not about angels - solangelo au

Chapter 22

One Week Later...

I sat on the cold stone floor, facing the iron bars in front of me, incredibly pissed off. Being separated from Will was terrible. I never knew how much I needed to be with him until we weren't able to see each other on an almost-daily basis. My cell wasn't that uncomfortable, but I couldn't shadow-travel out of the prison, and there was barely enough space to stretch my wings.

And I wanted to kick myself for not thinking before I acted. 

It wasn't like I was sad Octavian was dead, or even guilty (the world was a better place without that jerk), I just really didn't want to be permanently incarcerated, or executed, because I was incredibly stupid for about 30 seconds.

The fact that Hades hadn't allowed me to come to the meetings to make a case for myself was worrying. Were they going to decide my punishment without my version of what happened? Whenever I tried to ask any of the guards what was going on, they only frowned at me and turned away, and nobody with more authority had been down since they originally put me in the cell. The only thing I'd found out was that Hades called a temporary truce with the angels while "this whole fiasco is figured out."

It was as if Hades heard me complaining. I had just stood up to stretch when I heard the sound of footsteps on the stairs and moved to the bars, tilting my head to the side to try to see who was coming.

It was Reyna, followed by two guards who I didn't recognize. 

I stepped back as one of the guards unlocked the door. "Am I finally going to be allowed to make a case for myself?" I asked Reyna as the guard unlocked the door and I stepped out.

She nodded. "Yeah, but..."

"What?" I asked. The guard took me by the shoulder as we walked up the stairs.

"I don't know if it'll make any difference," she replied.

"Considering the fact that you and Hades could be dead right now if I hadn't killed Octavian, I think my chances are okay."

"What?" Reyna asked. She had been walking ahead of me and looked at me over her shoulder, confusion written other face.

"I'll explain once we're there," I said. 

The room the meeting was being held in was one of the rooms used for strategy discussions during the war. It was surprisingly empty, though, with only a few demons and Hades seated around the table. Hades had somehow gotten his throne moved down to the meeting room and lazily leaned against one of the chair's arms.

The other demons had been in the middle of a heated argument, but quickly stopped when we came in, all turning to face us.

Hades flicked his eyes over to me for a moment, then looked back to the other demons. "Well, get on with it."

People shifted in chairs, wings ruffled, and finally Piper, one of my almost-friends, stood up, her braids swinging. "Um, Lord Hades, don't you want to, you know, state the charges...?"

Hades sighed and rolled his eyes. "I have to do everything myself, don't I? Whatever. Nico di Angelo, you're charged with the murder of a fellow demon and all that stuff."

Reyna sighed and took her seat to Hades' right. The guards brought me over to a chair opposite from Hades and allowed me to sit down, keeping a tight grip on my shoulder.

We sat there in silence for a few minutes, until Piper finally said, "Well?"

"Um, well what? I mean, I don't understand," I responded, trying to keep from sounding sarcastic.

"She means," Reyna said, with another sigh. "what do you have to say in your defense?"

"Um, well, for starters, Octavian was planning to kill you," I said, looking between Reyna and Hades.

"Really?" Reyna said, surprise evident in her eyes.

Hades had sat up a bit straighter, which counted as an achievement in my eyes. Any kind of reaction from him was good. "How do I know you're not lying."

I shrugged. "You don't. At least now right now. But if you go ask Wi - I mean, the angel, he'll tell you that Octavian actually said that."

Hades sat back in his chair. Apparently, asking Will would be enough proof for him. "Speaking of the angel...you should explain."

"Um," I said, at a loss for words. "He's my, um, friend? Yeah, he's my friend."

"Friend?" Hades said, looking mildly concerned. It was probably the most emotional I'd ever seen him.

"Um, yeah, I mean, yes," I said, shifting uncomfortably in my chair. "Octavian had hurt him, and I just got angry."

"Angry enough to kill  Octavian?"

"Will, I mean, the angel was a close friend." I said, allowing some of the attitude to come back into my voice. "And I hated Octavian before then, anyways."

I heard Piper mutter under her breath, "Almost everyone hated him."

"See?" I said, growing more confident. "I did the world a service."

"Maybe you did," Hades mused. "But you still had contact with that angel during a time of war, which is technically aiding and abetting an enemy."

"But I didn't give him any information about the war or our strategies!" I said indignantly. "Go question him after this; he won't be able to tell you anything!"

Reyna cleared her throat. "Oh, yeah, um, Nico, about that..."

"What?"

"The angels contacted us today...he hasn't woken up yet."

______________________________________

Well, I have school tomorrow, I have to get up at 6, and what am I doing? Eating cold fried chicken and writing crappy gay fanfiction on the internet at 3am.

On another note, sorry it's taken like 3 weeks; I've been back to school and writers' block and other issues.

On another note x2, your comments are literally hilarious (and also really nice, thank you c: ). I want a slideshow compilation of every comment on this story + the ones on Fix You as my Christmas present from Santa. 

The plotholes in this story make me cringe. I have so much to explain in the next chapter.  

Hope you enjoyed, next update...sometime?

xo - romanticxchemicals