BLOOD OF OLYMPUS

xxxi
Nico
LATER, THEY TOLD HIM WHAT HAPPENED. All he remembered was the screaming.
According to Reyna, the air around him dropped to freezing. The ground blackened. In one horrible
cry, he unleashed a flood of pain and anger on everyone in the clearing. Reyna and the coach
experienced his journey through Tartarus, his capture by the giants, his days wasting away inside that
bronze jar. They felt Nico’s anguish from his days on the Argo II and his encounter with Cupid in the
ruins of Salona.
They heard his unspoken challenge to Bryce Lawrence, loud and clear: You want secrets? Here.
The spartoi disintegrated into ashes. The rocks of the cairn turned white with frost. Bryce
Lawrence stumbled, clutching his head, both nostrils bleeding.
Nico marched towards him. He grabbed Bryce’s probatio tablet and ripped it off his neck.
‘You aren’t worthy of this,’ Nico growled.
The earth split under Bryce’s feet. He sank up to his waist. ‘Stop!’ Bryce clawed at the ground and
the plastic bouquets, but his body kept sinking.
‘You took an oath to the legion.’ Nico’s breath steamed in the cold. ‘You broke its rules. You
inflicted pain. You killed your own centurion.’
‘I – I didn’t! I –’
‘You should’ve died for your crimes,’ Nico continued. ‘That was the punishment. Instead you got
exile. You should have stayed away. Your father Orcus may not approve of broken oaths. But my
father Hades really doesn’t approve of those who escape punishment.’
‘Please!’
That word didn’t make sense to Nico. The Underworld had no mercy. It only had justice.
‘You’re already dead,’ Nico said. ‘You’re a ghost with no tongue, no memory. You won’t be
sharing any secrets.’
‘No!’ Bryce’s body turned dark and smoky. He slipped into the earth, up to his chest. ‘No, I am
Bryce Lawrence! I’m alive!’
‘Who are you?’ Nico asked.
The next sound from Bryce’s mouth was a chattering whisper. His face became indistinct. He could
have been anyone – just another nameless spirit among millions.
‘Begone,’ Nico said.
The spirit dissipated. The earth closed.
Nico looked back and saw that his friends were safe. Reyna and the coach stared at him in horror.
Reyna’s face was bleeding. Aurum and Argentum turned in circles, as if their mechanical brains had