xv.

  —TEAM G-Force — as Leo had taken to calling them for the past hour ( 'The G stands for Greek!' ) — now had just two days before the solstice. Two days to rescue a goddess because the end of the world would start if she missed that meeting. Kind of dramatic, but Savannah was not about to tell that to literal gods.

  Two days to save the world from a war between the giants and the gods ( presumably ), and they were hiding out in a Chicago sewer. They'd followed a pair of Venti spirits down a fountain drain in hopes of ... fighting them? Savannah wasn't sure what their plan had been in chasing after them, but luckily the spirits were no where in sight so she could ignore the thought a little longer.

  And even luckier, this particular sewer pipe was out of commission for the winter and didn't smell like absolute gunk.

  Piper looked around at the brick walls and walkways. "Are all sewers this nice?" she wondered out loud.

  "No," Leo said confidently. "Trust me."

  Savannah frowned at his side, remembering the stories he would tell them about running away from foster homes.

  Jason paused, not having the memories that she did. "How do you know — "

  "Hey, man, I ran away six times. I've slept in some weird places, okay? Now, which way do we go?" Leo quickly avoided further talk about his past. Savannah let the back of her hand brush his arm in hopes to provide a comfort for him. He accepted her gesture by pressing his arm further into her hand, but refrained from meeting her eyes.

  Jason tilted his head as if listening to wind that wasn't there, then pointed south. "That way."

  "How can you be sure?" Piper asked as they all looked that direction. It was pitch black and not a single sound emerged.

  "There's a draft blowing south," Jason answered. "Maybe the venti went with the flow."

  Sounded reasonable enough to Savannah, but again, she wasn't exactly eager to track these spirits down. Almost dying in a warehouse really put a damper on any kind of excitement she had about this quest ( if there was ever any to start with ). She couldn't help but think that she'd accomplished everything that she needed to. Like — child of hearth must tend the fire, when the need becomes indeed dire. If that hadn't been dire need, Savannah didn't want to know what was. So if she fulfilled her task, what was stopping her from hitching a train right back to camp — or better yet, boarding school where she belonged?

The universe answered for her as Leo accidentally stumbled into her side as Piper tripped on her bad ankle.

Jason was able to catch the girl as she hissed in pain. "Stupid ankle."

"I really don't think she should be walking on it," Savannah speculated in Jason's direction.

He looked up at her then back down to Piper's leg as she held it hovering above the ground. "We'll rest, then," he decided. "We could all use it. We've been going nonstop for over a day. Leo, can you pull any food from that tool belt besides breath mints?"

"Thought you'd never ask." The boy grinned. "Chef Leo is on it." He moved around to find the best spot for his 'kitchen,' before settling on a relatively clean ( as clean as it could get in a sewer ) space.

Savannah took a seat next to Piper after helping her settle down. She shuffled around to place her backpack below the girl's ankle for elevated support. "Does that feel alright?"

"Feels great, Savi." Her friend looked at her with a gentle smile. "Thanks."

But as she glanced at Jason on her other side, her smile turned forced. She looked back at Savannah pointedly and jerked her head towards Leo and then Jason. Her eyes spoke a hundred words that only girls could really understand. She nodded and stood up to give Jason and Piper some privacy — not there could be all that much in a confined tunnel.

Savannah used Leo's shoulder to help herself kneel down. He looked up and watched her sit down with a thump. "Come to test your culinary arts skills?"

"If you'll have me," she offered.

"Never any question about that," he reassured. "I'll always have you ... "

That. That was why she couldn't leave. She would always make sure that Leo had her. The world could stop spinning and the sun could stop shining, but he would always have her. The quest could demand her to risk herself in ways she'd never even consider in a million years, but she wouldn't leave. She wouldn't leave his side for anything.

She smiled delicately so she could watch him build a small teepee with the kindling that magically appeared in his tool-belt. She gathered rocks the size of her palm to create a circle around his workspace. The thought of what they were doing struck her like lightning. Leo was building the fire and she was building its home. How very on brand for them, she chuckled.

"What'cha laughing at? I want to laugh," he said and nudged her to look at him.

She looked into his vibrantly mischievous eyes, eyes that she thought she would never see again. "Just ... thinking about Mrs. Campbell. She'd freak knowing we were out here."

  It hadn't been what she was thinking at all, but the thought did make her laugh. Mrs. Campbell was sort of the Dean at their boarding school and her most frequent detention-attendees were all sitting in a sewer together. She probably wouldn't be surprised to find they had run off on a field trip.

  Leo laughed just like he'd wanted to. And it was such a distractingly delightful sound that Savannah felt very little as he lit his pointer finger on fire and touch the kindling. She focused on the fact that it was him. She was sure that if anyone else held this ability, she'd be running for the hills, but this was Leo. Leo wouldn't hurt her, not intentionally, and she didn't think he could hurt her unintentionally either.

  "We'll have so many detentions to make up," he snickered.

  "I don't think they'd even allow us back in," Savannah replied honestly. "Just as well, school wouldn't be the same without Coach Hedge."

  No matter how much the man — goat? — tormented them for their mile-times, he was the only teacher who didn't treat them like bad kids.

  "I get what you mean. But ... it kind of sounds like Camp Half-Blood can be a year-round thing. I think I could get used to that." He began pulling more things out of his belt: a frying pan, skewers, and some actual food. She stared in amazement as a full bell pepper appeared in his hand. "You like peppers, right?"

  Savannah nodded. "Yeah, I just don't like — "

  "Tomatoes," he cut in with a fond grin situated on his face, "I know. The texture makes you sick."

  "I'll still eat them," she countered. "I just would prefer ... not to."

  "There will be no tomatoes, don't worry."

  It was hard, so hard not to think the thoughts that friends couldn't think. Those thoughts were off limits, they had to be. As soon as a friend stopped thinking 'friendly' thoughts and thought 'something-more' thoughts, there would be no returning. Savannah could not imagine a world where Leo wasn't her friend — if there was a world such as that, she hoped to never see it. So she couldn't even think about thinking those thoughts.

  "Can you cut this up?" he implored while handing her the red pepper, not even realizing just where her thoughts tried and refused to go.

  "Sure," she agreed and took the veggie and the small kitchen knife he gave her. With one hand she held the pepper and with the other, she sliced off chunks one-by-one as she added them to the pan. In the crackling fire's silence, he started to hum a tune she didn't recognize.

  Leo hardly ever sang except on the rare occasions where he sang 'Fergalicious' for hours on end ( Piper really hated those instances, but Savannah absolutely loved them ). None in their group really made an effort to showcase their voices, even though she knew Piper's was Grammy-worthy — if her shower sessions were anything to go off of. But Leo had never seriously sang or anything.

  So she listened raptly.

  His head bobbed along to the rhythm and she had to shove, completely punch, the invasive thoughts that she wasn't allowed to think away. In her diverted attention, she managed to nick her finger pretty well. Leo's cooking song stopped immediately as she hissed in pain. He worked quickly to remove both the food and the knife from her hands before the blood tainted it. "Whoa. Get a little excited there?"

  She blinked back tears, watching as her finger shook. "I'm just really tired, I think."

  Holding her injured hand with one of his own, he searched his tool belt for a first-aid items. He pulled a small water bottle, disinfecting wipes, Neosporin, and then a whole box of variety bandaids. Refusing to let go of her hand, he had to do things with his teeth. He twisted the cap off the plastic water bottle and let it fall into his lap. And crazier thoughts that she most definitely should not be thinking tried to invade her mind at the action.

  He let the cool water run over her fingers to wash away the blood and she squirmed at the sight. She wouldn't consider herself squeamish at the sight of blood, it was what led to blood that made her nauseous. Like a bleeding nose wasn't bad, but a punch to the nose was.

  He used his teeth ... again ... to rip the packaging of the wipes. "This'll sting." But he didn't wait for her to give a go-ahead, probably because he knew she would resist.

"Ow!" she cried as he brought the wipe down on the cut. "A little warning would have been nice."

He looked up from his 'intricate' work and smirked. "That was a warning."

"I meant a better one," she mumbled, looking away from his blazing eyes. The fire flickered against his skin and made it impossible for her to think of anything but the heat in her face, bones, and heart.

"I'll do better next time, mi reinita," he promised and pulled out a decent sized bandaid. He finally released her hand in order to place it on correctly, but as soon as he fixed it around her finger, it was back in his grasp. Savannah watched on in a mixture of captivation and bewilderment as he brought her fingers to his mouth and kissed them. She could feel the warmth of his lips against her skin as he chose to kiss beside the bandaid instead of on top.

  And just like that, he finally, finally dropped her hand and went back to work on making the food.

  Savannah tried to stop herself from thinking the thoughts she wasn't supposed to think, she really did. But she'd never been strong, and the thoughts were slowly overpowering her.

  —YEAH, Leo had kissed her.

... Well, kissed her hand, that is.

But did you see how suave he was about it?!

And if he didn't know any better, he would say that he just charmed the boots off of her. He could see her wide expressive eyes and her flushing cheeks. There was no way she was unaffected. And that gave him all the confidence he needed to not freak out when she laid her head in his lap to sleep after their dinner of tofu tacos — sans tomatoes.

As soon as he knew she was sleeping, his hand began to twirl her red hair around his fingers. It reminded him of fire, but only the best parts of it. The warm fire that was only meant to heal, the calm fire that created life. She was the best to his worst.

"You guys are really close," Jason eventually commented. He was in a similar position with Piper, except she'd made a home for her head on Savannah's backpack right next to him instead of on his legs.

"Yeah," Leo sighed, thinking of how much closer he wanted to be. "Been friends for a long time. Her and Piper were friends first since they were roommates, and then they couldn't resist my jokes and let me sit with them at meal times. You came after, but ... I can't remember when."

"Your ... memories of me must be correcting themselves," he assumed. "I wish I had really been there and had those memories." He looked down at Piper and Leo could guess he felt bad for not knowing her in the same way she knew him.

"Leo ... " he started again, "about this fire stuff you can do ... is it true?"

His smile fell, thinking back on the kind of danger he'd put his team in, put Savannah in. "Yeah, well ... " Carefully extricating his hand from Savannah's hair, he held up his palm a let a tiny beat of flame burst to life, just enough to snuff out quickly if he had to. He did just that as he started to feel a familiar spark on his skin.

"That is so cool," Jason said. "Why didn't you say anything?"

Leo sighed once more as his hand went back to the girl's head. "Didn't want to look like a freak, for one."

"I have lightning and wind powers," Jason reminded him. "Piper can turn beautiful and charm people into giving her BMWs. You're no more a freak than we are. And, hey, maybe you can fly, too. Like jump off a building and yell, 'Flame on!'"

Leo snorted despite the seriousness. "If I did that, you would see a flaming kid falling to his death, and I would be yelling something a little stronger than 'Flame on!' Trust me, Hephaestus cabin doesn't see fire powers as cool. Nyssa told me they're super rare. When a demigod like me comes around, bad things happen. Really bad."

"Maybe it's the other way around," Jason suggested. "Maybe people with special gifts show up when bad things are happening because that's when they're needed most."

Leo nodded along with his logic, but something told him it wasn't correct. "Maybe. But I'm telling you ... it's not always a gift."

Jason fell silent. "You're talking about your mom, aren't you? The night she died."

Leo didn't answer. It was never a conversation he liked to have. He hadn't even told Savannah until they were quite a ways into their friendship. She, of course, was incredibly understanding. The girl had a fear of fire herself, so she was able to sympathize more than Piper.

"Leo, her death wasn't your fault. Whatever happened that night — it wasn't because you could summon fire. This Dirt Woman, whoever she is, has been trying to ruin you for years, mess up your confidence, take away everything you care about. She's trying to make you feel like a failure. You're not. You're important."

"That's what she said." Leo looked up, blinking away thoughts of that night and of the warehouse. Instead, he thought of what he'd seen while fixing Festus outside the warehouse. "She said I was meant to do something important — something that would make or break that big prophecy about the seven demigods. That's what scares me. I don't know if I'm up to it.

  "Jason, that fire would have killed all of you. I couldn't stop it by myself," he confessed, eyes downcast at the truth.

  "But you did. I mean, we're here so you must have found that control."

  "No, I didn't find the control. I would have continued to tear down the whole place, I could feel it."

  "Then how ... ?" Jason trailed off before his eyes fell down to Savannah as well. "Oh. Child of Hearth."

  And Leo nodded absentmindedly. He knew she had been the one to stop the inferno earlier to save their friends. It was ironic ... the way she could tame a fire like that, but was able to set off a blazing wildfire in his heart with little more than a glance.

  "You ever wonder about the other four demigods?" Leo switched the topic away from his own lack of control and Savannah. "I mean ... if we're at least three of the ones from the Great Prophecy, who are the others? Where are they? And Savi ... she's not, she's not actually a demigod."

  Leo couldn't imagine another quest — a bigger, higher stakes quest — without her. And he knew, he just knew that without her beside him, the thought of ruining the quest like Dirt Lady said was more plausible. She had to be with him.

  "I don't know," Jason said after a silent moment. "Maybe the rules are different for Savannah. She might be able to come even if she's not a demigod. Chiron probably knows more about that kind of thing. And I guess the other four will show up when the time is right. Who knows? Maybe they're on some other quest right now.

  Leo grunted as he looked around. "I bet their sewer is nicer than ours."

  "Get some rest, Leo," Jason said finally. "I'll take first watch."

  Leo nodded, though he wasn't absolutely sure how he was supposed to go about that with a head in his lap. He refused to move and disturb her from much needed sleep, so the only thing he could do was lean down onto his back and sleep like that. It wasn't exactly comfortable, but he already established that any pain in the world was worth Savannah's comfort.

NOTES ;

I DEBATED ON ADDING MORE TO
THIS CHAPTER WITH THE MALL
SCENE, BUT THAT ALL REALLY HAS
TO BE DONE IN ONE GO AND I
REALLY HAD TO GIVE YOU GUYS
SOMETHING FLUFFY FOR MAKING
YOU ALL WAIT THIS LONG.

I AM SO SO SORRY FOR ALWAYS
TAKING SO LONG TO UPDATE
THIS BOOK. I REALLY DON'T
UNDERSTAND HOW MY
MOTIVATION TO WRITE THIS
ONE IS ALWAYS SO LOW. I LOVE
LEO WITH EVERYTHING I HAVE.

ANYWAY, SORRY AGAIN. I HOPE
YOU ENJOYED THE FLUFFY
MOMENTS WITH SAVI AND LEO!