The Gift of Time

9|| Paranoia

Annabeth's POV
To say I slept peacefully last night would be a lie. All of the stress from the hunters coming tomorrow and me having to decorate Olympus for the feast plus whatever's happening with Percy is taking a toll. The thing is, whenever I'm stressed I go to Percy. Something about being around him helps me calm down, but I don't feel that as much right now. I don't exactly trust him right now.

Despite my better judgment, I decide to go to his cabin anyway just to hang out. Maybe I can change his mind about whatever he's planning on doing. I knock on the door and I hear a faint 'it's open' from somewhere in the cabin. I walk in to see no one so I assume he's in the bathroom.

Upon entering, I see a sword lying in the dresser. I walk up to it and it looks really familiar. I can't place my finger on where I've seen it before, but I know I have. Percy walks in drying his hair, and I can't help but stare at his arms. What, they look good don't judge me.

"Hey wise girl." He greets

"Hi." I say still staring

"Like what you see?" He teases

"Oh shut up." I say turning back to the sword

I admire it and run my finger down the blade to see it's very sharp. Like freshly made kind of sharp. I swear from the corner of my eye I see Percy's eyes widen. He turns away to put the towel in a laundry basket then walks up to the sword. I turn away to look at him for a second and when I turn back it definitely looks different. Maybe it's magic or something. Like Hazels knife.

"Where did you get this?" I ask

"It was drifting through the ocean yesterday, and I took it." He answers

"You took it? What if it was someone's sword?" I ask

"It's their fault for dropping a sword into the ocean. Especially if it looks like this. Of course I'm gonna take it." He defends

"I guess. Are you going to give it to the Hephaestus cabin?" I ask

"No, I think I'm going to try to figure out where it came from. There are some inscriptions on the blade and handle that might tell me something." He says

I hum and look back at the sword. The handle does have some inscriptions on it, but they are kinda worn down so I can't see it very well. The blade also has some words inscribed along the edge, and I can only make out a part of it. Inscribed on the blade is 'We shall reap the souls of the damned.' The blade itself is two toned, almond shaped blade that's about 2 and a half feet long. My eyes widen as I finally remember what it is. Backbiter.

I back away from the sword and tell Percy I'm off to hang out with our friends, and leave. The second I close his door I let out a shaky breath. I start walking to the training arena when Jason comes up to me.

"Hey, Annabeth. You look a little... scared? What's that about?" He asks

"We can't talk about this right here. Too many opportunities to eavesdrop." I say as I pull him into the forest

"This is better? What about the dryads?" He asks

"Good point. It's fine!" I say

We walk for a few minutes deep into the forest until I'm sure no one is around. I sit down by a tree next to the creek at the edge of camp, and he sits down with me. I try to wrap my head around what just happened, but seeing backbiter in Percy's cabin and him being casual about it scares me. Plus him blatantly lying to my face makes it worse.

Jason just sits there waiting for me to start with a sense of recognition of what I'm feeling. Like he's felt it before. That's just makes me more suspicious. What if Jason is his right hand? No Jason knows what Kronos did and he would never do that. But at the same time, Percy does too. I take a deep breath and start to explain.

"I walked into Percy's cabin a few minutes ago, and there was a sword sitting on his dresser. It was backbiter, Kronos sacred sword." I say

"He told me he wouldn't hurt anyone." Jason murmured

"You knew! And you didn't say anything!" I say

"I only didn't say anything because I was holding onto hope that he wouldn't do anything stupid. I actually threatened his life when I found out." He says

"Gods Jason I don't know what it think. He said he doesn't want to hurt anyone, but at the same time he has backbiter just laying around. It doesn't help that he's lying about it too." I say

"I know. On the bright side, we only have to wait until the solstice. Surely one of the gods will notice and we can get to the bottom of this." Jason says

"You're right. I'm just paranoid." I say

He nods and we get up to go to lunch. Upon entering, I immediately notice that Percy isn't there. My mind strays to the worst possible reasons why, but I get snapped out of it when everyone starts talking about the capture the flag game. Sure we've never won against the hunters, but we have to eventually.

On a real note though where is Percy? He wasn't at breakfast either, but that's because he was sleeping. Why is he sleeping is much lately? I'm sure after the gods find out at the solstice he will explain everything and all will be just fine. Right?