Nico's Quest

Chapter6

At first Anubis didn't even recognize the emotion that flooded his connection with Nico. It was only after looking at his host that he was able to figure out what it was: terror.

Nico's fists were clenched in a white-knuckled grip. His face, always pale, had gone a few shades lighter, so he looked eerily similar to a corpse. His eyes were wide and glassy and his breaths were coming in gasps.

"Nico?" asked Anubis, trying to mask his alarm.

Just as quickly as the terror had come, it was replaced by something else. A tidal wave of willpower and determination. Anubis watched as Nico made a monumental effort to fight down his fear, and he couldn't help but be impressed.

"What?" asked Nico in an almost normal voice. There was only the slightest waver in his tone, and his face looked normal again too. Only his hands remained clenched, and it was at those that Anubis looked at pointedly, to direct Nico's attention to them.

"Oh." Nico unclenched them and held them up. A trickle of black blood was oozing from one of them, where his nails had dug too far into his skin. "Oops."

"Are you okay?" asked Anubis.

"Yeah. Fine."

"You didn't look fine," said Bast.

Nico gave her a blistering look. "No one asked you."

"You are scared of Aziza," said Anubis.

"No," returned Nico.

"You are."

"Am not."

"There's no shame in it."

"I said I'm not freaking scared of her!" shouted Nico, his composure starting to fray.

Anubis could feel how badly Nico wanted that to be true, but he could also feel that it was a lie. It made him feel a bit bad, considering how hard Nico was trying to keep it hidden, but secrets between the two of them were very difficult to keep.

"She did kidnap and torture you," said Anubis, keeping his voice low. "She almost killed you, twice."

"Almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades," said Nico. "Speaking of which, that might be a good birthday present for Sadie. The hand grenades, I mean, not the horseshoes. Sure, she's got some powerful magic, but I think there are some situations that really just call for a good, old fashioned explosion that comes out of nowhere -"

"Stop trying to change the subject."

"I don't want to talk about Aziza," said Nico.

"If this is how you're going to act when she's just mentioned then how bad is it going to be when you actually confront her?" demanded Anubis.

"Oh, don't worry," said Nico. His eyes took on a hard light. "I'll deal with her, just you wait."

Anubis was hesitant to bring his next point up, especially in front of Bast, but felt like he had to. "You froze during your last encounter with her."

"I did not."

"Yes you did. When Percy and Carter broke you and Sadie out of that prison, before you got into the boat, you froze. The others didn't notice so much because Percy was battling it out with Aziza and Carter was trying to summon the boat, but you were paralyzed by your fear."

Nico folded his arms over his chest. "Okay . . . maybe I was scared of her, but now I'm just mad. And I'm not going to let her and her demon buddies destroy Brooklyn House. Next time I see her, I'm taking her out."

Anubis opened his mouth to say something else, but Bast held up a hand, stopping him. "Let it be," she said.

"Alright," conceded Anubis, even though he knew this wasn't over. He hoped that Nico would be okay when he confronted Aziza, but if he wasn't, Anubis wouldn't let him go through it alone. If Anubis had to, he could take over. Nico would hate it, but at least he'd be alive to hate it.