You'll Learn to Love Me

Chapter 31: Nemesis and Leo's Terrible Ideas

The three of them couldn't fit on Arion's back, so Laylana decided to shadow-travel to the shore and waited for the other two. She watched Arion race across the water. Before they had left, Percy had pulled Leo and Laylana aside to tell them Hazel's story, something that Laylana already knew about. Percy made it sound like he was just doing them a favor, but there'd been an undertone like If you mess with my friend and sister, I will personally feed you to a great white shark. 

They finally made it to the shore. Hazel and Leo dismounted. Arion pawed the sand. "He needs to eat," Hazel explained. "He likes gold, but—"

"Gold?" Leo and Laylana asked in unison.

"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.

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

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

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

"WE, don't like that guy." Laylana shook her head with a slight shiver.

Hazel pursed her lips. "Never mind."

That made Leo even more curious, but he decided it might be better not to press her. He knelt and cupped a handful of white sand. "Well...one problem solved, anyway. This is lime."

Hazel frowned. "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. Suddenly he froze. Laylana quickly knelt down, placing a hand on his shoulder. 

"Leo?" she asked. "You okay?"

"Yeah," he said, taking a shaky breath. "Yeah, fine."

He started to fill the bag. Laylana and Hazel knelt next to him and helped. "We should've brought a pail and shovels."

Leo and Laylana smiled. "We could've made a sand castle."

"A lime castle."

Their eyes locked for a second too long. Laylana ignored the small pang in her heart, but shook her head. It was obvious Frank and Hazel had something going on. Whatever was happening between Leo and Hazel, it wasn't feelings.

Hazel looked away. "You are so much like—"

"Sammy?" Leo guessed.

She fell backward in the lime. "You know?"

"I have no idea who Sammy is. But Frank asked me if I was sure that wasn't my name."

"Who is Sammy?" Laylana looked over at Hazel with confusion.

"And...it isn't?" Hazel asked.

"No! Jeez."

"You don't have a twin brother or..." Hazel stopped. "Is your family from New Orleans?"

"Nah. Houston. Why? Is Sammy a guy you used to know?"

"I...It's nothing. You just look like him."

Laylana could tell she was too embarrassed to say more. But if Hazel was a kid from the past, did that mean Sammy was from the 1940s? If so, how could Frank know the guy? And why would Hazel think Leo was Sammy, all these decades later? What would that put it... A grandparent? Great-grandparent? Great-uncle? They finished filling the bag in silence. Leo stuffed it in his tool belt and the bag vanished. He stood, offering a hand to Laylana as Hazel stood up to. The girl smiled and took his hand, keeping them clasped together as they scanned the island—bleach-white dunes, blankets of grass, and boulders encrusted with salt like frosting.