Daughter of Hades meets Mr. Frost ((ON HOLD))

Chapter Three

.:|3rd Person pov|:.

When Annabeth calmed down, she looked at her arm, covered in Rebecca's blood. It was a bunch of periods and hyphens. It was a pattern. It almost looked like Morse code. Annabeth had learned it from Leo a long time ago, back on the Argo II. She squinted at it.

It read "Best Foster Parents Ever."

Annabeth burst into tears again.

Percy glared at the sky, cradling Annabeth protectively in his arms. He screamed, "WHY? SHE WAS ONLY A KID! SEVENTEEN YEARS OLD! WHY WOULD YOU KILL HER? OVER SOME PETTY DISAGREEMENT? SHE WAS A DEMIGOD! SHE WAS OUR ADOPTIVE DAUGHTER! We- we never got to tell her. About Nico. About the gods. We never even got to tell her we adopted her. She thought we were being paid to take care of her." His voice broke and he sank to his knees. The sky rumbled, but he ignored it. One by one, each of the monsters were struck by lightning, disintegrating.

From the edge of the yard a voice called out. "Kelp head? Wise girl? Beckendorf? Silena? Are you okay? We heard screaming and your house was surrounded by monsters." It was Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus, who had fried the entire army of monsters with lightning bolts. "Oh, gods, who- blood- what happened?!"

"Rebecca," Annabeth choked out.

"Who's Rebecca?" Thalia asked, confused.

Annabeth simply pointed to the corpse on the ground next to them. Thalia dropped to her knees next to the body, checking for vitals as her hunters looked on, silently mourning, some crying, for the unknown girl. Thalia looked up, her face ashen. "She's gone. Who was this?"

There was a boom, like thunder, and a flash of darkness. When their vision cleared, an oily man wearing all black and robes with souls sewn into them was standing there. He had a crown made of bones on his head. Thalia and the Hunters kneeled respectfully while the Jacksons just stayed in a little huddle, crying. "Where is my daughter," Hades boomed.

Percy pointed a shaking hand at Rebecca's body.

Hades came over to her and cradled her head in his hands. "Rebecca, I tried to help, I'm so sorry, Rebecca, please come back. Princess, come back." He sobbed, shoulders shaking. He laid her down gently and spied the horn in her stomach and all the fresh blood. His expression hardened. "The Minotaur will not be escaping Tartarus any time soon." He petted her head and spotted one hand still around her necklace, and the smell of corpses and dead bodies filled the air. The Jacksons gagged, but Hades just breathed it in. "That was my gift."

"The smell of decay?"

"Yes, of my realm. Now she will actually smell like that, being- dead, instead of only using the necklace to repel monsters. They hate the smell. How did she die?"

"She said she swore on the River Styx to protect Charlie and Silena."

Hades sighed. "I will not hold a grudge about that. At least her soul will go to Elysium, and we will be reunited. I must go. I hope to not see any of you again until you die." He disappeared in a burst of darkness to go back to his palace and cry over the loss of yet another of his children.

Annabeth looked over for Rebecca's lifeless body, to bring it to camp and give it a proper burial, with a shroud and a ceremony, but it was gone. "Percy! Where's Rebecca's body? It's not here!"

Percy separated from then and searched frantically. Annabeth joined him along with Thalia and the Hunters and they looked for hours, contacted the gods, camp, everyone they could think of.

None of them knew what happened to her body. Charlie and Silena were crying in their room when Annabeth and Percy came back.

While Percy and Annabeth were gone, a whole horde of monsters had found Charlie and Silena and were about to attack when Rebecca appeared in front of them, shimmering, declaring that they were under her protection, and any monster that dared to harm a hair on their heads would have to face her wrath. One monster took a step forward and a bolt of black lightning shot out of her ghostly, shimmering palm, zapping it into obliteration. All of the monsters scattered after that. She guided them up to their room and told them a bedtime story before fading into nothing.

Percy and Annabeth didn't believe then when they said that, they thought they were just traumatized. A few days later, a brown paper wrapped package appeared on the front steps. It was a thick book, with The Guardians of Childhood embossed in gold curlicue lettering on the cover and spine. It was bound in leather and incredibly thick, with magnificent illustrations. The dedication page was to Charlie and Silena for being brave little siblings and Annabeth and Percy, the best foster parents in the world. The book had parchment pages and was handwritten in thin, slanting letters. The cover stated in the same gold letters, Written and illustrated by Rebecca Hayes Jackson

When Annabeth read that, she burst out crying again.

Every night before bed, they would read one story from the book to the children.

And Rebecca would say the tales by heart, word for word with the parent reading, from her perch on the windowsill. She sat there every night and sang them to sleep. She was with them all day and night, every day, for years, until Charlie was 15 and Silena was 13.

Then, everything changed.

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I have until about chapter 8 written.

My publishing schedule (found in the story Frozen Darkness) will not be put into use until October. Until then, expect very few updates and they will be random. Sometimes I will have unexpected free-for-all days where I publish every single one of my stories that has an update ready, like today.

I'm updating all of my stories today! yay!

Toodles my noodles!

~iamanawesometaco