EURYDICE || Percy Jackson

11 - Medea

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MEDEA
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LAVIANA WOKE UP with her head leaning against someone's shoulder and a jacket over her lap.

Her eyes opened sluggishly and she straightened.

Jason was the one she was leaning against and Piper sat a little ways away, sleeping. Leo sat the farthest, his head down as if he were ashamed, while he made food. They seemed to be sitting in a sewer. The air was warm and dry, with a small trickle of water on the floor.

"What happened?" She asked tiredly.

Leo's head snapped up immediately and in hardly three seconds he was hugging her. He pulled away and gripped her arms. "I didn't kill you!"

Laviana raised an eyebrow. "Leo, I'm already dead. You can't kill me."

He ignored that. "But...but the fire. You just collapsed...I couldn't save you."

Laviana pursed her lips. She looked at her arms, which didn't have her jacket any longer (it was in her lap). They were slightly pink, but not bad. She had the feeling she had been lit on fire at least once before.

"I-I don't think it was the fire," she said. "I think it was casting so many spells with hardly any break."

Jason looked over. "Could be. The only marks you have that could be scorch marks are the ones under your eyes."

She frowned. She ran a finger under her left eye, across the bride of her nose, then to her right. She flinched when she found small indents, like tinie tiny scars. Scorch marks...Maybe embers had hit it once? Yeah, that sounded about right.

"So...you're fireproof?" Leo asked.

"Maybe," she muttered.

She recalled how the fire had only seemed a little tingly at first, but slowly it became hotter.

"I have no idea," she said. She glanced at Jason. "Leo...can you...uh?"

"He knows," Leo said. His tone made it sound like he wished Jason didn't. "Sure."

He opened his hand. A small ball of flame burst to life, dancing across his palm.

Laviana poked the fire with her finger, ignoring the boys yelping. She twirled the tip of the flame with her hand. It didn't hurt at all. She positioned her fingers above it and brought them into a fist, raising it higher. The fire grew.

Leo stared at her. "How did you...?"

"I don't know," Laviana said again. "I don't think I can create fire...unless it's with a spell. But maybe I can control it, to some degree. And you're not trying to kill me with it. Probably makes it easier."

Leo closed his hand and the fire went out.

Jason stared it it. "So it's true. That is so cool. Leo, why didn't you say anything?"

He shrugged. "Didn't want to look like a freak."

"I have lightning and wind powers," Jason reminded him. "Piper can turn beautiful and charm people into giving her BMWs. Laviana can do magic. You're no more a freak than we are. And, hey, maybe you can fly, too. Like jump off a building and yell, 'Flame on!'"

Leo snorted. "If I did that, you would see a flaming kid falling to his death, and I would be yelling something a little stronger than 'Flame on!' Trust me, Hephaestus cabin doesn't see fire powers as cool. Nyssa told me they're super rare. When a demigod like me comes around, bad things happen. Really bad."