SWNOVELS The Mark of Athena: Chapter 8
Leo psyched himself up for an extreme makeover. He summoned some breath mints and a pair of welding goggles from his tool belt. The goggles weren’t exactly sunglasses, but they’d have to do. He rolled up the sleeves of his shirt. He used some machine oil to grease back his hair. He stuck a wrench in his back pocket (why exactly, he wasn’t sure) and he had Hazel draw a tattoo on his biceps with a marker: HOT STUFF, with a skull and crossbones.
“What in the world are you thinking?” She sounded pretty flustered.
“I try not to think,” Leo admitted. “It interferes with being nuts. Just concentrate on moving that Celestial bronze. Echo, you ready?”
“Ready,” she said.
Leo took a deep breath. He strutted back toward the pond, hoping he looked awesome and not like he had some sort of nervous affliction. “Leo is the coolest!” he shouted.
“Leo is the coolest!” Echo shouted back.
“Yeah, baby, check me out!”
“Check me out!” Echo said.
“Make way for the king!”
“The king!”
“Narcissus is weak!”
“Weak!”
The crowd of nymphs scattered in surprise. Leo shooed them away as if they were bothering him. “No autographs, girls. I know you want some Leo time, but I’m way too cool. You better just hang around that ugly dweeb Narcissus. He’s lame!”
“Lame!” Echo said with enthusiasm.
The nymphs muttered angrily.
“What are you talking about?” one demanded.
“You’re lame,” said another.
Leo adjusted his goggles and smiled. He flexed his biceps, though he didn’t have much to flex, and showed off his HOT STUFF tattoo. He had the nymphs’ attention, if only because they were stunned; but Narcissus was still fixed on his own reflection.
“You know how ugly Narcissus is?” Leo asked the crowd. “He’s so ugly, when he was born his mama thought he was a backward centaur—with a horse butt for a face.”
Some of the nymphs gasped. Narcissus frowned, as though he was vaguely aware of a gnat buzzing around his head.
“You know why his bow has cobwebs?” Leo continued. “He uses it to hunt for dates, but he can’t find one!”
One of the nymphs laughed. The others quickly elbowed her into silence.
Narcissus turned and scowled at Leo. “Who are you?”
“I’m the Super-sized McShizzle, man!” Leo said. “I’m Leo Valdez, bad boy supreme. And the ladies love a bad boy.”
“Love a bad boy!” Echo said, with a convincing squeal.
Leo took out a pen and autographed the arm of one of the nymphs. “Narcissus is a loser! He’s so weak, he can’t bench-press a Kleenex. He’s so lame, when you look up lame on Wikipedia, it’s got a picture of Narcissus—only the picture’s so ugly, no one ever checks it out.”
Narcissus knit his handsome eyebrows. His face was turning from bronze to salmon pink. For the moment, he’d totally forgotten about the pond, and Leo could see the sheet of bronze sinking into the sand.
“What are you talking about?” Narcissus demanded. “I am amazing. Everyone knows this.”
“Amazing at pure suck,” Leo said. “If I was as suck as you, I’d drown myself. Oh wait, you already did that.”
Another nymph giggled. Then another. Narcissus growled, which did make him look a little less handsome. Meanwhile Leo beamed and wiggled his eyebrows over his goggles and spread his hands, gesturing for applause.
“That’s right!” he said. “Team Leo for the win!”
“Team Leo for the win!” Echo shouted. She’d wriggled into the mob of nymphs, and because she was so hard to see, the nymphs apparently thought the voice came from one of their own.
“Oh my god, I am so awesome!” Leo bellowed.
“So awesome!” Echo yelled back.
“He is funny,” a nymph ventured.
“And cute, in a scrawny way,” another said.
“Scrawny?” Leo asked. “Baby, I invented scrawny. Scrawny is the new sizzling hot. And I GOT the scrawny. Narcissus? He’s such a loser even the Underworld didn’t want him. He couldn’t get the ghost girls to date him.”
“Eww,” said a nymph.
“Eww!” Echo agreed.
“Stop!” Narcissus got to his feet. “This is not right! This person is obviously not awesome, so he must be…” He struggled for the right words. It had probably been a long time since he’d talked about anything other than himself. “He must be tricking us.”
Apparently Narcissus wasn’t completely stupid. Realization dawned on his face. He turned back to the pond. “The bronze mirror is gone! My reflection! Give me back to me!”
“Team Leo!” one of the nymphs squeaked. But the others returned their attention to Narcissus.
“I’m the beautiful one!” Narcissus insisted. “He’s stolen my mirror, and I’m going to leave unless we get it back!”
The girls gasped. One pointed. “There!”
Hazel was at the top of the crater, running away as fast as she could while lugging a large sheet of bronze.
“Get it back!” cried a nymph.
Probably against her will, Echo muttered, “Get it back.”
“Yes!” Narcissus unslung his bow and grabbed an arrow from his dusty quiver. “The first one who gets that bronze, I will like you almost as much as I like me. I might even kiss you, right after I kiss my reflection!”
“Oh my gods!” the nymphs screamed.
“And kill those demigods!” Narcissus added, glaring very handsomely at Leo. “They are not as cool as me!”
Leo could run pretty fast when someone was trying to kill him. Sadly, he’d had a lot of practice.
He overtook Hazel, which was easy, since she was struggling with fifty pounds of Celestial bronze. He took one side of the metal plate and glanced back. Narcissus was nocking an arrow, but it was so old and brittle, it broke into splinters.
“Ow!” he yelled very attractively. “My manicure!”
Normally nymphs were quick—at least the ones at Camp Half-Blood were—but these were burdened with posters, T-shirts, and other Narcissus™ merchandise. The nymphs also weren’t great at working as a team. They kept stumbling over one another, pushing and shoving. Echo made things worse by running among them, tripping and tackling as many as she could.
Still, they were closing rapidly.
“Call Arion!” Leo gasped.
“Already did!” Hazel said.
They ran for the beach. They made it to the edge of the water and could see the Argo II, but there was no way to get there. It was much too far to swim, even if they hadn’t been toting bronze.
Leo turned. The mob was coming over the dunes, Narcissus in the lead, holding his bow like a band major’s baton. The nymphs had conjured assorted weapons. Some held rocks. Some had wooden clubs wreathed in flowers. A few of the water nymphs had squirt guns—which seemed not quite as terrifying—but the look in their eyes was still murderous.
“Oh, man,” Leo muttered, summoning fire in his free hand. “Straight-up fighting isn’t my thing.”
“Hold the Celestial bronze.” Hazel drew her sword. “Get behind me!”
“Get behind me!” Echo repeated. The camouflaged girl was racing ahead of the mob now. She stopped in front of Leo and turned, spreading her arms as if she meant to personally shield him.
“Echo?” Leo could hardly talk with the lump in his throat. “You’re one brave nymph.”
“Brave nymph?” Her tone made it a question.
“I’m proud to have you on Team Leo,” he said. “If we survive this, you should forget Narcissus.”
“Forget Narcissus?” she said uncertainly.
“You’re way too good for him.”
The nymphs surrounded them in a semicircle.
“Trickery!” Narcissus said. “They don’t love me, girls! We all love me, don’t we?”
“Yes!” the girls screamed, except for one confused nymph in a yellow dress who squeaked, “Team Leo!”
“Kill them!” Narcissus ordered.
The nymphs surged forward, but the sand in front of them exploded. Arion raced out of nowhere, circling the mob so quickly he created a sandstorm, showering the nymphs in white lime, spraying their eyes.
“I love this horse!” Leo said.
The nymphs collapsed, coughing and gagging. Narcissus stumbled around blindly, swinging his bow like he was trying to hit a piñata.
Hazel climbed into the saddle, hoisted up the bronze, and offered Leo a hand.
“We can’t leave Echo!” Leo said.
“Leave Echo,” the nymph repeated.
She smiled, and for the first time Leo could clearly see her face. She really was pretty. Her eyes were bluer than he’d realized. How had he missed that?
“Why?” Leo asked. “You don’t think you can still save Narcissus…”
“Save Narcissus,” she said confidently. And even though it was only an echo, Leo could tell that she meant it. She’d been given a second chance at life, and she was determined to use it to save the guy she loved—even if he was a completely hopeless (though very handsome) moron.
Leo wanted to protest, but Echo leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek, then pushed him gently away.
“Leo, come on!” Hazel called.
The other nymphs were starting to recover. They wiped the lime out of their eyes, which were now glowing green with anger. Leo looked for Echo again, but she had dissolved into the scenery.
“Yeah,” he said, his throat dry. “Yeah, okay.”
He climbed up behind Hazel. Arion took off across the water, the nymphs screaming behind them, and Narcissus shouting, “Bring me back! Bring me back!”
As Arion raced toward the Argo II, Leo remembered what Nemesis had said about Echo and Narcissus: Perhaps they’ll teach you a lesson.
Leo had thought she’d meant Narcissus, but now he wondered if the real lesson for him was Echo—invisible to her brethren, cursed to love someone who didn’t care for her. A seventh wheel. He tried to shake that thought. He clung to the sheet of bronze like a shield.
He was determined never to forget Echo’s face. She deserved at least one person who saw her and knew how good she was. Leo closed his eyes, but the memory of her smile was already fading.