I woke up to Will leaning over me, stitching up my stomach. Once he was finished, I swung my legs off the bed and stood. He pushed me back down and slapped me. "You idiot! What were you thinking?! Do you know how scared I was when you..." Will burst into tears. "I thought you were going to die." Guilt flooded me and I wrapped my arms around him. "I think it's time I told you the truth." I said, biting my lip. He pulled away and looked at me in confusion. I grabbed his hand and led him out of the infirmary and into the forest. We walked until the trees were so thick, only a few rays of sunlight could penetrate the canopy. I stopped in front of an ancient oak tree and let go of Will's hand. "Before I do this, you have to promise never to tell anyone about what I'm going to show you." He nodded.
I pulled the hood of my cloak down. "You dyed you hair?" "No. Just, just look." I then undid the clasp on my cloak and let it drop to the floor. Will gaped at me and I fidgeted uncomfortably, waiting for him to say something. Finally, he spoke. "W-wow! What? How? How did you? What the hell happened? You look..." "Weird? Unnatural? Freaky?" "No! No! I was going to say amazing." I felt blood rush to my cheeks. "You're just saying that cuz you don't want me to feel bad." I mumbled. His eyes widened. "What? Is that really what you think? Nico, I would never lie to you, especially not about something like this. I think your absolutely stunning." I smiled at him, my eyes watering. Something came over me and I blurted out "I'm in love with you." Will stiffened and stared at me. I started to panic. Grabbing my cloak, I unfurled my wings and took off, flying far away from Will.
I flew about three miles before landing in a dark, dense part of the forest. "Idiot. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Why did I do that? I just messed everything up again." I was close to tears. "He'll never want to see me again, let alone be my friend." I curled into a ball on the floor and thought back to what Crimson told me once in one of my lesson.
"Nico, come here. I need to tell you something about our kind. This is extremely important so you must listen carefully. As an Angel, you can only fall in love once. We are destined to either spend our lives with the one we love, or be rejected and spend our lives without love. But what you must know is that your soulmate is not predetermined. You will fall in love, just as mortals do, but that love will be the only one you experience, whereas mortals can love an endless number of times. Do you understand?"
I'm screwed. If Will does not love me, I will never experience love, never be with someone, never grow old and live out the rest of my days with someone else in the way mortals can. I punched the ground, my misery turning to anger. I bet Will told everyone about my confession. They're all probably laughing about me right now. I bet he's having fun with his friends, while I lay here, moping about how hopeless my situation is. I should be out there! I should be laughing with the people I care about! Not laying here! I stood up and tried to teleport to the Island. It didn't work. "Why didn't that work? I should be there. Oh God. What if something happened." I tried to teleport to my cabin. It worked, but only added to my confusion. Why could I teleport to my cabin but not to the Island?
I was pulled from my thoughts by a startled shriek. "Nico!" I turned to see Hazel standing at the door. "What happened to you?!" I grabbed her arm and pulled her into the centre of the room before slamming the door shut. "You will not tell anyone about this. Not even Frank can know." I proceeded to tell her what had happened and then asked her if Will had said anything about me. "No, why?" She said. I averted my gaze before saying "I told him I was in love with him. And I don't...he doesn't love me back. And he knows, Hazel. He knows what happened to me, he knows everything I just told you. And now, I'll never be able to have what you and Frank have, what Piper and Jason have, hell, what most mortals have." "Nico. I think your wrong about Will. I think he loves you more than you'll ever know. I bet your confession was a shock to him. And you ran off before he could say anything, so there's no way you could know if he was, I don't know, going to say he loves you back. Come to dinner tonight. If he loves you, he will tell you. If he doesn't, you can come back to camp Jupiter with me, Frank and the other Romans." Her advice was good. After considering it for a few moments, I nodded. "Ok. I'll come to dinner. But if he doesn't love me back, I'm leaving camp Half blood and I'm never coming back."
