YOU ARE IN LOVE ↬ leo valdez x reader, book 2

2. dark room

"I'll be okay!" she called up to us. "Stay put and wait for me."
"Wait for how long?" Nico asked. "What if you don't come back?"
"Don't worry, I will," she promised. She spurred Arion and they shot across the countryside, heading straight for the growing tornado.
"I want to be her." I sighed.
Leo patted me on the back. "We can't all be horse girls, Y/N."

"What happened?" Leo asked as Hazel climbed aboard the Argo II. She was shaky and still looking at the faraway scene that she had returned from.
"Hazel?" Nico asked. Her knees buckled. Nico and Leo grabbed her arms and helped her to the steps of the foredeck. I took her wrist to monitor her heart rate as she swallowed slowly, recovering from the substantial amount of energy it was obvious she didn't have.
"I met Hecate," she managed. I sighed a quiet breath of relief. If a goddess like Hecate was in contact with us, it had to be good, right?

She told us about a secret northern pass through the mountains, and a detour Hecate described that could take them to Epirus. When she was done, Nico took her hand. His eyes were full of concern.
"Hazel, you met Hecate at a crossroads. That's...that's something many demigods don't survive. And the ones who do survive are never the same. Are you sure you're—"
"I'm fine," she insisted.
"What if Hecate is tricking us?" Leo asked. "This route could be a trap."
Hazel shook her head. "If it was a trap, I think Hecate would've made the northern route sound tempting. Believe me, she didn't."
"I wouldn't be questioning her moral code." I added. "Hecate's children back at camp are good people."

Leo pulled a calculator out of his tool belt and punched in some numbers. "That's...something like three hundred miles out of our way to get to Venice. Then we'd have to backtrack down the Adriatic. And you said something about baloney dwarfs?"

"Dwarfs in Bologna," Hazel said. "I guess Bologna is a city. But why we have to find dwarfs there...I have no idea. Some sort of treasure to help us with the quest."
"Huh," Leo said. "I mean, I'm all about treasure, but—"
"It's our best option." Nico helped Hazel to her feet. "We have to make up for lost time, travel as fast as we can. Percy's and Annabeth's lives might depend on it." 

"Fast?" Leo grinned. "I can do fast." He hurried to the console and started flipping switches. He hurried to the console and started flipping switches. Nico took Hazel's arm and guided her out of earshot, leaving me stranded on my own. Since there was no longer anything needed of me, I walked downstairs back to my room and slumped back on my/Annabeth's bed. It was beside Coach Hedge's room, so that was a definite not-bonus.
I wanted to get a few more hours of sleep before spending the whole night alert in the sick bay, ensuring that no rocks smashed into anyone's skulls. My eyes dropped shut and I plunged into a dark dream.

I was little. Before I knew I was a demigod, sitting on the front porch of my Grandma's house. My M/P (Mortal Parent) was at work and she had picked me up from school to take us for ice cream. I ordered my favorite flavor and it had almost melted by the time we had gotten to hers. It was one of those evenings where the sun was setting but as it's final goodbye it sent warm rays of sun from the orange skies to warm up the land. She told me the story of Icarus flying too close to the sun, and that he got ahead of himself, melting his wax wings.
"You don't be like Icarus, okay Sunshine?"

"Grandma, why do you call me Sunshine?"
"You're my bright little girl, Y/N. You'll do great things."
I remember how I felt when she said that. Firstly, I thought, what is this old lady nagging about? But secondly, and more importantly, I remembered believing her. I was gonna do great things.

The dream morphed into my friend from back at camp Gracie, the daughter of Apollo, standing by my side. She held an enchanted lyre that's music produced healing properties so powerful that they could cure almost anything. In my hands was a thick book bound by some kind of animal hide with a golden crest embedded into the front. Its pages were littered with scribbles of recipes, tips, advice and medicinal spells all hand made by Apollo himself. We walked up the grassy hill in the middle of nowhere to the man standing in a rich white robe with golden toned abs and his shiny gold hair was luscious and at his shoulders. He beckoned us toward him with his hands and he spoke in a voice that sounded as if he were everywhere as it echoed through every crevice of the valley.