The House of Hades (Heroes of Olympus Book 4)

ever seen in action.
    Later, at Camp Half-Blood, Percy took Nico by the arm,promising to keep his sister Bianca safe. Nico had believed him. Nico had looked into his sea-green eyes and thought,
How can he possibly fail? This is a real hero.
He was Nico’s favourite game, Mythomagic, brought to life.
    Jason saw the moment when Percy returned and told Nico that Bianca was dead. Nico had screamed and called him a liar. He’d felt betrayed, but still … when the skeleton warriors attacked, he couldn’t let them harm Percy. Nico had called on the earth to swallow them up, and then he’d run away – terrified of his own powers, and his own emotions.
    Jason saw a dozen more scenes like this from Nico’s point of view … And they left him stunned, unable to move or speak.
    Meanwhile, Nico’s Roman skeletons surged forward and grappled with something invisible. The god struggled, flinging the dead aside, breaking off ribs and skulls, but the skeletons kept coming, pinning the god’s arms.
    Interesting!
Cupid said.
Do you have the strength, after all?
    ‘I left Camp Half-Blood because of love,’ Nico said. ‘Annabeth … she –’
    Still hiding
, Cupid said, smashing another skeleton to pieces.
You do not have the strength.
    ‘Nico,’ Jason managed to say, ‘it’s okay. I get it.’
    Nico glanced over, pain and misery washing across his face.
    ‘No, you don’t,’ he said. ‘There’s no way you can understand.’
    And so you run away again
, Cupid chided.
From your friends, from yourself.
    ‘I don’t have friends!’ Nico yelled. ‘I left Camp Half-Blood because I don’t belong! I’ll never belong!’
    The skeletons had Cupid pinned now, but the invisible god laughed so cruelly that Jason wanted to summon another bolt of lightning. Unfortunately, he doubted he had the strength.
    ‘Leave him alone, Cupid,’ Jason croaked. ‘This isn’t …’
    His voice failed. He wanted to say it wasn’t Cupid’s business, but he realized this was
exactly
Cupid’s business. Something Favonius said kept buzzing in his ears:
Are you shocked?
    The story of Psyche finally made sense to him – why a mortal girl would be so afraid. Why she would risk breaking the rules to look the god of love in the face, because she feared he might be a monster.
    Psyche had been right. Cupid
was
a monster. Love was the most savage monster of all.
    Nico’s voice was like broken glass. ‘I – I wasn’t in love with Annabeth.’
    ‘You were jealous of her,’ Jason said. ‘That’s why you didn’t want to be around her. Especially why you didn’t want to be around … him. It makes total sense.’
    All the fight and denial seemed to go out of Nico at once. The darkness subsided. The Roman dead collapsed into bones and crumbled to dust.
    ‘I hated myself,’ Nico said. ‘I hated Percy Jackson.’
    Cupid became visible – a lean, muscular young man with snowy white wings, straight black hair, a simple white frock and jeans. The bow and quiver slung over his shoulder wereno toys – they were weapons of war. His eyes were as red as blood, as if every valentine in the world had been squeezed dry, distilled into one poisonous mixture. His face was handsome, but also harsh – as difficult to look at as a spotlight. He watched Nico with satisfaction, as if he’d identified the exact spot for his next arrow to make a clean kill.
    ‘I had a crush on Percy,’ Nico spat. ‘That’s the truth. That’s the big secret.’
    He glared at Cupid. ‘Happy now?’
    For the first time, Cupid’s gaze seemed sympathetic. ‘Oh, I wouldn’t say Love always makes you happy.’ His voice sounded smaller, much more human. ‘Sometimes it makes you incredibly sad. But at least you’ve
faced
it now. That’s the only way to conquer me.’
    Cupid dissolved into the wind.
    On the ground where he’d stood lay an ivory staff three feet long, topped with a dark globe of polished marble about the size of a baseball, nestled on the backs of three gold Roman eagles. The sceptre of Diocletian.
    Nico knelt and picked it up. He regarded Jason, as if waiting for an attack. ‘If the others found out –’
    ‘If the others found out,’ Jason said, ‘you’d have that many more people to back you up and to unleash the fury of the gods on anybody who gives you trouble.’
    Nico scowled. Jason still felt the resentment and anger rippling off him.
    ‘But it’s your call,’ Jason added. ‘Your decision to share or not. I can only tell you