Learning to Trust (A Leo Valdez Love Story)

Chapter 24

LEO

Leo didn't remember much of the rest of the night.

After he finished puking his guts out into a sacrificial altar, Leo briefly remembered some Apolo kids running up to take Kyra from Jason. He knew they only wanted to help her, but he didn't want anyone to touch her whom he didn't completely trust.

Jason, Piper, and Chiron had to convince him that she needed help and that the best place for her was with the Apollo kids in the infirmary. Only when the kid who gave Leo the tour of Camp Half-Blood, Will, reassured him that he would be taking care of her did Leo calm down.

He didn't know why he was so protective of the girl. He had only known her for a few days, but he felt like he had some responsibility for her after rescuing her on their quest. Plus, he felt needed and appreciated when she was around. Sure, that was why. It had nothing to do with the fact that he thought she was beautiful and strong and kind and...

"Shut up, me" he mumbled to himself, causing Chiron, Piper, Jason, and Annabeth to look over at him, the latter raising an eyebrow.

He chuckled awkwardly at the looks he received. "Sorry," he mumbled, blushing and looking down.

"Are you paying attention, Mr. Valdez?" Chiron asked with a concerned look. "This is very important for us to discuss,"

"Yeah, sorry," Leo sighed.

"Worried about Kyra?" Piper asked, concern in her eyes. Leo simply nodded, feeling the exhaustion of the day's events catching up to him.

The centaur looked at him curiously before clearing his throat. "Yes, about the girl," he started.

"You said you found her in a department store?" he asked, confused.

"She was being held captive by Medea, but we think that she was a prisoner of Khione first and aren't really sure what happened to her before that," Jason answered for the trio.

Annabeth furrowed her eyebrows. "And who did you say her godly parent was?" she asked.

Jason cleared his throat, "Um we didn't yet,"

She looked at him expectantly.

The trio looked at each other, unsure whether or not to tell the strangers about Kyra's parental history. It seemed they were all protective of her.

Piper sighed before answering, "Her godly parent is Artemis,"

Annabeth looked like she didn't believe them, but Chiron paled.

"Are you certain?" he asked.

Leo chuckled humorously, "Yeah, she spent the last hour glowing and bringing Jason back to life with moonlight, pretty sure her mom is Artemis." he finished.

Annabeth seemed to decide it was best to ignore his sarcasm and turned to Chiron. "How is that possible? Artemis is a maiden goddess, surely we would have known by now if she broke her vow," she finished.

Chiron seemed lost in thought.

"Kyra might know how it's possible that she's alive," Leo interrupted. "So can we go see her now?" he asked impatiently, eager to see that she was safe.

The centaur sighed, "I suppose it might speed up her healing process if you three were with her. Yes, go. Annabeth why don't you go with them? I need to process everything."

The blonde girl looked like she wanted to protest but seemed to think better and motioned for Leo and his friends to follow her out of the big house.