𝐌𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐢━━Nico di Angelo

95

About five miles east of camp, a black SUV was parked on the beach.

They tied up the boat at a private dock. Ajax used a spell to make Michael Kahale float behind them as they came ashore. The big guy was still only half-conscious, mumbling what Ajax assumed were football calls: "Red twelve. Right thirty-one. Hike." Then he giggled uncontrollably.

"We'll leave him here," Leila said. "Just don't bind him. Poor guy..."

"What about the car?" Dakota asked. "The keys are in the glove compartment, but, uh, can you drive?"

Leila frowned. "I thought you could drive. Aren't you seventeen?"

"I never learned!" Dakota said. "I was busy."

"I've got it covered," Nico promised.

They all looked at him.

"You're, like, fourteen," Leila said.

"I'll be sixteen in a few months actually" Nico enjoyed how nervous the Romans acted around him, even though they were older and bigger and more experienced fighters. "But I didn't say I would be behind the wheel."

He glanced at Ajax. Maybe if they closed his eyes and ears and nose, he wouldn't have a panic attack this time?

The boy in question looked back, just from Nico's face, he could tell what was about to happen. He frowned, but then leaned in close, "I'll be fine, angel. Lets go kick some butts"

Nico wanted to kiss him so bad. But he knelt and placed his hand on the ground. He felt the nearest graves, the bones of forgotten humans buried and scattered. He searched deeper, extending his senses into the Underworld. "Jules-Albert. Let's go."

The ground split. A zombie in a ragged nineteenth-century motoring outfit clawed his way to the surface. Leila stepped back. Dakota screamed like a kindergartner. Ajax laughed.

"What is that, man?" Dakota protested.

"This is my driver," Nico said. "Jules-Albert finished first in the Paris–Rouen motorcar race back in 1895, but he wasn't awarded the prize because his steam car used a stoker."

Leila stared at him. "What are you even talking about?"

"He's a restless soul, always looking for another chance to drive," Nico said. "The last few years, he's been my driver whenever I need one."

"You have a zombie chauffeur," Ajax said. "And you never told me? Bastard"

Usually, Nico would have loved to go shotgun, but he let Dakota get in on the passenger's side.

Reluctantly, the rest climbed in the back, Ajax trying not to touch shoulders with Leila.

One thing about Jules-Albert: he never got emotional. He could sit in crosstown traffic all day without losing his patience. He was immune to road rage. He could even drive straight up to an encampment of wild centaurs and navigate through them without getting nervous.

The centaurs were like nothing Nico had ever seen. They had back ends like palominos, tattoos all over their hairy arms and chests, and bullish horns protruding from their foreheads. Nico doubted they could blend in with humans as easily as Chiron did.

At least two hundred were sparring restlessly with swords and spears, or roasting animal carcasses over open fires (carnivorous centaurs... the idea made Nico shudder). Their camp spilled across the farm road that meandered around Camp Half-Blood's southeast perimeter.

The SUV nudged its way through, honking when necessary. Occasionally a centaur glared through the driver's side window, saw the zombie driver and backed away in shock.

"Pluto's pauldrons," Dakota muttered. "Even more centaurs arrived overnight."

"You guys will say anything except fuck" Ajax said, "What the fuck is a pauldron?"

"Don't make eye contact," Leila warned, ignoring Ajax. "They take that as a challenge for a duel to the death."

Nico stared straight ahead as the SUV pushed through. His heart was pounding, but he wasn't scared. He was angry. Octavian had surrounded Camp Half-Blood with monsters.

Sure, Nico had mixed emotions about the camp. He'd felt rejected there, out of place, unwanted and unloved... but now that it was on the verge of destruction, he realized how much it meant to him. This was the last place Bianca and he had shared as a home – the only place they'd ever felt safe, even if only temporarily.

Ajax grabbed his hand.

How must this feel for him? Someone who only came to camp once- in an attack. Maybe stayed a year before that. He had never felt accepted here either.

They rounded a bend in the road and Nico squeezed Ajax's hand tighter. More monsters... hundreds more. Dog-headed men prowled in packs, their poleaxes gleaming in the light of campfires. Beyond that milled a tribe of two-headed men dressed in rags and blankets like homeless guys, armed with a haphazard collection of slings, clubs and metal pipes.

"Octavian is an idiot," Nico hissed. "He thinks he can control these creatures?"

"They just kept showing up," Leila said. "Before we knew it... well, look."

The legion was arrayed at the base of Half-Blood Hill, its five cohorts in perfect order, its standards bright and proud. Giant eagles circled overhead. The siege weapons – six golden onagers the size of houses – were arrayed behind in a loose semicircle, three on each flank. But, for all its impressive discipline, the Twelfth Legion looked pitifully small, a splotch of demigod valour in a sea of ravenous monsters.

Nico wished he still had the sceptre of Diocletian, but he doubted a legion of dead warriors would make a dent in this army. Even the Argo II couldn't do much against this kind of strength.

"We have to disable the onagers," Nico said. "We don't have much time."

"You'll never get close to them," Leila warned. "Even if we get the entire Fourth and Fifth Cohorts to follow us, the other cohorts will try to stop us. And those siege weapons are manned by Octavian's most loyal followers."

"We won't get close by force," Nico agreed. "But Ajax and I can do it. Dakota, Leila – Jules-Albert will drive you to the legion lines. Get out, talk to your troops, convince them to follow your lead. I'll need a distraction."

Dakota frowned. "All right, but I'm not hurting any of my fellow legionnaires."

"No one's asking you to," Ajax said, "But if we don't stop this war the entire legion will be wiped out. You said the monster tribes take insult easily?"

"Yes," Dakota said. "I mean, for instance, you make any comment to those two-headed guys about the way they smell and... oh." He grinned. "If we started a brawl, by accident of course..."

"Don't die" Ajax said, "Kool aid contest, remember"

"I'll be counting on you," Nico told the two romans.

Leila frowned. "But how will you–"

"Nuh uh" Ajax held up a finger, "You're banned from shadow travelling, so shut up and let me do it"

With that, they faded into the shadows.