𝐄𝐍𝐈𝐆𝐌𝐀 [𝐩𝐣𝐨 𝐱 𝐡𝐩]

❝ BEYOND THE VEIL OF LIFE ❞

|| CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT ||

❝ BEYOND THE VEIL OF LIFE ❞

PERCY CRADLED LILITH IN HIS ARMS, his chest tightening with each shallow breath she took.

Her skin, once warm and golden like sunlight, was fading into a ghastly pallor. "Lilith, love, why are you so cold?" His voice quivered with desperation as he clutched her closer, his heart beating frantically against her weakening pulse.

"This isn’t you, this isn’t your colour." But even as he whispered the words, he could feel something breaking inside him, a bitter truth clawing at the edges of his mind, though he refused to accept it.

Her breath came in ragged gasps, each one slicing through him like a blade. He watched helplessly as the light drained from her amethyst brown eyes, eyes that had always shone so brightly, even in the darkest of nights.

"Stay with me, moonlight," he begged, his voice barely more than a whisper, choked with grief. But the brilliance that had once held him captivated was dimming, leaving only a flicker of what had been.

With every fleeting moment, he felt his own heart faltering, as if it might stop in unison with hers.

"Don’t go," he murmured, his voice cracking with raw emotion, as if his words alone could pull her back from the brink. Yet, the more he pleaded, the more her breaths grew faint, as if the very life was slipping away, out of his grasp. Her body felt heavier now, the warmth seeping out of her with every passing second.

"You’re my moonlight," he repeated, but the words tasted of ash on his tongue, bitter with the fear of losing her. How could she be slipping away from him when he couldn’t bear the thought of a world without her?

Percy’s mind fought against the reality that was unfolding before him, his heart refusing to acknowledge what his eyes were seeing. Her chest still rose and fell beneath his trembling hands, but the breaths were shallow, barely there. He caressed her face, trying to memorise every detail, every last hint of warmth that remained.

The world around him seemed to close in, the weight of his fear pressing down on him, suffocating.

His heart, once so full of love and hope, was now cracking under the strain—each breath she took tearing at it a little more, as if with each passing second, he was losing her inch by inch.

They were were kneeling at Lilith and Zoe's side, binding the huntress's wounds and wiping Lilith's hand.

Annabeth ran over to help, but there wasn't much she could do. They had no ambrosia or nectar. No regular medicine would help. It was dark, but they could see that Zoe and Lilith didn't look good. The girls was shivering, and the faint glow that usually hung around them were fading.