Nico glanced down. He still held his Stygian sword, but his hands were dark and transparent like smoky glass. Even in the direct sunlight, he was dissolving.

'Stop this!' he said.

'Oh, I'm not doing a thing,' Bryce said. 'But I am curious to see what will happen. If you take the statue, you'll disappear with it forever, right into oblivion. If you don't take it ... well, I have orders to bring Reyna in alive to stand trial for treason. I have no orders to bring you in alive, or the faun.'

'Satyr!' the coach yelled. He kicked a skeleton in its bony crotch, which seemed to hurt Hedge more than the redcoat. 'Ow! Stupid British dead guys!'

Bryce lowered his javelin and poked the coach in the belly. 'I wonder what this one's pain tolerance would be. I've experimented on all kinds of animals. I even killed my own centurion once. I've never tried a faun ... excuse me, a satyr. You reincarnate, don't you? How much pain can you take before you turn into a patch of daisies?'

Nico's anger turned as cold and dark as his blade. He'd been morphed into a few plants himself, and he didn't appreciate it. He hated people like Bryce Lawrence, who inflicted pain just for fun.

'Leave him alone,' Nico warned.

Bryce raised an eyebrow. 'Or what? By all means, try something Underworldy, Nico. I'd love to see it. I have a feeling anything major will make you fade out permanently. Go ahead.'

Reyna struggled. 'Bryce, forget about them. If you want me as your prisoner, fine. I'll go willingly and face Octavian's stupid trial.'

'A fine offer.' Bryce turned his javelin, letting the tip hover a few inches from Reyna's eyes. 'You really don't know what Octavian has planned, do you? He's been busy pulling in favours, spending the legion's money.'

Reyna clenched her fists. 'Octavian has no right '

'He has the right of power,' Bryce said. 'You forfeited your authority when you ran off to the ancient lands. On August first, your Greek friends at Camp Half-Blood will find out what a powerful enemy Octavian is. I've seen the designs for his machines ... Even I'm impressed.'

Nico's bones felt like they were changing into helium, the way they'd felt when the god Favonius turned him into a breeze.

Then he locked eyes with Reyna. Her strength surged through him a wave of courage and resilience that made him feel substantial again, anchored to the mortal world. Even surrounded by the dead and facing execution, Reyna Ramirez-Arellano had a huge reservoir of bravery to share.

'Nico,' she said, 'do what you need to do. I've got your back.'

Bryce chuckled, clearly enjoying himself. 'Oh, Reyna. You've got his back? It's going to be so fun dragging you before a tribunal, forcing you to confess that you killed your father. I hope they'll execute you in the ancient way sewn into a sack with a rabid dog, then thrown into a river. I've always wanted to see that. I can't wait until your little secret comes out.'

Until your little secret comes out.

Bryce flicked the point of his pilum across Reyna's face, leaving a line of blood.

And Nico's rage exploded.

XXXI.

Nico

LATER, THEY TOLD HIM WHAT HAPPENED. All he remembered was the screaming.

According to Reyna, the air around him dropped to freezing. The ground blackened. In one horrible cry, he unleashed a flood of pain and anger on everyone in the clearing. Reyna and the coach experienced his journey through Tartarus, his capture by the giants, his days wasting away inside that bronze jar. They felt Nico's anguish from his days on the Argo II and his encounter with Cupid in the ruins of Salona.

They heard his unspoken challenge to Bryce Lawrence, loud and clear: You want secrets? Here.

The spartoi disintegrated into ashes. The rocks of the cairn turned white with frost. Bryce Lawrence stumbled, clutching his head, both nostrils bleeding.

Nico marched towards him. He grabbed Bryce's probatio tablet and ripped it off his neck.

'You aren't worthy of this,' Nico growled.

The earth split under Bryce's feet. He sank up to his waist. 'Stop!' Bryce clawed at the ground and the plastic bouquets, but his body kept sinking.

'You took an oath to the legion.' Nico's breath steamed in the cold. 'You broke its rules. You inflicted pain. You killed your own centurion.'

'I I didn't! I '

'You should've died for your crimes,' Nico continued. 'That was the punishment. Instead you got exile. You should have stayed away. Your father Orcus may not approve of broken oaths. But my father Hades really doesn't approve of those who escape punishment.'

'Please!'

That word didn't make sense to Nico. The Underworld had no mercy. It only had justice.

'You're already dead,' Nico said. 'You're a ghost with no tongue, no memory. You won't be sharing any secrets.'

'No!' Bryce's body turned dark and smoky. He slipped into the earth, up to his chest. 'No, I am Bryce Lawrence! I'm alive!'

'Who are you?' Nico asked.

The next sound from Bryce's mouth was a chattering whisper. His face became indistinct. He could have been anyone just another nameless spirit among millions.

'Begone,' Nico said.

The spirit dissipated. The earth closed.

Nico looked back and saw that his friends were safe. Reyna and the coach stared at him in horror. Reyna's face was bleeding. Aurum and Argentum turned in circles, as if their mechanical brains had short-circuited.

Nico collapsed.

His dreams made no sense, which was almost a relief.

A flock of ravens circled in a dark sky. Then the ravens turned into horses galloping through the surf.

He saw his sister Bianca sitting in the dining pavilion at Camp Half-Blood with the Hunters of Artemis. She smiled and laughed with her new group of friends. Then Bianca changed into Hazel, who kissed Nico on the cheek and said, 'I want you to be an exception.'

He saw the harpy Ella with her shaggy red hair and red feathers, her eyes like dark coffee. She perched on the couch of the Big House's living room. Propped next to her was the magical stuffed leopard head Seymour. Ella rocked back and forth, feeding the leopard Cheetos.

'Cheese is not good for harpies,' she muttered. Then she scrunched up her face and chanted one of her memorized lines of prophecy: 'The fall of the sun, the final verse.' She fed Seymour more Cheetos. 'Cheese is good for leopard heads.'

Seymour roared in agreement.

Ella changed into a dark-haired, extremely pregnant cloud nymph, writhing in pain on a camp bunk bed. Clarisse La Rue sat next to her, wiping the nymph's head with a cool cloth. 'Mellie, you'll be fine,' Clarisse said, though she sounded worried.

'No, nothing is fine!' Mellie wailed. 'Gaia is rising!'

The scene shifted. Nico stood with Hades in the Berkeley Hills on the day Hades first led him to Camp Jupiter. 'Go to them,' said the god. 'Introduce yourself as a child of Pluto. It is important you make this connection.'

'Why?' Nico asked.

Hades dissolved. Nico found himself back in Tartarus, standing before Akhlys, the goddess of misery. Blood streaked her cheeks. Tears streamed from her eyes, dripped on the shield of Hercules in her lap. 'Child of Hades, what more could I do to you? You are perfect! So much sorrow and pain!'

Nico gasped.

His eyes flew open.

He was flat on his back, staring at the sunlight in the tree branches.

'Thank the gods.' Reyna leaned over him, her hand cool on his forehead. The bleeding cut on her face was completely gone.

Next to her, Coach Hedge scowled. Sadly, Nico had a great view right up his nostrils.

'Good,' said the coach. 'Just a few more applications.'

He held up a large square bandage coated with sticky brown gunk and plastered it over Nico's nose.

'What is ... ? Ugh.'

The gunk smelled like potting soil, cedar chips, grape juice and just a hint of fertilizer. Nico didn't have the strength to remove it.

His senses started to work again. He realized he was lying on a sleeping bag outside the tent. He was wearing nothing but his boxer shorts and a thousand gross, brown-plastered bandages all over his body. His arms, legs and chest were itchy from the drying mud.

'Are are you trying to plant me?' he murmured.

'It's sports medicine with a little nature magic,' said the coach. 'Kind of a hobby of mine.'

Nico tried to focus on Reyna's face. 'You approved this?'

She looked like she was about to pass out from exhaustion, but she managed a smile. 'Coach Hedge brought you back from the brink. The unicorn draught, ambrosia, nectar ... we couldn't use any of it. You were fading so badly.'

'Fading ... ?'

'Don't worry about that now, kid.' Hedge put a drinking straw next to Nico's mouth. 'Have some Gatorade.'

'I I don't want '

'You'll have some Gatorade,' the coach insisted.

Nico had some Gatorade. He was surprised at how thirsty he was.

'What happened to me?' he asked. 'To Bryce ... to those skeletons ... ?'

Reyna and the coach exchanged an uneasy look.

'There's good news and bad news,' Reyna said. 'But first eat something. You'll need your strength back before you hear the bad news.'

XXXII.

Nico

'THREE DAYS?'

Nico wasn't sure he'd heard her right the first dozen times.

'We couldn't move you,' Reyna said. 'I mean ... literally, you couldn't be moved. You had almost no substance. If it weren't for Coach Hedge '

'No biggie,' the coach assured him. 'One time in the middle of a play-off game I had to splint a quarterback's leg with nothing but tree branches and strapping tape.'

Despite his nonchalance, the satyr had bags under his eyes. His cheeks were sunken. He looked almost as bad as Nico felt.

Nico couldn't believe he'd been unconscious for so long. He recounted his weird dreams the mutterings of Ella the harpy, the glimpse of Mellie the cloud nymph (which worried the coach) but Nico felt as if those visions had lasted only seconds. According to Reyna, it was the afternoon of 30 July. He'd been in a shadow coma for days.

'The Romans will attack Camp Half-Blood the day after tomorrow.' Nico sipped more Gatorade, which was nice and cold, but without flavour. His taste buds seemed to have phased into the shadow world permanently. 'We have to hurry. I have to get ready.'

'No.' Reyna pressed her hand against his forearm, making the bandages crinkle. 'Any more shadow-travel would kill you.'

He gritted his teeth. 'If it kills me, it kills me. We have to get the statue to Camp Half-Blood.'

'Hey, kid,' said the coach, 'I appreciate your dedication, but, if you zap us all into eternal darkness along with the Athena Parthenos, it's not going to help anybody. Bryce Lawrence was right about that.'

At the mention of Bryce, Reyna's metallic dogs pricked up their ears and snarled.

Reyna stared at the cairn of rocks, her eyes full of torment, as if more unwelcome spirits might emerge from the grave.