All rights belong to Rick Riordan

Chapter 20

Death Approaches

(Thalia)

To be truthful I was genuinely overjoyed to see Percy again. It had been almost a year since the war and Annabeth's death and yet I had heard nothing from him. Now I understood his wanting to be alone after everything that had happened but it had seemed that no one else was worried for the missing demigod.

Artemis and even my own brother, when I had the chance to talk to him had both simply waved me off. Simply saying he was traveling and didn't want to be disturbed, which likely explained the Iris message blockade on him. But surely even if I couldn't message him then why did her not at least message me at let me know how he was doing?

But his sudden reappearance now left me with many unanswered questions. Why the sudden appearance now as our guardian? Why had he changed so much physically in less than a year? Why was it that the gods had seemingly been able to speak to him whenever they wanted, if that was the case who was the blockade actually supposed to effect? Because it sounded like only us demigods were blocked from contacting him. Which sounded rather counterproductive if the normally demanding gods were able to get around it.

Besides it annoyed me most to hear he had been hanging out with Nico, if that was the case how come the little goth had claimed not to have seen him when I last saw him at Camp Half-Blood last month? I was going to be giving my other cousin some of my mind the next time I met him.

Now from what Artemis had told me transpired at the Battle of Olympus, I was not unprepared for the Nemean Lions reappearance unlike Phoebe. However, from what I heard of the monster it had been fully grown like when I helped fight it, not the seemingly regular sized lion that was now walking around our camp.

The last issue that had plagued me before I was seemingly ushered out of the tent was what was Percy doing in a solstice council meeting anyway? Especially for him to be hanging around afterwards wanting to talk to my father. This made no sense to me, surely if he was that bored, he would ask Poseidon for a task to do? It had always been quite abundantly clear that the pair of them disliked one another, so was Percy deliberately looking for the worst job being offered?

Of course, I had heard no more explanation from him after I was asked to leave and so from the area, we were training. I watched as the two left Artemis's tent and had travelled to what was now Percy's tent by the stream. Both were inside it for nearly an hour which surprised me, Artemis couldn't normally stand any man's presence that long. Not even our father or Apollo could normally be left alone with her before she got annoyed by them and either left herself or threatened them into leaving.

But as they eventually left, she had said something to him that I couldn't hear. However, what it was had made Percy laugh before they separated with her heading to her tent again, this was certainly new. Artemis actually having a sense of humour around a man or in general to be really honest.

After Artemis had left him, Percy had walked back towards the heart of the camp. Where the majority of us hunters were assembled around the archery range. We would also use the area in front of the targets as general combat training area due to all the brush being removed already. Though I was supposed to be overseeing the training directly I had delegated that somewhat to our resident daughter of Area as well as the still embarrassed Phoebe. Instead, I was quickly carrying out a quick inventory of the hunt's weapon stockpile that I had been putting off for a few days: spare arrows (both sharpened bronze and blunt), spare bows, hunting spears (not that anyone really used them) and other miscellaneous supplies. I was supposed to do this every few days so we could order or make replacements but with the relative low number in the hunt at the moment supplies generally lasted a long time. Still, it had conveniently provided me with a line of sight towards his tent to see if I could find anything out.

Of course, he had ended up coming back to the camp before I was finished because I spent too long trying to focus on the concealed pair of them. However, as soon as I was finished doing it shortly, I planned to have a long talk with my cousin. Or so I thought at least, until I heard an explosion from back towards the archery range and I decided that stocktaking could wait.

(Percy)

I had decided to meet the remaining six hunters who were gathered around the range having a competition of who could the hit the furthest target, unfortunately Thalia's duties had apparently taken her elsewhere for the time being. I was pretty certain that Artemis told them to practice on CQC which generally meant fighting hand to hand, knives that sort of thing. But it appeared to be that they were doing their own thing instead. As I said before I was not here to tattle on them, I was just here to keep them safe so what they did was not my concern.

Still, I was grateful to recognise at least some of the hunters vaguely. I recognized two of them from the Battle of Manhattan during the Second Titan War such as Phoebe the hunter who shot Nemea. But the new recruits I had no idea who they were or even if they were a demigod or not. Though remembering Artemis's discussion with her father, I could assume that they were. So, with no knowledge of their heritages, I decided to play it quite straightforward and just walk up to them and ask.

I knew they were probably all already thinking up a dozen ways to kill me in my sleep.

As I walked around the outskirts of the camp tents, all of them at once to turned to look at me. Arrows still drawn on some bows, all of which were pointed unnervingly in my direction.

"What do you want boy!" One of the newer hunters demanded. Just from her appearance I could already guess what her heritage was by her similarities to Clarisse.

"I just wanted to introduce myself and to learn all your names." I answered politely. I could have raised objections at being called boy of all things when I was clearly older appearing than all of them. Which in the past would have been a silly assumption but well unfortunately that was no longer the case for the most part.

"We already know who you are and we don't care, it is because of males like you, that we are like this now. As for our names, you won't be around here long enough for them to be important." She answered aggressively and I was definitely getting that familiar Ares family level of love from her.

"Tania that is more than enough, he is here to provide help to us for the time being whether you or any of us like it or not. Lady Artemis was the one who asked for his help and we have to accept that for now. Now let me remind you that as for the male that caused our present situation, he is the one who killed him." Phoebe stated squaring up to the younger hunter surprising me.

"Whatever he did it could not have been enough for what he deserved. I would have tortured Apollo's Augur if I had been there." The new girl Tania answered the senior hunter who let out a sigh.

"I did." I stated simply. That had to be a new record in how to lower a group of people's impression of you. Admitting to openly torturing someone within starting a thirty second conversation.

"Did what boy?" Ok that was becoming annoying fast, I was due to be eighteen in a few months, she barely looked fifteen.

"I did torture Octavian; I physically ripped his soul from is body piece by piece, driving him insane. The only reason I did not do more was when Lady Dianna herself, told me to." I said remembering the bloodlust that had been present in me at the time. This a fatal cocktail of my own grief, pain and anger combined into a mentally dangerous mix and channelled towards the Augur. The foolish legacy had been a conduit for me to release it all on, the aftermath nearly destroyed us both.

"Good for you, but why should we let him join us? For all we know, he could try to betray us like Orion did in the past. He too was a son of Poseidon that was supposed to be trusted... and look how that ended up. Men are not allowed in the hunt and besides from what I hear, he can't even use a bow. What use is he other than as a glorified security guard." She was technically truthful in her words other than about me betraying her trust. As for Orion, if what I had heard was even half true. Well... should he ever turned up again alive somehow, I may have to apologise to dad for having trimmed the family tree, so to speak.

"First, I would never betray Lady Artemis's trust and as such I swore an oath that will kill me immediately if I betrayed it. Second, I am not just here to do nothing more than provide your security. I am also to bring new prospective recruits as and when they are found. However, I will give you one point of argument. You are correct, I cannot use a bow to save my life, this despite owning one as you can see. However, I know for a fact that I can match you with a spear with you shooting at the same target." I declared openly challenging her and I watched her growl something indignantly under her breath, as she considered my challenge.

Around us the other hunters simply watched and whispered amongst themselves. Despite focusing on the loud girl in front of me, I thought I saw something changing hands between them all out of the corner of my eye.

"You stand no chance against me; we go for the furthest target. Whoever hits the closest to the centre of the bullseye wins. I hear you embarrassed my dad once, so I suppose this now is my chance to get revenge, even if he is scum just like all you males." She declared angrily before turning to regard the target in the distance.

So, that confirmed my hunch in that she was a child of Ares. It was nice to see that even the ones I didn't know still showered me open hostility and extreme aggressiveness. Truthfully though, I had never seen any of the Ares cabin even lift a bow so I was unsure of how good she was likely to be. I mean if we talking one of Apollo's kids, I would not have felt so comfortable, those guys could pull off all kinds of trick shots.

By comparison the target here was directly in front of us even if it was easily two-hundred meters away, far enough away that the bull was almost imperceptible. I watched as she bent the bow back so far it looked like it was ready to break from the tension before she released the arrow.

Watching the arrows path through the air it shot straight and true towards the bundle of sticks and grass in the distance. Landing about an inch to the right of the target. We waited a short while for another hunter to run down range and retrieve the target and place up another. In a surprisingly short amount of time, she had run back and handed it to the other hunter who looked pleased with the shot poking her finger next to the bullseye.

"Beat that then boy." The hunter Tania said mockingly.

"Atlanta why don't you give him one of Thalia's targets, he will appreciate the irony." Phoebe declared and the same hunter who was the only other I recognised albeit not by name reached into a nearby crate and drew forth another target. It seemed larger than the square one that Tania shot. However, with it still folded up, I couldn't see what it was besides why would they give me a different target?

I was shocked when the hunter had once again sprinted down the length of the range in only a few seconds and clipped it into place. When she was finished, she stepped back from the unveiled target and I could now make out the former Augur's face in place of the traditional concentric circles. If these were Thalia's personal targets then perhaps, she needed to see a shrink especially if this was how she relieved stress. Not that I was one to talk all things considered.

"Well then boy where is your weapon?" My challenger demanded before going silent as I pulled out the golden baton from a pocked and returned the spear to its regular form. Almost instinctively the arrayed group of hunters stepped back from the flaming golden spear. They seemed equally shocked by the fact I held it comfortably in my hand, as if ignoring the fact that it was on fire.

"You may want to hold your ears ladies; this could get noisy." I simply stated with a smile much to their confusion as I took a step back holding the weapon behind me like a javelin before I took three steps forward and released it over my shoulder.

The spear took flight and flew high into the air before beginning to descend like one of Zeus's bolts towards the target. Just prior to point of impact, I froze time on both the falling spear and on the surrounding hunters. Taking a quick stroll over to the target I to inspect the point the spear was just about to impact and saw it was about to strike the centre of Octavian's nose at the bottom of the bull. I was probably a quarter inch of the true centre but well it wouldn't matter to much. In truth the quality of the shot almost made me regret having to unfreeze time as I walked back over and assumed my former position so as to not confuse my spectators. Not that they would likely noticed much about me because the moment I unfroze it there was a massive explosion of light that caused the hunters to look away. Unlike them however I was unaffected, after all I am the Titan of Light now. Once the light from the blast faded, all that was left were a crater three meters wide and one deep where the target had sat with a shaft of gold sticking out of the ground blazing away happily just beyond.

The assembled hunters looked at the crater in stunned silence before a commotion was heard as several figures emerged from around the camp. Thalia had been in one of the tents that seemingly looked like somewhat like an armoury, if the stockpiled weapons visible through the flap were any indication. Nemea slowly walked out from by the campfire stretching as she did having had her delayed post breakfast nap interrupted. Most surprising was the teenage goddess who dropped from a tree directly above us, apparently having been there all the time. Now I know that technically I was not on the 'clock' yet but if I had not detected her up there then it meant I needed to be better at my new job.

"Look at what you have done now boy, how are we supposed to see where you hit it. If you go and destroy the target or were you simply scared of losing?" Tania asked coming out of her shock as she regarded the scene of devastation at the far end of the range.

"Perseus won." The goddess said simply looking at the daughter of Area who started to look back at her blinking repeatedly as if unable to process her words.

"But milady, how can we know that now." The hunter asked in bewilderment not wanting to believe it.

"I watched the whole thing you were all focused on the spear itself and not the target. Once you release a projectile be it a spear or an arrow you should not be waiting around watching it. You should already be acting towards readying another whilst keeping an eye on the target. That way if you miss, you try again. If they survive you try again, only when you can confirm the target is neutralised do you take your eyes off it." The goddess lectured to her assembled hunters.

"So, whilst you were all staring at the shiny stick, I was already focused on the target waiting for the impact. As such I watched it strike the centre of the target cleanly before it was then destroyed. You however missed the bull by an inch therefore Perseus wins." She replied simply staring at the girl with silver eyes.

Once again in my periphery, I saw that something was being traded between the hunters. Apparently, they had had a wager on us and by the looks of things the two oldest Phoebe and Atlanta had betted on me while the other three newer ones had betted on their fellow huntress.

"Now then girls I expect you to be polite and introduce yourselves before you embarrass yourselves further. Perseus is here to stay for a while and I will hear of no further issues between you all. Remember this was a choice of his help or that of Heracles and I know which I would rather have here. One more thing Perseus, that was very impressive and all but from now on, you are to use regular spears on my range. When you are on duty are free to use whatever is required to get the job done. I would appreciate it if you could avoid turning this park into a replica of the Somme." She asked locking eyes with me briefly.

"As you wish then Lady Artemis." I said with a nod resummoning the golden spear before shrinking it and placing it back in a pocket.

"Now I was pretty certain this is supposed to be hand-to-hand training and not range work, or am I mistaken?" Artemis said looking at her disciples who suddenly seemed very keen to pull out knives and put their bows away out of sight.

The goddess nodded at me politely before once again heading into her tent.

"Right then what did I just miss?" Thalia asked throwing a clipboard onto the box containing the targets.

I was forced to then explain the whole situation to my cousin while the other two older hunters added anything I missed. She seemed unhappy with what she had missed in the first place but apparently, she was not a fan of me using her personal targets. Or that was what i guessed if the small lightning bolt that struck near me was anything to go by"

"Jeez Thals calm down, it was only a picture on some wood." I cried out quickly backing away from the scorch mark between by legs where the bolt had struck. By weight I was more than sixty percent metal; I didn't want to find out what would happen if I got shocked.

"That's not the point Seaweed Brain, you didn't ask before you borrowed by stuff and then you blew it up."

"It wasn't even me who got it out. Phoebe asked Atlanta to get it, so why don't you blame her not me." I protested before the two suddenly decided to look busy as her head rotated around towards them.

"Very well but no touching my stuff ever again, especially not my music or you will wish it was my dad's bolt hitting you. Now let me see that spear now?" She threatened before asking for the weapon.

Of course, I couldn't actually hand her the weapon as it would likely seriously injure her. After all, only I was immune to the weapons flames or for that matter even lift it, much the same as my other symbols of power, I had being Maelstrom, my shield and my bow.

"You can look but not touch." I warned as I drew the spear out of its compacted form and held it in front of me parallel to the floor so she could see.

"Well, it is longer than my spear, made of gold and on fire. Where can I get one?" She asked curiously her hand almost instinctively reaching towards it before I pulled it away much to her disappointment.

"Start by defeating a Titan; escape Tartarus and then kill a primordial and you too may get one or more just like it." I joked also indicating the shield and the bow.

"Wait those are spoils, from who?" She demanded eyeing up my arsenal, I chose to keep Maelstrom hidden, it was harder to hide the three larger symbols so I might as well be open with them. However, on top of Thalia likely recognising Maelstrom as Backbiter, I wanted them to know nothing of what happened with Kronos especially.

"Hyperion, Krios and Lelantos." I told her, pointing to each item as I said the name of its former respective owner.

"And I cannot try them because?" She asked sarcastically, around us the rest of the hunters were also eyeing my bow with almost greedy eyes. I mean I couldn't blame them too much; they had just seen my spear blow up its target. They probably reckoned that it too had an overpowered gimmick.

"Thalia listen, for unclear reasons only I am able to use them. No one else can even lift them no matter how hard they try or who or what they are. They seem to be set to my ownership and as such are only wieldable by me. You know what why don't you try and lift this.' I said unstrapping the shield from my arm before casually throwing it at her feet, the black metal kite shield clattered on the forest floor.

"How hard can it be?" She said before reaching for it. After an initial failed attempt, she adjusted her position in an attempt to use both hands. It didn't take long before I could see her face turning red, as she struggled to lift it and her veins became pronounced on her exposed arms before she collapsed to her knees in defeat.

Casually I walked over to it and lifted the shield in two fingers and my thumb before looping it back over my arm. That demonstration taken care of I extended a hand back down and helped her back to her feet. She remained unsteady for a moment breathing heavily still before she straightened out.

"Ok that hard but still this is so unfair, I want some cool things like that. You never even used to use a spear and admit you can't use a bow. How come you get such awesome stuff Perce?" She cried in outrage over the fact that it was something else cool I had over her. Alongside several equally great pet mythical creatures.

"Maybe because in the words of Apollo, I am so Awesome." I joked though the truth was very different. I was just like a cockroach, incredibly hard to kill and no one had found an effective way of doing it... including me.

At the mention of the god of the Sun the hunters all seemed to groan in unison. Some even looked around as if expecting him to turn up at the mere mention of his name and begin quoting his bad haikus.

"Anyway, now that this has all been taken care of, I came here to introduce myself and as such it is now your turn ladies, one by one please." I said politely remembering back to how the entire situation had started.

"You know me Seaweed Brain, so stop looking at me and ask the others." Thalia joked breaking the ice.

"Phoebe, daughter of Nike." The familiar hunter added next in an almost friendly way. She appeared to be about sixteen and as such one of the more mature looking girls in the group.

"Atlanta, daughter of Apollo." The last of the oldest hunters said nodding her head. Ironically it had been her who groaned the most at her father's name. I was also greatly glad I hadn't challenged her to a competition of who could hit the bullseye. A child of Apollo with the blessing of Artemis, that was a scary thought. Let alone the fact that she was apparently incredibly fast on her feet judging by how quickly she had covered the distance to the targets and back. She seemed a little younger than Phoebe but in truth was older than all the other hunter's combined and then doubled. She was not just a Greek demigod; she was a genuine GREEK demigod but that was getting ahead of myself.

"Tania daughter of Ares, boy." My opponent added next spitting out the last word venomously even as she crossed her arms in annoyance. Evidently, she was not happy with Artemis instructions to play nice with me as well as her defeat in the contest. I could see she was definitely around fifteen and judging by her being new she was still probably that age.

"Erica, daughter of Demeter." A young brown-haired girl added she must have looked around twelve at most. Thankfully all she had in common with her half-brother Arion was their matching eyes, though that was not to say she too wouldn't like to kill me. That was generally kept on my side of the family.

"Morganna, daughter of Hecate." The black-haired girl who appeared to be the oldest physically at around seventeen added after Erica. Looking at her I noticed her silver knives had an ethereal glow around the sheathes indicating magic. Whether it was on purpose or not she appeared to hide part of her face behind her black hair that hung forwards making her look gloomy. Whether she was trying to live up to her mother's stereotype as a witch I had no idea.

"Jacqueline, daughter of Hermes." A small girl who was easily the youngest at around nine added nervously when it came to her turn, her parentage was easily the most visible she had the same familiar look that the rest of her siblings at camp had. She reminded me of what I had seen of Luke when I had that vision of his younger days. She also seemed desperate to hide behind the others once her introduction was out of the way. She appeared to want to be as far away from me as possible, which initially confused me. Until I remembered back to Artemis's talk of 'special cases' and I sadly guessed she was one of the unlucky ones, which made me feel ashamed that people could do such things to a girl that age or younger.

Now out of the seven, the longest serving three looked grateful for my help and being here. Erica and Morgana seemed indifferent to the matter, obviously due to Artemis's instructions to do so at least. Jacqueline looked afraid of me, which if anything was not completely unwarranted at her age and with my appearance. Which of course left Tania, who remained openly loathing me and was possibly genetic. This meant I had to try and win the last pair over if I wanted everyone to be happy, which may take some time. Besides, it was not as if I was going anywhere anytime soon if I could help it.

"Very nice to meet you all and I would like you all to meet Nemea, who will be assisting me in my duties.' I said indicating the lioness who had walked up behind me, before nuzzling my hand. The hunters all looked nervous at the sight of the legendary feared monster, especially when she let out a roar that reverberated throughout the woods. Something that I didn't think was helping her case of making them all calm down around her.

"She says hi I guess." I joked hoping to break the ice again. However, I was most surprised when instead of hiding little Jacqueline approached the lioness and began to stroke her head. To my amazement as well as the others Nemea began to purr and roll over like a house cat. At this display I simply stepped to the side and made way as suddenly all the hunters pushed forward and were all over her, rubbing her belly playfully. All the while the monster continued to purr in pleasure, underneath the silver garbed mass of hunters, only Thalia remained at my side.

"So out with it then Seaweed Brain, how did you manage to acquire your new friend? Last I saw of her in the Smithsonian, she died hating you for that astronaut food." She asked looking at her friends all over the lioness.

"Technically I guess she belonged to Annabeth just like my daggers and I sort of inherited her after she died." I added sadly remembering how my late girlfriend had tamed the young cub.

"Wait... you have daggers as well, where?" She asked instead focusing on the mention of additional weapons looking me over but unable to find evidence of them. She looked on in fascination as I rolled up my sleeve and drew the pair of throwing knives from my forearm sheath before making them change form into the familiar helixed metal blades they were of an identical shape to a hunter's knives.

"Well can I try them at least?" She asked hopefully as I only shook my head.

"Unfortunately, no. The Stygian Iron that makes up part of the blades means that you can't. Annabeth and I had the Curse of Achilles to protect us from the metals influence. It would attack your essence and hurt you if you so much as held them, sorry." At my explanation the daughter of Zeus continued to look crestfallen as I shrunk the blades down to size and refitted them up my sleeve.

"Do you actually have any weapons someone else normal can use?" She asked wearily with a sigh.

"Sure, try this." I said playfully as I reached into another pocket and chucked Riptides pen form towards her. She deftly caught the pen and with one fluid movement drew off the lid, creating my long serving blade in her hand from where the pen had been.

Thalia looked ecstatic as she swung the ancient blade around in seemingly practiced movements before drawing Aegis and carrying on in an alternate style. I guess like the fact that she said I didn't really use spears before, I had never thought she was much of a sword person. Instead preferring to use spears and knives when in really close combat but watching her, it was obvious she had at least trained in their use.

Whilst the other hunters began to finally practise amongst themselves. I spent the rest of the afternoon with Thalia, allowing her to continue practicing her swordsmanship using Riptide. With her using that and obviously not using Maelstro I took one of the hunt's spears and we fought each other using the others preferred style.

Obviously unlike with Titan general or his father I was being careful to pull any blows before they made contact with her body to avoid seriously injuring her. Not that she was as careful however, fortunately the curse of Achilles protected me for the most part except for one blow that struck my back cutting the coat before it clattered off my concealed wings. Fortunately for me, the duster fixed itself before she could inspect the damage further and see the golden wings underneath. I had simply shrugged the blow off when she tried to investigate and carried on our battle.

We finally finished when she severed my borrowed spear in half using my own blade but despite this seemingly major problem for me. She was too slow to stop me catching the now severed end with my other hand and swinging both ends at the same time. The broken end hitting her Aegis hard and knocking her off balance before the bladed end was brought up underneath her chin.

"Yield." I suggested with a smile as she looked down the bronze point.

"Fine you win Perce. But still, at least I can shoot a bow." She joked before sheathing the blade and sticking it in her pocket.

"Thalia, are you forgetting something?" I asked glaring at her as she simply smiled.

"You don't need it anymore Seaweed Brain, look at all the cool weapons you have now, what is one more sword?" She asked light-heartedly, the truth was I didn't often use the bronze sword now. Maelstrom was basically better in every way apart from one, that sword was more just than fatal to those killed by it. If anything, Riptide was the 'safest' weapon I owned.

"Maybe so, but call me sentimental but I have too many memories of what I have done with that sword. Tell you what you keep practicing and when I get a chance, I will get you a sword that matches if you want." I promised and I could almost see the gears figuratively spinning in her head before she slowly reached back in and tossed the pen back to me.

"Try and make it silver, it would be nice if it matches the outfit." She joked before turning away and leaving towards the others who had stopped their own training for a water break and were again fussing around with Nemea, not that the lioness was upset by her new fawning audience.

Leaving them to it I headed back towards my tent, I wanted to wash the sweat off me in the stream and get some rest before I went on duty for the first time tonight. While they were all busy with Nemea it meant I could lose the coat and take a dip with my wings exposed. Quickly I entered my tent and threw my weapons on the bed before grabbing a towel and leaving.

I followed the river upstream for about another quarter mile, in an effort to make sure I was not seen in the case someone approached my tent and looked around there. Confident I was away from prying eyes I undressed down to my boxers and dived in where it seemed it was deepest. The great thing about being a child of Poseidon is the fact I can stay underwater for as long as I want and at the end of it, I would feel just as fresh as if I had just woken up from a nice sleep. The water refreshing me both mentally and physically on top of the fact it also cleaned me.

As I lounged about at the bottom of the stream, I felt the time quickly slip by until afternoon turned into evening and so I began to make plans to get out and get ready for the nights coming patrol.

Now the thing was I hoped the hunters would stay in their tents once they went to their beds. This would mean I was free to fly overhead all night, which for me would be a lot stealthier than my usual heavy footedness when it came to sneaking. I weighed enough that I could likely break some old logs under foot let alone twigs.

Eventually when I was happy with what I had planned I kicked off from the bottom and leapt out of the pool of water I was currently lounging in only to collide with something that wasn't there when I last surfaced. The object in question let out a noise of surprise as I knocked it to the floor beneath me.

As I looked down at whatever it was that I had crushed beneath me, the slow realisation of what it had been kicked in and I began to panic.

Looking down I looked into a pair of silver eyes that looked back at me in surprise before her expression changed.

One thought ran through my head.

'I am a dead man.'