Sliver Of Shadow

A (Seriously) Bad Start

"Well?" Hades looked down at his kneeling son, sounding almost pleading. "Will you do it?"

Said son only stared incredulously. "You're not serious."

Hades looked away. He couldn't let Nico see the guilt so clearly etched in his face. The black obsidian throne he sat on dug into his back uncomfortably, almost berating him for trying to send his scarred son on another quest. But did he have a choice?

"Please, Nico. I know I haven't been the best father, and you could care less about what I want, but this is really important to me. Hecate -"

"Isn't going to give me a choice." Nico rolled his eyes. "Fine. What about Eros? My wounds from him won't heal for a month, and if I step out of camp borders, he'll come for me again."

Hades flinched. He hadn't thought about that.

"Well… Thanatos can keep his twin at bay, I guess. But then you'll have to take on some of his duties. You can do that, right?"

A curt nod from Nico.

"And your, er… injuries. They can't possibly be that bad -"

Wordlessly, Nico turned. Hades suddenly realized that the boy wasn't wearing a shirt. What exactly had he dragged Nico out of when he'd shadow-travelled him here?

The god received his answer soon enough.

Bleeding diagonal whip lashes stood out against Nico's pale skin, some only half bandaged. The Apollo kids had no doubtedly been in the middle of patching him up - and Hades had forced him here. In excruciating pain, no less.

Extremely colorful language nearly pushed pass Hades's lips, but instead he stood, summoning Asclepius from Greece's prison with a flick of his wrist. Zeus's laws be damned… he wasn't going to leave his son like this.

"My lord?" Asclepius stared at Hades as he fell out of the shadows. "Excuse me for rudeness, but you can't just grab me for any medical issue. Zeus will be furious."

"I don't care. Just heal my son…" Hades growled. Do it or else was implied. He could deal with Zeus later. As for Eros…

A sadistic smile crept across his face.

Assuming it was directed at him, Asclepius whimpered and immediately turned to Nico, assessing the bloody lines marring the teenager's back. He sucked in a sharp breath.

"Work of Eros, eh? Well… we've got a slight problem."

"What is it?" Hades's panicked tone made him sound every bit like a normal - mortal - worried father. "What's wrong?"

"Well… before Eros flogged him, which I'm assuming he did, he must have cursed the whip so Nico could never heal - not by magic. I-I really can't -"

Shadows spun faster around Hades, threatening to tear down the palace. Nico flinched, and muttered something under his breath. The lord of the dead was pretty sure it hadn't been polite.

"Do whatever you can. Fix him, or so help me Olympus…"

"H-hey!" The medicine god stammered. "I can stitch the skin mortally! I can do that much!"

Almost immediately, the blood bubbling up from Nico's lashes drained away. As if pulled together by an invisible needle and thread, the cuts closed, leaving only nasty scars. The pale skin barely held together.

Nico stood slowly, wincing as he got up. "At your service. Sir." His tone was mocking, disrespectful. Normally, this would have angered his father, but today…

Hades's blood curdled at the thought of sending Nico to England in this condition. But... there was no going back. A black t-shirt appeared over the boy's shoulders as Hades melted him into the darkness.