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‘I don’t think you have to worry quite as much as you are,’ said Nico softly.
Will raised an eyebrow. ‘Nico, we’re going toTartarus. Are you seriously trying to tell me that itwasn’tthat bad when you were there?’
‘I mean … Yeah, it was awful, okay? But I know a lot more about navigating it now than I did then. Plus, I’mchoosingto go this time rather than being pulled down there and getting kidnapped by a pair of attention-seeking giants.’
‘I still think you’re underselling the trauma,’ said Will. ‘But can you at least appreciate that I havenoexperience with the Underworld in general, let alone Tartarus? So this is freaking me out a lot more than it is you.’
‘Okay, okay,’ said Nico, reaching for Will’s hand. ‘That’s fair.’
Will closed his eyes and leaned back in his seat. His breathingslowed, and Nico watched his chest rise and fall. Will did this sometimes when he needed to calm down, so Nico let him be.
Nico’s gaze wandered over the train carriage. A couple of businessmen in plain black suits were having a muted conversation a few rows up. A woman with dark brown skin and locs was laughing at her young daughter, who was standing in the aisle without holding on to anything, trying to keep her balance.
‘Subway surfing,’ said Will, which startled Nico.
‘What?’
‘You try to stay upright while the train moves without holding on to anything,’ he said. ‘Though I bet it would be much harder to do in the city. Those trains are way lurchier.’
‘How doyouknow about that? Do they even have subways in Austin, Texas?’
Will smirked. ‘There’s a lot you don’t know about me, Nico.’
Nico scoffed. ‘Like what?’
‘I love Golden Oreos, for starters.’
‘Oh, please. That’s obvious. They’re basically Apollo’s version of an Oreo anyway.’
‘And the morally superior choice.’
‘We’ll come back to that,’ said Nico. ‘What else don’t I know about you, Will Solace?’
‘I first visited New York City when I was …’ Will counted on his fingers. ‘I think I was nine?’ He gazed out of the window as the train rolled into the next station. ‘Mom was on tour, and she was really excited because she was playing some big club in Manhattan a few nights in a row. But what I remember most about that trip was that she parked our van in this big, cavernous lot and said we would not drive a single second while we were in the city.’
‘Why?’
‘She told me you don’t really get to see New York unless you’re on the subway. So, everywhere we went, we took the train. We rode it up and down Manhattan. We took it out to Coney Island one day to go on a bunch of rides. We went out to Queens, too, to see the place where the World’s Fair was held a long time ago. We even made the most amateur mistake possible.’
The train picked up speed again, and a conductor asked them to show their tickets. As Nico handed his over, he said to Will, ‘I’m afraid to ask what your mistake was.’
‘Well, it was very hot that summer,’ said Will. ‘It’s not the same out at Camp Half-Blood. In Manhattan especially, the heat gets trapped between all the buildings, and it’s like a giant oven. So we’d just come out of the Met, and by the time we’d walked the two or three blocks to the train, we were sweating buckets. So we were super excited when the train arrived, because one of the cars was completely empty! Guaranteed seats in a perfectly air-conditioned car during the summer are so rare. Usually all the cars are jam-packed and humid.’
‘Okay,’ said Nico. ‘But … the empty car was a good thing, right?’
Will’s smile faltered. ‘Well … no. Turns out if an entire train is packed except for one car, that’s actually a warning sign.’
Nico twisted up his face. ‘A warning for …what?’
Will wrinkled his nose.
‘Oh, gods. What, Will?’
‘Let’s just say that when the doors closed a very pungent and recognizable smell filled that car. Someone had, uh, made a deposit on the floor.’
‘NO!’ Nico grimaced. ‘Are you serious?’
‘It happens,’ said Will. ‘I guess someone couldn’t wait?’
