum, which was one of the most awe-inspiring buildings Morris had ever seen. It was a mixture of vast stone columns and modern glass, which seemed fitting for a building that housed such old objects. The exhibition itself was about Egyptian mummies. Reading about Ancient Egyptian beliefs made Morris queasy. She had just started to wrap her head around the pantheon of gods who she was related to… if the Egyptian gods were real as well, she was going to demand to speak to the manager of the universe.
Morris had never pegged Nico as an academic type (she had never seen him sit still for long), but he was absorbed in each artefact. "I like seeing old civilizational stuff," he said with a shrug when Morris asked him about it. "It kind of confirms that I haven't totally invented my family tree... or my life."
They spent the evening meandering around central London, trying to remember the names of landmarks and look normal. Hazel had learnt a little trick with the Mist where she could cover people in a layer of magic, ensuring extra invisibility from mortal—and hopefully monster—senses. Both Morris and Nico were fully expecting a fight at some point (they had seen a group of trolls under a bridge in Camden and harpies nesting at the top of the Shard), but until then, Morris was personally okay with taking time to see the sights, even if it was the end of October and getting cold out.
It wasn't until dinner that things went wrong.
Morris was leaning on a stone wall overlooking the River Thames, wondering how disgusting it would be to swim in. They bought chips from a vendor and wandered the riverside, taking in the sight of the city at night. Lights were flickering everywhere and traffic was humming as commuters headed home for the evening and students headed out for it. Far above them Tower Bridge glowed like an enormous Christmas decoration, while the Eye was lit up in neon like a giant punk hamster wheel. Suddenly, Nico stiffened beside her, dropping the chip carton against the wall. He caught Morris' eye and moved his eyebrows in a way she had come to understand meant "danger." Morris wasn't immediately sure where the threat was coming from. Then she noticed the pigeons.
London was full of them and she hadn't taken much notice all day except to laugh when a toddler ran through a flock and was promptly admonished by his mother. As darkness fell most of them went to roost on buildings that hadn't been bird-proofed by spikes or wire. Some pigeons had chosen to sit on a string of lights that hung from streetlamps, directly above Nico and Morris. A light bulb flickered and shorted out, which wasn't unusual. What was unusual was that the pigeon sitting on top of the bulb was briefly lit up like a cartoon getting electrocuted. Morris could see every bone and feather for a split second before the power tripped out. Instead of pitching off its perch like a normal pigeon, this one stayed right where it was and made a metallic cooing sound.
Stymphalian birds.
Almost imperceptibly Morris put her hand on Nico's wrist. She leaned into his shoulder, looking for all the world like a girl about to kiss her boyfriend. "When I say jump, jump," she murmured. Placing an arm around his shoulder, she gradually climbed up onto the stone wall, praying Hazel's mist was working. She pulled Nico up with her and planted both hands firmly round his waist. There was no way she was taking chances this time. Now that they were close to the Stymphalian birds, she could see that they were entirely metallic, with bronze beaks and glowing eyes. One rustled its feathers and Morris guessed they had two seconds or less before they were dive-bombed. Taking a deep breath, Morris summoned the Thames up its banks, pulling it into a deep whirlpool directly beneath the wall.
The Stymphalian birds took flight.
"Jump."
Not gonna lie, that right there was why I wanted to split this into little bits. CLIFFHANGERS!
Except I'm going to post the next bit right away.
(Thank you Cerulaen.)