Nico was worried.
When they emerged into the arid, smoky air of the Underworld, Will came to a stop, his hands on his hips, his breathing uneven.
Will looked … Well, it felt strange thinking that Will was paler than usual. Nico usually cornered the market on having a ghostly pallor. But Will had lost some of his colour. Was this what he looked like without exposure to sunlight?
It wasn’t just that detail, though. Will had been a little loopy and forgetful in the tunnel, and Nico believed that what everyone had been concerned
about was starting to happen. Deep in the Underworld, a child of Apollo would be affected more than anyone else. And they hadn’t even made it to Tartarus yet!
‘Take a moment to catch your breath,’ Nico told him.
Will rubbed at his eyes, as if willing them to adjust faster to the light. ‘I’m glad to be out of that tunnel,’ he said. ‘Where to next?’
Nico pushed down his fears because there was nothing he could do about them at the moment except care for Will. Even that role reversal was
starting to grate on him, mostly because he wasn’t used to it. Will always ran around camp (or any battlefield, really) doing whatever he could to
assist those in need. Now, though, Nico had to step up and assist Will, and it was a lot harder than he’d expected.
That didn’t stop him from trying, though. ‘First, sit and rest,’ he said. ‘I want you to drink a little nectar.’
Will didn’t argue. He plopped down on a boulder and lay back before partaking of the nectar Nico offered him.
‘Guess I’m more tired than I thought,’ he said.
‘It was a long journey,’ said Screech-Bling, but Nico could tell the trog
was also concerned about Will. ‘We will give you some time,’ he continued. ‘Come, Hiss-Majesty. We shall hunt for lizards.’
The troglodytes darted off in an impossible blur, leaving Nico and Will alone on a low ridge overlooking the broken hills of Erebos. They had
somehow navigated under the Styx and across the borders of the land of the dead, coming up deep inside Hades’s territory, in an area Nico was pretty
sure he’d never visited.
‘What is it like?’ Will asked.
Nico followed his gaze to Hades’s shadowy palace, its obsidian fortifications still dominating the landscape even at this distance. Above the turrets, dark shapes swirled – perhaps the Furies, or skeletal pegasi from
Hades’s stables. Nico felt a pang of longing. He was so close to his
Underworld home – to safety and comfort – but it was the one place he couldn’t go right now.
‘Father modelled his palace after Olympus,’ he said, his hand on Will’s shoulder. ‘He felt so left out by the other gods, he basically made a mirror image of their headquarters. It’s very different, though. I don’t know if this will make sense, but it’s … less pretentious?’
Will tilted his head. ‘I’m not sure I get that, but I like the idea of it.’ ‘I think it’s because it’s just for him. So there’s this genuineness to
everything. He may have copied Olympus, but he put his own spin on it.’
Will gazed at the distant towers. ‘But you didn’t spend much time there growing up, did you? I’m not sure I could.’
No, Nico thought. You couldn’t.
‘Bianca and I travelled all over with our mother. Hades visited us, though. So, no, I didn’t grow up in his palace, but he was in my life.’
‘Wow,’ said Will. ‘I didn’t even know about my heritage until I was ten, and I didn’t meet Apollo for years after that.’
‘He didn’t reveal himself after you got attacked by pigeons?’ Will scowled. ‘They were Stymphalian birds!’
‘Which looked exactly like pigeons.’
‘Anyway,’ continued Will, ‘maybe if we get through this quest … when we get through this quest –’ he took a deep breath – ‘we should visit your father’s palace sometime?’
Nico raised an eyebrow. ‘Are you joking?’
‘No. Why would I be? I think maybe it’s time.’
A smile grew on Nico’s face. He recalled the relief he’d felt when Will had been kind to Hiss-Majesty before entering the tunnel. Will was making an effort, wasn’t he?
‘I suppose it’s only fair,’ said Nico, ‘after I spent all that time hanging out with your dad.’
‘To be actually fair, my dad was a teenager at the time, so I don’t know how much that counts.’
Nico hesitated. ‘But do you really want to meet mine?’
Will looked up at him. ‘Of course. He’s important to you … so he’s important to me.’
In moments like this, the harder parts of being in a relationship with a child of Apollo were easy to forget. Will was so quick to be kind. There
wasn’t an insincere bone in his body. So Nico sat on the ground in front of Will and leaned against him, comforted by his presence and loyalty and
warmth.
‘Okay, then,’ Nico said. ‘Next time, we’ll visit my father.’
‘The son of Apollo wishes to meet Hades?’ said Screech-Bling, startling both Nico and Will.
The CEO and Hiss-Majesty had rematerialized as quickly as they’d vanished, each now clutching fistfuls of dead lizards. Nico had no idea where they’d found them.
Screech-Bling tossed one in the air, then caught it in his mouth,
swallowing with gusto. ‘This is fascinating to me,’ he continued. ‘We troglodytes are not afraid of Hades, of course. CLICK! We are brave and fierce. But –’
‘We prefer to be brave and fierce from a distance,’ finished Hiss-Majesty.
The two trogs sat next to Nico and Will and gazed at Hades’s palace while they finished their meal. It was … nice, actually.
A nice moment in the Underworld. Even Will seemed to relax, though he turned down Hiss-Majesty’s offer to share their dead lizards.
Finally, Hiss-Majesty straightened their foam cheese hat, making sure it was sitting at the same angle as Will’s. ‘I think we should continue,’ they said. ‘If you’re ready, GRRR. We just have to make it past one more obstacle before we reach the shortcut to Tartarus.’
‘One more obstacle?’ Will squared his shoulders. ‘Well, I can do one
more. What is it, exactly?’
‘The farm,’ said Screech-Bling. ‘We have to make it through the farm.’ He said the word farm as if it were a new form of torture in the Fields of
Punishment.
‘People farm here?’ said Will. ‘How? There’s no sunlight.’
And, just like that, Nico’s creeping dread reappeared. It was two-pronged: first, he was annoyed that, once again, Will couldn’t seem to imagine life in the Underworld. Second, a memory started to surface from the depths of Nico’s mind … a vague recollection of something Hades had told him about a farm, during the same trip when Nico had found Hazel Levesque, his half-sister, wandering the Fields of Asphodel.
What had Hades warned him about? Nico wished he could contact Hazel – she’d probably have the answer. She had a better memory.
As Nico and Will followed the trogs, he thought about how much he missed Hazel. He was learning to make peace with that feeling. It was okay for him to miss people because that meant he wanted them around in his life. That idea was very new for him – he was used to either pushing people away or watching them recoil from his presence. There was a time when he’d even tried to push Will away. Where would he be now if he’d actually followed through with that?
Screech-Bling led the way, following a ravine that snaked between granite hills like a dry riverbed. Nico quickly lost all frame of reference. He knew his father’s palace was to the north, beyond the Fields of Asphodel, but this landscape looked totally unfamiliar. No spirits drifted across these hills. No wails of the damned filled the air – just the crunch of their feet on the gravel. The only illumination came from patches of blue lichen on the hillsides, which made Nico feel like he was walking through a crime scene being inspected under UV light for blood splatters. Ugh. He’d been listening to too many of Will’s beloved true-crime podcasts. (Another thing Nico didn’t understand about his sunny-natured boyfriend.)
Will shuffled along behind him, his pace slower than before. He was humming again, and the melody floated over to Nico, wrapping itself
around him, almost as if Will were sending out his energy as a way to stay connected even while they were barely a metre apart.
Though Nico wanted Will to preserve his energy, he was perfectly fine with the comforting sensation of the music. He guessed he would just have to monitor Will for excessive glowing.
At last, they crested the ridge of a hill. Below, a sprawling patchwork of fields and orchards stretched to the horizon, and then the whole ‘farm’ thing started to make sense.
Rows of towering grey trees bristled with scarlet flowers. Ghostly farmhands wove through the orchards, some hammering syrup taps into the trunks while others carried buckets on yokes across their shoulders. In the pastures, herds of jet-black cattle grazed on yellow grass.
‘Cows,’ Will grumbled. ‘Those aren’t related to tauri silvestres, are they?’
Before Nico could answer, he was distracted by movement in the nearest orchard. From the shadows of the trees, an enormous humanoid creature
emerged.
Nico’s heart sank.
Now, too late, he realized where they were and who they were facing.
The creature had the head of a red Angus bull, the shirtless torso of a muscular man with crimson skin, and black leather pants over dark work boots.
‘Minotaur!’ Will yelped, assuming a defensive stance. ‘Should we run?’ ‘That’s not the Minotaur,’ said Nico. ‘And no, we should not run.’
The bull-man sprinted up the hill, charging straight towards them. ‘Um, you sure about that?’ Will asked.
‘He will not attack you!’ Screech-Bling promised cheerfully. ‘It is much worse than that!’
Nico sighed. ‘He’s a demon, Will, and he doesn’t want to fight us. He wants –’
The bull-man skidded to a stop right in front of them, panting heavily. ‘Oh, good!’ he bellowed, his voice so deep it rattled Nico’s teeth. ‘I am
so glad I spotted you, because you are not going anywhere!’
‘I want to make it clear that I didn’t actually know what I was doing,’ said Nico. ‘Like, we have to establish that.’
Gorgyra tilted her head. ‘There is no judgement here.’
‘I was mostly saying that to Will, because he loves teasing me about this.’
‘Only every once in a while!’ said Will. Then he raised his hand to the side of his mouth and stage-whispered to Gorgyra, ‘I do it all the time.’
‘Look,’ said Nico, ‘you know what Camp Half-Blood really needs to be teaching us?’
Gorgyra shook her head.
‘We need courses on human emotions,’ said Nico. ‘Classes on how to come out, how to talk about feelings, how to ask a cute boy on a date –’
‘You did just fine,’ said Will.
‘Well, I definitely didn’t intend to come out and ask you on a date in front of the whole camp!’
Will started laughing, but it quickly turned to a deep, shaking cough.
Nico put his arm around his boyfriend’s waist.
Will held up a hand. ‘I’m fine.’
‘No, you’re not.’ Nico frowned at Gorgyra. ‘He’s getting worse. We need that boat now. We’ve wasted too much time!’
The lines tightened around Gorgyra’s eyes. ‘Stories are never a waste of time, son of Hades. We are all of us made of stories.’
‘Just keep going,’ Will said, waving his hand.
Nico sat back down with a grunt. ‘Anyway,’ he said, looking back to
Gorgyra, ‘I was terrified to tell Will the truth. Every time I was around him, I thought I was gonna burst into flames.’
Will wiped his forehead. ‘You had me fooled. I thought I was the one who was obviously a mess.’
Nico shook his head. ‘Not at all. Even though I sensed there was
something there, it was still frightening to think about … I don’t know.
Declaring it. And not knowing how anyone – not just Will – would react.’ ‘Not that Camp Half-Blood is full of bigots or anything,’ Will said,
leaning towards Gorgyra. ‘It’s just that … well, in our world, you learn to tread carefully. You never know if someone’s feelings will change towards you once you tell them who you really are.’
Nico let the silence grow before he spoke. ‘It happened to me once, a long time ago,’ he said. ‘All because of a harmless thing I said about my Mythomagic cards.’
‘Wait, really?’ Will asked. ‘You never told me this.’
One side of Nico’s lip curled up. ‘Well, I have to start sharing sometime, right? I can’t keep my whole past a mystery from you.’
‘Nico, you don’t –’
He raised a hand. ‘I actually want to tell you.’ Will scooted closer. ‘Okay.’
‘It was right after we’d moved to the States from Italy,’ Nico said. ‘We
were living in Washington, DC, and I had a deck of Mythomagic cards with me at school –’
‘You had Mythomagic cards back in the 1940s?’
Nico sighed. ‘Yes, Will. We didn’t have mobile phones or the Internet, but we did have Mythomagic cards.’
‘Wow, Grandpa.’ ‘Shut up.’
Will chuckled, snuggling closer.
‘Anyway,’ Nico continued, ‘thinking about it now, I don’t even know that I recognized my own feelings about being gay. It just … happened? But I
was playing with this kid, Henry Whittaker, and I made a comment about how pretty Ares looked on his card.’
‘Ares?’ Will raised an eyebrow. ‘Really?’
Nico rolled his eyes. ‘I was, like, eight years old, Will.’ ‘At least I had the foresight to find Hermes attractive.’ ‘Hermes? Are you kidding me? Who goes for Hermes?’ ‘I do,’ said Will.
‘Wow, you really do like underdogs,’ muttered Nico.
‘Boys …’ said Gorgyra, bowing her head towards them in a slight admonishment.
‘Sorry,’ said Nico, but then he shook his head at Will. ‘Hermes.’ ‘I thought this was a safe space,’ Will said, smiling.
‘Hmph.’ Nico was glad to see Will smile, but his heart still fluttered with nerves. ‘So, once I said that about Ares, Henry looked at me funny. He told me I was weird. He didn’t call me names or anything, but he never hung out with me again. I got the message loud and clear: Don’t do that. Don’t feel that. Don’t even think that.’
‘Wow,’ said Will. ‘I had no idea.’
Nico let out his tension in a long breath. Anytime someone suspected that Nico wasn’t straight or every time he shared too much about himself, he felt like this – like a ticking bomb, or a draught of air that teased at a fire.
But with Will … he was safe. Will wouldn’t turn on him, or abandon him, or start saying nasty things behind his back.
Thinking about that, Nico made a connection. For the first time, he realized something about a part of himself, and instead of stamping it out, instead of shoving it down into the darkness to fester, he shared it.
‘That’s why I had such a negative reaction to Cupid,’ he said.
He gave Gorgyra a brief summary of what had happened a couple of years earlier, how Cupid had forced Nico to come out as some twisted form of honesty. ‘I was terrified that Jason was going to leave me there in
Croatia,’ he said. ‘I completely believed it, too. Why wouldn’t he? In that moment, I think Jason knew more about me than any other person on Earth.’
‘But he stayed,’ said Will softly. ‘He stayed, and so did the rest of us.’ ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘But that experience still hurts. I know it would have been
a while before I felt comfortable enough to come out to Jason, but it still should have been left up to me. It should have been my choice.’
‘It is unfair when we are coerced to reveal ourselves,’ said Gorgyra. ‘This is why it is important that whatever souls share with me is freely given.’
‘Consent,’ said Will, nodding. ‘It helps people feel safe.’
Gorgyra tipped her head to the side. ‘Nico, I wonder … why are you telling me all this? You do not know me at all, and you are corporeal. You are not a lonely soul in the Acheron.’
‘Well, I figured you could be trusted,’ Nico said after some thought. ‘I mean, most gods and immortal creatures aren’t homophobic. How can they
be after being alive for so long?’
‘Like my dad,’ said Will. ‘He’s fallen in love with people of all genders.’ ‘Exactly,’ said Nico. ‘Plus … you’re all the way down here, Gorgyra.
Homophobia? In the land of the dead?’ He scoffed. ‘It just seems silly to judge a person’s s*xuality when they’re dead.’
Gorgyra’s face glowed with satisfaction. Her dress flowed and
whispered, like voices calling out. What were they saying? What were they asking of Nico?
He thought he knew.
‘I finally got to make the choice myself,’ he said. ‘I mean, it came about because of a misunderstanding, but, still, I chose.’
Will squeezed his hand. ‘The date.’
Nico looked at Gorgyra. ‘I asked the satyrs and nymphs at Camp Half-
Blood to set up a picnic for me and Will. I thought that’s how you were
supposed to do it! That’s how it is in the movies. You make these intimate romantic gestures, and everything goes as planned, and –’
‘And then the satyrs accidentally orchestrated a camp-wide coming-out party for Nico,’ finished Will.
Nico groaned. ‘Gorgyra, I thought they were going to set up the food in some out-of-the-way grove in the woods, so imagine my surprise when I pass the dining pavilion on a regular Thursday afternoon and there are flower wreaths hanging everywhere. Picnic baskets at every table. The
nymphs are dressed up in their finest greenery, and Juniper greets me with a crown of holly!’
‘You looked so cute in that,’ said Will.
‘And then they sat me at the head table, and I still didn’t get what was going on. I worried I was going to be late to my picnic with Will!’
Nico glanced over and was surprised to find his boyfriend glowing again.
Not as brightly as before – more of a soft aurora flickering over his body.
Nico worried that Will might be wasting precious energy, but Will’s skin no longer looked waxy. His face was no longer sickly and pale.
So Nico kept talking.
‘When all the campers had gathered, Juniper announced that it was a special day. I had an announcement to make. Mind you, I was terrified. I had finally realized what they’d done, and even though it was an honest mistake, I was still upset. This wasn’t what I’d wanted!’
‘But you went through with it,’ said Gorgyra. ‘Why? What changed?’
Nico was quiet for a moment. ‘I decided I could own it,’ he said. ‘Do it my way. I could not only tell Will that I was gay and that I liked him, but I could tell everyone. If I was going to stay at Camp Half-Blood, I needed to know that I could be myself there, that I didn’t have to hide in the shadows all the time.’
‘You do like the shadows, though,’ joked Will.
Nico nudged him with his shoulder. ‘Shush. This is my coming-out story, Will.’
‘I mean, it’s technically mine, too!’
‘That’s true.’ Nico smiled at the memory. ‘Some of your cabinmates were
very shocked by the revelation.’
‘Not Kayla or Austin, though. They were thrilled, but they’d both noticed me staring at you multiple times.’
‘What was it like, Nico?’
The question from Gorgyra caught him off guard. ‘What was what like?’ ‘The moment. Revealing your truth.’
He gazed back at Will, into his warm blue eyes.
‘Terrifying,’ he said. ‘The whole dining pavilion went silent, and I remember standing up and clearing my throat, and then I didn’t say anything for like … half a minute. And then … it was like a dam had broken. I just talked.’
Will nodded. ‘I remember you being kinda defensive at first,’ he said. ‘Telling us all that you knew everyone talked about you, that you knew you hadn’t been around all that much. It was like … like you were anticipating every possible argument or criticism.’
Nico’s eyes welled with tears. ‘But none of those worst-case scenarios happened. Instead, I told the whole camp I was gay, that I was sick of hiding the truth, that I liked Will Solace and wanted to go on a date with him. And there were no meteor showers or explosions. No mass exodus from Camp Half-Blood.’
He turned to Will. ‘Do you remember what you said, Night Light?’
Will rolled his eyes. ‘I do, Death Boy. I told you that you didn’t have to throw a party. I would have said yes if you’d just asked me.’
‘Again, I did not throw a party on purpose!’
‘But I didn’t know that at the time,’ said Will. ‘I was so impressed. You didn’t seem like the party type, and you’d gone through all that just to tell me you liked me? It helped, Nico.’
‘Helped what?’
‘Helped make it easier for me,’ he said. ‘To be able to say who I am. Me agreeing to go on a date with you wasn’t just me saying I thought you were cute. Which is very true!’
‘Ew, gross,’ said Nico, but he couldn’t suppress his smile.
‘It was my chance to stop hiding as well.’ Will’s glowing skin brightened. ‘Do you know how many others have felt comfortable coming into their own because of you, Nico?’
‘What? What are you talking about?’
‘Paolo. Malcolm Pace. Jake Mason. And it’s not just in Camp Half-
Blood! Piper is just as thankful for you as the others. None of them would have been able to be out if you hadn’t gone first.’
Heat rose in Nico’s cheeks. He hadn’t ever thought of it that way – he’d just been trying to be himself.
‘We often don’t see the effects we have on others,’ said Gorgyra. ‘In the moment, all that matters is ourselves. But you, Nico di Angelo … Do you not see what you are surrounded by?’
The whispers rose again, and this time Nico sensed a desperation in them.
No, that wasn’t right. It was envy.
‘Come,’ she said, rising from her rocky seat. ‘I have promised you a boat, and you have given me more than enough stories.’
Nico helped Will stand, and his boyfriend swayed a bit before steadying himself against Nico.
Gorgyra’s silver eyes seemed sad. Did she not want them to go? Nico imagined that this had to be hard for her, knowing her nature, and a burst of pity hit him.
He glanced over at Will, who had stopped glowing. Even so, he definitely looked better than he had before they’d begun telling stories. Nico
examined the gauze on Will’s leg. The bleeding seemed to have stopped.
Nico didn’t quite understand it, but the stories had somehow accelerated Will’s healing.
They walked towards the river, Will limping. Before they reached the
shore, Will stumbled. Nico sat him down on at the edge of the dock. Maybe another story would help?
‘Hey.’ He put his face close to Will’s. ‘Do you remember the first time you kissed me?’
