Amaurosis

X: What Happens in Greece...

My legs trudged across the damp wooden plank and I let my feet squish into the coarse sand below. With each begrudging step, more sand piled into my shoes, little sharp prickles from grains and small rocks under my soles. Shoulders slumped and tail between my legs, I staggered onto the beach and took a stand beside the others.

"Thank you, Alex, for taking as long as you possibly could to walk off the ship," Nico remarked sarcastically, though he didn't bother to add onto it with a fake ear-to-ear smile. "We truly appreciate it." I rolled my eyes.

"Great. Now that we're all here," Jason began to command, hands on hips, but Leo had other plans.

"Off we go!" Leo pointed off in the distance and began to march toward the rising sun.

"Um, Leo," Jason coughed, catching his attention, which wasn't hard with a demigod. Our attention was literally everywhere and nowhere at the same time. "Boeotia is that way." He motioned in the opposite direction, and, gradually, Leo spun on his heel and advanced to lead us.

About a dozen miles and four and a half hours behind us off the coast of Alyki Beach, the Argo II hovered above the Gulf of Corinth. Leo gave Festus strict commands to scare off any mortals that may try to pirate us and steal the ship, but even if they snuck aboard, they wouldn't know what hit them. What kind of ship uses Wii remotes instead of a classic steering wheel? Not a normal one, I'll tell you that.

We trekked over stone streets and mossy dirt paths as the burning ball of light in the sky, now directly overhead, beat down on us. Sweat caked my neck and dripped down my back and stomach, and until now, I never understood the difficulty of wandering through the desert for forty years like Moses. I started to have doubts about him; it had been almost five hours of constant rehydration and I was still about to pass out. My knees began to wobble.

"Watch where you're walking, Dusk," griped a voice masked with bitterness as two hands pushed me away. I stumbled over my feet, struggling to catch myself, and nearly collided with Annabeth.

Annabeth. That reminds me. Something has been eating me alive for the last twelve hours. When Nico threatened to ask Annabeth about my previous-- shall I say-- adventures, I thought it too suspicious to barge into the viewing room, out for blood and sniffing out suspects. And on top of that, Nico might have wanted to only push my buttons, see how far he has to go to make me snap.

"Di Angelo," I greeted more nicely than I usually do. There wasn't a hint of disgust or hatred. Actually, that's a lie. Let me correct that. There wasn't much disgust or hatred. "What a pleasure." He pretended to gag.

Nico stared at me with droopy eyes, gray bags hanging below them, but it was obvious he tried to cover them with concealer. A powdery substance a little darker than his ghostly pale skin lined the shadows under his eyes.

He hadn't been sleeping well, if at all, and, even though we weren't on the best terms, a part of me pitied him and felt sympathy for his sleepless nights. After all, he was the shadow lurking while I watched the stars.

Regardless, small talk was useless. I was here to ask one question and one question only. "What did Annabeth tell you?"

I refused to look at him and he at me, both of us facing forward instead. We were like secret agents, spies, of opposing nations sneaking out to exchange damaging information that could dethrone the most royal of kings.

He laughed, a deep chuckle that siphoned goosebumps. He slowed his pace to walk behind me, making the hairs on my neck stand erect. Sweat tickled my skin, most likely an effect of the brutal heat.

"You really think I'd ask Annabeth?" he scoffed. "I bet you'd been thinking of me all night. Suffering from the unknown, letting your imagination run wild, stuck on what she must have revealed." He advanced further, dangerously close, close enough to send shivers up my arms. "Well, I'm sorry to disappoint, but I haven't said anything."