Alright, people. I haven't completely disappeared off the face of the Earth, I've just been busy/tired. My plan is to finish this, work on my Eyes of Violet series and then continue this in a new story following events. Can't say what 'cos spoilers, obviously, but I figured I'll prep as many chapters as possible and then post them regularly like I was doing with this one. I'm not abandoning, just taking a break :P
To Riordanlover16- No stress, Denise is very dead now XD We're back to fun chapters going forth now!
Leo and Louisa returned with enough cake samples to make Marie Antoinette cry. They had eaten their fill and then some, carting more home for the others to try, especially the chocolate one they favoured for the big day.
Will shushed them as they muscled in with paper bags, pointing at the sofa.
"They conked out about an hour ago," he whispered. "I have, like, a bajillion pictures. Wanna see?" He waved his phone, grinning brightly.
"Send me some," Louisa ordered, rubbing her hands together. This was blackmail material. Dark, scary Nico, prince of the shadows and scourge of the living, the Ghost King feared by many… lay sound asleep on the sofa with his equally asleep tiny nephew splayed on his chest. Bradley's arms, as always, were up, one small hand curled beneath Nico's chin. Nico had wrapped Bradley in an embrace, making sure he didn't roll away in his sleep.
There were toys and blankets strewn across the coffee table and armchair. A stack of clean diapers and the baby wipes were stationed by the sofa. An empty bottle lay on the floor, Bradley's post-nap lunch guzzled down true to form.
"Did you help?" Leo asked Will, keeping his voice hushed. Will shook his head.
"Sweet lil' Bradders got some fire in him," he remarked. "Definitely doesn't like me. I don't think I've ever been told off by a baby before, but he gave it his best shot." Leo could imagine, having been on the receiving end of Bradley's 'roars', although under different circumstances. Bradley wanted attention from Leo, wanted holding and fussing over. From Will, he wanted an apology.
Louisa clicked her tongue softly, gently easing Bradley away. He stirred, staring at her blearily, then dropping back into sleep, head nestled on her shoulder. She padded away to her room.
Nico awoke with a snort, hands patting his chest in confusion and then panic. He sat up, falling statue still when he saw Leo and Will smirking at him.
"Lou's got him," Leo said.
"I knew that," Nico replied stiffly.
"You were worried."
"I was not."
"Yeah, you were."
"I knew exactly where he was."
"I'm sure you did. I search for my keys like that by the way," Leo said, repeating the patting process. Nico ignored him, scooting from the sofa and heading off in search of Louisa. Leo raised an eyebrow at Will. "How did it go?"
"They'll be making friendship bracelets next."
"Mmph. Where's my friendship bracelet?"
"I could make one for you. You have to make one for me though, those are the rules."
"I know, I know. What do you take me for, some sort of savage?"
"Uh…"
"That was rhetorical. Cake?"
Louisa looked up as Nico came in, knocking lightly on the doorframe. She was sat on her bed, watching Bradley in his crib kick off his blankets again.
"Sit," she instructed, patting the space beside her. "You want ta talk ta me, don't ya?" Nico didn't bother asking how she always knew. Knew what he was thinking or feeling or planning. She just knew and had done for as long as he had known her. As if she and she alone had a tiny window to his brain.
"Someone was lingering here, when we arrived," he said. Louisa nodded, unreadable.
"You got rid of her."
"So did you." He watched, watched for any subtle change in expression, in form. She only blinked. "What did you do?"
"Nothin'. Nothin' Mom needs ta know about anyway," she added at his look of disbelief. "She thinks it was an accident."
"It wasn't." Again, that impossibly blank look. She may have had a window to his thoughts, but he did not have one to hers. At best, he had a keyhole to peek through, a tiny break in the fortification. "Don't do it again," he warned. "You don't want to go to that side. If you go there, you'll lose everything."
She sat forward, elbows on her knees. Her gaze never wavered from Bradley, who had now successfully kicked his blanket away completely. Nico waited, biting his lip.
"That's all it was," she muttered. "Won't happen again."
"Good." He needn't say more than that. She knew better than to expect more. He had lost much and gained much, but the last thing he wanted was to lose another sister.
Nico shifted, copying her stance. Louisa smiled grimly.
"Hi."
"I don't like babies."
"Babies don't like you," she corrected.
"That one does."
"That's 'cos my baby's cooler than anyone else's."
"I'll tell Annabeth you said that."
"I ain't wrong."
"Did you really throw Tobias in the pond?"
"Tossed the little bastard like a three pointer," she confirmed, grinning crookedly when he snorted. "Weren't so bad now, was it? Watchin' him." She motioned with her chin. Nico clasped his hands and she nudged him.
"No," he admitted with a sigh. "It was… OK."
"You can say you had fun."
"After all the stressing, maybe. Why are their heads so soft? What am I supposed to do with that? I could have dropped him."
"You wouldn't have dropped him," she defied. Nico frowned. She rolled her eyes. "I'm fine, Nico. Stop worryin'. I said it won't happen again 'n' it won't."
"Promise me," he challenged, finally making her look at him. Obsidian dark held sea green, both unrelenting in scrutinising the other.
"I promise," Louisa eventually said. Nico gave a single curt nod. If there was one thing he could count on, it was her keeping her promises.
She considered him sidelong. "Fancy some cake?"
Valentine's Day arrived quicker than expected, in a rush of overpriced chocolates, absurdly large bouquets of roses and an army of human-sized teddy bears. Louisa awoke to early daylight blading in through Storm's open doors. She saw first that Bradley's crib was empty, saw second the vase of plentiful sunflowers on the bedside unit.
A dozen of radiant petaled sunshine in a white vase decorated with blue wavy lines. Leaning against the vase, a red envelope with her name on it. Inside, a card bedecked with a watercolour print of the ocean at sunset, a small ship framed on the horizon and on the light's reflection. To my love, it read across the stained sky, together to the horizon and beyond.
She traced the swirl of colours with her fingertip, smiling. Opening the card, she saw Leo's familiar scrawl marshalled into tidiness for the occasion.
Happy Valentine's Day, mi vida. Follow the dragon. Love ever and always, your Leo.
"Follow the dragon?" she queried. A whirring noise somewhere by her feet and she startled, sword in hand. She blinked, heart settling. "Dragon," she acknowledged. She had thought he had meant Festus, not… this one.
It was very much like Festus, though gold rather than bronze and emeralds for eyes instead of rubies. And it was small. Very small, perhaps as long as her arm from snout to tail tip. It bounced on her legs, lighter than she expected and admitting the same steady warmth Festus did. It whirred at her again, mouth open almost as if it were smiling. It did not seem bothered by her sword, even going as far to preen at its reflection and show off its wings.
She shrunk the blade back into her watch. She had to shake the quilt to get the dragon off her legs; it rolled away, whirring and clicking, and landed on the floor with a thud. She checked it hastily, but it had rather enjoyed its trip down, bouncing at her feet like a puppy.
It headbutted her shin and scampered over to the chest of drawers, standing on its hind legs and clicking at her. Louisa rubbed her jaw, curiously amused. "OK," she said, as it whirred demandingly, "I'll follow the dragon."
She dressed, though that was a battle too. Half of her selections were growled at and then tugged at when she didn't immediately put it back. "You are havin' way too much fun," she told the little beast, its tail wagging as it engaged a serious tug-o-war on her black hoodie. "That's what I'm gonna call you. Lil' Beastie."
The dragon yipped delightedly and she utilised this distraction to whisk the hoodie away. "What about this one then?" She held up a knitted lilac pullover. Lil' Beastie sat up on her— Louisa decided she was a her— haunches and sniffed the sleeve. Her head bobbed in what she took for a nod. "Ugh, finally. You are a harsh critic, do you know that?"
She had a similar fight before Lil' Beastie agreed to a pair of black jeans. Once she was dressed, her new friend headbutted her in the calf, ushering her out the door. From there, she scuttled across the living room and disappeared into the kitchen.
Louisa found her sitting on the counter, sniffing a steaming plate of pancakes. Leo had left the bottle of syrup and the can of whipped cream out for her, and recently if all presented was still respectively hot or cold. Where was he?
Another note on red card waited by the prepared cutlery.
Don't let the dragon eat human food, PLEASE. It will try, but it took me a week to get peanut butter out of its gears, followed by a sad, tearful face.
Louisa scruffed the dragon, her jaws snapping on thin air rather than the tantalising breakfast. Louisa placed her on the floor and carried on reading the note, ignoring the claws scrabbling at her leg. If it insists on food, you can give it oil and Tabasco sauce, like Festus has. I left a bowl under the sink for it.
A silver bowl, a dog's bowl, stationed beside an oil can. Leo had stuck a label over the shop's, penning Festus' Bad Boy Sauce in Sharpie.
Louisa filled the bowl and Lil' Beastie squealed happily, lapping it up and leaving Louisa with her pancakes in peace.
She was headbutted into washing up, headbutted to the bathroom, headbutted until she had brushed her hair and teeth to Lil' Beastie's standards and then headbutted until she got her sneakers on. "You ain't makin' this easy for me," Louisa told the dragon. She had crouched to tie her laces, but Lil' Beastie had clocked them as a new toy and had clamped a lace in her jaws, whirring and tugging once again.
She tried twice more to get the lace free, sighing when Lil' Beastie rolled onto her back and started batting at it, like a cat with a yarn. Louisa recorded a few seconds of this playing and sent it to Leo.
Happy Valentine's Day, she typed. Your gift is an asshole.
She noticed the ticks turn blue in seconds, a laughing reaction appearing on her video. She watched the three dots bubble up.
Tickle it under the chin. It'll let go then. Louisa tickled and Lil' Beastie whisked away, loudly scratching her chin on her knuckles. Louisa hurriedly tied her laces, returning to her phone.
Where are you?
He sent back an emoji shrugging their shoulders, so she replied with one rolling their eyes.
Lil' Beastie jumped past her, pouncing on the door and clawing at the wood. Louisa sighed.
"You have too much energy for the mornin'," she grumbled. Lil' Beastie grinned at her, clicking and clacking. She headbutted the door and resumed clawing it, leaving faint lines on the paintwork. Louisa winced, already envisioning her mother's frown. "Alright, alright, I'm comin'. Stop it."
She followed Lil' Beastie on foot. No-one she passed batted an eye at the dragon, perhaps seeing a rather mischievous dog chasing pigeons. Every so often, the dragon would look back and yip to make sure Louisa was still in tow.
They crossed the road. Headed through the park to the duckpond she had thrown Tobias in. Under the same tree as before, a picnic blanket had been set up. Lil' Beastie made straight for it, sniffing the wicker basket overlaid with a red and white checked cloth.
Mini chocolate muffins, a set of new paintbrushes and a bag of breadcrumbs and peas. And another card.
Presuming this hasn't been stolen by a rando, enjoy your second breakfast, chica!
"What am I, a hobbit? No, stop it. You're not allowed people food." She waved Lil' Beastie down, getting growled at for her efforts. She growled back around a mouthful of chocolate muffin, the dragon tucking her head beneath her wing. "That's what I thought."
She polished off the muffins, a perfect dessert to her pancakes, and rose, wicker basket hanging on her arm. Lil' Beastie trailed after her, sitting patiently on the water's edge as Louisa waded in. The ducks swarmed her as soon as she started throwing out food, splashing and frolicking and quacking at each other over peas.
She dusted off her hands, her companion cooing and clicking. The dragon was hopping up and down on the spot and did so until Louisa returned to her side.
Through the rest of the park, to the other side, where they found Storm. A remarkably clean Storm, freshly washed and groomed, a single braid in her mane tied with a neat red bow. She snorted at Louisa, stomping her hoof.
Hurry up!
"Aww, you look lovely."
I always look lovely. Who's that? You'd better not be replacing me.
"I'd never replace you, Storm. This is Lil' Beastie. Leo gave her to me." Storm bowed her head, sniffing at the dragon. She huffed and chomped her teeth, turning her nose up as Lil' Beastie chased her tail.
I was here first. Begone, foul creature.
"Storm."
I'm better!
"Of course you are. Did Leo put you here?"
Yes. Get on, we've got somewhere to be.
"Where?"
You'll see. Are you bringing the abomination?
"I have to follow the dragon."
Disgusting. Pegasi are so much cooler.
Louisa agreed with her, clambering up. The basket bumped her hip as she went. Lil' Beastie tumbled over her own feet, yapping in surprise. She wriggled and kicked her way upright, rearing up to see what was going on. Storm grumbled, lifting her foreleg and pushing the dragon over.
I was here first, go away. She raced off, spreading her wings. They were in the sky within seconds, rising quickly. Storm snorted, pleased with herself, until she turned her head and saw the dragon flying alongside her. I will stomp you into rust.
Lil' Beastie did a loop-de-loop.
Louisa retrieved her phone, keeping it low and close to her body lest the winds whipped it away as they flew.
Storm not happy.
Why? I made her pretty!
She's not a fan of LB
LB?
Lil Beastie.
A pause, the dots rising and falling in his dithering.
Did you name the dragon?
You named your dragon!
Tough.
Excuse me?
Sorry, meant touch. Touch. FML. Touch. E. EEEEEEEEE.
Are you trying to put touche?
YES
You made the phone
I know, followed by a sad face. I think I need to update the autocorrect.
How's Bradley? The response to that was a flamenco dancer emoji, followed by a winky face and then one shushing, a finger to their lips. Louisa sighed, knowing she would get no further with him, and loaded up Pokémon Go instead.
Storm veered away from Lil' Beastie every chance she got, though fruitlessly. The dragon thought it was a game and was close behind at every turn, thoroughly enjoying herself. The rivalry came to a head when the beach came into view, Storm landing with practised ease near the surf whereas Lil' Beastie crashed headfirst into the sand and crumpled head over heels, flailing.
Louisa dismounted, stroking Storm's neck. Storm whickered, tossing her head.
See? See who's better? Yeah, it's me, without a doubt.
"Yes, Storm," Louisa soothed. Lil' Beastie clawed her way free, shaking sand from her scales and then coughing up a stream of granules. Louisa winced. "Do you think sand is easier ta get out than peanut butter?"
I hope not.
Lil' Beastie circled round and plonked herself at Louisa's feet, head all the way back to look straight up at her. Louisa regarded her curiously.
"Where are we goin' then?" The dragon turned tail and scampered off, slipping here and there on the sand. Louisa hurried after her, Storm at her side. "I ain't replacin' ya, Storm."
You wouldn't dare.
"Jealousy is not a good look on you."
I was here first!
They walked along the surf. Louisa and Storm splashed through the waves. Lil' Beastie raced back and forth, chasing the waves and then scuttling away as they chased her. Whether she was playing or genuinely scared of the water, it was hard to tell. She only altered her behaviour to sniff at the sand, circling a patch about three feet wide. She looked up as Louisa and Storm approached.
"What?" Louisa asked. Lil' Beastie scraped at the sand, whining. "What, I've gotta dig?" A plastic red spade appeared from beneath the dragon's claws. Louisa sighed, arching an eyebrow at Storm. "Buried treasure?"
We've found loads of treasure before, ain't nothing. They had pulled many lost valuables from the ocean depths before, found an assortment of buried goodies and not-so-goodies on countless beaches. Everything from jewellery and beach toys to dirty diapers and a Nokia brick phone that, despite being long buried in damp sand, still worked after a bowl of rice and a quick charge.
So, what had Leo hid? What was so important to bury in the sand? Could the dragon also be used as a metal detector or was it just this one location, pre-programmed?
The dragon bit at Louisa's feet and scooted the spade closer with her snout. Louisa took the hint, kneeling and beginning to dig where the dragon instructed. Storm watched over her shoulder, huffing at Lil' Beastie to back off. Six feet of distance, go on. This is my human.
"How many more times? I ain't replacin' you, ya dipshit."
You're the dipshit if you think this thing is better than me.
"I never said that. You need to chill."
I will not. I said six feet!
Louisa rolled her eyes and dug quicker. She needed to get her pegasus away from the dragon before there was no dragon left but hoof-dented scraps.