Yes his takes place before the Last Olympian. I am going to try to finish this whole story today. It might be hard, because, like the demigods, I have myself a major case of ADHD.
"No," I whispered. This couldn't happen, nothing could happen to him. Nothing like that. I sprinted to the doors and unlocked them. The water started to leak out between them. No, no, no. I opened the door and stood behind it. Water poured out slowly. I looked back at Poseidon, who then released the water.
I ran in when there was only a foot left, it was ever running out. I raced through the halls till I found the pool. Everything was dry everywhere. Percy was on the floor, face up, eyes closed, clothes wet, and skin way too pale. His black hair was plastered to his face with water. It was almost perfectly opposite to his skin. I dropped to my knees beside him. "Percy?" I called softly. He didn't move. I felt for a pulse. Nothing.
"Oh, gods." His mom, Paul, and his dad all came in then. All of their reactions were pretty bad, but his mom's was the worst. I guess seeing her son like that, so very, very dead, just tore her apart. She broke down into tears. I wanted to do the same. But Annabeth Chase does not cry unless there is good reason to, and I didn't intend for that reason to be there long.
I went straight to work. Thirty compressions, two breaths, thirty compressions, two breaths. Over and over. There may not be a way to bring people back from the dead in the myths, but there was today. CPR. "He's gone, girl," Poseidon said. I imagined the sea would get some pretty big storms for a while. That was if this didn't work, though.
"Not for long," I told him matter-of-factly. And I kept going, kept on pressing down on his chest thirty times, plugging his nose and breathing for him twice. I heard police sirens wail. They were coming closer. "Come on, Seaweed Brain, breathe!" I yelled at him.
"He is not coming back, Daughter of Athena," the sea god continued.
"I don't believe you," I replied, trying to hide the tears in my voice. Ambulance sirens slowly came and added to the police sirens. Ten minutes had passed. I couldn't take it anymore. I cried. "Percy, think of everyone who needs you. Tyson, your mother, Nico. They all need you. The Olympians, although they'll never admit it. Grover, the camp, the campers, Chiron, Rachel. Come on, Percy, just wake up."
I was getting so desperate. Tears were streaming down my face. "I need you Percy," I whispered to him. I couldn't do the CPR anymore. I broke down into full-fledged sobs.
Then I heard something amazing. Something I would always remember. It made all of us stop our mourning. A cough. A small cough, but a cough just the same. It came from Percy, whose color had returned slightly. His eyes shot open and he went into a fit of coughing. I would swear it was the best sound I'd ever heard, but that would be sappy and melodramatic. He sat up and kept coughing. It sounded like he was going to cough up a lung.
Suddenly a fish popped out of his mouth and into his hand. "Wow," Percy said. "Were you in there?" he asked the fish. That was so him. It was flopping around in his hand, and he began to stroke it to calm it down. The he seemed to notice me. "Thank you," he whispered. I wrapped my arms around him.
"No problem, Seaweed Brain, just don't do that ever again," I told him.
"Jeez, Annabeth, is that? No, could it be? Sincerity?" he asked. I wasn't laughing.
"I'm serious, Percy, you were dead. What killed you, anyway?"
"Kronos's scythe," he replied. He hugged me back.
"Don't touch me with that fish." His hand moved.
"Right, sorry."