──── chapter sixteen

{ 🔮 }  · and they tell the story. . . . ݁ ٬٬ ࣪

COMPARED TO MOUNT OLYMPUS, Manhattan was quiet. Friday before Christmas, but it was early in the morning, and hardly anyone was on Fifth Avenue. Argus, the many-eyed security chief, picked up Endora, Annabeth, Grover, and Percy at the Empire State Building and ferried them back to camp through a light snowstorm. The Long Island Expressway was almost deserted.

As they trudged back up Half-Blood Hill to the pine tree where the Golden Fleece glittered, Endora half expected to see Thalia there, waiting for them. But she wasn't. She was long gone with Artemis and the rest of the Hunters, off on their next adventure.

But there were people waiting there. Endora was greeted with a bear hug from both of her siblings as they hugged each other, breathing a sigh of relief finally having their sister in their arms again. It took everything in the girl not to break down in front of them after the fight she had with their brother ─ betrayal that she experienced like bullets into her soft skin. The girl gripped Basil's shoulders, kissing the crown of his head before she kissed Lou Ellen's cheek, stroking the cheek with her free hand. They were everything she needed; they were her family and she will make sure nothing happens to them, even if that meant hiding stuff from them.

Everything to keep them safe.

Chiron greeted them at the Big House with hot chocolate and toasted cheese sandwiches. Grover went off with his satyr friends to spread the word about their strange encounter with the magic of Pan. Within an hour, the satyrs were all running around agitated, asking where the nearest espresso bar was.

Endora, Annabeth and Percy sat with Chiron and some of the other senior campers ─ Fredrick, Lee, Beckendorf, Silena Beauregard, and the Stoll brothers. Even Clarisse from the Ares cabin was there, back from her scouting mission. Endora knew she must've had a difficult quest, because she didn't even try to pulverize any of them. She had a new scar on her chin, and her dirty blond hair had been cut short and ragged, like someone had attacked it with a pair of safety scissors.

"I got news," she mumbled uneasily. "Bad news."

"I'll fill you in later," Chiron said with forced cheerfulness. "The important thing is you have prevailed. And you saved Annabeth!"

Annabeth smiled at Endora and Percy gratefully. From the corner of her eye, the girl saw Fredrick looking at the blonde girl with an unreadable expression. He looked away quickly as he caught Endora's eye. The girl tilted her head a bit ─ his heartbeat rose, she could feel it from where she sat next to the son of Poseidon.

 "Luke is alive," Percy said. "Endora and Annabeth were right."

Endora raised an eyebrow, "You were eavesdropping, Water Boy."

"I was not ─ wait, what did you call me?"

"Water boy." she answered, "You have problem with it?"

"I never said I did."

Annabeth sat up, cutting the two. "How do you know?"

Percy told them what his dad had said about the Princess Andromeda.

"Well." Annabeth shifted uncomfortably in her chair. "If the final battle does come when Percy is sixteen, at least we have two more years to figure something out."

Chiron's expression was gloomy. Sitting by the fire in his wheelchair, he looked really old. Well. . . he was really old, but he usually didn't look it. 

"Two years may seem like a long time," he said. "But it is the blink of an eye. I still hope you are not the child of the prophecy, Percy. But if you are, then the second Titan war is almost upon us. Kronos's first strike will be here."

"How do you know?" Percy asked. "Why would he care about camp?"

"Because the gods use heroes as their tools," Chiron said simply. "Destroy the tools, and the gods will be crippled. Luke's forces will come here. Mortal, demigod, monstrous. . . We must be prepared. Clarisse's news may give us a clue as to how they will attack, but ─ "

There was a knock on the door, and Nico di Angelo came huffing into the parlor, his cheeks bright red from the cold. He was smiling, but he looked around anxiously. "Hey! Where's. . . where's my sister?"

Dead silence. Endora felt her throat closed up slowly. The painful memory of their late friend lingered in her mind, like a reminder of what they had done. She couldn't believe nobody had told him yet. And then she realized why. They'd been waiting for them to appear, to tell Nico in person.

She felt sick.

"Hey, Nico." Percy got up from the comfortable chair. Endora, without much thinking, grabbed his hand. The boy looked down at her tearful eyes and nodded slowly, reading her expression. She got up too. "Let's take a walk, okay? We need to talk."

Nico took the news in silence, which somehow made it worse. Percy kept talking, trying to explain how it had happened, how Bianca had sacrificed herself to save the quest. But Endora feltlike the boy was only making things worse.

There was tension surrounding the young boy. Hatred, anger, betrayal. Was this how she looked upon seeing her brother?

"She wanted you to have this." Percy brought out the little god figurine Bianca had found in the junkyard.

Nico held it in his palm and stared at it.

The three of them were standing at the dining pavilion, just where Percy and Nico had last spoken before Percy went on the quest. The wind was bitter cold, even with the camp's magical weather protection. Snow fell lightly against the marble steps. The girl hugged the jacket Fredrick had given her tighter around her body, but it didn't help much. Endora figured outside the camp borders, there must be a blizzard happening.

"You promised you would protect her," Nico said, looking straight at Percy. 

"Nico," Percy said. "I tried. But Bianca gave herself up to save the rest of us. I told her not to. But she ─ "

"You promised!" he glared at the son of Poseidon, his eyes rimmed with red. He closed his small fist around the god statue. "I shouldn't have trusted you." his voice broke. "You lied to me. My nightmares were right!"

Endora stopped in her tracks, her eyes snapped towards the young boy, "Wait." she said for the first time since they left the Big House, "What nightmares?" 

Nico flung the god statue to the ground. It clattered across the icy marble. "I hate you!"

Endora didn't know who he was talking to.

"She might be alive," Percy said desperately. "I don't know for sure ─ "

"She's dead." he closed his eyes. His whole body trembled with rage. "I should've known it earlier. She's in the Fields of Asphodel, standing before the judges right now, being evaluated. I can feel it."

Endora felt her heart beating rapidly against her ribcage. Realization dawned on her and it was not good.

"What do you mean, you can feel it?" Percy asked, looking at Endora for some kind of an answer.

Before he could answer, the girl heard a new sound behind them. A hissing, clattering noise Endora recognized all too well. Nico gasped as he looked behind the pair. Endora and Percy whirled and found themselves facing four skeleton warriors. They grinned fleshless grins and advanced with swords drawn. The witch wasn't sure how they'd made it inside the camp, but it didn't matter. 

"You're trying to kill me!" Nico screamed. "You brought these. . . these things?"

"No! I mean, yes, they followed me, but no! Nico, run. They can't be destroyed."

"I don't trust you!"

"Yeah, well, the world is cruel, but right now, you need to run." Endora said as her fingers sparked. She didn't waste time into trusting her hand up and closing her fist, sending one of the skeletons erupt into flames. The other one came towards her side, and with her other hand she did the same. Two more were left.

"Run, Nico!" Percy yelled. "Get help!"

"No!" he pressed his hands to his ears. "No!" Nico shouted louder. "Go away!"

The ground rumbled beneath Endora. The skeletons froze. Percy grabbed the girl by her waist and pulled her away just as a crack opened at the feet of the two warriors. The ground ripped apart like a snapping mouth. Flames erupted from the fissure, and the earth swallowed the skeletons in one loud CRUNCH!

Silence.

In the place where the skeletons had stood, a twenty-foot-long scar wove across the marble floor of the pavilion. Otherwise there was no sign of the warriors.

Awestruck, Percy looked to Nico. "How did you ─ "

"Go away!" he yelled. "I hate you! I wish you were dead!"

The ground didn't swallow Endora or Percy up, but Nico ran down the steps, heading toward the woods. Endora shook herself from Percy's grip and went to follow the boy but slipped and fell to the icy steps. Percy grabbed her before she met the ground and Endora noticed what she'd slipped on.

With shaky hands, the girl picked up the god statue Bianca had retrieved from the junkyard for Nico. The only statue he didn't have, she'd said. A last gift from his sister. 

Percy and Endora stared at it with dread, because now she understood why the face looked familiar. They both had seen it before on different occasions.

It was a statue of Hades, Lord of the Dead. 

Annabeth, Fredrick and Grover helped Endora and Percy search the woods for hours, but there was no sign of Nico di Angelo.

"We have to tell Chiron," Annabeth said, out of breath.

"No," Percy said. 

Everyone stared at the boy.

"Um, dude," Fredrick said nervously, "what do you mean. . . no?"

Percy was still trying to figure out why he'd said that, but the words spilled out of him. "We can't let anyone know. I don't think anyone realizes that Nico is a ─ "

"A son of Hades," Annabeth said. "Percy, do you have any idea how serious this is? Even Hades broke the oath! This is horrible!"

"I don't think so," Percy said. "I don't think Hades broke the oath."

"What?"

Endora caught her breath, "Yes! He's their dad, but Bianca and Nico have been out of commission for a longtime, since even before World War II."

"The Lotus Casino!" Grover said, and he told Annabeth and Fredrick ( who now became a part of their group ) about the conversations they'd had with Bianca on the quest. "She and Nico were stuck there for decades. They were born before the oath was made." 

"But how did they get out?" Annabeth protested.

"I don't know," Percy admitted. "Bianca said a lawyer came and got them and drove them to Westover Hall. I don't know who that could've been, or why. Maybe it's part of this Great Stirring thing. I don't think Nico understands who he is. But we can't go telling anyone. Not even Chiron. If the Olympians find out ─ "

"It might start them fighting among each other again," Endora said. "That's the last thing we need." 

Grover looked worried. "But you can't hide things from the gods. Not forever."

"I don't need forever," Percy said. "Just two years. Until I'm sixteen."

Annabeth paled. "But, Percy, this means the prophecy might not be about you. It might be about Nico. We have to ─ "

"No," Percy said. "I choose the prophecy. It will be about me."

"Why are you saying that?" Endora asked. "You want to be responsible for the whole world?"

It was the last thing Percy wanted, but he didn't say that. The boy knew he had to step up and claim it.

"I can't let Nico be in any more danger," Percy said. "I owe that much to his sister. I. . . let them both down. I'm not going to let that poor kid suffer any more."

"The poor kid who hates you and wants to see you dead," Fredrick reminded him.

"Maybe we can find him," Percy said. "We can convince him it's okay, hide him someplace safe." 

Annabeth shivered. "If Luke gets hold of him ─ "

"Luke won't," son of Poseidon said. "I'll make sure he's got other things to worry about. Namely, me." 

Endora wasn't sure Chiron believed the story Endora, Fredrick, Annabeth and Percy told him. She thinks he could tell they was holding something back about Nico's disappearance, but in the end, he accepted it. Unfortunately, Nico wasn't the first half-blood to disappear.

"So young," Chiron sighed, his hands on the rail of the front porch. "Alas, I hope he was eaten by monsters. Much better than being recruited into the Titans' army."

That idea made Endora really uneasy. Chiron looked towards her and she didn't meet his eye. She knew they were going to talk about her encounter with her brother.

"You really think the first attack will be here?" Percy asked.

Chiron stared at the snow falling on the hills. Endora could see smoke from the dragon guardian at the pine tree, the glitter of the distant Fleece.

"It will not be until summer, at least," Chiron said. This winter will be hard. . . the hardest for many centuries. It's best that you go home to the city, Percy; try to keep your mind on school. And rest. You will need rest."

The boy looked at Endora. "What about you? Staying here?"

Endora hummed, "Yeah, this is my home after all. And I would never leave Lou Ellen and Basil alone after what happened. . ."

"Do they. . . ?"

"They don't need to know about it," Endora shook her head, "It's better they don't. I don't want them to panic or try something irrational."

"Don't do it too," Percy said, looking at her; earthen eyes meeting sea-green, "Stay in the Camp. It's safe here, or safe as it can be."

The girl laughed, "I won't, I promise. Going to train a bit with my sword, come up with new spells and potions, and. . . get the hold of my emotions. Wow, that's a lot."

"Keep in contact, okay," Percy said, before grabbing a pieces of paper laying on the table and writing something down with the pen, "We're trying to be friends, aren't we? And feel free to visit if you want. Here's the address or I can just come here and take you out. You're not getting rid off me that easily."

"Oh, how lucky I am." Endora playfully rolled her eyes, but there was a smile painted on her face.

"Very," Percy grinned, "All right. Just take care of yourself. And no crazy spells."

She smiled tentatively. "Deal. And ─ " 

Suddenly, Grover stumbled out of the Big House, tripping over tin cans. His face was haggard and pale, like he'd seen a specter.

"He spoke.'" Grover cried.

"Calm down, my young satyr," Chiron said, frowning. "What is the matter?"

"I. . . I was playing music in the parlor," he stammered, "and drinking coffee. Lots and lots of coffee! And he spoke in my mind!"

"Who?" Endora demanded, furrowing her eyebrows.

"Pan!" Grover wailed. "The Lord of the Wild himself. I heard him! I have to. . . I have to find a suitcase."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Percy said. "What did he say?"

Grover stared at him. "Just three words. He said, 'I await you. . .'"

niki speaks!

and that is the end of the titan's curse!!
wow, i can't believe we're already
done with act i of this story.
i gotta say, endora is my favorite
character i have written about,
shortly followed by amaryllis monroe
from my stranger things fanfic.
i love them both sm !

percy and endora getting into that friendship
aphrodite made them (number one shipper
i say ), she loves to make
it hard for them, but what's new.

have a nice day/night!
i'll see you next week with next act!
bye!