BLAIRE WASN'T PROUD that she'd killed someone—infact she was anything but proud about that fact. It haunted her to no end, keeping her awake at night and distorting her values, warping the way she veiwed the world. She'd stolen someones life away from them, that was nothing to be proud of. And it was certainly nothing to brag about.

However, each time Leo Valdez opened his mouth to spew yet another unfunny, and unfortunately timed joke, Blaire had the urge to boast her kill-count about. To remind him that she was more than capable of taking a life. And she'd do it again if she had to.

The son of Hephaestus turned to Blaire after every stupid remark he made, in search of her approval, earning nothing but a steely-straight face in response. All the while Zethes was still trying to seduce her with out of date pick-up-lines that she suspected had never worked on a singular living soul. And Cal— Cal was just in the corner grunting on about his usual; hockey, pizza, hockey....pizza!

She really wished she'd thrown herself from that dragon when she had the chance.

"Dinners on me. What'dya say, pretty lady?" Zethes tried, and failed. He wasn't slick in the way he thought he was. The only thing slick about him was the grease pasting his dark hair to his scalp. Gross.

"I say get away from me before I call the authorities," Blaire anwsered honestly from where she sat on one of the icy benches, not averting her gaze from her scuffed shoes. She didn't care enough to look at the Boread while she spoke, but they all knew she was adressing him.

Leo snorted in suprise at the girls honest cruelty. Over the short amount of time he'd known Blaire Sullivan, he'd learned that she hardly spoke unless it was to say something incredibly bitter that would more than likely not benefit the situation at hand.

He approached the daughter of Hecate warily, the icy floor crunching under the soles of his sneakers and adding immensely to the tension that settled over the unlikely quartetet. Without a second thought, he plopped down beside Blaire. She looked up with a bewildered/disgusted expression. As if asking how he dare sit within a hundred foot radius of her merely using her eyebrows.

  "Hi!" Leo chirped happily, "What ya doin'?"

   Blaire furrowed her dark eyebrows further. What did he think she was doing? Herding elephants?

    Up close, Blaire was able to spot the flecks of mud polluting his impish face, distorting the few freckles scattered across the bridge of his nose. She could see the slight tint of red his cheeks took on from the frigid temperatures of the lobby.

"Nothing," Leo anwsered for the girl in a phoney high-pitched-female voice after a few akward beats of silence. "Cool. Cool."

Blaire pulled her jacket tighter around herself in attempt to provide her shivering frame some sort of protection from the frost laced within the air. She silently hoped Jason and Piper would be quick for she didn't know if she could take the icy chill of the palace for much longer. She swore her limbs were slowly turning to ice, rooting her in place.

Leo seemed to take note of the girl's discomfort towards the cold, because he raised an eyebrow, and asked in a rather low tone, "Are you cold?"

    Blaire merely shrugged, not even attempting to hide the way she rolled her dark eyes in annoyance.

  "Watch this," Leo demanded, and then by some miracle, he willed his body tempature warmer by several degrees. The heat of his being radiated off his scrawny body, gracing the shivering girl and eveloping her in a sudden wave of comfort. He turned and grinned wildy at the girl who looked both bewildered and strangely at ease. "Cool, right?"

  "How did you do that, Valdez?" Blaire quiered hesitantly, tilting her head slightly. She'd met several Hephaestus kids, but she'd no knowledge of one who could voluntarily adjust their body temperature to their liking. Like a human heater of sorts.

  Leo smirked mischievously, pretending to zip his thin lips shut. "It's a secret!"

  She looked away from the grinning boy, trying to find anything else to focus on. His smile was almost too kind, laced with an infectious sort of joy that Blaire found odd for their current circumstances.

She let out a sharp breathe, watching as a puff of cloudy air vaporized before the two of them. All the while, Leo gazed at her in admiration. Her carmel-like-doe eyes were trained upon something in the distance, and her near-magenta lips were pulled tautly into a straight line, as always. Her hair, which seemed lighter in the flourescent lighting of the palace spilled over her shoulders, cascading down the puffy material of her coat, tangiling at the ends.

Sure, Blaire was always angry. And maybe she was quite rude and closed off— and hateful towards everyone— even him—especially him. But, there was something about her that was so undeniably alluring. Maybe it was the fact she was rather mysterious and left plenty to be desired. Or maybe it was the phrophizied power she supposedly weilded.

Leo, without thinking, said, "Do you really have all those powers? Like your prophecy said?"

Blaire's head snapped toward Leo quickly, immediately turning to face the younger boy. She frowned deeply.

"No."

It wasn't up for discussion. She didn't posses the power of every titans domain. She wasn't who the phrophecy claimed she was— if she was she wouldn't have watched everyone she'd ever loved die. She shouldn't be on this quest. The phrophecy wasn't about her. It couldn't have been.

  "But—"

  "No," Blaire told him again, and stood.

  She left Leo sitting on the ice bench alone, watching her walk away.

"Blaire," A high-pitched, youthful voice, brimming with positivity and love called over the thrashing of waves. It mingled with the call of nature, the sway of tree branches and the song of birds. "You're it!"

The aforementioned daughter of Hecate fell backwards into the rowdy waves, spluttering out obnoxious bouts of laughter. She flailed around in the water, willing her limbs to chase after the grinning boy she called her bestfriend. Sunny was already far ahead of her, shoulder deep in the sea blue void, taunting the girl. "Come on, I said you're it!"

"I'm coming, Sunny!" Blaire shouted back, using her long arms to propell herself further into the lake, after the son of Apollo.

The frigid current pulled at her legs, soaking the fabric of her one peice and pasting her rowdy waves to her forehead. Sunny was still drifting away from her, putting as much distance between himself and the girl who was it in their game of aqua-tag.

He was still cackling madly at his temporary victory, until the current picked up, slowly tugging the boy downward under the water. His cackles died down slowly, alerting Blaire.

"Sunny?" She called, pushing herself toward him quickly. "Sunny, are you alright?"

When no response came, she cursed and attempted to reach towards the boy, but he was too far. He was out of reach.

"Sunny!" Blaire shreiked, thrashing against the harsh waves. They boy's head had dipped beneath the water and it was yet to resurface.

He was drowning.

"No," she shreiked, panick paralyzing her limbs, turning them to stone and contorting her stomach into a mosh pit of dread. "No! No! No!"

A tug pulled on her gut, drawing her further toward the rapid waves, "Sunny, please!"

"No," Blaire shouted a final time, before a blinding white light distorted her vision. The tug on her gut strengthened immensely, until a great splash thrusted her from the water and onto the sandy shore, a spluttering Sunny beside her.

"Sunny?" Blaire choked, turning towards the boy who was lying near-limp beside her. His breaths were shallow, still, it came as a great relief. Becasue he was still breathing. "Sunny!"

Without thinking, she threw herself onto him, wrapping her arms around his neck, pressing her slick body against his and holding him close. "I thought—"

"How did you do that?" He cut her off through a series of heavy pants.

"Do what?"

"You controlled the water," Sunny told her, propping himself up using his elbows. "You saved me."

Blaire wished she would've worn a thicker coat— something with more coverage. The chill of the castle was almost too much to handle, the air and it's icy chill seeped through the thin material of her jacket. And despite her annoyance toward the boy, Blaire missed Leo's oddly radiant body warmth. But she didn't miss him or his inability to mind his buisness.

By the time Piper and Jason made their way back down the stairs, an angry ice princess storming behind them, Blaire swore she was half-frozen into her final resting form. Both Festus and Leo had a way to keep themselves warm despite the chill, but not Blaire. All she could do was wrap her arms snugly around herself.

   At the bottom step, the princess turned toward Piper, and said "You have fooled my father, girl. But you have not fooled me. We are not done. And you, Jason Grace, I will see you as a statue in the throne room soon enough."

   Blaire smirked, watching the girls smug expression fall. She seemed to take great offense at Piper's words. It was refreshing watching her get humbled.

  "Boreas is right," Jason told her. "You're a spoiled kid. See you around, ice princess."

   Khione's eyes flared pure white. For once, she seemed at a loss for words. She stormed back up the stairs—literally. Halfway up, she turned into a blizzard and disappeared. Leo's eyes followed her every move.

   "Be careful," Zethes warned. "She never forgets an insult."

   Cal grunted in agreement. "Bad sister."

  "She's the goddess of snow," Jason said. "What's she going to do, throw snowballs at us?"

  Leo looked devastated. "What happened up there? You made her mad? Is she mad at me too? Guys, that was my prom date!"

  Blaire wanted to remind the boy that she most likely wanted nothing to do with him, just like every other female he'd spoken to. But she didn't want to speak  to him. He'd probably think that meant they were the best of friends— or something.

   "We'll explain later," Piper promised, glancing at Jason like she expected him to explain. There was no we. And by the looks of it, Blaire assumed Jason didn't know how to explain exactly what occurred.

   "Yeah," Jason agreed with a serious edge to his voice,"we'll explain later."

   Zethes shook his head sadly, "Be careful pretty girls. The winds between here and Chicago are bad-tempered. Many other evil things are stirring. I am sorry you will not be staying. You would both make lovely ice statues, in which I could check my reflection."

   This time, Blaire was the one who merely recoiled in disgust, while Piper spoke up. "Thanks. But I'd sooner play hockey with Cal."

  "Hockey?" Cal's eyes lit up.

  "Joking," Piper confirmed before he could get any ideas. "And the storm winds aren't our worst
problem, are they?"

  "Oh, no," Zethes agreed. "Something else. Something worse."

  "Worse," Cal echoed.

  Great, Blaire thought. Just great.

  "Can you tell me?" Piper gave them a smile.

  This time, the charm didn't work. The purple-winged Boreads shook their heads in unison. The hangar doors opened onto a freezing starry night, and Festus the dragon stomped his feet, anxious to fly.

   "Ask Aeolus what is worse," Zethes said darkly. "He knows. Good luck."

  Aelous?

    He almost sounded like he cared what happened to them, even though a few minutes ago he'd wanted to make Piper and Blaire into ice sculptures so he could check his reflection.

    Cal patted Leo on the shoulder and threw a beefy arm around Blaire, which she attempted to sliver out of but failed due to the sheer weight of the limb. "Don't get destroyed," he said, which was probably the longest sentence he'd ever attempted. "Next time—hockey. Pizza!"

   "Come on, guys," Jason demanded, staring wistfully out the open doors, into the night.

  Blaire was undeniably anxious to leave the penthouse, though she guessed it was the most hospitable place they'd come across the entirety of their quest. It was even more freezing then the outdoors, however. That's what happens when you sculpt an interior wholly from ice.

  "Let's go to Chicago and try not to get destroyed."

    While being back on the dragon, flying mid-air came with several pros, it also came with several (x2) cons. She was no longer forced to sit idly and listen to Zethes' lame attempts to flirt, and she was no longer on the brink of freezing. But, she was squeezed between Piper and Leo again, this time listening to Jason flirt with the girl behind her.

  "You were amazing,"Jason told her, eliciting an eyeroll from Blaire.

  You were amazing! Blaire mouthed to herself.

   Then, Piper said something in french, and Blaire assumed the Aphrodite girl figured she was the only one aboard Festus who could speak French, but little did she know, Blaire had too taken to learning french in her freetime.
  
   "If you knew the truth about me, you wouldn't think I was so amazing."

  What the hell is that supposed to mean?

  Blaire hastily whipped around, her eyebrows raised so high they dissapeared beneath the rim of her ski cap.

  "What'd you say?" Jason asked.

  "I said I only talked to Boreas. It wasn't so amazing," Piper lied.

  "Hey," he said, "you saved me from joining Khione's subzero hero collection. I owe you one."

    Blaire realized listening to him flirt with Piper was almost worse than actually getting flirted with by Zethes. It was just as pathetic, honestly.

  Jason and Piper had given them a quick rundown on what exactly had happened in the throne room, and Leo seemed to take it to heart. He'd been silent since he learned the truth about his supposed future prom date.

   He glanced back to pass them sandwhiches from his pack. "I still can't believe Khione. She seemed so nice."

  "No," Blaire corrected him, waving off the PB&J he offered. "She didn't."

  "Trust me, man," Jason said. "Snow may be pretty, but close up it's cold and nasty. We will find you a better prom date, man."

    Doubt it, Blaire thought.

    Leo seemed uncharecteristicly upset. He would grumble to himself periodically as they flew about something Blaire couldn't quite make out. And his mood seemed to be affecting Festus as well, for the dragon huffed and puffed.

   Really, the only quester who wasn't totally pissed off was Jason.

  They ate their sandwiches as they flew. Blaire had no idea how Leo had stocked up on supplies, but he'd even remembered to bring veggie rations for Piper, who was a vegan.

  Nobody talked. Whatever they might find in Chicago, they all knew Boreas had only let them go because he figured they were already on a suicide mission.

AUTHOR: HIIIII! a short, and very boring chapter but i love the bleo moment (human heater) and note the flashback is VERYYY important. also there is a reason blaire is awfully good at reading emotion FYI but u won't find out for several chapters!! this isn't edited but I wanted to post because i've been asked to update this (hi, jas) i hope u enjoy anyways! don't be a ghost, vote and COMMENT!