Page 119 of The Court of the Dead
“So what’s the plan?” asked Naomi.
Will frowned. “The plan is thatyouwill stay far, far away from this, Mom.”
“What?” she protested. “Are you really trying to tell your mother she can’t come along?”
Will pressed his lips together, and despite the grim situation, Nico had to hold back a laugh.
“Ms. Solace—” Frank began.
“Naomi.”
He sighed. “Naomi, this isn’t exactly a field trip. We’re going to facerealdanger.”
“Hmph.” She sipped more tea. “You’ve clearly never been a woman on a concert tour. I can handle myself.”
“I like her,” said Semele. “She’s scrappy.”
“Mom…” Will squirmed. “Like you said, this is my world. I have demigod abilities to help keep me alive, but you…I don’t want you getting hurt.”
Will’s mom was quiet for a moment. “Okay,” she said. “I hear you. Let me at least hitch a ride with you back to the city. How are you getting there?”
It was Frank’s turn to squirm. “We have a Chevy Express van….”
“Well, there you go!” Naomi said. “My first truck was a Chevy! I’ll be your wheel girl! And right there’s another song—‘Wheel Girl.’ My goodness, I’m gonna get a whole album out of this.” She started typing notes into her phone.
Will wrinkled his nose but finally nodded in agreement.
“All right, then,” Frank said. “As far as breaking this dodecahedron cage…”
“Oh, that part is easy enough from the outside,” Johan assured him. “We will have to be careful, of course, but it can be done. I must assume, however, that as soon as the cage is broken, the Court of the Dead will know. And they will come to investigate.”
“And then I will eat them all!” Orcus exclaimed. “Er, one at a time, of course.”
Naomi leaned over to her son. “Is this the kinda stuff you deal with regularly? It’s very exciting!”
“I mean…notallthe time,” he said. “At camp, I’m mostly teaching field-medic skills or making sure campers get to bed on time. This dramatic stuff only happens, like, once a year.”
“Twice,” said Nico. “Tartarus was only a few months ago.”
“Three times,” said Frank. “We defeated Nero just prior to that.”
Will’s smile was eroding. “So…yeah! Not all the time.”
Naomi raised an eyebrow. “Well, we’ll talk more about this later.”
His face flushed red again. “Yes, Mom.”
Nico had never seen his boyfriend blush so many times in one day. It was the greatest gift he could imagine.
“So,” said Semele, “when do we leave?”
“I need to stop by the armory at some point,” said Will. “To stock up on arrows and get my bow.”
“Let’s meet in half an hour, then,” said Frank. “I’ll have the demigods ready. Nico, gather the Cocoa Puffs, okay?”
“Half an hour,” said Nico. “We’ll be there.”
With that, the group dispersed. Will and Nico led Naomi back toward the mess hall to collect the cacodemons before they could completely gorge themselves on table scraps. If they went into nap mode, they’d be useless for the rest of the day.
