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If there was one thing Leo knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, it was that being singled out was never a good thing. Not for people like him, at any rate. Being singled out meant teachers trying to humiliate him in front of the class because they thought he was slacking, or foster parents getting ready to make an example of him. It meant isolation and fear and suffering in some shape, form, or fashion. It was manageable, sometimes, if he knew ahead of time why, exactly, he was being singled out, but in general, Leo would be much, much happier just avoiding the whole mess and flying under the radar.
Jason, somehow, never learned this lesson.
“I'm sure it won't be too bad,” Jason tried to soothe, rubbing a hand up and down Leo’s spine. “It's fine.”
That didn't help. In fact, it kind of made Leo want to throttle his boyfriend where he sat, because it wasn't fine. Not even a little bit. They were currently in the Big House, sitting on a pair of wooden chairs outside of Chiron's office because Thanatos himself had shown up, demanding to have a chat with Leo. “Jason. Baby. Love and light of my life,” Leo said, trying to shove down his violent impulses and only mostly succeeding. “I don't know if you're keeping score, but we are a pair of essentially undead demigods. We died, full-on kicked the bucket, and then got brought back to life. And, for the record, both of those magic tricks were my doing, in case you forgot. Forgive me if I’m not super excited to have a little chat with Death himself.”
“Hazel met Thanatos, and she said he was nice.”
Leo counted backwards from ten in Spanish to keep from popping Jason’s head like a grape. “Dude, you are, like, the definition of a nepobaby. How do you not understand that Hazel's situation is wildly different from ours, and grants her certain privileges?”
Jason didn't say anything for a moment, and Leo went back to chewing at his already-bloody cuticle until Jason made a soft sound, and he turned to look at him again. When he did, Jason got his fingers in Leo’s curls, cupping the back of his skull and bringing their foreheads together to gently touch. “It's going to be alright, Leo,” he promised softly, and Leo desperately wanted to believe him
“How do you know?”
“Because it's you,” Jason said like it was a simple fact of the universe. Like if Leo was working on a problem, it was guaranteed to work itself out rather than crash and burn. “You’re Leo Valdez. You make the impossible look like a Sunday paper riddle. You built me from nothing, then loved me back to life. You can do anything.”
Heat started to build behind Leo’s eyes, so he screwed them shut. “What if I can't?”
“Then we’ll handle that. Together,” Jason said firmly. “You've got me now, Leo, and you're never going to do anything alone ever again.”
Leo’s lower lip was threatening to wobble, so he grabbed Jason’s face to shut him up with a kiss so he couldn’t say anymore devastatingly sweet things, but just as he did, the door to Chiron’s office swung open by itself and a cool even voice called, “Come in, Leo Valdez.”
Leo’s blood turned to ice, and he considered bolting, but Jason stood up and offered his hand with a tiny smile. “Never alone again, remember?”
With those words echoing softly in his brain, Leo took the hand, and prepared to face Death.
Leo had only been in Chiron’s office a handful of times, and that was only ever to play Mario Party with Jason, so he was a little surprised to find it shrouded in darkness. All of the windows had been covered with thick, heavy curtains, the lights were low, and Thanatos was waiting for them behind the desk like some kind of Bond villain.
Thanatos didn’t actually look all that terrifying himself. He had a grand presence that refused to be ignored and an intimidating aura, but he mostly just looked like a borderline offensively handsome man. Assuming you ignored the pearlescent black wings that were easily taller than Leo, that is. He had a hard, serious look on his face, not exactly unkind, but absolutely unforgiving. This was a god who knew how things were supposed to be, and didn’t allow for exceptions.
“Leo Valdez,” Thanatos said as they sat down across from him. His gaze glanced over Jason and their still-linked hands, but he said nothing. “I’m sure you know why you’re here.”
“Because I’m incredibly charming and you wanted my autograph?” Jason squeezed Leo’s fingers uncomfortably tight in the universal sign for Not now! Leo cleared his throat. “Uh, sorry.”
Thanatos didn’t seem to hear his interruption, he just straightened the papers on the desk and leveled Leo with an even stare that went straight to his soul. “You are here because the ledger is unbalanced, and you owe a debt.”
Panic surged through Leo’s body and he clung to Jason’s hand like a lifeline. “You can’t have him,” he snapped, glaring defensively at the god across from him. “I don't care about your ledger books or whatever, you can't have Jason.”
Thanatos studied him for a moment, before he looked back at his papers. “I am not here for either of your souls, Mister Valdez, much as it would please me to put them where they belong. The title ‘Hero of Olympus’ carries a fair bit of weight, and Her Majesty vouched for you both.”
“Oh.” Leo’s head spun a little at the thought of Hera in her Tía Callida get-up squaring off against the god of death, but he dismissed it. “Uh, what do you want then?”
Thanatos's eyes sparkled with interest for the first time since Leo had walked into the room, and he leaned forward over the desk. “Well, you’re a demigod, yes? A hero?”
“Uh, yeah. Last time I checked Ancestry dot com, at least.”
“Mister Valdez, I want you for the same reason any god wants a hero,” Thanatos said. “I want you for a quest.”
Leo hadn’t been sure what to expect when the god of death issued him a quest. Was he meant to beat some unbeatable foe? Solve an unsolvable riddle? Navigate an unnavigatable path? The options were endless, and all the more terrifying for it. But Thanatos didn’t want any of that. Instead, he was sending Leo on a fetch quest for his sisters.
Only, those sisters were the Fates and their weaving tools were scattered across the Underworld. A spindle on the banks of the Styx, a measuring rod in the wastes of Erebus, and a pair of shears in the depths of Asphodel, and there was a giant magic hourglass counting them down to the moment where Fate itself unwound or something vaguely sinister like that. Easy peasy.
Thanatos had been kind enough to give them some guidance on how to start their quest, at least. He mentioned that Hermes was a psychopomp, a guide for souls who had passed on, and that sometimes that skill got passed along to his children. So, after a bit of asking around Camp, Leo found himself face to face with the one and only Goose.
“So, you can lead us into the Underworld?” Leo asked without preamble.
Goose didn’t look up from his Gameboy. “Depends.”
“On?”
“If you can pay the fare or not. Ferryman demands his coin, and so do I.”
“You want money?” Jason asked. He reached into his pocket and dug out a fairly substantial coinpurse, which he offered without hesitation. “Will this do? It’s denari, not drachma, but the exchange rate is pretty good, from what I hear.”
Leo gawked at him. “Where did you get that?”
Jason shrugged. “Twelve years of service in the Legion gets you a really big pay-out when you finally retire. This is part of my pension.”
Goose wasn’t listening, he was too busy ogling the gold and silver coins like Scrooge McDuck. “This will definitely get you to the Underworld. Fair warning, though, getting out will be your responsibility. I can’t help you there.”
“Fair enough,” Leo agreed. “So, how are we gonna do this? Is there, like, a secret entrance, or…”
“If it was just an entrance, you wouldn’t need a guide,” Goose said, heaving himself out of his bunk. “We’re gonna play follow the leader.”
Leo gave him a blank look. “Are you fucking with me?”
“Could be,” Goose said with a shrug. “Only one way to find out.”
Leo exchanged a quick look with Jason, then at their little timer before he threw up his hands in surrender. “Fine then. Follow the leader it is.”
Goose led them out of the Hermes cabin in a single file, weaving in and out of the cabins and other buildings. Every now and then, he’d switch from just walking to skipping or hopping or walking backwards or just taking comically large steps, and Leo and Jason had to mimic him as best they could. Leo noticed as they crossed the border into the surrounding woods that Goose had his eyes shut, face lax like he was sleepwalking. That didn’t exactly make Leo feel all cozy and comfy inside, but he didn’t really have a choice, now did he? He just followed Goose with semi-blind faith and hoped for the best.
“We’re almost there,” Goose warned, though his voice sounded far away. “Close your eyes.”
Leo wanted to protest that they were nowhere near the Underworld, that he could, in fact, still see the dining pavilion, but he just did as he was told and shut his eyes. He took five, six, seven steps then–
Leo sucked in a harsh gasp, feeling like he’d just been doused with a bucket of ice water, and he heard Jason do the same behind him. He blinked open his eyes, and for a split second, he was terrified he’d gone blind before he adjusted to the dim light. He was on a black sand beach, beside which flowed a vast grey river churning with junk. Some of the garbage had washed ashore, and Leo spied several diplomas, an electric guitar, and a half-built motorcycle. The refuse of abandoned dreams.
“Well, that’s definitely the Styx,” Jason said, observing the water carefully. A large sousaphone emerged from the surface, splashing just the tiniest bit on the toe of his sneaker, and it hissed and sizzled menacingly. Jason took several quick steps back, kicking his foot to shake off any remaining water before it started chewing through his foot. “Don’t touch it.”
“Noted.” Leo looked around, before his gaze fell on a nearby pedestal, upon which sat Clotho’s Spindle. He glanced at Jason. “No shot it’s that easy, right? It’s gotta be booby trapped or something.”
“Finding it may not be the challenge,” Jason warned, approaching it cautiously. After studying it for a moment, he turned and gestured at Leo. “Well? It’s your quest. You grab it.”
“My brave, self-sacrificing hero,” Leo muttered. Still, he stepped up and grabbed the spindle. He was completely still, waiting for the world to shatter around his ears, but it never did. He glanced at Jason, then shrugged and stuffed it in his toolbelt. “Alright then. Erebus time. Saddle up, Superman.”
Without another order needed, Jason scooped Leo up and flew them across the river, only the river seemed a lot wider than it looked. Time got weird and squishy about halfway across, and when Jason landed on the opposite bank, Leo got the feeling they had found the trap.
“This isn’t right,” Jason muttered. He took off his glasses and cleaned them on his shirt before looking ahead. Only, Leo was starting to get the suspicion that it wasn’t really the way ahead. “Leo, I think we’re on the same side of the river. We’re right back where we started.”
“That can’t be, we crossed it,” Leo said stubbornly. He shook his head. “Take us over again.”
Once again, Jason flew them across the impossibly wide river, but this time Leo could sense the moment the world spun around them, depositing them right back where they started. He huffed in frustration, and kicked a nearby car door, caving it in with his steel-toed boot. Then he paused. There hadn’t been a car door on the bank when they showed up. In fact, none of the stuff that should have been there, including the pedestal, was where it should be, all of it replaced with new stuff.
“Jason, tell me everything you know about the Styx,” Leo ordered.
Jason looked surprised at the sudden order, but he played along without question just like he did every time he didn’t understand Leo’s plan. “Uh, it’s one of the five rivers of the Underworld, the boundary between the world of the living and the realm of the dead. Achilles’s mom dipped him into it to grant him invulnerability, and gods swear–”
“No, no, I mean, like, physically,” Leo interrupted. “Is there anything weird about the river, geographically speaking?”
Jason wracked his brain for a moment, sifting through sixteen years of mythology 101 classes. “Uh, it’s said to wrap around the Underworld seven times?”
Bingo. Leo should have known. Olympus seemed to love the number seven. “Alright then. We’ve got to cross the river seven times. Well, six, now.”
“Wouldn’t it just be five since we’ve done it twice?”
Leo shook his head. “No, only that first one counted. You felt the difference, right? The world got all squishy and twisted the first time, but it was a much clearer turnaround the second time.”
“Alright then,” Jason agreed without a hesitation. “What’s our second way across?”
Leo glanced around before his eyes fell on a dinky little two-man canoe. It would require some quick TLC before it was water tight, but Leo was confident it would get them where they needed to go. He reached into his toolbelt and produced his ever-loyal roll of industrial strength duct tape. “We’re setting sail, Jacy baby.”
Surprisingly, it worked. About halfway across the river, the world got weird and dropped them back on that first bank with a whole new collection of garbage to play with, but that just proved the theory. The third time they flew across again, but this time it was in a makeshift hot air balloon powered by Leo’s own fire. The fourth involved using Jason’s wind powers to essentially levitate a giant Slip-n-Slide that they used as a bridge. Then they very, very carefully walked across on some stilts, then leap-frogged from one floating pile of junk to another until they were on their last trip.
“Okay, last one,” Jason said, turning to Leo for guidance. “Now what?”
For the last time, Leo looked around, and his eyes fell upon the most glorious sight. It was a mostly-intact trebuche, and Leo knew instantly that it had originally been planned for one of those Pumpkin Chunkin festivals or another before some poor sap’s dream died. His grin grew manic as he turned to Jason. “You’re not gonna like it.”
Jason looked confused for a moment before he spied the abandoned siege weapon. “Please tell me you’re not thinking what I think you’re thinking.”
Leo just got out a battery powered hand drill and whirred it a couple times. “Do you trust me?”
“Sometimes, I wish I didn’t.”
Leo ignored that and just kissed him. “Go get me that tarp from over there. We’ve got work to do.”
The trebuche worked well. The trebuche worked so well. In fact, it may have worked too well. They soared right on over the Styx, and the world didn’t even go all weird and wobbly around them. However, they absolutely missed the other bank. They just shot through the air a lot faster than Leo had assumed the pumpkin-focused weaponry could manage, especially when Jason got a little panic-y and gave them a little Zeus Boost. They flew right past the soft sandy beach Leo had been aiming for and instead landed in a heap on much, much harder ground.
“That sucked,” Jason announced. “Like a lot.”
“Worse than the stilts?” Leo wheezed back.
“Worse than the stilts.”
Leo just shook his head and shoved Jason off of him so that he could stand and get his bearings. They were obviously still in the Underworld (where else could they go?) and the ground beneath them was the same black sand, though now it was more packed and hard like a desert than the loose silt of a river bed. He could only assume this was Erebus, or at least the outer area of it. He offered Jason a hand to pull himself up, and frowned. “Now what?”
Jason looked around, too, but he was clearly just as lost. “Uh, we start looking for the measuring rod, I guess.”
“But that could take forever, and we already spent too much time playing at the river,” Leo protested. He studied the magic glowing hourglass for a moment before he flipped it upside down, trying to reset their time. Unfortunately, now the sand just flowed upwards, and a cool voice rang out from everywhere and nowhere, Nice try, Mister Valdez. Leo shrugged. “Worth a shot. Come on, let’s get to walking.”
Fortunately, they didn’t have too far to go before they walked right up to a literal wall of darkness that somehow managed to sneak up on them. Leo had never seen anything like it. It wasn’t just a lack of light, this darkness had a presence, it had weight, it had mass. There was no gentle acclimation, it was just the already dim light of the Underworld, then boom. Nothing. Like the world’s densest fog had just rolled in and claimed the space as its own. Leo gulped. “I’m guessing that’s Erebus?”
“Considering he’s supposed to be the personification of pure darkness, I’m gonna say yes,” Jason said hesitantly. He reached out and grabbed Leo’s hand. “Together?”
Leo squeezed his fingers and nodded. “Together.”
As soon as they stepped into Erebus, it was like they’d gone completely blind. Leo instinctively lifted his free hand and covered it with flames, but he immediately doused them because it was useless. There hadn’t even been a spark. The one and only thing Leo could see was the hourglass floating before them, sand still flowing up just to mock him. Leo felt his breath hitch in his throat and he squeezed Jason’s hand until his knuckles ached. “Jason?” he asked, his voice so tiny and scared. “Are you there?”
“I’m here,” Jason promised without missing a beat. “I’m right here with you. Never alone again, remember?”
Leo sucked in a deep breath and nodded, though he knew Jason couldn’t see it. He focused on warm hands, on the callouses he’d built himself. “Right. I’ll, um, see about getting a light.”
Only, when Leo pulled the million-lumen super mega flashlight out and turned it on, nothing happened. The flashlight was working, he could feel all the machine parts humming beneath his fingers, there just wasn’t any light.
“Okay, looks like we’re doing this blind,” Leo said, trying to sound as chipper as he could. “You think the instruments of Fate know how to play Marco Polo?”
Jason snorted, and Leo clung to that sound, the only anchor he had at the moment. “You know, somehow I doubt it.”
“Good old fashioned bumbling around it is.”
Making their way through Erebus was slow, tedious work. They kept moving in a side fanning motion, moving forward just a bit at a time as they tried to cover as much side-to-side ground as they could. Not that Leo could be sure if it was doing them any good. Even if the dark cloud of Erebus was just the size of a football field, it would take them hours to search it, but Leo was pretty sure it was probably closer to the size of the Sahara. The gods didn’t really do reasonable sizes for anything, after all.
Leo was about ready to throw a frustrated tantrum, screaming and shouting about the unfairness of it all, when he saw her. There was a shade wandering through the darkness, but she was glowing softly, calling to them like a lighthouse, and she walked with the single-minded determination of someone who knew where they were going. Leo tugged on Jason’s hand. “You seeing what I’m seeing?”
Jason made a soft chuffing noise of agreement. “Wanna talk to her?”
“Beats whatever the hell we’re doing.”
Leo took a step towards her, but the world must have gone all weird like it did with the Styx because he was instantly standing right in front of her. She stopped before she hit him though, which was impressive because her eyes were firmly shut. She had a soft, serene smile on her face, and Leo got the feeling she could see him without seeing him. “Hello there,” she said, her voice thin and wispy like the last few sprays of an aerosol can. “What can I help you with?”
“We were hoping you could guide us out of here,” Leo said. “Or at least point us in the right direction. We’re looking for a measuring rod that one of the Fates left here.”
“Oh, no, I can’t do that,” the shade said pleasantly. “No one can navigate the wastes.”
Leo’s heart fell right down to his boots. “What? Why not?”
“You seem to have an idea of where you’re headed,” Jason pointed out.
“I know exactly where I’m going,” the shade agreed. Before Jason or Leo could ask a question about that, she continued. “I am going where I need to be.”
“And where is that?”
“Wherever I’m going.”
Leo wanted to rip his hair out. He hated circular logic arguments like that. They didn’t make any damn sense, it was just a silly little play on words that never meant anything. “Okay, well, how do we get where we need to be?”
“You walk,” the shade said simply. “Close your eyes, quit trying to force your way forward, and simply walk. You will always get to wherever it is you’re headed.” Then, she took a step towards them and vanished.
Close your eyes and walk, huh? Leo thought sarcastically. Is that all? Realistically, it should have been a no-brainer. It wasn’t like he could see in the first place. What did it matter if he had his eyes opened or closed? But he couldn’t shake the fear. The thought of optionally shutting off his primary warning system made his stomach churn unpleasantly. He wasn’t sure if he could do it, if he could let go of the last scrap of control he had over the situation.
But then he felt Jason lean in close and murmur, “Never alone, remember? We can do it together.”
Leo nodded sharply, more to himself than anything, and put the flashlight away. It wasn’t going to do them any good, anyway. He let his eyes slip shut, felt his heart try to break its way out of his chest, and focused on Jason’s hand in his own. “Let’s do it.”
It wasn’t easy. They stumbled over one another constantly until they managed to sync their footsteps, and every few feet one of them would stop and mutter that they’d opened their eyes, and the process would start all over again. They got it eventually, though, and soon they were walking through the dark, eyes closed, without hesitation. You’ll always get wherever it is you’re headed, the shade’s gentle voice reminded Leo. He still wasn’t sure where he was headed, but he knew it wouldn’t be here. Eventually, at any rate.
Then Jason’s hand in his pulled him to a stop. Leo kept his eyes shut, but he could sense something had changed. The grip on the hand not holding Jason’s tightened. “Open your eyes, sweetheart,” Jason coaxed. “You did it.”
Leo’s eyes flew open, and he was temporarily blinded by the dim Underworld lights, and even more so by the beaming smile Jason had pointed at him. He blinked a few times before he looked down at his left hand and found an old-fashioned ruler type thing. “How did that happen?” he asked, feeling dumb.
“Because you’re brilliant,” Jason said, ignoring the fact that he didn’t answer the question, not even a little.
Leo shrugged it off and stashed the measuring rod in his toolbelt, right alongside the spindle from earlier. He glanced at the hourglass. Plenty of time, but they had to get a move on. “Last one?”
“Last one,” Jason confirmed. He bent down and kissed Leo, just because he could. “Come on. Let’s go get some scissors.”
Jason was very confident as they made their way towards Asphodel and Leo desperately wished he had even a fraction of that surety. They’d done amazing work so far, even he could admit that, but the third act of any quest was always the hardest. They were about to be in and among the dead, completely and totally, and the thought made his skin crawl. Every instinct he had screamed to grab Jason and run, to get as far away from this place as possible. But he couldn’t. He had a quest. So he kept trudging forward.
Finding Asphodel was remarkably easy, which Leo figured made sense, seeing as it was where 98% of all souls wound up, and it probably wasn’t a good idea to hide it. It was just a big empty field with withered gray grass trampled flat by the millions and billions of feet that had been trampling it since the Golden Age. Somehow, it wasn’ t crowded, despite the thousands of people aimlessly milling about. They’d occasionally bump into one another before veering off in a new direction like ping pong balls floating in a puddle, but none of them seemed to notice.
Leo and Jason bobbed and weaved their way through the crowd, and Leo kept his gaze firmly on the ground. He knew what he was looking for in the faces of these shades, but he was terrified to find it. He wasn’t sure what he’d do if he looked into a pair of blank, unfeeling eyes and saw– He furiously shook his head and kept walking.
“I think there’s someone here with us,” Jason murmured. Leo’s head whipped up in alarm, and he followed Jason’s gaze. Out in the crowd, something was moving with a lot more purpose than any of the other spirits.
Leo shuddered and dismissed the thought. “Let’s just keep moving,” he muttered. “These stupid scissors are bound to be around here somewhere.”
As if they’d been waiting for him to say the word, the crowd before them parted like the Red Sea, leading straight to another pedestal just like the one the spindle had been on. Leo felt his heart hammer faster and harder with every step forward. This was it. He just had to do this one final thing, and the ledger would balance. He would go back to his life with Jason and finally not have to spend every moment furtively checking over his shoulder, waiting for the other shoe to drop. From the corner of his eye, he saw that movement from before, closer now and moving faster, but he ignored it. There was only one thing he cared about, and that was finishing the damn quest.
Then he reached out to grab the scissors, and the instant he did, a spectral hand covered his own. He tried to yank himself free, but the grip was firm, and when he looked up to see his assailant, the world froze. “Mamá?!”
There she was, standing before him and looking just as pretty as Leo’s broken heart remembered. She was taller than him, with broad shoulders strong enough to carry a little boy's world on her back. She had his messy black curls and his slightly snubbed nose and the same gap between her front teeth. She was sooty and oil-smudged and her brown eyes were welling rapidly with tears. “Oh, mijo,” she breathed, reaching for him with her other hand. “My baby, oh, come here.”
The shears fell out of Leo’s hand with a soft thump as he staggered into his mother's waiting arms. He should be crying, he knew he should, but his eyes remained dry as he tried frantically to compute what was happening to him. Her arms wrapped around him tight, and all he could do was whine out another disbelieving “Mamá?”
“I'm here, Leo,” she said, stroking his hair. “I've missed you so much.”
And that was what broke the dam. Leo choked out a ragged sob and clung to her, shaking from head to toe and apologizing in rapid-fire Spanish. “Lo siento, mamá. No fue mi intención. Te quiero. Por favor, no me odies.”
“Hey, hey, hey, none of that now,” she chided as she cupped her hands around his cheeks and pulled him back so that she could look at him properly. “It wasn’t your fault, mijo. Not once in my time here have I ever blamed you.”
Leo heard the words, but they didn't sink in. He'd heard them before, from Piper, from Jason, and even from himself, but he couldn't believe it. Not when he got to live the life of a hero while his mother was cursed to roam a field for eternity. Even if it wasn't his fault, what did it matter? The facts were still the same. She was dead and he was alone.
She didn't rush him. She never rushed him. Not when he was building LEGO models for her, not when she took him to the store and he needed to wander off and look at everything, not when he couldn't sit still long enough to eat his dinner. She just held him, made space for him, and loved him until the world stopped vibrating like an over-tuned guitar string that had been plucked too hard. She tapped on his back, Morse Code I love you, I love you, I love you, again and again until he could feel the truth of it resonate in his bones, and Leo just wept.
Eventually, Leo’s tears dried up, and he forced himself from his mother’s arms. “Sorry,” he said softly.
His mom just held his face and thumbed away the last of his tears. “What on Earth could you have to be sorry for?”
Leo hesitated at that. What was he sorry for? For crying like a baby all over her? For getting her killed? For the unforgivable crime of existing and ruining her life? “I dunno,” he sniffled. “Everything?”
“Everything sounds like an awful lot for a child to carry,” she told him gently. “Will you share your weight, mi vida? Will you let your mamá help?”
Leo felt another wave of tears threaten to wash over him, but he fought it back. “What are you doing here, mamá?”
“I think I should be asking you that,” she challenged. Then her eyes flicked up to look at something over his shoulder, and Leo suddenly remembered that they weren’t alone. “And who have you brought with you? He’s very handsome.”
“¡Mamá!” Leo hissed, feeling his cheeks turn very red very fast. “Don’t say that! You’re embarrassing me!”
His mom tsked him before turning her attention to Jason. “Oh, don’t listen to him. You’re very handsome.”
Jason smiled that one eye-crinkling smile that always stopped Leo’s heart in his chest. “Thank you, ma’am. I think he’s very handsome, too.”
Leo’s mom looked absolutely delighted at that answer, and softly elbowed Leo in the ribs. “And polite, too. Now, why don’t you introduce us?”
Leo cleared his throat, still flushed. “Jason, this is my mom. Mamá, this is Jason, he’s my, uh–”
“Boyfriend,” Jason supplied helpfully. “It’s very good to meet you Ms. Valdez. Leo’s told me a lot of wonderful things about you.”
“And are you taking care of my baby, Jason?”
“Only about half as well as he takes care of me,” Jason confessed, watching Leo with unmasked adoration that made Leo’s chest feel tight. “He’s hard to keep up with.”
“If you think he’s hard to keep up with now, you should have been there the first time I took him to the fair,” Leo’s mom said, eyes shining with amusement. “He was six years old, and we went in holding hands, but we left with him in a makeshift baby leash and with a polite request to not return.”
Leo groaned. “No, mamá, don’t tell him that. Nobody wants to hear that story.”
“I’d actually be really interested in hearing it, if you don’t mind,” Jason, traitor that he was, said pleasantly.
Leo’s mom let out a loud, boisterous laugh, and the sound echoed oddly through the desolate field, reminding Leo that they were still in Asphodel. She sat down on a nearby stump Leo hadn’t noticed before and gave them both a wide smile. “Well, come on then. There’s plenty of stories where that came from.”
The three of them sat together in Asphodel for what felt like a lifetime. Leo sat at his mom’s feet, head leaning on her knee so she could comb her fingers through his hair. Jason sat next to him, Leo’s hand in his lap so he could play with the long, calloused fingers, tracing hearts on his palm and tapping out familiar Morse Code messages. Leo caught his mom watching the pattern Jason tapped out, and she looked pleased. Leo didn’t say much as they talked, more than happy to just sit there and bask in the presence of two of the most important people in his life as they shared stories about him. He could have stayed like that forever.
Unfortunately, the real world didn’t always like “forever,” especially not when it involved peace.
Your time is running short, Mister Valdez, that cool even voice from the hourglass cut in. Jason’s grip on Leo’s hand tensed, and Leo buried a whimper in his mom’s thigh, terrified to face the reality of the situation. His mom never stopped petting his hair, but her tone left no room for deflecting when she asked, “Mijo, what was that?”
“We’re on a quest,” Leo confessed after a moment’s delay. “We’re on a time limit to get the stuff and get out.”
“I see,” she said softly. She reached into the pocket of her apron and pulled out Atropo’s shears. Leo wasn’t quite sure when she picked them up, but he couldn’t bring himself to ask. “And this is what you’re after?”
“Yes,” he said, feeling hollow as he took them from her hand.
Jason squeezed his fingers. “Come on, sweetheart,” he coaxed gently. “We need to go.”
“I don’t want to,” Leo said immediately, twisting his fingers into the fabric of his mom’s coveralls, just like he used to do when she’d drop him off at Aunt Rosa’s for babysitting. “I wanna stay here.”
Jason looked like his heart was breaking. “I know you do, but we can’t,” he insisted, voice hushed. “This is the Underworld, the realm of the dead.”
“I died once,” Leo pointed out. “Maybe this will balance the books.”
Jason gave him a stricken look, but Leo’s mom wasn’t having any of it. She grabbed his chin and forced him to look up at her. “That is not how I raised you to talk, Emilio Valdez,” she said firmly. “You keep your chin up, and you keep moving, do you hear me?”
“What if I don’t want to?” Leo asked, his voice cracking right in half on the question. “What if I can’t?”
She let out a sharp huff of air and gathered him into her lap, squeezing him tight. When she spoke, her voice was gentle and kind, right next to his ear. “Then you sit down, you have a cry about it, and you do it anyway.”
Leo trembled and hugged her tighter. “I don’t wanna lose you. Not again.”
“You don’t have to lose me, mijo,” she told him. “I live on with you. Every time you feel pride, every time you love yourself, that is me, living and loving through you.”
“But what’s going to happen to you?”
“I will fade away,” she said simply. At his horrified look, she kissed his hair and explained. “It’s not such a bad thing. It’s peaceful. We spirits only wander the Field so long as there is a regret we cling to.”
“What was your regret?”
She smiled at him, and it was sad and joyful in equal measure. “I left my baby all alone, not knowing how much he is loved. But I can rest now, knowing that he’s not a baby anymore. He is a brave man, a good man, and he’s not alone.”
Leo looked back at Jason who was standing there, waiting for him with arms outstretched. “Let’s go home, Leo.”
Leo nodded, but before he could take Jason’s hand, he turned and hugged his mom one last time, squeezing her so tight it made his shoulders ache. “I love you, mamá,” he said in a ragged whisper. “I love you so much.”
“And I love you more than words can say,” she replied, squeezing him back just as hard. “Now, go. Live the life I had only hoped to dream you would have. Love yourself, and let others love you, too.”
Leo nodded in understanding and allowed Jason to carefully pull him to his feet. He stumbled for a moment, knees weak, but Jason caught him and held him steady. When Leo got his bearings, he looked back, and the stump and his mom both were gone. He buried his face in Jason’s chest, and he expected more tears, but they never came. He just stood there, letting Jason hold him together while all the bits and pieces of him tried to remember how to put themselves together. When he spoke, his voice was thick. “She’s gone.”
“But not forgotten,” Jason countered. He splayed his hand over Leo’s chest, right where his heart was aching. “She’s here.”
Leo heaved a sigh, and straightened. His face was still tacky with dried tears, and his body ached like he’d just run a marathon, but he had the tools of Fate in his pocket and his mother’s final words ringing in his ear. He squeezed Jason’s hand. “Ready to go?”
Jason leaned down and kissed him, soft and slow and sweet, and when he was done, he pressed their foreheads together so their breaths could mingle and twist into one thing. “With you? Always.”
And with that, the two of them walked out of Asphodel, and into the rest of their lives.