~ { Shadow and Beauty } ~

Fish-Horse Guys

{Leo}

He told Frank what they'd seen. The weirdness hadn't fully registered yet, but now, trying to explain it aloud, Leo could hardly believe it. Hazel had been sweet on his bisabuelo, a guy who had died when Leo was a baby. Leo hadn't made the connection before, but he had a vague memory of older family members calling his grandfather Sam Junior. Which meant Sam Senior was Sammy, Leo's bisabuelo.

   At some point, Tía Callida—Hera herself—had talked with Sammy, consoling him and giving him a glimpse into the future, which meant that Hera had been shaping Leo's life generations before he was even born. If Hazel had stayed in the 1940s, if she'd married Sammy, Leo might've been her great-grandson.

   "Oh, man," Leo said when he had finished the story. "I don't feel so good. But I swear on the Styx, that's what we saw."

   Frank had the same expression as the monster catfish head—wide glassy eyes and an open mouth. "Hazel... Hazel liked your great-grandfather? That's why she likes you?"

   "Frank, I know this is weird. Believe me. But I don't like Hazel—not that way. I'm not moving in on your girl."

   Frank knit his eyebrows. "No?"

   Leo hoped he wasn't blushing. Truthfully, he had no idea how he felt about Hazel. She was awesome and cute, and Leo had a weakness for awesome cute girls. But the flashback had complicated his feelings a lot. Besides, his ship was in trouble.

  I guess you care more about your ship than your friends, Frank had said.

   That wasn't true, was it? Leo's dad, Hephaestus, had admitted once that he wasn't good with organic life forms. And, yes, Leo had always been more comfortable with machines than people. But he did care about his friends. Piper, Kiara and Jason... he'd known them the longest, but the others were important to him too. Even Frank. They were like family.

   The problem was, it had been so long since Leo had had a family, he couldn't even remember how it felt. Sure, last winter he'd become senior counselor of Hephaestus cabin; but most of his time had been spent building the ship.

   He liked his cabin mates. He knew how to work with them—but did he really know them? If Leo had a family, it was the demigods on the Argo II—and maybe Coach Hedge, which Leo would never admit aloud.

   You will always be the outsider, warned Nemesis's voice; but Leo tried to push that thought aside.

   "Right, so..." He looked around him. "We need to make a plan. How are we breathing? If we're under the ocean, shouldn't we be crushed by the water pressure?"

   Frank shrugged. "Fish-horse magic, I guess. I remember the green guy touching my head with the point of a dagger. Then I could breathe."

   Leo studied the abalone door. "Can you bust us out? Turn into a hammerhead shark or something?"

   Frank shook his head glumly. "My shape-shifting doesn't work. I don't know why. Maybe they cursed me, or maybe I'm too messed up to focus."

   "Hazel could be in trouble," Leo said. "We've got to get out of here."

   He swam to the door and ran his fingers along the abalone. He couldn't feel any kind of latch or other mechanism. Either the door could only be opened by magic or sheer force was required—neither of which was Leo's specialty.

   "I've already tried," Frank said. "Even if we get out, we have no weapons."

   "Hmm..." Leo held up his hand. "I wonder."