Gone Girl.¹

𝟬𝟮𝟲. missing puzzle pieces

gone girl.
━━━ chapter twenty six

❀

Even during a war, the dreams didn't stop.

At first Amaryllis saw her brother, Nico, standing alone in the gardens of Hades. He'd just dug a hole in one of
Persephone's flower beds, which she didn't figure would make the queen very happy.

He poured a goblet of wine into the hole and began to chant. "Let the dead taste again. Let them rise and take this offering. Maria di Angelo, show yourself!"

White smoke gathered. A human figure formed, but it couldn't be Nico's mother. It was a girl with dark
hair, olive skin, and the silvery clothes of a Hunter. She looked awfully similar to Nico, which made Amaryllis realise that it was his sister. Bianca; the dead girl that Amaryllis was destined to be forever compared to.

"Bianca," Nico said, a pained expression on his face. "But-"

Don't summon our mother, Nico, she warned. She is the one spirit you are forbidden to see.

"Why?" he demanded. "What's our father hiding?"

Pain, Bianca said. Hatred. A curse that stretches back to the Great Prophecy.

"What do you mean?" Nico said. "I have to know!"

The knowledge will only hurt you. Remember what I said: holding grudges is a fatal flaw for children
of Hades.

"I know that," Nico said. "But I'm not the same as I used to be, Bianca. Stop trying to protect me!"

Brother, you don't understand-

Nico swiped his hand through the mist, and Bianca's image dissipated. "Maria di Angelo," he said again. "Speak to me!"

A different image formed. It was a scene rather than a single ghost. In the mist, Amaryllis saw Nico and
Bianca as little children, playing in the lobby of an elegant hotel, chasing each other around marble columns. The image of her brother as a child, happy and carefree, so full of life and unaware of what the future held for him hurt her chest. She supposed that's what most demigods were like before gods started interfering with their lives.

A woman sat on a nearby sofa. She wore a black dress, gloves, and a black veiled hat like a star from an old 1940s movie. She was beautiful and had Nico's eyes. On a chair next to her sat a large oily man in a black pinstripe suit. With a shock, Amaryllis realized it was Hades. He was leaning toward the woman, using his hands as he talked, like he was agitated.

"Please, my dear," he said. "You must come to the Underworld. I don't care what Persephone thinks! I can keep you safe there."

"No, my love." She spoke with an Italian accent. "Raise our children in the land of the dead? I will not do this."

"Maria, listen to me. The war in Europe has turned the other gods against me. A prophecy has been
made. My children are no longer safe. Poseidon and Zeus have forced me into an agreement. None of us are to have demigod children ever again."

She wanted to scoff.

"But you already have Nico and Bianca. Surely-"