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

8. no proof, not much

"We've arrived," Leo announced. "Time to Split."
Frank groaned. "Can we leave Valdez in Croatia?"
"I second that." I said, a hand raised.
Leo shoved me in protest. "You find me hilarious, Y/N, don't lie. You can't resist this Bad Boy's charm." He faked a yawn, wrapping his arm across my shoulders, earning confusing glances from everyone except for Hazel. She bit her lip from smiling.
"All the ladies luv Leo, except for me." I replied.

"We can't talk up here," Jason decided. "Let's postpone the meeting."
We'd all gathered on the quarterdeck to discuss strategy as we got closer to Epirus. Now it was clearly not a good place to hang out.

Wind swept frost across the deck. The sea churned beneath us.
"Need to—" Hazel gagged and pointed below.
"Yeah, go." Nico kissed her cheek
"I'll walk you down." Frank put his arm around Hazel's waist and helped her to the stairs.
"There's some motion sickness meds in my cabinet." I said quickly as they exited.
The last few nights, since that fight with Sciron, Hazel, Piper and I had some good talks together. Being the only girls on board was kind of rough. Too much testosterone, blah blah blah.

We'd shared stories, complained about the guys' gross habits, and shed some tears together about Annabeth. Hazel had told us what it was like to control the Mist, and Piper mentioned it was like charmspeak. Piper had offered to help her if she could. In return, Hazel had promised to coach us in sword fighting and I agreed to share all of my wisdom in medical training with them, so that they could start tending to their own migraines. I vividly recall one of the nights where we hung out in Piper's room for the whole night – none of us dared to sleep.

"We're all way more badass than they are." Hazel agreed, after learning what the word meant.
"No hate to either of your boyfriends, but you're both better anyways."
"I know right?" Piper laughed. "Wanna know a secret? Every time Jason talks about Reyna, I harness some of my mom's power and trust me, Reyna is the last thing he is thinking about."
"You're so lucky!" Hazel gleamed.
"Lucky? Please, Frank is so in love with you." Piper sighed. "You both have no competition, but Jason would be stupid to not like Reyna."
"I have nothing to compete for." I argued.
She pointed her finger in protest. "Leo kissed you, that has to count for something."
"Yeah, but then he went all radio silent like I don't exist, then suddenly we're back to normal–" I tried not to rant. Because it didn't even matter to me..
"Boys." Hazel giggled.
"Yeah, right." Piper agreed.

Nico brushed some ice from his hair. He frowned at the scepter of Diocletian. "I should put this thing away. If it's really causing the weather, maybe taking it below deck will help..."
"Sure," Jason said. Nico glanced at everyone, as if worried what they might say when he was gone.
Leo pulled a screwdriver from his belt. "So much for the big team meeting. Looks like it's just us again. The O-G Camp Half Blood-ers."
"I'm more of an original than you are Leo."

Piper began to furrow her brows, deep in thought. Leo pursed his lips awkwardly at how quiet it had gotten. I gave Jason a pointed scowl and he squeezed her shoulder. "Hey, it'll be fine. We're close to Epirus now. Another day or so, if Nico's directions are right."
"Yep." Leo tinkered with his sphere, tapping and nudging one of the jewels on its surface. "By tomorrow morning, we'll reach the western coast of Greece. Then another hour inland, and bang—House of Hades! I'ma get me the T-shirt!"
"Yay," Piper muttered.
"Guys," she said, "I've been thinking about the Prophecy of Seven."
"What about it?" Leo asked. "Like...good stuff, I hope?" We could only dream. Every demigod on the ship had a part in that stupid prophecy, and I may as well have been named in it.
"In Katoptris," she started, "I keep seeing that giant Clytius—the guy who's wrapped in shadows. I know his weakness is fire, but in my visions, he snuffs out flames wherever he goes. Any kind of light just gets sucked into his cloud of darkness."
"Sounds like Nico," Leo said. "You think they're related?"
"Leo, leave him alone. You don't know him."
"Do you?" He retorted.

Jason scowled. "Hey, man, cut Nico some slack. So, Piper, what about this giant? What are you thinking?"
She and Leo exchanged a quizzical look. I knew people were unsure about Nico and his loyalties, but I was seriously getting fed up with that. Like, how many times were we going to discuss his true intentions?
"I keep thinking about fire," Piper said. "How we expect Leo to beat this giant because he's..."
"Hot?" Leo suggested with a grin. Hardly.
"Um, let's go with flammable. Anyway, that line from the prophecy bothers me: To storm or fire the world must fall."
"Yeah, we know all about it," Leo promised. "You're gonna say I'm fire. And Jason here is storm."
Piper nodded reluctantly. The ship pitched to starboard.

Jason grabbed the icy railing. "So you're worried one of us will endanger the quest, maybe accidentally destroy the worried one of us will endanger the quest, maybe accidentally destroy the world?"
"No," Piper said. "I think we've been reading that line the wrong way. The world...the Earth. In Greek, the word for that would be..." She hesitated.
"Gaea." Jason's eyes gleamed with sudden interest. "You mean, to storm or fire Gaea must fall?"
"Oh..." Leo grinned even wider. "You know, I like your version a lot better. 'Cause if Gaea falls to me, Mr. Fire, that is absolutely copacetic."
"Or to me...storm." Jason kissed her. "Piper, that's brilliant! If you're right, this is great news. We just have to figure out which of us destroys Gaea."

"Maybe. But, see, it's storm or fire..." She unsheathed Katoptris and set it on the console. "I'm worried about Leo and this fight with Clytius," she said. "That line in the prophecy makes it sound like only one of you can succeed. And if the storm or fire part is connected to the third line, an oath to keep with a final breath..." She didn't finish the thought, but we all understood. Either Leo or Jason would defeat Gaea. The other one would die.

"Okay...so I don't like your idea as much as I thought. You think one of us defeats Gaea and the other one dies? Or maybe one of us dies while defeating her? Or—"
"Guys," Jason said, "we'll drive ourselves crazy overthinking it. You know how prophecies are. Heroes always get in trouble trying to thwart them."
"Yeah," Leo muttered. "We'd hate to get in trouble. We've got it so good right now."
"You know what I mean," Jason said. "The final breath line might not be connected to the storm and fire part. For all we know, the two of us aren't even storm and fire. Percy can raise hurricanes."
"And I could always set Coach Hedge on fire," Leo volunteered. "Then he can be fire."
"I hope I'm wrong," she said cautiously.
"Well, what's the significance of Y/N?" Leo said, changing the subject. Well, not necessarily – more like averting the blame onto me. "The healer line, stopping the great finale, blah bleh blah–"

"I think that, however this ends, Y/N will be the final piece to the puzzle." She mustered. "It sounds cheesy but.."
I swallowed, nodding my head. "It's the best we have to work with."
The breeze picked up, pricking goosebumps across my arms. My nose was burning from the cold, so I turned on my heel and walked down the stairs. It was a little late for a grand escape, though.

"Leo, sound the alarm." Piper charmspoke. Leo immediately dropped his screwdriver and punched the alarm button. He frowned when nothing happened.
"Uh, it's disconnected," he remembered. "Festus is shut down. Gimme a minute to get the system back online."
"We don't have a minute! Fires—we need vials of Greek fire. Jason, call the winds. Warm, southerly winds."
"Wait, what?" Jason stared at her in confusion. "Piper, what's wrong?"
"It's her!" Piper snatched up her dagger.
"Who?" I shouted over the whirlwinds.

"She's back! We have to—" Before she could finish, the boat listed to port. The temperature dropped so fast, the sails crackled with ice. The bronze shields along the rails popped like over-pressurized soda cans. Jason drew his sword, but it was too late. A wave of ice particles swept over him, coating him like a glazed donut and freezing him in place. Under a layer of ice, his eyes were wide with amazement.
"Leo! Flames! Now!" Piper yelled. Leo's right hand blazed, but the wind swirled around him and doused the fire. Leo clutched his Archimedes sphere as a funnel cloud of sleet lifted him off his feet. It sucked me towards him too and our heads knocked together, causing an immediate- brain freeze, in the foreground of my brain.

"Hey!" he yelled. "Hey! Let me go!"
Piper ran toward us, but a voice in the storm said, "Oh, yes, Leo Valdez. I will let you go permanently." Leo shot skyward, like he'd been launched from a catapult. He disappeared into the clouds.
"No!" Piper raised her knife, but there was nothing to attack.
"Piper?" I shouted from the funnel of cloud as it began to raise me higher. Then it blasted me through the storm and into the sky, where I could faintly hear Leo's girly screams from down below me.