The Last Olympian - Dissipate Bianca

I didn’t argue too hard. I found the nearest bedroom and crashed on the canopied bed. I thought I was too wired to sleep, but my eyes closed almost immediately.

In my dream, I saw Nico di Angelo alone in the gardens of Hades. He’d just dug a hole in one of Persephone’s flower beds, which I didn’t figure would make the queen very happy.

He poured a goblet of wine into the hole and began to chant. “Let the dead taste again. Let them rise and take this offering. Maria di Angelo, show yourself!”

White smoke gathered. A human figure formed, but it wasn’t Nico’s mother. It was a girl with dark hair, olive skin, and the silvery clothes of a Hunter.

“Bianca,” Nico said. “But—”

Don’t summon our mother, Nico, she warned. She is the one spirit you are forbidden to see.

“Why?” he demanded. “What’s our father hiding?”

Pain, Bianca said. Hatred. A curse that stretches back to the Great Prophecy.

“What do you mean?” Nico said. “I have to know!”

The knowledge will only hurt you. Remember what I said: holding grudges is a fatal flaw for children of Hades.

“I know that,” Nico said. “But I’m not the same as I used to be, Bianca. Stop trying to protect me!”

Brother, you don’t understand—

Nico swiped his hand through the mist, and Bianca’s image dissipated.

“Maria di Angelo,” he said again. “Speak to me!”

A different image formed. It was a scene rather than a single ghost. In the mist, I saw Nico and Bianca as little children, playing in the lobby of an elegant hotel, chasing each other around marble columns.

A woman sat on a nearby sofa. She wore a black dress, gloves, and a black veiled hat like a star from an old 1940s movie. She had Bianca’s smile and Nico’s eyes.


- The Last Olympian, Chapter 12