Is it still Leyna week I have no idea

This is my (late) entry for Leyna Week, I might continue it, might not. Let me know what you think!

(also, I would like to point out that I have not read The Demigod Files, and I know I have used a character that appears in TDF, so if there's a huge difference in them please don't come to my house with torches and coffin measures)

Backup

In all honesty, Reyna couldn't have told you how it happened. One second she was fighting like the praetor she was, the next, chained to a wall in some dank, musty dungeon.

She didn't even know houses in Colorado could have dungeons, even those old Victorian homes that were barely standing. She supposed that was her first mistake; not enough research into her quest. Her second mistake was easy to identify – she had not been expecting the Cyclops.

Again, Reyna cursed her own stupidity. The black cuffs around her wrists seemed to be getting tighter the more she struggled. At least they were in front of her, so she could see her hands. But the particularly annoying bit was that her back was to the wall. The chains attaching her wrists to the wall were long, but just long enough that if she took a few steps forward, her bound wrists dug into her stomach and prevented her from going any further.

If matters could possibly be made any worse, the Cyclops had taken her gladius when he knocked her out, and Scipio was far out of earshot. When she landed down on the green outside Miss Mia Lamb's Foster Home, Reyna had told the pegasus to fly off somewhere and wait for her call. Reyna hadn't been expecting this quest to take more than twenty minutes. You would have thought years of questing would teach Reyna that nothing ever went as planned, but apparently her pride had gotten the better of her this time.

Which was how Reyna, Praetor of the Twelfth Legion Fulminata of New Rome, ended up weaponless and chained in a dungeon somewhere in Colorado.

Brilliant.

Luckily, annoyance was winning out over pain, or else she'd really be feeling the nasty bump the Cyclops had left on her head. As it was, it was merely a dull ache in the back of her mind reminding her of her own ineptitude. Reyna frowned as a strand of hair fell in front of her eyes, tickling her nose. Angrily, she blew at it. But it only fluttered a little, settling back into place.

Reyna began grinding her teeth. She could really use something like backup right now. What would Jason do? He had certainly always been more open to relying on backup than she had. And after the whole end-of-the-world fiasco a few months ago, he'd been embracing the Greek ways even more. Yes, Reyna knew exactly what Jason would do in a situation like this.

Reyna really didn't like doing this, but her predicament didn't really offer up a better option. It was either this, or wait around for the Cyclops to come back – or worse, the one the Cyclops answered to.

So Reyna closed her eyes and prayed.

Hello, Mother, she thought, very stiffly. I know this isn't very Roman of me. But I have never asked you for anything, and as of right now, I would greatly appreciate some backup.

She listened for several seconds. Nothing. Reyna sighed, shoulders slumping. Well, it looked like she was going to have to figure this one out on her own.

Then she heard some vague scrabbling behind the wall to her right, and jerked her head up. She heard a vaguely familiar voice muttering a few choice words, and then with a sudden click and a groan the wall swung inwards. Reyna realized that what she had thought was a patch of discoloured bricks was actually a door.

She couldn't see much of what was outside the door, other than shadows. But she could see the person that came stumbling into the dungeon with a whoop.

"Boo-yah! No locked door stands a chance against the mighty Valdez! Stand down, beasts – oh, it's a dungeon." Then his eyes made contact with Reyna's, and hers widened in recognition.

"You!"

Her yell echoed across the brick walls, and probably was heard all through the house, but Reyna didn't care. She was blazing with fury, eyes locked onto the boy who had let out a rather girlish shriek. "You're the one who destroyed my city!"

"Hey, hey!" Leo Valdez managed to look affronted at the same time as frightened. "We've been through this! Eidolons! Possessed! Not my intention!" The he seemed to regain some courage, and lowered his voice to a hiss. "And keep it down! You wanna wake Ugly up there?"

Reyna fell silent, but continued to seethe. Leo inched towards her, hands up in surrender. "What are you doing here?" He asked finally.

"I might ask you the same question," Reyna shot coldly. "This is my quest."

"Yeah?" His eyes surveyed the shackles and chains, and Reyna could feel her face going red. "Well, great job so far."

"I had it under control."

"I'm sure. Don't you have any backup?"

"I am a praetor of New Rome."

"Right, taking that as a no."

"Do you?" Reyna could feel a tic developing in her eyelid. Her annoyance levels were rising through the roof, and Reyna had been dealing for Octavian for years.

"Nope," Leo grinned. "Well, I had Jeeves, but he was sacrificed as a distraction."

"You sacrificed someone?"

"No, I sacrificed a footstool." His face gave a faraway look. "I always liked that footstool. People said a footstool butler would be useless, but Jeeves sure proved them wrong..."

As he continued to ramble about brave footstool butlers, Reyna could almost hear Bellona's voice in her head. You wanted backup? You got it, sweetheart.

"Thanks, Mother," Reyna grumbled. Leo stopped his ranting.

"What?"

"Nothing." Reyna gestured to the shackles around her wrist. "So? Can you help me out?"

Leo gave a derisive snort. "Why? So you can try and kill me?"

"I have no weapons, Valdez, otherwise I wouldn't be in this predicament in the first place."

"I don't know." His eyes gave a mischievous twinkle. "Your cheekbones could be classified as lethal weapons-"

Reyna stomped on his foot. Leo yelped, and quickly covered his mouth with his hands. He glared, but made no further noise lest the monsters upstairs hear and come running.

Finally, he stopped glaring and studied the black shackles. "What metal is that?" He asked, although Reyna got the feeling he was more thinking aloud than looking for an answer. "Stygian iron? It looks like it. They look weird, though..." Tentatively, he pulled a file from his tool belt, and poked the shackles.

Instantly the metal tightened around Reyna's wrists, and they both jumped. "Holy!" Leo yelled, not even bothering to be quiet. "What the-"

"So they were getting tighter!" Reyna could feel the cold iron pressing into her skin now. It was really starting to hurt.

Leo leaned down, studying them closely. "It seems like any kind of resistance tightens them a notch." He dropped the file back into the belt, and began rummaging around. "Okay," he said, tongue between his teeth. "I need the most delicate lock pick you can give me."

Reyna started to answer that she didn't have a lock pick, wouldn't she have mentioned that first, but before she could speak Leo's hands reappeared holding a small bronze lock pick. Her mouth closed abruptly, and he grinned in triumph. "Did..." Reyna wasn't sure how to voice her thoughts. "Did you just ask your tool belt for that?"

"Yep." Leo began working very slowly and carefully on the handcuffs. "It's magic."

Reyna didn't know how to reply to that, so she fell silent. Leo didn't offer up any conversation either, but he was busy gently working the lock.

It wasn't uncommon anymore for Greek and Roman demigods to encounter each other on quests, or simple missions. Now that both camps knew about each other, the Mist cloaking them from the other's presence was gone. And for the most part, it wasn't bad. There were a few bad cases, as always, but usually the campers could put aside their various differences and work together for a common cause.

But Reyna hadn't encountered any Greeks until now. It was a jarring sensation, working alongside someone in an orange Camp Half-Blood T-shirt. She'd been fighting them just a few short months ago.

Leo must have been thinking something along the same lines, because he seemed unfocused. Finally he spoke. "So. Just you on this?"

"Yes." Reyna shifted slightly. "It showed up on our radar – er, we heard rumours," she amended as he perked up at the word 'radar.' "So I decided to check it out. I thought it wouldn't be a very big deal."

"Yeah, that's what Chiron thought, too." Leo resumed his work. "He said something about kids disappearing in a foster home," his fingers tensed. "And I-"

Reyna didn't get to hear what he was going to say, because at that moment an unmistakeably Cyclops roar sounded from outside the dungeon, and both Leo and Reyna jumped a mile. Unfortunately, that made the pick in Leo's hands slip, and the shackles slipped even tighter. Reyna hissed in pain – they were now so tight she could feel her blood being cut off.

Leo let off a string of Spanish expletives. "Reyna, I'm so sorry-"

"Never mind that!" Reyna ordered. She could hear heavy footsteps approaching, and they sounded close. "Quick, hide over there!" She gestured to the piles of rubble in the far corner of the dungeon.

"But-!"

"You'll be of no use if you get caught! Now, hide!"

He cast her one last helpless look. Then he took off and dived behind one of the rubble piles right as the Cyclops rounded the corner.

He was just as tall and ugly as Reyna remembered, with stringy yellow hair and equally yellow teeth. Reyna felt her stomach drop in anger as she saw half her gladius in between his fingers, as he used it nonchalantly as a toothpick.

"Ah, Roman girl," the Cyclops said, sounding pleased. "I see you have been struggling." His eye landed on her reddening hands. Then he frowned. "I closed door before."

Reyna gritted her teeth. Of course Leo would leave the blasted door open. "No, no," she said in her most soothing voice, which admittedly didn't sound very soothing. "You left it open. That's how I overheard your whole plan."

A look of confusion passed the Cyclops' face, but it cleared up fairly quickly. "Clever girl," it teased. "We were not discussing plans. You just want me to monologue!"

There came an odd noise from the pile Leo was hiding behind that could have been a snort or a screwdriver. Either way, the Cyclops swivelled its eye in his direction, and Reyna internally cursed him to a life without Mexican food.

But outwardly, she tried desperately to keep the Cyclops' attention on herself. Never mind the fact that her hands were starting to swell. "You said we! Who's we? Is there someone else here with you?"

The Cyclops gave her a look like 'duh'. "You think Ed is smart enough to plan this by himself?" He laughed, but his face fell when he realized he had just insulted himself.

Another noise, this time definitely a snicker. Reyna fought every muscle in her face not to scream in frustration. "Ed!" She said brightly. "What a lovely name. Is that short for something?"

Ed must have had an extremely short memory, because he forgot about Leo's laughter and smiled widely at Reyna. She tried not to cringe. "Yes! Edward! That is it! Miss Lamb gave to me. She says it's pretty."

"Very pretty," Reyna complimented. Her hands had begun to throb, and she wasn't sure how much longer she could pretend it didn't hurt. It felt like the blood vessels were about to burst. "And, ah, you said Miss Lamb gave it to you?" He nodded. "Why don't you tell me about her?"

Ed chuckled, returning Reyna's broken sword to his mouth and picking at his teeth. "Ah, ah, sneaky," he teased. "Miss Lamb said you'd ask. She said you'd want to know all about her plan to steal all the children, and-" his face dropped. "Hey."

Reyna's heart was beating quickly. "You were saying? About the children?" She asked desperately.

Ed's face was rapidly turning as purple as Reyna's hands. "You got me monologuing!" He roared. "I hate that!" And he tossed Reyna's broken sword at her.

She ducked, narrowly missing the gladius blade. But the pull on her wrists caused her to cry out in pain, and for a moment her vision blanked. When it cleared, Ed was towering over her with one fist raised.

"You cannot be allowed to live anymore!" He shouted.

"Hey! Ugly!"

Both heads turned at the same time. Leo stood heroically on the pile of rubble, one hand pointed at Ed. In his hand was some kind of nail gun, except that instead of a small nail, a large iron drill bit was lodged in its mouth.

Then Leo pulled the trigger, and the drill bit went flying, landing directly in Ed's giant eye.

Ed screeched, stumbling backwards and clawing at his eye. His back slammed into the brick wall, and he dissolved into a pile of dust. Leo leapt off the rubble pile and ran towards Reyna, reloading his drill bit-gun as he did so.

"Hold out your hands!" He yelled.

"What are you doing?" Reyna demanded, but held out her hands anyway. Leo raised the gun, and before she had a chance to point out that maybe this was a really bad idea, he fired.

The drill slammed into the cuffs, and they shattered apart. Shards of iron blasted around her, some slicing her wrists. But nothing compared to the feeling of her blood pumping back up her arms and into her brain. In the worst case of head-rush Reyna had ever experienced, she wobbled and began to pitch forward.

Leo caught her by the shoulders. "Hey!" He shook her. "No time for delicate, fainting ladies! We've gotta move!"

Reyna shook her head, clearing her vision yet again. Her ears were still buzzing, however. "You don't faint when the blood rushes to your head," she found herself saying, "you faint when all the blood leaves your head, and - wait – why am I telling you this? You fired a drill at me!"

"We don't have time for anything else!" Leo snapped. "Your pal Ed over there probably woke up the lady who's running this crack house!"

Reyna eyed the bricked ceiling. He was right, they needed a plan of attack. "But I don't have my weapon-"

"Forget it!" Leo cringed as something, somewhere above their heads made a loud noise. It sounded like something between a demonic roar and a deranged fangirl. Leo and Reyna exchanged a glance and nodded. Then she blinked.

"Valdez?"

"Yeah?"

"Let go of my shoulders, please."

~.~

Of all the people Leo could have run into on his supposedly solo quest, it had to be Reyna, Leo thought as he raced up the stairs behind the praetor.

Running into a person was bad enough. After hours and hours of cajoling campers and convincing Chiron that no, he could totally handle this by himself, it was no biggie, he'd be home in time for dinner; after all that he still ended up with company. But running into Reyna? It wasn't that he disliked Reyna or even minded her – in fact, he liked her as much you could like someone who tried to kill you every time they saw you. It was more that, well, she didn't trust him and yeah, literally tried to kill him every time she saw him.

Maybe it was a good idea he ran into her. Clearly, neither of them had been expecting the Cyclops. Clearly, this was not a one-man job. And it was pretty clear Reyna had needed his help, whether she admitted it or not.

But after all the trouble he went through to be here by himself, well, sue him if he was a little miffed.

It was mostly by chance Leo overheard Chiron talking about the foster home. He'd been out by the climbing wall, making some adjustments to Jeeves. Clarisse of the Ares clan had overheard him talking to Harley about how he programmed Jeeves to follow him around with a plate of Tostitos. Clarisse had dropped some snide comment about how useless a footstool butler would be. Leo had taken such offense, he started installing a target system to launch chili peppers at Clarisse whenever she passed.

As he twisted a few screws into place, the sound of hooves on gravel reached his ears. He could hear Chiron talking in a low voice, and soon enough Annabeth's unmistakeable tone replied. She sounded snarky, and tenser than usual. Curious as to what had her gears grinding, Leo listened in.

"...think you aren't taking this seriously enough."

"Annabeth, don't worry, this is sending off red flags for me, too."

"But why aren't we making it an official quest?"

"There haven't been any clear signs-"

"Children in foster care are disappearing off the face of the planet, Chiron, I think that's a pretty clear sign-"

"I meant signs from the gods, Annabeth."

Chiron sighed. Leo chanced a look over at them. He had pinched the bridge of his nose, avoiding Annabeth's glare as she crossed her arms.

"It just smells fishy to me. Miss Mia Lamb's Foster Home? Doesn't that sound sinister to you?" She asked, voice tight.

"Maybe you've been spending too much time with Percy, if it smells fishy." Chiron cracked a smile. Annabeth made a face.

Meanwhile, Leo's mind was racing. Something about that name seemed horribly familiar to him, sending warning pistons firing all over his body. Before he even knew what he was doing, Leo had scrambled to his feet and trotted over to where Chiron and Annabeth were standing, Jeeves in tow.

"I could check it out," he offered, voice light and steady despite his hammering heart. "You know, pop my head in? See if there's anything to worry about?"

Annabeth looked like she wanted to argue, but Chiron tilted his head to the side like he was considering it. "You think this is a good idea?"

"Sure, no problemo!" Leo scratched the back of his head. Annabeth narrowed her eyes, and for a second Leo thought she had caught onto him. He tried to look as innocent as possible – no, I don't think this was one of my old foster homes at all, no need to worry! – but something told him she wasn't buying it.

But she merely asked him, "Were you eavesdropping on us?"

Leo let out an ashamed chuckle, trying to hide his relief. Chiron sighed, crossing his arms. "You're sure? You aren't busy at all?"

"Nope! Free as a bird. Besides, it can't take that long, right? Especially if there really is nothing there."

And that was how Leo ended up on a train to Colorado. The others had asked why he didn't just take one of his own contraptions. But Festus wasn't completely reassembled yet; and after flying around the world on the Argo II, needing repairs every five minutes, Leo was happy to settle in and let someone else do the work. Apart from Jeeves, he was totally riding solo.

Until Reyna.

She took the steps two at a time, apparently recovered from her dizzy fit. Even without a weapon, she looked dangerous. Leo could barely keep up, and silently cursed that the house had so many stairs. Why did it need so many stairs? Just how deep underground was that dungeon? He wondered if there was an entire labyrinth of underground passages beneath them. Maybe they even led into the famed Labyrinth Percy was always talking about.

He was so lost in his dungeon-tunnel musings that he would have died at the top of the stairs, if not for Reyna.

"Holy Hephaestus!" he shouted, as Reyna's arm smacked into his chest and pushed him back against the wall. Something shiny and very sharp went flying past his nose. Leo looked down the end of the hall, and choked.

Two nuns were facing them, only these didn't look like any nuns Leo had ever seen. For one, they had gray skin and yellow eyes. For two, they had fangs. They were also kinda frumpy, and Leo would have found them silly-looking if not for the glinting swords in their hands.

"What are those?" He yelped. Reyna shook her head.

"I don't know," she said. Her hand went to her side, but she seemed to realize once again that she was weaponless. Before either of them could react, the nuns charged down the hallway, one going for each of them.

Reyna reacted faster than him. She vaulted forward, coming up to meet the evil nun and smacking her in the jaw. For a minute, Leo had been worried about her not having a weapon, but that left his mind pretty quickly. Reyna was either a black belt karate champion or did mixed martial arts cage matches in her spare time. Honestly, neither would have surprised Leo.

Then the second evil nun reached him, and he jolted out of his thoughts. Leo didn't exactly have any weapons ready, unless you counted the drill gun, and that was currently out of drills. So he settled for the next best thing, summoning fire in his hand and punching the nun.

It seemed like a good idea, because she stumbled back, clutching her face. But the next second Reyna was yelling at him. "Are you stupid?" She shouted, ducking under her nun's clawed swipe. "You'll set the whole building on fire!"

Leo gulped. Oh, right, there was the fact that they were in an old house. Made of wood. Full of orphans.

Seeing as he didn't want to start the subject of a Spiderman comic, Leo quickly extinguished the flames. Sister Creepy-Eyes was still clawing at her face, screeching about the burns. She had dropped her sword, and Leo seized the opportunity. Jamming his hand into the magic tool belt, he thought with all his might, Hammer!

When he pulled his hand out, the thing he was holding would have made Thor jealous. Leo almost stopped to ponder if he could summon lightning with it (wouldn't that put Jason to shame, oh boy) but the nun was recovering. Leo swung with all his might, clobbering her in the head.

He hit her so hard on the head, the hammer cracked. The nun burst into dust, vanishing completely. Leo stood there, breathing heavily for a second, before looking wildly over to where Reyna was still defending herself well against a sword. But without a weapon of her own, there wasn't much she could do.

The sword had disappeared with the nun, and his hammer wasn't quite so impressive. But Leo had to help her. Once again, he reached into his tool belt. He'd already pulled out so much, it was probably out of juice. Panicking, he blindly fumbled, silently begging for a weapon, another hammer, even a stapler, anything.

But nothing. Leo let out an aggravated shout. Reyna ducked under the nun's swing, rolling backwards. She was breathing heavily. She shot one look back at him, eyes blazing. They were almost shouting at him. Do something, Valdez!

So Leo did the only thing he could do, short of burning the building – he tossed the broken hammer.

It worked better than he expected. The edge hit her forehead, and she stumbled backwards. Reyna leapt into action, snatching the sword out of the nun's hands and stabbing her in the chest quicker than a flash.

The nun disintegrated. The sword in Reyna's hands did as well, dust crumbling through her fingers. She stood up, breathing heavily. Leo whistled. "Wow. Remind me to never get on your bad side."

She glared over her shoulder, and he remembered with a start that he was at the top of her list.

Something crashed in another room, and Reyna stiffened. She pressed a finger to her lips, and beckoned for Leo to follow. He complied, tiptoeing behind her as she stealthily headed down the hall.

As they went, Leo couldn't help but notice the amount of doors he passed. This was more like a hotel than a home. The idea that this might have been a B&B at one point crossed his mind, and that naturally led him to thinking about breakfast, and food in general, and just how hungry he was, and how he wished Jeeves were here to offer him a snack-

And then it clicked.

"Reyna," he hissed, trying not to freak out or spontaneously combust, or both. "Reyna, I know what-"

"Quiet," she shot back, in a tone that left no room for arguments.

"But-" Leo argued.

At that moment, they rounded into the kitchen. Standing in the middle of the room was a tall, blonde, and beautiful woman. Her hair cascaded in golden curls down her shoulders, framing the face of a twenty-something supermodel. She was dressed in a simple, elegant white dress, and in her hands was a clipboard. She smiled at Reyna, not seeming to see Leo. That was cool, though, he was used to it. He watched in morbid fascination as her red lips parted, revealing pearly white fangs.

"Ah, our little escapee," she said in a warm, motherly voice. "Not very Roman of you, is it, going off on your own?"

"Declare yourself," Reyna demanded, ignoring the model. Even without any form of weapon, she still radiated an air of danger. Leo felt a little safer beside her.

So he stepped out, opening his mouth. "That's-"

The woman's eyes locked onto him, and she hissed, voice turning snakelike. "Greek!" She snarled, and her body began to shift. Her legs fused together, covering themselves in green scales. Her nails grew longer, scratching the paper on her clipboard. Within seconds, she had gone from supermodel to mermaid-gone-wrong, complete with a writhing snake for a lower half.

"The Lamia," Leo finished.

Reyna looked like she was going to be sick. He didn't blame her. That weird transformation sequence was definitely making Leo green.

Lamia didn't look much better. Apparently being in the presence of a Greek and a Roman at the same time was throwing off her game. Leo could only hope that would be enough to get past her.

Reyna was the first to recover. She darted to the side, behind Lamia and into the kitchen. Leo's mind whirred into action, and he realized what Reyna was doing. Quickly, before the Lamia turned, Leo began clapping his hands together. "Hey!" He shouted. Lamia whirled her head back to him, snakelike eyes narrowing.

"What are you doing in my home, Greek?" She hissed.

"Um," Leo raised his hands. "Shouldn't I be asking you that? I mean, what's a lady like you doing in a place like this-"

Lamia lunged at him. Leo yelped and threw his arms up as a shield, but it wasn't necessary. Lamia suddenly went flying, thrown off to the side. Standing behind her was Reyna, standing tall, with a frying pan in her hands.

Leo stared at it.

"Say nothing," Reyna ground out.

"No, no, frying pans, totally cool, I mean have you seen Tangled? Who knew, right?"

Reyna gave him a look like he was dirt under her shoe. Excellent, Leo thought dryly, she's exactly my type. Then Lamia began to stir, picking herself up off the kitchen floor.

"Fools!" She spat. "You have no idea what you are dealing with!"

"Then why don't you tell us?" Reyna brandished her frying pan dangerously.

Leo saw movement from the corner of his eye. "Reyna, duck!"

A second later would have been too late. A ball of flame went shooting over their heads, exploding onto the cupboards dangerously close to the oven. Leo blinked the dust out of his eyes. Before he could think, he felt a hand grabbing his shirt and then he was being dragged out of the kitchen and down the hall. From behind them, he could hear Lamia screeching. "You stupid thing! Do you want to set this place on fire?"

Leo had the feeling that if they weren't running for their lives, Reyna would have shot him a look that said I told you so. As it was, she continued to drag him around corners and he struggled to keep up with her.

As they ran past, one of the doors creaked open. Leo caught sight of a pair of large, brown doe eyes staring at him. For a second, he almost stopped running. But then the front doors came into sight, and he put on an extra burst of speed.

They crashed through the doors. Bright sunlight flooded his vision. Leo had forgotten it was still the middle of the day; it had been so dark inside the old house.

Reyna whistled sharply, and loudly. Leo smacked his hands over his ears, glaring, but Reyna wasn't paying attention. Her eyes were focused on the skies, scanning the horizon.

Behind them, the doors slammed open again. Lamia slithered through, coiling on the porch. Leo grabbed Reyna's wrist and dragged her back onto the yard.

"You won't escape, little demigods. My mistress will have you for dessert!" She cawed at them. Leo growled, holding out his hands. They ignited with flame.

"Not if I roast you first," he threatened. This snake-lady was starting to seriously make him mad.

But he couldn't attack, not with the chance of setting the foster home ablaze. He remembered the pair of brown eyes, and the flames in his hands flickered. Lamia seemed to sense his hesitance, and cackled.

A sound like a small airplane came from behind him. Lamia's face promptly fell, and turned into an ugly scowl. Leo turned, and saw a dot on the horizon rapidly racing towards them. "What the-"

"Scipio!" Reyna exclaimed triumphantly. The peanut-butter pegasus shot down towards them, and landed on the grass with a small boom.

"Get them!" Lamia screamed, pointing. Reyna jumped on Scipio's back. He skittered nervously, whinnying. Leo watched in horror as about a dozen more evil nuns spilled out, joined by several pretty girls with Twilight T-shirts and fangs.

"Schist," he said flatly.

"Valdez!"

He turned. Reyna had extended a hand down to him. "Are you coming?" she asked.

There was a 50% chance she would throw him off at the first given opportunity. They would be leaving behind a house full of innocent children to a monster made legendary for eating children.

"Quick!" Lamia's cries turned into panic. "Don't let them get away!"

Leo took Reyna's hand. She hauled him up behind her. "Hold on," she warned. With a kick, Scipio shot straight up into the air. Leo wrapped his arms around Reyna's waist as he yelled in shock, the cries of Lamia echoing below them.