A Crown of Golden Leaves: A Percy Jackson Fanfiction

Caput X: Beautiful Lies

"Do I believe in giving up?" -David Boreanaz

Caput X: Beautiful Lies

THE door opened slowly with a loud creak, as if the person behind it was trying not to let the noise be too loud. Annabeth's head jerked up from the mug of black, bitter substance Meg gave her, and she tried to see through the door. She cleared her throat.

"Who's there?"

"Just me, Annabeth."

She felt her body slump when she recognized Nico's familiar baritone, even though he had spoken barely louder than a whisper. The son of Hades swept into the room, closing the door behind him without a sound, as though he was determined to defy the laws of physics. Silent as always, he walked over to the only table in the room, his black cape flowing behind him like he was an overgrown bat. His face remained neutral as he sat down in front of her and, without presume, plucked the cup out of her hand and took a sip.

"You realize I was drinking out of that, right?" she asked, but she wasn't really angry. He had stolen so many drinks from her hands that it was almost a tradition now.

He quirked an eyebrow, "Since when has that stopped me?"

She shrugged.

"Come on outside," she lowered her voice a little, changing the subject. She wanted to look behind her shoulder to where Percy was asleep. "I don't want to wake him up."

His gaze drifted over her shoulder. She glanced down at the small vial of sleeping tonic in her hand and tried to ignore the sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach, like a stone had been dropped in there. She shouldn't have drugged him like that, he would view it as a betrayal, but... well, she didn't want him to try to rescue the slave girl. Or do anything even more foolhardy. She didn't want him to get worse, the red welts on his back looked worse now than earlier that morning... or was it last night? It didn't matter; she just hoped his infection wouldn't get worse.

"You drugged him, didn't you?" Nico's tone was slightly incredulous, but not entirely surprised. She twitched her face to the left and shrugged again.

"I don't want him to do anything stupid."

"Like he'll be the one to do something stupid."

"Shut up, Death Breath."

"Of course, my lady." His tone wasn't mocking, but she knew he was making fun of her— she had known him since they were children. She narrowed her eyes. He pushed himself off the chair and offered an arm, but she knew he wasn't being chivalrous. She stood up and swept past him gracefully, tripping over the hem of her dark blue toga.

The door opened without a creak and no one pulled it but she knew it was Nico. It was like he had this ability to manipulate objects, whether they were insubstantial like shadows (which they were, more often than not) or solids like doors. Apparently, everything had some kind of shadow inside of it, which was how he was able to do that stuff.

Did she believe the explanation he had given her? Yes. Yes she did. What other explanation was there? He was a magician?

"Are we going to rescue that slave girl?"

"Yes."

"Not alone, I hope." A new voice spoke up, cool and commanding, but distinctly feminine. Annabeth whirled around, her skirts billowing out with her movement. She tensed automatically, waiting for the reprimand from one of the Caesar's—

It was the female praetor, though she couldn't remember what her name was. She was the woman who had been with Percy on that patrol when she first met him.