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Reyna was feeling sick. Very sick.
She had not expected her first experience with shadow-travelling to hit her this hard. She scrambled to her knees, dry heaving. The nausea was bad. The disorientation even worse. If this was how it would feel after every jump, she was not sure she would survive the whole way back to New York.
She heard similar noises coming from beside her mixed with unhappy bleats from her right. Coach Hedge did not seem any better off than she was.
It took a while for her stomach to settle and her head to stop spinning.
She was finally able to look around. They have been very lucky they have landed on an empty grassy field. Though the grass was all withered as far as she could see in the dark of the twilight. They have been even luckier that there were no monsters in sight and they had not yet been attacked.
Reyna now understood why Nico di Angelo warned them that he would be out of commission after every jump and would need their protection. Well, for now, she was not doing much protecting. She could only hope she would get used to the sensations and be more alert after next jump.
And speaking of Nico di Angelo.
Reyna turned her head to her left this time. The boy was hanging limply in the harness he had draped around the Athena Parthenos, clearly still unconscious. But something was wrong.
Heart beats fast.
The son of Hades has always seemed quite small in stature. However, Reyna did not remember him ever looking quite this small. Like he was a young child and not a scrawny teenager.
She did not dwell on what was happening too much. This must have been just a part of the backlash that Nico di Angelo experienced after using his powers. It was strange, but Reyna had seen many strange things in her life as a demigod. She added it to her list.
Still on wobbly feet, she and coach Hedge went to detangle the son of Hades from his harness. He would be much more comfortable laying down on the ground.
When they were done and the child – Nico di Angelo has really become a child! A five to six years old from the looks of it – was finally down, they sat on each of his sides, observing him.
“Do you think this is normal?” Coach Hedge spoke first.
Reyna took in their surroundings again, thinking.
“I have seen Nico di Angelo doing a lot of strange things. Summoning skeletons, speaking with ghosts, withering grass. But never have I seen him turn himself into a child.”
“Hmm,” coach Hedge was taking a second look at the son of Hades. “Moving us along with the statue must have taken a lot of strength. Perhaps he just overexerted himself? Did the Poseidon boy not say something along the lines that it would drain him?”
Reyna was hoping he would come up with an explanation, something they could rationally accept and move on. No such luck. Coach Hedge only shrugged his shoulders and mirrored her a quizzical look.
“I have never heard about anyone turning into a child because of their powers before. And I have been alive for quite a while. You know, satyrs have a knack for gossip. If I have not heard it, then it never happened.”
This did not reassure Reyna in the slightest. She was worried they would be stranded here now that the son of Hades was officially out of commission. Never mind being unconscious, such a young child could not possibly control enough power to make another attempt at shadow-travelling.
Coach Hedge must have sensed her unease. He patted her shoulder, almost toppling her over from the awkward angle, and reassured cheerily.
“Do not worry too much about it. Let him rest a little, perhaps he will sleep it off. And if not, well, he can tell us what is going on once he is awake.”
Colors and promises.
“Alright,” Reyna nodded, finding her bearings. “Let us scout the perimeter in the meantime. We do not know how long we will have to stay here. We should make sure we are safe.”
“That is the spirit!” Coach Hedge exclaimed with enthusiasm. “I will make sure we have no unexpected visitors. I know my way around a few small traps and such. You stay here and watch the kid.”
Before Reyna had time to process what he had just said, the satyr was already gone. He took his backpack with him. Reyna hoped he would not go too overboard.
She made herself comfortable, resigned for a long wait.
Not a minute later, the son of Hades stirred and woke up. He sat up, wiping sleep out of his eyes in a very adorable manner. Reyna has never liked young kids much, but seeing Nico di Angelo now, she thought she could as well start.
Or not, she corrected her opinion. Little kids were menaces with way too many difficult questions.
“Who are you lady? Where is my mummy?”
Reyna’s brain short circuited. She sure as hell did not want to answer that particular question. She knew only little about Nico di Angelo’s past, but this particular piece of information she had. And she was not about to tell a sleepy young child that their mother was dead for years now.
It was bad enough that the son of Hades seemed to have a memory loss of some kind if he did not know who his companion was and was calling for his long-lost parent he hardly ever mentioned.
Reyna’s silence however seemed to have only made the child more anxious. Nico di Angelo looked around, his panic visibly rising. He put his small hands around his chest, hugging himself for comfort. At the same time, he drew away from Reyna, apparently a stranger to him right now.
“Where is Bianca?”
Bianca? Reyna did not even know who this person was. How was she going to placate the child? She was afraid the son of Hades would start crying any second now, his eyes were already glistering with tears.
How to be brave?
“Just calm down, everything will be alright.” Reyna gathered all her courage and jumped head first into the situation.
She never liked Nico di Angelo too much, she only ever saw him as a mysterious and slightly terrifying ambassador of Pluto. A strong fighter and a very independent demigod. Seeing him like this. It was too much.
“We are on a quest.” Reyna tried to reason, hoping the son of Hades would be able to regain his wits. “You brought us here with your shadow-travelling abilities. You are now experiencing a backlash of sorts. Did this ever happen to you before?”
Wrong move. Her questions must have scared the child all that more. He started calling for his family more desperately.
“I am scared. I want my mummy. I want Bianca. Where are–”
Nico di Angelo abruptly stop his cries. Reyna wondered what was wrong this time. For a heartbeat, she was relieved, she believed that the son of Hades remembered and was coming back to his senses.
She was wrong. He remembered something, but it was not for the better.
Abruptly, fat tears started falling down Nico di Angelo’s cheeks. The grass under him was withering at an alarming rate. He had forgotten his memories and now his powers were running amok, Reyna thought. He was sobbing, almost choking while he voiced his realization.
“Bianca… mummy… they… they are gone…”
Reyna’s heart was breaking hearing him cry. She wanted to do something to help, something to alleviate the pain, if only temporarily.
Before she could double guess herself, she already covered the few feet that were separating her from the child. She gathered Nico di Angelo in her arms and let him clutch his small fists into her cloak. The child pressed his scrunched, tears-streaked face into her shoulder and wailed.
Reyna had never heard anything so sad and lonely. The child was crying for someone to come rescue him. To be there with him when he was afraid and vulnerable.
Mostly subconsciously, she started patting Nico di Angelo’s – Nico’s – hair and rubbing his heaving back soothingly.
“I am here, Nico. You can cry all you need, you are safe. I am here for you, I will protect you.”
How can I love when I'm afraid to fall but watching you stand alone?
All of my doubt suddenly goes away somehow.
Nico cried a good long while. It was as if he was trying to let go of the pain of his whole lifetime.
Reyna registered at some point that coach Hedge came back, but she did not let herself be distracted. He just took in the situation and gave her a small nod before sitting down a distance away, giving them privacy.
Nico was now only hiccupping occasionally, still clutching at Reyna’s cloak as if it was his only lifeline. The daughter of Bellona had to wonder how much of the teenage Nico di Angelo was in this child and in the grief, he had just gone through. Would he remember once he was back to his older self?
She started singing a lullaby.
She could not say where she had found it in herself to do something like this. She had never sung to anyone. It had always been her older sister taking care of her and singing to chase away nightmares. Now she suddenly understood how older siblings felt.
She wanted to protect the hurting child in her arms. She thought of him as of a younger brother.
When Nico’s breaths evened out and deepened, she carefully dislodged his small fists from her cloak. Even more carefully, she laid him on the ground, keeping his head in her lap. She continued singing and patting his hair. All in hopes he would have sweet dreams and would be able to rest peacefully.
Reyna woke to grunting sounds of one teenage Nico di Angelo. She opened her eyes and sat up straighter. She realized she had been sleeping while sitting, her back and her legs were killing her because Nico’s head was still in her lap, only the weight has increased.
“You awake, cupcakes?” coach Hedge’s voice was way too cheery so early in the day. “Who wants some breakfast?”
Reyna looked down. The son of Hades seemed very flustered. He was hiding his face, his very red face may she add, in the palms of his hands and grunting unhappily. He must have just woken up himself.
“Let us never talk about this again.” Nico’s voice was low, pleading. “Please.”
Reyna had to keep herself from bursting into laughter. This was so uncharacteristic of Nico, the notorious son of Hades. But she would of course oblige, she would have been beyond embarrassed if something like this happened to her.
“What happens in Albania, stays in Albania,” she promised solemnly.
She glared at coach Hedge, daring him to disagree. The satyr wisely remained silent. He did a show of locking his mouth with a key and then throwing it away.
One step closer.