scared? | a nico di angelo fanfic

chapter 21: father-daughter vibes

None of them wanted to travel that night, so they decided to stay until morning. Hoa and Nico slept on the bed together, but they made sure to keep their distance.

That definitely didn't help with dreams.

~•~•~

Hoa appeared next to a figure with blond hair and blue eyes. Luke Castellan.

She was walking through a dark palace somewhere in California, which she realized to be Mount Tam. Green fires burned in braziers along the walls. The floor was polished black marble. A cold wind blew through the hallway, and above us through the open ceiling, the sky swirled with gray storm clouds.

Luke was dressed for battle. He wore camo pants, a white T-shirt, and a bronze chestplate. She noticed that his sheath was empty, the human/demigod-killing sword, that Percy told her about wasn't at his side.

They walked into a large courtyard where dozens of warriors and dracaenae were preparing for war. When they saw him, the demigods rose to attention. They beat their swords against their shields.

"Issss it time, my lord?" a dracaena asked.

"Soon," Luke promised. "Continue your work."

"My lord," a voice said behind him. An empousa was smiling at him. She wore a blue dress and looked wickedly beautiful. Her eyes flickered—sometimes a dark chocolate brown like Nico's or a pure red her Hoa's. Her hair was braided down her back and it seemed to catch the light of the torches, as if it were anxious to turn into pure flame.

Hoa's heart was pounding. She waited for the empousa to see her, to chase her out of the dream, but she didn't seem to notice.

"You have a visitor," she told Luke. She stepped aside, and even Luke seemed stunned at who he saw.

The monster Kampê towered above him. Her snakes hissed around her legs. Her swords were drawn, shimmering with poison, and with her bat wings, she took up the entire corridor.

"You." Luke's voice sounded a little shaky. "I told you to stay on Alcatraz."

Kampê's eyes blinked sideways like a reptile's. She spoke in that weird rumbling language, but this time I understood, somewhere, in the back of my mind: I come to serve. Give me revenge.

"You're a jailor," Luke said. "Your job-"

I will have them dead. No one escapes me.

Luke hesitated. A line of sweat trickled down the side of his face. "Very well," he said. "You will go with us. You may carry Ariadne's string. It's a position of great honor."

Kampê hissed at the stars. She sheathes her sword and turned, sounding down the hallway with her enormous dragon legs.

"We should have left that on in Tartarus," Luke mumbled. "She is too chaotic. Too powerful., "

The empousa laughed softly. "You should not fear power, Luke. Use it!"

"The sooner we leave, the better," Luke said. "I want this over with."

"Aww," she sympathized, running a finger down his arms. "You find it unpleasant to destroy your old camp?"

"I didn't say that."