The Undetermined || pjo

06-Never Take Advice From Someone Who's Falling Apart

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PERCY'S POV

I'd never actually been inside the Plaza. The lobby was impressive, with the crystal chandeliers and the passed out rich people, but I didn't pay much attention. A couple of Hunters gave us directions to the elevators, and we rode up to the penthouse suites.

Demigods had completely taken over the top floors. Campers and Hunters were crashed out on sofas, washing up in the bathrooms, ripping silk draperies to bandage their wounds, and helping themselves to snacks and sodas from the minibars.

A couple of timber wolves were drinking out of the toilets. I was relieved to see that so many of my friends had made it through the night alive, but everybody looked beat up.

"Percy!" Jake Mason clapped me on the shoulder.
"We're getting reports-"

"Later" I told him "Where's Annabeth?"

"The terrace. She's alive, man, but..." I pushed past him.

Under different circumstances I would've loved the view from the terrace. It looked straight down onto Central Park.

The morning was clear and bright- perfect for a picnic or a hike, or pretty much anything except fighting monsters.

Annabeth lay on a lounge chair. Her face was pale and beaded with sweat. Even though she was covered in blankets, she shivered. Silena Beauregard was wiping her forehead with a cool cloth.

Will and I pushed through a crowd of Athena kids. Will unwrapped Annabeth's bandages to examine the wound, and I wanted to faint. The bleeding had stopped but the gash looked deep. The skin around the cut was a horrible shade of green.

"Anabeth..." I choked up. She'd taken that knife for me. How could I have let that happen?

"Poison on the dagger" she mumbled. "Pretty stupid of me, huh?"

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

I grabbed a canteen. Will cleaned out the wound with the godly drink while I held Annabeth's hand.

"Ow. Ow, ow!" She gripped my fingers so tight they turned purple, but she stayed still like Will asked.

Silena muttered words of encouragement. Will put some Silver paste over the wound and hummed words in Ancient Greek- a hymn to Apollo. Then he applied fresh bandages and stood up shakily.

The healing must've taken a lot of his energy. He looked almost as pale as Annabeth.

"That should do it" he said. "But we're going to need some mortal supplies."

He grabbed a piece of hotel stationery, wrote down some notes, and handed it to one of the Athena guys.

"There's a Duane Reade on Fifth. Normally I would never steal-"

"I would" Travis volunteered with a smile.

"Leave cash or drachmas to pay," Will glared at him "whatever you've got, but this is an emergency. I've got a feeling we're going to have a lot more people to treat."

Nobody disagreed. There was hardly a single demigod who hadn't already been wounded... except me.

"Come on, guys" Travis Stoll said. "Let's give Annabeth some space. We've got a drugstore to raid... I mean, visit."