𝐌𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑'𝐒 𝐃𝐀𝐔𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐄𝐑, luke castellan

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐲 𝐭𝐰𝐨

Keira had never felt as much hatred as she did seeing Nik approach in that moment.

It was almost fully dark, with just traces of the nearly hidden sun remaining. Nik had the same mocking and maniacal expression that Keira had seen in Utah, entirely inappropriate for the friend she thought she knew all these years. She stood there, her ankle still aching, and she knew she needed to buy time for the ambrosia to work its pain-relieving magic.

"The tour of the sanctuary was pretty cool, thanks," she replied with pronounced irony. He only widened his smirk upon hearing her. "But I prefer other forms of therapy. Like beating the fuck out of you, as in Utah."

He tried to hide his irritation at her words, but Keira could read his emotions well enough to know that behind his arrogant demeanor was discomfort at the mention of that moment. Clearly, Keira had outmatched him in that fight, and if not for his abilities for shadow travel, he would have perished in that cave.

"Always so cocky," he commented, pacing a few feet from her with his sword still in hand, ready to display a threatening attitude. Keira remained unfazed. "I'd ask you to hop on the bandwagon, 'cause damn, you swing that sword like a pro. But let's face it, you're also a pain in the ass, and you'd never see eye to eye with the cause."

Keira tried not to react violently to the remark about being insufferable, knowing it was necessary to buy time and gather information about Nik's plans. Intrigued by the mention of his cause, she decided to inquire further.

"And what's your cause, exactly?" she asked, raising an inquisitive eyebrow.

Nik laughed and looked pleased, as if he had been waiting for someone to ask so he could reveal his plans. "What I told you in Utah. I'm going to cleanse the world of the most threatening classes of demigods, the forbidden children."

He paused for a few seconds to let his words sink in. A few feet away, traffic continued to pass, and the lights from the road cast shadows on the passing cars. Keira looked at Nik, trying to decipher what was going through his mind. She was certain that he was crazier than she initially thought.

"So, your noble cause to save demigods is to kill them?" she repeated, incredulous, remembering that before facing Alecto, he had proclaimed himself as the savior of demigods. He rolled his eyes, impatient with her lack of understanding of his thoughts.

"Only those of the Big Three, I told you. You don't understand how relieved we would be without them," Nik commented, getting more excited as he revealed his ideas in the characteristic cold of the night. He began to move from side to side, accompanying his words with slight sword movements through the air. Keira watched him a few feet away with furrowed brows. "Monsters will calm down without smelling their essence so strongly. Gods will stop fighting and using us as pawns—"

"So, you're avoiding being the gods' pawn by becoming Hades' lackey?" Keira cut him off with her deep voice. He looked at her, as if remembering that she was there. He had been so immersed in his thoughts that he seemed to have been talking to himself. 

"I'm not anyone's lackey!" he snapped, pointing his sword towards her in the distance, as if threatening her through the air. Then he approached her, not adopting an offensive stance but trying to intimidate. "The Lord of the Dead is partly in agreement with the cause."

She smirked at his angry reaction, knowing that her smile would only fuel his discontent. "Cool. There are parts I still don't get, anyway."

"Daughter of Athena," he responded mockingly, "overrated. What don't you get?"

"Why steal the Knee, for example?" Keira replied, not engaging in his game of ironic remarks. "If you don't want to mess with all demigods, why destroy the camp?"