Shadow Lives: Love You to Death

You must read Shadow Lives: Goddess Within by PhoebetheHunter before reading this!!!!

CHAPTER ONE
After three weeks at Camp Half-Blood, I started to feel like things were going back to normal. At least, as normal as it gets at a camp for children of the gods.

Of course, once I started to get used to this place, everything went wrong.

It all started after capture the flag. Everyone was heading back to their cabins. Judy and I were heading to the cabins when I mentioned that the camp didn’t have many girl satyrs. She winced as she looked at me, then answered coolly, “We’re not very common.”

The look on her face told me she didn’t want to talk about it.

As I was going back to my cabin, number one, I heard a noise. I turned and saw movement in the mess hall. Slipped towards the circle of columns and peeked inside. Phoebe and Nico sat inside, whispering. He looked into her eyes and gave her something. It gleamed in the pale moonlight. She took it and looked up at him. Nico leaned in and kissed her. I gasped and hid behind one of the pillars, praying they hadn’t heard me. I gathered my courage and glanced back into the mess hall. Nico was gone. Phoebe sat alone, staring dreamily at her gift. Feeling that I should leave her alone, even though she didn’t know I was there, I crept back to my cabin. I lay in bed, thinking about what I’d seen. Phoebe and Nico? They never seemed to be more than friends to me. They acted like brother and sister, always arguing yet forgiving each other at the same time. I never thought they’d be together.

I was put to sleep by these thoughts, and drifted into a nightmare.

§ § § §

Judy was running. She galloped through a cave, trembling. Stumbling over her own hooves, she fell to the floor. I glimpsed something in her hand. It looked exactly like the gift Nico had given Phoebe. Judy tried to get up, but her ankle was twisted the wrong way. I wondered what she could be running from. Answering my thoughts, a roar sounded from behind Judy. She yelped and pulled herself up, leaning against the walls of the cave for support. Looking down at the shining object in her hand, she crawled toward a small spring in the stone. Next to it was an open crevice. Judy set down the item and let the water run over her battered hands. As she moved to get up, she furry side bumped the gift into the gap next to her. She gasped, whispering curses. She reached into the hole in search of it, but then she heard that treacherous roar again. A shadow passed over her. Judy looked up and screamed.

CHAPTER TWO
I woke up covered in sweat to the sound of knocking at my door. I pulled on my robe and opened the door. Annabeth stood gasping at my door. Apparently she’d run here.

“Phoebe... Phoebe’s in the... she’s in the infirmary... not moving...” She stammered.

My eyes widened and I quickly pulled on some clothes. I ran out the door with Annabeth, still buttoning my shirt.

We arrived at the infirmary out of breath and feeling as if we could spend a few days there along with Phoebe. Percy was waiting outside for us. His expression told me something serious had happened. He brought us inside to Phoebe’s bed. Nico was kneeling beside her, his eyes red from crying. She lay motionless on the cot, her eyes wide open. I looked at her hand and caught my breath. She was holding Nico’s gift.

“What happened?” I asked.

“I left her sitting in the mess hall for two seconds.” Nico cried. “I came back and she was lying there like this. I don’t know what could have happened.” He fingered the shining object in her hand. Now that I looked at it up close, I realized it was a small golden sphere with ancient Greek letters sketched into it.

“What is this?” I asked, pointing at the orb.

“A gift I got her.” Nico said, smugly.

I moved Phoebe’s fingers from the gift and tried to pick it up. As I pulled it out, I saw that a small needle was poking into Phoebe’s skin. At the tip of it were drops of blood. The skin around the hole left from the point was a sickly shade of green.

I looked back at Nico in disbelief. “You poisoned her.”

CHAPTER THREE
“I didn’t! You know I would never do anything like that to her!” Nico stood up, new tears forming in his eyes.

“Nico is right.” Chiron said. “This doesn’t seem to be something he would do.”

“Where did you find this?” I asked Nico, holding up the sphere.

Nico looked around the infirmary nervously. “I was in the Underworld with my father. We practiced my powers. I was bringing rocks from the ground in one of the caves and I found this inside one of the cracks in the stone. I’m telling the truth. I swear on the river Styx, that’s what happened. I couldn’t have hurt Phoebe purposefully.”

My thoughts went back to the dream I’d had. Judy had dropped the orb into the crevice. Where had she gotten it?

Chiron nodded. “I believe you. Now the question is, why was it there, and what kind of poison was it?”

He stepped over to Phoebe and examined her hand. “It hasn’t killed her, we know that. She still has a pulse.” He took the sphere from me and looked at it. Chiron turned the top half one way and the bottom half the other, screwing the gift open. Inside were the last drops of a red poison. Chiron looked at them and nodded. “Love poison.”

Percy looked up at him, confused. “What’s love poison? Is it like a love potion?”

“No, it is almost the opposite of a love potion. It is named after the poison Hercules’ wife gave him by accident. The blood of the Hydra. This poison will kill someone in twenty four hours if not treated.” He said.

“Then what’s the treatment?” I asked.

“A loved one must give his life in exchange.”

CHAPTER FOUR
Percy glanced down at Phoebe, his face full of determination. “I’ll do it.”

We all looked up at him. Percy’s eyes peered at each of us, challenging anyone to take his place.

Nico stepped forward. “No, Percy. It can’t be you. She would hurt more losing her brother than anyone else. Take it from me. I know.”

Percy glared at him for a moment, then nodded.

Chiron looked at us. “No one can do this. I won’t allow it.”

Nico shook his head. “I’ll do it.”

Chiron stared down at him. “No, you can’t -”

“I can. I need to.” He cried. “I can’t lose someone again.”

Chiron studied his face as Nico continued. “I’d rather die than live with the guilt of killing her.”

Chiron took a deep breath and nodded. “You will go to Elysium, Nico.”

Percy looked at Nico sadly as Annabeth and I gave him one last hug. “We’ll miss you.” Annabeth said shakily as tears ran down her cheeks.

Nico knelt at Phoebe’s bedside and whispered something inaudible. We watched as Nico’s shadow passed from beneath him to Phoebe’s feet. Nico’s body disappeared in a burst of gold dust.

I looked up at everyone’s reactions. Everyone looked somber but Percy. I could see that he was deep in concentration, as if solving a puzzle.

I was pulled away from him as Phoebe began to stir. She groaned as she sat up, rubbing her sore arms. Confused, she looked at each of us. “What happened?” She asked, sleepily. “Where’s Nico? I was just with him when…” She looked at our sad faces and her eyes widened. “What happened to him? Is he okay?”

Annabeth laid a hand on her back. “Come with me. I’ll explain.”

Phoebe’s face was full of confusion and worry. We sat in silence as Annabeth led her out of the room.

A few minutes later, we heard yelling. I’d been expecting it, knowing Phoebe, but I hadn’t known she could yell so loud. Her screams echoed around the infirmary. Percy looked like he was going to cry. “I can’t let her feel this way.” He whispered as he started to leave the room, but Chiron held him back.

I looked out the window as Phoebe ran towards cabin three, her face in her hands. Annabeth came out after her, but Phoebe slammed the cabin door on her.

Percy paced the room, that determined look coming across his face again.

“What is it? What are you thinking about?” I asked.

Percy looked me in the eye. “Nico isn’t dead.”