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A guitar solo shook me from sleep and my eyes snapped open. There was a soft glow in the east. Apollo turned the car on and the radio only Apollo kids could hear. I sat up slowly, being cursed and having zero hearing yet still hearing the ridiculous guitar solo was definitely the worse part of this curse. I groaned and flopped back down to the grass, holding my hands over my ears trying to block the frequency that rattled around my brain.

"Nico?"

"You're awake!"

"Thank Apollo and his stupid car music!"

"No thanks. How are you feeling?"

"My head hurts."

"Whatever happened...was not pretty."

"Nico, I'm so sorry! You were supposed to sleep longer than 3 hours! I'm so sorry!"

"It's fine."

"Where are you?" I peeked an eye open and looked around and sat back up I didn't see him anywhere. I started to feel a little panicked. His aviator jacket fell off my shoulders, but he wasn't around.

"Bringing breakfast."

"What? Nico Di Angelo, the Emo Grandpa Ghost King is ...EATING?"

"Slim it Sparky, it's a smoothie."

"It's still calories with vitamins and minerals."

Nico slid out if the shadows like he was formed from them, he walked out of the early morning gloom and mist. He was holding a brown paper bag and a travel tray with drinks. He looked so skeletal, his dark ripped jeans, black combat books and a black t shirt with a big skull in the front. His dark shaggy hair fell into his eyes. He was young, but he had a dark handsomeness to him. He needed to just find his confidence in himself. I couldn't help but smile at the boy. Behind his darkness and sadness and anger, he was such a sweet boy, and it hurt my heart he felt so alone and rejected.

"Nico, your too sweet. Thank you."

He sat down and handed me the bag. Inside was a big berry muffin and a container of fresh fruit.

"Didn't know what if you drink coffee...so ... I got coffee...and hot chocolate."

I watched him for a second, his hears and cheeks went slightly pink. I reached out and squeezed his shoulder gently in a quick thank you. He picked at a muffin, bubbling here and there. I was glad he was eating. It wasn't much, but he was putting food in his body. And I was proud of him.

"What happened?" I asked as I bit into the muffin. It was nice, dad always got after me for talking with my mouth full when I was young.

"Well you collapsed and has some kind of seizure. And then uhh...a few monsters tried to come say hi. You wouldn't wake up. So we stayed."

"I'm sorry Nico. I don't...I don't know what happened."

"You had Kronos inside your head."

"It was awful."

They finished eating in silence and then slowly packed up. I picked up my notebook I ripped the picture off out and folded it up. I slid it into the pocket of Nico's jacket and handed him his jacket back. He slid it on and grabbed his backpack.

"Quickest way?"

"Well we're in Utah ..camobis on the other side of the country. So as sucky as it is, we gotta go back into the labrynth. I saw Percy and Annabeth last night, before my head was hacked. They found a mortal girl who can see through the mist. They'll be inside the maze and looking for Daedalus."

"Underground we go." His smile was evil and twisted.

"Uh, don't look so excited." I rolled my eyes. Children of the sun need...sun! The darkness sucks. That huge claw mark on my back is healed because if the UV."

"Your just a house plant with emotions. I'll buy you a UV light to take with you."

"You would do that for me?" I wrapped my arm around his shoulders, because I knew it bugged him. "Nick! Your the sweetest most carrying boy in the whole wild world!"

Nico shoved me off and rolled his eyes. "next time I'm leaving you behind."

"Lier lier. I'll set your pants on fire!"

"You would!"

We argued all the way back into the city. By this time we had both finished with our breakfast. We walked down the main street, it was still early morning so only a few people were out, the early morning runners and a few commuters were waiting at the bus stops. We turned off the main street. Which happened to be Eurylochus Drive. I rolled my eyes at the name. Figures the Labrynth entrance would be at the corner of two Greek named streets.

We slid into the bus shelter at the junction of Perimaclus Way and Eurylochus Drive. I saw the little ∆ sign and brushed my fingers over the sign. It glowed blue, just as Nico turned back around. The hair on my arms and back of my neck stood up.

"Monster!"

I grabbed Nico by the jacket and pulled him into the darkness.

"I'm being stalked. Kronos knows where I am. Don't give yourself away too! Come on!"

We jogged for a few minutes away from the entrance.

"Okay. We're good. Monsters shouldn't be able to actually open the entrance...right?"

"No idea "

We walked down one corridor until Nico asked if I knew where we were going, and I stopped and called up the Sight and saw a faint gold trail leading us. I smiled and nodded. He filled me without question. Despite his stubborn 'I'm the Ghost King I do what I want' attitude he definitely kept close to me. I smiled to myself. I felt like we had earned each other's trust and loyalty. He didn't have to come with me to the Ranch or fight with me to free the horses or stay with me after words or fight off monsters while I lay unconscious and unhelpful.

I hoped I had giving him someone he could trust. I didn't want to let the boy down. He had a hard past, from what Percy had told me and what he had shared with me last night, this poor kid has been through enough. I knew I couldn't protect him, but I really hoped that he would at least let me help him, be his support system.

I was so busy lost in my thoughts I wasn't watching and slammed into a wall. I stumbled backwards. I cursed and looked up. But Nico wasn't beside me anymore.

"NORA?"

"Nico?"

"Where are you?"

"Nico! What's going on?"

"NORA! NORA WHERE DID YOU GO? NO-"

His voice was cut off, like a record being scratched. I was in a solid black rocked hall, it wasn't the hall we had just been in. I spun around, my back against the wall. My heart was racing and my palms were sweaty. Ever since I used my sight inside the Labyrinth I hadn't had any problems. So I knew something else was wrong. Or something more sinister was going on. I could feel the walls around me getting smaller, I was being contained. All I could see were black stone walls, I outstretched my glowing hands and tried to keep the walls from getting tighter.

My chest felt heavy and tight. My head swiveled constantly I didn't know where I was. The ground under my feet tipped. I was slipping. The walls were smooth and polished, there was nothing for me to grab onto. The floor slopped some more. There was nothing for me to do other then slid with the floor. I rumbled and slid down this rock slop. A silent scream of terror as I fell, the rock gave away and I was free falling in darkness, I tumbled head over heels, cold air ripped at my clothes and hair. The air went from cold, stale damp rocks of the labyrinth to hot dry and sulfuris.

My body hit something hard, I rolled a few times and slammed into a wall coming to a complete stop. I lay for a second in a heap trying to get my stomach from throwing up. My head was pounding from slamming it.

I felt the ground rumble under me and something huge walked towards me and grabbed my arm and pulled me up. I came face to face with a huge muscular man. He was incredibly tall, like almost 9 feet tall. He had a red beard that had streaks of blond, like my hair. And like myself his skin glowed, but his was harsh, like someone spent a lot of time shinning bronze pennies

His eyes made me shudder, they were golden and looked like miniature suns with a blinding light. And they were cruel; hot burning and deviating, killing and scorching everything in its path.

His smile was more a snear as he regarded me. His mouth moved but I couldn't hear so I just stared at him blankly. I didn't know who he was or where I was or what just happened. Blinking from his harsh glow I looked around. We were in some kind of room, the walls were black stone, the floor was black polished stone. Bronze braziers fixed to the walls even though they didn't need the light each brazier was alight, and a huge fire in the corner in a huge ornate fireplace. There was a table set in the middle, full of papers and maps weapons and goblets.

A woman dressed in a dark, sleeveless gown that seemed to ripple as if the cloth was ink spilling off.  Her blond hair was set in an Ancient Greek style high-set ponytail. She carried two old-fashioned reed torches. What caught my attention was her black eyes. They made a shiver run down my spine. She regarded me with her dark cold eyes and set a torch down in a brazed and glided over to me. She grabbed my wrist and made me flip my hand over. The burn on my palm was bright. The black chard skin and in the centre of the black was a bright glowing white ancient Greek symbol for magic.

She smiled. But it was cold and cruel. She looked up at the glowing giant of a man and nodded. Before he could say anything the door behind them slammed open and a girl stormed in. The guy let me go and I stumbled back into the wall. I stayed frozen and watched. I couldn't understand what was going on. I watched the girl as she stormed in. She wore a tight light pink dress, that showed all her curves. Her bleach blond hair tumbled gently over her perfectly tanned shoulders. She was throwing her hands around wildly clearly upset and yelling at the man.

I pulled my eyebrows together and watched her. It wasn't until she stomped her fact heeled foot and threw her hair over her shoulder did I recognize her. Eos. The bratty Malibu Barbie who messed with Raph. I looked at the man she was clearly yelling at, he looked exasperated and very over this hissy fit. He ran a hand down his face and yelled something back making the room shack with anger. He threw a hand towards the door. She folded her arms and stuck out her pink lip pouting.

The glowing man threw his hands in the air and dug i to a pocket in his camouflage pants and tossed her a wallet. Her pouty face was gone in a flash and she smiled and batted her eyelashes. She gave the man a hug around the waist and kissed his cheek.

She went to turn but caught sight of me. Her beautiful face morphed into one of pure hateride. She didn't move. Instead she pointed at me and turned to the glowing man and said something. The man nodded and in an instant the Malibu barbie turned into a hot mess. Her hair caught fire and it looked like fangs from her mouth. But I blinked and I swear it was my imagination. She tried to lung at me, but the man caught her and tossed her back.

They started yelling at each other. The room shook and shuddered. My stomach dropped and my hands were shaking. I was as far back as possible in the wall. I was absolutely terrified. Despite the guy not letting Psycho Barbie kill me he did not make me feel safe.

The dark pale woman rolled her black eyes and folded her slender arms and walked back to the table full of papers.

It hit my, hard like a punch to the gut. The man she was yelling at was her father. This was the Titan Hyperion, my godly grandfather. And the woman must be Hecate. The minor goddess of dark magic and mist. Hecate's aunt was Leto, Apollo's mother. So she was my Cousin -Aunt? My head hurt trying to figure it out. We were all related somehow on the godly side.

I knew I was screwed. I had no way of getting out of this alive. I couldn't hear what they were saying, but it definitely wasn't good the way they kept looking at me.

Finally Hyperion ordered his daughter to leave and she stormed out of the room and slammed the door so hard the floor shook. I gulped when he turned to look at me. He said something and I just blinked. His face was so bright with a harsh light it was hard to look at. So I couldn't even read his lips.

The floor shook under me making my legs give out. He had stormed over and grabbed me again, forcing me to look up. He said something again and I shook my head. Using my hands I signed as fast as I could.

"I can't hear. I don't know what you are saying! I'm deaf!"

He looked over to Hecate, she frowned and shrugged. Hyperion looked back at me and shook me saying something again but clearly yelling.

"I. Can't. Hear." I signed slowly. I pointed to my ears and shook my head. He frowned at me.

He calls himself Lord of Light...more like lord of the dimwitted. How could this guy not get it? I threw my hands up in frustration. He tossed me back onto the floor and yelled something. A minute later the door was opened. Hyperion indicated at me, crumpled in a heap and was giving instructions to the muscular teenage boy. He had a brutal face covered with scars. Clearly he'd been in battle. But there was something about him that was familiar. He dressed in jeans, a black shirt, and a leather jacket was thrown over his chest armour and a sword strapped to his hip.

When he turned his dark eyes onto me I sucked in a sharp breath. He looked like Raph. But whereas Raph was cocky and smug with some gentle amusement in his eyes this guy was just plane broody and violent. He was clearly a son of Ares. But I couldn't place who he was. But he stormed over and grabbed me by the arm and with the strength of an immortal being lifted me up and steared me away from the room.

He dragged me out into the hall and straight to a set of roughly cut stone steps. There were no windows no other doors, just black stone walls and polish black stone floors. Bronze braziers hung in the walls. This son of Ares dragged me down the spiral stairs. Clearly it was a dungeon. He slammed a door open and down another hall. My head swiveled this way and that trying to see. All kinds of monsters and Men sat behind bars. Many of them lunged at the bars making me jump and shake in fear. My captor just laughed, which made the scars on his face twist making him look even more savage.

He dragged me to the end of the hall where there was a faint glow. He pulled out a key and unlocked a door and shoved me inside. I felt the door slam shut behind me, the vibrations went up myegs and into my chest. I turned and slammed my fists on the door. Nothing happened. I slid down. The door and pulled my knees to my chest. I was now locked in the dungeon of a Titan. Tears slid down my cheeks.

I flinched when something in the corner moved and a very strange voice echoed in my head.

"Oh Sweet sun child."

🔆

The picture Nora drew for Nico. 🖤