Finding Light in the Shadow (Solangelo)

Chapter 16

Will

After we were showered and dressed, we sat on the couch with my Nico between my legs, my arms wrapped around him.

"Will," he said, "there are two ways for us to get to the Underworld. The first is to let me shadow travel and take us right to where we need to go. The second is to travel to the closest entrance, which happens to be in L.A."

"I still don't want my baby shadow traveling unless we absolutely have to. I say we go to L.A. and take the other entrance."

"OK," he replied, "to L.A. we go. Just a warning, you will see a lot more shit going this way."

"As long as you're with me I'll be fine. Nico, about earlier, I'm so happy that you took that step with me."

Nico looked up and smiled at me. "Baby, I told you that I was yours. The rest will come with time."

We got up and packed our stuff. I was really careful packing the Imperial Gold, making sure it was packed safe in my bag. We headed out to find something for lunch before leaving. As we made our way down the street, we found Reyna sitting at a corner cafe. We joined her and ordered a pizza for lunch. As we ate, Reyna asked Nico about our upcoming trip to the Underworld. He filled her in the best he could, although, I knew he was leaving a lot of it out. We finished our pizza and bid Reyna farewell. When we reached the stables Percy and Annabeth were waiting for us.

Annabeth came over and hugged us both. "I'm so happy for you two. Good luck with the next part of your quest."

Percy also gave us hugs and wished us luck. Percy helped us mount our pegasi and get situated. Then we started our pegasi flight, the start of the next part of our quest.

...

Nico had the pegasi land in the back of some old factory. We got off of the winged horses and gathered our bags. I took Nico's hand as we started to make our way down the alley. Two figures appeared at the end of the alley. At first I thought that they two homeless people. However, as they got closer to us I could see that something was very different about them. Their upper bodies were basically human female, ugly human female I might add. They weird thing was, where their legs should have been was something that looked like the end of a snake. They were standing upright on it as they slithered their way toward us.

Nico quickly let go of my hand and grabbed his sword. "Dracaena!"

At this point I didn't need to be told what do. I took my bow off my shoulder and took an arrow out of my quiver. I nocked the arrow on my string and drew the string back. I took aim at where the heart normally would be, held my breath, and released. The arrow went whizzing through the air. It hit the target right where I was aiming. The dracaena suddenly got a shocked look on its face as it exploded into a cloud of yellow dust. The other dracaena got an even more pissed look on its face and started moving toward us faster. It was too close for me to get another shot off. I looked at my Nico, he gave me a nod, raised his sword, and took off towards the monster. It lunged toward him and Nico parried the attack. He ducked and rolled behind the monster. I was worried when I couldn't see my Nico. Suddenly, a glowing black Stygian Iron blade appeared from the middle of the monsters chest. This time instead of exploding into a yellow dust cloud, the monster turned into a black cloud. The cloud started to shrink, gravitating toward the glowing sword. In an instant there was nothing left, the mass being absorbed by the sword. I ran over to my Nico, giving him a hug and kiss.

Nico broke off the embrace. "We'd better go, there's no telling if those two were alone."

"Good point. That was terrifyingly awesome though." I gave him one more peck on the forehead.

We made our way out of the alley and Nico led me through the streets. Nico didn't tell me exactly where we were going. I knew my baby was trying to protect me, but it wasn't helping my stress levels any. Eventually, we ended up in front of DOA Recording Studios. I wasn't sure why Nico would bring me here, but I was pretty positive it wasn't to lay down some tracks.

Nico said to me, "When we get inside, stay beside me and let me do all the talking. You'll be fine in here, but they can be touchy."

"Got it Nico." As we headed toward the door, I put my arm around my lovers shoulder. "I love you darkness."

"I love you too sunshine," he responded.

Little did I know that this was the last we would see the sun for a while.