Nico's POV
All I saw was darkness. I felt as though my lungs were caving in as I was crushed by the weight of Olympus itself. I was dying or at least it felt like I was dying. Like my senses were failing and everything was slowly going numb.
I'd failed her. When she needed me most I disappeared again and this time I doubt I'll make it back to her. I'd broken my promise. I wasn't gonna be there to keep her safe on this quest. I'd failed her again and left her alone. I wanted to scream, I wanted to punch the endless void that engulfed me but my limbs felt too heavy to move.
"Nico!" He heard a voice call out from the darkness.
I couldn't place it but the voice sounded like music to my ears. Almost like a forbidden melody.
"Nico!" It echoed again, seeming closer than before.
I felt as though the weight on my chest began to throb. Hurting my lung worse than before. Soon a rush of air flew through my lung fallowed my the sensation of water gruggling up my throat as the weight lifted.
My eyes flooded with light as I coughed out a flood of sea water. The world felt hazy but a pair of strong arms held me steady. Piercing sea green eyes scanning my face in worry. Looking down I noticed we were in a beach, golden sand covered my soggy clothes.
"I thought I'd lost you there for a second, kid" Percy signed in relief.
"Where, where are we?" I gasped still adjusting to being able to breathe normally again.
"Not sure exactly but I can tell you we're...roughly 38.5913° N, 28.6965° W" he sighed looking out into the horizon.
"Soph?"
"Back on the ship I hope?"
"You don't know?"
"I mean I'm like ninety percent sure she's on the boat, that wave sent you overboard, you hit your head. I dived in after you to try get us back but the wave...and the wind. I wasn't strong enough to keep up so I had the waves bring us as close to land as possible and...we'll here we are" I looked at him in shock.
I was stranded...on an island in the middle of the Atlantic...but my first crush...someone I still had some sort of feelings for while my pregnant best friend and maybe girlfriend is possibly miles away.
"We need to find them!" I groaned as I stood, my head spinning with pain, reaching up I could feel a large swelling bump from where my head collided with the ship.
"Nico we can't go anywhere with you like this!"
"We don't have time to wait. I need to protect her"
"And I don't? She's my sister! I wanted to protect her from the gods bullshit for years. I never let her get pick for quests. I wanted her to have a normal life! I also have my girlfriend on that ship. The love of my life! I've been going crazy the past two nights terrified of not being there to protect either of them! So come on man, just sit down and talk to me."
"Two nights?"
"Yes, I was terrified you were dead and I'd have to find Soph and be the one to tell her and watch her spiral"
My heart broke and the thought of Soph thinking I was dead.
"We need to contact them" I muttered. Looking down at my feet. I haven't felt as lost or helpless in years. Part of me wanted to cry on Percys shoulder the other wanted to punch him for steering feelings I thought I'd dealt with years ago.
"If we could I would have done that already!" He groaned picking up a rock and flinging it across the surface of the water. Watching it skip before falling beneath the waves.
"Poor little demigods" a feminine voice echoed. "Lost are we?" She mocked.
Soph's POV
I felt like I was trapped in a haze. I could hear the world around me as clear as day. My friends whispered conversations, their general worry around my well being being tossed back and forward. I wanted to yell out and tell them I was okay. That I just wanted to get up out of this bed and find Nico and Percy. I wanted to tell them to screw Hera, that our family mattered more than the gods and what ever mess Hera has gotten herself wrapped up in but I couldn't speak. Hades sake I couldn't even open my eyes. All around me was static black, as though I was trapped between life and death. I felt utterly helpless and alone. I felt like I was dying, or at least this is what I imagined the transition into death to be like.
I probably imagined it but I felt as though I could see the rough outline of a figure ahead of me, I wanted to run towards them but no matter how much I willed myself forward I was stuck where I stood. I tried to call out into the darkness but my throat was dry and no sound could form.
So I did the only thing that I could, I sobbed silently to myself. I was lost, in the in between. All around was this overwhelming sense of hopelessness.
I just lay there, engulfed in the void aimlessly listening to my friend worry. Their solemn conversations my only indication of the passage of time.
Minutes simultaneously felt like hours and seconds in apposing intervals.
"How is she?" Thalia sighed, as the floors creaked beneath her feet as she entered the cabin they'd placed me in days ago.
"Nothing new, she seems fine, nothing wrong I just can't get her to wake" Frank mumbled, he was my only continuous contact as the days passed. He was kind enough to share stories and new updates as he worked around the clock to try awake me up.
"Do you think this is part of the prophecy?" He asked as something metal and cold was placed on my chest.
"I don't see where it'd fit in" Thalia replied sadly, the end of my bed dipping as she took a seat.
Suddenly a line of the prophecy began to repeat over and over in the back of my mind.
A curse to break or face a timely death.
I couldn't be...cursed? Could I? Like a sleeping curse? The kind you hear about in fairy tales. They couldn't be real. Unless, where the gods of Sleep where up to something? Where they involved in Heras disappearance?
Could I control my sleep like state? Manipulate it the way you can with dreams? Could I use this curse to find Nico and Percy? It was worth a shot.
I was so caught up in my own thoughts I hadn't realised time had passed till I hear Frank say goodnight as had become His custom each night as he went to get rest before coming back first thing in the morning to try nurse me back into the land of the living.
This was my chance, if Frank was heading to bed, it would have to be night time and maybe just maybe I could will myself into Nico's dreams and help guide him to our location. I just had to think...how can I get into this head?
"Morpheus, god of dreams guide me. Connect me with Nico Di Angelo?" I cried into the dark in a desperate plea for help.
"Morpheus, please if you can hear me, hear my plea! Guide me."
I continued to plea into the void. Slowly losing hope as my voice started to waiver. Till just as I was prepared to give up, a dull light appeared and striving forward from the light a mams silhouette appeared before me. The man was young looking possibly in his twenties, in dark blue silk pyjamas, and fluff slippers.
"Okay, okay enough with the whining! Can't you see I was trying to get my beauty sleep? Why couldn't you wake my brothers? Jeez" he groaned sleepily.
"My apologies, Lord Morpheus, please I need your help"
"So you've been yelling...how can I help you?" He replied in a full tone.
"Ummm... you see I really need to get in contact with my friend, see if he's okay. I was hoping if he was sleep that"
"That I could connect your dreams so you can share a message"
"Oh, umm well yeah actually"
The god laughed half-heartedly looking at me with amusement "how romantically nieve. M'dear, dreams are rarely clear slipping into the dreams of an other is dangerous and should not be explored lightly by...children. Especially one in your...condition. However I can tell from the look in your eye I won't be able to convince you away from this course, so in stead I shall strike a... bargain of sorts with you"
"What kind of bargain" I asked hesitantly, I knew deep down I'd do anything to make sure Nico and my brother were safe. That they'd know where we were and could find us.
" nothing too big or too small, should I do this task for you all I require in return is for you to find Orpheus' lyre and deliver it to me Olympus when you return Hera."
"Where do I even find something like that" I retorted.
"lost at sea, among the rocks at the base of a cliff actually not too far from where you are currently the ship wouldn't be small enough to get close you'd have to... oh I forgot you can't swim, your sort of a joke among Poseidon's children. So young demigod, is it worth it? The weight of needing to face your fears?"
I gulped down my fear, hoping the god couldn't sense it radiating off me. Masking it behind the anger I felt for him attempting to provoke me.
"When it comes to family anything is worth it" I all but spat at him wiping a smug look off his face.
"Well then do we have a deal?" He reaches out his hand toward me. I raised an eye brow before hesitantly taking his hand and shaking it.
"Oh by the way once I connect your dreams
It can not be undone till one of you fall into the next life" with that Morpheus smirked as the darkness melted way to reveal a dream
Scape that mirror the underworld. I felt as though I was back in Hades' Palace.
All that was left to do now what find Nico.