in which aurelie nightshade's life is just a carousel spinning around after her sister willingly lets herself die
[annabeth chase x fem!oc]
[the titan's curse - the blood of olympus]
[started; 11/23/23] [finished; xx.xx.xxxx]
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THEY RAN UNTIL THEY WERE EXHAUSTED. Rachel steered them away from traps, but they had no destination in mind— only away from that dark mountain.
Finally they stopped in a tunnel of wet white rock, like part of a natural cave.
"I can't go any farther," Rachel gasped, hugging her chest.
Annabeth had been crying the entire time they'd been running. Now she collapsed and put her head between her knees. Aurelie knelt down next to the blonde. She wrapped her arms around the other girl and allowed Annabeth to lean herself against her chest.
"That sucked," Nico spoke up.
"You saved our lives," Percy said.
Nico wiped dust off his face. "Blame the girls for dragging me along. That's the only thing Annabeth and Rachel could agree on. We needed to help you or you'd mess things up."
"Nice that they trust me so much." Percy shined his flashlight across the cavern. Water dripped from stalactites. "Nico... you, uh, kind of gave yourself away."
"What do you mean?"
"The wall of black stone? That was pretty impressive. If Kronos didn't know who you were before, he does now— a child of the Underworld."
Nico frowned. "Big deal."
Annabeth cuddled into Aurelie's grip. "What... what was wrong with Luke? What did they do to him?"
The son of Poseidon told them what he'd seen in the coffin, the way the last piece of Kronos's spirit had entered Luke's body when Ethan Nakamura pledged his service.
"No," Annabeth said. "That can't be true. He couldn't— "
"He gave himself over to Kronos," Percy said. "I'm sorry, Annabeth. But Luke is gone."
"No!" she insisted. "You saw when Rachel hit him."
Percy nodded, looking at Rachel with respect. "You hit the Lord of the Titans in the eye with a blue plastic hairbrush."
The redhead looked embarrassed. "It was the only thing I had."
"But you saw," Annabeth insisted. "When it hit him, just for a second, he was dazed. He came back to his senses."
"So maybe Kronos wasn't completely settled in the body, or whatever," Percy said. "It doesn't mean Luke was in control."
"You want him to be evil, is that it?" Annabeth demanded. "You didn't know him before, Percy. I did! The gods know what Adel sees in you!"
"What is it with you?" Percy snapped. "Why do you keep defending him? And what has Adel to do with it?"
