𝐄𝐔𝐃𝐀𝐈𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐈𝐀 | Happiness, but better translated as "human flourishing"; to flourish by realizing one's ideal end or goal, by achieving the purpose of human life with excellence or virtue.
In Ancient Greek theater, a Greek tragedy is a play w...
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▬▬▬ CHAPTER TWENTY THREE ▬▬▬
I MADE A MISTAKE IN THE LAST CHAPTER!!! ☹️ I wrote that she had sixteen dead siblings when it's supposed to be fifteen. I fixed it last night but I decided to tell you guys anyways as a heads up. Sorry for the slip-up ☹️
Nothing too horrible happens in this chapter tho, so you guys can consider it as me giving Essie a break :)
NICO WAS SHOCKED SPEECHLESS WHEN he saw Esmerelda the next day. She had knocked on his bedroom door and he had swung it open, expecting it to be one of the servants.
His voice died in his throat when he saw who it really was.
Esmerelda looked a little better. Her hair was no longer tangled, but she left it straight rather than in those pretty curls she adored so much. She also looked like she had thrown on whatever she could grab from her closet, but Nico was just glad she was no longer wearing the shirt she had accidentally... vomited over.
But she looked so hollow. He had never seen Esmerelda look so sad before, like a piece of her had been taken away and she was being forced to live forever without it. Like... like when he had lost Bianca...
It hurt him to see her like this, because she used to be so bright before. Everything in the Underworld was dull, dreary, and dead, and then there was Esmerelda, the only shining light in this place, but now...
She looked like she belonged in the Underworld.
"I made lunch," she muttered listlessly, not even bothering to give him a smile.
Nico nodded mutely before beginning to step out of the room when he suddenly remembered something. He paused.
"Essie, I..." He hesitated. "I found the file."
There was a sharp inhale, and Nico eyed her worriedly as if she might faint from the shock. A small spark had appeared in her eyes and it looked like the old Esmerelda had resurfaced for just a brief moment.
"Okay," she exhaled. "We'll eat lunch first—but quickly. I want to get this over with..."
She also needed to get to camp in time for Beckendorf's funeral and to... tell Silena his last words to her.
Suddenly, Nico asked her a dreaded question: "Last night... who were you talking about? Who did you want to protect?" He was almost afraid of the answer because, well, she wasn't exactly in the right state of mind to be 'protecting' anyone.
She bit the inside of her cheek. "I was talking about my uncle."
"...What did you do?"
"He left the country. Went back to England." She answered curtly.
