The Return of Leo Valdez (After Blood of Olympus)

44- Annabeth

"What do you mean 'Leo is dead'?" Annabeth asked, looking up at Nico.

Everyone wore grave expressions mixed with disbelief and nervousness.

"I can feel it in my gut," Nico replied, still glaring at his thumbs.

A million thoughts whizzed through Annabeth's head. Her faced heated up as the bad words struggled to escape her imaginative mind.

"He can't be dead," Percy protested, a look of determination on his face.

"I felt it," Nico replied.

"Well I don't care. Why don't we try to Iris message him?"

Everything in the room seemed to have just stopped. Could it really just be that simple? No, right? Maybe...

"Wait," Piper interrupted. "We don't know Leo's location."

The demigods groaned in annoyance. Iris messaging requires someone's whereabouts, which were completely inaccessible to them at the moment.

"Well what do we do now?" Jason asked.

"I guess we go tell Nyssa the news," Piper replied.

"She not going to like it," Percy said shifting his weight nervously.

The room was silent for a long time, the only sounds being the slight current of the lava pool. A crow cooed outside along with the loud sounds of camper laughter.

How could they be so happy? Annabeth thought. Leo is DEAD. How could someone be so oblivious to the problem at hand?

But, what could we all do? Just sulk for the rest of our days? Annabeth chose not to think any farther, she didn't care much for the future. There wasn't much of one without Leo.

"We need to break it to Nyssa," Nico replied, voice so quiet and dull you could barely hear. "She and the other Hephaestus campers are going to find out eventually."

"Nico's right," Annabeth chimed.

The campers nodded in agreement and quickly filed out of the dark, gloomy Hades cabin.

Together, they solemnly and gravely walked back to the fiery forge.

The Corinthian marble columns glittered from morning dew. The smell of fire and smoke wafted through the air, making Annabeth recoil and clasp her hand over her mouth.

The demigods walked into the forge, the strong smoky smell nearly burning Annabeth's eyes.

Annabeth saw Nyssa approach them from the catacomb of machinery and furnaces.

"Why the grim faces?" She asked furrowing her eyebrows. Annabeth could see in her eyes that Nyssa knew what was coming.

"Nico..." Piper began. "He...he feels that...Leo is dead."

Nyssa's reaction was surprising. Each second was a bundle of new emotions that nearly exploded inside of her.

"Oh," she said smilingly sadly. Tears began to drop down her face.

Shane walked up to Nyssa and placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "What's wrong Nyssa?"

"Leo...Leo's dead," she replied in between sniffles.

Shane's faced dropped. His eyes widened and glassed over with tears.

"No," Shane said firmly. "I refuse to believe that."

Annabeth was shocked. Shane was right. How could they possibly accept that Leo was just dead?

All the Hephaestus campers crowded around Nyssa and gave each other big hugs.