𝗪𝗔𝗜𝗧 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗠𝗘 ━━ l. valdez

vii ━━ no, i'm not coming to my senses

02. chapter seven

━━━━━━━━ ( 💫 ) ━━━━━━━━

( leo valdez and the quest for buford:
leo's pov )

I KNEW AN EXIT CUE WHEN I HEARD ONE.

i pulled a reliable trick. from my tool belt, i grabbed a flask of oil and splashed it in an arc in front of me, dousing the maenads. i didn't want to hurt anyone, but i reminded himself these girls weren't human. they were nature spirits bent on ripping me apart. i summoned fire into my hands and set the oil ablaze.

a wall of flames engulfed the nymphs. jason and piper did a one-eighty and ran. for some reason, camille grabbed my wrist and we ran right behind them.

i expected to hear screaming from the maenads. instead, i heard laughter. i glanced back and saw the maenads dancing through the flames in their bare feet. their dresses were smoldering, but the maenads didn't seem to care. they leaped through the fire like they were playing in a sprinkler.

"thank you, unbeliever!" babette laughed. "our frenzy makes us immune to fire, but it does tickle! trixie, send the unbelievers a thank-you gift!"

trixie skipped over to the pile of boulders. she grasped a rock the size of a refrigerator and lifted it over her head.

"run!" piper said.

"we are running!" jason picked up the speed.

"run better!" camille shouted.

we reached the edge of the clearing when a shadow passed overhead.

"veer left!" i yelled.

we dove into the trees as the boulder slammed next to us with a jaw-rattling thud, missing me by a few inches. we skidded down a ravine until i lost my footing. i plowed into camille who then ran into jason and piper, so we ended up rolling downhill like a demigod snowball. we crashed into brooke's stream at the bottom, helped each other up, and stumbled deeper into the woods.

jason, piper, and i were soaked, but camille was completely dry. stupid river titan abilities, no fair.

behind us, i heard the maenads laughing and shouting, urging me to come back so they could rip me to shreds.

for some reason, i wasn't tempted.

jason pulled us behind a massive oak tree, where we stood gasping for breath. piper's elbow was scraped up pretty badly. jason's left pants leg had ripped almost completely off, so it looked like his leg was wearing a denim cape. somehow, we'd all made it down the hill without killing ourselves with their own weapons, which was a miracle.

camille didn't even have a scrape.

"how are you completely fine?" i asked her hurriedly.

"river water heals me, doofus," she said. "let's focus on what matters right now or we're gonna die."

"how do we beat them?" jason demanded. "they're immune to fire. they're super strong."

"we can't kill them," piper said.

"there has to be a way," i said.

"no. we can't kill them," piper said. "anyone who kills a maenad is cursed by dionysus. haven't you read the old stories? people who kill his followers go crazy or get morphed into animals or... well, bad stuff."

"worse than letting the maenads rip us to shreds?" camille asked.

piper didn't answer. her face was so clammy, i decided not to ask for details.