madness and ecstasy // leo valdez

-an eye for an eye-

Teqi gulped, glaring at the Eidolon's new bodies. She curled her lip, anger growing and rushing through her veins, why couldn't they just do one thing in peace? Why did it always have to be life or death, and why was it always up to her? Couldn't they just go find a secret tunnel, save Nico, and then go back to the ship?

On Leo's right, the suit of armour with a lion's head helmet creaked its wiry neck and regarded Hazel and Frank, who were still lying unconscious on the dusty ground, scrolls crumbled underneath them and eyes in the back of their heads.

"A male and female demigod," said Lion Head with a gravelly voice, as hollow as the helmet he was speaking through. "These will do, if the others die. We take the weapon, and then...." Its face/mask turned back to Leo. "We do not need you, Leo Valdez."

"Oh, hey!" Leo tried for a winning smile. "You always need Leo Valdez! And please don't take the spheres they're really cool..."

The one with the wolf-headed helmet snarled, "I have been in your mind, Leo. I helped you start the war."

Leo's smile crumbled. He took a step back, his hands shaking Teqi took a step forward, standing in front of him with a glare as his voice cracked. "That was you? You made me fire the ballista?" Leo demanded. "You call that helping?"

"I know how you think," said Wolf Head. "I know your limits. You are small and alone. You need friends to protect you. Without them, you are unable to withstand me. I vowed not to possess you again, but I can still kill you."

The armoured dudes stepped forward. The points of their swords hovered a few inches from Leo's face. Teqi lunged for one of them, the lion mask, dragging her knives down the side of its face and cutting a slit along its eye, but then his sword spun around from Leo and ripped the sleeve of Teqi's jumper, nicking her arm.

"First: you don't know me," Leo told Wolf Head. "And second: Bye."

He ran for the stairs and bounded to the top, dragging Teqi by her bleeding arm. The suits of armour were scary, but they were not fast. Leo slammed both gates shut and summoned fire to his hands, fusing the locks. They were stuck in a small metal box like room, the gates keeping them safe. The suits of armour closed in on either side. They rattled the gates, hacking at them with their swords.

"This is foolish," said Lion Head, its helmet cracked in half, Teqi's golden knives sticking out of its face. "You only delay your death."

"Delaying death is one of my favorite hobbies." Leo scanned their new hide out. Overlooking the workshop was a single table like a control board. It was crowded with junk, but most of it Leo dismissed immediately.

Teqi however, felt her heart lurch. A diagram for a human catapult that would never work; a black sword, and a large bronze mirror, and a set of tools that someone had broken, either in frustration or clumsiness.

Teqi kneeled in the corner of the room, picking up the dark sword by the hilt and holding it up to the light. She saw a sliver of her reflection, a glowing purple eye and a streak of brown hair. Then she unwrapped the black leather on the hilt a tiny bit, to reveal the thing she had been hoping to the gods wasn't going to be there.

G.K

Her lip quivered, "ghost king..."

Leo turned to the disassembled golden ball in the middle of the room, fiddling with parts of it that trailed around the room. He looked over quickly, "I'm not sure we can kill them with the sword-"