"Leo XXXVIII," Katie read.
ONE PROBLEM SOLVED: the hatch above them closed automatically, cutting off their pursuers.
Hephaestus sighed with relief.
"That should slow them down," Poseidon said, shoulders relaxing a bit. "At least long enough to find Hazel."
"She couldn't have gotten too far..." Nico said, frowning worriedly despite himself.
It also cut off all light,
"Of course it did," Chris rolled his eyes. "Can't be a good secret passageway with proper lighting."
...Leo just hoped they didn't need to get out the same way they came in. He wasn't sure he could open the tile from underneath.
"You should be fine," Percy said. "I mean, this place was made by a secret cult. This tunnel probably leads to places all over Rome."
"...Not sure how I should feel about that," Nico admitted with a grimace. If the passage way was as complicated as Percy thought, who knew how long it would take for the trio to find him? Not to mention, backtrack to regroup with the son of Poseidon and the others.
Percy cringed and tried to correct himself. "Hey, don't worry, we're going to find you."
The other boy just nodded in response.
Frank must have turned back to human form. Leo could hear him wheezing in the dark.
Ares snorted and rolled his eyes.
"What now?" Frank asked.
"Now, the best thing to do is find Hazel," Annabeth said.
"Okay, don't freak," Leo said. "I'm going to summon a little fire, just so we can see."
"Thanks for the warning."
"Glad you're not a complete jerk, Valdez." Leo muttered under his breath, playing with his zipper.
Leo's index finger blazed like a birthday candle. In front of them stretched a stone tunnel with a low ceiling. Just as Hazel had predicted, it slanted down, then leveled out and went south.
"At least they won't get lost looking for her," Nico sighed.
...They made their way down the corridor, Leo going first with the fire. He was glad to have Frank at his back, big and strong and able to turn into scary animals in case those possessed tourists somehow broke through the hatch, squeezed inside, and followed them. He wondered if the eidolons might just leave those bodies behind, seep underground, and possess one of them instead.
A few demigods shuddered.
"They can't," Annabeth reminded. "Piper made them swear that they would never possess any of our bodies... Unless, their promise has another loophole?"
She warily turned to her mother. Much to everyone's relief, the goddess shook her head.
"No, while they can possess other people and objects, they are bound to their promise and cannot control you and the other six."
"Sooo, basically the eidolons are useless down here. I mean, what can they possess? Rocks?" Travis joked, earning chuckles and giggles from the demigods around him.
"Don't underestimate them," Hades warned, wiping the grins off their faces. "If they had found a way around their promise, than they are that determined to work around their disadvantage."
...After a hundred feet or so, they turned a corner and found Hazel.
Nico felt relieved hearing that.
In the light of her golden cavalry sword, she was examining a door. She was so engrossed, she didn't notice them until Leo said, "Hi."
Hazel whirled, trying to swing her spatha. Fortunately for Leo's face, the blade was too long to wield in the corridor.
"Woah, easy with that thing!" Apollo said, holding his hands up in surrender.
"That's demigod reflexes for you," Clarisse remarked.
"What are you doing here?" Hazel demanded.
"The eidolons are back." Percy explained with a scowl.
...She hissed in frustration. "I hate eidolons.
"Join the club," Percy said, crossing his arms.
"They are a pain, constantly haunting random houses, terrorizing the mortals," Hades griped. "Do you have any idea how expensive it is to assign damage control every time a 'ghost hunter' has proof of the supernatural?" he rubbed his temples. "And there's still photos circulating around."
"I keep telling you Father, you worry too much." Nico tried to comfort. "A lot of mortals don't believe in ghosts and would consider the evidence to be fake."
"And yet, there's still fools out there conducting séances and hunting for spirits they know nothing about." the god grumbled, resting his head in his palm.
I thought Piper made them promise to stay away."
"Oh..." Frank said... "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...."
"How are we going to get rid of them?" Percy said, exasperated.
"You can't. Hazel can order them to leave if she concentrates hard enough, but it would only work for so long before they come back." Hades tiredly sighed. "They're like roaches. Once they have their minds set, your only hope is that they find something or someone else to obsess over."
The demigods grimaced.
"So we're stuck with them for the whole trip?" Annabeth said with a sinking feeling.
"No, I took care of them." Leo assured, earning curious glances, even Hades looked caught off guard by his words.
Took care of them? Annabeth frowned. What exactly is that supposed to mean?
"Great," Leo muttered. "Eidolons who are also lawyers. Now I really want to kill them."
Nico snorted. "Kinda hard to do that since they're, ya'know, already dead."
Leo waved his hand dismissively. "Details, details."
"Sound pretty important to me,"
"Only if you let that stop you," Leo said confidently.
"Of course, how could I forget?" Nico deadpanned. "Anything is possible if you believe."
Leo snickered, Nico allowed himself to smile a bit.
"Okay, forget them for now," Hazel said. "This door is giving me fits. Leo, can you try your skill with the lock?"
The demigods briefly frowned.
"Giving me fits?" Lacy repeated, eyebrows furrowed. She really is from the past.
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.
Nyssa and Jake perked up, eyes slowly widening in disbelief.
Hephaestus stroked his beard. An Archimedes sphere... Haven't seen those in a while.
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.
"These letters are Greek," Leo said in surprise.
Jake's jaw dropped.
"Oh my gods," he breathed, slowly smiling.
Nyssa felt her heart racing in excitement, but she stubbornly shook her head.
"It can't be..." she argued. "It has to be a replica or some kind of coincidence..."
"Nope," Leo grinned, popping the 'p'. "It's a genuine Archimedes Sphere."
Nyssa's face went slack, eyes wide, and mouth hanging. Her brother laughed in disbelief. The siblings started talking at once.
"Oh my gods!"
"How is this possible...?"
"Leo! You found an Archimedes Sphere! A real Archimedes Sphere!"
"Archimedes' work has been gone for centuries... And one of them ends up being right here on this door..." Nyssa said, dumbfounded.
"You have to find a way to extract it from the door!" Jake said, hardly able to sit still. "The others are going to flip! If you can take it back to Camp, we'll have the treasure of a lifetime!"
"Are we still talking about a combination lock?" Clarisse said flatly.
"Geez," Leo laughed fondly. "If you guys are this worked up about the lock, wait until you see what's inside."
Jake and Nyssa's eyes widened dramatically, they take a sharp intake of breath. Leo wished he had a camera so he could take a picture of their reactions.
"There's more?!" they shouted in unison.
"Great, more stuff about Archimedes." Mitchell said dryly. He and the other demigods exchanged wary looks. The teens thought they had heard the last of the inventor in Annabeth XVII.
"Just wait until you see it," the son of Hephaestus said smugly, he gave Annabeth a competitive smirk. "Archimedes is the best inventor of all time, and this chapter will prove it."
Annabeth snorted and crossed her arms.
"Dream on Valdez," she teased.
"I guess," Leo said. "But this workmanship...no offense to you Camp Jupiter types, but this is too complicated to be Roman."
Leo's smirk wavered. He cringed along with the gods.
I could've worded that way better, he thought to himself.
"Pfft!" Athena placed a hand over her mouth, softly laughing to herself.
Annabeth ducked her head, feeling a wave of second-hand embarrassment at her mother's actions.
The demigods stared in disbelief, thrown off at the remark.
Frank snorted. "Whereas you Greeks just love making things complicated."
"Considering what just happened, we're going to let that go," Connor spoke up, earning nods from the other teens.
"Hey," Leo protested. "All I'm saying is this machinery is delicate, sophisticated.
"That's not making it better," Leo said flatly, rolling his eyes. Honestly just shut up.
It reminds me of..." Leo stared at the sphere, trying to recall where he'd read or heard about a similar ancient machine.
"It's a more advanced sort of lock," he decided. "You line up the symbols on the different rings in the right order, and that opens the door."
"But what's the right order?" Hazel asked.
"Hard to say, it could be anything," Nyssa frowned.
"That's what makes combination locks so annoying to pick," Connor complained. "The process of elimination is such a chore."
"Good question. Greek spheres...astronomy, geometry..." Leo got a warm feeling inside. "Oh, no way. I wonder...What's the value of pi?"
The demigods frowned, exchanging looks.
"Um... one point twenty-one gigawatts?" Travis guessed, scratching his head.
"What?" Jake stared at him as if he grew a second head.
"Er..." Percy furrowed his eyebrows. "I think it's three something something?" He didn't know the exact numbers, but he did remember how much of a big deal his math teacher made it on Pi Day. She played a stupid song off Youtube about it, Pi Day worksheets, and everything.
Leo shrugged. "Eh, closer than Hazel and Frank were."
...Hazel and Frank both stared at him blankly.
The Stolls snickered.
"Relatable," Connor said.
"Never mind," Leo said. "I'm pretty sure pi is, uh, 3.1415 blah blah blah. The number goes on forever, but the sphere has only five rings, so that should be enough, if I'm right."
"And if you're not?" Frank asked.
"Well, then, Leo fall down, go boom. Let's find out!"
The readers grimaced, but not even the prospect of an explosion could deter Jake and Nyssa's excitement. The siblings were beaming, waiting with baited breaths.
He turned the rings, starting on the outside and moving in. He ignored the zodiac signs and letters, lining up the correct numbers so they made the value of pi. Nothing happened.
Jake's shoulders slumped in disappointment.
Nyssa's smile wavered. "What...?"
"Don't worry, I did it backwards," Leo assured them. He rolled his eyes. "Don't know why I did that. Pi would obviously expand outward."
"Of course, it makes perfect sense." Travis agreed, nodding his head as if he knew all along.
"I'm stupid," Leo mumbled. "Pi would expand outward, because it's infinite."
"Duh!" Leo exclaimed.
He reversed the order of the numbers, starting in the center and working toward the edge. When he aligned the last ring, something inside the sphere clicked. The door swung open.
Nyssa might as well have been dancing in her seat.
Leo beamed at his friends. "That, good people, is how we do things in Leo World. Come on in!"
"I hate Leo World," Frank muttered.
Leo laughed "Lies!"
...The room was about the size of the forge back at Camp Half-Blood, with bronze-topped worktables along the walls, and baskets full of ancient metalworking tools. Dozens of bronze and gold spheres like steampunk basketballs sat around in various stages of disassembly.
Jake and Nyssa let out excited gasps.
I wish I could've taken them all with me... Leo thought wistfully.
Loose gears and wiring littered the floor. Thick metal cables ran from each table toward the back of the room, where there was an enclosed loft like a theater's sound booth.
...Leo was about to head toward the tables when he glanced to his left and nearly jumped out of his shoes. Flanking the doorway were two armored manikins—like skeletal scarecrows made from bronze pipes, outfitted with full suits of Roman armor, shield and sword.
Hephaestus was beaming with pride.
Nyssa focused on every detail, trying to imagine herself inside the workshop.
Jake was smiling so hard it hurt.
Annabeth took in the description with awe. She couldn't help but be reminded of Daedalus's workshop in the labyrinth. Even with all the data stored in her laptop, its information only scratched the surface of the inventor's work. Annabeth remembered the various laptops, easels with blueprints, uncompleted art.
It's too bad that place is destroyed now... she suppressed a sigh, thinking about all that work being gone.
Leo wiggled his eyebrows at her. "Well? Impressed yet?"
Annabeth feigned disinterest and shrugged.
"It's not bad," she admitted. "I mean, it's no where near as impressive as Daedalus's workshop."
He rolled his eyes. "Uh-huh, and you know that because...?"
"We've actually been there," Percy said, recalling the event with a grimace.
Leo turned to him in surprise. "You have?"
"It's a long story," Nico said with a similar grimace.
"Dude." Leo walked up to one. "These would be awesome if they worked."
The demigods winced.
Nico's expression darkened, mind flashing back to what happened with Bianca. "No you don't."
He said it with more force than he had intended, some of the demigods gave him uneasy looks. Nico shrank back in his seat out of embarrassment.
Understanding his reaction, Percy winced.
"Don't jinx it." Katie scolded.
Leo guiltily bit his lip and played with his jacket buttons. "Yeah, about that..."
The readers froze, Nico's posture went rigid.
"What? How could they be working now after all these..." Nyssa cursed under her breath. "The eidolons."
"Figures..." Percy scowled.
Frank edged away from the manikins. "Those things are going to come alive and attack us, aren't they?"
"Yeah," Leo simply said with a nod.
Leo laughed. "Not a chance. They aren't complete."
The demigods groaned.
"Okay, now you're pushing it." Clarisse said.
"It's like you guys are begging them to attack you." Chris added.
"I wish I had dismantled them when I had the chance," Leo said.
"Hindsight is twenty-twenty." Annabeth remarked.
He tapped the nearest manikin's neck, where loose copper wires sprouted from underneath its breastplate. "Look, the head's wiring has been disconnected. And here, at the elbow, the pulley system for this joint is out of alignment.
"Oh," Connor said with a blink. "When the eidolons possess them, will that make it harder to control?"
"You'd think that, but they were moving just fine when I was running from them." Leo complained. Hephaestus gave him a worried look.
"Why hadn't Archimedes fixed these?" Nyssa couldn't help but ask. The man was an inventor in the purest sense of the word, to hear him leave something incomplete seemed out of character. These could've been repaired in a couple minutes, did he die before he could complete them? Why would these mistakes have been made in the first place?
My guess? The Romans were trying to duplicate a Greek design, but they didn't have the skill."
The demigods cringed.
Athena grinned.
Leo groaned. "I have got to work on my people skills." Seriously Valdez, they're right there.
He took out a pen and started clicking it.
Hazel arched her eyebrows. "The Romans weren't good enough at being complicated, I suppose."
"Or delicate," Frank added. "Or sophisticated."
"It's true," Athena shrugged.
"Hey, I just call it like I see it." Leo jiggled the manikin's head, making it nod like it was agreeing with him. "Still...a pretty impressive try. I've heard legends that the Romans confiscated the writings of Archimedes, but—"
"Archimedes?" Hazel looked baffled. "Wasn't he an ancient mathematician or something?"
Some of the demigods groaned.
"Don't get him started..." Connor pleaded.
Leo laughed.
"Too late," Nico said dryly.
"He was a lot more than that. He was only the most famous son of Hephaestus who ever lived."
"And a famous physicist, astronomer, inventor, and engineer," Leo listed off, twirling his pen. "There was nothing he didn't do."
Frank scratched his ear. "I've heard his name before, but how can you be sure this manikin is his design?"
"It has to be!" Leo said. "Look, I've read all about Archimedes. He's a hero to Cabin Nine. The dude was Greek, right? He lived in one of the Greek colonies in southern Italy, back before Rome got all huge and took over. Finally the Romans moved in and destroyed his city. The Roman general wanted to spare Archimedes, because he was so valuable—sort of like the Einstein of the ancient world—but some stupid Roman soldier killed him."
"There you go again," Hazel muttered. "Stupid and Roman don't always go together, Leo."
Said demigod grimaced.
The other teens winced.
"Yikes," Chris breathed, brushing his hair back. "Did we act like this yesterday?"
At his question, the teens froze, thinking back to their own remarks. A few awkwardly looked away, others shifted uncomfortably.
Annabeth was not feeling any better. The more she recalled the things she said about the Romans, the more she wanted to face palm herself for her ignorance.
"It was pretty bad," Mitchell admitted guiltily, more to his shoes than anyone else.
Leo couldn't help but relate, he had done a lot of things he wasn't proud of in the past, and the books reminding him of that was like rubbing salt on an open wound. He awkwardly rubbed his arm.
"Well, at least you guys know better now." he lamely tried to comfort. The others reluctantly agreed.
Frank grunted agreement. "How do you know all this, anyway?" he demanded. "Is there a Spanish tour guide around here?"
Trying to diffuse the tension in the room, Leo huffed in mock offense.
"Dude, I am the tour guide," he boasted. Leo smirked when the others snorted and rolled their eyes. "I practically know everything there is about Archimedes."
"No, man," Leo said. "You can't be a demigod who's into building stuff and not know about Archimedes. The guy was seriously elite. He calculated the value of pi. He did all this math stuff we still use for engineering. He invented a hydraulic screw that could move water through pipes."
The demigods groaned in unison.
"Not again!" Travis complained.
"Katie, can we skip this?" Connor pleaded. "Please?"
Leo rolled his eyes. "Oh, so now you want to skip parts of the chapter. What happened to needing to hear every single detail for the sake of the future?"
Clarisse snorted. "We don't need to hear your nerdy lecture to save the future."
He turned to her in aghast.
"Nerdy?" he repeated. "I'm giving you a wealth of knowledge and you want to dumb it down to a 'nerdy lecture'?"
"But she's right. We already know about the Archimedes screw, we don't need to hear about it again." Mitchell said, he couldn't keep the whine out of his voice even if he tried.
Leo raised his eyebrows. "You guys were actually listening?"
"It's not like we had a choice, you and Annabeth were talking over the story..." Clarisse grumbled.
"Let's just get this over with," Katie sighed. She wasn't thrilled to hear Leo's Ted Talk on the greatness of Archimedes either, but it wouldn't be fair if she refused to read it after all what they made Leo listen to.
The teens groaned again in protest.
Hazel scowled. "A hydraulic screw. Excuse me for not knowing about that awesome achievement."
"Well, it has been taken for granted," Hephaestus began.
"Sarcasm, Hephaestus." Aphrodite pointedly reminded him.
"He also built a death ray made of mirrors that could burn enemy ships," Leo said. "Is that awesome enough for you?"
"I saw something about that on TV," Frank admitted. "They proved it didn't work."
"That's what I said!" Travis exclaimed, throwing his hands up.
"Ah, that's just because modern mortals don't know how to use Celestial bronze," Leo said. "That's the key. Archimedes also invented a massive claw that could swing on a crane and pluck enemy ships out of the water."
"Okay, that's cool," Frank admitted. "I love grabber-arm games."
Katie made a face. "Those things are always rigged."
"Not if you cheat," Travis smugly pointed out. "I could win you all the prizes in the machine if I wanted to."
She raised an eyebrow.
"Really?" her voice oozed with skepticism.
"Yeah, of course," he squeaked, hoping he didn't sound as nervous as he sounded (Connor's smirk said otherwise). "And I can prove it to you too! I know an arcade we could go to, it'll be fun."
Katie blinked. Travis held his breath.
"Yeah," she admitted after a long pause. "It would be."
The son of Hermes let out a breath he hadn't realized he had been holding. Connor patted his back and nodded his head in approval.
"Can we go back to the story? Please?" Phoebe said flatly. She would rather listen to Leo's fanboying than the two flirting.
Realizing they were causing a scene, the two blushed. Katie hastily continued reading.
Aphrodite pouted.
"Well, there you go," Leo said. "Anyway, all his inventions weren't enough. The Romans destroyed his city. Archimedes was killed. According to legends, the Roman general was a big fan of his work, so he raided Archimedes's workshop and carted a bunch of souvenirs back to Rome. They disappeared from history, except..." Leo waved his hands at the stuff on the tables. "Here they are."
"This is so amazing," Jake said. "What are the chances of finding all of Archimedes work? And still in such good condition."
"I know, it was awesome." Leo agreed.
"Metal basketballs?" Hazel asked.
Jake stared at the book in disbelief.
"They're not 'metal basketballs'," Nyssa said defensively. "They are Archimedes spheres! The Romans thought they were used for telling time or following constellations, but we don't know for sure because they were never tested to their true potential."
"Oh my gods, it's spreading." Clarisse said flatly. Nyssa ignored her and turned to Leo.
"You have to take these back to Camp," she said eagerly. "Get Frank and Hazel to help you take them to the ship."
"They can get the spheres later, right now they have to focus on finding Nico." Will reminded. Nyssa frowned in disappointment but she didn't protest.
[Leo]... "Guys, Archimedes constructed spheres. The Romans couldn't figure them out. They thought they were just for telling time or following constellations, because they were covered with pictures of stars and planets. But that's like finding a rifle and thinking it's a walking stick."
"Leo, the Romans were top-notch engineers," Hazel reminded him. "They built aqueducts,roads—"
..."Yeah, fine," Leo said. "But Archimedes was in a class by himself. His spheres could do all sorts of things, only nobody is sure..."
Suddenly Leo got an idea so incredible that his nose burst into flames. He patted it out as quickly as possible. Man, it was embarrassing when that happened.
"One more thing to add to the list of 'Things Nobody Need To Know'. Thanks Nemesis!" Leo grumbled sarcastically, he tossed his pen up and down in the air.
He ran to the row of cubbyholes and examined the markings on the scroll cases. "Oh, gods. This is it!"
Jake and Nyssa perked up.
He gingerly lifted out one of the scrolls. He wasn't great at Ancient Greek, but he could tell the inscription on the case read On Building Spheres.
Judging by the gasps from the Hephaestus siblings, this was a big deal.
"Leo," Jake said excitedly. "You have to take that."
"It won't take much space," Nyssa said. "Just put it in your tool belt!"
"Don't worry, I got them." Leo assured, much to his siblings' delight.
"Yes!" Jake fist pumped.
"I can't believe this is happening," Nyssa muttered with a wide smile. "This is too good to be true!"
"Guys, this is the lost book!" His hands were shaking. "Archimedes wrote this, describing his construction methods, but all the copies were lost in ancient times. If I can translate this..."
"I'm still translating some things, but I know how to make spheres now." Leo said. He grinned. "And grenades with different types of explosives."
Nyssa's excitement wavered a bit.
"Grenades?" she repeated, uneasily. After the ship being set on fire, she felt wary about having more explosives on board.
"Yeah, spray acid, shrapnel, I made some that explode popcorn." Leo added cheerfully, ticking off on his fingers.
"Why popcorn?" Percy frowned as the Stolls snickered.
"That can be deadly! Have you ever had a kernel stuck in your teeth?" the son of Hephaestus pointed out.
The possibilities were endless.
"I haven't even scratched the surface on the things I could do." Leo bragged.
For Leo, the quest had now totally taken on a new dimension. Leo had to get the spheres and scrolls safely out of here.
Nyssa and Jake nodded in agreement.
He had to protect this stuff until he could get it back to Bunker 9 and study it.
"The secrets of Archimedes," he murmured. "Guys, this is bigger than Daedalus's laptop.
"I wouldn't go as far as to say that," Annabeth said. "But it would be interesting to see what the spheres can do."
Leo beamed. "Wait'll you see them in action!"
If there's a Roman attack on Camp Half-Blood, these secrets could save the camp. They might even give us an edge over Gaea and the giants!"
The other demigods perked up.
"Really?" Chris asked.
"Yeah, this is from the same guy who made a death ray, remember?" Leo said. "Those scrolls probably has tons of cool ideas we could use against the giants."
"That's... true..." Clarisse begrudgingly admitted. "If we had something like a grabber arm against the giants or a death ray..." She slowly smirked. "Well, maybe we wouldn't need the gods help after all."
Said immortals made faces at the implication. They had been hesitant to fight against the giants, but the idea of their children being strong enough to defeat Gaea and the giants by themselves, stung more than needing their help in the Titan War.
"You wouldn't be that powerful, you'll still need us to defeat them." Zeus grumbled.
Leo grinned, wagging his pen at Clarisse. "See? I told you this was important."
"Yeah,yeah, I could've learned that without the long speech." the daughter of Ares retorted, rolling her eyes.
..."Okay," Hazel said. "We didn't come here for a scroll, but I guess we can take it with us."
"Assuming," Frank added, "that you don't mind sharing its secrets with us stupid uncomplicated Romans."
Leo and the demigods winced.
"What?" Leo stared at him blankly. "No. Look, I didn't mean to insult— Ah, never mind. Thepoint is this is good news!"
For the first time in days, Leo felt really hopeful.
Naturally, that's when everything went wrong.
"Of course." Percy sighed.
Hephaestus, Poseidon, Hades, and Nico tensed.
On the table next to Hazel and Frank, one of the orbs clicked and whirred. A row of spindly legs extended from its equator. The orb stood, and two bronze cables shot out of the top, hitting Hazel and Frank like Taser wires. Leo's friends both crumpled to the floor.
Hades and Poseidon stiffened. The god of the sea gripped his trident like it was a lifeline.
Ares sat upright, suddenly more alert than he had been before.
"No!" Nico exclaimed, drastically paling. His breath hitched and his heart began to race, mind immediately thinking back to Bianca.
"They're fine!" Leo hurriedly reassured before the readers could panic further. The son of Hephaestus moved his hands in a calming motion. "We're all fine."
Nearly everyone released sighs of relief.
Leo lunged to help them, but the two armored manikins that couldn't possibly move did move. They drew their swords and stepped toward Leo.
Hephaestus, Nyssa, and Jake grimaced.
"I'm fine," Leo reminded them, trying to keep the impatience out of his voice. He drew clouds on the back of his wrist.
The one on the left turned its crooked helmet, which was shaped like a wolf's head. Despite the fact that it had no face or mouth, a familiar hollow voice spoke from behind its visor.
"Why would it sound familiar?" Lacy asked with a frown.
Leo scowled.
"That was the eidolon that possessed me," he replied shortly, adding a tree to his drawing.
"You cannot escape us, Leo Valdez," it said. "We do not like possessing machines, but they are better than tourists. You will not leave here alive."
"Yeah, uh-huh," Leo deadpanned.
"That's the end of the chapter," Katie said. The others sighed and rolled their eyes in annoyance.
"I'll go next," Travis said, reaching for the book.
When their fingers brushed, the two quickly pulled away out of embarrassment. Refusing to look at Katie, Travis began to read.
"Leo XXXIX,"