True Blue ✷ Leo Valdez.

12 : Blaire Is Like Medea.

  WHEN THE GROUP DESCENDED yet another floor, Blaire took it upon herself to torture the boys back to sanity while Piper cornered the princess just out of earshot.

   Jason and Leo crowded around a rack of enchanted hats, giggiling like children admist a toy store.

    Leo placed a hat entirely made up of raccoon fur atop his mussed curls, smirking at his dopey reflection in the small rectangular mirror that was attached to the display. However, his joy was very short lived, for Blaire yanked the stupid hat from his head with a large amount of agression.

  "Wake up, you idiot," Blaire reprimanded him, snapping infront his face. "This princess is charm speaking you!"

   "Blaire, give me my hat back," Leo whined, his voice child-like, regarding her last words.

  "You, moron," Blaire scolded, "You and Jason are gonna get us killed!"

  Leo just shook his head, denying her accusations and offering a measley, "No."

   The Valdez boy grinned at Blaire, whose annoyance was increasing by a tenfold per second. His rosey lips were turned up into a lopsided smile, and his dark eyes were glossed over.

  Before she was able to continue scolding the boy, Jason spoke, "Hey, check it out!"

From a rack labeled distressed clothing, he held up a purple T-shirt like the one he'd showed up in his first day at camp —except this shirt looked as if it had been clawed by tigers.

Jason frowned. "Why does this look so familiar?"

   "Jason, it's like yours," Piper told him desperately, eyes wide in plea. "Now we really have to leave."

   "Nonsense," the princess waved her off. "The boys aren't done, are they? And yes, my dear. Those shirts are very popular —tradeins from previous customers. It suits you."

    Leo picked up an orange Camp Half-Blood tee with a hole through the middle, as if it had been hit by a javelin. Next to that was a dented bronze breastplate pitted with corrosion—acid, maybe?—and a Roman toga slashed to pieces and stained with something that looked disturbingly like dried blood.

    "Your Highness," Piper spoke, her voice uneven, brimming with nerve. "Why don't you tell the boys how you betrayed your family? I'm sure they'd like to hear that story."

  Like every other figure who was related to Greek Mythology in any way possible , Blaire thought bitterly.

  Her words didn't have any effect on the princess, but the boys turned, their intrest peaked.

  "More story?" Leo asked, cocking his head.

  "I like more story!" Jason agreed.

  They sounded like incompetent toddlers who were only now learning to speak. It was pathetic.

  The princess flashed Piper an irritated look. "Oh, one will do strange things for love, Piper. You should know that. I fell for that young hero, in fact, because your mother Aphrodite had me under a spell. If it wasn't for her—but I can't hold a grudge against a goddess, can I?"

  "But that hero took you with him when he fled Colchis," Piper recounted. "Didn't he, Your Highness? He married you just as he promised."

  "At first," Her Highness admitted, "it seemed he would keep his word. But even after I helped him steal my father's treasure, he still needed my help. As we fled, my brother's fleet came after us. His warships overtook us. He would have destroyed us, but I convinced my brother to come aboard our ship first and talk under a flag of truce. He trusted me."