A/N: I know what you're thinking, yay it is finally here! I know, I am feeling exactly the same way, I feel awful for taking so long in order to get this chapter out to you, but I felt that I needed to end it in my own way, and to leave a lot of it nestled in pages of the book where it belonged. This chapter is wrapping up where I wanted it too, I hope you enjoy it nonetheless. And if you interested in the sequel, please put me on Author Alert, it will be titled Hanging by a Thread, and it will posted this weekend. I hope you have enjoyed reading this story as much as I have enjoyed writing it. Please leave a review! –Maiden of the Heavens (MOTH)
Chapter 22
The Son of Hades found himself in the depths of Coach Hedge's room, after weeks of feeling like a sluggish zombie, and giving Hazel and her friends the information they needed, he finally found sometime to be truly alone. Coach Hedge's room was littered with clothes and dirty dishes, whether these were the Satyr's strange appetite or not, Nico could not tell. But right now he did not really care about the man-goats eating preferences, all he wanted was to use the prism, flashlight, and bowl of water to get a hold of the one he had missed the most, while he had been cooped up in that bronze jar, slowly dying. He was still as skinny as a stick, looking mostly like a skeleton wearing his skin as a disguise, but thanks to Hazel and the ambrosia she had been feeding him, he finally felt strong enough to be on his own two feet. The ship swayed and creaked beneath him as it sped through the ocean waters below them, and shocking even to him it felt good to be on the outside and among living people for once.
Nico sighed and ran a very thin hand through his raven black hair, it was messy and stuck up all ends, as if he had just rolled out of bed, which he had. But he felt a lot better doing this at night, then during the day when everybody else was awake. He looked down at his shaking hands, he had let Percy and Annabeth fall into the depths of the Underworld, and they had slipped through his fingers. It gnawed at his heart that he had let them fall, but they were not dead, at least not yet. They still had time, he still had time, to save them. He hastily shook his head to his thoughts collected back to the task at hand, and grabbed a golden drachma from the table, after setting up the makeshift rainbow. He gently tossed the coin into the water, and muttered, "Oh, Iris, goddess of the Rainbow, please accept my offering."
He then cleared his throat, finding exhaustion taking over him again, as her name and location came out in a whisper, "Cassandra DuSoleil, Camp Jupiter."
Her image appeared in front of him. It looked as if she had just been awoken from a dream, she wiped the sleep from her eyes, and saw her slowly set down her toothbrush. "Nico?" his name came out half-way in a yawn, she wiped the sleep from her eyes and blinked twice. For Gods' sake she was in the bathhouse of Camp Jupiter, she was up at five in the morning, her hair still damp from her morning scrub, and slightly dripping down on to her face. The bathhouse was full of mist from the showers and hot spring baths, causing rainbows to shimmer on the rim of the sink. She was wearing her usual dark blue skinny jeans that was paired with a black t-shirt with white lettering that said Do not disturb, I'm disturbed enough already. To top off her outfit she was also wearing a white and black striped beanie over her dark chocolate hair, she seemed less sickly close to death, as he must have looked. And he was glad for that.
The next question that came from her, came along with choked back tears. "Y-You're alive?"
Nico nodded, a small smile creased his face. "Yeah, I'm alive."
Cassandra stared at him through the mist of the Iris Message, she clutched toothbrush until her knuckles turned white. She had not heard from him in weeks, she had been so afraid that she had lost him. "I-I…" she had to clear her throat halfway through her sentence to stop the tears that wanted to flow. "I-I…am so happy…that you're okay. I was worried."
Nico could only smile, very little. He had missed her, he finally felt whole again, sort of. Maybe he would feel complete once they could actual see each other. Once he could actually hold her in his arms again. "You're okay?" he asked, his dark orbs looking into her dark chocolate eyes.
"Yeah, I mean, well, Octavian's been going kind of nuts, but that isn't anything new."
The Son of Hades sighed, he should have known the Auger would take the opportunity to rise to power while everything was in chaos. The trip into the pit had nearly driven him to the point of insanity, he guessed that in some way creepy, twisted way Ephialtes and his brother had saved him. He shuddered at the thought of having to ever thank those two for saving his scrawny ass from the pit of the Underworld.
Nico glanced up at Cassandra. She was happy, he could see it sparkling in her eyes, but also there was fear and uncertainty etched into her face. Their Camps were at war, their homes had been pitied against each other, all because Leo had gotten possessed and nearly blew apart Camp Jupiter. If their love could survive him being trapped in a bronze jar, and her being stalked and nearly killed by Erebos, then it could survive a civil war couldn't it?
"We'll get through this…we will." He promised the words before he could fully comprehend what he was saying, but he wanted the promise he made to her, to come true more than anything. He wanted to touch her, to hold her close, to breath in the scent of her shampoo. He wanted to feel alive again, and he felt most alive when he was with her.
"I know…" Cassandra whispered, "We will."
Nico turned to look over his shoulder, he could hear Coach Hedge yelling, the ship pitched back and forth as if it was on a roller coaster, nearly causing the rainbow to be shattered, the Iris Message to fall apart. He could hear the rest of crew getting out of their bedrooms, and running toward the top deck of the Argo II. When Nico was nearly thrown off of his feet, he knew that he could stay. "Cass…I love you…" he was able to get the words out, just as the bowl of water clattered to the floor and rainbow was broken.
With his sword in hand, he shadow-traveled up to the top deck, only to quickly flatten himself against the splintered wood as a bolder when flying past his hair, making the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. He glanced over what was left the railing. Fantastic…just what they needed…giants.