Daughter of Hecate

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Sappho
        I opened my eyes to darkness surrounding me. in the distance there were loud screams of pain. I got up from my position from the ground and noticed I was in a large garden filled with jewels and pomegranate trees covered in ripe fruit. My stomach growled greedily as i got up to pick one of the delicous fruits. Pulling apart the skin, I was about to eat one of the seeds before I was interrupted by someone talking to me.
        "i wouldn't do that if I were you," a voice said.
        I lowered the fruit from my lips and turned around to see Nico leaning against a pomegranate tree. I smiled and walked up to him, but when I saw his grim expression it quickly diminished.
        "What's wrong? Where am I?"
        "You are in the Underworld," he said, casually resting his foot on the trunk of the tree . "Hecate kids have a tendency to be able to travel here whenever they like because our parents are really good friends. Let's go to my father's palace and we can talk about the actual problem." 
        He got up from his position and pulled me by the wrist to the large palace. We passed a throne room where a tall man with dark hair was reclined on a throne of bones looking bored.
        "Hello father," Nico said. "This is Sappho."
        Hades looking up and smiled at me. "Yes, Sappho. Hello, I'm Hades, a really good friend of your mother's. You can come to the Underworld whenever you wish. Your mother even made a room in the palace if you were ever needing to stay here for a long period of time. There's also a portal in the cabin at camp."
        "Thank you, your hospitality is greatly appreciated." 
        "Goodbye Father," Nico said pulling me out of the throne room and up a tower of stairs. which led to a huge, red bedroom. We both sat down on the big bed in the center of the room. On the bookshelf beside me were a bunch of little figurines and collectible cards.
        "Mythomagic?" I asked with a smile, as I picked up a figurine of Zeus.
        A blush crept onto Nico's face, "It's nothing, just something I played when I was a kid."
        I raised an eyebrow, "You still are a kid, and it would have been cool if you still did. I used to play before coming to Camp Half-Blood, and that's only because they were all destroyed in a house fire."
        His eyes grew wide in surprise, "Really? I've never met a girl who played."
        I smiled, "Yeah, we should play sometime, but wasn't there something you were supposed to tell me?"
        "Oh, yeah. There is a war about to break lose up on Earth. The god's are fighting to get you from the Host of Kronos-"
       "Luke?" I asked, my heart instantly dropping into my stomach. "He's Kronos's host? That can't be, he's is too nice. Why? How?"
        Nico looked at me sadly. "I'm sorry Sappho. Someone had to tell you before it was too late. He may be a good guy now, but when Kronos takes over his body, he won't be himself anymore."
        A tear fell down my face, followed by another. "No he can't be. I-I think I love him." The words fell clumsily off of my tongue. Did I just say I loved him? I mean I felt something there that I haven't felt with anyone else. It was like this burning passion burning in the pit of my stomach that I never thought I had, until I met him. And suddenly I broke into a fit of sobs, I had no idea how I was going to deal with this. He's in his early twenties, while I'm not even seventeen yet. I had to admit though, this was really pathetic. ""I can't leave this," I told Nico in between sobs. "He has done nothing but protect me while Caleb has done everything but that."
        He stroke my back in a brotherly manner, " I don't know much about love, or anything you're going through, but you need to live life with all of this going on."
        I looked up into his dark eyes, "What are you saying?"
        "I'm saying that you should stay down here until you have some of this sorted out." 
        I nodded in agreement, "Okay, but not for too long."
        He laughed, "If it makes you feel better, your body is still with Luke right now," he waved a hand in the air and showed an image of Luke carrying me across a corn field. 
        A smile crept onto my lips, "Just a little bit. "
        "So," Nico said with a mischievous glint in his dark eyes, "How about we play Mythomagic, we can share my cards."
        I laughed, "I would like that."