I nearly trip over my own feet when I take a sharp turn around the circular table. Nico stops running for a moment to make sure I'm okay, but one look at my determined eyes makes him take off again.

This time, my knee collides with a chair near the table, and I'm not able to stop myself from falling onto the floor.

"Okay," I groan, "I'm done."

Nico laughs at me from the other side of the table. However, he doesn't come near me. It's a good move on his part, because I still haven't let go of the tiny bug gripped in my hand. Although he didn't purposely put a bug on me, he still did it, so I'm only chasing him around to return the favour.

"You two are such children." Nova laughs, stopping at the door and leaning against the frame. "What are you doing?"

I point to Nico to blame him for the commotion. Unfortunately for me, I use the hand with the insect inside of it.

Too tired to chase after the creature which is kind of blending in with the grey, old carpet, I watch it crawl away. Nico laughs as I pout, and he starts to walk over to me.

"He put a bug on me." I face Nova.

"That's not true." Nico pulls out the chair in front of me and, after dusting it, takes a seat. "Kind of."

"Kind of?" Nova asks.

Nico first looks at the ground, and after opening and closing his mouth a couple of times, he looks at me.

I have to look away from him as I blush, remembering how he brought me a white flower—one from the tree I kept staring at earlier on—when he came to bring us mattresses from his house. Although there are beds in here, they were covered in slimy guests.

Nico also brought a hair tie for Nova; one he grabbed out of his sister's room before rushing over here.

"Never mind," Nova says. "Did you get the clothes?"

Nico stands up and heads towards the cupboard. Apparently, this church used to get donations from people and hand them out to the underprivileged. When the church was declared 'tainted' after a Vessel entered it, everything was abandoned so quickly that Nico thinks we'll be able to find some clothes here.

"Here." Nico coughs as he gathers a pile of clothes in his hand.

Nova moves to help him, and I do the same. We follow Nico out of this room and into the one on the opposite side of the hall; the room where Leo and Zeke are in charge of laying out the mattresses. Surprisingly enough, the boys have actually done their job.

"Could you get any weirder?" Nova nudges Zeke as she throws the clothes onto the floor.

Zeke's hands are placed on his hips as he stares out of the window. I'm not sure he even heard Nova, but he nods his head.

"I'm going in there." Zeke casually pulls off his top and slides down his pants.

He then stretches his hand towards Nova, but she hits it down and walks closer to the window. "Going in...a river?"

Nova looks back to find Zeke has already left the room, and the rest of us look at each other as his footsteps get fainter. Only a few seconds pass before Zeke, barefoot and in his underwear, appears in front of the window. We all watch as he laughs and starts sprinting towards the river.

Leo is next to follow Zeke's lead, but after he hooks his thumbs into his pants, he freezes. "I'm...not wearing underwear."

"That means you keep your pants on!" My eyes widen, and the rest of the group laughs as Leo runs out of the room.

"Let's go then," Nova says, casually throwing off her dress and standing in her underwear.

If she were wearing her usual sexy lingerie, I would have kicked her. Luckily, it's just a sports bra and box panties; my usual.

"You know you want to, Mora."

I laugh and wiggle out of my shorts before throwing off my top. When Nova and I look at Nico, we find that all he has left to do is unbutton his shirt. After throwing the shirt to the floor, he carefully takes off his glasses and places it on a nearby desk.

My eyes travel to Nico's abs, but I quickly look away and jab my elbow in Nova's side to tell her to do the same.

Nova laughs as she pulls me out of the door, and I grab onto Nico's hand. We run across the pulpit and through the rows of chairs. As we near the staircase, I pull away from Nova and Nico, knowing I'll definitely fall if I try to rush down there with them.

I jump over the stairs and follow the pair as they turn to the left of the church. We round the building and run through a puddle of what I hope is water. Nearing the river, we slow down, and I look down at my muddy feet.

"It's freezing!" Leo shivers.

"No," Zeke splashes water on Leo, "it's warm!"

Leo giggles as the rest of us step into the river, which really is freezing. I try to turn around, regretting my decision to follow the group. However, Nova pulls me deeper into the river.

"I hate you!"

"I love you!" She laughs.

I smile when I see Leo run towards Nico, and Nico throws Leo over his shoulder before diving deeper into the water. It's a cute move for someone who claims not to be good with children.

"Ahem," someone clears their throat, and we all freeze when we see a short, dark skinned lady looking down at us. Her box braids are to die for. "So this is where you've been, Nicholas."

The lady glares at Nico, and when Zeke snickers, she glares at Zeke, too. We all watch as she drops two plastics on the floor and walks away.

"Some food for your new friends," She calls out.

"Thanks, Rhea." Nico turns to us. "That's my older sister; Rhea. Sorry, she's not a fan of..."

"Vessels," the whole group calls out, and we burst out laughing.

Zeke is the first to walk towards the plastics, which isn't surprising. Not wanting him to finish all the food, we all head out of the water. I grab a sandwich out of Zeke's hand and ignore his disapproving look when I take a huge bite out of it.

Leo pulls out a packet of chicken tenders and starts licking his fingers after each bite. When I try to stretch for one, he pulls the packet away from me. Luckily, Nova gets a hold of it. She then takes one for herself before passing the packet to me, and I pass it to Nico.

"Where are we going, anyway, Amora?" Nova asks, taking a seat next to Zeke. "On our Vessel-rescuing trip."

I chuckle as I drop down to the floor. Leo and Nico do the same, and a circle is formed out of the group.

"Everything we're looking for is in Vita. Well, others are scattered around the world, but Vita is closest to us."

"What are we looking for?"

"One hand. One million souls. A mother's womb makes fire cold."

I think of one of the many riddles my Grandad told me and start looking for the blue bag Daphne gave me. I stop as I shake my head, thinking about how silly it is to think I brought the bag out here and trying to forget about Daphne.

"The translation?" Nova stares at me with a blank face, and when I look at the others, they look as lost as she is.

"Oh," I forget telling them the riddle for a moment, "sorry. Well, the hand and a million souls refer to Hades' Clutch. The legend says it holds many evil souls in it, which is perfect for extracting the evil inside us."

"Hmm." Nova nods. "And the womb and fire part?"

"Grandad thought it was a reference to Gaie; the goddess of earth and mother of life. He figured the riddle meant the earth holds the key to take away our curse; making what started with fire, disappear."

"You people..." Zeke chews. "Read way too many...books." He then gulps down a small bottle of water.

"Actually," I correct him, "Grandad heard that riddle from a group he met in Vita. They called themselves Prometheus' followers and say the god left tools behind to save us all. Anyway, Grandad and some members spent years digging up the land in Vita. They were looking for the clutch."

"Are we going to dig?" Nova groans at the thought of physical labour.

"That might be a little difficult, because the land is now a park."

"Then how do we plan on finding Hades' Clutch?"

"Well...I—I don't know yet," I admit, avoiding all of their eyes, "but it's a start."

Zeke spits out his food as he laughs. "You're taking them on some wild-goose chase."

"Shut up," I say, not knowing why my voice is so soft.

Zeke, probably because he didn't hear me, continues laughing. It's only Nova that senses my discomfort, but all of them are sure of my anger when I stand up and walk away.

I don't get very far before the group falls silent, and suddenly having the urge to defend myself, I turn around.

"It's also the last place the tracker said my grandpa was before it just stopped working. I mean...after all these years he's probably dead, but...I don't know."

Tears begin to roll down my face, and in a matter of seconds, Nico is by my side. Needing anyone to comfort me, I allow him to pull me closer and bury my head in his chest.

I cry even harder when I start thinking about how he's only the third non-Vessel to ever want to be near me when I show my feelings. Daphne and Grandad were the others.

"You know I'm still coming with you."

I lift my head when I hear Nova's comforting words, but when I'm about to thank her, her expression changes.

She and the rest of the group look scared. Even Nico now backs away from me. I follow their eyes to my shoulder, and I start to panic when I see the flame mark glow. I panic even more when it starts to burn, but before I can scream, everything goes dark.