Burning Passion: A Leo Valdez Love Story

Chapter 15

"Don't insult my ability to annoy. And how am I supposed to resent you if you go apologizing?"

{LEO}

Two long days had passed, and Lou had gotten a lot worse. Naia was a nervous wreck; she was even worse than when she'd found out about the quest.

I was trying to keep things light-key word, trying-by making multiple though equally horrible jokes and telling them stories of my different "adventures"-including Piper, Jason, and my encounter with the crazy Christmas maenads, but no matter how I tried, my heart wasn't in it, Naia barely noticed anything, and Lou was asleep with a raging fever most of the time, muttering things in her sleep.

I was really starting to worry Lou wouldn't make it. And if she died, part of Naia would be broken, and that part would never be fixed. She'd never be the same.

And I cared about her too, obviously. But I didn't know Lou as well as Naia did, despite the fact that we dated for several weeks. She seemed like a perpetually cheerful, generally nice, not necessarily the most intelligent girl ever, but one that everyone wanted to be friends with. I certainly had. But unfortunately not the way she wanted. If I had liked Lou, then my life (well, the romantic part anyway) would have probably been easier. But inconveniently we can't choose who we fall in love with.

But, I felt that under all of her perkiness, there was a deep, interesting girl there-nah, I knew so. I had only seen slivers of it; when we'd broken up, for instance, and she'd seemed slightly tired but she didn't let that affect her moods or anything.

That part of her personality was there, for anyone with half their gears working to see. Lou was a strong girl; I knew that. Anyone who got to know her knew that.

But was she strong enough?

Naia walked over to me and sat down. Her arched eyebrows were creased in a worried frown and her eyes were red-rimmed, which contrasted oddly with the violet.

"Leo, she's getting worse. I think we need help-like, professional help."

"Well, where are we supposed to get it?" I asked. "We're in a labyrinth, I doubt there are many doctors here."

"We could search for someone, or..." she looked at me desperately. "Look, I don't know, you help for a change."

"For a change? What's that supposed to mean?" I asked, glaring at her.

"Well, the reason she got hurt is because you weren't there to help. You were fiddling with that damn machine or whatever."

"Oh, so now it's my fault?" I demanded angrily.

Naia looked at me. "No," she said. "No, it's not... no..."

She looked close to tears, and looked down at the ground. Then she took a deep like she was about to tell me something she'd never told anyone else before...

But all she said was, "look, Leo, we need to think of something."

I looked at her. "Fine. You're descended from Apollo. Summon him and ask him to help."

"You think that would work?" she asked doubtfully.

"Can't hurt to try. We'll give him an offering and summon him here. Maybe he can help us."

She looked at me. I could see her thinking, see the machinery in her head working as she considered this.

"I... yeah, okay."

Then I glanced at Lou's sleeping body and sighed. "She'd never agree to it. She'd claim we should focus on the quest and not worry about her," I reminded her.