It Feels Like Magic

He's back in familiar territory, the realm between sleep and death. This time though, he's weak. Normally being here regenerates him, but now … He grips the trunk of a black poplar with both hands and pulls himself to his feet, his knees threatening to give out. He rests a moment with his back against the tree, taking in the landscape. Everything is grey or black as usual, a web of shadows and mystery. The voices from his past, his suffering, cry for his attention, but he focuses instead on the mist slowly thickening around him. It's bluish, but still grey, and as it grows the realm appears to shrink, to alter. Some sort of magic at work. He closes his eyes a minute, trying to pull himself together enough to move.

I don't have the energy to deal with this shit. Why do things like this always happen to me? I'm like a weird magnet.

When he opens his eyes again, the mist has coalesced into a thick fog. He squints, barely able to see a couple of feet in front of himself.

Nico! Don't ever scare me like that again! Bianca had called after they'd been separated at the Mall in Washington D.C. Why would you do that? Will had asked, so full of disappointment, and then he'd chewed him out. Run, Nico! Get help! Percy had called, and he had closed his ears and shouted: No! Go away! and then, entirely creeped out as the skeleton warriors were swallowed by the Earth, Percy had said: How did you –" and Nico had run.

His past grows louder, surrounding him, the fog pushing him back into it until …

"Nico! Is that you?" Hazel's voice.

A path clears amidst the fog. He pushes himself off the tree and stumbles toward her, his heart hammering in his chest. He swipes the fog off himself and with it, his past, as if shedding a snakeskin. He flings his arms around Hazel half expecting her to disappear like an illusion, but when his arms wrap around her shoulders, her wild curls brushing his cheek, he buries his face in her shoulder and holds on tight, relieved as anything when she hugs him back.

"Do you know why we're here?" Hazel asks.

"No," he admits and releases her. "It's so good to see you, though." He feels his strength returning, not even trying to hide how glad he is to not be alone.

She smiles at him, and then looks to the side. Nico follows her gaze. The fog has retreated and the dreamscape changed. To the left, right, and directly before them are the entrances to three dark tunnels.

"Oh no. I know what this is," Hazel says, her hand going to her belt. Her cavalry sword is missing. Her eyes take on a dark and focused gleam.

Nico reaches for his sword, also coming up empty. "What is it?" he asks, keeping his voice low

"Hecate."

As if Hazel's voice acts an incantation, the goddess steps out from thin air, her long golden hair draped over one shoulder and her skin as white as death. Her solid black eyes fix on them and her lips, painted red, the only color on her face, turn up in a smirk.

"My young apprentice. You understand why you are here, of course." She blinks and turns her attention to Nico, frowning. "Unlike this young man, so saddled with the grudges of his past it's a wonder he's able to stand on his feet."

Nico grits his teeth. He knows better than to talk back to a goddess, but damn, that was a low blow.

"What do you have against Nico?" Hazel demands.

"It's alright," Nico says. He touches her arm, signalling for her to calm down.

Hecate doesn't appear to take offense to the question. She shrugs, and Nico blinks his eyes several times as she steps closer to them. With each step her body blurs into three figures, but comes back into focus when she stops a few feet in front of them.

"I might question his taste in company. That's all. Those, like us, who draw power from the shadows shrink under the sun. I would wonder why you would knowingly lower your potential for growth."

Nico swallows back his immediate retort that what he does with his life is none of her business, and recalls Lou Ellen is one of Hecate's daughters. Would she say the same thing if Lou Ellen had taken up with Will?

"Lou Ellen thinks Will is a worthy friend," he starts, and then can't seem to stop from saying the rest of the words that spring to his mind. "Apollo himself has said he admires you, finds you compelling, or whatever. But with Will, my powers actually grow stronger."

He bites his tongue when he's finally able to shut his mouth. Too late, he thinks, because Hecate steps directly before him, her eyes boring holes into his, pinning him in place.

"Apollo himself?"

Unable to move, Nico stands frozen while Hecate touches his forehead with an icy fingertip.

Nico's memory of Apollo from the quest for the Oracle flashes through his mind and he realizes Hecate is witnessing it with him.

Now, that's what I call a goddess. Talk about creative, and she's got that dark aura that just makes you want to get in there and find out what makes her tick.

When she lifts her finger and stands back again, Nico thinks her cheeks are slightly darker. She tilts her head as if she isn't really flattered. "I do suppose something can be said about opposites attracting, a certain magnetism." She sighs, and then a wicked gleam rises in her eyes, her lips twitching. "But after that stunt with Aphrodite's undergarments and that fluttering wind god … Apollo is going to have his hands full as it is." She waves her hands. "But, that is neither here nor there. To get back to business. Children of Hades …"

"And Pluto," Hazel interjects.

"Whatever. I am here on your father's behalf."

"What's happening to him? What sort of trouble is he in? I had a dream…" Nico starts, again his words tumbling out as if on their own until Hecate swipes her hand through the air and seals his lips like a zipper.

The goddess continues as if she wasn't interrupted and Nico scrabbles at his mouth with his fingers, making sure they haven't actually been replaced with a zipper. They haven't.

"You stand at the crossroads. There are three options before you and you must choose one before our visit ends.

"Why now?" Hazel asks and Nico nods at her in encouragement. "What is the purpose?"

Hecate exhales loudly, her eyes narrowing. Hazel's pushing her luck. Nico wonders if he should try to tell her to stop asking questions.

"Your father is conserving his strength and has asked me to stop up the leaks."

"The leaks?" Hazel repeats. "You mean Nico and I are drains on his power?"

Hecate shrugs as if to say, whatever, sure that works, and then gestures to the first tunnel entrance. Instantly, it fills with color, people moving about, laughing and drinking while tantalizing aromas and music fill the cavern.

Nico shakes his head violently, and grabs Hazel's wrist as she tries to take a closer look. She looks at him, annoyed, but her eyes clear when she sees how he's pleading with her.

"What's the second choice?" she asks, deliberately looking away from the first tunnel.

Hecate gestures to the middle entrance and a room appears with two beds in it. A dark tree branch trickles opaque water into a basin on a nightstand between the beds, just like the Hypnos cabin at Camp Half-Blood. "Eternal sleep. You simply go to bed and live out your lives in everlasting slumber. It isn't a bad choice at all. And, should your father choose to wake you, he'll be able to."

Nico grips Hazel's wrist tighter and shakes his head.

"I know," she says with a shudder. "We'll pass. What is our next option?"

Hecate raises her eyebrows, almost as pale as her skin. "The only other option is to go back the way you came, but you must return without your Underworld powers. Hades would prefer that you not choose this path because he cannot protect you, but it is your choice, of course."

Nico thinks Hecate sounds as if she's unimpressed with what Hades has instructed her to tell them. Like she's suggesting Hades is going soft.

Hazel shakes her head. "But this isn't right. There should be another choice. The third tunnel…" She points at the tunnel entrance to their right. "You didn't reveal it."

"I know. I meant to gloss over it out of … um … consideration. Unfortunately it is no longer an option for you. As Hades is a fugitive of Olympus, Zeus will not allow him to make you his immortal lieutenants."

Nico stamps his foot and Hecate waves her hand at him, yawning. His mouth unzips. He works his jaw a few times to make sure he has control over it once more and swallows the bitter taste of being forced to make such a choice. "I want to talk to my father. I want to help him."

"So do I," Hazel adds immediately.

Hecate flares her nostrils and smoke comes out of them. "I have already told you that choice is closed."

"I'm willing to do it without immortality."

"Yes, we should be allowed to help as demigods," Hazel finishes.

Hecate's voice grows low and dangerous, like she's talking in a second voice deep down in her chest, her true voice, not quite revealed. The cavern shudders and rains dusts as she speaks. "If you will not choose one of the options open to you, I will choose for you. And my choice will be to send you to the Lotus Casino. Make your decision by the count of three. One … Two … Thr–"

"We'll go back," they answer together.

Hecate's lips stretch into a grin too large for her face and Nico's hand is ripped from Hazel's wrist as they rise off the ground. "Iris message me," Hazel calls, her voice growing faint as they're hurled from the dream realm and back to their waking bodies.