The Boy of Shadows and Sin

Chapter 3

Nico winced as he slung his backpack over his shoulder. Thanks to Will's magical healing abilities and a good night of (for once) dreamless sleep, his injuries were mostly healed, but he still felt like he had wrestled a titan and lost. No, he corrected himself, if he had lost, he would be dead.

He glanced back at Will, who appeared to be asleep after what Nico guessed was a long day of unease. He himself had slept for a good 18 hours, and the sky was dark again. Night time is the right time to sneak off and disappear, he thought bitterly. It wasn't like anyone would miss him. Will would get over it. He sighed, trying to shove that feeling of guilt and regret deep, deep down, bury it so he wouldn't have to deal with it.

Nico took a step towards the forest.

"You're not going anywhere, not in that condition," Will's voice said.

Nico swore and started running towards the nearest tree, bracing himself to shadow travel, but his injured ankle gave out on him and he tumbled to the ground, swearing his head off. Will knelt beside him and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Nico, you're in no state to be disappearing on me. You can hardly walk!"

"Ok, so maybe I'm not as healed as I'd like to think I am," Nico growled, "but I can still do what I want."

"Death Breath, allow me to repeat myself: You. Can't. Walk. In that case, I'd love to hear your great plan for slipping away on me!" Will was fuming, his face turning the colour of an ominous sunset. Seeing Will this mad was almost enough to scare Nico. The laid-back, level-headed medic never raised his voice, never let his emotions get the best of him, but here he was, worried and angry, all because Nico was leaving. He had only seen him like this once before—the battle of Half-Blood Hill, when Nico initially said that he was going. Will had lost it, and Nico said that he would stay. He wanted to stay for a while. It was nice to feel wanted. But he knew he wouldn't be sticking around.

"Shadow travel isn't really that tiring," Nico semi-argued. He ignored Will's outstretched hand pushing himself off the ground, barely containing his cry of pain for his sprained wrist.

"Oh yeah?" snarled Will. "Then why is it that you were about to pass out on me when we first got here?"

"I wasn't prepared to bring a second person!" he protested.

"You know what, I'm calling Anna, see if she can come take you back to camp. You need to rest, you need to get more medical attention."

"Just so you know, I'm perfectly fine, Sunny Boy."

Will reached down and raised the hem of Nico's shirt to reveal the wound from where he was spiked. It was a sickly green, tinged by a bright, angry red. "It's infected," he said, his voice suddenly soft and worried. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Nico looked down, suddenly ashamed. How did Will do this to him, make him feel things he had locked up so long ago that he almost didn't recognize the emotions? Will was right. He wasn't a healer. His medical knowledge was limited to basic emergency first aid—very limited and mostly improvised—and how much nectar and ambrosia he could take without burning up—and he had a habit of even pushing that.

But something Will had said was nagging at the back of Nico's mind. "What do you mean, pick me up? What about you?"

Will let Nico lean on his shoulder as he hobbled back down the beach. "Thorn said that he has my sister captive. I'm going to get her back. He may be dead, but she's still at where he was holding her. And I'd bet that he had lackeys surrounding the place. If he doesn't give orders in a few days, I wouldn't doubt that those lackeys are gonna kill her." He looked like he was going to be sick.