fix you - solangelo

Chapter 12

Nico's eyes widened as his tired eyes focused on the lady standing in front of him. She wore a fancy suit, with a skirt and high heeled shoes. She had dark hair pulled back from her face in a bun at the nape of her neck, and brown - wait, red, eyes, which gleamed behind black spectacles on a glittering diamond chain.

She smiled at Nico, pointed teeth gleaming, and walked over to him, kneeling down so that they were at eye level. "Oh, you are not exactly what I hoped for," she said, pouting in a way that Nico assumed she thought was cute, but really wasn't. "Not much meat on your bones. Not good for a meal."

Nico's face paled. Well, more than usual. Meal? His blood ran cold. He pressed his back against the wall, trying to distance himself from the lady. She leaned closer as he leaned away. "What's wrong?" she asked, leering at him. Her breath smelled metallic, like blood, and was surprisingly cold on Nico's face. He turned his face away.

The lady smiled, seeming to enjoy Nico's discomfort. "Wh-why are you here?" Nico said.

"Just checking on you," the woman replied. "I want to make sure our sacrifice will be ready for his big day." She smiled at Nico the way a tolerant mother smiles at her child. Nico was disgusted.

"I'm not feeling too good, actually," Nico said, his anger at being treated like a child snapping him out of his fear. "I'm very thirsty. And hungry. And I'd kinda like to go back to camp."

The woman laughed, her cackle sending a chill down Nico's spine. "Well, you're more lively now. That's a good sign. You are almost ready, as well as he."

Nico swallowed. "Who are you? And who're you talking about?"

"He is not a man," the woman said, smiling again. "Men are human, humans are inferior. He is more than a human. He is nothing short of a god."

She leaned away from Nico and stood up. "As for me? I am Kakoa, an aimakitone. The best and oldest aimakitone. I will be the first to feed, and the second-in-command of this world, after him."

Nico blinked at her. "Who is 'he'?" Nico was getting exasperated; he wanted answers.

"He is Moralvo, of course," Kakoa said, grinning with her pointed teeth again. 

Nico gritted his teeth. "But who is he?"

Kakoa lauhed again. "Not yet, but you will know soon. I'll send a servant in with food for you."

"Wait a minute-" Nico said. "Come back, I want to-"

Kakoa only smiled and closed the door. 

"Grr," Nico grolwed. For only the second time in his life, Nico wanted someone to rescue him. He felt utterly alone, helpless. He didn't know what to do. The door opened a crack, and a tray of food was slid in. Nico was too tired to move.

.

"So, um," Percy said. "I have a question."

The three campers were walking through a stretch of forest. They had only been walking for about an hour when Percy had spoken up.

"I feel like we should have thoguht of this earlier, but how are we going to find Nico?"

Will stopped in his tracks. He had been too concerned about Nico to think out the logistics of the trip. "Oh, crap," he said, starting to turn back. "I guess we have to go back and figure out-"

"No need," Reyna said, continuing to walk, her praetor's cape streaming behind her. "I have a means for tracking him. Got it last night."

"Oh," Will said, pinking slightly. He had wanted to be the hero, to save Nico and everything. Maybe then he would finally get the son of Hades' trust. Either way, he was being stupid. The only important thing was to get Nico back. Will cleared his throat. "Anyways, what do you have?"

Reyna shook her hair out of her face. "The Hecate cabin gave me a tracker. It's tracking the 'essence of death' that radiates off of him. Apparently he has tried to shadow travel in the last two days, and it's given off an excellent reading. We should pinpoint his exact location in a few minutes, then we can start traveling there."

Will furrowed his brow. "He shadow-travelled? I told him not to! He's going to kill himself one day....idiot," Will complained.

Reyna and Percy both grinned at him. "What?" Will asked. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Nothing," Percy said, smiling and continuing to walk.

Reyna suddenly snapped her head up. "The tracker...it found his location."

She pulled a necklace out from around her neck and laid the large diamon that was strung on it flat on her palm. The surface was shimmering, switching between gray and white and black, until a picture came into view. A train raced past at the front of the image, then, after it passed, a door became visible. 

Percy squinted his eyes. "So he's in a train station."

Will nodded. "Underground, I think. Not much light." There didn't seem to be any natural light in the room, only the artificial light, dull and flickering.

Reyna tilted the stone, and the picture moved to show a list of stops. "So it's here in New York," Percy said, after scanning the sign for a few moments. "I know where to go. We should get going, it's at least a day's walk away, and that's if we have no monster encounters, which we probably will, with our luck."

Reyna put away her necklace. "Let's go then."

.

Sorry about the vagueness of all of this. I don't live in New York, so i don't really know the geography. If you live in New York and know about an underground station there that's kind of close to Long Island Sound, please comment!

Also, the aimakitone (eye-mah-key-tone-ay) were invented by me. They're not real Greek mythological monsters or anything. 

6/19/16 - i'm editing and this is soo cringey oh my god. this was the chapter i was scared of when i decided to do editing.