They couldn't save her. She was killed, they knew it was painful. Her death, someone mentioned that they hoped it was a quick death, painless. But she died five minutes after the impact, it had to be painful. In the five minutes she seemed to be trying to say something, but the only word they could catch was 'curse' the other words were inaudible. She was in Jason's arms when her head tipped back, blood trickling down her chin.
They were back at the apartment, Piper's body in her room; they didn't have the heart to burn her, not just yet anyway. Nico did confirm her death, but no one really registered him. They didn't know where to go from here other than Annabeth, who knew they had to go find Will, and then notify camp and Piper's father of the events, but she didn't want to be the one to do it though deep down she knew it was probably going to be her.
Jason wasn't speaking at all, not one sound has come from his mouth since he held Piper in his arms, but they could see the tears streaming down his face and they knew it wouldn't be right to try to make Jason talk. But they could guess what Jason was thinking though; they all knew that Will would probably have to fight for his life when he shows his face.
They were currently sitting around a dining room table; waiting for someone to say something, even Leo was quiet. Hazel was at the head of the table, she seemed to be troubled as her eyebrow kept twitching, but no one really took notice of this until Hazel tipped forward, and her head hit the table. Frank jolted up and ran to her side but as soon as Frank laid a finger on Hazel she jolted up and grabbed a knife off the table and pressed it to Frank's throat. The others stood up in shock, already thinking Will had returned.
"Sorry, I don't like strange men touching me." Hazel says scowling at Frank who stumbled back, unable to form words. Hazel cracked her neck then rolled her head around. "Finally, being a ghost is so…mainstream, don't you think?" She said clicking her tongue and the five demigods glanced at each other, they knew that this time it wasn't Will. But they had the same eye colour and everything, but that could be a coincidence. Hazel looked around the room with a raised eyebrow then looked at the clock which hung off the wall and frowned. "Nearly six o'clock and yet no food for dinner?"
Again the five glanced at each other exasperated but they didn't have the time to say anything as Hazel had stood up to walk around the table to the kitchen, and looked in the compartment and smiled smugly as she found the meat department. After a second she brought out a body of the pig, though why this apartment had the pig they would never know but Hazel seemed to be happy with it.
She placed the pig on the kitchen bench and began to cook, much to everyone's amazement but it gave everyone one thing about the soul who has possessed their friend, she learnt how to cook and by the way she prepared the pig. She was familiar with it, this suggested that she had grown up in the country and maybe even killed a pig.
When she finished the cooking, she had the roasted pig and multiple vegetables which she placed in the middle of the table and set the table. Again she sat at the head of the table and served herself the pork and the others tentatively sat down watching Hazel.
"You eat like Will." Annabeth blurted out and Hazel glanced up, piercing the pork with her fork and pulling it off with her teeth, her eyes suddenly cold as she regarded Annabeth and it was obvious the soul didn't like Annabeth.
"I'm his sister, of course I do." She snapped and Annabeth jerked back and Leo scrunched up his face in confusion.
"But Annabeth's his sis-"
"She's my replacement." Hazel cut in and Leo was silenced by this and Annabeth pursed her lips at this putting this through her mind. Percy took her hand glancing at her in concern but she ignored him and looked away.
"I'm not a replacement." Annabeth said with a steely voice. "Who are you?"
"Oh isn't it obvious? Here I was, thinking you were smart, guess I was wrong." Hazel shrugged innocently but this infuriated Annabeth, who pushed out of her chair, her hands slamming down on the table but Hazel took no notice of this and kept on eating which only fed Annabeth's anger.
"Right, get the hell out of my friend, you're not welcome here and look Ella just cause your name always pops up in this quest doesn't mean you are wanted, alright?" Annabeth seethed and Ella chuckled to herself whilst the others widened their eyes.
"If you want Will to be alive in the next few weeks then you'll listen to me." Ella said cutting more of the pork onto her plate and Annabeth instantly calmed down when Will's name was mentioned. Ella smiled smugly at Annabeth who scowled back at her. "Good. Now at the moment Will is fighting his father's murderer."
They all stared at her and she rolled her eyes. "Your all in the dark aren't you?"
Annabeth glanced down whilst the others glanced at each other and hesitantly nodded but Ella had her attention on Annabeth. "Surely you knew there was a reason Will joined the quest, his familiarity on the Revain?"
They gave each other confused glances at the word, not sure what it meant, and Ella noticed this and rolled her eyes at them exasperated. "Oh come on, the thing that killed the girl?"
"You mean the Power?" Frank offered up and Ella choked on her food in laughter, Frank pouted at her reaction and she thumped her chest to free her throat and she chuckled and the others watched her in amazement.
"The power, how adorable, but no it's called Revain, that's its technical name. The Power…." She said shaking her head and the others slumped down in their seats wondering how on Earth Will could have liked this person let alone love her.
"So Will….knew about the Revain before we did, even before the whole quest?" Percy asked sceptically and Ella gazed at him but nodded at this and Percy glanced at Annabeth as if worried he'll say something to upset her, but he continued anyway not really sure where he's going. "Would that mean he's a spy?"
"Will being a spy for the Darkwood's? Dear lord no; he would rather die than join the people that killed his father." Ella snorted and they opened their mouth in surprise and Ella nearly face palmed at them. "You are all so ignorant."
"If we're ignorant, perhaps you would like to enlighten us then?" Annabeth asked her innocently placing some of the pork onto her plate and Ella watched her in amusement.
"Well let's see then. Right now I'd say Will would have found out that his curse is-"
"Curse?" Jason cut in finally speaking up and Ella nodded now serious and she finished her plate setting down the cutlery side by side. Her blues eyes gazed at Jason long enough to make him feel uncomfortable and he coughed into his fist shifting.
"Yes curse, when he was ten, a son of Aries placed a curse on Will that whoever loved him would die by their greatest fear." She said resting her chin on her hand and gazed at her companies reactions. Most of them took it in shocked silence, not really believing Ella's words. Annabeth was thinking this through and eventually she shook her head.
"It is not real, you are lying. A son of Aries cannot possibly do curses." She said stubbornly and Ella nodded expecting the statement, a slight breeze came through the window which made some of them shiver slightly.
"Exactly, but of course, the man framed himself as a child of Hecate and Will was smart back then, so of course he was sceptical to the curses existence but what if, Ms. Chase, what if two of the people who loved him most died in the next hour, both shot in the chest, I would say all of the evidence pointed towards the curses reality." Ella said smiling and Annabeth paled as realization dawned on her. "But it served only a minimal time to think this plan through; all it needed was to plan their own death then killing off someone unneeded."
"Wait hold on, you said 'faking their own death'?"
"Well of course, did I not mention my last name? My name is Eleanor Darkwood, my father is Poseidon, God of the sea, and my mother is Josephine Darkwood, and yes it is correct by saying Will is my younger brother, but more adopted, we were raised by the same man. George Darkwood." She said leaning back still watching the five with a dead serious gaze. By this time, Percy and Frank had stood up whilst Annabeth was holding her head in her hands and Jason was clenching his fists. "Though there is one difference between the way I was raised and how William was raised, I had knowledge of what my father was doing, whilst William was kept in the dark. He thought his father was Harrison Cliff, as I had for some time before it dawned on me…you see, we had neighbours, other children from around the age of five to sixteen, but only twelve of us were there, our houses were in a horse shoe shape but after I died and stayed around I realised, there was one similarity between the layout and the Gods, the houses were like the thrones of the Olympians, I was on the leaders left hand side whilst Will was on the right…do you understand what I am saying?"
"The layout of the houses represented a God; the leader was the child of Zeus wasn't he?" Annabeth said her eyes closed taking this in and Ella nodded.
"Exactly. Tell me, do you want to know why I am telling you this?" Ella said meeting each of their eyes, excluding Annabeth's but Ella knew she was listening; she went on without them answering and said. "Will does not know, and he is completely on your side, but George will play with his mind, make him believe anything to get him on the other side willingly. When that time comes, I need you to prove to Will that I am not his sister; the family he grew up with is all a cleverly made lie. His true family is camp. I need you all to protect my brother, do something that I did not do, and that is to keep him away from his father."
"Alright, I get that but the curse…" Percy said trailing off unsure of what to say and Ella's eyes flashed towards him leaning forward and Annabeth opened her eyes, her fingers ready to go to her knife about to fight Ella.
"The curse is fake, it always was." Ella said through clenched teeth. "Now hurry, they've nearly found him."