Burning Passion: A Leo Valdez Love Story

Chapter 25

"Go on, Professor Grace!" he said, wide-eyed. "I wanna get an A on the test."

{LEO}

Naia gasped.

I turned around and looked at Naia. She was sitting up, staring into space. She looked troubled.

"What's wrong?" I asked her.

"I just had a dream," she said. "Hekate's almost free. And she's going to hurt you..."

"It'll be alright," I told her. "I'll just hit her with my supersized Mcshizzle-ness."

Relievingly, Naia grinned, although it was a small grin, and she still looked distressed. But it still relieved me. I didn't like when she was worried, because she was usually right. "You do that," she says.

"I will." I patted her shoulder. "It's still dark, try and get some more sleep."

"It's okay, I won't be able to sleep. I'll take watch now," she said.

"Okay, fine. If you're sure." She nodded.

I lay down on my blanket, looking up at the stars through the hole in the rock.

"See that group of stars right there?" I pointed to the sky. Naia leaned down next to me and looked up. "Yes."

"They're probably a constellation... but u have no idea what."

She laughed. "We have an astronomer in our midst. Try and get some sleep, Leo."

"Okay."

I fell into a restless, dreamless sleep, and when I woke up it felt as if I'd only closed my eyes for a few minutes.

"Time to go," Naia said in a singsongy voice. She was standing above me, her stuff packed up and her backpack slung on her shoulder.

I rolled off my blanket and stuck it in my backpack. "I wish I could have a shower," I muttered.

"I'd kill for one right now," Naia said. She sighed. "But not until we're done with this quest."

I nodded, and stood up next to her. And then we walked down the tunnel.

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A few minutes later I stopped in mid-step. "What's that smell?"

Naia sniffed the air. "It smells familiar..." she paled. "We have to get out of here, right now!" She grabbed my arm and started running.

"What is it?" I panted.

"It's the poison. I recognize the smell. Hekate's..." she didn't say it, although we were both thinking it: Hekate's trying to kill me.

I ran faster at that thought. "How will she get me to take it?"

"I don't know, just keep running the way Mnemosyne pointed us!" she cried. "The cure's that way."

"Okay." I nodded. "Find Esmeralda. She'll have the cure. Of course. At least it's simple, if not easy..."

Naia gripped my arm tightly. I could tell by her face that she felt helpless, like I did, but worse than I felt, because she fully understood what was going on, and thought it was her fault. Really, it was her mom's, but Naia was the kind of person that would blame everything on herself. I tended to do that, too.

Then I smelled it again. Stronger, this time. Was someone, maybe a lamia, walking behind us, ready to shove a vial of it down my throat or something? I looked back. There was a stormy grey cloud/fog/mist thing that was rapidly approaching us.

"Naia, behind us," I whispered.

She looked back and her eyes went wide. "So that's how she's trying to do it. Clever." She bit her lip. "I guess we'll have to outrun it. You okay?"

"I'm okay." I moved my arm so she was holding my hand. I squeezed it. "We'll be fine."

We ran as quickly as we could through the Labyrinth, trying to escape a cloud of poison that was supposed to kill me. Occasionally I looked at Naia. Her face was pale. So many emotions passed across it, trying to read her feelings was like trying to figure out which herbs were used in a burrito filling.

Suddenly we came to a sudden stop; there was a wall in front of us, and no other ways to go. "Did we take a wrong turn?" I asked worriedly.

Naia shook her head. "No. There were no forks in the road..."

"The poison cloud thing's coming," I warned her, looking back.

"I know! We have to get out of here." She ran her hand against the wall. "Maybe this is a door..."

"Hurry," I told her.

"I'm trying, I'm trying!" She pushed the wall, hit it, kicked it, nothing happened. By then the poisoned fog thingy was about ten yards behind us, and gaining on us fast.

Finally, something cracked. "It's thin stone here!" Naia said. She looked back at me. "Give me a hammer or something..."

Then she screamed. I felt a sting throughout my entire body, and looked around frantically. The poison cloud had enveloped me. Naia tried to grab me, pull me away, but it was like the fog had turned solid. She couldn't penetrate it.

I felt myself losing consciousness, and fell to the ground. The last thing I remember was Naia's worried face looking down at me as she caught me.

⋆⋆⋆a/n⋆⋆⋆

double updates today, next part coming soon! O.O is Leo dead?
(also, sorry, that chapter wasn't great)