𝐏𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐎𝐑𝐀'𝐒 𝐁𝐎𝐗! heroes of olympus²

vi. team leo

chapter six!
006. team leo

leo

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    "WHO IS Aunt Rosa?" 

    Leo didn't want to answer Hazel's question. He didn't want to talk about her at all. Nemesis's words were still buzzing in his ears. His tool belt felt heavy▬his feet dragged with it, which was impossible. Its pockets could carry anything without adding extra weight. Even the most fragile things would never break. Still, Leo imagined he could feel it there, pulling him down, waiting to be cracked open. 

    "It's a long story," he muttered in the end. "She abandoned me after my mom died, gave me to foster care."

     Hazel pursed her lips. "I'm sorry."

    "Yeah, well ..." he as desperate to change the subject.  "What about you? What Nemesis said about your brother?"

    Hazel blinked like she had gotten salt in her eyes. She quickly rubbed them. "Nico ... uh ... he found me back in the Underworld. He brought me back to the mortal world and convinced the Romans at Camp Jupiter to accept me. I owe him for my second chance at life. If Nemesis is right and Nico's in danger ... I have to help him."

    "We'll find him," muttered Savreen helpfully, but by the tone of her voice, Leo knew her heart wasn't in it. She had been walking silently▬quiet, as she usually was, but this time, he could hear her silence like it scraped at the back of his mind. Something had upset her; he was sure it had something to do with Nemesis, but she did not speak a word about it. 

    Leo knew better than to push her. He turned back to Hazel. "And what Nemesis said about your brother having six days to live and Rome getting destroyed ... any idea what she meant?"

    She shook her head. "None," admitted Hazel. "But I'm afraid..." 

    Whatever she was thinking, she decided it was best not to share it. They fell back into an uncomfortable silence. Hazel climbed up to the top of one of the largest boulders to get a better view. Savreen followed and when Leo tried to climb up after her, he slipped and lost his balance. She quickly caught his hand and pulled him up. They found themselves atop the rock, holding hands, face to face.

    Leo held his breath, praying to the gods his nose didn't burst into flame. 

     Savreen's eyes▬they were so soft and warm he wondered whether she was made of embers herself. They glimmered and they glittered▬so dark and shimmering, like opals when the light hit them in a specific way. But now, they were heavy but filled with the slight breath of dusk▬the power of her necklace had touched every inch of her. 

     Her hair was long. Gorgeously long. She pulled it off her face and it twisted tight at the nape of her neck until it hung down in waves to the small of her back. Leo understood, he truly did, about the allure of eternal beauty. Harmonia was the daughter of Aphrodite herself, and she didn't just symbolise peace and order▬but also symmetry. Everything about her was so perfect and in proportion; the scales of her beauty and her persona were balanced. Gentle, caring and doe-like, encompassing the innocence of a young child who had not faced any of the horrors of the real world. And yet, at the same time, Savreen had faced more horrors than most. 

     She was easily the most beautiful person Leo has ever seen. Helen of Troy or even Aphrodite could not compare. But the necklace she wore had never given her that beauty.