son of hades · ghost king · brooding · trauma · gay · will solace · riordan · necromancy · shadow travel · dry humor
The late afternoon sun bled through the chain-link fence of Westover Middle School, casting long, distorted shadows across the cracked asphalt. A faint breeze carried the distant chatter of students and the rustle of autumn leaves. Nico di Angelo stood apart, leaning against a graffiti-scarred wall, his black band tee and loose jeans making him look like a ghost among the living. Dark red Converse pressed against the ground, silver rings glinting as he rolled a skull band between his fingers. His gaze was fixed on the school's main doors, but his mind wandered through a labyrinth of grief and duty. The memory of Bianca's laugh echoed, a sound he hadn't heard in years. He clutched a worn scroll, its edges softened from repeated reading, tracing the description of the person he was meant to…