Page 157 of The Sun and the Star

Nico stepped forward, past Bob’s objections, to get a better look at the cacodemons that trailed Nyx like she was leading a parade.

‘I made one from each terrible, dark part of you,’ she said, then nodded down at the closest one, the one with gnarled antlers on its head. ‘Go ahead. Meet your children.’

‘Nico,don’t,’ begged Will. ‘Let’s just leave, okay?’

‘No,’ he said. ‘No, I can’t abandon them.’

He stuck out his hand.

The horned cacodemon skittered forward, its pupilless eyes glowing. It pressed its nose into his palm and sniffed him.

And memories flashed in Nico’s mind:

Camp Half-Blood. The dining pavilion. Percy. ‘She wanted you to have this.’

The forests outside camp. The pit in his stomach. Jason …

Nico jerked back and fell on his butt. The cacodemon skittered away.

He looked up to Nyx, tears in his eyes. ‘What have youdone?’

‘I sent you visions,’ she said. ‘As soon as I realized it was you Bob was trying to reach, I knew I had a chance to communicate with you as well … andencourageyou to accept your true nature.’

Another cacodemon approached, this one with a single eye like a Cyclops and paws like a wolf. It licked Nico’s fingers.

The lid of the jar. The pom seeds. The loneliness.

‘I knew you wouldn’t be able to resist the call of your worst memories. That’s who youare, Nico di Angelo. You are a demigod made up of trauma. Your verysoulis one of darkness.’

A third cacodemon – the one with tusks – pounced and landed at Nico’s feet. It rubbed its head against his leg.

Percy smiles at Annabeth. Will stares at Paolo’s big biceps.

‘You proved my theory right with every step you took towards this place,’ Nyx crowed. ‘The second you entered the Underworld, our new children were born.’

She knelt and touched each of the cacodemons, naming them as she did so.

‘Grief,’ she said, her hand gracing the demon with the antlers.

‘Guilt.’ That one had legs like a spider, and its touch brought forth images like Nico lashing out at Percy or allowing Octavian to die.

Sadness was a shapeless blob that showed him Maria, Bianca, the Lotus Hotel and lonely nights in the forest surrounding Camp Half-Blood.

Jealousy was the one with tusks, who reminded Nico of how often he coveted the lives of others.

‘Isolation.’ A cacodemon with one glowing eye sent Nico right back to the jar.

‘Shame.’ A catlike cacodemon with needle-sharp teeth and claws scratched at his leg, and he thought of …

Cupid. Cupid and Jason.

There were many others, but Nico couldn’t handle any more. A rage built in him. Or was it shame? Shame, because every single trauma had been trotted out before him – quite literally – for all to see? Guilt, because maybe, just maybe, Nyx was right? Or maybe …

Maybe his rage came from the fact that she had it all wrong.

Nico pressed his hands against the cliffside, and the ground rumbled. He heard rocks fall behind him and splash into the colliding rivers below.

‘Accept it,’ ordered Nyx. ‘Accept that you prefer the darkness. You prefer suffering. Youknowit is true! Your own children prove it! Stop denying your nature!’

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