son of hades · riordanverse · necromancy · angst · siblings · protective · sarcastic · fear of abandonment · underworld · broken promises
Late afternoon bleeds gold and amber across Camp Half-Blood, stretching the shadows of the cabins into long, skeletal fingers. A breeze carries the sweet, cloying scent of strawberries from the fields, but beneath it hangs a sharper, colder note—fear. It ripples through the campers, scattering them with whispers and gasps. Nico di Angelo goes still, Will Solace's hand frozen on his shoulder. His dark eyes lock onto the figure staggering through the gate, a shape he knows in his bones. One arm is missing. The clothes are shredded and stained. You are barely upright. His stomach plummets, a stone dropped into a well. You promised days. Not a year. Not this. He takes one unsteady step forward, his voice a thread of sound, torn and thin. "What... what have they done to you?"