100 reasons to love our lives

The rescue of the sun

Nico

"Could you repeat the address, please?"

These words rung in my ear as I felt his death. My mouth spoke without me realizing the words, repeating Celine's location for the police officer. But my attention went to that dread, that punch in the stomach, that animal biting its way into my heart.

I was too late. She killed him.

Only Hazel's hand on my shoulder prevented me from exploding like an atomic bomb. "We will check it out", the man on the phone promised me before hanging up. It had been the second try already; the first one hung up as I mentioned that 'my boyfriend' was being held prisoner. During the second call, I wasn't so naive anymore and just told them that 'a friend of mine' had gotten abducted.

"Nico, remember what you're here for", my sister told me. "We will find him and get him out."
"But he is dead, Hazel!", I barked. "Yes", she said, unimpressed. "And his body is still there with her. We have to get him out."
My body started to shiver uncontrollably as I thought about William's body in Celine's hands.
That disgust was enough to shove my anger away. "Time to rip her in pieces", I growled.
"Nico, remember the plan", the sorceress warned me.

Together, we got back to the little house. It felt like the setting of a horror movie now - there were corpses in that building. One of these corpses was my boyfriend.
My hand formed a claw over my heart and then pushed it away. A fresh breeze got caught in my hair, numbing my raging mind for two sweet seconds.

I would kill her. I would kill her slowly without remorse, and when she was dead, I would go down to the fields of damnation and torture her myself.
Yes. That sounded good.

Hazel took my hand, and together we approached the forcefield. The young woman next to me seemed collected and calm, but I could feel her fast heartbeat as she inspected the magic barrier in front of us. "I don't know how she did this", Hazel said. "It's not a work of only one person. Someone really experienced helped her."
"Can you break it?", I asked nervously; she nodded.

"It's not really about breaking", she explained. "It's about sucking the power out."
Another shot of anger ran through my chest. How stupid could I be to miss that?! If I would've just thought for a while, I could've saved him! And now he was dead...
Hazel's request took me out of my thoughts: "I need your help here."

~~~

"Mrs Mordare, open the door!", the officer repeated. I waited nervously - would my distraction really work? Celine surely wouldn't have wanted to raise suspicion by not opening the door while my poor boyfriend still had been alive. But now, she had already succeeded... Would she still care about her reputation?

On top of that, Hazel whispered into a little device looking like a baby monitor for demigods. I could only hear fractions of it: "In the drawer to the right... The top drawer, yes... Only a little bit... Yes, I swear on river Styx... I love both of you."

Then, she put the device back into her pocket. Her daughter Marylin was now almost three months old, and even though I didn't hear what exactly Hazel had to promise, I could imagine it. She was a young mother going into a fight; most likely she had sworn to come home safely.

Finally, the door got opened. Celine looked as innocent as she always did; her hair messy and her clothes chill. Hazel's fingers pressed themselves in my shoulders again, preventing me from barging between the officers and crush her skull between my bare hands.