Just The Beginning... (Solangelo)

Chapter 32

Third Person POV:

His eyes hurt, his fingers were cramped, and his body ached from not having moved very much in the past several hours. But he couldn't stop, didn't want to stop until he found something that would help him.

The note didn't say anything other than that. There were no instructions or clues on how to find the person, this Luke, that had taken his angel yet again.
The only thing he had to go on was a barely perceptible watermark that Asclepius swore was familiar. But he had no idea where he'd seen it. Or even what century he'd seen it. So here he was scouring the endless abyss of books that was the palace library. And he'd found nothing even vaguely familiar to the faded image on the paper.

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Nico's POV:

Nico woke up, and could immediately feel that something was wrong. He was uncomfortable in every way possible and he was still feeling the aftereffects of his heat, his body still a bit too warm and the fading, but still present ache in his lower belly. He could feel it from somewhere inside him that Will wasn't anywhere near, and that left him feeling all kinds of wrong in a way even he couldn't place.

He finally peeled his eyes open and nearly fell off the poor excuse for a bed he'd been placed on. He was in... jail?
It didn't make a lot of sense, but that was the only thing that came to mind as he stared out of the metal bars closing off the literal box of concrete he was in.
He could feel his breathing pick up, knowing fully well he was on his way to yet another panic attack and knowing just as well that he couldn't do anything about it.
The only reprieve was the scent of Will that still lingered on his clothing, having caught it just as he began to curl into himself. He grabbed at the shirt like the lifesaver it was and inhaled deeply, letting himself fall into the feeling of security that usually came with the scent of his mate, however false it might be. He'd take whatever help he could get at this point.
But the comforting scent reminded him that it's supposed to be followed by an equally comforting presence, and the ache in his chest seemed to increase ten fold.

"Oh! You're awake. Are you okay?" He jumped so hard at the voice that this time he actually did fall out of the...not bed.

"I'm so sorry! Are you okay?" He looked around, finally finding the source of the voice to be a girl in the cell opposite him. Curious as he might have been, he stayed put. After only interacting with a handful of people for the past two years or so, he was naturally very wary of new people.

"I'm Hazel. What's your name?" Only silence followed, but the girl took it in stride, not seeming bothered in the least by the lack of response.

"I saw them put you in there a few hours ago. And you didn't wake up for a while so I was worried you were hurt. " Nico shook his head, in answer, because despite the overall irritation of his fading heat and the fact that Will was most definitely nowhere near him, he wasn't actually hurt anywhere.
The girl visibly perked up, even though the movement was barely visible and barely counted as an answer.
"Thank goodness. Do you know where you are?" He answered with another shake of his head. He had absolutely no idea where he was, though his general idea of his location on earth had been non-existent since he walked into that forest.

"Is he awake?" A second voice suddenly piped up. And it was followed by several more. Just how many people were in here?
There was a few seconds of chatter and it was confirmed by Hazel that he was, indeed, awake.
Due to the positions of the cells, he couldn't quite see the occupants of most of them. He could see Hazel, because she was right across from him, and he could see a boy in one of the cells beside her. But it was the person on the other side that got his attention. He looked so... familiar.