A/N- Chapter 10…! Yay… I'm sure most of you are kind of sad about Kole, and not particularly happy with me…

Disclaimer: Anyways, Rick Riordan owns the PJO series. Yeah, I know, I'm so much cooler. –sees pitchforks- On second thought, maybe he is a bit cooler…

Kole had died. And he had died keeping an oath. To protect Avery.

When Kole's death sunk in, I was crying almost as hard as Avery. Kole was our friend. I didn't want to believe he was dead. Sadie was crying hard too. The guys seemed more in shock. Or maybe they were trying to act manly. Idiots. Someone, their friend, just died and their worried about how cool they seem.

I felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked up through my tears and saw Nico. He gave me a small smile. It was comforting, in a way. I felt bad for Avery. The person who always comforted her was Kole, and he was the one who was lying on the stone, dead. I sobbed some more at the thought. It wasn't fair.

Nico sounded choked up, but managed to say, "We should go. And use his wings. He said we could."

I looked at him. "Give us time," I muttered sorrowfully.

Seth and Caleb looked a bit afraid of us in our emotional state. I don't blame them.

"Would you all just…be quiet…" Avery whispered sadly. We were. Avery was going to be the person who was going to be controlling this situation. We all bowed our heads. I noticed that Kole's body wasn't there anymore. It looked like a pile of feathers instead, but then I realized they were wings. That must be what he meant by "use my wings".

Seth broke the silence. "Nico's right. We can't stay here too long. Someone should use the wings."

Caleb beat me to asking. "For what?"

"For flying across the lake," Sadie managed. I noticed she was still crying silently. I think that I was getting a bit better. Tears leaked out of my eyes less often. I can't say the same for Avery, though. She was distraught. It was understandable. Her boyfriend just died. Our friend just died. A few more tears came out. Nico rubbed my shoulder. I hadn't realized his hand was still there.

"They…work?" I asked, swallowing. They nodded. "Why can't we just…use a boat?"

"It's acid. Bad idea," said Nico. "The wings are the only way."

"Who's going to use them?" Sadie asked quietly.

"Not me," the guys chorused. It didn't make me laugh. Besides, they had valid reasons. Nico wasn't allowed in the air. Caleb was probably to big too even get the wings on. Seth was…well, I don't know his problem, but I'm sure there was one.

Avery just shook her head at us. That was obvious. Now it was between Sadie and me. "I don't think I'll be able to," she said. "I'm still kind of in shock. I'll mess up."

Something dawned on me. Now, I'm not particularly quick, but it seemed a little noticeable. If the other five (I almost said six) didn't want to do it, that mean I was flying across the acid lake, going to the island, probably fighting some nasty monsters, and coming back. What? I didn't sign up for this! Then I realized I had, when I agreed to go on this quest.

"The wings are good for two flights," Nico said. "Why two? I have no clue. It's best you do it. If there are enemies, you can shoot at them from the air. Be careful."

Okay…that was a bit…strange? I don't know. Nico warning me to be careful seemed a little silly. Nico wasn't really the…caring type. He was a cool friend, yeah, but he figured you could work things out on his own.

"Don't drop the artifact," warned Caleb. How reassuring. At least I knew he cared.

"I won't," I said, glaring. Nico picked up the wings, examined them, and started strapping them onto my back. When they were completely on, I felt a weird tingling.

"Whoa," said Nico. "Kylie, the wings just melted into your back. That's wicked. It will probably make them work a bit better…"

I looked over my shoulder. He was right. "I just hope they work," I said.

"They will," said Avery bitterly. She sounded really sour. Well…I was using her dead boyfriend's wings… The thought made me instantly lose any happiness I had found.

"Good luck," said Sadie. At least she seemed sincere.

I took off. The wings felt like they were made for me. I guess that's what happens when they get grafted onto your back.

I actually really enjoying flying. Surprisingly, my bow and quiver didn't bother my wings. I was able to swoop and spin around. I looped around in circles a couple of times, but then I got worried about them wearing out before I got to the island. Or back from the island.

When I finally did reach it, I examined it. It was tiny. Maybe ten feet across. I don't really pay attention in school, so that might not be right. Whatever. It was just really small. There wasn't anything on it. Well, except for this treasure chest thing. I figured that's what I was looking for, so I swooped down. When I was within twenty feet of landing, these…birds…flew out from the sand. No kidding. They literally flew out from the sand.

Then they attacked me. There were only three or four, and I was able to kill them easily with my dagger. That's all that was guarding this great magical artifact? Puh-lease. That was too easy.

It was then I realized that this whole cavern was guarding the artifact. The lake, the birds, and probably the snake-women. And maybe even the hallways before that. Hey, remember the trick step? I've almost died three times already. And we were lucky. We didn't get lost because of Seth. I guess it was pretty stupid of me not to realize how dangerous this place was before. Well, my bad. Sorry. We just seemed to have the means to do everything so easily. I guess that was pretty cool.

I landed on the island. This was getting creepy. Well, not that it wasn't already, but this was way scarier. I felt like this was a life-or-death situation, and maybe it was. But then again, maybe it wasn't. Maybe all I had to do was open a treasure chest and grab some cool weapon. Then we could go back to camp, right?

It seemed impossibly easy, but I opened the treasure chest. When I did, I wasn't particularly happy. In fact, my emotions clouded over and I wasn't really sure what I was feeling, or doing. My mind clouded over, and I dropped the top of the box and fell to the floor.

Suddenly, my emotions felt more sharp than ever. Well, actually only one emotion: pain. I felt as if my bones were on fire. That was fine, right? I mean, my dad was the god of the sun. That was, like, a big fiery gas ball. I should be fine.

But I wasn't. I kept seeing images of my friends, and my dad. And my mom. The people closest to me. They all shared my pain. I saw three people more than the others: Kole, Nico, and Avery. I was pretty sure it was trying to tell me something, but I was in too much agony to actually care. I mean, when you feel like you're in a fire, creepy images aren't exactly on the top of the list of worries you have. Well, duh. You should have been able to figure that out on your own.

The bad thing was, the pain never faded. I still felt it as hard minutes, or however long it was, later. I still felt as if I was being stabbed with razor-sharp knives. Same as before.

Then it stopped. The sudden jolt into reality probably hurt more than what would happen if it continued. If that makes sense, which it probably doesn't.

I moaned. I wondered if that would happen again if I tried to open the box. It was enough to make me stall. I kept on telling myself that I could die if it happened again. The experience had shaken me.

Then I took a deep breath, knowing I had to do this. For Kole. For my friends. For this whole demented world that relied on me getting this stupid thing back to camp to use in a some weird battle. I concentrated on the beginning of the list.

I slowly inched my hand towards the treasure chest. When I grabbed the handle, I calmed down, but barely. I opened it up, and slowly reached my other hand in to it. I guess the pain thing was just to convince people to not open it again. Under normal circumstances, it would have worked. No question.

I looked into the box before I grabbed whatever it was. It was a crude-looking sword. It was a gray. Maybe kind of smoky colored, but lighter. From what I had heard about it, this fit the description of the famous Sword of Death. Whoopee. My dad thought this would be a nice little trinket to add to our collection of life-threatening objects.

When I touched the sword, dark emotions clouded my senses. It was like before when I was opening the box, only a different emotion and not as intense. It was grief, I think. Boy, wasn't that a great thought!

I tried to ignore the emotions. It was hard. Probably like how hard it was to forget a loved one after the left for the Underworld. Yeah, pretty much impossible. Grief is an intense feeling. I kept picturing Kole over and over again, and it wasn't improving my conscience. He had died because of this stupid quest, and all of us on it. That's me!

After a bit, the grief faded into a dull throbbing. I was able to ignore it, but it was still there. I had a feeling it would remain until I let go of the sword. Needless to say, I was rushing to get out of there. I took off, glad to leave the island. The obstacles, if you could call them that, weren't there on the way back, that the gods. It would have been tough flying around some birds carry a sword. Since the Sword of Death kills people when you cut their hair, would it kill a bird if you cut its feathers? You know what, it doesn't matter.

I was flying back over the lake, looking for where my friends were. Hey, give me a break, it was a circle, and every direction looked completely the same. I finally spotted some people by the entrance we had walked through. Oh, um, duh. Right, I should have known that.

I landed gracefully, or as gracefully as you could with a heavy sword half your weight. Honestly, I have no clue how I got in the air in the first place. Kole's wings were strong. And speaking of wings, everyone's attention was on them when I landed. They came off, kind of like I was shedding them. It was strange, and I was sad to see them go. They had felt so natural, I now felt kind of awkward without them. I guess I was getting, like, my land-legs or something. Whatever.

I looked at my friends. Avery's eyes were red and puffy, but she had stopped crying. I convinced myself she would be alright. She had to be. Sadie looked a bit unlike herself as well. The guys seemed their usual, pretty much, except they weren't joking at all. Everyone was dead-serious and not excited.

"Hey, Kylie," Caleb said, breaking the silence first. I think that Caleb always feels the least awkward. That's probably because there isn't enough space in his brain for it. Oh, who cares. I was just glad for the ice-breaker.

"Hi," I greeted feebly. Everyone was acting really solemn, and it was creeping me out, to be honest. Avery looked at me in the eyes. What I saw shocked me. Her normally light, carefree eyes were now dead and sunken. She had lost the sparkle in them. They looked haunted. I've heard stories about people's eyes showing what they really think, but I didn't believe it 'til now.

"What's that?" Sadie asked.

"I think it's the Sword of Death," I said. "But let's not worry about that now. I want to get out of here. The negative energy and lack of light is creeping me out and sapping my strength."

"Let me take the sword, then," Nico said. He didn't bother waiting for my answer before grabbing it out of my hands. I glared at him, and he shrugged. Boys will be boys, I guess.

"I think," Seth said, "that I can teleport us to the surface. It's going to sap all of our energy, though, so be careful. It'll be easier now, for…various reasons."

"Do it," Avery said, without cheer. I don't blame her.

"Alright," Seth said. And with a flash of light, we disappeared.

A/N- Aren't endings my specialty? I thought that was terrible, but I figured ya'll would want to read this. And, honestly, I wasn't sure about how to make it better.

How about you tell me by REVIEWING!!!

(By the way, this story is close to a thousand hits. And fifty reviews. That makes me excited.)