Breaking the Gods

chapter 8

"But you have tested those limits excessively," mimicked Nico.

"Do you think to mock me?"

"Do you think to mock me?"

Landin glared at him. Nico glared right back. Then Landin laughed.

"Normally," he said, "we wait a bit longer to make certain a student is Blue Ward material. But I think in your case, no more waiting is necessary. Only a demigod has such a high capacity for getting into trouble."

Nico wasn't quite sure how to respond to that so instead of speaking he just gave Landin a weird look.

"Tell me, Mr. diAngelo, were you aware of what you are?" asked Landin.

"I'll answer your question, if you answer one of mine first."

"Oh? Ask then."

"How flammable is the Blue Ward?"

Landin scowled at him. "Very funny, Mr. diAngelo."

"The only thing that I think is funny here is your face."

"Now, tell me, do you know what you are?"

"You didn't answer my question, so I'm not going to answer yours."

"Who is your father, boy?"

Nico bristled. "I don't have to tell you."

"Do you know him?"

"I know your mom."

"What would you do if I told you that your father was a god?"

"Tell you I'm an atheist."

"Your father was a god, boy," said Lanin.

"I'm an atheist."

"We're not sure which god yet. You don't fall into any of the usual perimeters for the gods whose children we've seen before, but don't worry. We'll probably figure out who he was."

"Is this some new weird punishment technique?" asked Nico. "You're planning on role-playing me into being repentant? Because if so, I'll tell you right now, there's no way in hell that's going to work."

"You see things that no one else seems able to see," Landin told him seriously, ignoring how Nico was making fun of everything he said. "Monsters and magic creatures, strange people riding chariots through midday traffic that no one else finds strange, or people who seem more like mutated freaks with green skin or dog ears, or some other such ridiculousness, that no one else notices."

Nico fell silent at this and gave Landin his best suspicious gaze. He wanted Landin to confirm his own suspicions about him, but he wanted Landin to come to that conclusion by his (Nico's) reactions rather than by his words. It would look too weird if he suddenly became too cooperative, so Nico decided it was better to keep pretending he knew nothing. Landin gave a small smile, taking Nico's silence for acceptance.

"You have a hard time reading, but a few times, you've looked at something in your history class, something that was written in an ancient or dead language, and you were able to read it more clearly and easily than you've ever read anything written in English. You can't sit still, because of your ADHD, because your mind and body are hard-wired for battle. When someone attacks you, even though you've never had any self defense training, you move like you've been training to defend yourself for years."

"So what?" asked Nico sulkily. "That doesn't mean anything."

"So you admit that you recognize yourself in that description."

"I didn't admit anything!" shouted Nico. "You don't know what you're talking about!"

"I know things that you can't even imagine, boy," said the dean.