Percy vs Nico - Percy Jackson

The Truth

Percy's POV
I'm looking at Annabeth with a please say something look but it seems like she doesn't want to look me in the eye. Her fingers were fiddling with a hair tie that was on her wrist while she bites her bottom lip shut.

"You can tell me." I say, forcing her to look up. We make eye contact but it doesn't last long. I'm hurt but I can't really blame her.

"Uhm," She says then clears her throat. "I can't really explain what happened to uh, his uhm,"

"Body?" I but in.

"Yea, that." She reply's like she's forbidden to say the word.

"Carry on." I try to say in the most friendliest way possible, but it still ends up sounded aggressive.

"So, after you left to get Chiron some girls from the Aphrodite cabin walked by. I hid behind a tree and thought that they were gonna see Nico on the ground, but they were too focused on themselves to notice. When they were a good distance away I came out from my hiding place and saw Nico leant against the tree. He was alive but every breath looked like agony for him. He was focused on pressing his hand down on the wound until I caught his attention. It was very awkward. Especially since I was just standing there watching him. I felt like a creep, I wonder if he thought~"

"The point." I reminded her, giving her a smile but even with that it couldn't help but come out mean. I felt bad but I didn't know how to calm myself.

"Right, sorry. So we're both looking at each other until he breaks his gaze and stares at the ground. He then started mumbling something under his breath and I for sure thought he was cursing me, or you even. But I realised it had nothing to do with us when he mentioned his father's name. But then the weirdest thing happened, as soon as I swore he was dead he disappeared in cloud of purple smoke." Annabeth shockingly said.

"Purple smoke?" I asked.

"Yea, like that one magician I saw when I was younger. Just vanished when the smoke cleared." She replied.

"He did the same thing when we were fighting, well before. He disappeared, then randomly appeared in a different spot a couple minutes later. I didn't really pay much mind to it at the time, but now that I think about it, do you think that's what happened at the tree?" I asked Annabeth expecting her to know everything, her mum is the goddess of wisdom after all.

"Could be, but where would he have gone? And why hasn't he come back?" Annabeth replied to my question with questions.

"I can't think of anywhere he would go and I don't think he would want to come back anytime soon." I told Annabeth.

"For all we know he could've died, might have been a warm welcoming to the afterlife since he's one of the big three. Maybe you'll disappear through a cloud of blue smoke, or water. Probably water, it would make sense since your the son of Poseidon and all-" Annabeth trailed on, I didn't listen. I was stuck on the thought of Nico actually being dead, but he couldn't be. He had used the teleporting technique in the forest, it couldn't be a sign of him dying. A thought crossed my mind, Can he even die? Can the King of the Underworld's son die? Then it hit me. I knew exactly where he went, and I knew exactly why.