𝐌𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐢━━Nico di Angelo

33

Apparently, satyrs could talk to animals. Which is how and why Ajax found himself going to visit coach hedge with Gale the polecat in his arms.

Gale was harmless mostly. But Ajax had no idea why his mother had sent her at all.

Ajax had found Coach's cabin door ajar and heard the coach inside, talking as if he were on the phone with someone—except they had no phones on board. Maybe he was sending an Iris-message?

"Sure, hon," Hedge was saying. "Yeah, I know, baby. No, it's great news, but—" His voice broke with emotion.

Oh damn, suddenly Ajax felt bad eavesdropping.

He would've backed away, but Gale squeaked. Ajax knocked on the coach's door.

Hedge poked his head out, scowling as usual, but his eyes were red.

"What?" he growled.

"Um...sorry," Ajax said. "You good?"

The coach snorted and opened his door wide. "Kinda question is that?"

There was no one else in the room.

"I—"Ajax tried to remember why he was there. "I was wondering if you could talk to my polecat."

The coach's eyes narrowed. He lowered his voice. "Are we speaking in code? Is there an intruder aboard?"

"Well, sort of."

Ajax held up Gale like the monkey from Lion king holding up Simba. She started chittering.

The coach looked offended. He chattered back at the weasel. They had what sounded like a very intense argument.

"What did she say?" Ajax asked.

"A lot of rude things," grumbled the satyr. "The gist of it: she's here to see how it goes."

"How what goes?"

Coach Hedge stomped his hoof. "How am I supposed to know? She's a polecat! They never give a straight answer. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got, uh, stuff..."

He closed the door in his face.

Truly chaperone material.

Something was about to happen. That's all Ajax knew. He was about to be tested, to see if Hecate had made the right choice?

And if he failed?

Would another son of Hecate be sent up from the underworld in his place? Could his mother make that happen? Would he have to go back to being dead?

And why did the prophecy mention a son specifically? Kind of sexist, Ajax thought. He'd met women smarter and way more talented than men he knew. So what was the reason?

The last few nights, his dreams had gotten worse. He dreamed about skulls and death, getting stabbed, having to die over and over again. He would get stabbed, it would hurt and he would die only to be stabbed again and again.

While that dream was bad, it was nothing compared to the one where he was back in the underworld, Hades sitting on his throne, Nico by his side.

They looked like rulers, and here Ajax knelt in front of them.

Hades fixed him with his dark angry eyes and said: The dead see what they believe they will see. So do the living. That is the secret.

He hadn't said that to him in real life. Ajax had no idea what it meant and how it would help him practice control over the mist.

The worst nightmares seemed like glimpses of the future. Ajax was stumbling through a dark tunnel while a woman's laughter echoed around him.

Control this if you can, child of Hecate the woman taunted.