Salutations! So I've decided to be generous and give you guys an extra chapter this week, especially since so many of you seem eager for the update. And since I can't deny you guys, I will happily oblige and spoil you with this chapter. But be warned, you should be more careful what you wish for, especially since I won't be able to update for a while again.
Enjoy, my dears, enjoy!
Chapter 14
Reyna and Leo walked up in silence; it was only broken by Celeste's little quips here and there about facts about Hawaii. Reyna walked with eyes lowered to the ground, desperately trying to figure out why her boyfriend was here; Leo walked poker-straight, eyes locked ahead and jaw clenched. That stupid little cabrón was ruining this quest! Granted, there was not much to be ruined seeing as it was almost suicidally dangerous, but he would rather face a thousand cherufes than see Victor with Reyna. The last time he had seen a woman in someone else's arms…. His eyes closed in painful remembrance, and he let the scenes from the past play through his mind in order to escape his current anger….
"Leo, you shouldn't have come back." Calypso said, biting her lip. Leo felt his world crumble underneath his feet, and it took all of his willpower not to crumple at her feet. "Calypso…" he said, his voice full of pain, "Why not? Did you think I would just leave you?" She looked up at him with red-rimmed eyes. "I thought you weren't coming back, no one ever finds Ogygia twice! How was I to know that you could?" she asked angrily, swiping at the tears in her eyes. Leo felt his heart break at the sight of her tears. "Well, I did. So what's the problem?" Her lips trembled, and she let out a shaky breath. Then, she fell down on her knees and buried her face in her hands. "Leo… Leo… I'm so sorry, I'm so so sorry.." she sobbed. Leo quickly kneeled down and took her in his arms, ignoring how she recoiled from his touch. "Hey, hey sunshine," he spoke in soothing tones, "You did nothing wrong, mi amor." She looked up at him disbelievingly. "Yes, yes I did!" She threw her hands up in the air and began to curse the gods, using more colorful language than Leo thought possible. "Why send him back! You knew! You knew! You knew!" She screamed at the sky, ignoring Leo's hurt and confused stare; what on earth was she going on about? Finally, Calypso turned to him. Her eyes teared at the sight of him again. Taking a couple deep breaths, she opened her mouth to speak, until a masculine voice cut her off.
"Hey babe! Who are you yelling at?"
"Leo?" Reyna's voice shook him out of the past, and the sight of her calm dark eyes almost sent him over the edge; even so, it took a massive amount of mental focus to pull himself back into the present and not start firing at things. His own eyes must have been pretty terrifying, because both Reyna and Celeste took a step back.
Celeste eyed his curled fists. "Be careful, son of Hephaestus. Your fire powers will alert him if you use them."
"Leo?" Reyna softly questioned again. "What is it?"
Leo looked her dead in the eyes. "Ogygia." he said flatly. Reyna nodded in comprehension, and looked unsure of what to say. She started to reach for his hand… Leo snatched it away as fast as possible and stuffed his hands in his pockets. He didn't want her pity; he didn't want anyone's pity! Reyna looked a bit hurt by his actions, but simply folded her own arms and looked away.
Celeste quickly glanced between the couple. For a child of fire, he can be pretty cold. "We're almost here." she spoke quietly, not wanting to arouse any more anger. This seemed to placate them both, and they nodded and kept walking.
Finally, they reacked the summit. They heard a pair of voices, soon seeing a beautiful golden-haired woman chatting amiably with none other than Victor frickin' Sage. Leo felt his vision turn red slightly, and told himself to stop acting this way; Reyna wouldn't like it.
"Victor?" Reyna called in a questioning voice. He turned sharply, said goodbye to Solange, and running over to them, picking up Reyna in a hug and bringing her close for a kiss; Leo turned away and walked onward to Solange, beginning to strike up a conversation. Reyna removed herself from Victor's kiss quickly and patted his cheek. "How did you get here? Why are you here?" she asked.
Victor chuckled and brought her closer. "I came to help you on this quest, and I have some ideas for how to get the shards." Looking over his shoulder, he spoke in lower tones. "And I don't trust Velasquez." Reyna gave him a glare.
"It's Valdez, and why not? He's been nothing but a gentleman."
Victor sighed. "You've only been with him for a couple of days, Reyna. You don't know him."
Reyna bit her tongue to keep herself from retaliating. Was he insinuating that Leo would do something to her? Or that she would be unfaithful? Leo would never hurt her, that much had been made clear in the brief time they had been together, and Victor knew she would never cheat on him. So why do this?
"We were doing fine on our own, and you don't seem to trust me." Reyna said a little harshly, trying to defend both herself and Leo.
"It's him I don't trust, not you babe, never you." Victor went in for a kiss again, but Reyna brushed it aside. She didn't want his pity. He took her hand instead and walked over to where Leo and the two sisters were talking. The sisters both looked up to see them and promptly cut off the conversation, leaving Victor and Reyna no clue as to what they had been talking about.
Leo had shuffled over to the other girl, and she smiled very prettily at him, but with a knowing look that made Leo feel uneasy. "My name is Solange," she said in a lovely voice, almost like she was singing. "We know why you're here, Victor was just telling us." she said breathlessly. Leo glanced over at the entwined pair and looked away disgustedly. The sisters looked at one another and giggled. Leo glared irritably at the pair. "What's up with you two?" he practically snarled. "Temper, temper, child of fire!" teased Celeste. "We know you like the praetor." Leo felt his cheeks burn, and tried vainly to deny it. "I-I do not!" The sisters giggled. "Of course you don't," sang Solange, smiling mischieviously at him. "Oh, for certain you don't," cooed Celeste, "That's why you are planning the ginger's graphic demise." Leo balled his hands. "So what if I am?" The sisters laughed. "My goodness, you really have it bad, don't you? Is Calypso so soon gone from your thoughts?" Leo's hair started to smoke slightly, his rage bubbling close to the surface. "She's never gone from my thoughts," he said in a deadly quiet voice, "She's always in my dreams and on my mind. Reyna is merely a distraction, that's all, if that's what you mean by 'I like her'." he finished harshly. Taking a deep breath, Leo concentrated, and his hair stopped smoking. "A distraction?" countered Celeste, "That's not true and you know it. I'm sure she'll figure out her own feelings eventually, but you need to accept your own, Leo Valdez." Leo looked at the two in disbelief. "What do you mean-" They cut him off as they looked up, and he turned see Reyna and Victor, hand in hand.
"What's up?" Victor asked, glancing at the trio. The sisters looked disapprovingly at him, and Leo felt briefly pleased that no matter what nonsense they spoke, they were on his side.
"We can guide you no further than the mouth of the volcano," began Solange, "the rest is up to you." She and her sister turned and began to walk with Leo, leaving Reyna and Victor behind. Reyna felt a twinge of fury when she saw the two girls loop their arms through Leo's, becoming even more angered when she saw him laugh and wink at the sisters. Why couldn't she get him to cheer up like that? Was her company not good enough for him? Victor was looking ahead and deep in thought, so Reyna was allowed to smolder in silence.
Upon reaching the crater, the Celeste and Solange each gave Leo a peck on the cheek (Reyna briefly wondered how much trouble she would get in if she killed Apollo's daughters here and now) and wished the trio the best before vanishing into thin air. Leo leaned over the mouth of the volcano, muttering to himself and tapping his toolbelt. Finally, a rope appeared from nowhere, and Leo tied one end to a large boulder and threw the other down the volcano. Lowering himself down a few feet, he disappeared from view. Reyna peeked over the edge, ignoring Victor's protective arm, and saw a light as a signal to follow.
Grabbing the rope, Reyna lowered herself down, Victor went next. She felt herself descending into the darkness, hoping against hope that there was some sort of bottom to the rope. After a couple more minutes, Reyna felt a tug on her shoulder and almost screamed. She turned to find Leo holding a small flashlight and motioning for her to step off at this ledge. He reached out and took her in his strong arms before gently lowering her to the platform. Reyna gestured upwards, and Leo let out an annoyed huff before making the same motions to Victor, who lightly landed beside them on the ledge. Leo beckoned the two of them forward into a small tunnel, where they began to walk.
"Leo," Reyna whispered, "Why aren't you using your fire?"
"Our golden sisters told me he could detect my fire powers," Leo said quietly, still looking straight ahead, "Better safe than sorry." After about ten minutes of walking on a downhill slope, the path split into two separate caves.
"One of these leads to the cherufe," said Victor, speaking slightly louder than Reyna was comfortable with, "And the other leads to the shard."
Leo looked sharply at Victor. "And how the hell would you know that? he growled.
Victor didn't seem surprised at the venom. "Because I just do. Reyna and I will go to the shard, you go to the monster." Leo looked he was about to tell Victor where to go shove it, when Reyna placed a hand on Leo's arm.
"It makes the most sense. You're the only one who even stands a chance of surviving the Cherufe. Please, listen to him." she spoke quietly.
Leo shook off her arm and mumbled curses in three different languages, pacing around the room before coming to a halt. "It's too easy," he muttered, running a hand through his dark curls. "We should have run into something by now… No all powerful monster wouldn't have at least something: A trap, a guard, or an ambush… Something! It doesn't make any sense!"
"Maybe we should be grateful that the ol' Cherufe doesn't have any brains then?" Victor suggested, taking Reyna's hand. "Can't you just accept it?"
Leo shot him a withering look. "I've learned not to take things at face value," he said darkly, "But if you think it's right, we have nothing else to go on." came the small sigh of defeat.
"Be careful," Leo warned as he started down the path that led to the Cherufe. "If you need anything, just yell."
Victor nodded and started to turn.
"You too. I-We don't want you getting killed." Reyna quickly interjected, ignoring Victor's look. Leo gave her a pitying glance and threw her an extra flashlight before heading down the darker path. The couple stayed where they were until his footsteps faded. Then, Victor beckoned to Reyna.
"This way." he said, and the two of them plunged into the darkness with only Leo's gift for light. Reyna felt herself clinging to the flashlight as if protecting it would somehow protect Leo from what he would face, something that could potentially end his life. A twinge of fear rang through her heart, and she prayed to her mother that Leo would be victorious. Victor said nothing, not even holding her hand as they went continued to walk. They both stopped when they heard something that bubbled like lava, but Victor pressed onward, and Reyna followed. Eventually, they heard a loud, barrelling laughter, which only continued to get louder until they turned a corner, and Reyna finally knew what a Cherufe looked like.
It was definitely a man of magma, but using man to describe it was really stretching it. The thing was human like in stature, but that was the end of the comparison. Steaming rocks stood out to form a gargantuan shape that looked like a half-human monster, with scalding lava peeking out from within the cracks of the being, creating an eerie, glowing effect that made the Cherufe all the more terrifying. Two molten-red eyes gave some indication of a face, and a leering fiery smile folded the face almost in half. Sharp stalagmites hung towards the end of the arm, forming dangerously jagged claws, and even though the Cherufe was sitting down, it was obviously, menacingly massive. Worst of all was the tepid heat that seemed to be emanating from the beast itself; a hot, steamy, broiling fog hung throughout the domain.
Before Reyna could pull back, she felt herself shoved forward and into view; the Cherufe turned it's scalding stare in her direction.
"Well well well, what do we have here? A pair of brave little demigods come to my lonely lair? You shouldn't have." It gave a surprisingly bone-chilling laugh, especially since it was such a fiery creature. His molten eyes turned on Reyna, making her feel an all new level of terror.
"A virgin woman? Oh my, today is my lucky day!"
Reyna tried to control the shudders that threatened to rack her body; she needed to stay calm if she wanted any chance of getting out alive. To her immense relief, she felt Victor's arms around her. "You really think I would let you touch her?" he growled.
The Cherufe smiled and winked at Reyna, "Call me Pele, dear. I'm ever so glad you could come to see me. Unfortunately, I doubt you will get what you came for."
Seeing her cold stare, he leered at her. "I know you come for Gaea's treasure, or Terra, I suppose it would be to a Roman like you. Pity such a pretty thing like you will die so young."
Pele's eyes gleamed brighter. "Lucky me to get a pretty thing like you. It's been so long since I've had the company of a woman; Those damned sisters usually manage to prevent any from coming here. But not today, not today." Victor's arms tightened around Reyna to the point of pain, but she bit her lip and hoped he would release her soon.
Pele turned his enormous head towards Victor. "Are you going to fight me boy? Try to protect your lover?" he sneered, putting a lot of emphasis on lover.
Reyna looked up at Victor and tried to control the panic that was welling up inside of her. "Victor," she warned, "don't do anything stupid. If you love me, let me handle this."
Victor looked down at Reyna and smiled a cold smile, unlike anything she had ever seen before.
"Oh Reyna, if only someone loved you."
Ooooh bet you didn't see that coming! Please don't kill me! *ducks under a table* I'm just the author, not the... wait...
Okay, so maybe I planned this... but please Read and Review, and I will see you all again!
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