¹Royal Cries, p. jackson

007.

ROYAL CRIES
━━ chapter seven

━━ ELISA WASN'T SURE where she had gone wrong, but she knew it was fucking painful. Her shoulder screamed out for pain, and she tried to stay conscious as best as she could ( especially considering she wanted to pass out from the pain ).

Annabeth kept yelling at her to keep her eyes open. If Elisa didn't feel like her whole arm was about to fall off right then and there, she would've snapped at the blonde. She also felt queasy knowing the reason her shirt was clinging to her skin was the fact that it was blood-soaked—blood-soaked with her own blood, at that. She wasn't sure how much blood she had left to lose.

It was loud and overwhelming when they landed on the ground. Annabeth slid off Porkpie's back, grabbing Elisa so the girl didn't fall when Blackjack let go of her armor. There was a lot of noise as people came rushing out of the building in front of them ( was it Plaza Hotel? Elisa's eyesight was going fuzzy, and that certainly didn't help her dyslexia any ).

She heard Annabeth explaining to Silena and Callum ( where had he come from? ) what had gone down and that they needed to get Elisa somewhere safe. The three helped her get up to the penthouse suites, where Callum was saying everyone was resting up.

Silena and Annabeth helped Elisa onto a lounge chair out on the terrace of the hotel. Pollux and Castor elbowed their way next to the chair as Callum cut the blood-soaked sleeve to her shirt and wrapped the wound on her shoulder.

They were all right next to her but their voices felt miles away. She saw Callum walk away, telling Silena he was going to call Percy. She felt Castor place his hand on her forehead, quickly telling his older brother to go get a wet washcloth. Elisa heard Drew yelling about needing Apollo Cabin to hurry up.

"They can't," croaked Elisa. "They're stuck on Williamsburg Bridge."

"Elisa, just rest," said Castor. Pollux kneeled next to the lounge chair, placing the washcloth on top of her forehead.

Silena sat on the other side of Elisa, pulling a couple of blankets over her and telling her everything was going to be alright. Drew hung back, looking nearly sick to her stomach. If the daughter of Dionysus didn't feel so shitty, she would've laughed at her friend's face.

She wasn't sure how much time had passed before Callum hurried back inside, flanked by Percy and Will Solace, Son of Apollo. The three stopped at the edge of the chair and Castor stood up to let Will have his seat. Will unwrapped the bandage around Elisa's shoulder and she kept her eyes away, keeping them trained on the walls around her. She didn't need to see it to know it look bad.

"Elisa ..." Percy choked up. He stared at the wound. He looked unharmed, she figured that was all of the Achilles' curse doing.

"You don't have to tell me," Elisa mumbled. "It was stupid of me."

Drew scoffed in the background. "You think?" And then Elisa heard Callum shushing his younger sister.

Will exhaled with relief. "It's not so bad, Elisa. A few more minutes and we would've been in trouble, but the venom hasn't gotten past the collar yet. Just lie still. Somebody hand me some nectar."

Percy grabbed a flask and tossed it to the blond. He pulled up a chair and sat on it, grabbing Elisa's hand. Will cleaned out the wound with the godly drink, mumbling something under his breath; it sounded like steps to her, like he was going over the rules of cleaning out wounds.