The Winged Warrior

Chapter 19

Dedicated to the amazing @EpicDevil62 for the incredible support!

Percy's POV

Me, Nico and Luke were sitting in the living room of the chaos cabin, our feet propped up leisurely on chairs, talking animatedly and eating pizza. We were considerably more relaxed tonight, as Will had told us that Leo's activity had increased. Apparently, he was now moving around a lot in his sleep, and that had to be good news, right?

"Hey, where's Lexi?" I asked suddenly, looking up from the slice of blue pizza sitting in my hand and staring around the room. "I'm sure she was here before."

"She told me that she had to take care of something." said Luke, shrugging carelessly. "She'll be back in a minute, I'm sure."

Just as Luke said this, there was a sudden rush of fast footsteps outside the door and Lexi came rushing in, her hair all over her face and her eyes wide.

"Guys, Leo's woken up."

There was a resounding cheer from around me as Nico grinned and Luke toasted Lexi's news with a wave of his Hawaiian pizza.

"That's brilliant!" I cried, hugging Lexi tightly, but she quickly escaped my grasp and shook her head.

"No, it's not like that." she said, and her voice shook. "There's something wrong with him. Will showed me but I don't know what it means. He was just laying there, on the bed, laughing. It was creepy, like he was possessed or something. And then Will screamed and ran away but I don't really know why."

"You don't know why?" Nico asked curiously, looking at Lexi's panic-stricken face. "What do you mean? Surely, if he just screamed randomly, it would be obvious why."

"Well..." Lexi muttered. "There was one thing. I don't know what it means, but when he opened his eyes, they were gold."

"WHAT!" all three of us yelled, Luke particularly, his face paling until he was the colour of chalk.

"Why, what does it mean?" Lexi asked us worriedly, staring at our shocked faces.

"Lexi." I said, taking her hand. "When Kronos took over Luke's body the first time, his eyes turned gold, too."

Lexi's free hand shot over her mouth as she gasped. "You're not saying... you're not saying that Leo is Kronos?"

***

All four of us, flanked closely by Adalind and Bernard, burst out of the chaos cabin and ran full pelt towards the infirmary, our frantic footfalls echoing around the camp like some creepy warning. We were shooting past campers in a blur, ignoring their startled cries as we drew nearer and nearer to the whitewash building that stood on the edge of the forest. But before we reached it, we skidded to a sudden halt.

Leo was standing outside. He was leaning casually against the wall of the infirmary, tossing a small object up into the air and catching repeatedly, a small, malevolent grin on his face. As we stopped next to him, he looked up, and grinned even wider at the sight of us.

"Well, well, well." He said, and sure enough, the gaze that pierced us was not the usual amused sparkle that Leo's brown eyes had held, but was instead a golden tone that was not interrupted by pupil or white, but was just one flat, shining stare that seemed to put all of us in some sort of horrified trance.

"I thought I'd see you here, Chaos warriors." He said, inclining his head in our direction. "I must admit I was most pleasantly surprised to find out you were here. It will make destroying this camp even more enjoyable."

"Get out of Leo's head!" I screamed, shaking with poorly suppressed anger. "Get out! He's our friend, not yours!"

"Tut, tut. Not really in the mood for sharing today, are we? Who is that behind your hood? I'm quite curious, you know. The fated son of the sea - now that's a title! But I'm afraid it doesn't come close to the Lord of Time."