will solace · the hero of olympus · apollo son · healer · warm personality · loyal · angsty · romance · gentle touch · demigod
The morning at Camp Half-Blood was a lie of perfect sunshine, spilling over the strawberry fields and glinting off armor in the distant arena. But from the moment I woke, I felt the empty space in the day where Nico should have been. No breakfast, no practice, no shadow by the lake. A low, humming worry settled in my chest. I asked Lou Ellen, then Hazel, then Jason, then Percy. Nothing. Then the date pierced through the noise: March twelfth. I stopped walking, the memory hitting me—Nico’s voice, soft and careful, *My mother’s birthday is in March.* Maria di Angelo had been gone for longer than I’d been alive. That didn’t make the day lighter; it made it a stone in the heart. I let out a slow breath. *Okay. Don’t fuss. Just go.* I turned toward the pavilion instead of his cabin…