TERRIFIED . . . annabeth chase

epilogue.

VAL WOKE UP and saw Nico at her bedside.

"Just as Annabeth left," he smirked, but he looked happier. She guessed. "Are you just tactfully ignoring her?"

"My body wants to, apparently," Val mumbled, suddenly feeling a lot weaker. She could barely move her fingers. "How long have I been out?"

"It's August fifth," Nico offered. "One pm. You collapsed on August third. Not a lot of people knew you had fainted, actually. Your crew did good."

"That's my Will," she sighed, looking down at her hand, which had something wrapped around it. "You two were buddy buddy earlier. How's that working out?"

Nico shrugged. "He convinced me to stay at camp. Permanently."

Val grinned at him. "Really? That's great!"

"Yeah," he said half heartedly. "But it won't be the same without you. Because you're gonna die, you know."

"Actually, Asclepius gave me a cure." Val said quietly. "It should've been in my backpack, a little pill bottle . . . I could be cured from the curse."

Nico raised an eyebrow at her. "But?"

"But I'll lose my memories of her," she whispered. "All of them. And of this curse. I won't know who she is, or what impact she'd made on my life for the last two years. And I won't be able to love romantically ever again."

"That's a hard decision," he said gravely.

"Yeah." She wished she could fidget with her fingers, but they felt like lead. "I don't know what I'll choose, but I want to see her before I do it. And my crew."

"I get it," Nico said. Val didn't know how he could ever get it, but she indulged in that fantasy. "Tell me about what happened after I left. On the quest."

Val snorted. "I was asleep for most of it, but I can tell you a few details."

She let the words spill out from her mouth, keeping her awake as she talked. She'd always prided herself on being a good storyteller. In fact, she was so into it that she didn't even notice when Annabeth came in.

"When did you wake up?" Annabeth asked, grabbing her hand, and Val relished in the wave of strength that she brought to her.

"After you left, according to Neeks." Val looked to her other side to look at him, but he was gone. Interesting. "I don't know when that was, though. My perception of time is very off."

Annabeth laughed, squeezing her hand. "I'd imagine it was." She looked down at Val with such worry. "Are you sure? About not telling . . . them that you love them?"

Val's voice closed up. Because she could just tell Annabeth right now. She could say the three words that have been on her mind for the last two years. She could end her suffering, and live another day, week, month, year.

But . . . she couldn't do it. She couldn't do that to Annabeth. Burden her with the words that Val wanted to say. Ruin her relationship. She couldn't do it.

"I can't, Annabeth," Val said quietly. "I can't do it."

Annabeth looked down at her. "Why not?"

"Because I love her, more than I want her," Val felt the tears running down her cheeks, and her eyes closed.

Annabeth gripped onto her hand tighter. "But . . . that doesn't sound like love. That sounds like debt. To Aphrodite."

Val opened her eyes at that, frowning. "Annabeth—"

"Do you think that I don't know that?" Annabeth said sharply, before sighing. "I'm sorry. I was being irrational. But I still don't get why you won't tell them."