Child of Time

Chapter Fifteen: Nico, Master of Mythomagic

PERCY

I jump out of the car and stretch my legs.

"Man, that was a long drive." I look over my shoulder to see Thalia pulling an unconscious Annabeth out of the car.

"She's gonna drop." I tell her.

"Shut up, asshole." I frown at her and take a few steps and pick up Annabeth's legs.

"Feels like we're dragging a dead body." I whisper. "Where should we put it? Ocean? Bury it?"

Thalia gently puts Annabeth on the ground and walks over to me. Talk about rude. "We should bury you."

I pout. "But that's not fun." I walk to the other side of the car and open the passenger door. Luke, who was resting his head on the door, fell forward.

"What the hell?" He asks groggily. He looks around and sees me grinning at him.

"Wakey, wakey. We're here."

"Already?"

I look at him in disbelief. "What do you mean? We've been on the road for a whole day! Now hurry up so we can go find the Hades kids and get out." I walk away so he can get out the car and take out a cigarette from my pocket. Lighting it with my finger I put the end of it in my mouth.

"I'm so surprised I managed to not smoke in the car." I let out a sigh in relief as it begins to calm my nerves.

"If you had I would have slapped you." Annabeth says tiredly as I grin at her.

"That's why I didn't. I didn't think you guys would appreciate the car smelling like tobacco." The demigods shake their heads as we take a step to the doors of the casino. "They allow these in there right? It's a casino so they should."

Luke shrugs. "Beats me. I've never been, and I honestly don't want to if we could lose track of time and stay in there for days."

I put a hand on his shoulder. "And that's why you've got me. I'm your time." I frown. "That sounds weird, remind me to never say that again." He nods as I take my hand off his shoulder. "Okay peeps, whatever happens you guys cannot leave me. I will be there and trying to keep time going on track around us but I can't speak for the whole casino. You hear?" They nod and I smile sweetly. "Good, now lets go." I put my cigarette back in my mouth as I open the doors.

I took some rope out of my bag and tied my hand to Luke's and then his to Annabeth's then I tied Thalia's and Annabeth's together. They examine their hands in curiosity. "You weren't kidding when you said no straggling." Annabeth whispered as she looked at both of her hands.

"I was not. I don't feel like looking for missing demigods today." I pull along the rope and the three demigods follow close behind me. "Don't let them see the rope though." I whisper and we get closer together. I immediately regret my decision of having Luke next to me as our arms press together and my cheeks heat up.

Stupid human feelings. I grumble about humans and whatnot in attempt to cool down my face when a girl comes up to me. I put on a smile as she does the same to me.

"Hello. You must be new here."

I nod slowly. "We'll be staying for a little bit."

The girl's smile widens as she hands me four cards. "These will be for the games, food, and drinks or anything else you may need during your stay. Have fun kiddos." She smiles at us as I pull on Luke's hand to hurry up. I zoom past people in an attempt to get as far away from the girl as possible. Once I feel we got far enough I immediately let go of Luke's hand. "Sorry." I mumble. "I don't like Lotus Eaters."