𝐌𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐢━━Nico di Angelo

72

The last thing Nico heard was Coach Hedge grumbling, "Well, this isn't good."

He wondered what he'd done wrong this time. Maybe he'd teleported them into a den of Cyclopes, or a thousand feet above another volcano. There was nothing he could do about it.

His vision was gone. His other senses were shutting down. His knees buckled and he passed out. He tried to make the most of his unconsciousness.

Dreams and death were old friends of his. He knew how to navigate their dark borderland.

He sent out his thoughts, searching for Thalia Grace.

He rushed past the usual fragments of painful memories – his mother smiling down at him, her face illuminated by the sunlight rippling off the Venetian Grand Canal; his sister Bianca laughing as she pulled him across the Mall in Washington, D.C., her green floppy hat shading her eyes and the splash of freckles across her nose.

He saw Percy Jackson on a snowy cliff outside Westover Hall, shielding Nico and Bianca from the manticore as Nico clutched a Mythomagic figurine and whispered, I'm scared.

He saw Minos, his old ghostly mentor, leading him through the Labyrinth. Minos's smile was cold and cruel. Don't worry, son of Hades. You will have your revenge.

The battle of Manhattan came next, not the multiple demigods Nico injured but the only one he cared about. Ajax had longer hair that was pulled back in a pony. Otherwise he looked mostly the same. Nico couldn't help but compare past and present Ajax in his mind. 

Ajax now seemed much happier at getting to present as who he really was. Ajax with longer hair seemed more blood thirsty. In the middle of battle and he looked like he was having fun. 

Nico tried to shield his eyes from the moment the skeleton killed him, but it useless. He saw the moment Ajax realized what had happened. He saw the moment Ajax fell. He saw the moment Ajax begged him for help and Nico walked away. 

More memories- these ones more recent. Feelings of jealousy, a pure unfiltered rage for the son of Hephaestus, frustration with Ajax...

Nico couldn't stop the memories. They cluttered his dreams like the ghosts of Asphodel – an aimless, sorrowful mob pleading for attention. Save me, they seemed to whisper. Remember me. Help me. Comfort me.

He didn't dare stop to dwell on them. They would only crush him with wants and regrets. The best he could do was to stay focused and push through.

I am the son of Hades, he thought. I go where I wish. The darkness is my birthright.

In the darkness, two shadows reached through the hopeless, heavy dusk. Their hands met. A hopeful feeling swelled in his chest, the darkness seemed to part like a ray of sunshine.

"Ajax?"

"Loser"

"Dork" Nico shot back on an impulse.

Before he knew what was happening, Ajax grabbed his hand tighter, like he would collapse if not for Nico, he felt like he was being lit on fire from the inside.

Ajax's hands were magic, he could feel it.

"What are you doing here?"

"Moral support, I guess" Ajax shrugged, "Mostly.. It's uh- I've.."

Nico couldn't help but stare at him. He adored the small scrunch of Ajax's nose, the way his eyebrows would furrow together, the way he tucked his lips in. Nico wanted to kiss him.

Could he do that here?

Ajax kept stumbling over his words. Nico tested his theory. 

Ajax's eyebrows flew upwards when Nico kissed him, shutting him up, but he didn't protest. Nico struggled to come up with an excuse as to why he kissed him. But Ajax seemed to understand. They were operating on borrowed time, they had to make the most of whatever they got, however long they got. 

When your lives are destined to be incredibly short with painful endings, it's best not to dwell on what you could have done and just do it. 

"Come on" Nico dragged him through the landscape.

He forged ahead through a grey-and-black terrain, looking for the dreams of Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus. Instead, the ground dissolved at his feet and they fell into a familiar backwater – the Hypnos cabin at Camp Half-Blood.

Buried under piles of feather comforters, snoring demigods nestled in their bunks. Above the mantel, a dark tree branch dripped milky water from the River Lethe into a bowl. A cheerful fire crackled in the fireplace. In front of it, in a leather armchair, dozed the head counsellor for Cabin Fifteen – a pot-bellied guy with unruly blond hair and a gentle bovine face.

"Clovis," Nico growled, "for the gods' sake, stop dreaming so powerfully!"

Clovis' eyes fluttered open. He turned and stared at Nico, though Nico knew this was simply part of Clovis' own dreamscape. The actual Clovis would still be snoring in his armchair back at camp.

"Oh, hi..." Clovis yawned wide enough to swallow a minor god. Nico saw his eyes drift lazily towards Ajax. He flushed a bit, retracting his hand from Ajax's and frowned at Clovis. "Sorry. Did I pull you off course again?"

Nico gritted his teeth. There was no point getting upset. The Hypnos cabin was like Grand Central Station for dream activity. You couldn't travel anywhere without going through it once in a while.

"As long as I'm here," Nico said, "pass along a message. Tell Chiron I'm on my way with a couple of friends. We're bringing the Athena Parthenos."

Clovis rubbed his eyes. "So it's true? How are you bringing it? Did you rent a van or something?"

"Wish it was that easy" Ajax laughed.

Nico explained as concisely as possible. Messages sent through dreams tended to get fuzzy around the edges, especially when you were dealing with Clovis. The simpler, the better.

"We're being followed by a hunter," Nico said. "One of Gaia's giants, I think. Can you get that message to Thalia Grace? You're better at finding people in dreams than I am. I need her advice."

"I'll try." Clovis fumbled for a cup of hot chocolate on the side table. "Uh, before you go, do you have a second?"

"Clovis, this is a dream," Nico reminded him. "Time is fluid."

Even as he said it, Nico worried about what was happening in the real world. Their physical selves might be plummeting to their death, or surrounded by monsters. Still, he couldn't force himself to wake up – not after the amount of energy he'd expended on shadow-travel.

Clovis nodded. "Right... I was thinking you should probably see what happened today at the council of war. I slept through some of it, but –"

"Show me," Nico said, he felt a tug on his jacket. "show us"