Nico di Angelo, Flowers of Death

Chapter 44

Amber's P.O.V

"Well... This is awkward," Nico moans, his head resting against the wood table.

"He's not dead, right. Because you never really specified," Grover whines, his entire body shuffling in his seat, as if his legs were itchy, but he didn't want to scratch them. I couldn't help staring at his furry legs and wondering what exactly the mortals were seeings. A baggy pair of sweatpants?

"Percy is fine," I tell him. "For now."

"So let me get this straight, Camp Jupiter was attacked, you cursed camp Half-Blood so everyone would grow old, Leo almost died, but you managed to make him young again, Artemis showed up and gave you an ancient prophecy, so you go on a quest to find a cursed artifact to help save everyone at camp. Sounds familiar," grumbles Grover, who had been ripping up the paper napkins and eating them since we sat down at this table.

Once Grover recognized Nico, he stopped trying to hurt me and started healing Nico with some nature magic. I'd helped as best I could, but with a cut that deep, there wasn't much I could do. Cut really isn't the right word to describe it; there was a large portion of Nico's side missing. It would be impossible to stitch the cut back together since the opening is too large. Meaning there was nothing really stopping the bleeding. Although he had put as much pressure on his wound, Nico lost a concerning amount of blood.

With Grover's help, we managed to encourage Nico's skin to knit itself together. Still, it just kept ripping back open any time he moved. Finally, we decided the best course of action would be to cauterize some of the wound, stop the bleeding, and prevent any more bacteria from getting in. That had not been a fun experience for Nico; Grover had to hold him down while I burned his flesh. This ultimately resulted in Nico killing half the forest in a fit of pain; thankfully, the nymphs didn't blame him. Then I used yarrow to conceal the wound. Grover could infuse the plant into Nico's skin with a little nature magic to act as a makeshift flesh until the wound heals more.

When Nico was finally able to walk, albeit with both Grover and me supporting him, Grover took us a little farther down the street and to a cafe inside the Field Museum. The Field Museum is a natural history museum that focuses on science and ancient life, I guess. It was a big white building that looked like it belonged in Ancient Greece, with tall pillars and ridiculously high ceilings. When I first walked into the building, I was immodestly drawn to some of the skeletons they had on display. After walking past a couple exhibits, we made it to the Field Bistro.

Nico was sweating and shaking from exhaustion, even though he had barely walked; Grover and I had practically been dragging him the entire time. So we sat down at the closest table and ordered some coffee and a scone. From there, I went on a massive explanation about what had happened in the last couple of days; Nico chipped in periodically.

"Don't forget about this mysterious person trying to murder us and sending random monsters to do so," Nico states, his face glossy with sweat. Grover bleats nervously and shoves the rest of his napkin in his mouth.

"Yeah, definitely a familiar feeling," he grumbles, the napkin still in his mouth. A few bits of it end up on the table, and I try not to make a disgusted face at him. Grover reminded me of a bunny, skitterish and walls wanting to munch on something. Though he proved very helpful in saving Nico and me. If he hadn't shown up when he did, only the gods know what would have happened, and yet this small part of my mind was telling me I shouldn't trust him. Maybe I was over paranoid, or perhaps his timing was too impeccable. "How long do the two of you have before ..."

"I'd say less than 24 hours," Nico tells him, his eyes downcast. Speaking of things that didn't feel right, seeing Nico so vulnerable felt wrong. When I first met him, he was like this super powerful hero who would do anything. Now, drained from over excerpting his powers, and he looked like the 15-year-old kid he really was. "The point is, we need to find that damned neckless."

"I wish I could help you more, but I don't really know anything about the Neckless of Harmonia." Grovers explains, "In all honesty, I don't know much about her as a goddess either."

"Wait," I exclaim, sitting up in my chair. "Harmonia is a goddess."

"Yes, the goddess of balance, I think," Grover states. He eyes my paper cup of coffee with hunger, so I tossed it to him. "I know she is the daughter of Aphrodite, and that Hephaestus made the neckless, but after that. I got nothing."

"Balance, funny. That keeps coming up," I mutter, watching with intense fascination as Grover fits the paper cup into his mouth in one go.

"What are you talking about?" Nico asks.

"Remember that line from the prophecy, the balance rests upon her sword."

"Who's sword, though? And the Balance of what. Gods, I hate prophecies. It's like why not just say what you mean, why do you gotta...."

I probably should have paid more attention to what Nico was complaining about. Still, I found my focus being drawn towards a young girl walking around the Bistro.

She was of Asian descent, with short black hair that barely came to her ear and was gelled back against her head. The girl was dressed in all black, from her polished combat boots to her T-shirt that read 'I blame society.' Even the multitude of earrings on her left ear was black; the only thing that wasn't was the silver chain dangling around her neck. However, what really caught my attention was the comedy mask she was carrying around with her.

It wasn't some cheap dollar store make either; even from my first glance, I could tell it was made from gold. The mask's facial features were high cheekbones, a broad and slightly obnoxious smile, and hollow dead eyes. The girl, noticing at this point that I had been watching her, turned to me, looked me dead in the eyes, and smiled slyly. Then tilted her head and, as if she was touching something too breakable, placed the jester mask over her face. I'm not sure how it stayed in place since there was nothing to hold it there, but I didn't want to stick around long enough to find out.

"Guys, we gotta go," I tell them. Grover looks at me funny, so I point to the girl, who was slowly making her way towards us from one of the Bistro's exists. Nico and Grover glance at her.

"Who is that," Grover asks.

"I don't know, and I don't wanna find out. Let's just get the hades out of here" I try to pull Nico out of his chair, but he grabs at his side in immense pain before crumbling back in his seat.

"This is gonna be a problem," I tell him.

"Yeah, and so are they," Grover gasps; I turn around and look at the only other exist of the Bistro to find about 10 of the sportai standing in the doorway, staring us down.

A/N: Question! How long have you guys been reading this book? I've been working on it for years, and I wanna know how long some of you have been waiting to see how it ends??? Comment!!!!!