THAT NIGHT, NICO SLEPT IN THE HADES CABIN.
He’d never had any desire to use the place before, but now he shared it with Hazel, which made all the difference.
It made him happy to live with a sister again – even if it was only for a few days, and even if Hazel insisted on partitioning her side of the room with sheets for privacy so it looked like a quarantine zone.
Just before curfew, Frank came to visit and spent a few minutes talking with Hazel in hushed tones.
Nico tried to ignore them. He stretched out in his bunk, which resembled a coffin – a polished mahogany frame, brass railings, blood-red velvet pillows and blankets. Nico hadn’t been present when they built this cabin. He definitely had not suggested these bunks. Apparently somebody thought the children of Hades were vampires, not demigods.
Finally Frank knocked on the wall next to Nico’s bed.
Nico looked over. Zhang stood so tall now. He seemed so … Roman.
‘Hey,’ Frank said. ‘We’ll be leaving in the morning. Just wanted to tell you thanks.’
Nico sat up in his bunk. ‘You did great, Frank. It’s been an honour.’
Frank smiled. ‘Honestly, I’m kind of surprised I lived through it. The whole magic firewood thing …’
Nico nodded. Hazel had told him all about the piece of firewood that controlled Frank’s lifeline. Nico took it as a good sign that Frank could talk about it openly now.
‘I can’t see the future,’ Nico told him, ‘but I can often tell when people are close to death. You’re not. I don’t know when that piece of firewood will burn up. Eventually, we all run out of firewood. But it won’t be soon, Praetor Zhang. You and Hazel … you’ve got a lot more adventures ahead of you. You’re just getting started. Be good to my sister, okay?’
Hazel walked up next to Frank and laced her hand with his. ‘Nico, you’re not threatening my boyfriend, are you?’
The two of them looked so comfortable together it made Nico glad. But it also it caused an ache in his heart – a ghostly pain, like an old war wound throbbing in bad weather.
‘No need for threats,’ Nico said. ‘Frank’s a good guy. Or bear. Or bulldog. Or –’
‘Oh, stop.’ Hazel laughed. Then she kissed Frank. ‘See you in the morning.’
‘Yeah,’ Frank said. ‘Nico … you sure you won’t come with us? You’ll always have a place in New Rome.’
‘Thanks, Praetor. Reyna said the same thing. But … no.’
‘I hope I’ll see you again?’
‘Oh, you will,’ Nico promised. ‘I’m going to be the flower boy at your wedding, right?’
‘Um …’ Frank got flustered, cleared his throat and shuffled off, running into the doorjamb on the way out.
Hazel crossed her arms. ‘You just had to tease him about that.’
She sat on Nico’s bunk. For a while they just stayed there in comfortable silence … siblings, children from the past, children of the Underworld.
‘I’m going to miss you,’ Nico said.
Hazel leaned over and rested her head on his shoulder. ‘You too, big brother. You will visit.’
He tapped the new officer’s badge that gleamed on her shirt. ‘Centurion of the Fifth Cohort now. Congratulations. Are there rules against centurions dating praetors?’
‘Shhh,’ Hazel said. ‘It’ll be a lot of work getting the legion back in shape, repairing the damage Octavian did. Dating regulations will be the least of my worries.’
‘You’ve come so far. You’re not the same girl I brought to Camp Jupiter. Your power with the Mist, your confidence –’
‘It’s all thanks to you.’
‘No,’ Nico said. ‘Getting a second life is one thing. Making it a better life, that’s the trick.’
As soon as he said it, Nico realized he could’ve been talking about himself. He decided not to bring that up.
Hazel sighed. ‘A second life. I just wish …’
She didn’t need to finish her thought. For the past two days, Leo’s disappearance had hovered like a cloud over the whole camp. Hazel and Nico had been reluctant to join the speculation about what had happened to him.
‘You felt his death, didn’t you?’ Hazel’s eyes were watery. Her voice was small.
‘Yeah,’ Nico admitted. ‘But I don’t know, Hazel. Something about it was … different.’
‘He couldn’t have taken the physician’s cure. Nothing could have survived that explosion. I thought … I thought I was helping Leo. I messed up.’
‘No. It is not your fault.’ But Nico wasn’t quite so ready to forgive himself. He’d spent the last forty-eight hours replaying the scene with Octavian at the catapult, wondering if he’d done wrong thing. Perhaps the explosive power of that projectile had helped destroy Gaia. Or perhaps it had unnecessarily cost Leo Valdez his life.
‘I just wish he hadn’t died alone,’ Hazel murmured. ‘There was no one with him, no one to give him that cure. There’s not even a body to bury …’
Her voice broke. Nico put his arm around her.
He held her as she wept. Eventually she fell asleep from exhaustion. Nico tucked her into his own bed and kissed her forehead. Then he went to the shrine of Hades in the corner – a little table decorated with bones and jewels.
‘I suppose,’ he said, ‘there’s a first time for everything.’
He knelt and prayed silently for his father’s guidance.
