The Golden Amulet (PJO, Sequel to The Silver Ring)

Chapter 34

This is it, I thought as the doctor cautiously advanced towards me, as though I could suddenly snap up to my feet and attack him even though I was swaddled up in enough bandages to choke a horse. This is the moment I die. No more bad luck, no more fights, and especially no more Psi. Goodbye, world. Please don't kill me in my next life, Artemis.

There was no questioning it; every molecule of my body knew—I was going to die.

And this time, I had nobody to save me.

Usually, in dangerous situations, an ally was there to get me out of trouble, or I could myself with a bit of trickery and fighting. But I had neither of those now.

I had been separated from Rosaline, my biggest ally. Adriana had betrayed us, and Psi . . . well, he was Psi. A human that would sacrifice me in a heartbeat even if he had to pay a million dollars. I was on a hostile planet, in a Chaos base (their black uniform was a dead giveaway. I still didn't know why a hellhound teleported into a base that hated its kind, but I was happy; it allowed me to keep my life—at least for a few more hours), made into a Void soldier by Psi's indirect words. If the doctor stopped to think for a second—which he wouldn't; a suspected Void soldier inside of a Chaos base needed immediate action, and sometimes the best way to take care of them was to kill them—it would probably occur to him why a Chaos soldier who had "known" one was a Void soldier allowed the enemy soldier to get bandaged up. 

Meanwhile, I couldn't even defend myself. The bandages had saved my life—but also were restraining me like a straitjacket. I was racked in pain, and any energy I had left had evaporated after my sudden movement. Furthermore, even if I wasn't restrained and I wasn't fatigued, I still wouldn't be able to move; my body hadn't had the time to heal yet, meaning my ribs were still broken and I still had a serious gash in my abdomen. The sites of injury were pulsating with each of my heartbeats, and severely reduced my chance of moving without being in more pain—or even doing more damage to myself. I was in a horrible spot health-wise, and in a few moments, it was going to be even worse.

The doctor was two steps away from me now. I braced for impact, accepting my fate. Anything else would be better than the pain that I was feeling every time I took a breath.

But then the doctor was stopped by a hand on his arm. Specifically, Psi's hand. I watched in utter disbelief as Psi calmly said, "He's one of us. A Chaos soldier."

The doctor spun towards him. "I thought you said he killed Rosaline!"

"I said he defeated her. Ever heard of a practice spar?"

"Are you sure?"

Psi put a reassuring hand on the doctor's shoulder. "One hundred percent sure."

The doctor sheathed his sword. "In that case," he said, "we better tend to him. That fall was nasty for his already weakened bone structure. I'm going to need to see if he needs any more medical attention."

"Or we could attempt to splash him with water again," Psi suggested. "I promise you, it will not harm him in the slightest . . ."

Of course it won't, I thought sarcastically. No. The only thing it'll do is paralyze me for an unknown amount of time. Nothing too serious. Not like we have a limited amount of days to get to Deeplige. And we don't even know how far we are. Everything's just peachy. 

". . . in fact, it'll help him," Psi continued. 

I watched as Psi defused the situation with ease. If I could've I would have pinched myself to see if I was really awake, or if I was just in one of those hallucinations that happened after too much pain and blood loss. That had happened to me multiple times, and as the moments got more and more strange, it seemed as though I was hallucinating. Indeed, Psi seemed a lot more mature than normal—that part alone deemed for some serious investigation—and from experience, I could immediately tell you his motive probably wasn't positive.

The doctor seemed unconvinced. "I don't know," he said uncertainly. "The soldier doesn't seem to want to be drenched. And I can't force treatment onto someone, even though it's magical."

Psi knelt next to me. "Hello, Percy," he said. "You want to get healed, don't you?"

I frowned at him, doing my best to try and tick him off; it was unsettling to see such . . . maturity in his personality. Even if all the pain in the world was inflicted on me, it would not contain the snarky part of my personality. "Who are you? And why am I here?"

But I soon realized it was a mistake when Psi turned back to the doctor. "See? He's delirious. And I don't think you can take the opinion of a patient in such a state." I could feel his grin underneath his hood.

"You're right," the doctor said. "But this is the last time we try this. If it doesn't work, you're going to have to wait two weeks—or take another person with you."

"I don't think you understand how imperative he is to save the world," Psi told him. "But I can agree to your terms. As long as he doesn't move out of the way, he'll be healed enough to depart within a day."

The doctor nodded, then left with the empty vat, presumably to fill it up again. Psi turned to me. "You can stop acting now. Especially since it got you into this situation in the first place."

I went back to my normal self and glared at him. "Don't pour water onto me."

"Why? I thought you love it?"

"I do." I paused, then corrected myself. "Well, I'm starting to hate it, but after everything's fixed, I'll probably spend all my time in it."

Psi looked confused. "Then what's the problem?!"

"Did you forget what brought us into his situation?"

"Yeah. A hellhound. A stupid one, but it was still a hellhound. And you crashed into me . . ." Psi paused, realizing the reason I was so scared of water. "Oh. You crashed into me after getting frozen by the water."

"Something it's not supposed to usually do." A thought crossed my mind. "Why did you save me from the doctor? I thought you hated me."

Psi sighed, and it seemed as though he was questioning his decisions himself. "I do hate you," he admitted. "And whenever I see you I imagine I'm squeezing your throat with both of my hands until you die . . ."

"Well, I'm glad to hear that," I said sarcastically, only a bit disturbed that Psi was plotting my death by his own hands—literally. I had faced worse things in my life.

". . . but my dream will never become reality if someone kills you before I can," Psi continued. "So I saved you."

"That's very touching." Before I could go on, however, the doctor entered the bedroom with the container, now full of water.

I had had feeling Psi had a devilish grin on his face when he said, "There's no escaping now, Percy."