Demon Eyes [Nico Di Angelo]

Chapter 29

*Nico's POV*

When you're a demigod, you get used to sudden challenges and plot twists. You never know when a bloodthirsty monster is going to pop up, or an angry god or goddess, hell, most of the time you don't know where you'll be sleeping that night. Nevertheless, nothing could have ever prepared me for this.

After Hazel found Kayla's location, everything was more hopeful as we marched the five miles through tick-infested grass to find Kayla's prison. Well, I imagined it as a prison, so of course naturally I was freaking out the whole way. I was always a good distance ahead of everyone, wishing that they could pick up the pace a little. With Kayla in Aaron's hands who knows what he's doing to her? How is everyone going so slow? Don't they understand what's at stake? As soon as Hazel announced Kayla's location, I wanted to shadow travel there and rescue her single-handedly. When I started walking over to the closest  shadow, Jason immediately knew what I was doing and grabbed my arm, yanking me back. The argument that followed went like this:

"Jason let me go."

"No Nico."

"Jason!"

"Nico. You're not thinking."  

Then he shot me his piercing-death-glare-of-doom, and that was pretty much that. After that we wasted precious time coming up with at least a brief plan, filled with a lot of improvising and hoping for good fortune. Most of the plan mainly flew over my head, because really, nothing is going to get inbetween Kayla and me. If they do...it's not going to be a pretty sight. 

Now, fast forward to about forty-five minutes later, and as I'm leading the way through the field, I spot a dark column of smoke drifting up into the sky. My first thought: campfire. Then, I look past the smoke, and see several more floating up into the sky, getting smaller and smaller. My second thought: holy shit. I quickly spun around, putting my hand out to alert everyone to stop, and kneel down, hoping the long grass conceals us. Seeing everyone's confused faces, I whisper-shout to them.

"Smoke in sky. That means campfire. Multiply by fifteen, and that means lots of fires. I think we've found their camp." 

A mixture of emotions had passed over all of their faces, from relief to joy to concern. This is apparently the weak part of our "plan".  Are we supposed to just walk right into their camp? We decide to scout around the camp, looking for possible entrances or handy hiding places, and maybe scavenge weapons for the people that had their weapons on board  when the Argo II was attacked. I'm thinking we could really use Dicletian's scepter right now. An undead army would be very helpful in this situation. But of course, we lost it too. Peachy. 

Annoyed and frustrated, I stand up, then remember how exposed we are, and crouch a little bit. Gaea's army picked a really great spot for camp, with empty fields surrounding the camp to easily spot oncoming invaders, and a small hill at the front, providing shelter and a great vantage point for soldiers on guard duty. There's no way to get in or out the camp without running into trouble. But what's a rescue mission without a little disorder? 

Without waiting for anyone to follow me, I begin to make my way to the camp, slicing through the long grass and keeping a solid grip on my sword, preparing myself for the battle that is sure to come. I hear the rustling of grass and thudding footsteps behind me, and know that the other demigods noticed my abscence and are looking for me. They're trying to stop me from doing this, but surely they must know that they can't. No one can stop me. 

I break out of the long stalks of grass and stumble onto the hill, surprising the two feathered harpies and traitor-demigod that are standing on guard. The traitor draws his weapon, a gleaming double-edged Imperial gold gladius, probably scrounged from a former member of Camp Jupiter. I think of the days when I was at Camp Jupiter, and Hazel and I would sit on the roof of Pluto's shrine and talk about everything and nothing. Looking at that sword, I get angry. Looking at this fellow demigod, that has turned against his own people, I get angry, so angry. When he charges at me, I'm ready. 

I easily fend off his first strike, sidestepping and ducking underneath his swing to quickly jab him in the ribs, making him off-balanced and weak. Now angry and in pain, he lunges again, but I simply hit him inbetween the eyes with the flat of my blade, and he collapses, unconscious. The harpies attack together, but with my adrenaline rush, they didn't stand a chance. With a single swing of my sword, Chicken Lady #1 explodes into golden dust, and when Chicken Lady #2 charges me, I spin around, letting my momentum cause my sword to cleanly slice through her neck. I'm standing on the hill surrounded by two piles of glistening ash and a knocked-out demigod when Percy and Annabeth break through the tall grass behind me, and they send me questioning looks, but  don't ask as they signal the other demigods over. 

"Nico!" Hazel scolds me. "You just endangered this whole mission! You need to be more careful! You could have died!"

I smirk. "I hate to point it out, but about every second of every day there's a chance that I could die." I take Hazel's hand in mine to soften my blow, and send her a message through my eyes: I'm sorry I scared you. I love you. 

Hazel rolls her eyes, but her smile and hand squeeze send back a message. It's ok. I love you too, you little shit. 

We have a really great relationship. 

So then, naturally,everything went downhill. Wait, let me correct that. Everything went to fucking Tartarus, then jumped into the River Phlegethon. 

Angry shouts and the sound of stomping feet-marching feet-came from down below, and when I looked down at the camp, my heart stopped. Marching up the hill (in stellar formation) were a whole legion of traitor-demigods, escorted by hellhounds and Earthborn, along with a couple other horrifying creatures from Greek mythology. The demigods were armed with bronze and golden swords, gleaming spears, gracefully arched wooded bows, large, round shields with the earth inscripted in them (no doubt a memior to the "beloved Earth Mother", Gaea) and they wore full body armour- bronze chestplates, face masks, greaves, the whole nine yards, while the monsters weilded simple wooden clubs, with the occasional spear or ax. I wasn't liking our odds. 

"Leo," I began,"where's Calypso?" 

"Umm...I don't know. I thought that she might have been with you." 

I exhale slowly. "Shit." 

Annabeth, finally gathering her wits after the shock of the vicious and intimidating army marching uphill to kill us,  managed to spit out, "We need to go. Now."

Jason nodded, his eyes still wide. "Good idea." 

Everyone, waking up from their state of paralyzed fear, began grabbing their weapons and running back into the stalks of grass. Me? I didn't budge an inch. I looked over my shoulder, expecting to be alone once more, but surprisingly, Leo was there, along with Hazel. Leo was emotionless, his eyes bloodshot from fighting off tears, but his face cold and sharp like stone. Then there's Hazel, who's crying, and tugging on his arm, pleading for him and me to come with her. But we won't. 

That's when I see her. She's marching up front, wearing all black and a bronze breastplate, a bow in hand. I don't even think.

"Kayla!" I start to go down the hill, but Leo and Hazel manage to hold me back, despite my struggling. "Kayla please! I'll save you! I promise! Kayla, goddamnit!" 

She looks at me, and her eyes don't show love, or relief, or even panic or fear. When I look into her eyes I see hatred. Pure hate. Without even hesitatng, she fires at me, and she would have killed me, if it wasn't for Hazel and Leo, who shoved me out of the way just in time to feel the arrow whiz past my ear. They shove me into the grass, and I don't hesitate to sprint off after them, running blindly through the stalks, sobbing like an idiot the whole way, ignoring the pain of the grass whipping my bare arms, thinking only one thing: Kayla tried to kill me. 

im so sorry i havent updated in so long. if there is mistakes in this im so sorry because i worked on it at different times, which kinda messes up my focus. anyway, my One Direction concert was awesome, Rick Riordan retweeted my tweet, and I made the Freshman soccer team for my high school, so life is pretty fucking good at the moment. i go back to school next week. NOOOOOOOOOOO thats not ok. QOTC: When do u guys go back to school?