Chapter 7

Annabeth

"Annabeth!" I turned to the voice of Will Solace.

His image shimmered in front of me. But Will's face wasn't bright and shiny. It was grim. "Is everything alright?" I asked hoping for something other than bad news.

He shook his head slowly. His dark brown hair fell in eyes as he looked down. "I'm sorry, Annabeth. It's not good. Nico and Thalia are doing okay. They should be fine if you make the week deadline but..." he scowled.

"Will, what's wrong with Percy?" I asked wanting to know.

"You need to hurry. He's not doing well." he was avoiding the question.

I asked again. I was desperate, "Tell me what's wrong with Percy?"

Will hesitated, "He was screaming last night. It was awful. We did everything we could but he kept coughing up the ambrosia and nector we would give him and..." he shook his head, "and blood. You need to hurry. He's fading."

I frowned.

"Percy contacted Grover last night." I told Will. His eyes looked up hopefully.

"How?" he asked.

"After we made it back from the underworld and gave Zues his master bolt back when we were twelve Grover made an empathy link between himself and Percy." I explained, "They've had it ever since."

"But I thought emphathy links were risky? Like if one died the other would too?"

I nodded glumly. If Percy died it wouldn't be unusual if Grover died too. The thought had occurred to me after Grover's dream.

"You'll have to ask Grover if you want to know exactly what happened. But from what I heard Percy looked awful. He was trying to warn us about something. He said not to trust someone or something. But someone was stopping him from telling. Whoever made them sick is defiantly protecting himself. I swear if I find out who did this to them they won't know what hit them."

Will smirked. He knew what it was like being on the opposite side of the battle field against me. Capture the flag made sure of that.

"So how close are you to finding Asclepius?" he asked.

"We're about to enter the castle but who knows how long it will take to find him in there. Being a god he's probably on one of the top floors. We'll start there and work our way down. But all gods are different. Some hide and some are in plane sight. I just hope that we can find him before..."

I sighed. I didn't need to finish.

Will nodded

So many times I thought the link between Grover and Percy was a bad idea. Now I can't decide whether it's good or bad. But in the end it had helped a lot. Like last summer when Percy woke Grover from a two month sleep. Or when we were in the labyrinth and we were trying to find Grover. Or when Grover went missing in the sea of monsters and we had to find him and the golden fleece to save Thalia's tree. We've ha to find Grover a lot now that I think about it. Wait. The fleece!

"That's it!" I said out loud.

"What's it?" Will asked confused.

"The golden fleece! Gods, why didn't I think of it before? Will, do you think you could use the fleece on Percy and the others if they need it? It could buy us time."

His eyes widened in realization, "Of coarse! I'll Iris message you again if he gets any better. You're a genius, Annabeth!" and he ran out of my view.

I smiled with hope as I swiped my hand through the mist. I had bought us time. We were going to need it.

Shorter chapter but the last one was longer so it evens out. Plus I updated earlier so what do you all like. Long chapters with spaced out updates or short chapters with updates more often? Just wondering. Idea's are needed! What monsters should be in the castle? Thanks!