War Takes Its Toll

Curses

Hello everyone! Yes, I've seen your comments. Thank you for voting and commenting. I have decided to post another chapter in this story like you asked. I cannot guarantee I will finish the book but I will try. Thanks again all of you wonderful people!

Frank's POV

I watched from the dining pavilion as Leo and Jason 'stealthed' from building to building like weirdos. Seriously, they think they're being sneaky.

They disappeared into the Big House for a few minutes and then emerged looking disheartened and trudged back to the Aphrodite cabin where they'd gotten dressed up. I shook my head sadly. They really are idiots.

At lunch, everyone sat at their respective tables. I had to sit at the Ares table and listen to Clarisse lecture me on electric spears, even though I'm a Praetor, and I had a spear that was probably way cooler then hers.

After a while, Chiron stomped his hooves on the floor, calling for attention. "There will be a meeting for the Seven, Nico, Will, Reyna, and Calypso in the Big House immediately following dinner."

That could only mean one thing. They've discovered something about Percy's mysterious illness. And whether it was good news or bad was yet to be determined.

Time skip...

We all crowded around the ping pong table waiting. Leo was twirling a flaming pencil between his fingers. It set my nerves on edge even more than they already were.

There was a tense silence all around. Jason's eyes darted across the room and Piper was cleaning the dirt from under her nail with her dagger(she's pretty talented that way).

Hazel was twisting a ruby between her fingers and Nico was fiddling with his skull ring. Reyna sat stoically, waiting while Will wrapped and unwrapped an ace bandage around his arm. Calypso sat biting her nails nervously beside Leo, whose flaming pencil was getting dangerously close to her hair. Chiron sat in his wheelchair, looking dejected and playing with his beard.

We all had nervous ticks. Me being the only one here that didn't have ADHD(not counting Chiron), I thought I was sitting pretty still until Hazel put a hand on my leg, and I realized I'd been bouncing my knee.

The door creaked and ten heads spun around to look. Annabeth entered the room looking exhausted and like she needed to shower. Her eyes were red and bloodshot, her hair knotted and unkempt.

Piper jumped up to help her to her seat where she proceeded to sit with her head in her hands. "We think it's a curse," she muttered, looking to Will who nodded along.

"What do you mean?" Leo asked. Nico leaned forward in his seat. "You mean the arai? The curses?"

Annabeth nodded miserably. "And for some reason, this Curse was just delayed and decided to show up now."

"Hold up, curses?" I asked. "Yeah," Nico puffed out a breath, "they are these spirits in Tartarus. They carry the curses of the damned and they hurt you by transmitting the curse when you kill them. I ran into a few, but according to Percy and Annabeth, they met hundreds."

"Well, shit," Jason replied helpfully. "Percy and I took a lot of curses to try and get away from them in Tartarus," Annabeth explained, "I went blind, which was a curse from the giant Polybotes that I stabbed in the eye years ago. Percy had like, an arrow through his side from when he killed Geryon in that way on that ranch. You remember that, right Nico?"

Nico swallowed and nodded. Annabeth continued. "The worst curse Percy got was Gorgon's Blood-"

"What?" Hazel and I yelled at the same time, sharing frantic looks, for we both remembered very well what Gorgon's Blood did.

"Yes," Annabeth said, "and he almost died. If not for Damasen...anyway, we thought the worst of it was over. Turns out we were wrong."

"So how do we cure it?" Reyna asked, speaking up for the first time.

"We, uh, we just have to find who it was that cursed him, and take the curse back. Then it should be cured."

"What do you mean it should be cured?" Calypso looked skeptical, like she didn't trust most of what was being said.

"Most of this is just guesswork," Will supplied, "we did some research, Nico asked around the Underworld, and this is the best answer we could come up with."

"And the curser?" Hazel asked. "How will we find this monster?"

"That's where I come in," someone said from the doorway.