Shot Through the Heart

Gods Help Us Amoriel's Angry

"Who is Aunt Rosa?" Hazel asked.

"Long story," He answered shortly. His hand was still intervened with his girlfriend. The only person he'd told about his aunt was Amoriel, and he wasn't going to share that story with a girl he barely knew. "She abandoned me after my mom died, gave me to foster care."

He had told Amoriel one night back at Camp Half-Blood all about his childhood. Everything that happened with his mom and his family shunned him because he was to blame. He had cried - a lot. But Amoriel hadn't minded, she had just held him close and wiped away his tears. She had listened to him even though she didn't know much about family. All she had was a mom she never get to know and a dad who even though loved her so much, can't be around her a lot. She couldn't relate but, she still listened to him. And it was sad how easily Leo loved her for being the first person in his life to even listen to him.

"I'm sorry," Hazel said.

Leo decided he didn't want to talk to Hazel about it. He had told Amoriel, and that was all he needed to say on the matter. He didn't need anyone else, he just needed her. "Yeah, well..." he tightened his hold on Amoriel's hand who was looking at him sadly. "What about you?" He changed the subject. "What Nemesis said about your brother?"

Hazel blinked hard. "Nico...he found me in the Underworld. He brought me back to the mortal world, convinced the Romans at Camp Jupiter to accept me, and Amoriel took me under her wings. I owe them for my second chance at life. If Nemesis is right, and Nico's in danger... We have to help him."

"Please don't," Leo said, the idea made him uneasy. "Don't die." He doubted the revenge goddess ever gave advice out of the goodness of her heart. "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..."

Amoriel turned to Hazel and looked right into her gold eyes. "Hey, nothing's gonna happen to him. I'll protect you two 'til my last breath, okay? I'll die before that happens."

What Amoriel said visually relaxed Hazel. The shorter girl smiled at her and they kept walking

Amoriel climbed up a steep grass dune, and Leo tried to follow and lost his balance. Amoriel caught his hand. She pulled him up and they found themselves atop the rock, holding hands, face-to-face.

Those big green eyes of hers. He could lose himself in them.

"Um, thanks." He let go of Amoriel's hand, but they were still standing so close, he could feel the warmth of her breath. Oh if only they weren't on a super-important quest to save the world.

"When we were talking to Nemesis," Hazel said interrupting the two, "your hands...I saw flames."

"Yeah," he 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. Leo got the feeling she wanted to back away from him.

"We should keep going," he said. "I wonder what Nemesis meant about finishing before dark."

"And who is the cursed boy she mentioned?" Hazel added

Below them, a voice said, "Cursed boy she mentioned."

Amoriel looked up to see a young woman 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.