BLAIRE'S SEARCH FOR Leo led her to a line of blue plastic porta potties that were completely flattened into disgusting piles of sludge. The son of Hephaestus was kneeling by Festus' body which miraculously seemed perfectly fine. Not a single dent tainted his shiny bronze being despite the gnarly fall he'd endured not even an hour earlier.

    "How is that possible?" Blaire spoke up, evidently frightening Leo who nearly leapt twenty feet in the air at the sudden sound of her voice. She crossed her arms over her coat, cradaling her broken wrist, and cocked her head in suspicion. "He should be in complete shambles right now."

  When Leo's eyes fell upon the girl he seemed to relax slightly. It was just Blaire—not some scary monster. Though he suspected the two aforementioned threats were equally as dangerous.

   "I don't know," Valdez admitted wearily, before turning back to the dragon. "Why'd you come find me? I thought you wanted to stay with Jason and Piper."

Blaire shrugged meekly, "Changed my mind, I guess."

    She wasn't going to tell Leo that she really came and found him because she heard the others talking badly about her. That would for sure bruise her ego.

At that Leo smirked devilishly, raising both of his eyebrows. "Just couldn't stay away from me, huh?"

Blaire laughed loudly the second the words left his mouth, the melody that was her chuckle ricocheting off the walls and gracing Leo's ears. Leo, however didn't seem to find humor in the situation. And upon sensing the boys serious demeanor, Blaire sobered up, her laughs dying down, leaving the two in silence.

  "Oh, shit. You were being serious?" Blaire questioned with a scoff. "I figured that was some sort of weird self deprecating joke."

  Leo didn't seem too sure of himself anymore. For he didn't say anything in response, he just turned back to the dragon and resumed his investigation, posture suddenly rigid.

For awhile, he poked around the dragons machinery in silence, as Blaire watched from nearly a yard away, making sure there was enough distance between herself and the disgusting chemical sludge.

Until he spoke up, "Oh, Festus. What the heck?"

Leo turned to Blaire, a frown etched across his chiseled features. "His wiring froze over. But that's not really the problem— it's this disk tha—"

"Cool," She cut him off with a hasty wave of her hand, "can you fix it? Or are we stranded at your faulty hand?"

Leo sighed, letting his head hang low. He seemed ashamed, but the cloudiness that was evidently looming above his head faded as quick as it came. "Nothing is unfixable."

Blaire wanted to argue that he was totally incorrect and there were certainly things out there that couldn't be fixed— but she didn't. She just let him get to work. Becasue the sooner he fixed the dragon, the sooner they left the warehouse. The sooner they left the warehouse, the sooner the quest continued.

The sooner the quest continued, the sooner they were home.

"Gimme a nylon bristle detail brush, some nitrile gloves, and maybe a can of that aerosol cleaning solvent," Leo said aloud, and it took her a moment to realize he was talking to his belt and not her.

When the belt obliged, providing Leo with the tools he requested, the two elapsed into another bout of silence. Leo contiuned working on the dragon, glancing back every so often as if to make sure Blaire was still there.

Then, Leo somehow summoned a ball of fire above the length of his grease-covered hand, which Blaire figured impossible. Sure, his father— Hephaestus— was the god of fire, but she'd never met a Hephaestus kid with such an ability before. Perhaps it came along with his weird ability to raise his body temperature and such. That didn't make it any less odd though.

  But in reality, everything about Leo was odd. This was no different. It only made sense he could spawn fire.

"How the Hades?" Blaire exclaimed, both of  her dark eyebrows high on her pale forehead. "How'd you do that, Valdez?"

  "Like I said earlier," Leo turned back to the girl, his face alight from the amber glow dancing atop his hand. "it's a secret!"

    Blaire cocked her head again. "Ok, Hot Stuff. Is that just something you can like, casually do?"

  "If I can't ask you about your powers," Leo began with a lopsided smirk, "you can't ask me about mine."

  Blaire rolled her eyes in annoyance, "I don't have powers, Valdez."

  "Clearly you do," Leo said to the girl, a playful lull to his voice. "Or else you wouldn't be on this quest."

    His words were obviously meant to be nothing more than humorous, but they angered her. Who was he to tell her that she had some sort of magical abilities. Seriously, who did he think he was?

  "Who are you to say?" Blaire snapped, "You don't know anything."

  Leo cowered, looking away from the Hecate girl with a shake of his head. "Kay, sorry. Jeez."

Again, the two fell into silence. This time it was very tension filled from their recent scuffle.

"Enough, Valdez," Leo said aloud after awhile. "Nobody's going to play any violins for you just because you're not important. Fix the stupid dragon."

Blaire pursed her lips at the boy's words. She knew what it was like— to feel unimportant. Matter of fact, it was like her life story.

Blaire wasn't planning on saying anything, but if she was, she couldn't have, for another voice came.

You're wrong, Leo, it said.

Both of the teenagers looked to eachother with wide eyes, before glancing around frantically in search for the voice. Leo fumbled his tools, dropping his brush in the dragons head.

Then they looked at the ground. Snow and chemical sludge from the toilets, even the asphalt itself was shifting like it was turning to liquid. A ten-foot-wide area formed eyes, a nose, and a mouth —the giant face of a sleeping woman.

She didn't exactly speak. Her lips didn't move. But they could hear her voice in his head, as if the vibrations were coming through the ground, straight into their feet and resonating up their skeleton.

They need you desperately, she said. In some ways, you are the most important of the seven—like the control disk in the dragon's brain. Without you, the power of the others means nothing. They will never reach me, never stop me. And I will fully wake.

What the fuck?

"You," Leo gasped, his voice wavering as well as his entire frame. Tears were quickly welling within his dark irises. "You killed my mom."

Oh.

She'd known that Leo's mom died— he accidentally let it slip on Festus. But she didn't know it had anything to do with weird-talking porta potty sludge.

The face shifted. The mouth formed a sleepy smile like it was having a pleasant dream. Ah, but Leo. I am your mother too—the First Mother. Do not oppose me. Walk away now. Let my son Porphyrion rise and become king, and I will ease your burdens. You will tread lightly on the earth.

Blaire blinked, her gaze darting between the talking sludge and Leo.

"What are you?" Blaire questioned, peering over at the sludge. "Who are you?"

Ah, Blaire. The voice spoke, it's calm tone sending electric shock through the girl's being. You're in denial. You weild great power, girl. You could destroy the world. Or you could save it.

  "Leave us alone," Leo snapped.

   You will find all of your misfortunes shall prove to be worth it in the end, The voice rang. The cost of your losses will make sense in time.

"Shut up," Blaire demanded.

  The cost of her losses? Ther were more than just losses, they were people. Her best friend, her dad.

  You shall unlock your true potential, only with another great loss.

    She couldn't loose anything else. Literally, because she hadn't anything else to lose. But if somehow, she had managed to loose another person close to her, she'd also be loosing another crucial fraction of herself. The final fraction of herself.

  "Shut up!" Blaire called again, this time her voice breaking.

  Leo fished a hammer from his belt, and chucked it towards the face. "Get out of here!"

  The hammer sank into the liquid earth. Snow and sludge rippled, and the face dissolved.

  They stared at the ground with bated breaths, waiting for the face to return and spew more cryptic lines.

  Then from the direction of the factory, they heard a crash —like two dump trucks slamming together. Metal crumpled and groaned, and the noise echoed across the yard.

  Instantly it became obvious that Jason and Piper were in trouble.

Walk away now, the voice had urged.

  "Not likely," Leo growled. "Gimme the biggest hammer you got."

   He reached into the tool belt and pulled out yet another hammer. Then he turned to Blaire and leapt off the dragons back.

  "Let's go save our friends!"

  "They aren't my friends."

  At that, they took off toward the warehouse.

   Blaire and Leo stopped at the doors, trying to control their breathing. The voice of the earth woman still rang in Blaire's ears, reminding her of all she'd lost and would continue to lose.

   They took a snychronized deep breathe, peering into the open doors.  Nothing looked different. Gray morning light filtered through the hole in the roof. A few lightbulbs flickered, but most of the factory floor was still lost in shadows. They could make out the catwalk above, the dim shapes of heavy machinery along the assembly line, but no movement. No sign of Piper and Jason.

   Something was off. Blaire could tell. It was a horrible rotting smell, playing at her nostrils. Burning motor oil and rotton breathe.

   Leo opened his mouth, as if to call out, but Blaire stopped him last minute, slapping a hand over his mouth. Leo turned to her, obviously perplexed.

  "Something's not right," Blaire whispered.

    Leo looked down at her hand, resulting in her pulling it back quickly.

  Something not human was inside the factory. Bllaire was certain. Her body shifted into high gear, all her nerves tingling.

   Somewhere on the factory floor, Piper's voice cried out: "Blaire, help!"

  But Blaire held her tounge. Why would Piper call out to her?

  They slipped inside, ducking behind a cargo container. Slowly, Leo gripping his hammer, the two worked his way toward the center of the room, hiding behind boxes and hollow truck chassis. Finally they reached the assembly line. They crouched behind the nearest piece of machinery—a crane with a robotic arm.

  Piper's voice called out again: "Leo?" Less certain this time, but very close.

  The two teenagers looked to eachother again, sharing a mutual sense of suspicion.

  They peeked around the machinery. Hanging directly above the assembly line, suspended by a chain from a crane on the opposite side, was a massive truck engine—just dangling thirty feet up, as if it had been left there when the factory was abandoned. Below it on the conveyor belt sat a truck chassis, and clustered around it were three dark shapes the size of forklifts. Nearby, dangling from chains on two other robotic arms, were two smaller shapes—maybe more engines, but one of them was twisting around as if it were alive

   Then one of the forklift shapes rose, and Blaire realized it was a humanoid of massive size. "Told you it was nothing," the thing rumbled. Its voice was too deep and feral to be human.

    One of the other forklift-sized lumps shifted, and called out in Piper's voice: "Guys, help me! Help—" Then the voice changed, becoming a masculine snarl. "Bah, there's nobody out there. No demigod could be that quiet, eh?"

  A cyclops, Blaire realized. For she knew of their ability to imitate voices with great accuracy.

   The first monster chuckled. "Probably ran away, if they know what's good for them. Or the girl was lying about a third and fourth demigod. Let's get cooking."

  Snap. A bright orange light sizzled to life—an emergency flare—and Blaire was temporarily blinded. She ducked behind the crane until the spots cleared from her eyes. Then she took another peep and saw a nightmare scene even Earth Woman couldn't have dreamed up.

    The two smaller things dangling from crane arms weren't engines. They were Jason and Piper. Both hung upside down, tied by their ankles and cocooned with chains up to their necks. Piper was flailing around, trying to free herself. Her mouth was gagged, but at least she was alive. Jason didn't look so good. He hung limply, his eyes rolled up in his head. A red welt the size of an apple had swollen over his left eyebrow

    On the conveyor belt, the bed of the unfinished pickup truck was being used as a fire pit. The emergency flare had ignited a mixture of tires and wood, which, from the smell of it, had been doused in kerosene. A big metal pole was suspended over the flames—a spit, Leo realized, which meant this was a cooking fire.

  "They're getting cooked," Leo whisper-shouted, gripping Blaire's shoulders and shaking her. Earning a gnarly glare in return. "They are cooking Piper and Jason!"

  "Don't touch me!" Blaire wrangled from his grasp.

    Three massive humanoids gathered around the fire. Two were standing, stoking the flames. The largest one crouched with his back to Leo. The two facing him were each ten feet tall, with hairy muscular bodies and skin that glowed red in the firelight. One of the monsters wore a chain mail loincloth that looked really uncomfortable. The other wore a ragged fuzzy toga made of fiberglass insulation, which also would not have made Leo's top ten wardrobe ideas. Other than that, the two monsters could've been twins. Each had a brutish face with a single eye in the center of his forehead.

   Leo slipped his bag off and began to slowly unzip it.

  The Cyclops in the chain mail loincloth walked over to Piper, who squirmed and tried to head-butt him in the eye. "Can I take her gag off now? I like it when they scream."

  The question was directed at the third Cyclops, apparently the leader. The crouching figure grunted, and Loincloth ripped the gag off Piper's mouth.

  She didn't scream. She took a shaky breath like she was trying to keep herself calm.

Meanwhile, Leo slipped a few things from his belt, then he began fiddiling with the mechanical panel of the robotic arm. He worked slowly with such precision, earning Blaire's attention. The way his hands moved presicely across the controls evoked a spark of awe within the girl. It was as if the deep encrusted mechanics, more so tweaking their wiring was like a second nature to the boy. The information came to him easily.

"What're you gonna do?" Blaire found herself asking.

Leo smirked up at her devilishly, wiping a few wayward curls away from his face. "I've got some tricks up my sleeve too, Mrs. Magic."

Mrs. Magic, seriously?

The Cyclops in the toga poked at the fire, which was now blazing away and billowing noxious black smoke toward the ceiling. His buddy Loincloth glowered at Piper, waiting for her to do something entertaining. "Scream, girl! I like funny screaming!"

When Piper finally spoke, her tone was calm and reasonable, like she was correcting a naughty puppy. "Oh, Mr. Cyclops, you don't want to kill us. It would be much better if you let us go."

Loincloth scratched his ugly head. He turned to his friend in the fiberglass toga. "She's kind of pretty, Torque. Maybe I should let her go."

Torque, the dude in the toga, growled. "I saw her first, Sump. I'll let her go!" Sump and Torque started to argue, but the third Cyclops rose and shouted, "Fools!"

The third Cyclops was a female. She was several feet taller than Torque or Sump, and even beefier. She wore a tent of chain mail cut like one of those sack dresses Leo's mean Aunt Rosa used to wear. What'd they call that—a muumuu? Yeah, the Cyclops lady had a chain mail muumuu. Her greasy black hair was matted in pigtails, woven with copper wires and metal washers. Her nose and mouth were thick and smashed together, like she spent her free time ramming her face into walls; but her single red eye glittered with evil intelligence.

The woman Cyclops stalked over to Sump and pushed him aside, knocking him over the conveyor belt. Torque backed up quickly.

"The girl is Venus spawn," the lady Cyclops snarled. "She's using charmspeak on you."

Piper started to say, "Please, ma'am—"

"Rarr!" The lady Cyclops grabbed Piper around the waist. "Don't try your pretty talk on me, girl! I'm Ma Gasket! I've eaten heroes tougher than you for lunch!"

Blaire thought Piper would get crushed, but Ma Gasket just dropped her and let her dangle from her chain. Then she started yelling at Sump about how stupid he was.

Leo's hands worked furiously. He twisted wires and turned switches— Blaire wondered what he was doing. He finished attaching the remote. Then he and Blaire crept over to the next robotic arm while the Cyclopes were talking.

"—eat her last, Ma?" Sump was saying.

"Idiot!" Ma Gasket yelled, and Blaire realized Sump and Torque must be her sons. If so, ugly definitely ran in the family. "I should've thrown you out on the streets when you were babies, like proper Cyclops children. You might have learned some useful skills. Curse my soft heart that I kept you!"

"Soft heart?" Torque muttered.

  "What was that, you ingrate?"

  "Nothing, Ma. I said you got a soft heart. We get to work for you, feed you, file your toenails—"

  "And you should be grateful!" Ma Gasket bellowed. "Now, stoke the fire, Torque! And Sump, you idiot, my case of salsa is in the other warehouse. Don't tell me you expect me to eat these demigods without salsa!

  "Yes, Ma," Sump said. "I mean no, Ma. I mean—"

  "Go get it!" Ma Gasket picked up a nearby truck chassis and slammed it over Sump's head. Sump crumpled to his knees. Leo was sure a hit like that would kill him, but Sump apparently got hit by trucks a lot. He managed to push the chassis off his head. Then he staggered to his feet and ran offto fetch the salsa.

  "Now's the time," Leo uttered to the Hecate girl, "While they are seperated."

  "The time for what?"

  Piper's dark eyes drifted toward the crane, and she caught a glimpse of Leo and Blaire, who were darting between the two machines. Her expression turned from terror to disbelief, and she gasped.

  Ma Gasket turned to her. "What's the matter, girl? So fragile I broke you?"

  Thankfully, Piper was a quick thinker. She looked away from Leo and said, "I think it's my ribs, ma'am. If I'm busted up inside, I'll taste terrible."

  Ma Gasket bellowed with laughter. "Good one. The last hero we ate—remember him, Torque? Son of Mercury, wasn't he?"

  "Yes, Ma," Torque said. "Tasty. Little bit stringy."

  "He tried a trick like that. Said he was on medication. But he tasted fine!"

   Piper perked up, "Purple Shirt? Latin?"

  Blaire realized she was probably suddenly intruiged because of Jason— whom was still knocked cold. For he showed up to Camp in a purple shirt, and somehow was fluent in Latin.

   "Good eating," Ma Gasket said fondly. "Point is, girl, we're not as dumb as people think! We're not falling for those stupid tricks and riddles, not us northern Cyclopes."

   Piper kept talking, laying on the praise. "Oh, I've heard about the northern Cyclopes!" Which Leo figured was bull, but she sounded convincing. "I never knew you were so big and clever!"

  "Flattery won't work either," Ma Gasket said, though she sounded pleased. "It's true, you'll be breakfast for the best Cyclopes around."

  "But aren't Cyclopes good?" Piper asked. "I thought you made weapons for the gods."

  "Bah! I'm very good. Good at eating people. Good at smashing. And good at building things, yes, but not for the gods. Our cousins, the elder Cyclopes, they do this, yes. Thinking they're so high and mighty 'cause they're a few thousand years older. Then there's our southern cousins, living on islands and tending sheep. Morons! But we Hyperborean Cyclopes, the northern clan, we're the best! Founded Monocle Motors in this old factory—the best weapons, armor, chariots, fuel-efficient SUVs! And yet—bah! Forced to shut down. Laid off most of our tribe. The war was too quick. Titans lost. No good! No more need for Cyclops weapons."

  "Oh, no," Piper sympathized. "I'm sure you made some amazing weapons."

  Blaire knelt beside Leo, silently rushing him. She didn't care about saving Jason or Piper, she cared about making it out alive.

  Torque grinned. "Squeaky war hammer!" He picked up a large pole with an accordion-looking metal box on the end.

  He slammed it against the floor and the cement cracked, but there was also a sound like the world's largest rubber ducky getting stomped.

  "Terrifying," Piper said.

  Torque looked pleased. "Not as good as the exploding ax, but this one can be used more than once."

  "Can I see it?" Piper asked. "If you could just free my hands—"

  Torque stepped forward eagerly, but Ma Gasket said, "Stupid! She's tricking you again. Enough talk! Slay the boy first before he dies on his own. I like my meat fresh."

  Leo began working faster, his hands moving at a more rapid pace.

  "Hey, wait," Piper said, trying to get the Cyclopes' attention. "Hey, can I just ask—"

   The wires sparked in Leo's hand. The Cyclopes froze and turned in Blaire and Leo's direction. Then Torque picked up a truck and threw it at them.

   Just in time, Leo and rolled, pulling Blaire down with him, as the truck steamrolled over the machinery. If he'd been a half-second slower, they would've been smashed.

   Disoriented, they got to their feet, and Ma Gasket spotted them. She yelled, "Torque, you pathetic excuse for a Cyclops, get them!"

    Torque barreled toward them. Leo frantically gunned the toggle on his makeshift remote.

  Torque was fifty feet away. Twenty feet.

   Then the first robotic arm whirred to life. A three-ton yellow metal claw slammed the Cyclops in the back so hard, he landed flat on his face. Before Torque could recover, the robotic hand grabbed him by one leg and hurled him straight up.

 
"AHHHHH!" Torque rocketed into the gloom. The ceiling was too dark and too high up to see exactly what happened, but judging from the harsh metalclang, Leo guessed the Cyclops had hit one of the support girders.

Torque never came down. Instead, yellow dust rained to the floor. Torque had disintegrated.

  Blaire gasped in shock, secretly impressed. How Leo was able to wire the machine into preforming such a deed in so little time, she had no idea.

Ma Gasket stared at Leo and Blaire in shock. "My son ... You ... You ..."

  As if on cue, Sump lumbered into the firelight with a case of salsa. "Ma, I got the extra-spicy—"

   He never finished his sentence. Leo spun the remote's toggle, and the second robotic arm whacked Sump in the chest. The salsa case exploded like a piñata and Sump flew backward, right into the base of Leo's third machine. Sump may have been immune to getting hit with truck chasses, but he wasn't immune to robotic arms that could deliver ten thousand pounds of force. The third crane arm slammed him against the floor so hard, he exploded into dust like a broken flour sack.

   Two Cyclopses down. One to go. Though Blaire figured Ma Gasket would be more of a challenge.

   The remaining Cyclops grabbed the nearest crane arm and ripped it off its pedestal with a savage roar. "You busted my boys! Only I get to bust my boys!

   Leo punched a button, and the two remaining arms swung into action. Ma Gasket caught the first one and tore it in half. The second arm smacked her in the head, but that only seemed to make her mad. She grabbed it by the clamps, ripped it free, and swung it like a baseball bat. It missed Piper and Jason by an inch. Then Ma Gasket let it go—spinning it toward Leo and Blaire.

  "Gods," Blaire yelped, quickly leaping out of the way as the arm demolished a near by machine.

   She stood about twenty feet from them now, next to the cooking fire. Her fists were clenched, her teeth bared. She looked ridiculous in her chain mail muumuu and her greasy pigtails—but given the murderous glare in her huge red eye and the fact that she was twelve feet tall, Blaire wasn't laughing.

  "Any more tricks, demigod?" Ma Gasket demanded.

  Blaire wracked her mind for anything that might get them out of the situation. But she couldn't come up with anything plausible. Though she hated to admit it, those powers everyone had accused her of weilding might have been very useful at that moment. She'd hate to die by the hands of a Cyclops.

  "Heck, yeah, I got tricks!" Leo raised his remote control. "Take one more step, and I'll destroy you with fire!"

    Blaire wanted to shout. Cyclopses were immune to fire!

  Ma Gasket laughed. "Would you? Cyclopes are immune to fire, you idiot. But if you wish to play with flames, let me help!"

  She scooped red-hot coals into her bare hands and flung them at Leo. They landed all around his feet. Good thing Blaire was standing a reasonable distance from him.

  "You missed," he said incredulously. Then Ma Gasket grinned and picked up a barrel next to the truck. Leo just had time to read the stenciled word on the side—kerosene —before Ma Gasket threw it.

And right before she threw it, Leo leapt to the side, shoving Blaire away from the scene. She landed with a thud, her back hitting the concrete, adding to her already dazed state. But she didn't have time to focus on that, because the barrel split on the floor infront of Leo, spilling lighter fluid everywhere.

Coals sparked, and Piper wailed. Suddenly a huge firestorm erupted around the Valdez boy, who was hoisted twenty feet in the air by dancing flames. He looked right at home. Various shades of amber reflected off his high blushing cheekbones, illuminating his devilish smirk and oil struken features.

Ma Gasket shrieked with delight, but Leo didn't offer the fire any good fuel. The kerosene burned off, dying down to small fiery patches on the floor.

Piper gasped. "Leo?"

Ma Gasket looked astonished. "You live?" Then she took that extra step forward, which put her right where Leo wanted. "What are you?"

"The son of Hephaestus," Leo said. "And I warned you I'd destroy you with fire."

Blaire had no clue what the boy was planning, and she never could have guessed either. He pointed a single flaming, trembling finger at the chain suspending the engine block above the Cyclops's head—aiming for the link that looked weaker than rest.

The flames died. Nothing happened. Ma Gasket laughed. "An impressive try, son of Hephaestus. It's been many centuries since I saw a fire user. You'll make a spicy appetizer! And you girl, you'll be desert."

"In your dreams," Blaire snarked, foucusing on the chain above Ma Gasket, praying that it would somehow snap. Please, please, please—

The chain snapped—that single link that had previously seemed unaffected despite Leo's atempts—and the engine block fell, deadly and silent.

"Yeah, I don't think so," Leo added.

Ma Gasket didn't even have time to look up.

Smash! No more Cyclops—just a pile of dust under a five- ton engine block.

Not immune to engines, huh?" Leo said. "Boo-yah!"

Then, he suprised both of his consious aquantinces, and fell to his knees with a pained gasp. Blaire's eyebrows shot up on her forehead.

   She wasn't worried for Leo, she was just curious. So, she took a few steps forward. "Um, what happened?"

   It took Leo awhile before he could respond with anything more then a mere wail. "Never summoned that much fire before."

  Then he got to his feet like nothing had ever happened. He began working on freeing Jason and Piper from their chains- while Blaire watched with a scowl.

   Piper and Leo worked on freeing Jason from his chains, then they'd tricked nectar into his mouth, watching as his color returned and his welt shrunk.

  "Yeah, he's got a nice thick skull," Leo said. "I think he's gonna be fine."

  "Thank god," Piper sighed. Then she looked at Leo with something like fear. "How did you—the fire—have you always ...?"

  Leo looked down. "Always," he said. "I'm a freaking menace. Sorry, I should've told you guys sooner but—"

    Sorry?" Piper punched his arm, now grinning. "That was amazing, Valdez! You saved our lives. What are you sorry about?"

   And Blaire had to agree. Without him, they'd probably all be dead. Or at least, Jason and Piper would be.

  "They're forming again," Leo said, pointing beside Piper's foot, suddenly sullen. "Look."

  Yellow dust—the powdered remains of one of the Cyclopes, maybe Torque—was shifting across the floor like an invisible wind was pushing it back together.

  Piper stepped away from the dust. "That's not possible. Annabeth told me monsters dissipate when they're killed. They go back to Tartarus and can't return for a long time."

  And she was right. It usually took monsters at least a decade to return.

  "Well, nobody told the dust that." They watched as it collected into a pile, then very slowly spread out, forming a shape with arms and legs.

  "Oh, god." Piper turned pale. "Boreas said something about this—the earth yielding up horrors. 'When monsters no longer stay in Tartarus, and souls are no longer confined to Hades.' How long do you think we have?"

  "Probably not long," Blaire cut in, "so we should leave."

LYN SAYS : HEYYYYYY! long ass chapter for bleo nation!! I wrote this so quickly because i wanted to feed my Starving BlaireLeo lovers with a baby packed chap!! Do we see their development?? Anyways, this is very unedited like I didn't Even read over it, so 🙄🙄 Enjoy <3