I got called 'cute' again today at school! By a teacher's helper, no less.

I was skipping down the hall (yes, skipping. skipping is fun.) while my friend Lauren walked beside me and tried not to laugh. I was already laughing, and I pushed her into the lockers as I skipped, and then the teacher's helper came out of a room next to us at that exact same moment and said,

"Awwwwww! That must have been the cutest thing I've ever seen! You're so cute!"

I stopped skipping. She went back into the room.

Lauren had to hold me back from following her and explaining, in my way,

that I am most certainly not 'cute.' I am EPICLY AWESOME.

I am most certainly NOT 'cute.'

Chapter XVII

Nico

Nico would never admit it to anyone, but the message from Hazel really freaks him out. He wonders whether it could be some kind of trick, or a trap. But he doesn't think so. He just has a feeling about it.

If the message really was from Hazel, though, that could be bad. She shouldn't have been able to do something like that. Even if she is a daughter of one of the Big Three.

Nico pushes all thoughts of Hazel to the back of his mind. He needs to focus. Reyna has been captured, and probably Coach Hedge too. He wouldn't bet on the Athena Parthenos still being on the beach, either. They've most likely been captured by a very large number of monsters, otherwise they would have been able to fight them off. They're probably being held in those monsters' camp. So, to put it simply, all Nico has to do is sneak into a camp filled with monsters, rescue Reyna and Coach Hedge, get them to the Athena Parthenos, and then shadow-travel everyone out of there when all he wants to do is curl up and sleep for a week.

Nico sighs. He has his work cut out for him.

A rustling in the trees to his left startles him, and he has his sword drawn and raised before he even thinks about it. But it's only a bird.

Oh, yeah, Nico thinks. I also have to avoid getting myself captured. Add that to the list of impossibilities.

The more he thinks about the task ahead of him, the more he starts to believe the whole thing is impossible. So he decides not to think about it. He concentrates on finding the monsters' camp instead.

That, already, is a pretty hopeless endeavor, but Nico tries anyway. He figures that if he walks long enough, he's sure to get somewhere.

As he walks, a depressing little voice in the back of his head continues to try its hardest to make him give up.

You'll never find them. It taunts.

Nico ignores it.

It's like trying to find a lucky penny in the river Styx. Impossible. It hisses at him.

Nico continues to ignore it.

You're going to get your friends killed. It'll be all your fault. Reyna was probably captured in the first place because she was protecting you. You're just like your father, Hades. Selfish. You don't care about anyone except yourself.

Shut UP. Nico thinks at it, imagining an imaginary gag for the imaginary voice in the back of his head.

Surprisingly, it works. The voice stops talking.

But the damage is already done. Nico starts wondering if what the voice said was true. Is he going to get his friends killed? Was it really his fault that Reyna was kidnapped? Is he selfish?

But, no. He tells himself. Hades wasn't always selfish. He did leave the Underworld to help hold back Kronos' army. And he had loved Nico's mother. So Hades couldn't be all bad. And Nico is very different from his father. He helped fight the Battle of the Labrynth. He helped defeat Kronos' army, after convincing Hades to fight. He got everyone to the Doors of Death in time to save Percy and Annabeth, although not all the credit for that one could go to Nico.

Nico has made mistakes. He knows that. But he isn't a bad person. He will get the Athena Parthenos to camp on time, and he will rescue Reyna and Coach Hedge.

Suddenly, Nico hears voices up ahead. He freezes, straining his ears in order to hear what they're saying.

"Come, my dear, I tire of this stubbornness of yours. Can't you see you're on the losing side? Gaea will rise, and unless you join her, you will die." A cruel, rough male voice says. An unmistakeably female voice says something that Nico can't quite make out.

"Oh, enough of that. Stop being so ridiculous." The man says. He waits, but the girl doesn't respond. The man sighs. "Oh well. I suppose I'll leave you alone for now. Just remember, things will be so much easier for you if you agree now. After all, you'll agree eventually."

"Like hell I will." Nico's heart starts to race. He knows that voice.

"Oh, but you will, my dear."

"Stop calling me that! I am not your 'dear.' I'm not your anything. Now leave me alone, you lieing, stinking, pig. You're nothing but a tick-infested bastard, you stupid, ugly, son of a-" By Reyna's muffled sound of outrage, Nico guesses that the man has covered her mouth with his hand.

"You're only making things worse for yourself, my dear." He tells her. Nico starts creeping forward, moving closer to them to try and get a look at Reyna's kidnapper.

When Nico finally spots him through the trees, the man's back is turned. Nico can see that he's pretty strong, but that's pretty much it.

Then the man gives a howl of pain and outrage, and yanks his hand away from Reyna's mouth, cradling it with his other hand while he stumbles backwards and to the side, which gives Nico a clear view of the man's face. When he sees it, he nearly gags.

The man's dark brown hair and beard are greasy, and the skin of his face is covered with pockmarks. His nose looks like it's been smashed into his face, and his teeth are brown and crooked. His bulbous, beady, yellow-brown eyes are sunken into his head, but somehow still manage to bug out. Boils have erupted all over his face, and the skin not covered with boils or pockmarks is the color and texture of rancid meat.

Despite all that, though, the man's face is cruel and evil, and not necessarily all that stupid.

The man glares at Reyna.

"You'll pay for that." He spits.

"I doubt it." Reyna answers mildly. The man's nostrils flare in anger, and he turns and storms out of the clearing. Fortunately, he heads in the direction opposite Nico.

Nico waits for a few minutes to make sure the man doesn't come back, then steps into the clearing, towards Reyna. The look of relief on her face is so obvious that Nico can't help but smile, surprising himself. But Reyna covers it up quickly, building her expression into one of irritation.

"What in Tartarus took you so long?" She asks.

"Nice to see you too, Reyna. Miss me?" Nico answers, his smile not diminished in the least. "So, who was that?"

"Sinis. He's a nasty piece of work." She says.

"You know you just insulted pigs everywhere, right?" Nico tells her, studying the ropes that bind her to the tree.

"Yeah, and I'm never going to be able to wash this taste out of my mouth." She says, wrinkling her nose in disgust. Nico laughs. Reyna looks at him in surprise, but then she starts laughing too.

With a jolt, Nico realizes he's never really heard her laugh before. Not like this, anyway. She has a loud, deep laugh, unlike the girly, high-pitched laughs Nico is used to hearing from girls, and he instantly decides he likes it.

When they've both finished, Nico slices through Reyna's bindings with one stroke of his sword, and she stands, rubbing her wrists. He notices that her sword is gone, and wonders where Sinis might have put it.

"Do you know where Coach Hedge and the Athena Parthenos are?" Nico asks.

Reyna jerks her chin in the direction that Sinis went. "Both of them are in the camp. Right in the middle."

"So we'll have to sneak in then?"

"Yeah. The good news is, Gleeson is right next to the statue. The bad news is the fact that we're going to have to go through hundreds, maybe even thousands, of enemy monsters to get to them."

Nico looks ahead, but sees nothing but pine trees and shadows. "Sounds like fun."

"Definitely."

"We'll probably have to fight." Nico informs her.

"Good. On one condition." Reyna says.

More than a little wary, Nico asks, "What?"

"I get to kill Sinis." Nico looks into Reyna's eyes. They're dead serious, filled with anger and a steely determination that reminds Nico of Annabeth.

He grins broadly. "You've got a deal."