𝐌𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐢━━Nico di Angelo

82

Ajax Avery was dead. That's all he knew.

Except he wasn't.

He heard his heart beat. Thump. Thump. Thump.

He heard himself breathe. In and out.

And when he finally opened his eyes, he wasn't in the dark, in a jar, squished in with someone else. He was in what looked like an underground bunker.

The over head flourescent lights made his head ache the more he tried to think about what had happened. The last thing he remembered was seeing two bright blue eyes, Jason's- escept Jason wasn't here.

Jason was on the Argo II. That made no sense.

Still, he struggled to open his eyes and look across the room. His own hands were tied behind the chair's back, a rope pressed against his ribs, glueing him in place. But his ankles were free which was quite an oversight on his captor's part.

"Nico?" He managed to croak. "Nico!"

The boy next to him stirred. His shaggy dark curls hung like curtains over his eyes. He looked up slowly, as if still half asleep. Before they had gotten captured, Nico had been sleeping, Ajax hoped he got the rest.

"Ajax?"

The only other person in the room was Coach. Where was Reyna? They were all bound to chairs like prisoners, yet the security seemed lax. No one rushed in, no one shot at them, no one was yelling-

Okay that was false, there was a lot of yelling. It seemed to come from far away and reminded Ajax too much of battle. Another fight? Really? Come on.

"Coach!" Ajax whisper yelled. "Coach!"

It didn't work. Whatever tranquilizer they had used seemed to be wearing off on Ajax, but the satyr was still fast asleep.

Ajax looked around desperately. "What the fuck is going on?"

"Look" Nico pointed to the Coach. When he shifted his head, Ajax could see a bright yellow sticky note stuck to his forehead.

IOU one Roman praetor.

She will be returned safely.

Sit tight.

Otherwise you'll be killed.

XOX, the Hunters of Artemis

Ajax saw Nico clench his jaw. He leaned his head back against the chair. A flurry of emotions passed on his face. But when he finally looked back at Ajax, he seemed strangely calm.

"The hunters" He said. "Of course"

"You always assume I know everything, but you know I don't so please feel free to fill me in"

"The hunters were tracking Orion" Nico said, "I'm sure they were"

"So we just got kidnapped by a bunch of teenage girls that hate us?"

"They don't hate men" Nico shrugged, "More like, they've had many bad instances... I'm sure I don't have to explain why ancient Greece was not the best place to be a woman"

Ajax nodded understandingly. Still, none of this made sense. On one hand he was happy he was captured and put with the boys, on the other, he worried about Reyna.

"I thought the hunters prefered camping" Nico mumbled, "Underground doesn't seem like their style"

"Who cares about their style?" Ajax fiddled with his binds. On his right hand, he could still feel ring- Nico's ring. A snap of the finger and his sword materialised in his hands. Within the blink of an eye, he stood up. The rope that had been holding him in place fell around the chair in broken pieces.