Page 72 of The Sun and the Star

Will wasn’t sure what to look at. It seemed like this everywhere in New York, no matter how many times they’d been here before. And after nearly a week in Albany, Will welcomed the chaos of the city over the sleepy, overcast vibes upstate.

He knew how this dream would unfold: Will would point out to his mom how many pigeons there were crowded around thefountain. She’d say that no other US city had more of them than New York. Then one of the pigeons would land a little too close for Will’s comfort, and he would shy away from it, only for more of them to flutter over, until he and his mom were surrounded.

Will had had variations of this dream before, but this … this felt too real, as if he were reliving the memory itself rather than seeing it through the magic of a dream. When the first pigeon pecked at his foot, its beak wassharp. When his mom expressed concern that these pigeons were too aggressive, he couldfeelthe fear in her voice.

And when the swarm hit, he couldn’t breathe.

It’s a dream, Will!he told himself.You’re a demigod. You have these all the time.

But he couldn’t control this one. His memory of the Stymphalian-bird attack was dialled up to eleven – his mom’s screams all the more piercing, her hair unkempt and wild as she threw her arms around him, trying to protect him.

Maron arrived from out of nowhere, just as he had in real life, leaping in front of Naomi and Will Solace and opening an enormous black umbrella to repel the birds. He wore obnoxiously neon-green trousers with pink braces over a white T-shirt.

As the birds rained down on the umbrella, Will felt again the terror of being shrouded in darkness, his mother screaming, unsure whether they were going to survive.

In real life, they had escaped with Maron’s help to their East Village hotel, where the satyr had told Will the truth about his heritage. Maron was the one who had brought Will to Camp Half-Blood.

But that didn’t happen in the nightmare. Under the umbrella, what was once a heroic moment took a dark turn when Will looked up into Maron’s eyes and saw that they were blood-red.

‘He will leave you,’ Maron said, his voice deep and frightening. ‘When the time comes, he will choose to leave you behind.’

Maron laughed as the Stymphalian birds pelted the umbrella, pushing it closer to the ground. Will and his mom crouched down as she held Will tighter.

‘I love you,’ she said.

‘I love you, too, Mom.’

Then her face contorted. She sneered, her glowing red eyes boring into him. ‘He’s going to leave you behind, you fool.’

Will woke in a panic. When he saw Nico’s bedroll empty, he worried that hehadbeen left behind, just like in his nightmare. But then he sat up and saw the silhouette of his boyfriend appear in the doorway.

Relief rushed through him. ‘Nico,’ he said. ‘Where’d you go?’

Nico walked over and handed him a strange bronze cup that was warm to the touch. ‘Drink up.’

Will balked. ‘This isn’t more of that shoelace soup, is it?’

Nico chuckled. ‘No, just broth.’

Will reluctantly brought it to his lips. He let a small bit of it touch his tongue, and a burst of savoury goodness filled his mouth. He finished it off in less than a minute while Nico watched, a look of satisfaction on his face.

‘Okay, that was good,’ Will admitted, wiping his mouth. ‘But please don’t tell me this is broth of troglodyte armpit. I feel like you’re going to.’

He meant it as a joke, but Nico looked irritated.

‘It’s not,’ said Nico. ‘Troglodytesdoeat a lot of stuff that humans do.’

His tone sounded almost accusatory, as if Will shouldlovestewedshoelaces and armpit broth. Ever since they’d passed through the Door of Orpheus, Will had felt like he was walking on thin ice with Nico. Will always seemed to be doing and saying the wrong thing, even if he was just trying to lighten the mood.

Even that term,lighten the mood, seemed like a biased statement here in the Underworld, but Will wasn’t sure what else to do, how to act.

He lay back down, images from the nightmare swirling in his head. He didn’t feel rested. Here it wasalwaysnight, so his circadian rhythms were off. Then there was the warning from his dream:He’s going to leave you behind, you fool.

How much worse would all this get once they entered Tartarus?

Nico sat next to him. ‘You’re worried.’

‘Bad dreams,’ Will muttered, which was a half-truth, at best. There was so much else that worried him.

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