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Chapter no 6 – LEO

The Mark of Athena (The Heroes of Olympus #3)

โ€ŒRiding Arion was the best thingย that had happened to Leo all dayโ€”which wasnโ€™t saying much, since his day had sucked. The horseโ€™s hooves turned the surface of the lake to salty mist. Leo put his hand against the horseโ€™s side and felt the muscles working like a well-oiled machine. For the first time, he understood why car engines were measured in horsepower. Arion was a four- legged Maserati.โ€Œ

Ahead of them lay an islandโ€”a line of sand so white, it might have been pure table salt. Behind that rose an expanse of grassy dunes and weathered boulders.

Leo sat behind Hazel, one arm around her waist. The close contact made him a little uncomfortable, but it was the only way he could stay on board (or whatever you called it with a horse).

Before they left, Percy had pulled him aside to tell him Hazelโ€™s story. Percy made it sound like he was just doing Leo a favor, but thereโ€™d been an undertone likeย If you mess with my friend, I will personally feed you to a great white shark.

According to Percy, Hazel was a daughter of Pluto. Sheโ€™d died in the 1940s and been brought back to life only a few months ago.

Leo found that hard to believe. Hazel seemed warm and very alive, not like the ghosts or the other reborn mortals Leo had tangled with.

She seemed good with people, too, unlike Leo, who was much more comfortable with machines. Living stuff, like horses and girls? He had no idea what made them work.

Hazel was also Frankโ€™s girlfriend, so Leo knew he should keep his distance. Still, her hair smelled good, and riding with her made his heart race almost against his will. It mustโ€™ve been the speed of the horse.

Arion thundered onto the beach. He stomped his hooves and whinnied triumphantly, like Coach Hedge yelling a battle cry.

Hazel and Leo dismounted. Arion pawed the sand.

โ€œHe needs to eat,โ€ Hazel explained. โ€œHe likes gold, butโ€”โ€ โ€œGold?โ€ Leo asked.

โ€œHeโ€™ll settle for grass. Go on, Arion. Thanks for the ride. Iโ€™ll call you.โ€

Just like that, the horse was goneโ€”nothing left but a steaming trail across the lake.

โ€œFast horse,โ€ Leo said, โ€œand expensive to feed.โ€ โ€œNot really,โ€ Hazel said. โ€œGold is easy for me.โ€

Leo raised his eyebrows. โ€œHow is gold easy? Please tell me youโ€™re not related to King Midas. I donโ€™t like that guy.โ€

Hazel pursed her lips, as if she regretted raising the subject. โ€œNever mind.โ€ That made Leo even more curious, but he decided it might be better not to press her. He knelt and cupped a handful of white sand. โ€œWellโ€ฆone problem

solved, anyway. This is lime.โ€

Hazel frowned. โ€œThe whole beach?โ€

โ€œYeah. See? The granules are perfectly round. Itโ€™s not really sand. Itโ€™s calcium carbonate.โ€ Leo pulled a Ziploc bag from his tool belt and dug his hand into the lime.

Suddenly he froze. He remembered all the times the earth goddess Gaea had appeared to him in the groundโ€”her sleeping face made of dust or sand or dirt. She loved to taunt him. He imagined her closed eyes and her dreaming smile swirling in the white calcium.

Walk away, little hero,ย Gaea said.ย Without you, the ship cannot be fixed.

โ€œLeo?โ€ Hazel asked. โ€œYou okay?โ€

He took a shaky breath. Gaea wasnโ€™t here. He was just freaking himself out.

โ€œYeah,โ€ he said. โ€œYeah, fine.โ€ He started to fill the bag.

Hazel knelt next to him and helped. โ€œWe shouldโ€™ve brought a pail and shovels.โ€

The idea cheered Leo up. He even smiled. โ€œWe couldโ€™ve made a sand castle.โ€

โ€œA lime castle.โ€

Their eyes locked for a second too long. Hazel looked away. โ€œYou areย soย much likeโ€”โ€ โ€œSammy?โ€ Leo guessed.

She fell backward. โ€œYou know?โ€

โ€œI have no idea who Sammy is. But Frank asked me if I was sure that wasnโ€™t my name.โ€

โ€œAndโ€ฆit isnโ€™t?โ€ โ€œNo! Jeez.โ€

โ€œYou donโ€™t have a twin brother orโ€ฆโ€ Hazel stopped. โ€œIs your family from New Orleans?โ€

โ€œNah. Houston. Why? Is Sammy a guy you used to know?โ€ โ€œIโ€ฆItโ€™s nothing. You just look like him.โ€

Leo could tell she was too embarrassed to say more. But if Hazel was a kid from the past, did that mean Sammy was from the 1940s? If so, how could Frank know the guy? And why would Hazel think Leo was Sammy, all these decades later?

They finished filling the bag in silence. Leo stuffed it in his tool belt and the bag vanishedโ€”no weight, no mass, no volumeโ€”though Leo knew it would be there as soon as he reached for it. Anything that could fit into the pockets, Leo could tote around. Heย lovedย his tool belt. He just wished the pockets were large enough for a chain saw, or maybe a bazooka.

He stood and scanned the islandโ€”bleach-white dunes, blankets of grass, and boulders encrusted with salt like frosting. โ€œFestus said there was Celestial bronze close by, but Iโ€™m not sure whereโ€”โ€

โ€œThat way.โ€ Hazel pointed up the beach. โ€œAbout five hundred yards.โ€ โ€œHow do youโ€”?โ€

โ€œPrecious metals,โ€ Hazel said. โ€œItโ€™s a Pluto thing.โ€

Leo remembered what sheโ€™d said about gold being easy. โ€œHandy talent.

Lead the way, Miss Metal Detector.โ€

The sun began to set. The sky turned a bizarre mix of purple and yellow. In another reality, Leo mightโ€™ve enjoyed a walk on the beach with a pretty girl, but the farther they went, the edgier he felt. Finally Hazel turned inland.

โ€œYou sure this is a good idea?โ€ he asked. โ€œWeโ€™re close,โ€ she promised. โ€œCome on.โ€ Just over the dunes, they saw the woman.

She sat on a boulder in the middle of a grassy field. A black-and-chrome motorcycle was parked nearby, but each of the wheels had a big pie slice removed from the spokes and rim, so that they resembled Pac-Men. No way was the bike drivable in that condition.

The woman had curly black hair and a bony frame. She wore black leather bikerโ€™s pants, tall leather boots, and a bloodred leather jacketโ€”sort of aย Michael Jackson joins the Hellโ€™s Angelsย look. Around her feet, the ground was littered with what looked like broken shells. She was hunched over, pulling new ones out of a sack and cracking them open. Shucking oysters? Leo wasnโ€™t sure if there were oysters in the Great Salt Lake. He didnโ€™t think so.

He wasnโ€™t anxious to approach. Heโ€™d had bad experiences with strange ladies. His old babysitter, Tรญa Callida, had turned out to be Hera and had a nasty habit of putting him down for naps in a blazing fireplace. The earth goddess Gaea had killed his mother in a workshop fire when Leo was eight. The snow goddess Khione had tried to turn him into a frozen dairy treat in Sonoma.

But Hazel forged ahead, so he didnโ€™t have much choice except to follow.

As they got closer, Leo noticed disturbing details. Attached to the womanโ€™s belt was a curled whip. Her red-leather jacket had a subtle design to itโ€” twisted branches of an apple tree populated with skeletal birds. The oysters she was shucking were actually fortune cookies.

A pile of broken cookies lay ankle-deep all around her. She kept pulling new ones from her sack, cracking them open, and reading the fortunes. Most she tossed aside. A few made her mutter unhappily. She would swipe her

finger over the slip of paper like she was smudging it, then magically reseal the cookie and toss it into a nearby basket.

โ€œWhat are you doing?โ€ Leo asked before he could stop himself.

The woman looked up. Leoโ€™s lungs filled so fast, he thought they might burst.

โ€œAunt Rosa?โ€ he asked.

It didnโ€™t make sense, but this woman lookedย exactlyย like his aunt. She had the same broad nose with a mole on one side, the same sour mouth and hard eyes. But it couldnโ€™t be Rosa. She would never wear clothes like that, and she was still down in Houston, as far as Leo knew. She wouldnโ€™t be cracking open fortune cookies in the middle of the Great Salt Lake.

โ€œIs that what you see?โ€ the woman asked. โ€œInteresting. And you, Hazel, dear?โ€

โ€œHow did youโ€”?โ€ Hazel stepped back in alarm. โ€œYouโ€”you look like Mrs.

Leer. My third grade teacher. I hated you.โ€

The woman cackled. โ€œExcellent. You resented her, eh? She judged you unfairly?โ€

โ€œYouโ€”she taped my hands to the desk for misbehaving,โ€ Hazel said. โ€œShe called my mother a witch. She blamed me for everything I didnโ€™t do andโ€” No. Sheย hasย to be dead. Whoย areย you?โ€

โ€œOh, Leo knows,โ€ the woman said. โ€œHow do you feel about Aunt Rosa,

mijo?โ€

Mijo.ย Thatโ€™s what Leoโ€™s mom had always called him. After his mom died, Rosa had rejected Leo. Sheโ€™d called him a devil child. Sheโ€™d blamed him for the fire that had killed her sister. Rosa had turned his family against him and left himโ€”a scrawny orphaned eight-year-oldโ€”at the mercy of social services. Leo had bounced around from foster home to foster home until heโ€™d finally found a home at Camp Half-Blood. Leo didnโ€™t hate many people, but after all these years, Aunt Rosaโ€™s face made him boil with resentment.

How did he feel? He wanted to get even. He wanted revenge.

His eyes drifted to the motorcycle with the Pac-Man wheels. Where had he seen something like that before? Cabin 16, back at Camp Half-Bloodโ€”the symbol above their door was a broken wheel.

โ€œNemesis,โ€ he said. โ€œYouโ€™re the goddess of revenge.โ€

โ€œYou see?โ€ The goddess smiled at Hazel. โ€œHe recognizes me.โ€

Nemesis cracked another cookie and wrinkled her nose.ย โ€œYou will have great fortune when you least expect it,โ€ย she read. โ€œThatโ€™s exactly the sort of nonsense I hate. Someone opens a cookie, and suddenly they have a prophecy that theyโ€™ll be rich! I blame that tramp Tyche. Always dispensing good luck to people who donโ€™t deserve it!โ€

Leo looked at the mound of broken cookies. โ€œUhโ€ฆyou know those arenโ€™t real prophecies, right? Theyโ€™re just stuffed in the cookies at some factoryโ€”โ€

โ€œDonโ€™t try to excuse it!โ€ Nemesis snapped. โ€œItโ€™s just like Tyche to get peopleโ€™s hopes up. No, no. Iย mustย counter her.โ€ Nemesis flicked a finger over the slip of paper, and the letters changed to red. โ€œYou will die painfully when you most expect it.ย There! Much better.โ€

โ€œThatโ€™s horrible!โ€ Hazel said. โ€œYouโ€™d let someone read that in their fortune cookie, and it would come true?โ€

Nemesis sneered. It really was creepy, seeing that expression on Aunt Rosaโ€™s face. โ€œMy dear Hazel, havenโ€™t you ever wished horrible things on Mrs. Leer for the way she treated you?โ€

โ€œThat doesnโ€™t mean Iโ€™d want them to come true!โ€

โ€œBah.โ€ The goddess resealed the cookie and tossed it in her basket. โ€œTyche would be Fortuna for you, I suppose, being Roman. Like the others, sheโ€™s in a horrible way right now. Me? Iโ€™m not affected. I am called Nemesis in both Greek and Roman. I do not change, because revenge is universal.โ€

โ€œWhat are you talking about?โ€ Leo asked. โ€œWhat are you doing here?โ€

Nemesis opened another cookie. โ€œLucky numbers. Ridiculous! Thatโ€™s not even a proper fortune!โ€ She crushed the cookie and scattered the pieces around her feet.

โ€œTo answer your question, Leo Valdez, the gods are in terrible shape. It always happens when a civil war is brewing between you Romans and Greeks. The Olympians are torn between their two natures, called on by both sides. They become quite schizophrenic, Iโ€™m afraid. Splitting headaches. Disorientation.โ€

โ€œBut weโ€™re not at war,โ€ Leo insisted.

โ€œUm, Leoโ€ฆโ€ Hazel winced. โ€œExcept for the fact that you recently blew up large sections of New Rome.โ€

Leo stared at her, wondering whose side she was on. โ€œNot on purpose!โ€

โ€œI knowโ€ฆโ€ Hazel said, โ€œbut the Romans donโ€™t realize that. And theyโ€™ll be pursuing us in retaliation.โ€

Nemesis cackled. โ€œLeo, listen to the girl. War is coming. Gaea has seen to it, with your help. And can you guess whom the gods blame for their predicament?โ€

Leoโ€™s mouth tasted like calcium carbonate. โ€œMe.โ€

The goddess snorted. โ€œWell, donโ€™tย youย have a high opinion of yourself. Youโ€™re just a pawn on the chessboard, Leo Valdez. I was referring to the player who set this ridiculous quest in motion, bringing the Greeks and Romans together. The gods blame Heraโ€”or Juno, if you prefer! The queen of the heavens has fled Olympus to escape the wrath of her family. Donโ€™t expect any more help from your patron!โ€

Leoโ€™s head throbbed. He had mixed feelings about Hera. Sheโ€™d meddled in his life since he was a baby, molding him to serve her purpose in this big prophecy, but at least she had been on their side, more or less. If she was out of the picture nowโ€ฆ

โ€œSo why are you here?โ€ he asked.

โ€œWhy, to offerย myย help!โ€ Nemesis smiled wickedly.

Leo glanced at Hazel. She looked like sheโ€™d just been offered a free snake. โ€œYour help,โ€ Leo said.

โ€œOf course!โ€ said the goddess. โ€œI enjoy tearing down the proud and powerful, and there are none who deserve tearing down like Gaea and her giants. Still, I must warn you that I will not suffer undeserved success. Good luck is a sham. The wheel of fortune is a Ponzi scheme. True success requires sacrifice.โ€

โ€œSacrifice?โ€ Hazelโ€™s voice was tight. โ€œI lost my mother. I died and came back. Now my brother is missing. Isnโ€™t that enough sacrifice for you?โ€

Leo could totally relate. He wanted to scream that heโ€™d lost his mom too. His whole life had been one misery after another. Heโ€™d lost his dragon, Festus. Heโ€™d nearly killed himself trying to finish theย Argo II. Now heโ€™d fired on the Roman camp, most likely started a war, and maybe lost the trust of his friends.

โ€œRight now,โ€ he said, trying to control his anger, โ€œall I want is some

Celestial bronze.โ€

โ€œOh, thatโ€™s easy,โ€ Nemesis said. โ€œItโ€™s just over the rise. Youโ€™ll find it with the sweethearts.โ€

โ€œWait,โ€ Hazel said. โ€œWhat sweethearts?โ€

Nemesis popped a cookie in her mouth and swallowed it, fortune and all. โ€œYouโ€™ll see. Perhaps they will teach you a lesson, Hazel Levesque. Most heroes cannot escape their nature, even when given a second chance at life.โ€ She smiled. โ€œAnd speaking of your brother Nico, you donโ€™t have much time. Letโ€™s seeโ€ฆitโ€™s June twenty-fifth? Yes, after today, six more days. Then he dies, along with the entire city of Rome.โ€

Hazelโ€™s eyes widened. โ€œHowโ€ฆwhatโ€”?โ€

โ€œAnd as forย you, child of fire.โ€ She turned to Leo. โ€œYour worst hardships are yet to come. You will always be the outsider, the seventh wheel. You will not find a place among your brethren. Soon you will face a problem you cannot solve, though I could help youโ€ฆfor a price.โ€

Leo smelled smoke. He realized fingers on his left hand were ablaze, and Hazel was staring at him in terror.

He shoved his hand in his pocket to extinguish the flames. โ€œI like to solve my own problems.โ€

โ€œVery well.โ€ Nemesis brushed cookie dust off her jacket. โ€œBut, um, what sort of price are we talking about?โ€

The goddess shrugged. โ€œOne of my children recently traded an eye for the ability to make a real difference in the world.โ€

Leoโ€™s stomach churned. โ€œYouโ€ฆwant an eye?โ€

โ€œIn your case, perhaps another sacrifice would do. But something just as painful. Here.โ€ She handed him an unbroken fortune cookie. โ€œIf you need an answer, break this. It will solve your problem.โ€

Leoโ€™s hand trembled as he held the fortune cookie. โ€œWhat problem?โ€ โ€œYouโ€™ll know when the time comes.โ€

โ€œNo, thanks,โ€ Leo said firmly. But his hand, as though it had a will of its own, slipped the cookie into his tool belt.

Nemesis picked another cookie from her bag and cracked it open. โ€œYou will have cause to reconsider your choices soon.ย Oh, I like that one. No changes needed here.โ€

She sealed the cookie back up and tossed it into the basket. โ€œVery few gods can aid you on your quest. Most are already incapacitated, and their confusion will only deepen. Only one thing could reunite Olympusโ€”an old injustice finally set right. Ah, how sweet that would be, to see the scales balanced! But it wonโ€™t happen unless you accept my help.โ€

Hazel muttered, โ€œI guess you wonโ€™t tell us what you mean. Or why my brother Nico has only six days to live. Or why Rome is facing destruction.โ€

Nemesis chuckled, rising and swinging her sack of cookies over her shoulder. โ€œOh, itโ€™s all connected, Hazel Levesque. As for my offer, Leo Valdez, think it over. Youโ€™re a good kid. A hard worker. We could do business. But Iโ€™ve kept you long enough. You should visit the reflecting pool before the light fades. My poor cursed boy gets ratherโ€ฆagitated when darkness falls.โ€

Leo didnโ€™t like the sound of that, but the goddess hopped on her motorcycle. Miraculously, it was drivable, despite its Pac-Man-shaped wheels. With a rev of the engine, Nemesis vanished in a cloud of black smoke.

Hazel bent down, noticing all the broken cookies and fortunes had vanished except for one crumpled slip of paper. She picked it up and read, โ€œYou will see yourself reflected, and you will have reason to despair.โ€

โ€œFantastic,โ€ Leo grumbled. โ€œLetโ€™s go see what that means.โ€

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