Actions

Work Header

Don't Bury Me (With A Coin Under My Tongue)

Summary:

Neil's been a demigod on the run for most of his life. When an offer to stay comes his way, packaged with invisibility and training, he can't refuse. It's against everything his mother ever taught him, but with her death, he has to find out for himself that all the protection in the world won't help when Tartarus comes knocking.

Notes:

Guess who did a Big Bang! you can check out the Tumblr page for aftgbigbang to see what other people are up to!
Many thanks to my artist, jojen-hewitt on Tumblr! I really love their artwork of this pic, I hope you like it too!
I am posting the art in separate chapters for mobile users, there are 4 pieces in total! (They went HARD)
Enjoy the first half!

Chapter Text

Neil can hardly hear the Satyr over the pounding of his own heart. The sword in his hand is heavy, unfamiliar.  The locker room he’s spent a better part of the last year sleeping in feels too small, a contortion pressing at his chest.

Neil drops the sword. It clangs in the empty room, interrupting the Satyr. Grabbing his duffel bag, Neil leaves the satyr, following the cement-walled hallway out onto the soccer field. Around him, the sun is setting. There is grass at his feet, fake as it may be, to settle him. He collapses down onto it, pulling his legs up  to his chest. 

Neil lights a cigarette, the satyr fumbling behind him. It takes more attempts than he is proud of. 

“Hey,” The satyr says. Neil can all but smell the trees on him. He is tall and dark skinned, one cloven hoof visible where his shoe had fallen off earlier. Neil’s surprised that his nose isn’t twitching. He hasn’t met many Satyrs, but he knows they’re not big on smoke. 

“I’m Matt,” Matt, the Satyr, says. He gingerly sits down next to Neil. 

Neil inhales, never bringing the cigarette is half gone.They sit until his cigarette is half gone, Matt’s hands ripping into the astroturf. “I hate this crap.”

“It gets the job done.” 

“Isn’t playing on a real field so much better?” 

“I wouldn’t know,” Neil says. “I don’t  play.”

No, he’s only been camping out in the locker room of Millport High School to avoid going back to his squat on the other side of town. The more trips he makes, the more he risks being noticed. His last year of high school hasn’t been very eventful, in the scope of things, until Matt  shows up. 

There had been a flock of stymphalian birds on his tail, and he must have smelled the demigod on Neil, because he threw him a sword and expected him to take them down. He had, quickly weighing his odds. The man-eating monsters would have followed if he’d run, and they had no voices to use to whisper his name in the Underworld. So, Neil had gone against everything his mother had ever taught m and send the birds to Tartarus. 

“Were those your first monsters?” Matt asks softly. 

“Is that what those were?” Neil asks. 

“You’re old not to know about monsters.” 

Neil shrugs, inhaling the smoke from his cigarette.

“Do you have a parent around?” Matt asks.

Neil hesitates. He doesn’t, but no one in Millport knows that. Millport was his first stop since his mother’s death, and he’d fabricated parents to avoid drawing attention to himself. 

“I live with my aunt,” Neil says. “But she’s always away for work.”

“I know a place where you can learn about what just happened. A place that’s safe. Where you can learn about gods and monsters.”

“How safe?”
“Not even the gods can see you uninvited,” Matt claims.

Neil’s mother had always told him to be wary of waystations for demigods. His mother had lived in one as a child--a place called Camp Half-Blood. There, she’d learned to resent the olympians. But. Neil has been alone for so long. Being invisible sounds tempting enough.

“What do you call it?”

Matt grins. “The Foxhole Court.”

 


It takes them two days to make it to the Foxhole. They have far to go, from Arizona to South Carolina. They go by land, something his mother had always insisted on and Matt seemed to agree with. No need to draw the attention of sky gods, she’d said. It was easier to be close to the ground. 

They don’t run into any monsters. Matt, clad in fake feet and cargo pants, expresses his surprise. He’s used to running into monsters when escorting newly-aware demigods. They’re usually extremely potent, Matt tells him. The knowledge bleeds into them like a beacon. Neil can’t remember a time when he didn’t know about the gods. He doesn’t tell Matt, but there are enough tricks up his sleeve that they manage to avoid any  monsters.

The Foxhole is a white stone building on the edge of a college campus. It has huge pillars, a tired homage to greek heritage. It is slightly run down, a bare black metal railing jutting out of the cement at an odd angle. Trees rise up in front of it, digging their roots into the sidewalk. There are a few shingles missing from the roof, and the door is peeling white paint. The place doesn’t smell like demigods, at least until Neil sets foot on the sidewalk leading up to the house. Then, the scent hits him like BO had in the Millport locker room. 

Sitting behind the two story pillars on the porch are two men, a blond and a brunette. The brunette is turning pages in a book, a pencil behind his ear. The blond smokes what must be his nth cigarette if the ashtray is any indication. The scent is strong, but not enough to clog the smell of demigod. The blond’s eyes flick up to Matt and Neil as they approach.

His gaze is cold, and Neil fights the urge to meet it head on. He’s Neil Josten, a mild-tempered teenager from a lazy town in Arizona. He needs to keep his head down.

The brunette looks up as Matt opens the screen door, green eyes intense. His eyes land on Neil, scanning him up and down. Neil watches him in return, cataloging him. His skin is lighter than Matt’s but darker than Neil’s and he fills out a Nike sweatshirt. There’s a sturdy book between his hands and a chess piece tattooed under his left eye. He doesn’t look that friendly either. 

“Boyd,” the blond says, snapping Neil’s attention away from the brunette. “Bring us another stray?”

“Whatever, Andrew.” Matt rolls his eyes. “This is Neil. Neil, Andrew and Kevin. We’re still not sure if they’re actually part monster. Stay out of their way if you can.”

Sounds about right for the offspring of gods, Neil thinks, but doesn’t say. He grips the handle of his duffel bag and considers how fast he can get out of here if he needs to. It smells of Olympian.

Neil’s nods at the two in greeting, then follows Matt into the house. The place smells slightly of cigarettes and heavily of magic. There are a stack of shoes in the entryway, and Neil follows Matt’s lead and slips his off. 

They pass a set of white stairs to a living room where more people are hanging out. A woman with long blonde hair is leaning over the toenails of a dark skinned dryad, polish in hand. The TV plays a show that Neil’s unfamiliar with. 

When she spots Matt, the dryad grins, sitting up from her reclined position on the couch. 

“Dan,” the blonde scolds as the dryad stands up. “You’re going to ruin your nails.”

The dryad, Dan, doesn’t seem to care. She launches herself at Matt, who catches her easily. They share a quick kiss.

“I missed you,” Dan says.

“I missed you too,” Matt says. Neil feels a little like he’s intruding, but the blonde is rolling her eyes.

“Who’s your friend, Matt?” The blonde asks.

Matt laughs, pulling away from Dan. His hand grabs hers for a pulse before he lets go. “Right. Guys, this is Neil. Found him in Arizona finishing up his senior year of high school. He should be staying with us a while.”

The blonde nods in acceptance and taps the nail polish cap against the bottle. “He’s cute.”

“Don’t scare him off, Allison. Neil, I’m Dan. I’m half tree nymph,” Dan says, holding out her hand. Neil shakes it. “That’s Allison. We’ll be your housemates if you decide to stay.”

Neil nods and smiles.

“Well, we’ve got to get to Wymack. Neil just met Kevin and Andrew, so we’d better get him settled before he decides to bolt.” 

Matt laughs as Dan makes a sour face.

“If those two or their cousin gives you trouble, come to me, alright?” Dan asks.

Neil nods, though he doubts that he’ll take her up on  her offer. 

Matt leans down to kiss Dan’s forehead, then meets Neil’s eyes and nods his head towards a hallway. He leads Neil back to the front of the house and up the stairs Neil had seen earlier.

“What?” A gruff voice comes from behind the door.

Matt opens the door, revealing an office space cluttered with papers. Chewing on a toothpick behind the desk is a man with bulging muscles and thick tattoos lining his arms. The scent that hits him is strong, too strong for this person to be the descendent of just one god. Neil’s heart skips as the man flicks his gaze to look him up and down.

“You must be Neil,” the man says around the toothpick. He picks it out of his mouth and throws it away. “I’m Wymack. I run this house. Keep it off-grid for monsters, help train you, get your tuition covered, etcetera. Sit down.”

Neil sits in one of the chairs in front of Wymack’s desk, Wymack never leaving the periphery of his vision. His duffel is on the floor, the strap resting  on his knee. Matt sits next to him. 

Wymack drums his fingers on the desk. “So. I’m sure Matt’s given you the rundown: you’re a demigod, monsters are trying to kill you, and you need to get stronger so that you can kill them before they can kill you.”

“Roughly,” Neil says. 

“Do you know which  god is your parent?” Wymack asks. 

Neil doesn’t hesitate when he shakes his head. He doesn’t, technically, have a godly parent, but his mother did. 

“Alright, that’s fine,” Wymack says. “Law dictates that they claim you your first week of being here, so it won’t be a mystery long.”

Neil’s heart jumps into his throat. He has to be claimed? If his father can claim him, he can find him. Neil takes a quick breath to calm himself down. “Does it matter?”

Wymack pauses, looking at him. “Not really. It helps us with training. Most kids want to know.”

“Matt said that the gods can’t see us here,” Neil says.

Wymack leans back in his  chair, eyes narrowing. Neil feels a little too naked under his gaze. “They can’t. That’s not how the claiming system works.”

Neil nods, and feels some of the tension between his shoulders release. “How?”

“My mother is Hecate, the god of magic. I can keep this place invisible to gods and monsters.”

That explains the smell of the house. The wards surrounding the property can’t have been made purely from Hecate’s power, but Neil isn’t surprised to find it’s been a factor. Neil thinks of the trees invading the property and assumes that Dan’s abilities as part dryad played a role in maintaining the magic. 

“Matt can get you settled in. He lives  here, but every now and then goes out to search for any last vestiges of the wild. Sometimes, he comes back with a demigod like you. Has to convince the Satyr council he’s doing something.”

“I don’t want to be reincarnated into something stupid when I die,” Matt explains. 

“They’d do  it just to spite me if I don’t do something.”

“Renée will start your sword training tomorrow, and I’m sure Kevin’d be happy to start your ancient Greek. Speaking of Kevin,” Wymack says. 

“We met, on the porch,” Neil says.

“Good,” Wymack says. “He’s my son, but he can be a bit of a handful. He’s going to be your roommate.”

Neil sucks in a breath. Surely Andrew and Kevin aren’t as bad as Matt made them out to be. It could be like rooming with a brick wall or a time bomb. Whatever the case, Neil’s probably slept in the same room as worse. No, he knows he has. He’ll have to watch his back.

“You can leave at any time. We’d prefer you didn’t go anywhere alone until we can get you trained up a but, but I’m not your keeper. You can make your own stupid choices.”

“Alright,” Neil says. “Is that all?”

“There’s one more thing,” Wymack says, already reaching for a stack of papers. “If you kill anyone of your housemates, I end you. Got it?”

“Got it,” Neil says. It’s a strange request, but it probably won’t give him any difficulties. The last thing he wants is to send anyone to the underworld. 

“Good,” Wymack says. “Matt will show you to your room and introduce you to your housemates.”

“Everyone here?” Matt asks.

“Aaron and Nicky are in class. Renée’s volunteering. Seth has made your room into a bit of a cave, but he’s here.”

“Great,” Matt grumbles, leading Neil out of the room. He take Neil up the stairs to the second floor, where he leads Neil to a room with two beds. 

The room is clean but lived in. One bed is barren while the other is  neatly made, a summer comforter wrapped into the crease between the mattress and box spring. There are running shoes tucked under the bed, books stacked on the desk, and a pen resting over a closed notebook. An orange backpack hangs from the back the desk chair. The laundry bin is half full. The cleanliness doesn’t hide the smell of magic, of god, and Neil wonders just how much the smell of cigarettes had hidden about Kevin. He wonders who Kevin’s mother was, because he doubts it was a mortal. 

Matt shrugs. “This is your room. You can leave your duffel on the bed if you want. Kevin’s clean, at least, so that might make up for his horrible personality.”

“What’s wrong with his personality?” Neil asks. He doesn’t set his duffel down. 

Matt pauses. “He’s… intense. A bit of a dick and doesn’t care for much other than getting better at fighting monsters. Picks a lot of fights, mostly with Seth.”

Neil doesn’t understand what’s wrong with wanting to be better at fighting monsters, but he nods. Neil would love to pick up a sword again, to train to get rid of anything in his path. To do so is a risk bigger than his mother would ever allow, but she’s long gone. Taking out those birds for Matt had been a thrill, and not just because of the potential consequences. Being known, even just to some monsters, was intoxicating.

“You want to hang out with the girls for a little bit? It looked like they were taking a break from working anyway,” Matt asks. 

“Sure.”

Neil stares into the room that he now shares with Kevin. He stares at the bed. He hasn’t slept in a bed since before Millport. The room is heavy with the smell of demigod, and Neil wonders how powerful Kevin is. 

“You going to leave your bag in here?”

Neil considers his bag. It’s all he has, but nothing he’s hugely attached to. He can always get more clothes and toiletries. The colored contacts are a little incriminating, but they’re in a hidden pouch. Everything his mother left him is on his person.

Shrugging, Neil drops his bag on the empty bed. “I’ll need to buy sheets.”

Matt lights up. “Renee will probably be home by the time we get back, so we can get dinner with the girls.  We can take my truck.”

Dan and Allison have split ways since Neil and Matt were downstairs. Dan is still on the couch longways, drying toes in the air, tapping her fingers on a textbook. She looks up when Matt and Neil  come in.

“Oh thank god,” she says. “I couldn’t focus on studying. You really had to come back during finals, huh?”

“Needed to get Neil somewhere safe,” Matt says, sitting down  on the couch next to Dan’t hip. 

“I was doing fine before you showed up,” Neil says.

“Everyone knows demigods get especially smelly once they learn about their nature,” Dan rolls her eyes. She sniffs the air. “You don’t smell like much, though. I’m surprised Matt even found you.”

“Hey!” Matt says. Then, sheepishly, rubs the back of his head. “He was the only thing I could smell for miles and I had a pack of stymphalian birds on my heels.”

Dan whacks his arm. “So you led them right to him?”

“I’m surprised you survived the encounter.” The voice is deep, and new to Neil. Sharp green eyes dig into him. 

Kevin and Andrew stand at the doorway, a giant and child next to each other. Neil hadn’t realized just how short Andrew was, nor how tall Kevin was. 

“He doesn’t look like much, does he?” Andrew says, and it nearly sends Neil’s heart into overdrive.

“He could be,” Kevin replies in latin. Their accents are identical and terrible. “Dan said she could hardly smell him.”

“She’s been wrong before.”

Neil glances at Matt, who’s frowning.

“Care to share with the class?” Matt grumbles. It brings Neil back to the moment. Kevin and Andrew had been speaking only to each other. For a second, Neil had thought they were speaking to him. He thought they knew, somehow, that he could speak the dead language. “We’re Greek, not Roman.”

“No,” Kevin says. He turns his eyes back to Neil. “We start studying Greek tonight. Be ready.”
“We’re going out for dinner,” Matt says. 

Kevin raises an eyebrow. “After, then.”

 


The trip to the store doesn’t take particularly long. They get sheets and a towel, and though Matt tries to convince Neil to get more clothes, he refuses. He has enough for a week’s worth of outfits, which is more than enough. On the way back from the store, Matt points out different parts of campus and helps Neil get a lay of the land. 

The campus is bigger than any school Neil has ever been to. Millport had had a dusty husk of a high school, the population aged far past its prime. On the run there had been bigger schools, but Palmetto is a big 10 university and has a pool of students much larger than the public schools Neil had been through on the run. He’s glad, at least, that he had those schools to buffer a childhood of personal tutoring. 

The summer will be long enough to adjust to the size of the campus, even if Neil’s not sure he’ll be at Palmetto long enough to enroll in classes.

After making the trip to the store (and Matt offering to buy Neil alcohol, even though he’s underage), Neil meets the rest of the residents of the Foxhole Court. He’s surprised to find Andrew has a carbon copy in his twin brother, Aaron. Their boisterous cousin Nicky (“on our human side,” Nicky adds), is grabby and enthusiastic to meet Neil.  Seth, a greasy demigod, appears out of his room to grab a cold slice of pizza from the fridge, completely ignoring Neil. The last resident Neil meets is Renee, who is sweet enough to fit outside of Neil’s view of the world. 

Neil knows the least what to do with Renee’s soft presence, but she joins him, Matt, Dan and Allison for dinner. They go to a dinner just off of campus, a greasy spoon full of students who look like they’re only half alive.  They all squish into a booth, Neil in the middle. Renee, Allison and Dan fill Matt in on what he’s missed in his months away. They talk about finals, Allison and Dan arguing about who’s more stressed about the exams and projects. 

“You were both working on Dan’s nails when we got back,” Matt points out. Dan sticks out her tongue at him as Allison waves him off. 

“Finals are a stressful time,” Renee says mildly. “Have you given any thought to what you’d like to study, Neil?”
“Not really,” Neil says.

“You’ve got plenty of time to decide,” Dan says. “Not everyone knows what they’re going into.”
“Like you didn’t know you wanted to go for sports management since you started college,” Allison rolls her eyes.

“I did,” Dan says. “But not everyone does. And a lot of people get caught up in who they’re supposed to be.”

Dan shifts in her seat. “I’m part dryad. Sports management isn’t exactly what people would assume I’d go into. When we get visitors from other schools who know about the gods, a lot of them are surprised I don’t spend my time in the agricultural department.”

Neil nods. This struggle doesn’t apply to him, but he tucks the information away. 

“I’m just saying you shouldn’t base your career and school around who your parent is, when we find out,” Dan says, then sighs. “It’ll only make you miserable.”

Neil nods, his smile tight. 

“Look at me,” Allison laughs haughtily. Her words have a hint of metal to them as she speaks. “Daughter of Ares, majoring in fashion merchandising. Daddy doesn’t mean shit.”

Neil blinks. He wouldn’t have pegged Allison for a daughter of Ares. With her perfectly coiffed hair and angel face, he would have guessed closer to the Aphrodite section of gods. With a major like fashion merchandising, it almost seems like Allison is doing everything in her power to redefine her godly parent. Neil looks down and catches Renee’s hand cupped around Allison’s under the table.

Neil’s already spent all day talking to Matt about his plans to return to school. The girls, however, are mostly unknown. 

“What about you?” Neil asks Renee, who had started this whole topic to begin with.

“Theology,” Renee says. 

Neil doesn’t really know what to do with that answer. He doesn’t know what to do with the cross around her neck, either. Renee catches him looking and meets his eyes.

“We all have our faith.”

Neil, who’s never had faith in anything except the cold hard reality that one day he will die at his father’s hands, nods like that means something. It certainly doesn’t mean anything to him, but the person he’s pretending to be comes from a nowhere town in Arizona where church is the place to be every Sunday. 

“If you ever need help reconciling, let me know,” Renee offers. Her voice is soft, but the thought of taking her up on it unnerves Neil. Allison saves him from having to answer. 

“So, I hear you’re rooming with Kevin?”

Dan groans, dramatically throwing her head back. “Kevin’s such an asshole.”

“If you ever need a break you can come visit me and Dan,” Allison offers. 

“He’s not that bad,” Renee says, her smile diplomatic.

“He was yelling about inefficient dishwasher sorting earlier today.”

“Everyone’s stressed about finals,” Renee reminds. “Besides, he was kind enough to teach you ancient Greek.”

“He grew up speaking Greek,” Allison whines. “And he was so insufferable I almost didn’t want to learn it.”

Unease sneaks into Neil. “Is he really that hard to work with?”

“He’s so strict,” Allison complains. “Always telling you what you’re doing wrong. Wouldn’t even let me eat during lessons.”

Neil’s not surprised to hear that. Kevin’s side of their room had been neat and well kept, and it was looking like that was a standard he’d be holding Neil to as well. Neil wasn’t concerned. He hardly had enough things to make a mess, and he’d practiced keeping things organized to make it easier to split with a second’s notice. He knew to do the work as soon as he could, not when he was running on deficit. 

They head back to the Foxhole soon after. Neil lingers with the girls for a while longer.

The sun has set when Kevin finally tracks down Neil. Neil was just thinking about changing into his sleep clothes when Kevin appears in the doorway to the room that’s technically theirs, Andrew slouched behind him on the railing opposing the door. Kevin has a book under his arm, and he nods towards the front of the house and takes off. 

Taking the cue, Neil follows Kevin and Andrew down the second floor hallway. The floor is divided in the middle by the staircase, three rooms on each side and bathrooms at the top of the stairs. Opposing the bathrooms is a common space, furnished with couches and a TV. Neil thinks that they might stop here, but they don’t. Instead, they keep walking through the French doors to the balcony behind the Greek pillars at the front of the house. 

There’s a barn light hanging from the bottom of the entablature of the pillars, and a few illuminating lights, but otherwise the night is dark. The balcony is decorated with old wicker furniture. White wears away at the hard edges of the armrests and on the seats. 

Kevin and Andrew occupy a loveseat outside of what Neil thinks is Wymack’s office, and Neil sits on the chair adjacent to Kevin as Kevin pulls the book from under his arm and sets it on the wicker table in front of them. 

“We’re going to start with the alphabet,” Kevin says. “You’re a demigod, so it shouldn’t take too long to get you reading in greek.”

Neil, who already knows greek, asks, “Why is it important to learn greek?”

Kevin frowns. “It’s good to know.”
“How were your grades in your English classes?” It’s Andrew that asks, pulling a pack of cigarettes from his chest pocket.

Neil thinks back to his years in school and frowns. English had never been his strong suit, but then, he hadn’t expected it to be. English had come later, a necessity on the run. 

Andrew snorts and lights his cigarette. “Figures.”
“You shouldn’t smoke those,” Kevin scolds Andrew. He receives a cool look in return. 

“You probably didn’t do well in your Engligh classes because your brain isn’t wired for it. Being part god, your mind is predisposed to understanding Greek. We think it’s part of why so many Gods were born fully formed and capable of speech, but it’s become a hindrance in the modern age, where ancient Greek isn’t the norm.”

Neil hadn’t known that. It’ll give him an excuse to pick up Greek quickly, though, so he’ll run with it. 

Kevin flips open the book. “We’re going to go over the symbols and how they sound. Try to keep up.”

Neil looks at Kevin in confusion. He wonders, for a second, if this is some kind of trick. Neil doesn’t have any problems seeing in the darkness, but anyone else would. Neil wonders if Kevin or Andrew’s godly parent allows them to see in the dark, but he doesn’t have to wonder for long. 

Above the table, an orb of light forms. It is warm on his cheeks, and illuminates the table and his housemates. The light hits Andrew like he’s a wall, but it dances on Kevin’s skin. It brings his skin to life, adding an element of mystery that Neil hadn’t considered before. Neil feels like the sun should burn, but it doesn’t. 

“My great grandfather was Apollo,” Kevin says, shedding some light on  his ancestry. He clears his throat. “Let’s begin.”
They spend an hour on the balcony, working on Neil’s ancient Greek. Kevin is a harsh teacher, unforgiving in critiquing the mistakes Neil makes on purpose. Still, he offers anecdotes and continues to give Neil the tools to rebuild something he already knows. It’s been so long since he last spoke in greek, his mother forbidding it when they were on the run. The nostalgia almost burns.

The air is cool enough for comfort, the oncoming swell of summer heat a threat rolling slowly through the grass. It’s too early in the season for mosquitos, if they even come to South Carolina, and it’s bordering on nice.

 


Neil can feel the beat of the party under his skin. Matt had started the night with what he’d called “classics, Neil. Classics,” disparaging the fact that Neil was not an avid Britney Spears enthusiast. Later, a cup in her manicured hands, Allison had commandeered the sound system. The base had gotten heavier, the tempo aggressive enough for the war in her blood. Neither had felt like an interruption to the night. The party is a shot of adrenaline he will have to conceal around his housemates. 

Parties like these are about giving in to the night, a surrender to her powers. Neil has spent enough time in the house of Nyx to know that she thrives off of celebrations, accepting as many kinds of night as there are. Neil has to fight the urge to become less, to melt into the walls and become something a little more god than human. 

Party goers, college students, and anyone that his housemates could collect swirl in front of him. A tribute to Dionysus. Perhaps a tribute to Apollo, through the speakers. Someone sloshes their drink onto him, cheering the end of the semester. The party pulls at him from all directions. The room begins to feel less like a tribute to the night and more like a heavy hands pulling him down into a pit with iron-shut openings.

Slipping out the front door, Neil’s not sure just how much of his body is blurring to shadows. This is why his mom kept him away from the crowds, from other kids at school. He could barely keep himself together in these situations. She taught him control through fear, and fear only disciplines him so much when power threatens to spill from his every pore.

Neil climbs the front pillars of the house, more a shadow than a creature, needing to see the stars and remind himself of where he is. For most of his life, he hadn’t known stars. He’d known dirt and stagnant air and nothing of this terrifying wonderland above ground. The tumble over the entablature at the top of the pillars finds Neil finally still, face up and eyes on the stars. 

For a second he’s so focused on Ouranos that he doesn’t register the smell of smoke and the startled shuffle next to him. He does notice the clank of a glass bottle hitting marble. A now familiar voice says his name in surprise. 

Sitting up, Neil surveys the duo he’s joined in the entablature. Kevin is leaning against one of the corners walls, legs splayed and bottle dangerously close to a storm drain. His eyebrows  furrow as he squints at Neil. He’s a mess of akimbo limbs next to Andrew, who is leaning over one of the edges, perfectly controlled. A line of cigarette butts decorates the edge of the structure, a cherry burn dangling from his mouth as he surveys Neil. He is impassive except for the hand reaching into his armband. It’s a wonder Neil didn’t see him on his way up, but his haste to remember the sky might have been his undoing. 

“Not a fan of the party, Josten?” Andrew asks, an eyebrow raised.
“I could ask you the same thing,” Neil says, eyeing the evidence of Andrew’s chain smoking. 

Andrew flaps a hand at him. “I’m more interested in your climb up.”

Neil feels rigid. Accidentally showing Andrew and Kevin an expense of power that should be unknown to him in his alleged newness to godliness is not what he wanted. “I needed to see the stars.”

“Oh? Is little Neil afraid of the dark?” Andrew asks, voice mocking. 

“Andrew,” Kevin says, his eyes are sharp on Neil. 

“I’m not afraid of the dark,” Neil says, and it’s true. He’s afraid of the earth eating him and being returned to his father, but not the dark. Never the dark. Neil feels power surge, a pride not his own running over him like a laugh in his ear or hand on his shoulder.

“Oh,” Kevin  says, staring somewhere above Neil. 

Neil glances at Andrew, who is also looking above him, before raising his eyes to the sky above. 

Floating outlined in a soft white is a crescent moon. Neil knows this symbol from his childhood, and it both comforts and terrifies him to see it above his head. He’s glad it’s Nyx who’s claiming him. 

“Nyx,” Kevin says. 

“Really went far in proving that point,” Andrew says, squinting at Neil. “You don’t seem surprised.”

Neil tries to inject some confusion into his face, but he can’t. He was shaken off his center by the heat of the party and the slips he’s made in front of Andrew and Kevin. “We haven’t covered that god yet.”
“Goddess,” Kevin corrects. “A part of the universe. The personification of the night. She’s… very powerful.”

Neil nods, as though this is new information. 

“Not so little after all, huh?” Andrew says, stubbing out his cigarette. He pushes off of the wall and squats by Neil. “I don’t trust you.”

Andrew stands, brushing off his pants. He sends a look to Kevin, who sighs as he stands up. Together, they push off the side of the entablature, using Kevin’s ability to float to the ground. 

Staring at the spot Kevin and Andrew left from, Neil sighs. The feeling that he’s made an enemy is ice in his veins, but the pulse of the party and the surrounding darkness warms him.

Lying on his back, Neil breaths in through his nose. The stars are bright and reassuring, even if they’re full of other people’s ancient tragedy.

 


The party seems to have broken something between Neil, Andrew and Kevin. That night when Neil goes to bed, Kevin isn’t there. That itself isn’t cause for concern, and neither is waking up alone in their shared room. What draws his attention is that Neil is never alone in a room with Kevin after the party. 

Before, Kevin and Neil had spent hours working on Neil’s classic Greek, Kevin filling in the gaps of Neil’s education while Neil pretended everything was new to him. They would sit next to each other on the back porch, Kevin peeking over from his homework when Neil struggled through a passage. Sometimes, if he needed to take a break from studying, Kevin would take him through a couple of defensive maneuvers to blow off some steam. They’d repeat until Kevin  was pleased with the progress Neil had made. It had been less than a week, but Neil had felt like he’d made progress.

Now, things are different. Whenever Kevin asks Neil to come and study, Andrew’s there, watching them from over the top of his own book. Neil hasn’t missed that Andrew’s got a fair number of classic english texts translated into Ancient Greek. He’d wonder where they came from, but he’d have to give a shit. 

They don’t spar anymore. Maybe Neil’s blowing it out of proportion--it’s only been a week since school ended, and maybe Kevin’s recharging. It could be that Andrew’s always like this outside of school, but  Neil doesn’t think so. The look in Andrew’s eyes, the surprise and hard wall of protection, isn’t something that Neil’s able to dismiss. He can feel something brewing.

Neil isn’t so busy with the other foxes that he can ignore that this is hurting his ability to learn as much as he can. He’s learning a lot: more than he could with his mother, who had kept secrets so secure that he’d have needed diamond to break through her walls. He’d learned plenty with his grandmother, when he wasn’t recovering from whatever his father had decided to do to him that time, but his respite had always been short.  

After a week of Andrew’s nonsense, Neil decides that he’s had enough. He confronts Kevin in the kitchen midday, a peace offering of his diminished powers during this time. While Kevin chops vegetables, Andrew pokes at a bowl of artificially colored cereal.

“Why haven’t you been training me?” Neil asks, his words carefully lacking the frustration he feels. He came to the foxes for a safe place to hide and training.

Kevin looks at Andrew, as if asking permission. It lights Neil’s blood on fire, but Neil Josten doesn’t have a big temper. He’s been carefully crafted against it. Neil tries to keep it in, like swallowing a hot coal. 

“Not right now,” Kevin says.

“Why not?” Neil says. “Your handler disapprove.”

Kevin sneers at him. “It’s none of your business.”
“I came here to learn,”  Neil says. “So yeah. It is my business.”

Kevin’s mouth works until he finally decides on a frown. “Whatever,” he says, turning back to his vegetables. 

“Don’t ignore me,” Neil says, walking around the kitchen island. 

“Josten,” Andrew says, even though this should be between Kevin and Neil. “Come to Eden’t with us Friday night and we’ll see about Kevin training you.”

“What, are you his keeper?” Neil asks. 

Andrew just raises an unimpressed eyebrow, but it’s not Andrew’s constitution Neil cares about. Kevin’s eyes are down, focused on the cutting board in front of him. His hands are still, though, his back tense.

“Fine,” Neil says, backing out of the cooking area. 

“Josten,” Andrew says, tossing something at Neil. Neil catches it before it collides with his forehead. “Where you’re going, you’ll need this.”
Neil looks at the coin in his hand, then back at Andrew. He sets the coin down on the table. “Sorry, but I’m not interested in visiting Charon anytime soon.”


It turns out Eden’s is a club out in one of the suburbs surrounding Palmetto State University. Andrew drives them there in an expensive car Nicky tells him they bought with the twins’ mother’s life  insurance. Neil isn’t going to dive into that one, but follows Nicky’s conversation for the thirty minutes it takes to get them to the club. He’s underdressed, but at 11 pm, Neil can feel his battery is fully charged. No one will question how he looks. Mortals might not even be able to see him as the night stretches on. He wonders why they decided to take him out at night, when he’s the strongest and Kevin’s the weakest. 

The night might suit the cousin’s parentage, but Neil can’t tell from smell alone. He knows that Andrew is more potent than Aaron, likely through use of his  blood, and Nicky hardly smells like anything but human. It might be because he’s older and has had more time to settle into his scent, but Neil’s not sure. It sets him on edge, but he knows he can leave anytime he wants. 

They bypass a line to enter the club, Nicky stopping to talk to the bouncer. When Neil looks at Kevin in question, he shrugs. He has to raise his voice to be heard, even in the entryway.

“They all used to work here.”

Walking into the club neil’s veins pulse. The place is dimly lit, red lights streaking up the walls, music loud enough that Neil wonders if they have to give out earplugs. Neil’s been to bars before with his mother, usually in the light of day, but never to a club like this. 

It’s intoxicating. It’s like the party at the house all over again, Nyx calling out to him like she, not dionysus, is the patron of parties. She was always kind to him, and maybe that’s why he can feel her so strongly now. 

Neil follows Andrew to the bar. There is a swarm of people there, vying for the bartenders’ attention with hands gripping green dollar bills. Andrew elbows his way to the bartop, leaning against it. They wait, Andrew half turned towards Neil, silent. 

“You wanted to talk,” Neil yells over the noise. He has to lean into Andrew’s space to be heard, something he’s reluctant to do. 

It’s Andrew who pushes into his space. “What do you know of Olympus?”

“That it’s probably not atop a mountain anymore.”

Andrew frowns. Neil can see him “tch,” but he can’t hear it over the music. “Don’t play dumb, Neil. You’re more than you said you were.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Neil crosses his arms, his eyes hard against Andrew’s. 

Andrew raises an eyebrow. “We’ll see.”

“When? It’s not like I’m going to be drinking with you.”

Andrew rolls his eyes and turns back to the bar. The bartender seems to have finally found time for them exchanges a few words with Andrew before he grabs a tray and starts pulling at bottles. He sets a glass on the tray and pours it full of brown soda. An offering for Neil, then.  

The exchange lasts half a minute, and then Andrew is bending at his knees to lift the tray up above the crowd.  They walk through the club to a grove of high top tables where they find Kevin, Nicky and Aaron. The table has gauzy curtains, which they draw as Andrew and Neil arrive. 

Andrew’s hardly set down the tray when the group starts going for the shots. Neil watches them as Andrew hands him his soda, their faces contorting from the alcohol. There are fewer chasers than shots, and Neil notes it’s because neither Andrew nor Kevin choose to chase before taking a second drink. 

Nicky makes a “wahoo” sound and leaves the table for the dance floor, pulling Aaron off with him. Andrew climbs into one of the tall stools. He’s still shorter than Kevin like this, but Kevin is truly a giant. 

Neil sits down, his feet dangling.  Taking a sip of his soda, he wonders how quickly he could slip out of this club. Seconds, if he used his abilities. But Andrew hasn’t seen him move like that, not really, so Neil won’t risk it if he has a choice. 

“Why don’t you trust me?” Neil asks.

“You’re too powerful to have no training,” Andrew says. “I wonder where you got it from?”

“Renee’s been teaching me how to use a sword for a week.”

Andrew waves his hand. “The night of the party, you used shadows to climb the POLE. How did you know how to do that?”

“Instinct? It felt right.”

“No, you knew you could do it.” Andrew leans back in his chair. “You wouldn’t have thought to try otherwise.”

Andrew is right, but it’s strange that something so small could blip his radar. Neil’s behavior only borders on suspicious, it shouldn’t have caused Andrew to yank Kevin away from Neil. Why is Kevin Andrew’s to protect, anyway?

“Do you know who my godly parent is, Neil?”

Neil shakes his head, looking to Kevin. Leaned up against the table, Kevin’s eyes burn into Neil. He looks away.

“Aaron and I were claimed by Soretia, a god of deliverance. Of safety.” Andrew leans into the table, eyes hard. “When you climbed up the front pillar you set off  my warning system.”

Neil’s vision is so full of Andrew that he doesn’t notice Kevin behind him until his arms are pulled behind him, Kevin a solid mass keeping him immobilized. Neil shoves his weight from one side to another, but it feels like he’s moving through molasses. Futile. 

Fear spikes through him, and he looks at his empty glass. His mouth dries up. 

Andrew smirks. “You thought you were safe, here, in my territory? How stupid.”
Neil keeps struggling, convulsing in Kevin’s grasp. He pulls at the shadows in the room. They’re slippery, but plentiful, and Neil can almost use them.

“Relax,” Kevin says in his ear.

Andrew reaches out to him, one hand pulling down his collar and the other bringing something to his throat. Neil stills, afraid to sink the point  of a knife into his neck, before he feels the wet felt tip of a marker against his skin. The shadows become inaccessible again, frozen out of his control.

“What did you do?” Neil gasps.

“I made your parentage useless,”  Andrew says. “Or practically. You’re too incapacitated to burn it away.”

“You could  have just asked me what you wanted to know.”

“Like you would have told me.” 

“And now I have no choice?”

“That’s right,” Andrew lets go of Neil’s collar. “I want you to tell me about the Ravens.”

Neil stares at him, dumbfounded. “Birds? You’re asking me about birds?”

“Stupid’s a bad look on you,” Andrew says. “Kev used to play with the Ravens, and you’re here to get him back.”

Neil laughs. He can feel Kevin’s chest against his back, a cage of muscle. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” 

“Then tell us what you do know.”

“No,” Neil says.  

“If you want to stay at the Foxhole  Court, you’re going to tell me. I’ll have Wymack kick you out if I think you’re a threat. That, or I’ll kill you.”

Neil’s being starts to shake. He wonders just who Andrew thinks he is. Spawn of a minor god, trying to hold Neil back? The rune on his neck might hold Nyx back, but Neil has something older buried in his blood. He takes a deep breath, exhaling through his teeth. 

The room gets colder. The music starts to distort, as if it’s bleeding through the walls and not the speakers. Kevin releases his grip, and  that snaps Neil back from the spiral he was starting on. He wants to see the sky. 

“Show me the sky,”  Neil says, becoming boneless against Kevin. “Show me the sun.”

Kevin  holds up his hand, one of the ones holding Neil up. Inside it sits a light, his heritage. He is so different from Neil, and has even more ichor In his veins. Kevin isn't showing him the real sky, but it’s enough to distract him from his panic. It’s enough to keep him from pulling on his father’s power, to keep him from becoming what he’s spent half his life running from. 

He reaches out for the  sun, but stops when he feels the warmth on his hand. 

“There are so many ways to enter the underworld,” Neil says. “Sing to a rock in New York, wade into the waters of the crystal caves… There’s no sun in the underworld.”

“You’ve been?” Kevin asks from behind  him.

“I was born there,” Neil says. The drug he’s under is making his tongue loose. His desire to stay at the foxhole court us making things difficult for Neil. Luckily, these secrets are ones it won’t hurt him too badly to shed. He’s getting close, though, to a truth his mother made him promise to never speak.  Neil looks at Andrew, then stares at the sun in Kevin’s hand. 

“I want to stay.”