A moment later, they were standing in a fallow strawberry patch, staring up at the sky-blue Big House framed by a starry night sky. The wind was blustery, much colder than in California. It smelled like snow, but Nico was glad for the chill. As he gazed around at the bare trees, he felt his whole body relax.
He was home.
His Puffs seemed just as overjoyed. They squeaked and bounced and then scampered off toward the cabins, probably to find food or some demigods to terrorize.
“Well, well!” Chiron called from the front porch. He sat in his wheelchair under a fuzzy blanket and holding a steaming cup of tea, which made Nico immediately nostalgic for Johan. “Welcome back, Nico and Will.” He smiled warmly. “We’ve just been hearing all about your adventures.”
Nico blinked. “You—what?”
The front door of the Big House crashed open, and Mr. D walked out mid-laugh, apparently talking to someone behind him. “Oh, come on. Cheez Whiz iswonderfulwith cocktail weenies!”
He stopped short when he saw the demigods. He was wearing one of his garish leopard-print button-downs with neon-pink flannel pajama bottoms and a lime-green terry-cloth bathrobe, like all the fashionable wine gods were wearing this season.
“My favorite troublemakers are back!” He grinned, some sort of liquid sloshing out of the chalice he carried. “My gods, those are fantastic hats! Look at the stitchwork! Tell me, Nico, where do you stand on cocktail weenies with Cheez Whiz?”
Someone else pushed through the doorway, jostling Dionysus out of the way. It was a woman in a lovely blue dress, her brown hair done up in elaborate ringlets. Her expression was one of complete and utter joy.
Nico felt a moment of vertigo. “Semele?”
The former eidolon laughed. “Hello, my dear friends! As you can see, I found him.”
She threw an arm around Dionysus and kissed his cheek, which was, by far, the strangest thing Nico had seen all week.
“Um…” Will seemed to have forgotten how to speak. “H-him?”
“That’s right,” said Dionysus proudly. “Nico, Will…I’d like to introduce you to my mother.”
They sat together on the porch for nearly a quarter of an hour, watching Chiron, Semele, and Dionysus play pinochle and chat like old friends, before Nico finally found his voice.
“Yourmother?”
Mr. D smiled. “Oh, Nico…you sweet, ignorant child. Of course Semele is my mother! Have you not heard the stories?”
“But…” Will pressed his fingers against his temples, as if to keep his brain from exploding. “ThatSemele in the myths…Sorry. But didn’t shedie?”
Mr. D’s expression darkened. “Indeed, Will Solace. Tricked by Hera into demanding that Zeus, my father, show himself in his true form. She…she was consumed by flames, while I was still in her womb!” He put his fist to his mouth and burst into tears.
“There, there, my son.” Semele squeezed his shoulder. She glanced at Nico and Will. “He has always been an emotional one. He gets that from me.”
Mr. D brushed away his tears. “You’d better forget you ever saw me like this,” he warned the demigods. “None of it ever happened!”
“Of course,” Nico said. Then he winked at Will.
“I saw that!” Mr. D cried. “Don’t make me smite you, di Angelo!”
“Now, now, dear,” said Semele. “All is well. Nico and Will restored me to you! They deserve our gratitude.”
“Hmph,” said the god. “For your sake, I won’t smite them, then.” He took a shaky breath. “Butonlyfor your sake.”
Nico was fairly sure Mr. D was just being melodramatic, but he did his best to keep a straight face. He turned to Semele.
“So after you burned up…” he said, “you got better?”
Semele spread her hands like,Ta-da!
“Thankfully, Zeus saved Dionysus from my womb,” she said, “and eventually made him a god. As for me, Zeus made me a goddess—Semele Thyone, the patron of wild, frenzied parties. It wasn’t really my…scene, I guess you would say, but at least it allowed me to be part of my son’s life.”
“And I adored it!” Mr. D cried. “But then, centuries ago, you simply disappeared. I washeartbroken.”
