The Mark of Athena,Heroes of Olympus, Book 3

Leo XXXI


Leo was loving this Victoria chick. For one thing, she was hot as Hades.

For another, she was probably the only girl on the boat who laughed at every single on of his wisecracks and jokes.

She seemed a bit quirky and random, but that was only because most of her decisions were made with a flip of the coin.

Knock, knock, knock. "Leo!" Knock, knock, knock. "Leo!" Knock, knock, knock. "Leo!"

"What do you want, Sheldon?" Leo asked. It was Piper. She was grinning.

"Sorry, I just love The Big Bang Theory."

"Amy Farrah-Fowler's my favorite," Leo said.

"Mine's Wolowitz. Anyway, we need a new approach on this whole Doors of Death/Nico thing. Come on, Lover Boy." Piper grabbed his wrist. "That, by the way, was a very minor Hunger Games reference."

"What?"

"Leo, I swear, you will read those books if it's the last thing you ever do." Leo shrugged as Piper hauled him into the main room. Victoria was sitting next to Annabeth. When Leo walked in, she waved at him.

Leo sat down beside Victoria.

"Well, I had some possible locations for the Doors of Death on my laptop. Daedalus was kind of obsessed with them. I guess so he could easily escape the Underworld. But I didn't look at them before my laptop got wiped, so I guess we need to wing it until Malcolm can get those flash drives to me."

"What are we supposed to do until then?" asked Victoria. She caught on fast. "Wander around Rome until we just happen to stumble across Nico or the Doors?"

"That's not going to happen. The Mist around both of them must be pretty thick," said Annabeth. "Gaea doesn't want mortals to cross a guy who's trapped and free him."

"Well..." Piper trailed off. "I guess that's the only thing we can do until we get those flash drives."

Annabeth gasped.

"Piper... I need my iPad!"

"NO!" everyone but Victoria shouted.

"We don't want another sea monster attacking!" reasoned Jason.

"It's the only way to contact Malcom-so he can email me the files." Piper sighed.

"Fine, you get one minute." Annabeth ran off to her room, coming back with her iPad.

"-and that's why I need you to email me those files right now! Bye, Malcolm. Tell Thalia I said hi!" Annabeth tapped the screen.

"What about Thalia?" asked Jason.

"She and the hunters are at camp."

"Oh, gods, she's going to murder me!" moaned Percy. Annabeth laughed. Percy scowled at her, and she rolled her eyes.

"You're probably right," Annabeth said with a smirk. Percy chuckled, shaking his head. He apparently got murdered by Thalia a lot.

"Annabeth! Show everyone that app you showed me!" Piper exclaimed. Annabeth scrolled through her iPad, before tapping on an icon which displayed a sword and sonar coming off of it.

There was a map of Italy displayed on the screen. There were pins on the map.

"Each pin represents one demigod. You see this cluster? That's us... wow, we traveled pretty far. Anyway, it also displays legacies, so that we can locate Octavian. Roman demigods are purple, Greek demigods are orange, and legacies are blue." Leo found a blue point on the map and tapped it.

"Okay, we found Octavian. He's about... three hundred miles away. And, Leo, DON'T TOUCH MY IPAD!" Leo shrank under her glare.

"But, look." Annabeth pointed to a pin. It was changing from purple to orange and back frequently.

"Since Nico also spent time at the Roman camp, this pin is him." Suddenly, the pin moved to a completely different location. Annabeth grabbed a red pin from the sidebar of the screen and moved it to where the purple and orange pin had once been.

"I had a dream last night. All it said was, 'The answers lie in the shadows.' I think that this is Nico shadow traveling. However, whatever is keeping him hostage moves with him, so I was confused. Nico is smart enough to just stop trying to shadow travel out of there if it hasn't worked." The pin moved again, except not as far this time.

"He's getting tired," said Jason.

"Yeah. You know how people can trace your phone calls to figure out your exact location? That's basically what I'm doing with these red pins. He's sending us a message."

"Well, do we just wait for him to show up close to us?" Percy asked.

"If at all possible." Annabeth shrugged. "Anyway, you see this?" Annabeth pointed to the five red pins on the map.

"It almost looks like-" Luke ran into the room.

"Guys, we've got company."
Leo XXXII


Who would've thought that Octavian would bring some huge guys from the first cohort?

"Hello, Graecus!" Octavian called up to the boat.

"Hi, Romaios!" Annabeth shouted back. "I've recovered!" Annabeth glared down at him.

"Hi!" One of the people on the ground waved at Victoria. An arrow immediately sprouted from his neck. He fell to the ground, and Octavian glared up at Victoria. Leo turned to look at her, and she had a deer-in-the-headlights look on her face.

"Khione's waiting for you! I think I'll bring you to her now!" Octavian grinned. Victoria slung her bow over her shoulder and ran towards the prow of the boat. They were about fifty feet in the air, and Leo didn't know why on earth Victoria jumped over the side, until he saw her climbing the tree like a monkey.

"She resembles a whole lotta animals," Leo muttered.

"Somebody hide me!" she screamed. Annabeth walked over to her and pulled her Yankees hat out of her pocket. She reached up and handed it to Victoria.

"Just put it on!" Annabeth yelled. Victoria put the hat on, and disappeared. Frank notched an arrow and aimed at Octavian.

Leo stared at the spot where Victoria had once been. Why had she run?

Annabeth jumped over the side of the boat and jabbed at Octavian with her knife. Octavian, distracted, barely got out of the way before she skewered him. Leo lobbed a ball of fire at one of the people on the ground. His hair caught fire and he ran all over the place, screaming. Percy had made it down to where the fighting was, and Frank was an eagle, slashing at random enemies with his talons. Luke fought like a whirlwind, but these weren't monsters. These were Roman Legionnaires. They caught nearly every strike he dealt, although a few people got cut. Leo pulled the red stone out of his pocket and ran his thumb over it. It expanded into Leo's sword.

Once Leo got down there, there wasn't much left for him to do. There were only about three legionnaires left out of ten, including Octavian. A few of the soldiers had been brought down by Victoria's arrows, which appeared out of no where. However, most fell because of Percy, Luke, and Annabeth. It crossed Leo's mind that, together, Percy and Annabeth were unstoppable. Percy would normally distract the enemy while Annabeth would sneak up behind them and stab.

But Octavian was focused on Victoria. There was apparently an advantage to being really scrawny. Octavian could get to the high branches of the trees, but Victoria seemed to be faster. Judging from the shaking in various trees, Victoria would jump around the clearing.

Someone screamed, but the sound was strangely cut off. Leo turned towards the sound, and Annabeth was sitting on the ground, staring up at one of the biggest people Leo had ever seen.

"A gift from Trivia!" he laughed, but suddenly, the tip of a sword was poking through his chest. The person collapsed, and Percy was standing there.

"That-was fun," he said breathlessly. "Are you okay?" Percy knelt beside Annabeth. Annabeth's lips moved, but nothing came out.

"Um, come again?" Annabeth's eyes widened. Her mouth moved again, but again, no sound came out.

"Take that, Octavian!" shouted a girl's voice. Octavian stumbled out of the tree and to the ground. There was an arrow in his shoulder.

"I'll be back!" he called. "In the meantime, have fun, Annabeth!" Octavian ran off into the woods, with his remaining henchman running behind.

Percy put his hand on Annabeth's shoulder. She said something again, and Percy's mouth moved in reply, but Leo couldn't hear anything they said. Percy helped Annabeth up. Annabeth spoke, but this time, no one could hear.

Annabeth's eyes widened in realization.

"He cursed me," she mouthed.