"Put me down!"

"Kick me again, and I'll bury your face into the gravel, Aster."

She freezes. Then, falls limp on Clarisse's shoulder with a frustrated scowl. Annabeth smiles up at her guiltily from beside the daughter of Ares.

"It's for your own good, Julie." She says with a helpless shrug. Julie scowls harder. Annabeth sighs. "Just stay put for a few weeks, okay? The members of the Seven will go get him once Leo's done with-"

"This is stupid-"

Clarisse groans irritably and stomps the rest of the way up the steps of the Big House. "Gods, Aster, would you shut up? You really think Prissy would want you getting yourself killed over him?"

Juliette huffs and glares at the sweat stained back of Clarisse's camp shirt. This is dumb. Delphi is dumb. Apollo, as usual, is a big dumb dummy. If one more thing goes wrong today, she's going to have a mental breakdown.

Her captor throws open the door to the Council Room, and there's already a group gathered around the ping-pong table ready to continue this aggressive little intervention. Clarisse dumps Juliette carelessly onto the floor by the table and trudges over to take her usual spot while the younger girl glares at her and rubs her sore backside.

Predictably, Chiron speaks first.

"Juliette," He begins with a sigh. "It's been three days since Ms. Dare's prophecy, and you've tried to leave camp five times without permission."

Julie crosses her arms stubbornly. It was technically six if they wanted to count the time she tried to swim out, and a wave, too suspiciously large to have not been sent by a sea god, flung her back to camp before she even made it hip-deep. Nobody needs to know about that one, though.

"I need to go find him." She states.

A collective sigh of exasperation exits the other head counselors. Chiron runs a hand down his face in exhaustion. "Juliette, I think the prophecy made it very clear that it is not safe for you-"

"Clear? What prophecy is ever clear?"

"-to be the one to search for him. I will not place you knowingly into harm's way-"

"We don't even know that's what it means!"

"-knowing that your life will be forfeit."

Julie jumps to her feet and clenches her fists, steam practically blowing from her ears. "When Percy got his stupid death prophecy, nobody stopped him from doing what needed to be done! Double standard, much?"

Annabeth groans and throws her head back. They've had this conversation already. Many times. "Julie, that was different, and you know it. We were at war."

"We're at war now!"

"Your assistance is not needed, Juliette!" Chiron finally snaps. Everyone's eyes widen in surprise. It's not often their mentor loses his cool, but, somehow, no one's shocked it's Juliette that finally makes the old centaur's temper slip. He catches himself and takes a deep breath, straightening the lapels of his wool coat. "Your assistance is not needed. And," He fixes her with a stern frown. "Since you can no longer be trusted to heed orders, you can no longer be trusted to wander camp alone."

Julie falters. "What is that supposed to mean?"

Chiron ignores her and turns to the other counselors. "Who is on duty Monday afternoons?"

"That'd be me." Nyssa pipes up from across the table.

"Duty?" Juliette sputters. "What duty-?"

"Excellent. Do ensure she doesn't leave your sight." Chiron orders. Nyssa gives him a mock salute and comes to stand beside Julie, who's looking around in confusion. Chiron raises his eyebrows at her. "Drew will be taking over your duties as head counselor for Cabin 10 until you can be trusted not to scamper off into the night."

"Drew-?"

"I would appreciate it if you'd behaved yourself. I would rather not have to Iris your stepmother. Gods know the poor woman has enough to be concerned over at the moment." Chiron grumbles.

That shuts her up.

"Everyone, please remember to relieve your duty partners on time. Council dismissed."

Shellshocked, Julie blinks blankly as the other counselors start shuffling out of the room. Jason gives her a strained smile and a pat on the shoulder as he heads out, and Julie gets so mad she almost reaches out to twist his wrist around backwards.

Duty? Chiron assigned guard duty? For her?

"Welp, I've gotta get back to the bunker to keep workin' on the Argo." Nyssa sighs, stretching into an arc to pop her back. "You ever used power tools before?"

Julie scowls. "Does a hairdryer count?"

The other girl snorts. "This oughtta go great."

"Ohhhohoh, man! He assigned you babysitters?" Leo chortles.

Juliette throws her sheet of sandpaper at him. It catches the wind and barely makes it two inches before falling to the deck of the ship. "Shut up. Don't make it sound even stupider than it already is."

"None of us want to be doing this either, princess!" Nyssa calls from the back. With an angry little grunt, Julie snatches up a new sheet of paper and goes back to aggressively sanding down her section of the deck while Leo watches with an amused smirk.

At least they gave her gloves. After the first broken fingernail, Juliette had thrown such a fit that some dryads came by to check nobody was being murdered. To shut her up, Nyssa had given her their thickest work gloves to borrow while she sands down the deck before staining.

"At least you have my wonderful self to keep you company." Leo winks.

Julie rolls her eyes. "And I thought today couldn't get any worse."

"Hey!"

"I'm kidding." sighs Juliette, glaring down at the already spent sheet of sandpaper in her fist. "I'm just...Ugh! I thought we learned our lesson about trying to prevent prophecies."

Leo grimaces and hops down from the ladder, tucking his socket wrench back into a random pocket in his toolbelt. "I dunno, chica, that one seemed pretty..."

"I know, I know. But, I'm not gonna die. That's dumb."

"It's dumb to die?"

Julie glares at him. He raises his hands up in surrender. "Hey, don't shoot the mechanic! I'm just saying, maybe the old man's not being entirely as stupid as you think. You are a kid, you know."

"I'm literally a week younger than you."

"And don't you forget it, whippersnapper."

Julie stares at him flatly. Then, she sighs and looks down at the deck, tracing the grain of the wood with her eyes. "I just don't like to be tied down. I have wings for a reason."

Leo's blunt nails tap rhythmically on the side of the ship for a moment. With a sigh, he plops down onto the deck beside her and pulls out his own sheet of sandpaper from his belt. "Y'know I designed this thing to fly."

Julie keeps glaring at the floor. "Oh, yeah?"

"Mhm." Leo's voice drops to a whisper. "It'll be nice for you to get to fly passenger for once, right?"

Passenger?

Julie looks over at him in confusion. His pointed face is screwed up into a conspiratorial smirk. Hope blooms in her chest. "You mean-?"

"Ssshh!" Leo shushes, glancing over his shoulder to where Nyssa's nodding along to whatever rock album she has blasting over the bunker speakers. "Don't get my butt kicked, please. If anyone asks, the extra cabin is for storage."

Juliette still beams, though. She throws down the sandpaper and launches herself at the boy, who squeaks in terror as her weight crashes down on him in a violent bear hug. They tumble over onto the floor as he coughs helplessly.

"Can't-breathe! Loosen-please!" He chokes.

Julie giggles maniacally and releases him, but makes sure to pinch his nose before sitting all the way up. "This is why you're my favorite, Leo."

"Obviously. There's no comparison. I'm just the best. Now, hold these screws for me."

"No, Julie-ugh, this is not hard. Why are you so confused?" Pollux snips in annoyance.

Julie crosses her arms, offended. Azalea laughs loudly from his spot in the next row of crops. "She's always been like this. You'd think growing up with nymphs would have greened that thumb of hers, but Aster never could get her to understand anything other than 'Oooh, flowers are pretty!'"

Julie glares at him. "You're about to look a lot less pretty. "

Azalea gasps. "Threatening a cripple, are we? How far you've fallen, mighty hero."

Pollux cuts off Juliette's retort by dropping a new bag of seeds in her lap. He scowls down at her. "Half an inch deep, 18 inches apart. Stop wasting my seeds."

"Yeah, cause we're definitely gonna run out of strawberry seeds." Julie huffs. She dodges Pollux's swipe at the back of her head and tears open one of the Ziplocs to get started. "How do you just know what 18 inches looks like?"

"It's really not that difficult."

"Says the Dionysus kid."

"Oh, my gods, how long until the next shift takes over?"

"I dunno, like three hours?" Julie smirks. "If you're tired of me, I could always-"

"No." Azalea and Pollux chorus. Julie frowns at them both, and Azalea turns dramatically in his wheelchair to roll off towards the next line of crops to be pruned.

"Can I keep this?" Julie asks with an innocent smile.

Katie stops picking strawberries long enough to look over at her suspiciously. Julie brandishes the perfect red rose she's holding. Katie crosses her arms and glances behind Julie to the rose bushes she'd set the girl to trimming an hour ago.

"Why?" She deadpans.

Julie flutters her eyelashes. "Because it's pretty?"

"Mhm. Why really?"

"It's...It smells nice?"

"Juliette."

"I wanna put it on Drew's pillow and pretend she has a secret admirer."

Katie studies her to see if she's lying. Then, she snorts and shrugs. "Okay, sure."

"YES!"

"You call that a pushup?!"

Julie sobs, arms collapsing and teeth crunching down on a mouthful of sweaty arena sand. "I take it back. I am gonna die."

"That was not 100, Aster." Clarisse barks. She reaches down and plucks Julie up by the back of her soaked through t-shirt. "Give me 20 more!"

"But, I was on 95!"

"Are you arguing with me?"

"No, ma'am!" Julie squeaks hastily, immediately dropping back down into a plank. She makes it five more pushups before collapsing again. Clarisse growls in annoyance and yanks her to her feet.

"C'mon, you sissy! Is that the best you can do?!" She snarls. Julie shakes her head, eyes wide and fearful. "Use your damn voice, soldier!"

"No, ma'am!"

"You better prove it! Give me 200 laps around the arena! Knees high!"

Julie sprints as fast as she can away from the terrifying daughter of Ares. She hears snickering coming from the stands, and then Clarisse's voice shout out again.

"You laughing 'cause you want to join her, McLean?!"

"I'm sorry!"

"I think my own body is trying to kill me." Juliette groans, head on the table. Piper snorts beside her as Jason gives her a sympathetic wince. She reaches out to pat Julie on the shoulder, and the younger girl squeaks and flinches away. "Oh, gods, don't touch me. I think the muscles might actually slide off my bones."

"Yeahh," He laughs. "Clarisse is a tough instructor, for sure. She reminds me a bit of Rey-"

Jason cuts off with a surprised and confused expression. Julie grins up at him "Reyna?" She prompts.

Piper raises an eyebrow. "Who's Reyna?"

"I-I don't know..." mutters Jason, eyebrows drawn. Then, he turns to Juliette with a serious expression. "Who's Reyna?"

She smiles. "I thought you'd never ask."

"I thought Will was supposed to be watching me." Julie grumbles.

Kayla and Austin sigh, each nocking a new arrow to shoot at the targets.

"He's busy." explains Kayla. "The Stolls accidentally blew up the canoe shed this morning, and now half the Athena cabin is in the infirmary looking like wooden porcupines."

Julie winces, then goes back to pouting. "I have medical training. I could be helping him."

The siblings exchange an awkward look.

"He's fine! Plus, Leo said you needed a new bow anyway, right?" Austin asks with a smile.

Julie sighs sadly. "Yeah, I guess." She looks down at her regular old camp bow distastefully. "This thing sucks."

"It's one of the best bows we have." Kayla grumbles. "I wanted that one."

"You already have one. You don't get to keep every new bow we make." Austin mutters irritably.

"I don't need every new bow, but when I make one that's that good-"

"You didn't make it. I made everything, you just strung it-"

"-I feel like I should at least get first dibs-"

"-I swear, this is Will's ukulele all over again-"

"-It was my ukulele! He just got the money first-"

"-Yeah, and then bought it! So it's his-"

"-That is not at all how the dibs system works-"

"-Oh, don't even pretend you have a system-"

Julie blinks at them. They continue to bicker, paying her no mind.

Paying her no mind...

Heh, heh, heh...

She creeps backwards. They don't look away from their argument. She takes a few more steps...a few more steps...

"What are you doing?" A voice asks behind her.

Julie screams, leaping to the side out of the personal space of the speaker. Kayla and Austin fall silent and turn towards her outburst. Well, great, there goes her escape opportunity.

"Nothing!" She squeaks. She turns around to face the speaker and gasps.

Nico di Angelo is in front of her, looking somehow even more sleep deprived than she's ever seen him. His clothes hang off of him loosely, and the angles of his face are far too pronounced to be healthy. Not to mention the dark purple bruising under both eyes. Julie's heart squeezes painfully to behold him.

Then, it skips a beat, and she gasps.

"Nico!"

He focuses onto her, mouth a grim line. "I need your help with something-"

"Yes! Anything! Just take me somewhere else!" Julie pleads, latching onto his arm.

Kayla and Austin start sprinting over, yelling protests. Nico raises an eyebrow at them but shrugs, wraps a hand around Julie's shoulder, and they disappear into darkness.

When getting kidnapped by a son of Hades, there's no way of predicting what's going to be on the other side of a shadowtravel.

Still, this is not what Julie expected.

She glances at Nico in confusion, but he doesn't meet her eyes, focused resolutely instead on the small shape under the covers of the hotel bed before them. Julie turns to the bed as well and inches forward to take a closer look.

Sleeping soundly in the fetal position is a teenage girl, probably a little younger than Nico is. She's pretty. Wild caramel colored curls squish up against the pillowcase while a smooth, dark-complected face twitches like a bunny rabbit through REM sleep. By all appearances, she looks to be just a regular 13 year old in dire need of a nap.

But, there's an aura about her. A powerful one of suffering and dread. Julie has only felt such a thing twice before. She looks back to her friend with concern.

"Nico, who is this?" She whispers.

He grits his teeth, staring down at the girl with such fierce protectiveness it makes Julie's soul ache. After a somber moment, he looks back to Juliette and jerks his head towards the door. She obediently follows him into the hallway.

Once the door clicks shut, Nico looks at her hesitantly. "I found her in Asphodel."

Julie blinks. "Okay..." She glances to the door. "What does that mean?"

He fidgets. It makes her worried. "She's..." He huffs in frustration.

Julie leans forward. "She's...what?" She prompts. He glances away from her, spinning the skull ring on his hand.

"She's dead."

Oh. Huh?

"What?"

"Or, she was. I...brought her back."

He...What?

"What do you mean you 'brought her back'?" Julie asks nervously, looking to the door in fear of being overheard by the occupant.

Nico sighs. "The Doors of Death. They're open. All I had to do was shadowtravel out with her soul."

He explains then. How he'd gone down to Elysium to retrieve Bianca. How, when she was nowhere to be found, he frantically searched every inch of the Underworld in pursuit of her. How, instead, he'd found Hazel Levesque.

Not a child of Hades. A child of Pluto. His sister.

Julie swallows her anxiety. "When...How long have you had her up here?" She asks.

Nico sighs and looks to the door. "A little over a week. She's been asleep for most of it, but it was the day before we last talked."

Gods. That explains so much.

"So, that's how you knew about Jason?"

Nico nods. "When she told me who she was, I scouted out Camp Jupiter myself. I wanted to make sure it would be safe for her. I heard his name. They're looking for him still."

That information makes Julie feel weird. She decides to ignore it.

"Alright. So, what are you going to do? Bring her to camp?"

He rakes a hand through his hair, huffing a sigh. "I guess. Camp Jupiter, anyway. She should be with her own kind."

Julie snorts. "You make it sound like they're a different species."

Nico shrugs.

"So," Julie bounces on the balls of her feet. "Does that mean you know where it is?"

He pauses.

"Yes." Nico mutters. "I can't tell you where, though."

"Why-"

"Hades made me swear on the Styx."

That shuts her mouth with a snap. Frustration bubbles up her chest all the same. She lets out an angry shout and turns to kick her foot hard into the wall.

"This is such bullshit!"

"Shh!"

"Don't shush me! Never shush a woman unless you want us to GET LOUDER!"

Nico stomps on her toes, then, and Julie yelps. She hops around on one foot, glaring at him harshly, until a small voice calls fearfully through the door.

"Nico?"

Like he's been shocked by lightning, Nico leaps into motion. He opens the door and moves quickly to the bedside to take the, now awake, younger girl into his arms without hesitation. "I'm here." He says soothingly.

Hazel visibly deflates and clings to her brother. The sight is a strange one for Juliette.

Here is Nico di Angelo. The boy who took months to accept even the briefest of side hugs from Julie. Wrapping a girl he met only days ago in such a tight embrace.

That's good. Of course, it is. It's growth. He's more comfortable now. The tight feeling in Juliette's chest is definitely pride. Pride just sometimes feels suspiciously close to jealously when you really really mean it. Definitely.

She clears her throat quietly and cringes when Hazel jumps a bit. She approaches with caution. "Hi, Hazel. How are you feeling?"

The girl's golden eyes narrow on Juliette defensively. Nico places a hand on her shoulder and smiles softly, though, and she relaxes a bit.

"This is Juliette." He introduces. "She's going to look you over for me. She's..." He hesitates.

A friend? My bestest friend? My BFFFL?

"A doctor."

Ouch.

"Sort of." Julie shrugs. "I have some medic training. If you don't mind, I'd like to take a look at your vitals."

Hazel looks to Nico for guidance. He nods encouragingly.

"Okay." She agrees in a soft voice.

So, Juliette sits down next to them and looks over Hazel's pulse and (with the help of tools conveniently summoned via shadowtravel) blood pressure. By the end of it, Julie's cracked enough jokes that Hazel's relaxing a little.

With a thoughtful hum, Julie pulls back from taking Hazel's temperature. "Well, you're a little cooler than is usual for demigods. But, Nico runs cold too, so maybe it's just a child of the Underworld thing." She muses.

Hazel tenses up. "You...You know?" mutters the girl fearfully. Nico replaces the hand on her shoulder.

"It's okay." He assures Hazel. "You can trust her."

Aww. Nicooooo.

Julie smiles kindly at the younger girl. "Yeah, hun. I'm like a secret-safe. I keep them alllllll locked up in here." She taps her head.

Nico rolls his eyes. "That's not true."

"Hey, I'm trustworthy!"

"You can trust her with this." He says over Julie's squawking. "Just don't ever tell her any unimportant secrets. She's a child of Venus."

Venus? Like the planet?

Her bewildered expression must have translated to something comical, because Hazel erupts into giggles at the face she sends Nico. Julie huffs and turns to look Hazel up and down from a non-medical standpoint this time. She wrinkles her nose and turns accusingly to Nico.

"Why do you have this poor girl in 2000s MySpace chic?" She scoffs, tugging gently at Hazel's borrowed skull t-shirt. "This is unacceptable, di Angelo."

He rolls his eyes so hard Julie's shocked they don't get stuck in the back of his head.

"What is MySpace?" Hazel asks shyly. Julie grins at her and shakes her head dismissively.

"Don't worry about it. Let's go get you some clothes that actually fit, huh? On me."

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU HAVE AN INFINITY CARD?!"

Nico stares at her blankly, still holding up the gleaming galaxy-patterned square of plastic. "My dad's the god of wealth." He says simply. Juliette sputters indignantly.

"So, why have I been paying for food every time these last two years?!" She shrieks.

Hazel covers her mouth to hide her laughter as Nico just shrugs and hands the card to the cashier, who's eying them like they're wackjobs.

Julie crosses her arms. Unbelievable. So many allowances wasted. He's never getting a free meal out of her again.

Once Nico finishes paying for Hazel's clothes, they make a pit stop at the mall food court, where Juliette makes sure to order the most obnoxiously expensive combination of items she can, much to Hazel's amusement and Nico's exasperation. By then, Hazel's starting to sway on her feet again.

"Want to head back to the hotel?" Nico asks her gently. Hazel slaps herself on the cheeks and shakes her head,

"No! No, I'm having fun." Her denial isn't very effective seeing as it's interrupted by a yawn so wide they can hear her jaw pop.

Julie snorts. "Haz, it's good to get some extra rest. I can imagine being dead takes a lot out of you."

Hazel sighs and rubs her eyes. "I suppose."

"Let's head back." Juliette suggests with a grin, reaching out a hand to Nico.

He shoots her a thankful look and winds their fingers together before doing the same with Hazel. After a gut churning yank, they're stepping forward into the hotel room.

Hazel yawns again. "I think I'm going to go bathe before bed." She looks to Julie nervously, who grins and takes the hint, wrapping an arm around the shorter girl's shoulders.

"C'mon. I'll teach you to use all the products we got."

If Juliette had a drachma for how many times she made a friend who was born in the 1920s but didn't age for nearly a century before being spat out by time just before they met? She'd have two drachmas.

Which, isn't a lot, but it's weird it happened twice.

Hazel doesn't talk much, but when she does, she's very sweet. Julie thinks she probably just needs time to adjust. By the time she's run Hazel through how to use all the facial and hair care products she made Nico purchase her, the younger girl is starting to open up a little more. Laughing at more jokes, even cracking a few herself. It's nice to see. She leaves the bathroom to the sound of the shower squeaking on behind Hazel's soft humming.

Nico's perched on the end of the (seemingly unused) pull out couch, spinning his ring again. Julie smiles sadly and comes to plop down beside him.

"You alright?" She asks quietly.

He shrugs.

Normally, Julie would probably pester him a bit. Keep asking questions until he gives her an answer. It doesn't seem appropriate in this context, though, so she lays back instead and stares up at the ceiling. After about a minute, he hesitantly lays down too.

Nico takes a breath like he's going to speak a few different times, just to let it out and slump in frustration. Finally, he gets there.

"Bianca chose rebirth." He mutters. "That's the only explanation."

A sigh like a deflating balloon exits Juliette's lungs. She raises a hand to scrub at her eyes and then turns her head to look at her friend. He looks angry, face turned up to the ceiling and hand clenched, white knuckled, around his silver ring. Bianca's ring. She fixes sad green eyes onto his face. "I'm sorry."

He just glares at the ceiling harder. Julie sits up to look down at him.

"She probably figured it'd be...easier on you than saying no."

His eyes snap to her face. "Easier?"

Julie panics. "Oh! No, I didn't mean-"

"You think this is easier?!" Nico snarls, sitting up on his elbows. "She left me! I'm never going to see her again! Never! Not even-" His voice chokes off, and he slumps back down, an arm over his eyes. "Not even when I die."

Julie watches him fearfully, at a loss for what to say. Hades, what can she say?

They sit in tense silence instead. Eventually, the water cuts off in the bathroom, and Nico takes a deep breath. He uncovers his face and looks up at Juliette with bitter brown eyes.

"Thank you for checking on her. You should probably go home."

Her heart cracks. "Nico-"

"I'll shadowtravel you first thing in the morning." He cuts her off. "I just need to rest first."

Julie studies him as he rolls over pointedly and starts to ignore her. The door to the bathroom creaks open, and Hazel steps out. She scans the room with golden eyes before spotting them on the bed together and gasping, cheeks turning a bit red.

"Oh! You two are...I didn't realize you were...I-Is that proper?" She squeaks.

Julie blinks at her in confusion as Hazel begins to fan herself.

"Proper what?"

"Why are you sneaking out?"

"OW! Shit, shit, shit, that hurt!" Julie whines, holding the part of her head that just collided with the window frame. She glares back at Nico, who's frowning at her, unimpressed, and huffs. "I can't go back to camp." She states.

He raises an eyebrow at her. 'Why?' in Nico speak.

"They're being stupid about some prophecy. And, I need to find Percy."

Nico frowns harder. "What prophecy?"

Julie pauses her escape into the early morning light. She looks over her shoulder at him nervously. "No prophecy."

"You just said-"

"No, I didn't."

"You did. You said-"

"That I need to find Percy."

"Before that-"

"That they're being stupid."

"Juliette." Nico snaps. Julie winces as he approaches her sternly. "Tell me what you're talking about, or I'll take you back to camp right now."

Julie glares at him. "What, are you my dad?"

He crosses his arms. He looks very dad-like in that stance. Even though, he's like 2'9".

She sighs heavily and swings her legs back into the room, turning to face him. "Fine."

She recounts the story of the council meeting - how they'd been planning out her trip to track down Percy with, hopefully, Nico's help, before Rachel suddenly started spewing green fog and foreboding words. He listens silently, tensely, until she hesitates to continue.

"What was the prophecy?" He prompts.

Her face sours like she bit into a lemon. She looks away.

"Juliette-"

"You can't freak out, okay?" She requests hastily. "Everyone else freaked out, and I just so do not need that right now."

She looks back at Nico. He looks nervous, but he nods. Julie takes a deep breath.

"Thrice will the Underworld steal sons of Three

When traveling by shadow, by silk, and by sea."

She pauses. He looks uncomfortable. Probably, since that's likely referring to him in part. She continues with a frown.

"The Child of Anguish may save souls from rest,

Her mother's domain brought death in the West.

To sink or to swim through Styx's black gates,"

Julie cringes, bracing herself. Nico scowls at her and motions impatiently for her to finish. She sighs.

"By Imperial Gold, a daughter meets Fates."

The room is nearly silent for a while following the recounting of the prophecy, the only sound being Hazel's soft snores. Nico's staring at her like he's seen a ghost. Or, something scarier than a ghost, cause he sort of sees those a lot. Maybe like he's seen a velociraptor. Although, people say Julie looks like a dinosaur when she transforms sometimes, so really-

"You're going to be killed." He chokes.

Julie scowls at him. "That just gets more and more encouraging every time someone says it." She snips. Then, she rolls her eyes and takes a deep breath to slow her rapid heartbeat. "That seems to be the leading theory, yes."

He nods numbly, eyes still wide.

Julie crosses her arms. "I kept trying to leave to go find Percy, so...Chiron sort of put me on house arrest. Or, camp-arrest. Whatever."

"I see."

Julie blows her bangs out of her face. She fidgets a little, pulling at the end of her skirt. "So, yeah. That's why I can't go back."

Nico surveys her. "He's not there, Juliette."

She freezes. "What?"

"I searched the camp top to bottom as soon as I realized it existed." Nico explains somberly. "He isn't there."

Julie tries to keep her breathing steady. He hands start to shake. "You can't know that for sure-"

"I know that if Hera doesn't want you to find him yet, you won't." He reasons. Julie's stomach drops. That's a little too reasonable for comfort. Nico continues. "You should go back home where you're safe until there's something you can actually do. Dying out here when he can't even be found would be pointless."

"I'm not going to die."

"I hope not." Nico nods.

Wow, her parent issues must be really bad for that three word sentence to be so flattering.

"But, coming out here alone is an unnecessary risk." He says stiffly. He crosses to the window she's sitting in and holds out a hand. Julie frowns down at it, but he gives her the teeniest-tiniest hesitant smile. "I have to bring Hazel to Camp Jupiter, anyway. I'll watch for him. You know I..." He gulps, eyes flicking away. "I...care about him too. I'll Iris you when I have an update."

Tears burn at Juliette's eyes. She looks up at him, feeling raw and open and scared. She hasn't really processed the last two weeks yet. The emotions just keep building up. Instead of taking his hand, Julie pitches forward and rests her forehead against Nico's chest, squeezing her eyes shut. He hesitates, hands hovering above her shoulders, but eventually relaxes and pats her awkwardly on the back while she sniffles. Once she gets ahold of herself, she pulls back and stands from the window, glancing one last time at Hazel's softly breathing form on the bed.

"Okay." She mumbles.

He sighs in relief and grips her wrist, then, everything spins, and she's standing alone outside Cabin 13.

A/N

Hey, guys! Just so you know, I'm currently traveling and will be until Monday the 19th, so I don't have much of a stable internet connection right now. Updates are still being written, but they may get published only periodically until I get home. Thanks for your patience! I hope you're enjoying!