The Demigod Games

Chapter 12

I slowly unwrap the mysterious package, temporarily forgetting about Frank. The thing inside is in a sealed bag. It looks like some kind of food, cut up into squares. Then, the name of the thing slips into my head. Ambrosia. Somehow, I know it can heal us.

I rip the bag open carefully, creating just a tiny slit for me to slide a tiny square of ambrosia out. I hurry to Frank's side, pry his mouth open, and stuff it in.

He groans and slowly opens his eyes after the ambrosia slides down his throat.

"Frank, thank the gods!" I breathe as I help him to sit up against a boulder nearby.

"Hazel... I- Behind you!" His seems to immediately snap awake as he averts his gaze to the rocky terrain behind me.

I whip around and see small-sized boy, with olive skin and black hair. His eyes are black, the darkest I have ever seen. Yet, I have this feeling I have seem him before too. Again.

He has a scabbard slung on his waist and a short sword, less the one metre in length, is tucked inside it. His falters as he looks at me.

"No, it can't be," he murmurs as he fiddles with the weird skull ring on his finger. "Dad brought me here to meet you, I think," he says.

"What? Who told you that? Anyway, how could you have communicated with anyone outside?" I ask, completely confused.

"Haven't you spoke to dad in your dreams?" He looks at me questioningly. I shake my head.

"Do you know him?" Frank whispers next to me.

"No."

"Hazel, do you really not remember? You can't possibly have forgotten all that stuff we've been through last year," the boy says, dejected.

"Wait. Do I know you?" I look the boy up and down.

He sighs.

"What do you want?" I ask.

"Dad brought me here. Didn't he send you a message?" The boy stares at me as he draws his blade. But the blade is black steel. Stygian iron. He stabs his blade into the ground and it cleaves through the stone like butter.

He cuts out a rectangular shape on the ground, then takes out some food from his pocket and throws it into the hole as the ground starts to crumble away within the rectangle.

"Let the dead taste again. Serve me!" He starts chanting in a strange language. Ancient Greek. Somehow, I know what he is talking about. Death. War.

"I am king of ghosts!" he yells as humanoid forms start to materialise on the edges of the pit. "You shall obey me! I am a son of the Underworld!"

The figures shrink back. "Bianca, speak to me!" The boy orders, and one of the ghosts, brighter than the rest, steps forward, kneels down and drinks from the pit.

Its form shimmers and solidifies into a girl in a silver shirt and combat pants. She looks up at the boy.

Then, she speaks.

"Nico?"