The Golden Amulet (PJO, Sequel to The Silver Ring)

Chapter 15

Percy had only realized what had happened after the fight. 

Apparently, Captain Aurelia too was focused in the fight—and when she had stepped forward, she had passed Rosaline, letting a potential enemy have a chance to surprise her.

It wasn't Captain Aurelia's fault; Rosaline looked deprived of all hope—and she was unconscious, two things that didn't scream out "enemy."

But Rosaline wasn't your average, run-of-the-mill soldier; she was one of Chaos' top commanders, and there were many reasons why she had been chosen. One, as Percy found out only because of this encounter, was her acting skills.

She'd been pretending that she had fainted of exhaustion—a very skillful feat since a person trying to pretend to be unconscious doesn't look like a person who's unconscious on many different levels. But her impersonation skills were off the record.

Combined with her primordial status, she suddenly became an enemy that one would always underestimate. No matter how much one suppressed her, she would always come out on top. Primordials were beings with immense power; take away three-quarters of their power, they would probably still have enough to defeat every single god—although, that was a really low bar in Percy's opinion. 

Rosaline had waited for the perfect time to strike; the moment right before Captain Aurelia was going to strike him dead. In that second, all of Captain Aurelia's concentration would be focused on him, giving anybody an optimal opportunity to save Percy.

And Rosaline did not disappoint. Although, in a risky way that had a serious chance of involving an angry Captain Aurelia, and a dead Percy.

She didn't get the latter. Although, since Percy was still alive, they both got the former.

For a second, no one moved. Captain Aurelia stared numbly at the broken bow in her hands, while Percy shared a glance with Rosaline, mouthing, Thank you.

Rosaline looked much better than how she was when Percy had set her unconscious body on the chair; there were no longer bags under her eyes or any physical injuries that Percy could see. He deuced, that being a primordial, she had could heal quickly. 

Although, nothing could heal the mental wounds other than time.

Relief from saving Percy covered up the pain in Rosaline's eyes only for a moment. Percy was worried for her; he had never seen Rosaline in this state of suffering before—she had always been cheerful, or at the start, the cold one, and he had been the ridiculous or sad one. No matter what it took, he would make the old times new again.

But to do that, he had to find Omega.

And before that, to do that, he would have to get out of this mess.

"M-my bow!" Aurelia shouted in anguish, her emotions so genuine that it almost made Percy pity her. "I'll kill you for this!"

She was a blur as she dashed forward, too fast for Rosaline to catch. Percy readied himself; all he needed to do was stay alive for a few moments, then Rosaline would be close enough to help.

But his planning went to waste when Captain Aurelia promptly slipped in a patch of Rosaline's blood and hit her head on the floor. To add insult to injury, her crisp, clean uniform on her now-unconscious body absorbed most of the silver blood around her.

Percy, being experienced in blood, simply looked away. But Rosaline just simply stared in horror as her face slowly turned green in nausea. To be fair, if it was his blood, Percy would've had had the same reaction.

He put a hand on Rosaline's back and lead her out of the room, which was a cement box of bloodshed. 

Rosaline immediately enveloped him in a hug, seemingly using all of her strength to squeeze him as hard as she could, and all the doubts disappeared in Percy's head that she was still hurt. "I . . . can't . . . breathe," he wheezed out after he couldn't contain himself any longer.