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‘That doesn’t sound like me,’ Nico said, trying to play it deadpan, but Will gave him a stern look. Nico laughed. ‘Okay, okay, fine.Maybethat sounds like me.’
‘We met … way before the Battle of Manhattan, actually,’ said Will, leaning against Nico. ‘You … You came into the Big House, remember?’
‘What?’ Nico scratched at his head. ‘When was this?’
‘Back when I was still training to be a field medic, with Michael Yew …’
Will fell silent, unable to finish, and that’s when the fragment of memory came back to Nico.
‘The sword fight,’ he said. ‘I’d only been at camp a couple of days. Chiron had me training with the other campers, and I went too hard.’
‘You sliced your own leg,’ said Will, smiling weakly. ‘If I remember correctly, you missed the target dummy completely because you were arguing with Chiron.’
‘I love that you seem to remember all the most embarrassing moments of my life,’ said Nico. ‘Way to go, Will!’
‘I only remember that because of what came after. The part that’s more striking … was you. In the Big House. You wouldn’t sit still, and Michael was barking commands at you because you were bleeding everywhere, and … and –’
‘You calmed me down,’ said Nico, and the image bloomed in his mind: a young Will Solace, his blond hair bushy and slightly unkempt, holding Nico’s leg still, Will’s blue eyes boring into his own.
‘At least Itried,’ said Will. ‘I don’t think it worked.’
‘It did,’ said Nico. ‘Even if it was only for a moment. I was … a little difficult when I was younger.’
Will grinned. ‘Oh,onlywhen you were younger?’
‘Shut up.’
‘That’s news to me. You’veneverbeen difficult since.’
Nico shifted uneasily. He glanced over at the old nymph, who was studying the two of them with a wistful look.
‘So, is thatit, Will?’ Nico asked. ‘Is that really how we met?’
‘I think so. I’m pretty sure I saw you running around Camp Half-Blood when you were originally rescued by Percy and Annabeth, but that was our first face-to-face moment.’
Nico shook his head. ‘I didn’t even realize that wasyouback then. But … well, I also don’t remember much about my first few weeks at the camp. I felt so out of place.’
Gorgyra sighed. ‘It seems you two have a complicated and labyrinthine connection.’
‘Would really love to never think about a labyrinth ever again,’ Nico muttered.
She smiled. ‘I find this fascinating. Sometimes mortals are not aware of the threads that bind them. You could both be wrong about the first time you met, and yet the two of you have orbited each other for so long, like heavenly bodies in the sky.’
Will squeezed Nico’s hand. ‘I like how that sounds.’
Nico studied Will’s broken fingernails, the cuts on his knuckles. He certainly felt like he was spinning through space … like he would go shooting off into the void if it weren’t for Will’s gravity.
‘Well,’ Nico said at last, ‘maybe we don’t remember the first time weactuallymet, but I do remember when I considered you a friend.’
‘Tell me,’ Gorgyra said.
Nico heard the yearning in her voice: insatiable, like the three-headed dog Cerberus begging for bones.Just one more. Just one more.Nico worried Gorgyra would keep demanding stories, pulling on string after string, until their whole lives were unravelled at her feet.
Nevertheless, he wanted to talk about it. He looked into Will’s tired blue eyes when he spoke, not Gorgyra’s. ‘It was at camp. After … after Octavian. When he … you know.’
Will’s face drooped. Nico knew he hated that memory: whenNico and Michael Kahale had allowed Octavian to launch himself to his own death. ‘I remember.’
‘We had defeated Gaia. You were standing in the doorway of your cabin.’
