When Annabeth regained consciousness, she almost immediately regretted it. The air was boiling. Her ears were ringing. The ground was shaking. She could barely breathe.

  “–beth. Annabeth!”

  Opening her eyes should not have been so difficult. Annabeth forced her eyelids open, clutching her spinning head. She didn’t think she was severely hurt, just dazed.

  Unfortunately, Bunker 9 couldn’t relate.

  Flames burned on the tables, shelves, walls…everywhere, really. The heat was unbearable—the groan of melting machines cut through the crackling of artificial wildfires.

  Percy was standing over her protectively. He looked worried, but similarly unscathed. Somehow, despite the flames reaching every corner of the Bunker’s enormous hall, they were untouched.

  Seeing Percy sent a wave of relief through Annabeth. Her head felt like it cleared a little.

  “You’re okay, right?” He asked.

  “I’m fine. This is all Leo?”

  Percy shrugged. “Seems like it. Something exploded…I think from underneath us? Next thing I knew, it was fire everywhere.”

  Annabeth stood slowly, careful of where she stepped. With the inferno all around, they practically had to play ‘the-floor-is-lava’.

  “Where’s Leo? Where’s Piper?”

  Percy shrugged, gesturing to the burning ahead. Along with the collapsing inventions, beams and pipes fell from the ceiling, unable to withstand the corrosion and spreading flames. The network of catwalks above was breaking off piece by piece, and wreckage was starting to pile up.

  A piece of said catwalk crashed onto the ground, making them jump. Annabeth cursed. “We have to move!”

  She pulled Percy out of the way of a falling beam and they began to move through the chaos. Annabeth’s eyes darted wildly throughout the damaged hall, scanning the layout and architecture.

  To their right was what remained of Leo’s worktables. There were a lot of heavy equipment and storage cages there. Too dangerous and unstable. She steered clear, and Percy followed her lead.

  “We should go to the other room,” Percy pointed to the right, where they both knew a passageway was. “It should be safer there.”

  Annabeth glanced over and immediately shook her head. “Look where it’s under. See the supporting columns there? They’re losing foundation, so I don’t want to get close. And even if we make it into the tunnel, there are pneumatic tubes running in the walls. With the flames, it’s way too risky.”

  “Pneumatic tubes…like gas?” Percy wiped a bead of sweat off his brow while hopping over a burning table. “It might explode?”

  “Maybe–”

  Annabeth cursed in Ancient Greek as it did just that, shaking the ground and making her trip. Which considering the fiery debris all over the ground, could have ended really badly for her.

  Fortunately, Percy caught her.

  “Thanks.”

  “You know I always got you.” He smiled, ever so slightly cheeky.

  Seaweed brain, she thought fondly. Unfortunately, now was not the time. “We have to get out of here. Even if the building wasn’t actively collapsing, we’ll die from the smoke eventually.”

  “But we have to find Piper and Leo first!”

  Where were those two, anyway? Annabeth didn’t see them anywhere. “They might not be in the main hall. It’s too dangerous to just go searching!”

  Percy didn’t seem reassured. He clenched his fists, clearly growing more agitated. Annabeth knew he didn’t want to possibly leave his friends behind, but they were on a time crunch here.

  She grabbed his arm firmly. “We’ll go secure an exit first, okay? We can’t help them if we’re trapped.”

  Percy nodded reluctantly, and they began making their way through the hall. It was almost like a maze of wreckage, with twisted and burned metal parts piling up everywhere. She navigated them around forklifts, hydraulic lifts, and tracks, praying that they wouldn’t explode as they passed.

  No matter where she looked, she couldn’t find the exit with all the debris. Annabeth yelped as a beam crashed in front of them, sending soot and dust into their faces–as if the smoke wasn’t enough. She coughed again, feeling her lungs start to ache.

  This was taking far too long. They needed to take some bold action.

  She turned to Percy, who looked about as good as she felt. “Percy…can you clear the path?”

  “Wh-what? But there’s no–”

  Annabeth covered her mouth with her shirt and pointed to the ground. “Use…the pipes.”

  He blinked, processing the words. “But the Bunker’s already so unstable. Are you sure?”

  Annabeth nodded, and Percy took a deep breath (and immediately looked like he regretted it). He pressed his palms to the ground, and it began to rumble. Annabeth held on to Percy as the floor began to shake violently.

  Then the water pipes underground burst to the surface, impromptu fountains springing to life. Three geysers shot up, dousing the flames around them.

  Percy hissed, looking a little drained. “Damn. I thought there’d be more.”

  “Is it enough?”

  Even though he didn’t look very confident, Percy nodded anyway. “It’ll have to be.”

  Percy brought all the water together and fired it like a giant water hose, blasting the wreckage and pushing them all away forcefully. The impact sent the steel and bronze crashing into the corners of the hall, and the bunker rumbled dangerously. The air seemed to cool slightly as more flames were extinguished.

  On one hand, there was now a clear path. On the other hand, the stability of Bunker 9 was getting dire.

  “Let’s go!”

  The stairs to the exit were in sight now. Annabeth led the way forward, carefully checking around them to steer clear of the areas that looked the most unsteady. It reminded Annabeth of how she would admire and study the structures of New Rome or Olympus. But while Bunker 9 was certainly an impressive building, Annabeth had never imagined she’d have to examine its architecture in such a grim situation.

  It didn’t take long for the two of them to get to the end. They scrambled up the half-melted stairs and to the door. Annabeth threw it open and let the clean air enter her lungs, and for a moment, they were able to relax.

  Percy wrapped an arm around her. “Are you okay?”

  She squeezed his hand. “I’m fine. You?”

  “Just a little dehydrated.” He wiped sweat off his forehead, again.

  She took a quick glance outside. Bunker 9 was disguised as a huge stone cliff, and thankfully, that hadn’t changed. Neither the explosion nor the flames had gotten through the interior, so the overall structure was still standing strong. Annabeth thought this was likely because of the insulation. Walls were a lot thicker than most would expect.

  Percy was looking around, his face growing more and more worried. Annabeth knew what he was looking for, but had no response. Unfortunately, Piper and Leo were nowhere to be seen, which meant they were still inside Bunker 9.

  “We have to go back.” He said anxiously, and Annabeth nodded in agreement.

  “Yeah. Let’s clear out the area around the exit and–” She paused suddenly, cocking her head. “Do…do you hear that?”

  Percy looked confused, falling silent. Annabeth strained to catch the sound again. It was weak and wavering, yet the harmony was undeniably there. Like the call of the sirens, the voice cut through the rumble and crash of the burning Bunker, words too faint for Annabeth to understand.

  Someone was singing.

  Frank assumed that Luke was used to getting jumped in alleys, since he reacted like he had done this many times before. Luke avoided Frank’s rush, then sprang back with frightening reflexes as Jason threw an electrified haymaker at him, pulverizing the wall behind where he was a second ago.

  Jason cursed in Latin and collapsed, holding his left hand, which was now probably broken. Frank tried not to dwell on the fact that Jason had thrown his punch with the intent to kill.

  At the very least, Luke had let go of Blackjack’s reins. The pegasus didn’t waste a second, taking off and flying away in moments, despite the Son of Hermes shouting in anger.

  Luke snarled as Blackjack shrunk to a dot in the distant sky. He turned toward them and drew his blade, a longsword made of two different metals. How did Frank know that? He wasn’t sure. Something about that sword sent chills down his spine.

  Luke angled the sword at them. “What do you want?”

  “You’re an enemy of Olympus,” Jason responded evenly. His left arm hung limply, but his right hand held his gladius at the ready. “So you’re our enemy.”

  “I don't even know who you are,” Luke rolled his eyes, seemingly unworried.

  “He didn’t deny it, Jason,” Reyna noticed.

  The older demigod ignored her. As Luke looked at them closer, his eyebrow quirked in recognition. “You’re demigods, aren’t you? But you’re not from camp…”

  Frank twitched, preparing to transform. If they could defeat Luke here, they could stop the Titan War in its tracks. Somehow, a golden opportunity had been placed in their hands, right here and right now.

  Luke studied them. He looked relaxed, but Frank was good at reading foes–the tension in his shoulders, the poised lightness of his steps, like a coiled serpent ready to lunge. Frank didn’t need to know the future to know that Luke was dangerous .

  Luke’s blue eyes scanned Reyna’s golden dagger, the tattoo on Jason’s forearm, and Frank’s purple shirt. He scowled as if he realized something distasteful.

  “Oh. You’re Romans. Like those emperors.”

  Frank was surprised he knew, but it only raised more questions. What did he mean by emperors? He glanced at Jason, who looked like he had seen a ghost.

  Luke put a hand to his head, visibly frustrated. A bracelet on his wrist glinted in the alley’s dim light, which somehow made him look even more threatening. “But…you’re just children. By Kronos, what is going on here?”

  Reyna flinched. “Kronos?”

  “You’re serving the Titan Lord,” Frank accused.

  “Yeah,” Luke smiled wryly. “I don’t suppose you’re on his side.”

  “We serve the legion and New Rome,” Reyna snapped, growing more hostile by the second.

  She took a step forward, her knife just a twitch away from burying into Luke’s face. Luke eyed her like a hawk watching its prey.

  “See, I have no idea what you’re talking about. While this is very interesting,” He drawled sarcastically. “I don’t have time for this.”

  His sword flashed forward, and Reyna’s dagger was knocked out of her hands in the blink of an eye. Luke’s eyes were full of cold, bitter malice. “Nothing personal, kid.”

  Jason shouted and intercepted Luke’s next attack with Ivilis, sending sparks flying. Reyna quickly snatched her knife from the ground with a murderous look on her face. Reluctantly, Frank put away his bow and unsheathed his gladius.

  Together, they attacked.

  Frank remembered Percy once said that Luke was the best swordsman he’d ever seen. Clearly, his friend hadn’t been exaggerating.

  Despite being outnumbered three-to-one, Luke fended them off expertly. He swung his sword in a wide berth, keeping them from flanking his sides. Every fiber of Frank shuddered as the blade approached; it just felt so wrong . And it didn’t help that the son of Hermes–having several years on all three of them–easily drawfed over them, both in height and arm reach.

  Frank really wished that his growth spurt had kicked in earlier.

  Luke dodged a jab from Reyna, then blocked a slash from Jason. He pushed them back and slashed lightning-quick at Frank’s head, who hastily dropped to a crouch. Pieces of his black hair drifted to the ground.

  Well, I’d been meaning to get it cut anyway, Frank thought, slightly terrified.

  Jason feinted and struck at Luke’s shoulder, and Frank followed up with a cleave to his ribs. Luke twisted out of the way of both and attacked back, only for Reyna to parry and step through his guard, stabbing at his gut.

  We got him… Frank thought.

  Suddenly, Luke’s bracelet transformed into a bronze-and-leather shield. Reyna’s knife clanged off harmlessly.

  Dangit!

  Reyna stumbled at the sudden impact, and she would have been turned to mincemeat by Luke if Jason hadn’t yanked her back at the last second.

  Frank jumped away from Luke. “Where did that come from?!”

  The son of Hermes smirked, which irked Frank, even though the confidence wasn’t unfounded. Having a shield gave you more versatility and utility in sword fighting. The more you could guard against your foe, the more likely they would mess up and leave an opening.

  Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

  “Pretty cool, huh?” The older demigod taunted. He tapped the shield proudly with his sword. “Totally worth the trouble to make one. Got the idea from an old friend…”

  He faltered at the end, and something fractured entered his voice. Jason took the opportunity to summon a harsh gust of wind that threw Luke backward and off his feet. Jason leaped into the air, and Luke scrambled to his footing and raised his sword, just in time to parry Jason’s slash from above.

  “You don’t get to call her that anymore,” Jason said. He hovered in the air and pushed his sword down, inching the blades closer to Luke’s throat. “Not after you betrayed and poisoned her.”

  Luke’s eyes widened manically. “How did you– tch , back off!”

  He bashed his shield into Jason’s face, stunning the centurion and sending him tumbling backward. Frank dropped his sword and morphed into a lion, roaring. He pounced, slightly satisfied to see Luke’s astonished expression. Luke barely managed to raise his shield to protect himself from Frank’s claws, but the impact of a 400-pound predator still hurled him into a wall.

  Luke grunted in pain, but he didn’t seem as hurt as Frank hoped. So Frank followed up quickly, transforming into a wild boar and charging at Luke so viciously even Mars might have been proud.

  Unfortunately, Luke just sidestepped the rush. Which Frank found really annoying.

  Reyna lunged at Luke with the speed of a striking viper, but Luke was inhumanly fast. He disarmed her with two quick swipes of his sword and kicked her into a pile of boxes off to the side. Jason flew in and dueled Luke once again. At the fifth clash of steel, a shockwave burst from Ivilis and blew Luke ten feet backward.

  Luke staggered, looking more shocked than pained. He stared at Jason, slackfaced. “Lightning–?”

  Frank, still a boar, slammed into him from behind. Luke tried to recover, but before he could do anything Jason let out a battle cry. A thunderbolt fell from the sky, hit his outstretched gladius like a lightning rod, and crashed into Luke.

  Frank transformed back into a human and turned away from the blinding light. The blast scorched the concrete, making him wince at the heat. He wondered what the people of Charleston felt about lightning on a sunny day.

  When the light faded, Frank saw Luke groaning, his left arm limp. His bronze shield, which had taken the brunt of the attack, was a black and melted mess. Embers burned on his clothes and his hair was smoldering.

  And yet, Luke seemed more concerned about something else.

  “You’re a son of Zeus,” Luke dragged himself to his feet, coughing. His gaze fixed harshly onto Jason. “The lightning…and that move…”

  Jason’s jaw tightened.

  Luke’s eyes widened more than Frank thought possible. “It looked just like hers. That’s how you knew her. You…you’re her b–”

  A golden sword flew through the air and nearly impaled Luke, but the son of Hermes somehow saw it coming. He stumbled back as the blade grazed his neck. Luke glared at the three of them, his expression hardening as if turning to stone.

  Frank turned around to see Reyna pulling herself out of the pile of boxes, arm still outstretched. She gritted her teeth, taking aim with her knife this time.

  Luke looked like he wanted to say something. Instead, he shook his head bitterly. He dropped into a sudden crouch, sending all of Frank’s nerves into high alert again. Another attack, he thought.

  But instead, the air where Luke stood rippled like a wave. Frank blinked, and Luke was gone. Disappeared, just like that.

  Reyna’s dagger shattered the dark ripple that Luke had vanished into, but it was too late. She cursed in Latin.

  Jason breathed heavily, looking pale. His broken fingers twitched.

  “He’s gone,” Frank pointed out the obvious. “How?”

  Jason muttered, “Magic?”

  Reyna shook her head. “No. It’s not that…unnatural.”

  “He’s a son of Hermes,” Frank ventured. “Maybe he has some kind of fast-travel ability.”

  Jason didn’t seem to hear. The centurion was silent for a long moment, looking shell-shocked. He was still staring at the spot where Luke disappeared. “It’s my fault. I messed up.”

  “Huh?” Frank blinked.

  “I got hasty. I thought we could take him. But I miscalculated and put us in danger. I’m sorry.”

  Frank looked at him carefully. “We’re all fine. It turned out okay, so don’t worry about it.”

  “You’re giving him too much credit. For all we know, that guy’s getting reinforcements to come after us later.” Reyna pointed out. “What we learned about the Titans could be invaluable, but even so, this detour was a big risk.”

  Jason nodded. He looked unnerved. “Exactly. Because of me, we might have gotten caught up in something we can’t deal with right now. This was never originally a part of our mission. Now, the consequences–”

  What in the world was Jason doing, spiraling like this? Why was he so shaken?

  Frank guessed it had something to do with Luke, but whatever it was, it wasn’t like him. This was not what they needed right now, and Jason had to recognize that. Frank grabbed his friend’s shoulders, holding the eye contact.

  “Jason, snap out of it,” He said forcefully, emphasizing every line. “You’re our centurion. You’re the leader. So don’t beat yourself up over something that might not happen, and instead do what you’re supposed to do and lead . Good or bad, we learned something new. Now, where do we go from that?”

  Jason blinked a few times, and his eyes sharpened. He nodded slowly. “You’re right. We still have a job to do. And with what we’ve just seen, we might have another thing to handle. There’s no time to waste.”

  Like the true professional he was, Jason quickly returned to normal. Frank handed him some unicorn draught to drink.

  Reyna retrieved the weapons she’d thrown, handing Frank back his gladius. She looked between him and Jason cautiously, clearly realizing that they knew things she didn’t.

  “So, who was that?”

  “Luke Castellan. He’s the one who leads the Titan Lord’s forces,” Jason answered, cautiously flexing his left hand as it healed. “A rogue demigod, like you guessed.”

  “I saw him before in the Sea of Monsters. He was on a cruise ship filled with hundreds of monsters,” Reyna recalled, her nose scrunching in distaste. “His bear-man tried to eat me and H–Hylla.”

  The slight stutter wasn’t unnoticed, but Frank had bigger worries. “That ship is still docked at the harbor. If Luke wants to come back with reinforcements, he can easily do so.”

  Jason nodded, “You’re right. We should get out of here.”

  Reyna twisted the ring on her finger anxiously. “You mean this alley, or…Charleston?”

  Frank lamented at the fact that this mission was supposed to be ‘quick and easy’. They hadn’t even gotten to the museum yet, and somehow dominos had tipped over and over to the point that there was a very real threat of the entire Titan Army bearing down on them soon.

  “We can’t leave yet,” Jason said, causing Frank and Reyna to exchange wary looks.

  However, their centurion didn’t skip a beat.

  “We still have to retrieve the imperial gold, but I think the sarcophagus is a bigger problem. There’s a reason Luke brought it here, and I don’t like not knowing why. Leaving that alone would be a mistake.”

  Jason’s voice brokered no disagreement. It sounded more like stating a fact rather than making an argument.

  Reyna shifted uncomfortably. “You want us to go after the magician? Whatever’s in that coffin…I don’t like it. Are you sure?”

  “It’s exactly because of what’s in that coffin that I’m sure,” The son of Jupiter said. “Luke said that ‘his remains are in there.’ I’m pretty sure he means Saturn.”

  Reyna paled. “Actually?”

  “I don’t know how he scrounged them up from Tartarus, but it seems likely,” Frank admitted. “And if it really is, then there’s no way we can just ignore it. But how are we supposed to find that Alabaster guy?”

  Their objective had deviated so much from the original mission, but Frank saw no other choice but to keep kicking the can down the road. The imperial gold cache was valuable, but if Kronos’ remains were on the loose, then the old relics and torpedoes could wait a while longer.

  Jason tossed his sword into the air. A coin landed in his palm.

  “Reyna, can you still sense Alabaster’s magic?”

  “How did you–oh.”

  Reyna paused and closed her eyes. A moment later, she nodded. “Yes, I can track him. His signature is very intense, and it doesn’t seem like he’s trying to hide it either.”

  Frank looked dubiously at Reyna. “How much did you learn from the witch, really?”

  “That’s for me to know and you to find out.”

  “How am I supposed to find out?” Frank asked.

  Reyna’s lips twitched. “By making me angry enough.”

  “...I don’t think I want to find out.”

  Jason coughed, probably hiding a smile. “Good answer.”

  “Shut up, Grace,” Frank sighed. “Let’s go hunt this magician down.”

  Later, people would ask Piper how she did it. They would challenge her to try saying things in different languages as if she could speak in tongues with the power of the Holy Spirit.

  But like she had realized long ago, Piper didn’t exactly know how her powers worked. She didn’t consciously know how her voice and charmspeak functioned, and emotion was a very difficult thing to understand.

  And she certainly didn’t know how she sang to Leo in Spanish.

  After all, Piper had bigger things to worry about at the time. Like the burning building.

  When Leo exploded, the Bunker seemed to explode with him. Fire burst from the floor and the ground quaked violently. Piper fell to the ground with Percy and Annabeth, the scorching heat hitting her like a slap in the face.

  For a moment, the shock and terror completely seized Piper. She curled up into a ball, head hunched and eyes shut tightly. Her mind went completely blank, leaving nothing but sheer panic. She felt like one of those goats that froze up and toppled when they were startled.

  It was probably only for a few seconds, but it felt like hours. Piper managed to force her eyelids open, peering through the haze of red and orange.

  Just like her outfit, the Bunker looked completely ruined. Ash, flame, and charred material were everywhere. Piper struggled to her feet. Her favorite jacket had caught embers, so she mournfully took it off and discarded it before it burned her.

  She managed to catch a humanoid figure (one completely aflame, but what wasn’t at this point?) scrambling away into one of the many doorways of Bunker 9. Piper stared at the disappearing figure for a few moments, trying to form coherent thoughts.

  Her heart told her to chase after Leo. But Percy and Annabeth were somewhere around her, and it would be foolish to split up from them. The damaged Bunker was getting more dangerous by the second, and Piper’s chances of getting crushed or burned to death likely would skyrocket if she ran off by herself.

  (“Stop thinking about it. Just feel. You can’t plan for feelings, you can’t control every contingency, and you have to accept that. Let it scare you. Trust that it’ll be okay anyway.”)

  Piper pushed herself to her feet and sprinted for the doorway.

  She hopped over a burning machine, wincing at the oppressive heat. Piper scrambled to the wall and dove into the hallway while a metal pipe crashed where she was a moment before.

  Piper was already starting to pant. Breathing was getting more and more difficult because of the smoke. But a familiar blaze up ahead made her gasp anyway.

  “Leo!”

  Leo looked like he was made of fire, every inch of his form wreathed into a conflagration. Flames rippled where flesh and bone should have been. The only thing that wasn’t burning was his eyes, which were wide with terror.

  “Get out of here, Pipes!”

  “No! What about you?”

  “This place is going to burn to the ground!” Leo cried out. “I can’t–!”

  Something creaked and groaned loudly above. Piper barely had time to look up when a five-ton engine block crashed right onto Leo. Smash! Leo disappeared under the mass of metal.

  Piper screamed and hurried to the engine, but there was no way she was going to be able to move it. Blood roared in her ears. She could not believe what had just happened.

  Leo just got crushed right in front of her.

  Piper pushed as hard as she could, but of course, she knew it was hopeless. With a shout of frustration, she slammed her fist against the hunk of steel, which did nothing but crack a knuckle.

  She closed her eyes, feeling the dread set in. Shock began to morph into the terrible realization of grief.

  Piper opened her eyes…and took a startled step back.

  Embers were flickered on the ground. A flame snaked out from under the engine block and suddenly swelled until it grew back into a humanoid figure.

  Piper would have punched him if he wasn’t still aflame. “Leo! How–”

  Leo looked at her, unfazed (as if he hadn’t just gotten smushed into the ground). Through his fiery features, Piper thought he looked serious. Combined with his ethereal blaze, Leo looked unnerving, to say the least.

  A crash behind them. Creaking above. Piper realized that the engine block that fell moments ago would not be the last.

  “It doesn’t matter. Let’s go, let’s go!” Piper reached for him, but Leo harshly jerked backward.

  “No! You have to go, not me!”

  She resisted the urge to tear her hair out. “Why are you being so stubborn?!”

  “I can’t stop this, Piper!” Leo spit flames, literally. “I…can’t stop.”

  She stared at him. Leo glanced down at his burning hands sadly. Piper finally took a moment to process what had just happened. Leo wasn’t just on fire–he would have been crushed if he was.

  Flames had literally replaced his flesh and bone. Leo was a living wildfire.

  Leo must have realized she figured it out. He tried to put on his cheeky grin, but with his teeth being mere embers, all Piper saw was a curve of empty, fiery maw.

  “Just go, alright? You saw what happened. I’ll be fine.”

  She shook her head wildly. “I’m not leaving you.”

  If Leo still had teeth, he’d probably be grinding them in frustration. “Damnit, it’s not worth it, Pipes! We don’t have time for this, you have to leave!”

  Piper stared at his eyes, the only thing that wasn’t just burning gas. “Say that again.”

  Leo blinked at her. “You have to leave.”

  “No, before that.”

  “It’s not worth it…?”

  “Why would it not be worth it?” Piper hissed. “Why would I not try to help my best friend, Leo? You are worth everything in the world to me!”

  Leo flinched. “That’s not…I just meant–”

  “You haven’t failed anyone. It’s not your fault. You’re not worthless ,” Piper pleaded.

  He was silent for a moment, taking a deep breath while flames raged around them. Slowly, Leo bitterly shook his head. “You still don’t get it. You’re wasting your time.”

  “W-wha–”

  He turned and fled, his body of flames phasing through broken scaffolding and machines. Piper quickly gave chase, but she didn’t have the same luxury of being unaffected by fire or blunt force.

  “Leo! Stop! Just let us help you, dammit!”

  “Stay back!” He yelled. “It’s too dangerous!”

  She ignored him and kept chasing. Leo was fast and also very experienced at running away, but Piper kept up with him by sheer will. Stubbornness fueled her legs and lungs even as they wanted to shrivel up and crumble to ash.

  Leo turned to see her keeping pace and cursed in Ancient Greek. His voice turned desperate. “Give it up already! I’m just trying to keep you safe!”

  He ran to one of the storage rooms and dove in. The mechanical doors slammed shut, and the temperature lowered a few degrees as the source of the flames vanished. Piper got to the doors and pounded on them.

  “Leo, open up! You can’t be serious!”

  No answer.

  “You’ll suffocate in there! Please!”

  Nothing. If Leo was only fire, sooner or later he’d run out of oxygen and extinguish himself. She tried to pry the doors’ edges, but the mechanism didn’t budge. Piper wanted to scream.

  Why was Leo being so stubborn? So angry and resentful? He wasn’t thinking straight!

  …Piper took a deep breath. She forced herself to calm down. No, of course Leo wasn’t thinking straight. He wasn’t angry or resentful, he was scared . Terrified, even. Leo had been overworking for weeks, and it had backfired horribly. In Leo’s perspective, it was worse than failure. He couldn’t do anything right, just like how he couldn’t destroy Gaia and couldn’t save Calypso.

  Piper pressed her forehead to the door. “Please, Leo. I know you can hear me.”

  A muffled response. Piper closed her eyes. She didn’t want to charmspeak him. Not only would that violate his trust, it wouldn’t solve the real issue. Leo needed comfort and encouragement, even if he didn’t want it.

  What was Piper supposed to do?

  The fires in the Bunker grew and grew, the burning roar getting louder and louder. And while Piper refused to move, her mind was racing. The fiery building. The locked room. The uncontrollable fear and desperation that came from the separation.

  The realization made her heart feel feverish. This was how Leo’s mother died. And he was trying to stop it from happening again.

  Piper focused on that fact–it felt like a key detail. Unfortunately, she had obviously never met Esperanza before, and Leo only mentioned his mother here and there in passing.

  However, Piper could practically feel Leo’s emotions bleeding through the door. She let his guilt, affection, and longing for his mom wash over her…and suddenly, the image of Esperanza Valdez became clear in her mind–from her twinkling brown eyes to her calloused hands.

  And that wasn’t all Piper saw.

  Leo’s mother worked at the machine shop day and night. She always smelled of machine oil. When she talked to her little boy, she would switch from English to Spanish like swapping between tools. She would send Morse code messages to Leo when they were in different rooms.

  Piper understood, and she knew what she had to do. She kept those fond memories and images at the forefront of her mind. There was no true rhyme or reason behind this, but even so, Piper put all her trust in the invisible power of emotions and love–the love Leo had for his mom, the love Piper had for Leo, and the love shared amongst the rest of her friends.

  A vision of a woman holding a baby sitting next to a fireplace appeared in Piper’s head. Esperanza sang as she rocked the infant wrapped in a blue blanket. Her voice echoed through every corner of Piper’s mind.

  And Piper took that inner voice and put it in her own.

  “ Hay amados en la gloria que son facil olvidar. Cuando termine tu historia te uniras a su lugar?”

  She had never heard of this song before, yet the words felt so familiar as they left her lips. Could Leo hear her?

  “You remember songs of heaven, which you sang with childish voice. Do you love the hymns they taught you, or are songs of earth your choice?”

  Was it her imagination, or were the flames quieting? Was the groan of the collapsing building slowing? Piper didn't focus on it, pouring all her concentration into her voice. Fire or not, it had to reach Leo; she had to reach him.

  “Se rompera este ciclo quizas mas tarde, quizas? Habra un lugar esperando alla en el cielo, lo habra?”

  There was no doubt about it now. The flames began to weaken. The melting and creaking sounds in the Bunker started to fade. The air cooled slowly.

  "Will the circle be unbroken, by and by Lord, by and by.

  There's a better home awaiting in the sky Lord, in the sky."

  The inferno around Piper all died at once. The light and heat in the Bunker fell dramatically, and abruptly, the mechanical door to the room Leo hid in slid open.

  The fire was out. Leo, flesh and bone once again, was sitting slumped against the wall. He stared at her dazedly. There was something fractured in his eyes. “Mama…no…Piper?”

  She slowly walked in and knelt down in front of him. Piper’s throat was hoarse and ashy. She felt like she had swallowed a gallon of smoke and fire.

  But she wrapped her arms around Leo and whispered, “You don’t have to run away anymore.”

  Leo made a strangled, sobbing, choking noise. “I–I keep messing up. I’m not like you all…I just keep failing–”

  “Maybe you're right. But I don’t care,” Piper gently said. “Maybe you’re a failure. Maybe you messed up. So what? That doesn’t mean you’re worthless, Leo, because you don’t get to decide that. We do.”

  She pulled back and stared at Leo’s ashen, sooty face. “And do you know what I decide?”

  Leo licked his cracked, dried lips. It trembled, and he blinked fast. But he didn’t turn away.

  Piper squeezed his shoulders. “I won’t stop you from working…you do what you think you have to do. But don’t do it alone.”

  “I…I can’t–”

  “When you fall, we’ll pick you up. When you mess up, we’ll help you fix it. Whether you succeed or fail, Leo, I’ll be here for you. I’m not going anywhere.”

  “There’s just so much…that I couldn’t do. I felt so useless and helpless when…Gaia. I never wanted to feel like that again.”

  “I know. I know. And I understand. Talk to us, because we can help. You don’t have to run away anymore. And even if you do run, I’ll chase after you anyway.”

  A pause. Behind her, Annabeth and Percy were waiting silently. When had they arrived? How long had they been watching? Piper didn’t know. But even if they weren’t with her, she would still have had full confidence in her next words.

  “Your friends will never give up on you, Leo.”