Burning Passion: A Leo Valdez Love Story

Chapter 34

"She wanted me to betray you guys, and I was like, 'Pfft, right, I'm gonna listen to a face in the potty sludge'."

{NAIA}

"Think, think, think," I muttered. "Wouldn't it be nice to have an oracle or something with us?"

Esmeralda nodded.

I walked around the gods, who were acting like small children. It was terrifying that the most powerful beings in the entire universe could be reduced to this.

And almost as terrifying - I had to figure my life out in less than a year.

I was still slightly disbelieving about the whole death-on-the-seventeenth-day-of-my-seventeenth-year thing. But Rachel was an oracle. She knew more than I did, certainly.

I stopped in front of Dionysus, who was lounging around drinking a bottle of sherry. He looked up at me.

"Dad?" I said.

"Naia!" he replied. "I thought it was you." His words were slurred, making me suspect that he was drunk. But he wasn't as bad as the others.

"Do you have any idea how to fix -?"

"Shh!" He interrupted me. "It's not my fault, it's Hekate's. She's around here somewhere."

My blood seemed to run cold. "Where?"

"I dunno!" he said gleefully.

I walked back to Esmeralda quickly, and bent down to whisper in her ear, "we have to find Hekate and somehow force her to fix them, okay? And then we get rid of her."

She nodded.

Then greenish yellow dust started to swirl around us and Hekate appeared, smiling broadly and wearing a fancy lacy chartreuse dress and her hair in an elaborate bun-thing. "Did someone say my name?"

"I did," I told her. "You have to heal the gods."

"Oh, but why would I do that?" She pouted. "It would be hard to take control of the world with the Olympians trying to stop me. I'm just a minor god, after all."

I felt a tingling sensation in my hand, and held it up, almost unconsciously. Then a stream of purple light shot out from my hand and at Hekate.

She deflected it with a stream of green light, which hit me in the chest and I fell over at the impact. It was like a rhino had just gored me, but it left no mark.

"Naia!" Esmeralda called to me, rushing over. But Hekate directed the green light to her and she fell, her eyes fluttering closed.

"What did... you... do to her?" I said, gasping for breath.

"She's dead, sweetie." Hekate laughed.

No. She couldn't be dead. I dragged myself towards her, and checked her pulse. Nothing. Her chest wasn't rising or falling. She was empty. I tried CPR. But she stayed dead. I pulled her into my arms and sobbed into her short brown hair.

I felt empty. Numb. She was so young. Nine. And she'd died because of me. Another death. More blood on my hands. Another casualty I had to face. It was my fault, all my fault. Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.

Rage seemed to fill me throughout my entire body. I felt a newfound energy, and pulled myself up to stand and face her. "You're not getting away with any more deaths, grandma."

And I shot more purple light at her, encasing her in a ball of swirling purple gas. I hoped it was hot in there. I hoped she'd burn.

"Tell me how to save them," I demanded.

She laughed, but she seemed in pain. "You'd never be able to help them. And if you had the power, I'd never tell you."

"Well then, if it's so obvious I can't do it, why don't you tell me how?"

"Of course I won't," she snapped. I jerked my hand to the right, and Hekate flopped around in the ball roughly.

"Tell me, and I'll let you live."

She just laughed. "A little girl like you is not going to get in my way."

"A little girl like me has the powers of Apollo, Dionysus, and you in her blood. I think she will."

Again, she laughed, but she seemed a bit worried.

I looked into her eyes. "And since I'm descended from you, I think somewhat like you. And since I'm descended from Apollo, I can see how you think. And since I'm a daughter of Dionysus, I can make you go crazy. I think I'm winning here."

I closed my eyes and tried to expand my mind to hers. I heard her screech, and I heard feet running towards me. And I heard Hekate's voice, garbled and babbling, reduced to madness like the rest of the gods, but I understood. I knew what she was telling me. I knew how to cure them.

I didn't realize I was telepathic.

As I opened my eyes, I saw Esmeralda holding my free hand, her eyes closed and light pouring through her body into mine. I stared at her, wondering how she was alive.

"Thanks for saving my life," she said. I laughed, tears forming in my eyes.

Leo, Piper, Nico, and Connor had gathered around us, their eyes wide. And for the first time in my life, I felt like I wasn't alone. And I smiled.

And Hekate fell to the floor like a rag doll.

I stepped toward her, still holding Esmeralda's hand. "Remember what I said about sparing your life?"

She looked up at me, only her eyes moving.

"Well, I lied." I laughed, a laugh almost identical to hers. Then in perfect unison Esmeralda and I zapped her with purple and yellow light, and she disintegrated.

And all that was left of Hekate was a mound of dust. Sparkly dust, though.

Then I turned to the gods, and gripping Esmeralda's hand tightly, the two of us raised our free hands and waved them over everyone. I muttered an incantation, one of the oldest incantations. The one for sanity.

Aphrodite was first to snap out of it. "Piper! I feel sick."

She walked over to Piper and started to talk about getting her a new, even more dramatic boyfriend.

Then the rest of them started to heal. Dionysus dropped his bottle of sherry and coughed something into a pool, Apollo started to rehearse a (bad) poem, and Zeus and Hera started yelling at each other.

I laughed with relief and pulled Esmeralda to me and hugged her tightly, and then ran to the rest of them and pulled Nico, Connor, and Piper into a hug. Then I stepped in front of Leo.

"Not bad, Johnson."

"Oh, shut up, Valdez." And the two of us came together in a bone crushing embrace. I buried my face in his shoulder and started to cry. I'd actually killed someone. I was just as horrible as her.

"It had to be done," Leo whispered to me. "You saved us all."

"I know, but..." I looked up at him, taking in his features. They were comforting to me.

"Stop worrying." He kissed my forehead.

"So," Connor said. "Do we just go back now...?"

I shrugged. "I guess so. I think the gods can figure things out from here."

I hoped so. I hoped everything was done.

⋆⋆⋆a/n⋆⋆⋆

So, was that too rushed, that solution? It felt like it was, but... I needed to end it and I'm bad at tension. Sorry. :/

Anyway, tell me what you thought! Feedback is, as always, appreciated, especially with iffy chapters like these...

I'm so proud of myself for updating in time!

Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!