Nico hated the Hunters of Artemis.

Hated them.

Not so much out of a grudge, because he'd been working hard to avoid holding grudges, but because the mere sight of them drudged up the worst memories of his life . . . or of the few years he'd been rebuilding his memories after they'd all been washed away in the River Lethe. He also hated how to them he was 'Bianca's little brother.'

At least their presence here today was good for one thing. It meant that he and Percy would both definitely be on the same Capture the Flag team as Sadie and Carter.

Nico pulled shadows around himself as he waited for the others to finish dinner, to make sure that no one would see him. He didn't feel like making small talk with Thalia or any of the other Hunters or campers. No, the only people he wanted to talk to were Percy, Sadie, and Carter.

Deep down though . . . deep down he was kind of glad that an emergency had arisen. He knew it was selfish and it made him feel lousy to think that he was benefitting from the fact that Sadie and Carter had made some very dangerous missteps, but was it wrong to be glad that he got to have some high risk, breaking-the-rules fun with his best friends? Nico wasn't sure, and felt guilty about it anyway. The same way he felt guilty about how sometimes he almost didn't care that Bianca was gone, because even though he'd lost his sister, he'd gained a big brother. Those were thoughts that made him hate himself, and thoughts that he would never, ever voice, or let anyone else know . . . except for Anubis who was in his head, but who at least had the decency to pretend he was ignorant of those thoughts.

Nico knew that the parasite god was well aware of all the things he didn't want him to know. It was kind of like trying not to think of elephants, knowing that there was someone in his mind hearing every single thought that went through his head, when it came to the things he didn't want anyone else to know. But Anubis pretended that he didn't know, and Nico pretended that he didn't know that Anubis knew, and that was for the best.

Right now, Nico could barely feel Anubis in his mind, since the god was doing his best to keep the least amount of his soul as possible in Nico while he was at camp. The god had stirred briefly during dinner, sensing Nico's alarm at Sadie's and Carter's arrival, but had retreated again since nothing could be done immediately.

Finally, dinner broke up, and the campers began heading to their cabins to get ready for Capture the Flag. Nico kept himself cloaked in darkness and remained unseen. This allowed him to watch everyone who walked back to the cabins. Brendan Noonan was trying to hit on the Hunters, and Nico took joy in seeing him get kicked in the groin when finally one of the Hunters who was wearing steel-toed-boots had enough. The Ares practically marched back to their cabin, very obviously on a mission. It was obvious that they wanted to break Camp Half-Blood's losing streak, or at least break some of the Hunters' bones. That was one of the reason that Nico liked the Ares kids the best, of all the other campers, except Percy. The other reasons were that they were the only ones whose entire cabin treated Nico decently. The other cabins were all split, with some of them thinking Nico was okay, and others thinking he was a freak.

Then Percy came by with Annabeth and Thalia, trying to defend himself against their combined onslaughts.

"I know that something's been going on between you two," said Annabeth. "Thalia coming to check up on Nico because Bianca asked her to just proves it."

"Nothing is going on," said Percy. "I don't know why Bianca thinks that he's in trouble or that he needs her help, but he doesn't."

"That's not what Bianca thinks," said Thalia.

"I know," said Percy, "I just said that, didn't I? But you're all acting like he's still the same ten-year-old child we had to save from that manticore."

"Because he is," said Thalia impatiently.

"No, he's not," insisted Percy.

"Oh right, he's what? Twelve now? Those two years make all the difference, I'm sure," said Thalia.

"Percy's right that Nico's not exactly a kid anymore," said Annabeth, sounding reluctant. "Nico may be young but he's grown up a lot faster than he should have had to. He's the one who convinced Hades to show up with his army of darkness at Mt. Olympus, remember? His father takes his advice seriously and from what I've heard, Hades completely freaked out last month because he thought that those Egyptian magicians and gods we've been hearing so much about kidnapped Nico. I heard from Chiron that Hades was getting ready to declare war on the House of Life and the Egyptian pantheon, and Poseidon and Zeus were both going to back him."

"I never heard about that?" said Thalia looking surprised and wary.

"It was a big misunderstanding," said Percy quickly. "I got it firsthand from Nico. Some House of Life freaks jumped him in a graveyard because they thought he was Anubis." He gave the edited version of the story that he and Nico had prepared in advance.

"They thought he was Anubis?" asked Annabeth sounding suspicious. "Did they somehow miss the fact that he doesn't have a jackal head or were they blind magicians?"

"Anubis can appear human when he wants to," said Percy, "and when he does he actually looks enough like Anubis that they could be brothers . . . or at least that's what Nico told me," he added hastily.

"So what exactly happened?" Thalia wanted to know. "Did they kidnap the kid?"

Nico bristled at being referred to as a kid but he wasn't so prideful that he was going to drop his cover to correct her for calling him a kid.

"No," lied Percy. "Nico told me that he opened a portal to Hades and sent the magicians' pet jackal to Cerberus to use as a chew toy, then the real Anubis showed up and drove the magicians off before he had to."

"The real Anubis showed up in some random graveyard?" asked Annabeth incredulously.

"Not really so random," said Percy, and it actually sounded like he was telling the truth. He must, Nico thought, have been rehearsing the story for when he finally had to tell it. "Nico and Anubis are friends. Anubis was meeting Nico there to play Mythomagic."

"To play Mythomagic . . ." echoed Thalia.

"Why didn't you tell me this sooner?" demanded Annabeth.

Percy blinked at her. "You didn't ask."

"You should have told me without me having to ask," said Annabeth. "For something this big -"

"I did tell you, back when it happened," said Percy. "Remember? I told you and Chiron both about that dream I had of Nico, and neither of you thought there was any cause for concern. And you were right. There wasn't. And there still isn't. Nothing is wrong with Nico."

"Then how is he suddenly so strong that neither Hades nor Bianca can keep tabs on him anymore?" asked Thalia. "The gods are always supposed to be able to keep tabs on their children."

"That was Anubis' work, I'm pretty sure," said Percy. "Nico told me that Hades couldn't sense him because he was in a graveyard that Anubis was . . . possessing . . . inhabiting . . . or something -"

"The Egyptian gods can take a human or a place as their host," said Annabeth. "Unlike the Greek gods, it's the only way they can manifest themselves in our world. At least that's what we've been learning in classes."

"Yeah. So Anubis was possessing the graveyard, which made it his territory, and not even Hades' power could break through or whatever," Percy floundered in his attempt to explain the partial truth. "If Bianca still can't see him, then it might be because of the amulet Anubis gave him."

"Amulet?" asked Annabeth. "What amulet?"

"It's some kind of jackal hieroglyphic thing," said Percy. "It has Anubis' blessing which gives him some protection against some things, and it looks like being spied on by dead people is one of those things."

Thalia started to nod, looking satisfied, but Annabeth looked doubtful.

"I don't know about that," she said. "Egyptian magic and Greek magic don't mix. Or to be more precise, they can't mix. The Egyptian gods can't take demigods as hosts, it just doesn't work, and believe me, they've tried a whole lot."

Nico rolled his eyes and saw Percy looking as though he'd like to do the same thing.

"Their diviners can't see us in their prophecies any more than our oracles can see them," continued Annabeth. "Some of the spells work, and some don't, but I'm pretty sure that anti-surveillance spells would be along the same lines as divination -"

"You've lost me," said Percy.

"Me too," said Thalia.

Nico didn't follow them any further, but as they drifted away Annabeth was trying to explain magic frequencies and how the Egyptian ones were different than the Greek ones, a lesson which Nico and Percy had both already gotten from the Egyptian god Thoth. Percy wouldn't betray him, Nico knew. He'd keep his secret unless he absolutely had to reveal it. Nico didn't doubt that, not even for a second. He felt a little bit bad about leaving Percy to have to fend off both girls and their questions, but he needed to wait for Carter and Sadie and then stick close to them.

He didn't think getting them out of the camp would be too hard. He couldn't shadow travel them out of the camp because the camp's protections wouldn't allow it. He knew because he'd tried to shadow travel himself out before, but it hadn't worked very well. He'd been weaker then, and he was pretty sure that if he had to, he could break through the defenses and shadow travel himself out, but it would be akin to diving through a hedge of thorns, and he wasn't going to risk hurting anyone else trying it.

Still, it wouldn't be difficult to get to the edge of the camp, especially with everyone distracted by the Capture the Flag game. He could just lead Sadie and Carter across the borders and then shadow travel them back to their house, or wherever it was they wanted to go. Easy as pie.

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Carter was glad that he hadn't stowed his sword in his Duat locker, the way Sadie had stowed her weapons. Their hosts were arming them, but the Greek gear really wasn't to Carter's taste. It wasn't to Sadie's either if the look on her face was any hint.

"I feel like I should be in an opera wearing this get-up," she said dryly, adjusting her helmet.

"You'd need braids and horns on the helmet for that," Carter told her.

"Oh, ha ha."

"It doesn't look bad," Christine assured her. "Besides, everyone's wearing pretty much the same stuff."

"You'll be glad you have it," said Ashton. "This game can get pretty rough."

"What are the rules?" Carter wanted to know.

"First team to capture the other team's flag wins. No deliberate maiming or killing. Everything else goes," explained Ashton.

"Wait, deliberate?" asked Sadie. "Does that mean indeliberate maiming is allowed?"

Ashton shrugged. "Things happen. Just keep your armor on, and your sword point up and you'll probably be okay."

Carter wasn't sure he liked the sound of that, particularly because he had the feeling that if he or Sadie used their magic things would turn out bad. He and Sadie followed Ashton and Christine into the forest where everyone else was heading. Sadie would have continued on with them and tried to keep up, but Carter got her attention and motioned for her to hang back with him.

"What?" asked Sadie once they were behind the group, and far enough away that they wouldn't be overheard.

"We shouldn't stick with the pack," explained Carter. "When Percy and Nico come to get us it'll draw attention if they have to pull us away from everyone."

"Good thinking," said Nico, appearing right beside them. "I'm glad you made it easy for me."

Sadie and Carter both jumped but smiled as they realized who it was who'd snuck up on them. "Hey," said Carter, giving him a light punch to the shoulder in greeting. "Long time no see. We were starting to get worried."

Nico's brow furrowed. "Worried?"

"You've been gone like two weeks," said Sadie, looking annoyed.

"I know," said Nico. "But why would that worry you?"

The Kane siblings exchanged glances. "Because when someone you see on a regular basis suddenly disappears without any notice and is gone for a long time, you can't help but worry," said Carter. Especially when said someone is only twelve years old and lives in a world as dangerous as the one we're in, he added silently because he knew Nico wouldn't appreciate the reference to his age or the inference that he couldn't take care of himself.

"Oh." Nico's perplexed look changed to one of clarity. "Oh. Sorry. I didn't think of that," he admitted.

Carter saw Sadie looking at Nico with pity and knew the same expression was probably on his face too. It would be really sad to not think that any cared enough about you to worry, and even sadder not to realize how sorry a situation that would be. Though, Nico seemed blissfully ignorant of his sad situation, which was probably for the best. He mistook the looks they aimed at him as worry for their current situation.

"Hey," he said, stepping a bit closer. "It's going to be okay. You don't have to be worried about anything anymore."

Carter laughed. "That would be nice, but I don't foresee us having nothing to worry about for at least another year. Probably a lot longer."

"Still no luck finding other magicians?" asked Nico.

"Oh, we find plenty of magicians. They're just all House of Life freaks," said Sadie. "That's how we ended up here. Kind of."

A smile twitched on Nico's face. "You'll have to tell me about that. But later. People are going to notice you guys talking to me and it'll draw attention. Around here I . . . well, people just pay too much attention to the stuff I do for absolutely no good reason. Percy too, even more than me. So listen quick. When the game starts, the two of you stick together and start going in the direction that Percy heads in, but stay back far enough that it doesn't look like you're tailing him. When you get to the big rock pile go around to the side that has a sapling growing out of it and head in the direction the tree is pointing. That will still be on our side, so if you see any of the Hunters just pretend you don't. They'll try to slip past you. I'll meet you there. Okay?"

"Wait, go over that one more time," said Sadie.

"No, it's okay, I've got it," said Carter. "We'll see you there."

Nico nodded and turned his back to them. As he walked away the shadows seemed to thicken around him and he blended into the gloom. Carter kept a close eye on him waiting to see if he would become fully invisible, but he didn't, at least not while Carter was watching him. That was interesting, he thought. He didn't become invisible so much as make it impossible to notice him unless you already knew h e was there.

"You sure you got that down?" asked Sadie. "I don't want to end up lost in these woods."

"I can memorize a simple list of instructions," said Carter. "Come on. We need to find Percy before the game starts."

"I thought we weren't supposed to talk to him," said Sadie.

"Not to talk to him, or even go near him," said Carter. "To follow him when the game starts, remember?"

"Oh yeah. Hey Carter?"

"What?"

"Do you get the feeling that this plan is a little too . . . well . . ."

"Easy?" asked Carter. "Yeah. I do. And I'm fully prepared for it to fail miserably for that fact alone. But until it goes south, what can we really do?"

"Good point," said Sadie. "Is that what they call being optimistic?"

Carter laughed. "Not quite."

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Thalia separated herself from the rest of the Hunters the moment the battle started. Well, it wasn't a real battle, but it might as well have been. Everyone knew how these things went down.

But tonight it actually wasn't really a battle for Thalia. She was leaving it to her sisters to vanquish their enemies and return triumphantly with their flag. Tonight Thalia was on a hunt.

Her prey was very elusive, she knew. Hard to pin down, damn near impossible to see once dark had started to fall. No, the only way she could track her prey was by scent. That was the only way to hunt down Children of the Underworld at night. You had to follow the smell of death that clung to them . . . well, not really clung to them. Was them. Thalia hadn't noticed it the first time she met Bianca and Nico. Hadn't noticed it while on the quest with Bianca before she died. But she had noticed it the time that she, Percy, and Nico got conscripted on a quest by Persephone, who'd spirited them all to the Underworld. She wasn't sure if it was because when she first met them, their powers hadn't begun to develop and they were still more alive than . . . well . . . she didn't like to think of either di Angelo sibling as dead even though Bianca was dead and Nico would probably be declared dead by any modern doctor who got a chance to examine him. So to rephrase, she wasn't sure if it was because when she first met them, neither was tainted by the death magic that came with their powers, or if it was because her sense of smell had improved since becoming a Hunter.

Maybe I'll ask Annabeth and Percy later, she thought as she skimmed across the forest floor. Yes, that'll be a good conversation. 'Hey guys, is it just me, or does Nico smell like corpses?'

She skirted the main areas where she was sure there'd be guards and fighting. The wind made it tricky, and led Thalia too far west before she realized that she'd passed the point where she should have tried to intercept Nico. She actually almost ran right into two campers: a tall pretty girl with caramel colored hair, and a dark skinned boy with a sword that didn't look like anything Thalia had seen any heroes using in battle before. She didn't recognize either of them and couldn't peg either of their godly parents because neither of them had any trademark signs, like camouflage pants or daisy chains around their necks or make up caked on a full inch thick. And she got close enough that she would have noticed that. In fact, Thalia was almost positive that they'd spotted her, and had been preparing to shoot them in the helmets and hope that would knock them out. But then the moment passed and they walked on as though nothing was amiss, and Thalia breathed a sigh of relief at her good luck. Those campers had to be new ones. Any trained hero would have definitely spotted her.

Back on track again, she took greater care to be stealthy because she could feel that she was getting closer. The temperature of the air seemed to drop several degrees. The smell of death got stronger. The shadows got thicker. Thalia paid particular attention to the spots that seemed the darkest and strained her eyes, and then she saw her quarry.

Nico was just standing there, his hands in his pockets, shivering slightly and looking like he was waiting for someone which didn't make any sense. They couldn't have placed him all the way up here as a guard, could they have? No, Annabeth would never have gone for that. This spot was too far out of the way for that and Nico was too strong a fighter, too good at stealth for them to give him some minor task. Unless . . .

Thalia rolled her eyes as she realized what was going on. Obviously Annabeth had realized that Thalia would try to corner Nico instead of focusing on the game. So, to get Thalia out of the way, she sent Nico to some remote, out of the way place of no importance and had him wait there to draw her to him. She had to hand it to Annabeth, it was a good move. And it was helpful to Thalia as well since Nico would be more likely to speak freely without other people around who might overhear.

Thalia moved soundlessly through the forest and waited until she was only about five yards away from Nico before revealing herself by pinning the collar of Nico's jacket to the tree behind him with an arrow. Five more arrows followed within the span of a second, pinning the other side of his collar, and both his sleeves, above and under his arms so that he wouldn't be going anywhere.

To his credit, Nico stood stock still when he realized what was happening, rather than flailing and trying to make himself a more difficult target. That would have increased Thalia's chances of missing and actually hitting him by about fifty-fold. It showed impressive control that he had resisted panicking like that. Most demigods' ADHD-like battle reflexes would have kicked in and they wouldn't have been able to help themselves.

Nico must have released the shadows that he'd kept himself wrapped up in, because suddenly he was much easier to see. He turned his head as much as the arrows would allow to watch Thalia stepping out from amongst the trees. His expression was anxious, but not scared as he regarded Thalia.

"Hey Nico," said Thalia when it became obvious that he was waiting for her to speak to find out what she wanted. "We need to talk."