Chapter 547: The Face Beneath

A Day Before

The world below the cliff felt like a different battlefield. It was more quiet, but it wasn’t safer.

The moment Tobias’s feet touched the ground, his knees nearly gave out beneath him.

Strong hands caught him before he could collapse fully, steadying him as the rope around his waist was quickly untied. Voices blurred around him—urgent, overlapping—but none of them truly registered.

The only thing he felt was the burning in his side. It spread slowly, like something alive beneath his skin.

"Get him over here," a woman’s voice cut through the noise, sharp and controlled.

Tobias barely registered being guided across the uneven ground, his boots dragging slightly against the dirt. The air here was colder, heavier, laced with damp earth and perhaps fear.

He was lowered onto a flat rock, his back hitting the surface harder than intended. A low grunt escaped him, his jaw tightening immediately after.

"Stay still," the healer instructed.

He let out a weak breath that might have been a laugh. "You all love saying that."

She didn’t respond to that, her hands already moving.

The bandage Annabeth had wrapped earlier was removed, and the moment it came off—

The healer went still.

"Is it that bad?" Tobias asked her.

The healer exhaled slowly, then reached for the small pouch at her side. "You already know the answer to that."

He huffed faintly. "Perhaps, but I’d like to hear it from you too."

She pressed lightly around the wound, her expression tightening. The blood hadn’t stopped. Not even close. It had slowed only slightly, but not enough to matter. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Not enough to save him.

Her fingers moved through the herbs she had, selecting a few, crushing them gently before applying them to the wound.

Tobias didn’t flinch this time.

The silence stretched for a moment longer before she finally spoke.

"It’s poison."

Tobias let his head fall back slightly, staring up at the dull, overcast sky.

"Yeah," he murmured. "Annabeth was of the same opinion."

The healer glanced at him briefly before continuing. "We don’t have enough here to treat it properly."

"We only have basic herbs. I can slow the bleeding a little, maybe ease the spread if we’re lucky. But I can’t do more than that. Our pack has very few herbs, and I... I failed to register that something like this could happen and didn’t pack appropriately," she said softly.

"And I can’t treat you without knowing what poison it is. I could guess, but I can’t risk your life like that, especially when we need you and after everything you’ve done for us. Some herbs react badly with certain poisons. If I mix the wrong thing..." she paused briefly, then finished, "it could make it spread faster, killing you."

"Perhaps if we move fast, we could get to your pack. Your medical facility has been talked about by Benny numerous times, and Benny did say the head of the facility is like a miracle worker," she said.

Tobias nodded with a faint smile.

"Yeah, he is."

He pushed himself up slightly, ignoring the sharp protest from his body. His hand moved to his face, fingers brushing against his skin.

Then he paused.

A small exhale left him.

"Guess there’s no point keeping this on anymore," he muttered.

The healer frowned slightly. "Keeping what—"

Tobias didn’t answer.

His fingers pressed against the edge of his jaw, and then he pulled.

The motion was slow but deliberate.

The thin layer of artificial skin peeled away from his face, revealing what had been hidden beneath it.

The shift was immediate.

Subtle—but unmistakable.

The structure of his face sharpened, the illusion dissolving completely as he removed the mask fully and let it drop beside him.

The healer froze.

Her eyes widened slightly, genuine shock flickering across her features.

"You’ve been wearing a skin mask this entire time?" she asked.

Tobias rolled his shoulders slightly, as if shedding more than just the mask.

"Had to," he replied simply, as he adjusted his voice, using his normal one. "I couldn’t risk getting caught."

Her gaze lingered on him, still trying to process the change.

"If I infiltrated with my real face," he continued, his voice quieter now but steady, "Victoria would’ve sniffed me out immediately."

He glanced up briefly, his dark eyes sharper now, clearer despite the exhaustion.

"So I went in as someone else."

The healer let out a small breath, still staring. "That’s... risky. But to have fooled Victoria, that is impressive. Even your voice is different."

Tobias nodded. "I can be impressive sometimes," he said lightly.

Just then, footsteps approached them. They were light but quick and familiar.

Tobias didn’t need to turn to know who it was.

Annabeth.

She stepped into view a moment later, her gaze immediately scanning the area before landing on the healer.

"Have you seen Tobias?" she asked quickly.

The healer blinked once, then let out a small chuckle, gesturing toward the man standing right in front of her.

Annabeth frowned slightly and turned.

She paused when her gaze landed on Tobias, going as far as to squint just to be certain she wasn’t staring at a fake.

"...Are you Tobias?" she asked slowly.

Tobias let out a small breath, almost amused.

"Yeah," he said. "This is my real face."

Annabeth stared at him.

For a moment, she said nothing.

The healer chuckled softly beside them. "His real face is quite a handsome one too."

That seemed to snap something in Annabeth.

She blinked once, then twice.

"...Yeah," she said after a second, nodding slightly. "It is."

Her gaze lingered a fraction too long before she suddenly shook her head, snapping herself out of it.

Now was not the time to be admiring the man.

"We need to go," Tobias told her.

Annabeth’s expression shifted immediately. Her gaze flicked toward the cliff above.

"They’re not down yet," she said. "Benny and the others... they’re still up there. But the ropes have been cut."

"I don’t even know if they’ll be able to make it down," she added, her voice tightening slightly.

"So what’s the plan?" he asked her.

Annabeth exhaled slowly, her shoulders rising and falling once before she answered.

"As much as I hate to say it..." she began, her voice quieter now, "...we need to go."

"I don’t know who cut the ropes," she continued, "but I wouldn’t put it past Victoria to send warriors down after us."

Her gaze hardened slightly.

"Benny said they would hold them back," she said. "So... I’ll believe him to do so. I’ll believe him to hold the warriors back, and there’s also the fact that you are injured. The more we stay here, the more at risk you are, losing blood like that."

"Can you walk?" Annabeth asked him.

Tobias glanced at her, a faint smile pulling at his lips.

"I’m almost home," he said. "As it is, that’s a pretty good motivator to forget that I’m bleeding out."

"So that means you can," Annabeth said.

Tobias’s smile widened. "Exactly."

Annabeth’s gaze locked on the way the smile lit up his face. He really was handsome, she thought to herself.