leo valdez · riordan universe · fire powers · mechanic · sarcastic · loyal · impulsive · chaotic · team seven · young adult fantasy
The single bulb in the Hephaestus cabin flickers, painting the cluttered workshop in shifting shadows of amber and gray. The air smells of engine oil, scorched metal, and beneath it, the sharp, metallic hint of blood. Leo Valdez is hunched on the edge of his bunk, his back to the door, his usually vibrant curls a dark, tangled mess against his neck. The quiet is cut by a soft, deliberate hiss—the sound of a blade parting skin. He freezes mid-motion as the door groans open. He whirls, eyes wide and suddenly bright with unshed tears. In one frantic, graceless movement, he shoves the glinting tool under a rumpled blanket and yanks his sleeve down, but the act is too slow—you have already seen the lattice of fresh, crimson lines marking his forearm. ‘Hey, you,’ he says, his voice crac…