Hades brought her to his palace, a sprawling fortress of black stone that loomed against the twilight of the Underworld. It was vast and empty, its echoing halls filled with shadows. He gave her a room adorned with soft blankets and toys she didn’t recognize, but nothing could fill the void inside her.
Days turned into weeks, and the memories of her life above began to fade. Nixie stopped crying for her mother and brother, stopped clutching at the hope of returning to them. The Underworld became her world, and Hades—distant and somber but quietly protective—became the only family she remembered.
By the time years had passed, Nixie had forgotten entirely about Percy Jackson.
I’ve lived in the Underworld long enough to know that things rarely go smoothly when strangers show up uninvited. But these people? They were a disaster waiting to happen.
For one, the guy with the sword—the one who kept staring at me like I was some kind of ghost (I mean, fair, I am dead)—couldn’t stop yelling. “Where’s my mom? I want to see her!” Like demanding things from my dad was going to work.
Spoiler alert: it wasn’t.
Then there was the goat kid with the horns. He was nervously chewing on what looked like a tin can and muttering something about “dying young and tragically.” Yeah, real morale booster, that one.
The girl was the only one who seemed to have a clue. Blonde, sharp-eyed, and holding a knife like she was ready to fight a skeleton army—which, to be honest, was probably a solid plan down here.
And me? I was stuck watching the whole mess from the shadows. I should’ve gone back to the palace like Dad said, but… something about the boy with the green eyes wouldn’t let me leave.
“I know you’re still there,” he called out, breaking through my thoughts. His voice was shaky but determined. “Come out!”
Well, he caught me. Again. Fantastic.
With a dramatic sigh, I stepped out of the shadows. “You’re very loud, you know that?” I said, crossing my arms.
He blinked at me like I’d just smacked him upside the head. “Nixie,” he breathed, like saying my name might make me suddenly remember him or something.
It didn’t.
Instead, I gave him a long, skeptical look. “Do I know you, or are you just really bad with personal boundaries?”
The goat kid snorted. “Bad with boundaries, definitely.”
“Grover!” the boy hissed.
The blonde girl stepped forward, studying me like I was some kind of riddle she was trying to solve. “She looks like you,” she said slowly, pointing at him. “You’re not imagining it, Percy.”
Percy?
The name tickled something at the back of my mind, like a faint echo, but I shoved it aside. “Okay, this is weird,” I said, taking a step back. “First of all, I don’t know you. Second of all, you’re trespassing, and trust me, my dad does not like trespassers.”
Percy stepped closer, lowering his sword—not in a threatening way, but like he was afraid I might vanish if he moved too fast. “You’re my sister,” he said, his voice cracking. “It’s me. Percy. Don’t you remember?”
I froze. Sister?
“No,” I said, my voice sharp. “No way. I don’t have a brother. I’ve lived here my whole life.”
The blonde girl frowned. “You’ve been here since you were a kid?”
“Yes. Well, kind of. I died when I was little—five, maybe. A car crash,” I said, frowning. The memories were fuzzy, like trying to see through a fogged-up window.
Percy flinched, his face going pale. “That wasn’t a car crash,” he said quietly. “It was a monster attack. You were in the car with Mom and me. And you—” He stopped, his voice breaking.
I blinked, trying to make sense of his words. A monster attack? That… that didn’t make sense. I looked at Percy, at his desperate expression, and my chest twisted in a way I didn’t like.
But before I could say anything else, the air around us dropped ten degrees. The shadows deepened, and the ground beneath us trembled.
“Oh, you’ve done it now,” I muttered.
Right on cue, my dad appeared in all his dark, dramatic glory. Hades stepped out of the shadows like a storm cloud rolling in, his black robes billowing as if there was some invisible wind. His gaze swept over Percy and his friends, landing on the sword.
“You dare bring a weapon into my domain?” His voice was calm, but in that dangerous, run-for-your-life kind of way.
Percy didn’t flinch. He didn’t even back down. Instead, he raised his chin and said, “I’m here for my mom.”
Dad’s eyes narrowed, and for a split second, I thought he might smite Percy on the spot. Instead, he shifted his gaze to me. “Nixie. You are not to speak with these intruders.”
I bit back the urge to argue. Dad didn’t like arguments. But something about Percy—something about the way he said my mom—made me hesitate.
“Wait,” I said, stepping forward. “What if he’s telling the truth?”
Hades’s gaze snapped to me, and the weight of it was enough to make me take an involuntary step back.
“That is not your concern,” he said coldly. “Return to the palace. Now.”
I hesitated for a fraction of a second, my gaze flicking to Percy. He looked at me like I was the answer to every question he’d ever had, like I was important. And maybe, for the first time in forever, I wanted to believe him.
But I didn’t argue.
“Fine,” I said, my voice quiet. I turned and walked back into the shadows, but not before catching the look of heartbreak on Percy’s face.
It stuck with me long after I was gone.
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