‘Fair,’ said Will. ‘I still like the idea of you having a perpetual band of little demons following you around, though.’
‘Don’t you dare call it cute.’
Will furrowed his brow. ‘Oh. Uh, yeah.’ He pulled out what appeared to be a foot-long desiccated lizard wrapped in a handkerchief.
‘Gross!’ Meg said with enthusiasm. ‘Is that for medicine or something?’
‘I’ve never met anyone like him. But ... I want to understand him.’
The goddess of springtime smiled, and Will felt like the sun was beaming down on him.
‘You and Nico will make a fine couple,’ she said. ‘As long as you keep trying to understand.’
As for Will, the troglodytes seemed to ignore him. My best guess: because Will glowed, they considered him simply a movable light source…Judging from Will’s scowl, he did not appreciate this.
The wind blew through Will’s bushy hair. In the fiery light of Tartarus, his bronze skin seemed to glow again, each whisker on his cheeks a filament of gold. Nico found it completely unfair that, even as they dropped to their deaths, Will still looked stunning.
:‘What are you talking about?’
‘What are you talking about?’
‘You said we were here,’ said Will.
‘We are!’ Nico spread his arms wide.
Will fixed his eyes on the distance. ‘Um, no, we’re not.’
‘They said I belonged with them,’ said Will. ‘That I was lonely, even with you.’
Nico’s heart sank. ‘What?’
‘Not all the time, Nico,’ said Will, shooting him a sad look. ‘Just sometimes. When I’m not sure if you’ve let me in.’
‘Nico,’ he said, ‘I can always tell when you’re upset, and we’re in a place where being upset is actually a very bad thing.’
Small Bob mewed softly at Will’s feet.
‘See? Even the cat agrees with me.’
Chiron stood there, his eyes wide. ‘Oh — oh, no, have I interrupted something?’
Nico pulled away from Will and wiped his face with the back of his hand. ‘No, no, it’s okay,’ he said. ‘We were just talking.’
‘You’re so good at this,’ Will said, his steps careful and controlled, while Nico was now walking backwards down the trail. ‘How many times have you taken this trail before?’
As they came in the door, they got quiet.
‘Is he okay?’ whispered Kayla.
Austin said, ‘Would you be, if you were him?’ A moment of silence.
‘Try to get some sleep, guys,’ Will advised.