Buried Treasure

Chapter Twenty Four

It was like gasping for breath. It was like breaking the surface of the water after drowning. It was finally fight back against the waves and winning. It was like like being free. Annabeth felt like she had been drowning so long and now she could finally breath. Now she felt like she could just float.

Annabeth looked over at her dead father staring off with his lifeless eyes. It came back to her what she had done. Lowering her head, Annabeth gently closed his eyes and whispered a farewell. Now with her father gone, who had been fueling the fire inside her with hate, she just felt lost. The glow of the curse breaking already forgotten. Her father's blood was on her hands, sticky and warm. She thought she would be glad he was dead but she only felt pity. "You can't hang me father." She whispered. There would always be that part of her, no matter how small or what he did, that would always love him. He was her father after all. But she knew, King Amadeus had no love for his daughter. He only loved power.

With a gentle tug, the dagger slipped from her father's flesh, slick with his dark blood. She was cleaning it with her shirt when the throne doors opened. She didn't even have time to react. In less than a split second the remaining guard notched his arrow and sent it sailing straight toward her heart. The aim was perfect. It was kill her. Her reactions too slowed from the bash to her head. All she felt was Percy's warm body, which smelled of sea breeze, collide with hers. His arms wrapped around her and she could feel when it impacted. For a moment his body flinched against hers. Annabeth gasped and looks down at him. His sea green eyes were wide and fixed completely on her. An arrow buried deep into his back.

It didn't matter than that her crew found its way in and took down the guard. All that mattered was the strain in Percy's arm that she could feel as he looks up at her. His eyes were boring into hers and she could see clear as day what they said. 'I love you.' His legs gave out and she had to use her knees to support his weight. "Percy? Percy!" She cups his cheek trying to look into his sea green eyes again. "Don't you leave me too." She said. Blood was slowly weeping through the back of his shirt.

The crew stopped seeing their caption hunched over percy. "I-is he..." Leo stutterers before Jason pushed him "no! Get him back to the ship. Hurry. We don't have much time." The men sprang into action each collecting weapons. Soon percy was carefully lifted and taken out. His eyes fluttered and looked at Annabeth before the men carried him away. He managed to brush her hand with his cold finger tips before disappearing. Annabeth was left there covered in not only her father's blood and her own blood but Percy's as well. All Annabeth could think was 'will my love kill percy?'