The newcomer ignored him and tighten her grip around the box. Now that she was closer, Leo had the opportunity to study her more carefully. Her forest green eyes shone with the light of twilight. Her hair flew in the air of the prairie and her traces were so defined and angular, Leo thought he could've easily drawn her on stone. There was something wrong with her appearance, though: her skin. The girl's skin was sickly pale, almost greenish, like she hadn't seen the sun in forever.
She cracked her knuckles "Well that should hold them up for a while, but we better get going"
Annabeth jumped in with excitement "Iris! You're Iris Hunter, right? I am-"
"-very welcome. I know. Now if you could just let me…" She dodged around a very disappointed Annabeth and drew her sword from her back. She traced a circle in the air with it, about the size of a human being and a glowing blue stroke appeared defining the course of her weapon. Inside the circle a void was created, with nothing but darkness within it. Leo's friends were way too stunned to react "Now, sunshines, if you've got any interest in staying alive I suggest you jump into the portal. I was really hoping to make it till dinner"
Nobody moved a finger. Who is this psycho?! Leo wanted to shout.
Finally Percy formulated his question for him "Who-Who are you?" he asked.
"We're not going anywhere with you until you give us the box back. Besides, as far as we know, you could be one of them" Jason intervened pointing at the monsters in the distance.
The girl, Iris, Annabeth her called her, laughed with no humour and threw Pandora's box at Jason who caught it in midair "Yeah, right. See, Jason, if I wanted you dead I wouldn't have done what I did. Or I could just kill you now but as you can see, you're all very much alive"
"There's no way I'm going in there" Leo said without thinking. And he shouldn't have done it.
In a heartbeat, Iris was a couple of centimeters away from Leo's face, a wild look in her eyes and a dead serious expression in her face turned Leo's legs into jelly.
"Now you listen to me because I'm going to say this only once. I made a promise that I would protect all of you, whatever it took and I intend to keep it. Like it or not. Not my choice, not yours. But you seven are getting away from this one and you can bet it is no good idea to defy me so get. Into. The freaking. Portal."
Leo swallowed hard but couldn't afford to take his eyes of the girl's. He heard as Frank cried in pain again and fell to the ground. Hazel kneeled down next to him.
"Guys, please. He can't take another attack" she begged with tears in her eyes.
The crew looked at Jason. He surely seemed more comfortable now that Pandora's box was back in his hands but he was still hesitating.
"We'll go" Percy announced in his place.
Iris smiled "Fantastic! Now if you, pretty boy, could make your way towards the black hole over there…" she told Jason and pointing at the portal.
He did as she ordered, not daring to look back. As his best friend, Leo could tell he was scared, but he tried to keep his head up for the team.
Jason took a deep breath and finally eyed Iris before jumping in "If anything happens to any of us. Consider your life over"
The mysterious girl wasn't bothered by Jason's statement, she seemed to, for the first time, respect the guy's words. She made a sign with her head for Leo to go next. In that moment he realized he wasn't scared. At all. Iris's orders seemed so clear to him he needed to do as she said. It felt somehow like magic. He had been under Piper's charmspeak before and this wasn't it. This was different. But he hadn't time to give it too much thought so he walked up to the portal and without looking back, he entered it.