madness and ecstasy // leo valdez

- meeting the victim in law-

Teqi sat sandwiched between Leo and Hazel. She was slightly regretting demanding to go on the mission, because her side was really hurting now, and her cheek was stinging. She just didn't want to be shoved to the side and left behind. She wasn't weak. She refused to be.

The horse's hooves turned the surface of the lake to salty mist that sprayed back into their faces, seeping into the cuts on her face.

There was also the fact that Leo had his arms tight around her waist, which wasn't unusual, at all, but since he had kissed her on the cheek at the lunch, every touch felt more. She was being stupid, the boy had beenpossessed when he kissed her, and it was on the cheek! Teqi was overreacting.

Still, her face felt warm when he put his sharp chin on her shoulder and smiled into the wind, careful not to touch the stiches in her side.

Ahead of them lay an island—a line of sand so white, it might have been snow instead. Behind that rose an expanse of grassy dunes and weathered boulders. It was different to the beach at camp half blood, which was smoother, and the sand turned to grass and then trees. This was the second beach Teqi had ever seen, she hadn't expected it to look so different.

Hazel steered the horse with ease, it was like they were one fluid body. Teqi missed her Pegasus at home, she was a nice one called Olive, a light grey with little white spots on her rump. She had been born a few weeks after Teqi had arrived at camp, so Teqi grew up riding her, but really, she was Tony's Pegasus. He liked animals more out of the both of them.

Arion thundered onto the beach. He stomped his hooves and whinnied triumphantly, like Coach Hedge yelling a battle cry. They dismounted, Leo trying to help her down, but Teqi batted his hand out of the way. She wasn't weak.'It's okay to get help' she thought vaguely, she told the thought to shut up. Arion pawed the sand.

"He needs to eat," Hazel explained, patting him on the neck. "He likes gold, but—"

"Gold?" Leo asked.

"He'll settle for grass. Go on, Arion. Thanks for the ride. I'll call you." Just like that, the horse was gone—nothing left but a steaming trail across the lake. Road runner, I tell you.

"Fast horse," Leo said simply, "and expensive to feed."

"Not really," Hazel muttered. "Gold is easy for me."

Leo raised his eyebrows in disbelief. "How is gold easy? Please tell me you're not related to King Midas. I don't like that guy."

"Who does?" Teqi said bitterly, hissing in pain when she stepped forewords. Leo looped his arm underneath hers, "Hey, querida, why don't you sit down for a second? Just a break, we have to stop anyway." He helped sit her down in the fine sand, and she breathed out slowly trying to ease the throbbing.

"Why do we need to stop?"

Leo knelt and cupped a handful of white sand. "This is lime."

Hazel frowned, kicking it. "The whole beach?"

"Yeah. See? The granules are perfectly round. It's not really sand. It's calcium carbonate." Leo pulled a Ziploc bag from his tool belt and dug his hand into the lime sand.

Leo froze for a moment, his eyes trained on the' perfectly round calcium carbonate'. "You okay?" Hazel asked. He took a shaky breath that both girls could hear. "Yeah," he said. "Yeah, fine."

He started to fill the bag, Hazel knelt next to him and helped.

Teqi stopped listening to them, looking away and down the stretch of beach, the sun was about to start setting. The mountains blocked out the sunsets at camp, Teqi saw pictures of them though, and in movies. They were pretty. The demigods next to her kept whispering. Teqi pretended her heart was only clenching because she had a recently stitched up hole in her side.