My breath came out ragged as I watched Percy's face contort into pain. He screamed a scream that burnt his throat and came out raw.

"Please!" I turned around, thrashing the chains wrapped around my wrists around. "Please, Luke! You can stop this! Please, please stop this."

Percy's arms nearly buckled under the weight of the sky. He looked over at me, silent tears streaming down his face. His eyes showed no more joy, happiness or a twinkle of sarcasm. They were broken, and I knew right then as I stared into the sea-green eyes of my one true love, that the old Percy would never return. He was gone, and a broken one had taken his place.

"Family Luke!" I pleaded desperately. "You promised."

Luke bent down to my level, his gold eyes showing disgust and hatred. "You're not my family, Annabeth." He snarled.

I sat straight up in bed, looking around wildly. I was in my bedroom, alone. No Luke. No Percy. I wiped the tears falling down my cheeks as I tried to take control of my breathing again. I uncurled my fists and rubbed my forehead, wishing the searing pain to go away.

"It was only a nightmare," I whispered to myself, trying to settle the pit of fear in my stomach.

I laid back down on my bed, staring at the ceiling. I tried to think happy thoughts, like books and architecture, but I couldn't get rid of the horrible feeling in my gut.

After making my decision, I carefully wadded my way over to the bathroom, taking my robe off the hook and wrapped it around myself. It was a long process walking to the door, as I got very dizzy and had to make some pit stops to gain control again.

"Are you okay, miss?" A guard asked who was stationed at the door.

I waved her question away. "I'm quite alright ma'am, I just need to take a short walk to clear my head."

"Dr Solace said to follow you if you leave..." Her sentence trailed off as she registered the glare I was giving her.

"I'm fine." I lied. "If something happens, tell Will that it's not your fault. Tell him that I also don't need to be watched every single second of the day."

"Technically it's night..." She trailed off again at my glare.

I smiled my thanks at her and walked slowly in the direction of the stairs, using the wall as help.

I huffed in annoyance as I stood out the front of Percy's door. It had taken longer than I would have liked to get here.

"Stupid injuries," I muttered to myself as I quietly pushed open his door.

I shut it behind me and silently walked over to his bed. I stifled a giggle as I used the sleeve of my robe to wiped away the drool on my prince's chin.

He stirred slightly at the contact, not quite waking up, so I placed my cold hand on his warm cheek.

His eyes flew open in surprise and his whole body tensed. He relaxed though, once he saw that it was me.

"Annabeth?" He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes.

"Can I join you?" I muttered looking anywhere but him. "I-I had a nightmare and-"

I didn't get to finish my explanation because his arm came out from under the blanket, wrapping around me and pulling me into his chest. I moved around to get comfortable, placing my hands on his chest, his arm around my waist.

He kissed me lightly on the forehead. "I had one too. I only just got back asleep before you came in."

"About Luke?"

He shook his head. "Kronos."

"He's dead." I squeezed his shoulder, reminding him.

"Luke's himself again." He pulled me closer to him.

"I was so scared Perce. You were in so much pain." I whispered into his chest.

"Well, I'm not anymore. We are safe."

I closed my eyes, Percy's steady heartbeat reassuring me and making that uneasy feeling in my stomach ease.

We fell asleep to the sound of each other's breathing.

I opened my eyes and immediately closed them again. The sun was too bright. Who made it this bright?

I opened them again, this time bracing myself for the brightness, and I was greeted with a picture of myself. Well, a picture of Percy, Bobby, Matthew, Zoe, Tyson and I all smiling at the camera. My eyebrows scrunched together in confusion until I remembered the nightmare, walking to Percy's room, then falling asleep with Percy next to me.

I nodded my head in understanding. The thing wrapped tightly around my waist was Percy's arm, and the picture was on his bedside table.

I spun around, slightly annoyed that his grip on me tightened.

"Again?" I muttered, placing my arm around his neck, the other trying to loosen the death grip he held onto me with.

I kissed him lightly on the cheek. "Seaweed Brain?"

"Go away." He pushed his face more into the pillow.

I squeezed his arm. "It's me, Annabeth. I have to go before someone comes in to wake you up."

He moved onto his back, his eyes still closed. I sighed in relief when he took his hand away from my waist. "Huh?"

"I don't want anyone getting any ideas." He wrapped an arm around my shoulder as I shuffled closer to his side. His warmth was just too good to leave just yet. "I have to go." I sighed.

"Are you okay?" He opened one eye to look at me. That one eye was piercing into my soul.

I shrugged. "Still shaken a little bit, I guess. You?"

He closed his eye. "Same."

"But we're okay now," I reminded him, and somehow I felt like I was reminding myself as well. "We're safe. No one's going to kill us now."

We laid there in silence for another moment or two until I realised that I really needed to go. In about ten minutes the palace staff would be waking up, my maids waking me up and Percy's too. The guards already stationed would see me walk out of his room to mine, and they would defiantly get ideas. Bad ideas. And we didn't want Will to hear about them. I also didn't want any of the Selected to hear as well, and the rest of the world. Plus, at the rate that I was walking last night, I wouldn't get back to my room in under ten minutes.

"I really need to leave. I don't want people to think that we-"

Percy laughed and raised his eyebrows. "Is that such a bad thing?"

I gasped and smacked him on the shoulder, my face turning red. "N-ye-no! Stop confusing me."

He grinned and kissed me on the forehead before taking my hand, pulling me out of bed. My eyebrows scrunched together in confusion as we stopped in front of a rack of clothing in his wardrobe.

"Do you want me to pick out your clothes or something?"

He shook his head no and bent down, pushing the suit jackets away.

A smile spread across my face as I realised what he wanted me to do. "But how do I get to my room?"

Percy was showing me the secret entrance to the series on tunnels that ran around, through and under the palace. I knew my way around most of the tunnels, using them for games when we were little or hiding from the Rebels. I just wasn't sure how to get to the Selected rooms.

"So you know the route to the Royal Family safe room?" He asked, straightening up a bit.

I nodded.

"Before you take the stairs down, to your left should be another tunnel. Take that one, go down the first flight of stairs and then turn right. You'll be walking under the hallway out the front of your room. If I'm correct, yours should be the-" He paused for a moment and visualised the pathway. "-fifth one to the right."

I smiled at him, reaching up on my toes to wrap my arms around his neck. I stared into his sea-green eyes. "Thank you for letting me stay the night."

He winked. "Anytime. I may even run to you if I have a nightmare tonight."

I kissed him slowly but kept my mouth shut as we both had morning breath. I did not want to deal with that.

"First," I said as I rested my forehead on his, closing my eyes and smiling slightly as my lips tingled. "You can come to me whenever you need me. And secondly, I didn't run to you. I just needed comfort and you were the closest human being."

He kissed me quickly again, chuckling, and helped me open the door to the secret tunnels.

"See you at breakfast?"

I nodded. "And then we go to Will."

Percy groaned. "Don't remind me!"

I waved goodbye before the door shut and blinked for a few moments as my eyes adjusted to the darkness that surrounded me.

I set off on the familiar route to the Royal Family safe room, following Percy's directions as quickly as I could.

I thought of the night's events. Percy and I both had nightmares. Must be from the traumatic experience we both went through. It made sense. We were both betrayed, Percy's grandfather turned up from the dead, we both experienced pain that could not be described in pen. Plus we were starved and dehydrated. It was a given that there would be mental effects as well as physical.

I blushed at the thought of Percy coming to my bed tonight. I liked the idea of us sleeping together because it seemed to settle my nerves. I didn't have one single bad dream lying next to him, and he didn't either. We both were a safe spot for each other. I liked that. I liked that a lot.

I didn't realise where I was until my thoughts cleared. I counted the stairs leading up and walked up the fifth. I held my breath as I came to the door, and I slid it open, hoping I would find myself in my bedroom, not someone else's. That would be a little awkward.

I sighed in relief as I spotted my dresses hanging in my wardrobe. I quickly hung my robe in the bathroom and sprinted over to the bed, just pulling the blanket over my shoulders as the door opened.

I closed my eyes and pretended to be asleep. Lucky Percy. Maybe he isn't such a Seaweed Brain after all.

"Look at her." I heard Hazel say in front of me.

I was pretty sure that Justine and Alicia were standing next to her, looking down at me "sleeping".

"I can't believe she's back." Alicia sighed. "I was so worried."

Justine's voice broke as she talked. "I thought I was going to loo-loose her like my-"

"No Justine," Hazels voice again. "You can't think like that. We have her back, that's all that matters."

There were a few moments of silence were I fought extremely hard to hold the tears at bay. They loved me so much, and I loved them too. They seemed to really have missed me. My heart melted. It seemed to be doing that a lot lately.

Hazels hand shook my shoulder, "waking" me up.

I groaned in annoyance, all apart of my act. "Morning."

"Good morning." Hazel chirped and skipped off.

I sighed, smiling into my pillow. What would I do without these girls?

I got up and they helped me into the shower. I scrubbed at my skin until it was red, still trying to wash away the dirt. It was visibly gone, but I could still feel it's presence.

As they worked on my hair and makeup, Alicia filled a glass of water, placing what looked to be over ten different types of tablets in front of me.

"Swallow all of these." She pointed at them.

I raised my eyebrows. "All-" I quickly counted them. "-nine of them?"

She nodded, a gleam in her eye that I didn't like. "Vitamins A, B6, B12, C, D, E, K, a pain relief and another one for some medical thing."

I sighed and looked at the range of colourful tablets lying on the bench in front of me, swallowing one at a time.

They helped me into a pretty short grey dress and gave me some grey flats. I would not be able to survive in heels for the whole day.

I hugged each of the girls individually because you never know when might be the last time you see someone. That's what Tartarus had taught me.

Before I walked into the dining room, where I knew I would be stared at like I was an alien, I breathed out a long deep breath to settle the butterflies in my stomach. Actually, scrap the settle and replace with kill. I would have loved it for the butterflies to be dead then.

I closed my eyes for a moment and imagined Percy's reassuring smile, the twinkle of his eyes, the feeling of him squeezing my waist and the sound of "I'm in love with you." in his voice.

I was ready.

The room was silent as I walked in, you could hear the sound of a pin drop. Everyone and I mean everyone, was looking at me as I tried my best not to look to broken. I made eye contact with Piper and she smiled brightly at me, pulling out my chair next to her for me to sit in.

"How are you?" She asked quietly.

I nodded. "I'm doing good." I made sure to say it loud enough for the whole table to hear. I wanted, no needed, them to know that I was good. That I was strong. A little hiccup like getting kidnapped, starved, tortured and Percy's grandfather basically coming back from the dead was something I could get over.

I counted my lucky stars that the Royal Family decided to enter then. The door opened and they all walked in. Percy's eyes went straight to me, asking if I was okay. I nodded to him as we sat down. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Rachel looked back and forth between us. She confused me though as she looked down at my hands placed on the table, and then she seemed to breathe a sigh of relief? I brushed it off as nothing and watched as the girls dug into their delicious looking waffles.

I was about to grab one too, but a maid came rushing towards me with a silver platter, a plate on it topped with an egg, bacon, and heaps of green veggies. She put the plate in front of me.

"Excuse me?" I asked. "What's this?"

She looked down at her shoes. "Doctor Solace had Chef Hestia make a special meal for you. He needs you to eat the right vitamins and nutrition."

I groaned but said thank you anyways. I looked over at Percy to see him picking up a pile of spinach on his fork. He looked at it like it was the most disgusting thing in the whole wide world. He caught my eye and we both looked at each other desperately.

I sighed and dug in.

"Why do you get waffles?" I asked Piper unhappily.

She smiled at me. "Because I'm amazing."

I pouted at her and chewed on a piece of my egg.

We continued eating for a while and then Percy cleared his throat, gaining everyone's attention. The sound of everyone talking and eating immediately went silent as everyone watched Percy like a hawk.

"Firstly, I would just like to say that I'm so happy that Annabeth and I are back, and I'm sure she is too." Percy made eye contact with me. "And we both would like to thank you for the continuing support of our current situation, it means a great deal to the both of us. I'm sorry that this has happened, but I'm glad to say that the group we call the Rebels has disbanded, and they will no longer be bothering us!"

Everyone clapped, smiling at each other. I smiled at Percy, but his eyes weren't on me, but on Silena. She was clapping quietly, avoiding all eye contact. Percy looked over at me sadly. I returned the look.

"But, I also have some bad news." Everyone, once again went silent at Percy's words. "I've decided that I'm going to eliminator three girls today." I could see the panic settle on everyone's faces. "I'll be visiting those three girls sometime today. Thank you for your attention."

He sat back down and looked sorrowfully down at his breakfast. I had a feeling the look was about the food and not the elimination.

"Do you know who he's eliminating?" Piper asked her hand on her chest above her heart.

I tried not to look at Silena, as the truth was I knew one person who was going to be eliminated today. I counted the people at the table. Ten. I spotted Thalia, who was the only person who was now eating, not worried at all. I almost forgot. She would be eliminated as well, as she was Percy's cousin and he promised to keep her until the top ten. So Silena and Thalia were going to be eliminated. Who would be the third? I hoped will all my body that it would be Drew.

I raised my eyebrows at Piper. "No, why would I know?"

She shrugged. "I thought maybe you two would be closer and-" She paused to laugh. "Actually, you probably can't get any closer. You've probably already told each other your in love with each other."

I blushed, biting down on my lip, turning my face away from Piper.

She moved closer to me and pointed at my cheek. "Is your cheek red? Are you blushing?" She gasped as the realisation hit her. "Oh, my gods. You totally have!"

She shrieked the last bit, gaining the attention of the whole room. They all stared at me again.

I sighed and turned to Piper, whispering. "Fine, yes. We have."

She covered her mouth with surprise. "Is he going to propose?"

I shrugged, watching Percy talk with his mum. "You can be in love with more than one person..."

(That's correct Annabeth. I have proof. Me! I'm in love with Percy Jackson, Jace Herondale, Will Herondale, Augustus Waters, Maxon Schreave... must I continue?)

"But who else?" She looked at everyone at the table.

I shrugged and didn't comment. Piper picked up that I didn't want to continue the subject and continued to eat her mouth-watering waffles.

Would Percy propose? Hope and longing filled my veins as I started to imagine what it would be like to be married to Percy. We would have a blue wedding cake, of course, and we would definitely go on a honeymoon near the beach. Would we have kids? We would have to. as we needed a future king or queen. I imagined working with Percy to make the country better and lying next to him every night. He would be my husband. I decided then and there, that I desperately wanted to marry my best friend. I hoped that he wasn't too much of a Seaweed Brain, and would propose soon.

Breakfast finished but I waited at the table for Percy so we could go to Will together. When he took a hold of my hand, I think my body had some sort of an attack. It was probably the realisation that I wanted to marry him.

"Silena and Thalia, right?" I asked him as we walked in the direction of the hospital wing.

"Yeah," He swung our hands in between us. "But the third will have to be a surprise."

I opened my mouth, then closed it again. "It's not me, is it?" I then asked.

He laughed, and pulled me closer to him."Of course, it's you," He wrapped an arm around my waist. "I mean, who else would it be? I'm in love with everyone else, apart from you-"

I slapped his chest, pulling away from him smiling. "Oh stop it!"

He kissed me on the forehead. "It's not you Annabeth."

The crushing feeling in my chest left and I sighed a breath of relief. "Good."

He smiled at me and held open the door to the hospital wing for me. "My lady."

"Thank you, your highness."

Will walked over to us once he spotted us standing there. "Good, good. You guys are good patients." He singled for us to follow him.

Percy raised his eyebrows. "We do try the best we can, Will."

Will rolled his eyes as he opened the door to a private room for us. "Sorry, I just had to deal with some minor burns on Leo. The idiot set alight his uniform," He held up his hand. "Don't ask how. I'm not quite sure myself."

We sat down in two separate chairs next to each other, holding hands. Will jumped onto his spinny chair on wheels and moved over in front of us.

"How are you two?"

I looked over at Percy and made eye contact with his striking sea-green eyes. "Mentally or physically?" I asked Will, turning back to him.

"Both."

"Physically, I'm good," Percy answered first. "I sometimes have trouble breathing, but I just sit down or stop moving for a bit, then it goes away."

"Same for me. And, we both had some troubling nightmares last night."

Will nodded sadly. "That's expected. You both went through an extremely traumatic experience. To help with that, talk to each other. Tell each other what happens in them and tell each other how you feel about it. They won't go away for a while, but if you talk, it should make it bearable."

Percy smirked at me. "I think we can manage that."

The grey streak of hair on Percy's head caught my attention, before I could stop it, my hand reached up and played with the piece of hair. "What about these?" I asked Will.

"It was the stress of holding the weight of the sky. They will fade over time, but for now, they look pretty cool."

Percy tugged my piece of grey hair. "Twinning."

Will then checked out our hearing, eyesight, blood pressure, weight, etc. The appointment took nearly all the morning.

After we got the all clear from the doctor, Percy kissed me goodbye out the front of the hospital wing.

He pulled away as I bit my bottom lip, trying to conceal the smile that was trying to take over my face.

"Now I have to go find Silena and have a talk."

"Hey," He started to walk away but I grabbed his hand, pulling him back. "Tell her I forgive her, okay?"

He nodded, frowning slightly.

We said goodbye and I went down to my bedroom where the girls were sitting around talking to each other.

"Hello, lovely ladies." I entered the room and closed the door behind me.

A chorus of hello's and hey's came back to me as I sat down on the bed, taking off my shoes with a sigh.

"Lady Annabeth?" Justine crept over to stand in front of me.

"Yes, Justine?"

"Are you okay?"

"Uh?" I raised my eyebrows. "Of course I am."

"Officer Gold said you left the room last night." Hazel sat down next to me, gripping my hand firmly. "She said you seemed shaken."

I sighed, knowing that they wouldn't stop unless they got the truth out of me. "I had a nightmare and I went to go see Percy."

Alicia put an arm around my shoulder. "You could've come to us."

"No," I shook my head. "I needed Percy."

"You two seem a lot closer since you got back." Hazel wiggled her eyebrows

"Did something happen?" Justine asked, sitting down on the floor in front of me.

I blushed and looked up at the ceiling. "He may have told me he's in love with me."

A moment passed, and then all hell broke loose.

Justine was fanning herself, already thinking about my wedding dress and all the dresses I would need for when I was queen.

Alicia was singing a made up song that went along the lines of: "Annabeth and Percy sitting in a tree, K I S S I N G! First comes love, then come marriage and then the baby in the golden carriage!"

I'm pretty sure Hazel said something about a ship sailing, but I didn't question her antics as, under all the noise, I heard a knock at the door.

"Shh!" I rushed over to the door. "Girls, be quiet. Go dust or something!"

I opened the door and was surprised to see Sarah, the Selection tutor, standing there. She was wearing a pale blue blouse, and in dark blue jeans, her brown hair done up in a high ponytail. She had more freckles splashed across her face then I remembered.

She smiled, her nose crinkling and her brown eyes sparkling. "Lady Annabeth. I'm so glad that you're alive and well. Do you mind if I come in for a second to talk to you?"

I nodded and held open the door a little bit wider for her to come in.

"What's up, Sarah?" I sat down next to her on the couch.

She gave me a couple of pieces of paper. "So while you were-you were away, I gave an assignment to the rest of the girls." She pointed to the first piece of paper. "You need to choose a problem of sorts that is currently in Illéa. You need to come up with a solution and write a speech about it, that you will present on the Report. That won't be until the 11th of August, which is eight days away."

"How long does it need to go for?"

She tapped her finger on her thigh. "I'd say three to five minutes. And remember, you could be eliminated in that time."

I nodded, praying to all the gods that I wouldn't be.

"But, before that, there is another assignment due."

I groaned and looked at her. "Two? That's too easy."

Sarah laughed. "Everyone else said that it was too much."

I rolled my eyes. "So, what's the second one?"

"On the 8th, the Royal family of New Asia will be visiting-"

Hazel stuck her head out from the bathroom where she was 'cleaning'. "Frank's coming?"

I nodded, watching the massive smile spread across her face. She squealed and rushed back into the bathroom where I could hear hushed voices that sounded like her and Alicia.

"Uh, sorry?" Sarah asked confused.

"Prince Frank and Hazel are close friends," I explained.

She nodded in understanding. "So, half of the girls will be preparing afternoon tea and dinner that we will all be attending, including our Royal family. On the 9th, the Italian Royal family will be visiting-"

Hazel jumped out from the bathroom. "Nico's coming?"

I laughed and nodded. She squealed again and raced back to the bathroom.

Sarah raised her eyebrows at me.

I sighed. "Her and Nico are close friends as well, they act like brother and sister."

Sarah shook her head in amazement. "Close friends with two royals. I wonder if she's close friends with Prince Percy too."

I nodded. "They are."

Sarah stayed silent for a moment and then continued to explain my assignment. "You've been put into the Italian group. There's a list of girls that are in your group, ignore girls that have been eliminated. With them, you need to prepare everything down to the last detail, as if you were Queen. Queen Sally and I will be giving feedback, which will be useful if you do marry Percy. You can meet as a group whenever you like, there's more information on the papers I've given you but feel free to ask me any questions. All good?"

I nodded enthusiastically.

Sarah showed herself out as I looked at the group I had been given.

Reyna Avila Ramirez Arellano

Katie Gardener

Nancy Bobofit

Thalia Grace

Annabeth Chase

Hazel came rushing out of the bathroom once the door shut. She flung her arms around me. "Best day ever!" She yelled. "I learn that Percy and you are in love, Nico's coming to visit and so is Frank!"

At dinner, three chairs were empty.

Silena, Thalia and Nancy had all be eliminated.

Hello, hello, hello!

How was your Christmas? Did you get want you wanted? Had some amazing food? Laughed with your family? I did! (I'm actually writing this on my new laptop... YAY!)

Percabeth, OTP! OTP!

So last night, I looked at my plan and mapped out the soon to come chapters. It looks like A Loophole with finish with around 50 chapters, an Epilogue and a Bonus Chapter! 9 more chapters guys, can you believe that? Crazy, right!?

This chapter was longer than usual, 4,600 words! I hope it didn't drag on or bore you. I was getting bored writing this. Probably because I need more sleep!

Thanks for the support guys! 140k reads is absolutely insane, and my notifications are going off like crazy with all the votes and comments. It means the world to me, THANK YOU!

Love you all, heaps and heaps! Happy New Year! I hope your 2018 is amazing filled with achievements and smiles. And world, I hope our 2018 will be better than 2017, because we definitely need it!

- Squirrel