madness and ecstasy // leo valdez

-What If...Apollo paid attention?-

pov's are a little messy but this is three consistent updates in a row lets gooo <3

 ⋆˖⁺‧₊🧋🛠️🕯️🍂🥠₊‧⁺˖⋆

________________________________________________________________________________

They found the island deserted. Maybe because the seas were too choppy for the tourist boats.

Frank had flown over them giant-eagle style, but Leo and Teqi had hitched a ride with Hazel on Arion's back. After the fiasco at Fort Sumter Leo had become a conscientious objector to riding giant eagles. He had a one hundred percent failure rate.

Sitting there with the ocean spray on his face and scenery flying past at the speed of light, he couldn't help but think of the last time they'd done this. Galloping from the Argo II to a small island, only this time he was crossing his fingers they weren't going to be chased back off it by a hoard of angry boy obsessed nymphs.

The windswept hills were barren except for rocks, grass and wildflowers – nymph-less ones, and, of course, a bunch of crumbling temples. The rubble was probably very impressive, but, ever since Olympia, Leo had been on ancient ruins overload. He was so done with white marble columns. He wanted to get back to the U.S., where the oldest buildings were the public schools and McDonald's.

They walked down an avenue lined with looming white stone lions; their faces weathered almost featureless.

"It's eerie," Hazel said, pulling her scarf tighter around her. The wind blew her hair into face.

"Ghosts?" Teqi asked. The thought made him shiver. And the cold.

She shook her head. "The lack of ghosts is eerie. Back in ancient times, Delos was sacred ground. No mortal was allowed to be born here or die here. There are literally no mortal spirits on this whole island."

"Cool with me," Leo said, rubbing his hands together until they felt like he'd pressed them against a boiling kettle. He heated himself up from the inside out. "Does that mean nobody's allowed to kill us here?"

"I didn't say that." Hazel stopped.

He reached for Teqi, to hold onto her sleeve and keep her warmer, but she was already trudging down the hillside. It had been carved into an amphitheatre. Scrubby plants sprouted between the rows of stone benches, so it looked like a concert for thorn bushes and one little rabbit that eyed them the whole time.

Down at the bottom, sitting on a block of stone in the middle of the stage, Will was hunched over a ukulele, plucking out a mournful tune.

Teqi clutched onto his arm tightly. "He-"

Leo covered her hand with his. "I know."

It took a little bit of higher thinking to figure out it wasn't Will Solace, it was only Apollo. To be fair, he had the same frame, the same light curly hair, the same freckled face. He even looked around seventeen. He wore a flowy white skirt and a band t-shirt.

Leo didn't usually think of the ukulele as a sad instrument. (Pathetic, sure. But not sad.) Yet the tune Apollo strummed was so lonely he thought of his first birthday without his mum.

Sitting in the front row was a younger girl in a silver jersey and a matching skirt, her dark hair pulled back into a ponytail made of plaits. She was whittling on a long piece of wood – making a bow.

When Leo tilted his head, the brambles behind her appeared to look like deer antlers sprouting from her head. He didn't know if that was on purpose or not.