𝗪𝗔𝗜𝗧 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗠𝗘 ━━ l. valdez

viii ━━ cautions issues, he stood shooting the messenger

04. chapter eight

━━━━━━━━ ( 💫 ) ━━━━━━━━

( leo's pov )

WHEN I SAW CAMILLE TUMBLING THROUGH the air and get snapped up by the mouth of the giant turtle, the world stopped.

From the deck of the Argo II, everything seemed to move in slow motion. Camille's scream echoed in my ears as she plummeted towards the sea, only to be snapped up by that monstrous turtle. I felt a cold, hollow emptiness spread through my chest, like someone had ripped out a part of me. I couldn't breathe, couldn't think.

I thought I screamed or made some sort of noise, but to be completely honest, I wasn't sure. Everything was a haze of terror, nothing registered.

I hoped for a moment that she survived, but I knew that there was absolutely no way she could have.

All I wanted to do was either hurl myself into the mouth of the turtle, or storm up onto that cliff and give Sciron a mouthful of fireballs.

I distantly heard Piper beside me, wailing. Alarm bells rang. Everybody was shuffling around. For once, I didn't move.

I couldn't remember what happened when Camille fell into the mouth of the turtle until another figure plummeted through the sky—the thief. Hazel must've got revenge for Camille, but it still felt like a dagger was plunged into my chest.

That was when two figures peered over the edge of the cliff. It was Hazel and another girl. It was Camille.

Camille had fallen into the mouth of the turtle, but she was still on the cliff? It didn't make sense. The realization dawned on me that Hazel must have manipulated the Mist to make Sciron see Camille falling.

My knees almost gave out, and I had to grab onto the railing to steady myself. I felt like I could breathe again, like the world had suddenly snapped back into focus.

The bandit was snapped up by the turtle just as we thought Camille was moments ago. We all cheered, more than ecstatic to know our friend was alive and that they had defeated the thief.

Piper was cheering and wiping tears from her eyes when she hugged me. Jason and Frank looked absolutely shocked.

When Camille shadow traveled her and Hazel back onto the ship—appearing right in the middle of the deck—without thinking I ran over and scooped her into a hug.

"Scared you?" Camille teased, reciprocating the embrace.

"Don't ever do that again," I said, but I was smiling.

Hazel, standing beside Camille, didn't look too good. She swayed like she had trouble staying on her own two feet. Frank rushed over and started fussing over her, hugging her, all that kind of stuff that probably would've bothered me when I first met Hazel and thought she was cute.

Piper, her eyes wide with relief, broke into a run and enveloped them both in a tight embrace. "I love you guys so much! Don't ever pretend to die again!"

Camille laughed into her shoulder. Hazel still looked woozy, but she smiled brightly.

Jason hugged Camille too. There was always some sort of bond between the two of them that I never really understood, but I noticed it back on our quest for Hera. They just had an unspoken understanding of each other.

Coach Hedge even came over and thumped both of the girls on their backs and told them they did a good job. He then proceeded to tell Camille that her baseball swing needed a little more work.