Page 95 of The Court of the Dead
She isn’t dead, he told himself.And jackets can be mended.
But that just made him think of Asterion and his knitting needles, which made him even sadder.
He headed outside, leaving his Cocoa Puffs snoozing on Will’s bunk.
It was early in the evening. The last rays of sunlight stretched over the Via Principalis. The camp felt strangely empty. Nico supposed dinner had already happened. Maybe the cohorts were off training or hunkered down in their barracks. The few campers he passed froze when they saw him, as if torn between wanting to say something and wanting to run away. Nico spared them the choice. He kept walking, his eyes fixed on the mess hall.
Word of Hazel’s fate must have spread through the legion by now.
Did they blame Nico for not saving her?
He heard Mr. D’s voice in his mind, reminding him to stay in the present.Don’t think about the past you can’t change. Don’t leap forward to a future you can’t predict.
The mess hall was empty except for a few wind spirits cleaning up from dinner, but the scent of roast beef still lingered in the air. Despite all his problems, Nico’s mouth watered. He headed to the galley and managed to liberate some leftovers—a roast beef sandwich, some chips, and an apple (because healthy). He headed for the praetors’ table, though the sight of Hazel’s empty chair made him tear up again.
He sat down, and then took a deep breath. “She isn’t dead,” he said aloud this time.
“Are you sure?” said a voice at his ear.
Nico flinched.
It was Semele, of course. As Nico steadied his jumpy nerves, he thought how fortunate the eidolon was to be non-corporeal. If she’d had a physical form, she would’ve gotten an elbow in the face several times a day, the way she liked to sneak up on people.
“Semele,” he said. “Sorry. I’m…a little jumpier than usual.”
“Apologies, my child.” Her smoky essence drifted to the right, taking the spot where Will usually sat. “I was hoping to find you.”
Nico took a bite of his sandwich. “I assume someone told you what happened.”
“Your boyfriend did,” she confirmed, her voice heavy. “We were just speaking in the principia with Frank. He thinks Hazel is alive. Do you?”
Nico’s heart ached yet again. On top of everything else, he’d slept through the day, putting the burden on Will to explain what had happened and deal with the reactions from Frank and the rest of the legion. Gods…Frank must be devastated.
“I’m not sure what to believe,” Nico said. “As a child of Hades, I can usually sense when someone I care about has died. But with Hazel, I don’t feel that. So maybe…” He didn’t finish, not wanting to jinx anything.
“Will Solace believes the same thing,” Semele said. “That Hazel is still alive somehow. And what of Asterion?”
Nico frowned. Another thing to feel guilty about—it hadn’t even occurred to him to try to sense the bull-man’s death.Couldhe sense the passing of a mythic? Their essence would return to Tartarus, which wasn’t exactly like a soul being sent to Erebos, his father’s kingdom. And then there was the fact that Pirithous had claimed Asterion would be executed in a way that prevented him from ever regenerating. How could that be?
He closed his eyes and tried to find Asterion. He remembered the bull-man’s gentle hug on his last night in camp, his dignified attitude before the court, and yes, even the pride he had taken in his hand-knitted underwear.
Nico sensed nothing.
He shook his head. “I’m sorry. I don’t know. I don’t suppose…” He was hesitant to get Semele’s hopes up, but he decided to ask anyway. “That little patch of Tartarus ground you have growing in your quarters…?”
“Alas, no.” Semele sighed. “We checked it as soon as we heard, to see if perhaps Asterion’s essence had lodged within it, waiting to regrow. But our small piece of home is still struggling to take root in the upper world. We are not even certain it will survive.”
Nico wasn’t surprised, but the news made his sandwich sit uneasily in his gut.
“I want to believe Hazel and Asterion are alive,” he said. “But if so, where are they?”
“I do not know,” said the eidolon. “But I would like to offer the services of those of us who remain. Orcus, Johan, myself…We will help you.”
He raised an eyebrow, surprised at the change in Semele’s attitude. Only a day ago, she’d been ready to leave camp and take her chances in the wider world.
“That’s…Thank you, Semele,” he said. “I just wish I knew how you could help.”
“We will discover this together,” she said. Then she hesitated. “I regret that I was so ready to leave. I am sorry to have spoken harshly to Asterion. I have many doubts, Nico di Angelo. After living as long as I have, I cannot but fear the worst from others. But Asterion gave mehope, which I have not felt in centuries. I have not been allowed this level of independence in a long, long time.”
