"Once again, please make sure everyone's safe while we're gone," Evie instructed Lou Ellen for the umpteenth time. "And make sure Ree gets their sudden allergic reaction checked by Ell--I mean Will."

Lou Ellen rolled her eyes and put a hand on her hip. "As long as you stay safe."

"I will, don't worry." Evie hated lying to her sister, but it was necessary sometimes. "Love you, and see you soon!"

Lou Ellen nodded and scurried away.

"You guys are still so wholesome," Elena commented as she and Arlo walked up to the group. "I don't understand how you do it."

"Yeah. I mean, half the time I wanna murder Lena, and Percy is SO ANNOYING," Arlo complained.

"Oh, shut up, Bennet, you know you love me."

Arlo rolled her eyes, saying nothing.

"Oh, hey, there's Pres!" Ellie waved the daughter of Aphrodite over. "Now all we need is Azy."

"Yeah," Evie agreed, rubbing the back of her wrist. "Uh..what time is it?"

Feyre checked her watch. "3:19."

"I'll go start the van, then," Kate said, turning and running in the direction of the Big House. Her long brown hair streamed behind her.

"We're going in the van?" Presleigh asked. Evie noticed her hair was back in pigtails.

"Yep," Elena confirmed. "We're driving to the airport and flying to LA, since the entrance in Central Park isn't working right now for some reason."

"That's not a good sign," Arlo commented.

"How did you manage to get plane tickets so quickly?" Ellie asked.

"I didn't," Evie said simply.

"What do you mean?" Feyre looked at Evie. "Isn't that kind of something you need to get on a plane?"

In response, the child of Hecate raised her arm so everyone could see. Within seconds, eight plane tickets had appeared in her hands.

"How did you manage to make them look so realistic?" Elena asked.

"Yeah, did you, like, study plane tickets for hours so you could get it right?" Arlo joked.

"I'm always prepared." Evie shrugged.

"Are you all sure you want to do this?" Ellie asked. "We could find some other way to help Onyx..."

"Ellie, you know as well as I do that there isn't another way. She would not ask us to go there unless there was no other option." Evie rubbed the back of her wrist even more. She didn't like any of this at all. It all felt wrong. Then again, it was probably a good thing it didn't feel right going to the Underworld.

"What time is it now, Fey?" Presleigh asked, playing with the pink ends of her pigtails.

"3:26," Fey told her, frowning. "Az is usually five minutes early. Where are they?"

Azy wouldn't lie, right? She wouldn't have gone off without us...right? Evie thought, mad at herself for even considering the possibility of her friend lying. Then she thought of when they promised not to do that. They weren't looking at me, were they? And they took so long to answer...

"They aren't coming," she realized.

"Who isn't coming?" Kate asked, not winded at all after sprinting from the Big House to the amphitheatre without stopping.

"Yeah, what do you mean?" Presleigh frowned.

"Az. Oh, gods, I'm so stupid. They were obviously lying when they said they would wait and go with us to Tartarus." Evie's wrist was starting to hurt with how forcefully she was rubbing it.

"Shoot," Elena murmured. 

"You're not dumb. Anyone would've thought that they were telling the truth," Feyre reassured Evie.

"Eve, you're very smart," Kate agreed.

"What do we do now?" Arlo asked.

"We continue, of course," Presleigh answered, surprising everyone. "We'll meet them there."

"Hopefully," Kate murmured.

"Of course we will," Ellie said. "Otherwise we'll find that reckless child of Hades and kill them ourselves. Now, come on, we gotta go to the van."

Just then, a hole opened up in the ground under where she was standing. Evie could only see her shocked expression before she fell.

"Ellie!" Presleigh shrieked, backing away as the purple hole expanded.

"Pres! Don't move back any farther!" Kate warned, eyes wide. 

Evie glanced behind Presleigh and saw another, smaller hole. Pres didn't see it, however, and stepped right into it. 

"No!" Arlo screamed, diving to catch her friend's hand but instead getting caught in the hole, too.

"SOUND THE ALARM!" Elena yelled. A nearby camper glanced over, stared at them for a moment, then ran in the direction of the newly-installed gong they used as an alarm system.

"Nobody move," Evie instructed, leaping to the side as another hole formed to her left. She was sure that, from above, where they were standing looked like an oddly-coloured slice of Swiss cheese. "We need to figure out what this is and where it's coming from."

She heard the BANG of the gong and knew that all they had to do was evade the holes for a bit longer. Then Chiron would get there and everything would be okay.

"ELENA!" Feyre screamed, snapping Evie back to the present. She looked around for the daughter of Poseidon, her heart jumping to her throat as she saw the hole where Elena had been standing a couple seconds before, but not Elena.

That's four of us gone, she realized, jumping away as another hole formed, this time in front of her. 

Kate got her bow out and notched an arrow. "Whoever is attacking us, come out and face us instead of hiding like a coward!"

A moment later, three holes formed around her. She moved to the right, which was the only direction that didn't have a hole, but one appeared directly where she stepped and she fell, screaming.

"Feyre, we gotta hang on!" Evie stated the obvious. She could see the terror in Fey's hazel eyes, and she knew her own emerald ones looked the same. "See, Chiron is right there, coming toward us!"

"We got this," Fey muttered to herself. "Just a few more--" she froze, realizing she was surrounded by holes. "Help!"

Evie assessed the situation. The holes were all definitely too big to jump over. If I could make a Mist floor, for just a few seconds...

She knew it wouldn't work, though. Some rare demigods could form actual objects with the Mist, but she could only do illusions.

"Stay calm, Fey. Chiron's right behind you. He'll--FEY!" Evie shrieked as another hole appeared underneath the daughter of Athena, dragging her down to gods-know-where.

"Chiron! Help me!" she cried, suddenly realizing she, too, was surrounded.

The centaur galloped towards her and put her on his back, but there was no need. The holes had all disappeared.

"I--what--" Evie wasn't sure what to say, what to think, what to feel. 

"That," Chiron started, "was the power of a primordial goddess. I can sense it."

"You don't mean..." Evie gasped.

"Nyx," he confirmed. "And your friends...Onyx?" he asked, looking at something behind Evie.

Evie spun around, and, sure enough, Onyx was standing right in front of her. "Onyx!" she rushed to hug her friend. "I need your help. I'm not sure what happened to them, they just..."

Onyx started laughing. Something about it seemed...off. Evie looked up at them, eyes widening as they made eye contact.

Onyx's eyes were pure black. 

She tried to push away from her friend, but the child of Nyx wouldn't let her. Their laughs got louder and louder, sounding less and less like Onyx every second. 

Evie's vision started to blur. She looked down and realized darkness from Onyx's hands was spreading to her. She struggled to get away from her, squirming and screaming for help. They seemed to be frozen in time, though.

"We'll see how quickly the ever-disobedient Hecate will rush to help you once she realizes what I did," Not-Onyx murmured. They chuckled again. "And I'll be waiting, along with you. But for now, goodnight."

The darkness consumed Evie.

:D

Kinda unedited (again) lmao

Also sorry, Sam, cuz you kinda seem like a villain in this rn

But, uh, yeah. Another chapter--finally

What d'you think of it?

QOTD: Favourite app?

A: Wattpad, Clash of Clans (a guilty pleasure), Spotify, or YouTube, probably

Anygays, love y'all

Cya!

~Aspen