The Sun and the Star: A Nico di Angelo Adventure

Bob and Small Bob attack Nyx in her chariot, distracting her. Will becomes transfixed by her Mansion of Night, which is made up of insects, but eye contact with Nico rescues him from his trance. They notice that none of Nyx’s children fight against them.

Someone sets the Mansion of Night on fire. Bob, Small Bob, Nico, and Will use the opportunity to run away. They pass over Chaos but find that Nyx’s garden has moved: It’s now over where the rivers of the Underworld meet.

Nyx catches up with them, telling Bob he cannot escape his identity as Iapetus. Bob agrees that he cannot stop being a Titan, but says that anyone can change. Nyx taunts Nico about being inherently drawn to darkness. Nico begins to doubt himself, but Bob declares that he will always fight for Nico, who was the only person he trusted to hear his plea.

Nyx then introduces them to “Nico’s children.”

Nyx can make cacodemons: “Personifications of negative emotions and feelings” (406). She has made baby demons out of Nico’s “terrible and dark” parts (406). Will pleads to run but Nico can’t desert them.

When Nico touches the baby demons, he relives their accompanying memories, the ones Nyx has been sending him in his dreams. Nico reflects on the memories and emotions the demons represent. He becomes angry, not because Nyx is right about him, but because she’s wrong.

Will realizes that the things they’d heard behind them throughout the Underworld were Nico’s demons being born and following them. Seeing them seems like a violation of Nico’s privacy.

Nico attacks Nyx, fighting to keep his life on the Earth’s surface. Will is filled with pride that despite the pain Nico’s suffered, he will not give in to darkness. Nico is both darkness and light; he burns brightly as he fights Nyx.

As Nico lets in the light, Will lets out his darkness. Filled with rage at what Nyx has done, he channels Apollo’s power to give Nyx hay fever. Nyx orders Nico’s demon to attack him.

When Nico sees his cacodemons attack Will, he orders them to stop and they listen. Nico realizes that he has control over his demons. Nyx’s children revolt against her, moved by observing Nico, Bob, Will, and the cacodemons. They resent Nyx for using them as weapons when they have their own dreams and desires. Hypnos reveals he set fire to her mansion. Nemesis, the goddess of balance as well as retribution, recounts the ways Nyx has made things unbalanced by imprisoning Bob and creating Nico’s cacodemons. She holds Nyx while Hypnos sends her into a slumber, buying Nico and his group time to escape.

Nico realizes what the prophecy meant when it said he had to leave something behind in the Underworld. He must leave behind his demons. He renames them his Cocoa Puffs and gives them the choice to live how they choose, unlike how Nyx treated her children.

Bob clutches Nico, Will, and Small Bob to his chest and jumps into the river below. Nemesis is on the bank. She warns them that her mother is free and helps them escape down the Acheron in Gorgyra’s boat. As they take off down the river, Nyx lands in front of them and becomes an “enraged black hole” (422).

Nyx crawls toward them, her dress devouring everything in her path. Will and Nico no longer hear the voices of the river. Bob explains that it’s because they no longer despair or have anything to be punished for—they’re safe from Nyx.

When Nyx tries to reach them, the river burns and blisters her skin. She cannot bear the River of Pain because pain is all she knows. Her body becomes a “wizened husk” (424) and evaporates.

As they continue down the river, the Cocoa Puffs run after them and jump on the boat to escape Tartarus. Will tells Nico he accepts the Cocoa Puffs as they are: Nico, overwhelmed, cries in Will’s arms until he falls asleep.

Nico’s Cocoa Puffs watch Will as if determining whether they’re safe with him. Bob is crying hysterically, okay but processing the huge change in his life.

Nico wakes up. Will apologizes for always trying to heal his darkness rather than accepting it. From now on, he’ll try to support Nico in the way that’s right for him. They kiss, and Bob starts crying even louder out of happiness.

Will begins to fall asleep. The Cocoa Puff named Isolation curls up against him, and they both feel safe.

Nico dreams he’s back in the Lotus Hotel with Bianca. At first, he thinks Nyx is still tormenting him, but his mother is there and they seem real. Their ghosts have been allowed out of Elysium to visit Nico one last time. Hades appears. He heard Bob calling and sent Nico the quest prophecy. Only afterward did he consider how dangerous it was and how it might result in Nico losing Will. He allowed this last visit as a reward.

Hades wants Nico to be the first of his children to find true happiness, not for Hades’ sake, but for Nico’s own. Nico asks his father for one more favor: to save Amphithemis from his fate wandering Tartarus as a “mania.” Hades agrees. When Nico says goodbye to his mother and sister for the final time, he is at peace.

When Nico wakes up, the boat is in the Long Island Sound. Bob pilots them toward Camp Half-Blood, where Chiron and the nymphs greet them. Chiron is shocked to have a Titan and cacodemons at camp.

Bob decides to head west with Small Bob. He doesn’t know his destination, but what matters to him is that he now has the choice to go. Chiron takes Nico and Will to the dining pavilion.

Nico and Will recount the previous week’s events to Chiron and Mr. D over breakfast while the Cocoa Puffs feast on pancakes. Nico reminisces how he used to starve himself of food, friends, and comfort, all of which he now accepts. He used to think that change wasn’t possible, but now he knows it’s inevitable.

Nico excuses himself and returns to his cabin, where he sends an Iris-message to Piper, his friend and Jason’s ex-girlfriend. He apologizes for pulling away rather than reaching out after Jason’s death when they were both grieving. He wants to be better friends with her and making amends is the first step. She opens up about her changing relationship to her sexuality. After Jason died, she began dating a girl who is also Indigenous, like Piper. Nico reveals what he recently learned about change and the mutability of labels, both the ones others put on you and the ones you put on yourself.

When they hang up Nico is relieved. He falls into a dreamless sleep.

Nico wakes up and goes to Apollo’s cabin, where Will is just finishing an Iris-message with his siblings Kayla and Austin.

Will doesn’t want to treat Nico like a “literal ball of darkness” (460) the way he did in the past. Nico admits that he fed into that image, but Will taught him to not be afraid of the light. As they lounge on Will’s bed, the Cocoa Puffs enter the cabin and curl up with them. Nico knows that as demigods they’ll face difficult battles and monsters again, but for the first time, he feels truly hopeful.