(OKAY. So this story is like a continuation for the other story which you have read prior to this one if you actually read the previous part. Anyways, I also wrote this after I wrote that one and it was the time when I had nothing much to do but wait for HoO and BoO so yeah. This is an attempt for a Reyna and Luke otherwise known as Lukeyna which one friend from Tumblr started. I hope you guys will like this.)

Waking Up in Hades

Reyna woke up from the gushing sound of a river. For one crazy moment, she thought she was in Camp Jupiter. Yet the sulfuric and mildewy smell of the air told her otherwise.

She opened her eyes; her vision was hazy. She figured out that she was in a dark place. She was lying in a black, cold ground—the grass and the sand were all black. She blinked several times and tried to sit up. She stared to her left, it was indeed a river but it was unlike any other river.. It had dark waters and strange things floated on it.

Reyna realized what it was. It was the River Styx. The river you’d only encounter when you were already dead.

“So I am dead?” She asked herself. She sounded like a frog, for her voice just croaked.

“Yes, you are..” A voice near her agreed.

She looked up and found a tall, well-built, young man leaning on a black poplar tree few feet away from her. He wore jeans, t-shirt, loafers and an intimidating expression that made Reyna uneasy. It was dark from where he stood so she could not really tell how he looked like. He stepped close to her and the sword he was holding glowed, lighting his face, and making it easier for Reyna to study his features.

He had sandy blonde hair and blue eyes. For a moment, she thought it was Jason. But she remembered that Jason’s scar was on his upper lip. This guy had a scar on his cheek just beneath his left eye. She was wearing a brooding expression and arrogant aura. It was the first time she saw this guy, but she already wanted to hate him for acting cool. However, she could not erase the fact that he was really cool and quite good looking too.

Reyna looked away as she realized that the guy was studying her.

“Where am I?” She asked to distract him.

“Where do dead people go?” He asked as though Reyna was too dumb to realize where she was.

She was beginning to hate this annoying, proud guy.

The guy rolled his eyes, “Yeah. You’re in Hades!” He pointed in front of them. “Look over there. That’s the River Styx.”

Reyna wanted to scream, “I know, right?” But she kept that to herself.

She ignored his ‘genius’ remark about the river. “How long I have been here?”

“A while..  It was hard to keep track of the time in here.” He said indifferently.

Reyna stared at him waiting for some answers. Her wide eye gaze must have frightened him. He suddenly looked uneasy this time. Like he was a kid who had done something wrong and was afraid he would get punished.

“What? I really don’t know. I was just..” He hesitated, maybe thinking of another annoying thing to make her feel stupid. “Let’s say, I’m enjoying my stay in Elysium when that kid showed up and told me to look after you. So yeah, I was tasked to look after you.” He said that as though it was all Reyna’s fault why he was here.

“Now go, stand up, I have to bring you to the palace first. Ghost king needs to see you.” The guy scoffed.

He started walking in long strides. Reyna rose to her feet and followed him.

She realized she really was dead. She remembered how Jason charged her with his sword. She helped Piper from being attacked but Jason thought she was another roman, trying to kill his precious Piper so when he got the chance, he stabbed Reyna. That was how she died. They said ‘First love never dies.’ No one bothered to tell her, ‘First love can kill you.’

Anyways, she did not resent Jason for killing her. Maybe, it was really her fate to die. At least, she died in the battle. Just like a true daughter of war should. She died as a hero. It was awful but she knew she would learn to live by it, or die by it.

Reyna heaved a sigh.

They were walking on a long, slippery path. They walked past the lines of dead people standing outside trying to get into Hades’s kingdom. All of the people surrounding her were dead, including her—meaning the annoying guy in front of her was not an exemption himself.

He was dead. Reyna saw his wound from his left arm. She wondered who he was when he was still alive. Was he a college student? But why was he holding a sword? Was he a hero as well?

Endless questions rode her train of thoughts until she realized they were already inside the palace garden. Now the palace garden was beautiful in a creepy way. Skeletal white trees grew from marble basins. A long stretch of flower beds were booming with golden plants and precious stones.

It would have been nice walking inside the garden if it weren’t for the sulfurous smell in the air and the distant cries of tortured souls.

“You said the ghost king wanted to see me.. Why does Pluto want to see me?” Reyna finally got the nerve to ask, breaking the silence between her and the proud guy.

“Pluto? Oh well.. You’re a roman.” Proud guy scratched his chin. “Hades’s in Olympus right now. They have a council.”

“Then who’s the ghost king you’re referring to?”

The proud guy shot her an intimidating look,  “Nico di Angelo, his son..”

“Ohh..” said Reyna convincingly.

She knew Nico di Angelo. “The brother of Hazel Levesque,” she thought as they stopped by the huge doors of the palace. Skeleton warriors were guarding the entrance.

She went on walking until she realized she was doing it alone. She glanced over her shoulder and saw the proud guy sitting on the stairs.

“Aren’t you coming with me?” She inquired.

“Why? I was not told to go there. I was just asked to escort you here..” He said irksomely.

Reyna the way this guy was making her feel. She wanted to come up to her and break his neck off— he was too boastful and bossy. She hated guys like that.

She marched up to the doors. But she stopped herself from opening them, she turned around again to face proud guy.

“Hey! What’s your name by the way?”

“Why? You don’t need to know.”

She gave her the threatening look.

He rolled her eyes again but submissively answered her query, “Luke..”

"Last name?"

His eyebrows creased together. “Castellan..” he answered.

"Oh.. Luke Castellan." Reyna nodded. "I thought it was.. Luke *sshole! That last name suits you well." 

Before he could even say a thing, Reyna turned her back on him, a smile crept into her lips when she opened the doors of the palace. Perhaps the underworld would not be so bad at all.