Haunted || Leo Valdez

60 - Leo Displays his Earthbending Abilities by Digging a Hole

"So," Hazel said as they walked. Rebecca could only see her by the glow of Hazel's spatha. "That got kind of awkward back there. Are you and Leo okay?"

"Well, yeah," Rebecca said. It felt strange talking about boys with Hazel. Usually they discussed the goings-on in the Underworld, Hazel's past life, and the modern devices and terms Hazel had discovered but had no clue what they were for. "I guess I was just excited to walk around Rome with him and he kind of ruined it by complaining a lot."

"Oh."

There was an awkward pause.

"Now it's awkward in here," Rebecca muttered.

Hazel chuckled softly. "You could probably say we have a talent for it."

"The Daughters of Pluto: awkward-izing rooms since... I don't even know, 1920-something?"

"1928."

"Right."

"It's not like Frank and I don't argue," Hazel said. "I mean, most of our arguments have been about Leo, but... yeah."

"I'm worried about him," Rebecca said. "Leo, I mean. All those creepy Ancient-Greek guys kept hitting on me, and I think it shook his confidence."

"Not to mention the whole thing about figuring out how he and I are connected," Hazel said. "I could tell that took a lot out of him."

"Yeah."

They kept walking until they reached a door. The door was interesting, much more complicated than the Roman numeral combination lock above. The entire door was coated in Imperial gold. A mechanical sphere about the size of a bowling ball was embedded in the center. The sphere was constructed from five concentric rings, each inscribed with zodiac symbols—the bull, the scorpion, et cetera—and seemingly random numbers and letters. Hazel frowned and held up her sword to see the door better. Rebecca peered closer, too.

"Those letters look Greek," she said.

"Yeah, you're right."

"Maybe we should--"

"Hi."

Both girls jumped. Hazel tried to swing her spatha, but the blade was too long to wield in the corridor. Rebecca had no problem with her weapons, though, and she'd pinned Leo to the wall before she noticed it was him.

"Gods of Olympus! What are you doing here?" she demanded.

Leo gulped. "Sorry. We ran into some angry tourists." He told them what had happened.

Hazel hissed in frustration. "I hate eidolons. I thought Piper made them promise to stay away."

"Oh..." Frank said, like he'd thought of something unpleasant. "Piper made them promise to stay off the ship and not possess any of us. But if they followed us, and used other bodies to attack us, then they're not technically breaking their vow...."

"Great," Leo muttered. "Eidolons who are also lawyers. Now I really want to kill them."

"Okay, forget them for now," Hazel said. "This door is giving me fits. Leo, can you try your skill with the lock?"

Leo cracked his knuckles. "Stand aside for the master, please."

He looked at the door, furrowing his eyebrows.

"These letters are Greek," Leo said in surprise.

"Well, lots of Romans spoke Greek," Hazel said.

"I guess," Leo said. "But this workmanship...no offense to you Camp Jupiter types, but this is too complicated to be Roman."

"Leo," Rebecca hissed.