"The Hunters killed Martina!" screamed Drew, a daughter of Aphrodite and a first-class bitch if Annabeth had ever met one.

Murmurs ran through crowd as Chiron arrived and saw what had happened.

"They didn't," spoke up Nico, his voice cutting through all the accusing whispers like a cold wind.

Annabeth watched the son of Hades, as she had been for the past few days, since she'd realized that Nico and Percy were up to something. Nico looked, for the most part, aloof. Like he didn't care what was going on one way or the other. Only someone who knew him would notice the weariness in his eyes and the tenseness of his jaw. Martina, Annabeth remembered, had been the only child of Aphrodite who was both nice and had a mind of her own. Martina had been nice to everyone, stood up for people being bullied, and did what she thought was right regardless of how many times she had to wear the shoes of shame because of it. The Aphrodite cabin had just lost the one decent camper they had, and Nico was feeling that loss even if he was trying not to show it.

"Of course they did!" screamed Drew. "Who else would kill a daughter of Aphrodite? Who else would want to but those pathetic, butch, butt-ugly -"

"You think you know more about death than me?" challenged Nico.

Drew glared at him. "What are you saying? Are you confessing to killing her? Did you use your death touch on her?"

"No, and no again."

"Calm down, Drew, and let Nico speak," ordered Chiron. "Nico, were you the one who discovered Martina like this?"

"I felt her spirit depart," explained Nico again. "Sadie, Carter, and I were facing off with Thalia at the time. We called a truce to investigate and see if there was anyone hurt but still alive who we could help. Martina was the only one we found."

"A likely story!" said Drew shrilly. "You probably killed her yourself, didn't you?"

"How dare you make accusations like that?" shouted the new camper, Piper. "Did you miss the part where he has three witnesses who were with him when they found her like that? Why are you trying to make this harder for everyone than it has to be?"

"Shut up, Dumpster-girl!"

"You shut up, Plastic-face!"

"Why you -"

"Martina was killed by a wound to the back, caused by a small, sharp, cylindrical object," Nico spoke over them. His voice was emotionless as he continued. "It entered her back, on her left side at an upward angle, and pierced both her spine and her heart. She died instantly. She didn't feel a thing."

There were several moments of silence as everyone took this in.

"What do you think the wound was caused by, Nico?" asked Chiron.

"I know what it was caused by," said Nico. "It was an arrow, but -"

People immediately started murmuring again. Annabeth closed her eyes. This was not going to go over well. The Hunters were going to be blamed for this, distrust would be sewn, it would take either a very big common enemy or a miracle to get them past this. She could feel the beginnings of a headache building.

Then Nico offered them that miracle.

"SHUT UP! EVERYONE SHUT UP AND LET ME FINISH!"

It wasn't often that Nico raised his voice. And when an angry son of Hades demands that you shut up, most people are smart enough to shut their traps.

"The arrow wasn't shot," said Nico, his voice back to its normal cool tone. "All you fools seemed to miss the part where I said it entered at an upward angle. So unless someone was lying on the ground, aiming upward when they took their shot, that wasn't how it happened. Someone stabbed Martina with that arrow. And that someone either knows something about human anatomy and the cleanest, fastest ways to kill someone, or was really damn lucky. You can inspect the wound for yourselves. It's precise and almost clean enough to have been a professional hit."

"You think Martina was deliberately targeted?" asked Annabeth.

Nico shrugged. "I said almost professional. A real professional wouldn't have stabbed her with an arrow. Stabbing someone with an arrow says they didn't go there planning to kill someone."

He had a point, even if it was disturbing how much he knew about death and killing. "So where does that leave us?" asked Annabeth.

"How in Hades should I know?"

"Nico," said Percy hesitantly. "Do you think you could -"

"No," Nico cut him off. "It wouldn't do any good."

"What wouldn't?" asked Annabeth. She felt annoyed that Nico had known what Percy meant before she could even figure it out.

"Trying to speak with Martina. It wouldn't do any good because she didn't see anything."

"You don't know that," said one of the Hunters.

"I do know that."

"Just because she was gone before she could feel anything -"

"I felt her soul leave," said Nico. "And the only thing she felt was confusion. No anger or betrayal or hurt or suspicion. Just confusion, the kind that comes from walking along minding your own business then being dead without even having a clue how it happened or who could have done it. If I thought that speaking to her would do any good then I'd try it, but I know it won't. All I'd be doing is dragging her out of line, making her have to wait longer for her judgment, and dredging up her pain and I won't do it."

"You sure you're not just afraid she'll name you as her murderer?" asked Drew.

SLAP!

Sadie's hand connected with Drew's face so hard that Drew actually fell on her butt. "Shut up and stop acting like PMS Barbie you bigoted, thick-headed, bloody stupid, yammering -"

"Sadie!" Carter grabbed Sadie's hand and dragged her back.

"I'm just saying what every decent person here's thinking, even if they're too spineless to speak up!"

"It's okay, Nico," said Annabeth. "We all know that you do all you can to help us. No one here has forgotten how you saved all our lives at the Battle of Mt Olympus." She let sarcasm color her tone because obviously too many demigods had forgotten, but she was reminding them.

But it hadn't escaped her notice that Sadie and Carter seemed unusually familiar with Nico, and she remembered how Percy had spit his drink all over Nico when they'd arrived at dinner. That was something to remember and store for when she had time to try to figure that out again.

Annabeth decided that she'd talk with Thalia when she got the chance. Since Thalia had been with Nico and Sadie and Carter when they'd found the body, and she could tell that more had happened with all of them before Nico sensed Martina's spirit departing.

---------------------------------------------

"We can't take Sadie and Carter away from here tonight. Everyone's going to be on full alert after this," Percy told Nico as soon as he got a chance to speak with him alone. That chance hadn't come until he was back in the Poseidon cabin.

Camp fire that night had been canceled, which was probably a good thing. The mood was too grim and tensions were too high. Many campers were still suspicious of the Hunters. The murder weapon had been an arrow, after all, and just because it wasn't shot didn't mean that a Hunter couldn't be the killer. Doubly so since it was an Aphrodite girl who'd been murdered. Then there were still a bunch of morons out there who thought that Nico was the killer just because he was a death god's son. Percy didn't want to mention it, but he knew that Nico was well aware that he was being watched with suspicion because of this, never mind that he had three witnesses to prove that he hadn't had anything to do with Martina's death.

"I know," said Nico. "I already spoke with them about that. We're going to try to get them out again tomorrow morning."

Percy looked at Nico worriedly. "But you can't shadow travel during the day."

"I'm going to take them to the edge of the peninsula," said Nico. "They're going to try to summon their boat. They've never done it on the ocean before but hopefully it'll work. If not . . ."

"We'll just have to think of something else."

Nico nodded and shivered.

"What happened to your jacket?" asked Percy. He'd noticed that it had suddenly developed quite a few holes in a very short amount of time.

"Thalia pinned me to a tree," said Nico, sounding very irritated.

Percy knew it wasn't appropriate, but he couldn't help but laugh at that. "She what?"

"She pinned me to a tree. Sadie had to cut me free because the arrows were in the tree too deep to pull out. Thankfully she and Carter have a spell that can fix it or else I'd be really mad." Nico took on a sulky look.

"You know," said Percy cautiously, "I don't want to offend you or anything, but that jacket really doesn't fit you very well. You might be warmer in a smaller one because loose clothes don't conserve body heat very well."

"I know," said Nico, "but I've had this jacket as long as I can remember. I don't want to give up any links to my past."

"Oh." Now Percy felt like a jerk. "Sorry. I didn't know."

"Don't be sorry. It's not like you told me to throw it out, like Thalia practically did."

Percy went to his bag and pulled out a dark blue sweatshirt. He tossed it to Nico. "Put this on under your jacket, at least. It'll keep you warm."

Nico stared at the sweatshirt with something like revulsion.

"It's clean," said Percy defensively.

"It's blue," said Nico as though that was a dirty word.

"There's nothing wrong with blue things," said Percy. "Why don't you ever wear colors?"

"Why should I?" demanded Nico.

"Maybe so people would stop thinking you're so emo," said Thalia from the door.

Percy groaned as Thalia and Annabeth invited themselves in.

"Hi boys," said Annabeth. "I hope we're not interrupting anything."

"I was bitching about how you killed my jacket," said Nico. He glared at Thalia. "Thank you so much for that, by the way."

"I said I was sorry," said Thalia.

"You apologized to me, but not my jacket," said Nico sulkily.

"You want me to apologize to your jacket?"

"Just put on the sweatshirt, Nico," said Percy. "Otherwise you're going to catch a cold."

Nico grumbled but did as Percy requested, then buttoned his aviator jacket up all the way so that it mostly hid the blue shirt.

"We need to talk," said Thalia, crossing her arms as Nico finished.

"I thought we already did talk," said Nico.

"You two are up to something," accused Annabeth. "I want to know why my boyfriend is keeping secrets from me. And how do you two know Sadie and Carter? Why haven't you made them come to camp before now?"

"The same reason we haven't made you leave," said Nico. "Because it's kind of hard to make people do things they don't want to!"

"Why did you spit your Coke all over Nico when you saw them, Percy?" demanded Annabeth. "I know you know them from before, somehow. Don't even bother denying that."

"I . . . uh . . ." Percy looked at Nico for help. Lying to Annabeth was so hard, and he knew he was going to mess it up if he tried. Plus he didn't want to lie to Annabeth. He didn't like lying to begin with but Annabeth was his girlfriend. He never wanted to be anything but honest to her.

"We have met them before," said Nico. "And we have told them about Camp Half-Blood. But they've never wanted to come, and like I said, it's hard to make people do things that they don't want to do. Or do you think it would have been a good idea to smash them in the head with a brick and drag them here unconscious?" Percy was impressed. Everything Nico had just said was true, though he wisely omitted the reason why they never wanted to come to Camp Half-Blood. Percy didn't think it was a good idea to tell Annabeth and Thalia that Sadie and Carter were magicians either. Magicians weren't exactly welcomed there.

"And you wonder why people think you're morbid," muttered Thalia.

"So are you up to something with them?" Annabeth wanted to know. "Tell me you didn't have anything to do with Martina's death."

"Of course we didn't!" Percy and Nico both exclaimed in unison. "How could you even think that?" asked Percy.

"Because you're both acting strange and it's got me worried. It's got Bianca worried. It's even got Thalia worried," said Annabeth.

"I'm not going to tell them that! That'll just make them made!" said Nico suddenly. Then his eyes widened. "Oops. I mean . . . nothing. Nevermind."

"Tell us what?" demanded Thalia.

Percy wanted to groan. Nico was obviously holding a conversation with Anubis in his head and was having a hard time keeping both conversations straight.

"Nothing," said Nico petulantly.

"What were you thinking of telling us?" asked Annabeth.

"That Thalia's put on weight since becoming a Hunter."

"Why you little . . ." Thalia made a move as though she was about to go after Nico. Nico stood his ground and Thalia drew back before actually attacking him.

"I told you it would make you mad," said Nico. "But then I thought there was a chance that it might not since the only people Hunters care about are other Hunters. What would it matter what I say? I'm just a stupid, lowly boy after all."

"Stop trying to change the subject, Nico," said Annabeth.

"You can say that again," said Nico.

"What?"

"Huh? Oops! I mean, nothing."

"Nico," said Percy. He suddenly felt very weary.

"Sorry," said Nico, looking tired as well.

Percy saw Annabeth looking back and forth between the two of them. Her eyes narrowed in suspicion, the way they did when something she didn't like occurred to her.

"Nico," she said, "Thalia told me what you told her earlier tonight . . . those times when you forget what you're talking about in the middle of a conversation and your memory goes blank for a moment. She said you thought it might be a side effect from the River Lethe, but that doesn't sound like anything I've ever heard before."

"Because you know so many people who have been dunked in that river and lived to tell about it?" asked Nico.

"After watching you and listening to you say odd, random things myself, I don't think it sounds like you're forgetting things," said Annabeth. "It sounds more like you're talking to someone else and are getting the conversations that you're carrying on confused."

Oh gods, thought Percy. Annabeth's figured it out. She knows. This is bad.

He saw Nico's eyes widen in alarm and knew that Nico had come to the same conclusion. Percy wondered if it would be better for them if they came clean now or tried to deny that Nico was hosting an Egyptian god. If they denied it, precedence would be on their side since no Egyptian god had ever managed to take a demigod host before, and it was supposed to be impossible.

"You both need to be honest with me now," said Annabeth. "Because if my suspicions are correct, Nico needs some serious help." Annabeth took a deep breath.

Nico cringed and Percy felt himself tensing as well as they waited for the other shoe to fall.

"Nico," said Annabeth, "you've developed a multiple personality disorder, haven't you?"

"What?" demanded Nico. "You're accusing me of having split personalities? Are you stupid?"

"Don't act so defensive," said Annabeth. "I'm trying to help you, Nico. You might be developing schizophrenia."

"I'm not."

"Nico, Children of the Underworld are prone to . . . well . . . insanity," said Thalia. "It's in all the lore I've ever read about you guys. Your magic wears down on your mind as you age. The older you get, the more you start to lose it."

"My father told me that's a myth," said Nico. "I asked. He told me that all of my predecessors were off from the moment they were born, and that they pulled the wings off flies and tortured rats and stuff. He said Bianca and I never did that. That we were different. Probably because our mother had a stronger life force than any of the other women he got the stork to deliver his children to."

"What?" demanded all three of the older demigods at once.

Nico looked at them confused. "Huh?"

"Nico . . ." Percy glanced at Annabeth and Thalia who looked floored. "What are you talking about when you say he got a stork to visit them?"

Nico looked at them as though the answer was obvious. "The same way your godly parents got you delivered to your human parents. By asking a stork for a baby."

"Umm . . ." Percy wasn't sure if this was what Nico really thought . . . or if this was an ingenious plan to derail this conversation. If it was the latter then it really was a good idea . . . but Percy had the sinking feeling that it was the former.

"Oh gods," muttered Annabeth. "Don't tell me no one's explained to him about . . . gods, this is not . . ."

"What?" asked Nico, looking dumbfounded. "What did I say? Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Well Nico," said Thalia. "Percy will tell you all about it."

"Wait, I will?"

"After Annabeth and I leave for the night."

"Thalia, you did not just volunteer me to give him the talk." Percy gritted his teeth together. He could not believe the turn that this conversation had taken.

"What talk?" Nico wanted to know. "And you guys say that I don't make any sense?"

"So if Hades lied to Nico about the stork, do you think he lied to him about his other half-siblings?" asked Thalia.

"Seems likely," said Annabeth. "I couldn't say for sure though."

"What do you mean he lied to me?" demanded Nico. "How can you know if he was lying or not? You think just because he's the Lord of the Dead that he must be a bad guy? Someone has to watch over all those departed souls! Do you know what would happen without someone there to regulate them all? And it's true that my other siblings who I never met were a little unhinged, but Father admitted that! He said that people just thought they got worse when they got older because they had the power to do things on bigger scales when they were older, but they'd been messed up from the start. And he said that Bianca and I were different, and that he'd had high hopes for us and I believed him! I still believe him! I'm not a psycho! I'm not!"

"I know you're not," said Percy quickly, because he could see that there was real fear and desperation starting to show in Nico's eyes. "I believe him too. And Annabeth, Thalia, trust me, Nico doesn't have split personalities. We hang out enough that I definitely would have noticed that."

"You could have noticed but just be covering for him," said Annabeth.

"I could be, but that wouldn't be helping him, would it?" returned Percy. "I do my best to look out for him and if I thought he was sick in any way, I'd make him go see a doctor."

Annabeth seemed to think that over then realized it was true. "So then tell me what's really going on."

"We already did," said Nico. "Why do you keep on hounding us?"

"Because we still think you're hiding something."

"Well good luck proving it." Nico started toward the door. "I'm going to bed."

Thalia blocked the door. "Not so fast."

"You're not really going to try to stop me, are you?" asked Nico. "If you do, this will get ugly."

"Don't," said Percy. He quickly moved to intervene. "Thalia, Nico, no fighting. That's the last thing the camp needs right now with what just happened. I mean it, don't."

Nico and Thalia both glared at each other and continued to size each other up for several seconds before letting their tensed muscles relax, if only minutely.

"I would like to go to bed," said Nico in a voice that was strained. "I'm tired. My head hurts. Please move, Thalia. If we have to continue this argument can we at least do it tomorrow? Tonight has not been a good night."

Thalia nodded and moved to the side. She actually reached out and patted Nico's shoulder as he walked by, which made Nico go rigid and look at her with huge eyes that were both shocked and disturbed. Then he turned back around and hurried out of the Poseidon cabin.

"This isn't over," Annabeth told Percy.

"Guys," said Percy. He felt as exhausted as Nico had looked. "You've got the wrong ideas about what's going on."

"We'll talk about it tomorrow," said Thalia when Annabeth would have started arguing again. "That boy was right about one thing. We're all too tired for this. Good night, Percy."

"I'll walk you guys back to your cabins," said Percy. He went to follow them but was stopped by their glares.

"We don't need protection just because we're girls," said Thalia looking irate.

"Okay, you're right, sorry," said Percy because if he didn't backtrack real quick he knew there would be blood. "Good night, Thalia. Good night, Annabeth." He moved to kiss his girlfriend, but Annabeth stepped away and gave him a dark look.

As they left Percy sighed. No one said that being a loyal friend was easy.