When MYTHS Become Real

I jumped a mile high at the sudden sound. Part of me was shocked that the phone had lasted through everything in my pocket. The other, rational part was panicking that a monster would hear and come find us behind the giant pine I’d been leaning on. I scrambled to straighten up and quickly dug out the cell with every intention of turning it off. Unfortunately, the stupid touch screen had a different idea. I fumbled with the device for a second and ended up hitting the talk button instead of ignore.
“Crap,” I mumbled as I brought it up to my ear. “Hello?”
“Naida? It’s Glen. Are you okay?”
“Oh, hi, Glen. Yeah, I’m fine. Why?”
Nico’s dark eyes turned even more impossibly black as he narrowed them at me. I lowered my voice a little more and turned my back on Nico’s stare. I was still pressed up against the tree and ready to defend myself but I didn’t want to be rude and hang up on the first guy since Nico to ask me out.
“Well, it’s Tuesday and you weren’t in school yesterday or today.”
I froze for a moment as I calculated the days in my head. I’d gone out on my date with him on Saturday night, three days ago. “Oh, damn, I’m sorry. I had this family thing come up and I had to go out of town.”
“Well that sucks that I didn’t get to see you but I’m glad that was all it was. I was a little worried when you didn’t show up yesterday.”
I flushed and I’m sure my face was the same shade as my hair. “No, I’m good. And I really was hoping to see you, too. I had fun on Saturday.”
Before I knew it, the phone was yanked away from me. I spun in a quick circle and saw that Nico had snagged it and he did not look happy in the slightest. “She has to go,” he snapped before hanging up and completely powering it off and shoving it in his black jeans.
“Hey!” I cried out in outrage. Sure, it was probably stupid to have a conversation with Glen in this situation, but he had no right to do that.
“Why do you have a cell phone? Don’t you know how dangerous that is for demigods?”
“Of course I do!” I practically shouted. I clamped my hands to my mouth but I was still pissed off when I lowered my voice. “It’s none of your business, Nico. You have no right to be mad about this. You aren’t my brother so it’s not your job to protect me.”
He sighed and ran a hand through his medium-length hair. “You think that I’m angry about the phone? Yeah, I want to protect you but more than that I can’t believe you’re going out with some asshole. I was only gone a couple of months!”
Again, I had to control my temper before I started screaming at him. “He’s not an asshole! And you said yourself that you were gon- Wait. What?”
He let out a deep breath and most of that anger dissipated. “Look, I’m sorry, Naida. I honestly meant to keep in touch but Mnemosyne took my memories of you.”
Pins pricked at the backs of my eyes but I wasn’t going to let myself cry. I knew that this was not the right place to hash everything out but I needed answers. “So I’m really that easy to forget?”
He looked stricken. “No, of course not. But no one can fight her memory loss.”
“I did, Nico!” My temper finally got the better of me and I was yelling. “Last winter, when she gave me that bullshit dream I knew that it was wrong. And it wasn’t just that Nico and Tyson weren’t there, it’s that you weren’t. Even under Mnemosyne’s spell, I knew that you were supposed to exist. That’s what snapped me out of it. But you couldn’t even remember me when you saw me. It’s good to know how important I really was to you.”
He opened his mouth to argue but was interrupted by lout shouts only a few yards away. An army of monsters, Erinyeses and basilisks and a few others I couldn’t name, spotted us and were quick to attack. With a huff, Nico whipped out his sword and decapitated the first monster that got close. I let out a startled squeak and sprang into action next to him.
“You have to know how much I care about you, Naida,” Nico yelled over the commotion. He stabbed at an Erinyes and she turned to dust.
“Forgive me if I doubt that.” It was a little surprising to see that in the midst of battle I could still be annoyingly sarcastic. My own blade parried against two things with claws scratching for my face.
Nico and I engaged in a deadly dance with the monsters surrounding us. We were a perfect team, somehow reading each other’s moves despite the fact that we kept arguing through the entire thing. He had my back, blocking the attacks I couldn’t get to while I covered him just as easily. Even though I was mad at him, I couldn’t help but admire the way we worked.
Things were running smoothly between us but my mind was starting to lose focus, too caught up in him. I was holding my own but one of those huge basilisks had been able to slither up behind me. I was too busy fighting what looked the leftovers of the guy that I’d seen tied to a rock in the Fields of Punishment so I didn’t see anything coming. I barely had time to ram my sword through the guy’s spilling gut (ew) when I heard the hiss and turned as the snake got ready to launch its spikes. My eyes widened and I froze knowing that there was absolutely no way I could move fast enough to dodge it.
Suddenly, I was wrapped protectively against Nico’s firm chest. I blinked in surprised but was definitely grateful that I wasn’t a Shish-ka-bob. “I never wanted to hurt you, Naida. I love you.”
If it was possible, my vivid green eyes grew even bigger at the declaration. Hearing those words broke whatever wall I’d been hiding my feelings behind and I pressed myself even closer to him for a kiss. My shattered heart slowly started to repair itself and I melted into his strong build. Oh gods, even after all these months of heartache I was completely head over heels for him. I didn’t think that moment could get any better.
But then my moment of absolute bliss was crushed.
The sharp pain emanated from my right shoulder and spread to every single part of me. I stumbled away from Nico and glanced down at my aching arm. I could barely see the tip of the blade through my blurry vision.

Notes

hi ;)