Shatter my heart but please don't break it

Things We Gained From Leo's Fire

PIPER

Az helps me up and whispers comforting words as she strokes my hair and hugs me close. Eris gives us orders to go to bed and Leo stays behind. Hazel and Rachel fall in step behind Az as she gives me one final squeeze before she lets go of me to stay behind for Leo's final lesson.

"Are you okay sweetie? Do you want some tea or something?" I put up a hand to say that I'm fine. My tank top still has a big burned hole in it on the side which I think looks pretty badass but all I can really think about the way that Leo pushed me out of the way of the Hydra poison. I mean, it did hit my side but it would've hit my heart if he didn't push me out of the way. Hydra's have always freaked me out. Ever since I'd battled my first Hydra, they have easily been the scariest of monsters. Battling it with nothing but Katoptris had sucked. So I did what any girl would do: I screamed. Watching Leo kill the Hydra had been one of the sexiest things he'd ever done for me. I almost don't remember it thanks to the searing pain of the Hydra acid. I look down at my burned shirt and look at the small long pink scar.

"Hey can I have a minute with Piper?" Jason asks Rachel and Hazel who nod and leave quietly. He grabs my hand and squeezes it.

"Pipes, are you okay?" His eyes are filled with concern. Since I looked into Leo's beautiful modest coffee brown eyes, Jason's don't seem nearly as special.

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine." I look down at the ground and he stops me.

"Piper," He stops walking and looks at me with genuine concern in his eyes. "That was a very traumatic experience. Do you want to talk about it?" I look at him then back at the ground, shaking my head. He kisses my temple and and we keep walking towards the large yurt.

"Alright, what Eris says goes here, okay? So everyone get into your pajamas, and guys, you'll be sleeping on the right side of the curtain and girls, we're sleeping on the left side. Everyone, claim your bunks like Piper did, she put her thigh sheath on her bunk. I would put that on, you know just in case a G-A-E-A decides to bust down our door and attack us at night." I nod my head at Hazel's orders and I go over to a small curtained off area with my pajams. I slip out of my burned tank and athletic shorts and into soft crocheted shorts and a dark green cami. I look at the thigh sheath and slip it onto my leg, high up on my leg and slip Katoptris into the sheath and step out of the changing area.

I head over to my bunk and say a quick prayer to my mother.

Hey Mom. It's me, your daughter Piper. Thank you today for helping guide Leo in saving my life. That was real nice of you. If you could do that in helping me defeat She-who-shall-not-be-named? That'd be great. Love you.

I grab my ipod out of the large fanny pack and start to listen to Follow My Feet by the Unlikely Candidates. I look at the small book shelf by my cot and pull out a copy of The Di Vinci Code and start reading. At around one in the morning Leo enters the yurt and kisses my forehead in good night.

Finally the words on the pages start to get blurry and I fall asleep.

The Hydra is back for me.

But this time, it has my mother's sweet silver voice.

"Piper McLean, what a tasty surprise." She hisses.

"No, Mom, it's me." I'm frozen in fear as the Hydra lunges towards me. Time seems to slow down until it pauses completely. I hear Eris's words in my head: Gaea can't know your weaknesses. Time speeds back up and I grab Katoptris from my brand new thigh sheath and slide underneath the beast and stab it right in the heart. It crumbles to dust on top of me and then I see Leo and Jason.

They're fighting about something. Then Jason throws a punch that hits Leo square in the jaw. Leo returns it with a powerful upper cut and all I can do is stand back and watch as the two people I love the most beat each other to a pulp.