WARNING: badly written but a rewrite is up on my page
REDAMANCY | Lorna and her friends are the demigods of the great prophecy. Together, they will sail to Rome, with a camp of demigods trying to kill them, to save a son of Hades, and follow the Mar...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
╔═══════════════╗
7. Narcissus
╚═══════════════╝
"Who is Galadriel?" Hazel asked.
Lorna didn't want to talk about her. "Long story," she said. "She was my step-dad's sister spawned from Tartarus itself. What about you? What Nemesis said about your brother?"
Hazel blinked like she'd gotten salt in her eyes. "Nico...he found me in the Underworld. He brought me back to the mortal world and convinced the Romans at Camp Jupiter to accept me. I owe him for my second chance at life. If Nemesis is right, and Nico's in danger...I have to help him."
"Sure," Lorna said. "And what Nemesis said about your brother having six days to live, and Rome getting destroyed...any idea what she meant?"
"None," Hazel admitted. "But I'm afraid..." Whatever she was thinking, she decided not to share it.
She climbed one of the largest boulders to get a better view. Lorna tried to follow and Leo lost his balance. Hazel caught his hand. She pulled him up and they found themselves atop the rock, holding hands, face-to-face.
"Um, thanks." Leo let go of her hand.
"When we were talking to Nemesis," Hazel said uneasily, "your hands...I saw flames."
"Yeah," Leo said. "It's a Hephaestus power. Usually I can keep it under control."
"Oh." She put one hand protectively on her denim shirt, like she was about to say the Pledge of Allegiance.
"Don't worry about it." Lorna said. "I can happily douse him with water."
Lorna found it weird that Leo didn't have any comments to what she said. He was looking in the distance, frowning.
"Leo?" Lorna asked gently. "You can't take what Nemesis said to heart."
He frowned. "What if it's true?"
"She's the goddess of revenge," Hazel reminded him. "Maybe she's on our side, maybe not; but she exists to stir up resentment."
"We should keep going," he said. "I wonder what Nemesis meant about finishing before dark."
Lorna glanced at the sun, which was just touching the horizon. "And who is the cursed boy she mentioned?"
Below them, a voice said, "Cursed boy she mentioned."
At first, Lorna saw no one. Then her eyes adjusted. She realized a young woman was standing only ten feet from the base of the boulder. Her dress was a Greek-style tunic the same color as the rocks. Her wispy hair was somewhere between brown and blond and gray, so it blended with the dry grass. She wasn't invisible, exactly, but she was almost perfectly camouflaged until she moved. Even then, Lorna had trouble focusing on her. Her face was pretty but not memorable. In fact, each time Lorna blinked, she couldn't remember what she looked like, and she had to concentrate to find her again.
