Will didn't sleep. The things Nico had opened up about earlier were hard to hear, hard to think about. Who was the person sleeping on the veranda? The person he thought he knew so dwell?

It wasn't the first time Nico had confessed to killing. But they had been at war right? Even as he reasoned through it, Will was horrified in hearing the stories.

Nico pretended to sleep as long as he could. The threat of war seemed ever present and inescapable, especially now that he had helped Kronos in whatever schemes.

It scared him more that Annabeth and Will were helping Kronos too and probably for longer. Their reasons escaped him, but he barely understood why he had done the same.

Anger and fear drove him.

Thirty-seven dead mortals. Daedalus. Bryce Lawrence and Octavian. The idea of killing again filled him with equal dread and exhilaration. The conflict threatened to eat him alive.

Nico sat up abruptly and stared at Will with that eerie and familiar way. Will felt electrified but not in a good way. He was sure that every hair was standing straight up now.

"I had a nightmare," Nico lied. He wasn't surprised by Will's fear but it was disheartening anyway. "Iapetus attacked Camp and we weren't able to stop him."

"We defeated Iapetus and Nyx. Now we have Bob," Will reassured him. He felt a surge of confidence too, even as he said it. All at once he felt in his element again. "Bob wouldn't let that happen. He knows what it means to you and after everything you did for him..."

What about Kayla, Kronos asked him.

What about her, Will responded, feeling completely shocked by the question. If Kronos was planning on involving her too, then he was out.

A vision of Kayla hiding, sobbing behind some trees as a monster stalked her with a knife. As the vision became clearer Will realized it looked more human than anything.

"What if it was Kayla," he asked Nico.

"What," Nico replied, looking skeptical.

"What if Luke sent mercenaries after Kayla? Would that have been alright?"

"Luke wouldn't have a reason to send mercenaries after Kayla."

"Well see, it doesn't make sense to me that he would send them after you either. You have this bad habit of leaving out important information."

"So my dad cursed the oracle. And Luke's mom tried taking on her spirit but ended up cursed and going mad because of it. And then my dad sent monsters to kill Thalia while she was escaping to Camp Half-blood with Luke and Annabeth."

"Nico, this started when you were ten... Nothing about it is right. I don't know how Luke managed to convince you he was the victim. But those mortals hunting you, they were monsters just like if they were cynocephali."

Nico fought the urge to just shadow travel away on the edge of getting what he wanted most. Despite everything that happened and was still happening, Will was offering him everything.

Didn't he know Nico was beyond saving? What was Tartarus compared to the here and now?

"I'll go to Corpus Christi with you," he said, his heart pounding.