WORTH | jason grace¹

13

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13. Leo's Secret

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Lorna wished the dragon hadn't landed on the toilets.

Of all the places to crash, a line of Porta-Potties would not have been his first choice. A dozen of the blue plastic boxes had been set up in the factory yard, and Festus had flattened them all. Fortunately, they hadn't been used in a long time, and the fireball from the crash incinerated most of the contents; but still, there were some pretty gross chemicals leaking out of the wreckage.

Lorna stayed at the doorway while Leo had to pick their way through and try not to breathe through their nose.

Heavy snow was coming down, but the dragon's hide was still steaming hot. After a few minutes climbing over Festus's inanimate body, Leo started to get irritated. The dragon looked perfectly fine. Yes, it had fallen out of the sky and landed with a big kaboom, but its body wasn't even dented. Leo said the fireball had apparently come from built up gasses inside the toilet units, not from the dragon itself. Festus's wings were intact. Nothing seemed broken. There was no reason it should have stopped.

"Not my fault," Leo muttered. "Festus, you're making me look bad."

Then he opened the control panel on the dragon's head. "Oh, Festus, what the heck?"

"What?" Lorna asked.

"The wiring, it's frozen." Leo said.

"Can you replace it?"

"I can replace the wires. That isn't the problem. But the charred control disk. . ." Leo gave it a thought. "Right," Leo muttered, brushing the snow off his shoulders. "Gimme a nylon bristle detail brush, some nitrile gloves, and maybe a can of that aerosol cleaning solvent."

"You're not talking to me, right?" Lorna confirmed.

"Unless you can give those stuff to me, then no." Leo smiled as he pulled out the supplies. Apparently, the belt's pockets did have limits. They wouldn't give him anything magic, like Jason's sword, or anything huge, like a chain saw. He'd tried asking for both. And if he asked for too many things at once, the belt needed a cooldown time before it could work again. The more complicated the request, the longer the cooldown. But anything small and simple like you might find around a workshop—all Leo had to do was ask.

Lorna watched as Leo began cleaning off the control disk. While he worked, snow collected on the cooling dragon. Leo cursed and summoned fire and melt it away.

"Holy crap! What?" Lorna yelled.

Leo snapped his head back and seemed to just realise that Lorna was still there.

"You-" Lorna gasped.

"Oops. The secret is out. Don't tell anyone. It's like a curse or something." Leo said.

"Wow." Lorna said while Leo continued working.

Leo was a fire-user. And Lorna was a water-user. They contradicted each other, which might not be a good thing.

"Wait. That's why Cal said you're a fire guy."

"Yeah. The first one since 1666 when London had burned down."

"You don't want to tell Jason and Piper?" Lorna asked.

"Great idea. I'll be like—Hey, guess what, guys? I might destroy the world!—why would anyone welcome me back at camp?"

"That's depressing." Lorna said. "Don't worry, everyone at camp. . . they'll have no choice but to accept you."

Leo shook his head miserably.

"Look. When I first got to camp, Percy and I exploded a bathroom on Clarisse. Then we got claimed by Poseidon, one of the big three. Everyone avoided us. But we still had friends. We still went to camp, caused a lot of trouble. I understand what you're going through, you may feel a need to like, prove yourself, but you'll have Jason, Piper, Annabeth and I."

"Annabeth. Really? That girl wants to kill me."

"Trust me, I do too." Lorna mumbled.

"Hey!"

Leo went back to fixing Festus quietly.

You're wrong, Leo, a voice said.

"What?" Lorna asked.

Leo fumbled his brush and dropped it into the dragon's head. They stood beside each other, but they couldn't see who'd spoken.

Then Lorna looked at the ground. Snow and chemical sludge from the toilets, even the asphalt itself was shifting like it was turning to liquid. A ten-foot-wide area formed eyes, a nose, and a mouth —the giant face of a sleeping woman. She didn't exactly speak. Her lips didn't move. But Leo and Lorna could hear her voice in their head, as if the vibrations were coming through the ground, straight into her feet and resonating up her skeleton.

They need you two desperately, she said. In some ways, you two are the most important of the eight. Leo you're—like the control disk in the dragon's brain. Without you, the power of the others means nothing. They will never reach me, never stop me. And I will fully wake.

"You." Leo said. "You killed my mom."

The face shifted. The mouth formed a sleepy smile like it was having a pleasant dream.

Ah, but Leo. I am your mother too—the First Mother. Do not oppose me. Walk away now. Let my son Porphyrion rise and become king, and I will ease your burdens. You will tread lightly on the earth.

Leo grabbed the nearest thing he could find—a PortaPotty seat—and threw it at the face. "Leave me alone!"

The toilet seat sank into the liquid earth. Snow and sludge rippled, and the face dissolved. Leo and Lorna stared at the ground in shock.

Then from the direction of the factory, they heard a crash —like two dump trucks slamming together. Metal crumpled and groaned, and the noise echoed across the yard. Instantly Lorna knew that Jason and Piper were in trouble.

"Leo! We have to go!" Lorna ran towards the factory.

Walk away now, the voice had urged.

"Oh, shut up, ugly!" Lorna yelled, as they ran toward the warehouse.