𝐕𝐨𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐁𝐞𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐲.

Bittersweet

Lilia came round after three days.

She looked around the room to see dozens of other injured campers. Around her bed sat; Annabeth, Celia and Percy. She shifted slightly and they all looked up, eyes wide with fear.

"Lili, you're awake," Annabeth said. "How are you? Does your head hurt? Are you—"

"Annabeth." Percy said. "Let her breathe."

"What happened?" Lilia asked, "Did we—did we win?" She asked her voice breaking.

"Yeah, we won," Celia said teary eyed. "But we lost a lot of people."

"Who..?" She wasn't sure she wanted to know.

"Lee— Lee's gone..." Celia's voice broke as she mentioned her brother's death.

"Cee... I'm so sorry." Lilia tried to move and reached for Celia's hand, but flinched as shooting pains flew through her body.

"Careful," Percy said placing his hand on her shoulder to stop her moving. "Your shoulders broken. And that's not all."

Annabeth explained to her what happened, "You hit your head, hard. You have a concussion."

"They've tended to most of your wounds but you need rest, your arm needs to heal."

Lilia sighed. Her right arm was broken in two places, her left was badly burnt, she had deep wounds across her back and a cut along her forehead.

They told her about the burial of all those lost, and how Daedalus had sacrificed himself to destroy the labyrinth.

"How did I get here?" Lilia asked. "There were monsters surrounding me, how didn't I die?"

They gave each other nervous looks, before turning to her.

"Lili, when you hit the floor, you screamed. Really loudly." Annabeth started. Lilia looked confused, unsure where she was going with this.

"It let off some kind of frequency wave," Percy said. "Everyone around seemed to be deafened by it or something, and all the monsters near you fell to the ground and evaporated."

"Campers were hearing ringing for days after, and some began to hallucinate." Celia finished off.

Lilia stared at them trying to comprehend anything they just said.

"We're not really sure what it was, I think Chiron knows, but he won't say." Annabeth said, looking slightly agitated she didn't know.

"Did I hurt anyone," Lilia asked worriedly. "I mean, campers."

"No, no," Celia said quickly. "Everyone was fine."

"Other than sore ears and hallucinations, I suppose." Percy said, Annabeth kicked him with a glare.

"After those monsters evaporated, the others were wary of you," Annabeth explained. "Percy had enough time to carry you away from the fight."

She looked up at him, "Thank you." She grabbed his hand and held it tightly, not wanting him to leave.

She still wasn't feeling 100 percent, so they let her rest, Annabeth and Celia went to help Chiron and the others clear up camp, Percy didn't leave though, Lilia's hand still held his tightly as she dozed off into sleep.