YOU ARE IN LOVE ↬ leo valdez x reader, book two

6. buttons on a coat

"I've been practicing," she said. "Now, if there are no other objections, we have a robber to meet. Come on Y/N."
"Yeah, come on Y/N." Leo mimicked, a teasing grin on his face. As Hazel and I exited off deck she stomped on his foot with a scoff.

I was a few steps ahead of Hazel who was closely in front of Jason, who walked behind us so he could catch us if we fell. The sheer drop was freaking me out. Hazel glanced to her right, which was a mistake. Her foot almost slipped, sending a spray of gravel over the edge.
"You all right?" Jason asked.
"Yes. Fine." She had no room to turn and look at him. After a lot more walking, I heard Hazel mumble to herself, "Going as fast as I can".
"This, uh, controlling the Mist," Jason said. "Have you had any luck?"
"No," Hazel admitted.

"You'll get it," Jason said from behind me. I wanted to contribute but I wasn't daring to let my eyes fixate on anything beside the path beside me.
"How can you be sure?" she asked.
"Just am. I've got a good instinct for what people can do—demigods, anyway. Hecate wouldn't have picked you if she didn't believe you had power."
"You're capable of anything, Hazel." I agreed.

We reached the top, breathless and sweaty. A long sloping valley marched inland, dotted with scraggly olive trees and limestone boulders. There were no signs of civilization. Far below, the Argo II looked like a toy boat in the channel.
Jason joined us at the top, looking no worse for the climb.
He started to say, "Where—"
"Here!" said a voice. I flinched. Only ten feet away, a man had appeared, a bow and quiver over his shoulder and two old-fashioned flintlock dueling pistols in his hands. He wore high leather boots, leather breeches, and a pirate-style shirt. His curly black hair looked like a little kid's do and his sparkly green eyes were friendly enough, but a red bandana covered the lower half of his face. "Welcome!" the bandit cried, pointing his guns at us. "Your money or your life!"

He was definitely not there before. He'd simply materialized, as if he'd stepped out from behind an invisible curtain.
"Who are you?" Hazel asked.
The bandit laughed. "Sciron, of course!"
"Chiron?" Jason asked. "Like the centaur?"
The bandit rolled his eyes. "Sky-ron, my friend. Son of Poseidon! Thief extraordinaire! All-around awesome guy! But that's not important. I'm not seeing any valuables!" he cried, as if this were excellent news. "I guess that means you want to die?"
I shook my head.
"Wait," Hazel said. "We've got valuables. But if we give them up, how can we be sure you'll let us go?"
"Oh, they always ask that," Sciron said. "I promise you, on the River Styx, that as soon as you surrender what I want, I will not shoot you. I will send you right back down that cliff."
I tried to recall who he was. If there was a giant turtle involved in a myth I was sure to remember, however I didn't. I racked my brain. Send us back down that cliff? The name Theseus appeared in my thoughts, though not vividly enough to connect into a readable understanding of who this guy is.

"What if we fought you?" Jason asked. "You can't attack us and hold our ship hostage at the same—"
BANG! BANG! It happened so fast. Smoke curled from the side of Jason's head. Just above his left ear, a groove cut through his hair like a racing stripe. One of Sciron's flintlocks was still pointed at his face. The other flintlock was pointed down, over the side of the cliff, as if Sciron's second shot had been fired at the Argo II.
"What did you do?" I asked, tempted to lean over. I squinted, trying to make out the commotion down at the ship.
"Oh, don't worry!" Sciron laughed. "If you could see that far—which you can't—you'd see a hole in the deck between the shoes of the big young man, the one with the bow."
"Frank!"

Sciron shrugged. "If you say so. That was just a demonstration. I'm afraid it could have been much more serious." He spun his flintlocks. The hammers reset. Sciron waggled his eyebrows at Jason. "So! To answer your question—yes, I can attack you and hold your ship hostage at the same time. Celestial bronze ammunition. Quite deadly to demigods. You three would die first—bang, bang, bang. Then I could take my time picking off your friends on that ship. Target practice is so much more fun with live targets running around screaming!"
"How is your aim so perfect?" I asked. I couldn't tell from the bandana across his mouth but by the way his eyes creased, I could almost sense a flattered smile on his face.