You'll Learn to Love Me (Leo Valdez x OC)

Chapter 38: Girls Day Gone Wrong

According to the signs, the seaside park was called White Point Gardens. The ocean breeze swept away the muggy heat of the summer afternoon, and it was pleasantly cool under the shade of the palmetto trees. Lining the road were old Civil War cannons and bronze statues of historical figures, which made Annabeth shudder next to Laylana. The park itself wasn't crowded. Laylana imagined that most of the locals had gone on summer vacation, or were holed up at home. The girls strolled along South Battery Street, which was lined with four-story Colonial mansions. 

"Man, I would kill to live in some of these places." Laylana whistled appreciatively. 

"You and who in a four story house?" Piper asked with a smirk.

"Uh, me, myself and I of course." Laylana replied with sarcasm dripping from her voice. 

"Wow, not even Leo? That's crazy." 

"You kidding? Put Leo in a house that big and suddenly I'd be living in a place like Midas' mansion." Laylana shuddered. "Traps outside and maybe inside. Probably his latest machinery inventions too." 

"Kind of reminds me of New Rome," Hazel said, interrupting the two girls. "All the big mansions and the gardens. The columns and arches."

Annabeth and Laylana nodded. Laylana didn't see much of New Rome while she was there, but she saw enough to know what Hazel was talking about. Her stomach dropped again at the realization that they had attacked New Rome, and they weren't sure how that whole situation was going to turn out. It was relatively quiet otherwise.

Piper kept looking around like she expected an ambush. She had said she'd seen this park in the blade of her knife, but she wouldn't elaborate. Laylana guessed she was afraid to. After all, the last time Piper had tried to interpret a vision from her knife, Percy and Jason had almost killed each other in Kansas and Laylana nearly suffocated. 

Hazel also seemed preoccupied. Maybe she was taking in their surroundings, or maybe she was worrying about their brother. In less than four days, unless they found him and freed him, Nico would be dead. Laylana felt nauseous thinking about it. She didn't think she could stand losing anyone else after the war, especially with it being someone so close to her. She felt responsible for Nico in a way. Before his sister Bianca died, she had made Laylana promise to keep him safe, sheltered, and loved. She tried her best to fulfill that promise, and welcomed Nico into her family with open arms. But now she had lost him, and she didn't know if she would ever get him back.

Laylana was so deep in thought, she might have kept walking around the park forever, but Annabeth grabbed her arm. "There." She pointed across the harbor. A hundred yards out, a shimmering white figure floated on the water.

At first, Laylana thought it might be a buoy or a small boat reflecting the sunlight, but it was definitely glowing, and it was moving more smoothly than a boat, making a straight line toward them. As it got closer, Laylana could tell it was the figure of a woman.

"The ghost," Annabeth said.

"That's not a ghost," Hazel said. "No kind of spirit glows that brightly."

Laylana nodded in agreement. She had been to the Underworld numerous times with Nico, and she had never seen spirits glow like that. As if in a trance, Piper walked across the street toward the edge of the seawall, narrowly avoiding a horse-drawn carriage.

"Piper!" Laylana called. "The hell is she doing?" 

"We'd better follow her," Hazel said.

By the time they caught up to her, the ghostly apparition was only a few yards away. Piper glared at it like the sight offended her. "It is her," she grumbled.