Death's Daughter

Chapter 8

Nico and Leo were still watching me like I was mad, so I avoided their gazes. I looked around to find that we were in a park.

"Where are we?" I asked.

"Central Park. And those," Nico said, pointing to a pile of rocks, "are the Doors of Orpheus."

"How do we get in?" I felt so dumb by asking all of these questions.

Leo reached into one of the small pockets of his leather belt and pulled out a hammer. I felt my eyes widen. Leo smirked.

Nico glanced at the hammer wielding maniac beside him. "No." Leo put the hammer back. "We need some music."

I looked at my brother. "Do you want to sing?" Nico raised his eyebrows at me in a gesture that said, Do I look like a singer? I turned my gaze to Leo. "How about you?"

Leo proceeded to make painful noises that sounded vaguely like Spanish. By the end of his 'song', both Nico and I had our hands over our ears. The pile of rocks remained a pile of rocks.
Nico raised an eyebrow. "I don't think the doors liked your singing. Neither did I."

Man, I could use my iPod right now. Reflexively, I slipped my hand into my back pocket. Oh, gods. I actually brought it. I must have thrown it in my jeans instinctively. I scrolled through my music until I found the song I was looking for. The stones rolled away to reveal a staircase as "Pompeii" blared through my speaker. I chose a pretty accurate song, if I do say so myself. I smirked at an impressed Leo and a slightly confused Nico, starting my way down the stairs.

"Um, what was that?" Nico asked me as we descended into the darkness.

"My iPod."

"Your what?"

Leo tapped me on the shoulder. "Uh, your brother was born in like the 40's. Plus, demigods don't use technology. It's like sending up fireworks that spell out 'snack'. Barely any of us even have phones. It's just too dangerous."

"Here," I said, handing it to Nico, "look at it for yourself. It's awesome, it does all kinds of stuff. I have games and music and pictures, though don't look at my pictures. Plus," I took back the metal rectangle and pressed a few buttons. The staircase illuminated as I gave the device to my brother. "It works as a great flashlight."

Nico continued to press every app on there. "What's this?"

I looked back. "Oh, gods. That's Flappy Bird. I'm warning you, don't try it."

So, naturally, he played it. He and Leo passed it back and forth between the two of them. The whole way down, all I heard was that game. That and what I assume was a series of curse words. But I wasn't too sure because they were saying, "Schist!" and "Holy Hades!/ Holy Hephaestus!" and occasionally, some Italian and Spanish. I tried to warn them.

Finally, we reached the bottom of the steps. "We're here," I said. They ignored me, so I snatched my iPod out of Leo's hand.

"What'd you do that for?"

I gestured to the stair free space in front of us. "We're here. We're in the Underworld."

Leo blanched. "Is it too late to go back home?"

I laced my fingers in his and he looked at me, startled. I grasped Nico's hand too, so Leo didn't get any ideas. "We're going to be fine," I said, looking at my boys. I smiled at them and squeezed their hands before releasing them. I turned to my brother, "So, where's Dad's place?"

He raised an eyebrow at me but pointed to a gleaming black building in the distance. Quite a distance.
Leo spoke up behind us, "How do we get there?"

"We walk."

We made our way to the shore of a river. "Careful," Nico warned, "this is the River Lethe. You don't want to step in it, otherwise, you'll forget everything."

"I thought the Doors of Orpheus let you out at the bank of the Styx," Leo said, eyeing the dark waters.

"Sometimes it does. Orpheus's doors let you out wherever they want. Today, we're at the Lethe. Just... don't touch the water."

"There's no bridge. How do we get across?" I asked.

Leo spun his sphere in his fingers. "I've got this one."

In a short while, Leo had constructed a small bridge that spanned the length of the river.

"One at a time. And tread lightly. If you guys break my sphere, I can't make it back to Calypso."

I looked at the gangly boy beside me, and I thought I saw something flash in his eyes. Though it went as fast as it came. Maybe Calypso was his 'friend' he talked about that morning.
Nico went across the bridge first, I followed, and Leo went last. After he made it on the other side, he dismantled his contraption and the bridge coiled up like a spring back into the ball.

"One obstacle down, plenty more to come."