The beach near Camp Half-Blood felt louder than usual, like summer itself had decided to show off.

The ocean glittered under the afternoon sun, waves crashing in steady rhythms as Percy and Jason were absolutely soaked, laughing like idiots as they tried—and failed—to drown each other. Percy sent a wall of water surging toward Jason, who countered by launching himself straight into it, electricity crackling harmlessly through the spray. Saltwater flew everywhere, and every few seconds one of them yelled something that definitely wasn’t heroic-sounding.

Further up the sand, Piper, Hazel, and Reyna had claimed a makeshift volleyball court. Piper dove dramatically for the ball, Hazel laughed as she served with terrifying accuracy, and Reyna—focused and competitive as ever—spiked the ball so hard it left a small crater where it landed. They were all smiling, sunlit and fierce, like this was the kind of peace they’d earned.

A little distance away, Grover and Leo sat cross-legged in the sand, arguing animatedly about whether satyrs could beat Hephaestus kids in a mechanical invention contest. Grover gestured wildly with a handful of seashells while Leo talked with his hands, already sketching ideas in the sand. Beside them, Annabeth sat with her knees pulled up, a book balanced on one thigh. She read intently—but every few minutes, she glanced over the top of the page, eyes automatically tracking Percy in the water, just to make sure he was still breathing.

And then there was Nico.

He was very deliberately not in the sun.

Nico lay stretched out on a dark towel beneath a large beach umbrella, the shade casting cool shadows over his pale skin. The edges of his shoulders and nose were faintly pink—evidence of a sunburn he’d underestimated earlier—and now he looked thoroughly offended by the concept of daylight. He wore a black tank top despite the heat, one arm draped loosely over his stomach, dark curls slightly damp from a brief, ill-advised attempt at joining the others.

Sitting beside him in the sand was Will.

Will had a bottle of sunscreen in one hand and the softest, fondest expression on his face as he leaned over Nico. “You know,” he said lightly, “if you’d let me put this on earlier, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

Nico huffed. “I was outside for ten minutes.”

“Ten minutes,” Will echoed, already squeezing sunscreen into his palm. “In direct sunlight. You’re basically a vampire.”