Chapter 23

New Orleans

Nico di Angelo

The flight we had was delayed to 11:30, so we sat in the uncomfortable chairs outside the boarding hall.

"I'm going to text my dad and tell him that I'm coming home, and that the quest worked out." She told me.

"Okay. Don't want him to worry," I said.

She scrolled down to her dad in her messages, and typed: Hi, we finished our quest and we're getting the staff back to Hades. Everyone is okay, all alive with limbs attached. I'm coming home, we're about to get on the flight now. Wish you were here. Love, Snow. 💗

"I've got to ask something." I said.

"Go ahead."

"What happened to your brother?"

She took a deep breath. "Is this about that dream you had or what Prometheus said?"

"Kind of both."

She breathed heavily. I was worried she was having a panic attack, but she stopped once she was calm. "Back in the 1620s we were living in Paris. We were one of the elite families, and my Mother was the ultimate socialite. Parties, in and out for days. She kept trying to fix me up with one of her friends sons, who was 23, but I was in love with a criminal."

"I see you have a type."

"Don't make me laugh, Nico. Anyway, being the smart person he always was Albus found out. He wasn't going to tell on me, who knows what my parents would have done. He decided to go and kill him."

"What did you do?"

"Nothing. I didn't know. He confronted me when he discovered the truth, and he said that I should do what my heart told me, and if I was in love he couldn't stop me, and he would respect that. He said if...the criminal laid a finger on me, he would get rid of him."

"And...did he?

"No! He wouldn't have tried to hurt me. But Albus lied, and he started looking around, trying to find him, with a pistol in hand. He found him, and shot him in the chest. That should have been the end of it. But his ghost started haunting him in his dreams, tormenting him about everything he feared. Later he appeared to him in real life, and did the same. Eventually...he went mad. Started seeing ghosts...everywhere, belittling him."

"He tried to burn down several churches because a dead little girl told him to. We had to institutionalize him. But the problem was, they noticed he wasn't aging. We had to move him around a lot, when he got to the point he would have been 50 if he had aged properly. When you get over 50, you get a few wrinkles and usually back problems, no matter the circumstance. We realized that we could just cloud the minds of the mortals working at the asylum into thinking that was the norm, and have them forget the fact when it came to the other patients."

"Despite the treatment, he didn't get better," There were tears in her eyes. This was the second time I'd seen her cry. "His state of mind didn't improve, and he was never the same as he was again. You don't know...the pain I went through, the pain I'm still going through..." She sobbed and I held her in my arms.

I stroked her hair. "Do you think Mr. D could help?"

"No," she said, her voice muffled. "He's good with the madness of mortals, immortals don't go mad often."

"Oh."

She got up. "I'm sorry. I'm being a burden. We're here to return the staff. I shouldn't make you feel bad just for my sake."

"No! You're not a burden! You could never be a burden to me! I WANT to make you feel better because I love you. I want to make this right. Do you think I could help with the ghosts?"

"Maybe. I'm not sure exactly how that works. They may not even be real."

"Well, I'll try. Let me hold you again."

"Okay." She did and we sat like that for a while, and I breathed in her scent, like vanilla and black cherries. Then our flight got called.

We boarded the plane, and sat at the back. We ordered lunch, since it was a long flight. Snow seemed to cheer up on the plane. She likes air travel. She looked out the window, at the clouds blooming below us. We were so high up we couldn't see the snowflakes falling.

"Hey, guess what happened with Will and Topaz?"

"What?" I asked, curious.

"They broke up."

"What? Why?"

"Topaz said he said some mean things when he was upset, and she dumped him. I wonder what he could have said. Topaz has pretty thick skin. Comes from her abundance of pride."

"And you don't have an abundance of pride?"

"I didn't say that. Runs in my family."

I chuckled. "I don't know who's side to take. I mean, I like Topaz. She's super badass, and she's your twin. But Will is like my best friend."

"Just stay neutral. That's what I'm doing. They'll probably get back together, and you don't want to say anything against them while they're mad at them, because when they get over it they'll know how you truly feel, and they'll see you in a different light."

"Wise words."

"Thanks. That gets hard to uphold with all the clicky girls at my school."

"You have clicks?"

"Well, yeah. It's a private school full of rich kids."

"What click are you in?"

"The popular group, I guess. All the richest families have always hung out together. We've been family friends since New Orleans was founded. Topaz talks to all the troublemakers of the school."

"Naturally."

She laughed. "They're actually pretty cool, I talk to them to, sometimes. Topaz comes over to my friends, and she likes them, but she wants to break rules. She keeps her friends from getting punished for their evil doings because the elite families kind of get special treatment."

"What do you mean?"

"We can do anything we want during class, skip school, wander around the building, eat lunch whenever we want, harass the teachers and they can't say anything back."

"Wow. That's cool. Your school sounds fun."

"It is." She paused for a moment, thinking. "You know, you never finished school. You should start coming to mine. You could meet my friends and the rest of my family."

"That's true. I went to a few schools before Westover Hall, but they were always just for a few months before we moved. The longest time I spent at a school was the military one, but there were FAR too many rules. A rich kids school with no rules...that's tempting."

"I'll ask my dad if it's okay. If he says yes, we'll be able to spend more time together."

"That would be great." She said.

A flight attendant came to our seat and gave us our hamburgers. Snow thanked her and she left.

"You're 16, and your birthday was in October, so you'd be a junior like me."

"That's good. We'd have classes together."

"I actually have all honors classes, but if you're up to it I can get you into those."

"Are they hard to take?"

"Hmmm, not really, but you're smart. I think you would do well."

"Well, thanks."

"When we're done in the Underworld, I want to show you around town. I know you've been there before, on business, but I want to show you all my favorite places."

"That sounds great. Any ex boyfriends I should beware of?"

"Just a few," She said, looking down.

"Hey, guess what?"

"What?"

"There's a ghost on the plane."

"Where?" She said, looking all around.

"He's floating above the window of the seat next to us."

The seat in question had a couple wearing Hawaiian shirts, khaki shorts, and sandals, probably returning from a honeymoon. The ghost was crushed around his stomach, and was floating, no, he was attached to the wall of the plane, and was solemnly strumming his guitar.

"Died in a car crash, I think. They reused the metal, and his soul was attached to it. So now he's stuck on the plane," I told her.

"Poor guy. He must be so bored."

"Yeah, sitting up here all day, but I've seen worse. I remember this one ghost-"

"We are beginning our decent. Please buckle your seat belts and stay calm. We are experiencing some turbulence."

Theplane spun around 3 times. Several women screamed, but Snow just sat there smiling. 'That's my girl' I thought.

"Sorry about that folks. If you look out your windows, you can see New Orleans. We will be landing in 5 minutes."

Snow got out a mirror and started checking her eyeliner. It looked good to me, but she seemed to think it was smeared and fixed it.

"Does that look better?"

"You always look beautiful, even with a microscopic eyeliner smudge."

She smiled. "Thanks, Angel Boy."

"You have never called me that before."

"I know, I just came up with it."

"Well, I guess it's better than Death Boy."

"People at camp are just jealous because they're not as awesome as you."

"So true. All they can do is shoot arrows and make vines grow. I summon armies. Top that Percy."

"Yeah, all Percy can do is control water. You are so much more amazing."

"Totally."

"We are now landing in New Orleans. Pleas exit your seats in an orderly fashion, and walk in a single file line down the aisle. Enjoy your stay in New Orleans!"