How we fell in love (Reyna and Nico)

11. The Curse (Reyna's POV)

I was eating my lunch sitting on the table I usually sat on, since our places were mostly fixed you know being Preator and all. Actually, I along with Jason had made this rule of sitting on our fixed seats in our mess hall to avoid fights between the campers since they would fight about who will sit where or something useless like that. Next to me was Hazel who was snuggled up to Frank who was beaming at her.

Everything is normal, well as normal as it can be for demigods like us. The camps are at peace, Gaia is probably back to her eons-long slumber, I and my friends are alive, and Nico-

I was cut off my thoughts when an Iris message appeared in front of me. I could see Annabeth and Piper on the other end and with one look at their faces, I knew something was terribly wrong. Their expressions were somber and extremely panicked.

'Reyna...' whispered Annabeth.

'What happened? And why do you look so... worried?' I asked her.

'Uh,... um... .'Annabeth failed at the attempt to form words. Seeing that Piper piped up.

'It's him... He's gone missing! We need to find him!' She shrieked.

'Wait... What the? Who's gone missing?' I asked, worry evident in my voice. That caught Hazel's and Frank's attention.

'You are not gonna like this at all. It's-'

'Reyna! Wake up! C'mon, get up!' I woke up to someone nudging me. My eyes flew open and I sat straight up looking here and there at signs of any bad news. I was literally in a state of panic attack. The last it happened was when I was on Circe's Island and I had Hylla to comfort me. 

'Hey Reyna, glad to see you woke up,' Hazel slowly looked at my eyes and her eyes grew wide. 'Reyna, your eyes... What's wrong?' She said as she tried to come closer to me but I flinched and moved back from her. 

'Reyna it's okay... I'm here for you.' She said. Those words built up some hope inside me. This time when she came near me I didn't flinch. Instead, I pulled her into a hug and held onto her as if my life depended on it. After her initial shock, she hugged me back just as tight. I seemed to get comfortable and gain back my sanity. After whispering some comforting words in my ear, I relaxed more. When I was back to normal, I pulled back from the hug.

'I'm... I'm sorry...' I said to her not being able to meet her gaze at her eye level.

'It's fine Reyna. But what happened? Was it a bad dream?' She asked concerned.

'Y-yeah.' 

'You wanna talk about it?' She asked me kindly. I simply shook my head scared to talk about it or being dragged into another panic attack. This was my second time in my life that I had one. There was a thing with the panic attacks. They were a... a curse bestowed upon me. This one was when I stabbed my dad to save Hylla from him... He had cursed me while he was taking his last breaths. Nobody but me knows about them, not even Hylla not even Nico. Now, saying, I am very scared, I must admit, is an understatement because I'm absolutely terrified. The third panic attack that will come to me will be my last as it would be fatal and has only one cure. A cure I can never get.

'Um, Reyna... You wanna like to stop for a while and eat something? I think it's time for lunch. Actually, it's past lunchtime.' Hazel asked me, changing the topic to my relief.

'Sure. I would like that. By the way, how long did I sleep?' I asked her, scared that I had overslept my watch.

'About two hours fifteen minutes.' She said.

I sighed, loudly, at that. Hazel turned to me with those googly eyes with concern etched in every corner of them and I immediately understood what she was saying to me (What is it? You can tell me.) I just nodded sadly.