WHEN THE GROUP DESCENDED yet another floor, Blaire took it upon herself to torture the boys back to sanity while Piper cornered the princess just out of earshot.

   Jason and Leo crowded around a rack of enchanted hats, giggiling like children admist a toy store.

    Leo placed a hat entirely made up of raccoon fur atop his mussed curls, smirking at his dopey reflection in the small rectangular mirror that was attached to the display. However, his joy was very short lived, for Blaire yanked the stupid hat from his head with a large amount of agression.

  "Wake up, you idiot," Blaire reprimanded him, snapping infront his face. "This princess is charm speaking you!"

   "Blaire, give me my hat back," Leo whined, his voice child-like, regarding her last words.

  "You, moron," Blaire scolded, "You and Jason are gonna get us killed!"

  Leo just shook his head, denying her accusations and offering a measley, "No."

   The Valdez boy grinned at Blaire, whose annoyance was increasing by a tenfold per second. His rosey lips were turned up into a lopsided smile, and his dark eyes were glossed over.

  Before she was able to continue scolding the boy, Jason spoke, "Hey, check it out!"

From a rack labeled distressed clothing, he held up a purple T-shirt like the one he'd showed up in his first day at camp —except this shirt looked as if it had been clawed by tigers.

Jason frowned. "Why does this look so familiar?"

   "Jason, it's like yours," Piper told him desperately, eyes wide in plea. "Now we really have to leave."

   "Nonsense," the princess waved her off. "The boys aren't done, are they? And yes, my dear. Those shirts are very popular —tradeins from previous customers. It suits you."

    Leo picked up an orange Camp Half-Blood tee with a hole through the middle, as if it had been hit by a javelin. Next to that was a dented bronze breastplate pitted with corrosion—acid, maybe?—and a Roman toga slashed to pieces and stained with something that looked disturbingly like dried blood.

    "Your Highness," Piper spoke, her voice uneven, brimming with nerve. "Why don't you tell the boys how you betrayed your family? I'm sure they'd like to hear that story."

  Like every other figure who was related to Greek Mythology in any way possible , Blaire thought bitterly.

  Her words didn't have any effect on the princess, but the boys turned, their intrest peaked.

  "More story?" Leo asked, cocking his head.

  "I like more story!" Jason agreed.

  They sounded like incompetent toddlers who were only now learning to speak. It was pathetic.

  The princess flashed Piper an irritated look. "Oh, one will do strange things for love, Piper. You should know that. I fell for that young hero, in fact, because your mother Aphrodite had me under a spell. If it wasn't for her—but I can't hold a grudge against a goddess, can I?"

  "But that hero took you with him when he fled Colchis," Piper recounted. "Didn't he, Your Highness? He married you just as he promised."

  "At first," Her Highness admitted, "it seemed he would keep his word. But even after I helped him steal my father's treasure, he still needed my help. As we fled, my brother's fleet came after us. His warships overtook us. He would have destroyed us, but I convinced my brother to come aboard our ship first and talk under a flag of truce. He trusted me."

   "And you killed your own brother," Piper finished. And as she spoke the truth, it all came back to her. Despite her unattentiveness, she remembered hastily reading something in the textbook. Medea.

"What?" Jason stirred. For a moment he looked almost like himself. "Killed your own—"

"No," the princess snapped suddenly. "Those stories are lies. It was my new husband and his men who killed my brother, though they couldn't have done it without my deception. They threw his body into the sea, and the pursuing fleet had to stop and search for it so they could give my brother a proper burial. This gave us time to get away. All this, I did for my husband. And he forgot our bargain. He betrayed me in the end."

Jason still looked uncomfortable. "What did he do?"

While Jason was beggining to reagin consiousness, Leo still seemed half-out of it. He was still grinning like a dope.

The princess held the sliced-up toga against Jason's chest, as if measuring him for an assassination. "Don't you know the story, my boy? You of all people should. You were named for him."

"Jason," Piper yelped. "The original Jason. But then you're —you should be dead!"

Blaire realized that Piper had only been a demigod for a few days, so she was unable to see that things weren't always reasonable or even possible when it had to do with the Gods.

The princess smiled. "As I said, a new life in a new country. Certainly I made mistakes. I turned my back on my own people. I was called a traitor, a thief, a liar, a murderess. But I acted out of love."

She turned to the boys and gave them a pitiful look, batting her eyelashes. Blaire could feel the sorcery washing over them, taking control more firmly than ever.

"Wouldn't you do the same for someone you loved, my dears?"

Blaire felt the cruel glower of the princess trained upon her, as if her words were aimed toward the daughter of Hecate, meant to taunt her, to twist the chords of her emotions. Of course she would— in fact she did. And Medea knew it.

The reminder was like rubbing salt into a fresh wound, a wound still gaping from the harsh tear caused by the shards of betrayal and death. She felt the force and utter power of her words weasel their way into the most personal crevices of her brain.

Wouldn't you do the same for someone you loved, my dears?

She was no better than the Princess of Colchis.

"Oh, sure," Jason said.

"Okay," Leo agreed.

"Guys!" Piper ground her teeth in frustration. "Don't you see who she is? Don't you—"

"Let's continue, shall we?" the princess said breezily, ignoring Piper's words. "I believe you wanted to talk about a price for the storm spirits —and your satyr."

Leo, the absolute sucker he was for any sort of mechanics, got distracted on the second floor by the appliances.

"No way," he gushed, bouncing on the tips of his toes in excitement. "Is that an armored forge?"

Before Blaire could stop him, he hopped off the escalator and ran over to a big oval oven that looked like a barbecue on steroids.

When they caught up with him, the princess said, "You have good taste. This is the H-2000, designed by Hephaestus himself. Hot enough to melt Celestial bronze or Imperial gold."

Jason flinched as if he recognized that term. "Imperial gold?"

The princess nodded. "Yes, my dear. Like that weapon so cleverly concealed in your pocket. To be properly forged, Imperial gold had to be consecrated in the Temple of Jupiter on Capitoline Hill in Rome. Quite a powerful and rare metal, but like the Roman emperors, quite volatile. Be sure never to break that blade..." She smiled pleasantly. "Rome was after my time, of course, but I do hear stories. And now over here —this golden throne is one of my finest luxury items. Hephaestus made it as a punishment for his mother, Hera. Sit in it and you'll be immediately trapped."

Leo apparently took this as an order. He began walking toward it in a trance.

Blaire immediately latched onto the back of his camo jacket, yanking him backwards with such force. "Hot Stuff, stop!"

He whipped around abruptly at the use of the nickname and the feeling of her hands gripping his jacket. But then he turned back to the princess. "How much for both?"

"Oh, the seat I could let you have for five great deeds. The forge, seven years of servitude. And for only a bit of your strength—" She led Leo into the appliance section, giving him prices on various items, Blaire following along, hissing curses into his ear.

"And this—" The woman gestured toward another odd-godly invention, but Blaire was not listening to her.

"Valdez," She hissed again, when the woman turned away, her back to the teenagers. "Wake up or I'll kill you before she even has the chance!"

"You'd like that, wouldn't you?" Leo snapped angrily, "since you hate me so much, for some reason."

  Blaire frowned at her shoes, she didn't hate him— she realized. Infact, she appreciated his attempts at being nice to her.

  "I don't hate you."

  "Then why do you act like you hate me."

  "Because you're annoying."

  And that was true.

Eventually, the woman led them towards Jason and Piper, the latter was whispering to Jason frantically, using her hands to speak, in a desperate attempt to snap him from his trance.

"Children," She rounded on the Aphrodite- Zues duo, "If you please, we will now see what you came for. That is what you want, yes?"

Blaire wanted to hit this princess, hard enough to leave a mark.

They took the escalator down to the base of the fountain. For the first time, Blaire noticed two large bronze sundials —each about the size of a trampoline—inlaid on the marble tile floor to the north and south of the fountain. The gilded oversize canary cages stood to the east and west, and the farthest one held the storm spirits. They were so densely packed, spinning around like a super-concentrated tornado, that Blaire couldn't tell how many there were—dozens, at least.

"Hey," Leo exclaimed happily, "Coach Hedge looks okay!"

They ran to the nearest canary cage. The old satyr seemed to have been petrified. He was frozen mid- shout, his club raised over his head like he was ordering the gym class to drop and give him fifty. She knew then that this was definitely one of the Satyrs she'd seen fall at Mr.D's feet.

Yes," the princess confirmed. "I always keep my wares in good condition. We can certainly barter for the storm spirits and the satyr. A package deal. If we come to terms, I'll even throw in the vial of healing potion, and you can go in peace." She shot Piper and Blaire shrewd look. "That's better than starting unpleasantness, isn't it, dear?"

If Blaire had learned one thing in her time of being a demigod, it was to not trust anyone. Definitely not evil princesses. She came across them alot more than one would think, which led to this discovery.

"We can negotiate," Piper spoke, as if reading her mind.

"Totally!" Leo agreed, nudging the girl. "Name your price."

"Valdez," Blaire snapped through grit teeth.

  The princess chuckled. "Name my price? Perhaps not the best haggling strategy, my boy, but at least you know a thing's value. Freedom is very valuable indeed. You would ask me to release this satyr, who attacked my storm winds—"

  "Who attacked us," Piper interjected, stomping her foot.

  Her Highness shrugged, silently conveying a message; who cares?

   "As I said, my patron asks me for small favors from time to time. Sending the storm spirits to abduct you—that was one. I assure you it was nothing personal. And no harm done, as you came here, in the end, of your own free will! At any rate, you want the satyr freed, and you want my storm spirits—who are very valuable servants, by the way—so you can hand them over to that tyrant Aeolus. Doesn't seem quite fair, does it? The price will be high."

   It was obvious the boys were ready to give in, to offer forth their most valuable possessions.

    Before theu could do so, Piper Blurt, "You're Medea. You helped the original Jason steal the Golden Fleece. You're one of the most evil villains in Greek mythology. Jason, Leo—don't trust her."

    Piper layed her charmspeak on heavily, and this seemed to have an effect.

  Leo scratched his head and looked around like he was coming out of a dream, finally seeming like himself.

  "What are we doing, again?"

  "Boys!" The princess spread her hands in a welcoming gesture. Her diamond jewelry glittered, and her painted fingers curled like blood-tipped claws. "It's true, I'm Medea. But I'm so misunderstood. Oh, Piper, my dear, you don't know what it was like for women in the old days. We had no power, no leverage. Often we couldn't even choose our own husbands. But I was different. I chose my own destiny by becoming a sorceress. Is that so wrong? I made a pact with Jason: my help to win the fleece, in exchange for his love. A fair deal. He became a famous hero! Without me, he would've died unknown on the shores of Colchis."

  Jason— the living one— scowled. "Then ... you really did die three thousand years ago? You came back from the Underworld?"

  "Death no longer holds me, young hero," Medea said. "Thanks to my patron, I am flesh and blood again."

  "You ... re-formed?" Leo blinked sporadically. "Like a monster?"

  Medea spread her fingers, and steam hissed from her nails, like water splashed on hot iron. "You have no idea what's happening, do you, my dears? It is so much worse than a stirring of monsters from Tartarus. My patron knows that giants and monsters are not her greatest servants. I am mortal. I learn from my mistakes. And now that I have returned to the living, I will not be cheated again. Now, here is my price for what you ask."

  "Guys," Piper cried, waving her hands about. "The original Jason left Medea because she was crazy and bloodthirsty."

  "Lies!" Medea protested.

  "On the way back from Colchis, Jason's ship landed at another kingdom, and Jason agreed to dump Medea and marry the king's daughter."

  "After I bore him two children!" Medea defended herself. "Still he broke his promise! I ask you, was that right?"

    Jason and Leo dutifully shook their heads, but Piper didn't seem to be through.

  "That was wrong, yeah," Blaire spoke up finally, "but nothing about Medea's revenge was right. She murdered her own children just to get back at Jason. She poisoned his new wife and fled the kingdom."

  Medea turned on the girl, her expression fiery and harsh, "You've got no room to talk girl. You, too, have killed driven by spite!"

  The others turned to face Blaire, Leo and Jason didn't seem purely curious, they were only waiting for her to confirm. Piper though, narrowed her eyes at the accused teenager, waiting for her to either confirm or deny.

She didn't say anything. She couldn't. Medea was right, afterall. No matter how badly Blaire wanted to take it back, she couldn't. She'd never be able to unkill Olivia Kingsley. And the reminder wounded her.

Medea continued, snarling. "That was only an invention to ruin my reputation! The people of the Corinth—that unruly mob—killed my children and drove me out. Jason did nothing to protect me. He robbed me of everything. So yes, I sneaked back into the palace and poisoned his lovely new bride. It was only fair—a suitable price."

"You're insane," Piper yelled.

"I am the victim!" Medea wailed. "I died with my dreams shattered, but no longer. I know now not to trust heroes. When they come asking for treasures, they will pay a heavy price. Especially when the one asking has the name of Jason!"

The fountain turned bright red. Piper drew her dagger, but her hand was shaking almost too badly to hold it, she gripped Blaire's wrist with her free hand. "Jason, Leo —it's time to go. Now."

"Before you've closed the deal?" Medea asked. "What of your quest, boys? And my price is so easy. Did you know this fountain is magic? If a dead man were to be thrown into it, even if he was chopped to pieces, he would pop back out fully formed—stronger and more powerful than ever."

Seriously?" Leo questioned.

"Not seriously!" Blaire interjected.

Piper said, "She did that trick with somebody before—a king, I think. She convinced his daughters to cut him to pieces so he could come out of the water young and healthy again, but it just killed him!"

"Ridiculous," Medea said, and Blaire could hear the power charged in every syllable. "Leo, Jason—my price is so simple. Why don't you two fight? If you get injured, or even killed, no problem. We'll just throw you into the fountain and you'll be better than ever. You do want to fight, don't you? You resent each other!"

Leo and Jason had already begun to turn on eachother, staring with malicious intent into eachothers eyes, starting to draw their weapons.

"Guys, no," Piper pleaded.

Blaire had never felt anymore helpless. The boys were about to tear eachother to shreds.

Leo scowled. "Jason's always the star. He always gets the attention and takes me for granted."

"You're annoying, Leo," Jason spat, his voive trembling in anger. " You never take anything seriously. You can't even fix a dragon."

The words seemed to have a great effect, for Leo deflated greatly, his bottom lip trembling. Jason had used his insecurities against him. Blaire knew he'd already been beating himself up for Festus' fall.

   "Let them go, Piper," Medea urged. "I'm doing you a favor. Let it happen now, and it will make your choice so much easier. Enceladus will be pleased. You could have your father back today!"

  Blaire was not sure what she meant by that, but she knew it was probably important, however she had no time to ponder on that.

  "You work for Enceladus," Piper said.

   Medea laughed. "Serve a giant? No. But we all serve the same greater cause—a patron you cannot begin to challenge. Walk away, child of Aphrodite. This does not have to be your death, too. Save yourself, and your father can go free."

Something was wrong with Piper's father— he was in danger.

Leo and Jason were still facing off, ready to fight, but they looked unsteady and confused—waiting for another order. Part of them had to be resisting, Blaire figured.This went completely against their nature, they didn't have a single ounce of malice in them.

"Listen to me, girl." Medea plucked a diamond off her bracelet and threw it into a spray of water from the fountain. As it passed through the multicolored light, Medea said, "O Iris, goddess of the rainbow, show me the office of Tristan McLean."

  Blaire recognized the name— Piper's father. She sait it back on the dragon.

    The mist shimmered and some-sort of home office came into veiw. A woman wearing a dark business suit, her hair swirled in a tight bun sat in a desk chair, talking on the phone.

  "Hello, Jane," Medea said.

   The woman— who Blaire now assumed was Jane hung up the phone calmly. "How can I help you, ma'am? Hello, Piper."

  "You!" Piper quivered in anger.

  "Yes, child," Medea hissed. "Your father's assistant. Quite easy to manipulate. An organized mind for a mortal, but incredibly weak."

  That's who this woman was.

  "Thank you, ma'am." Jane nodded greatfully.

  "Don't mention it," Medea said. "I just wanted to congratulate you, Jane. Getting Mr. McLean to leave town so suddenly, take his jet to Oakland without alerting the press or the police—well done! No one seems to know where he's gone. And telling him his daughter's life was on the line—that was a nice touch to get his cooperation."

"Yes," Jane agreed in a bland tone, as if she were sleepwalking. "He was quite cooperative when he believed Piper was in danger."

   Blaire realized in that moment she had a lot more in common with Piper then she thought. Both of their fathers put themselves in danger to help their daughters. Blaire's father didn't make it out.

  But Piper's father still had a chance. And Blaire decided, in the honour of her father, she'd do whatever it took to help Tristan Mclean.

Piper looked down to her dagger, then to Blaire— who didn't carry a weapon. She couldn't, not after what she'd done to Olivia with one.

"I may have new orders for you, Jane," Medea ordered. "If the girl cooperates, it may be time for Mr. McLean to come home. Would you arrange a suitable cover story for his absence, just in case? And I imagine the poor man will need some time in a psychiatric hospital."

"Yes, ma'am. I will stand by."

The image faded, and Medea turned to Piper. "There, you see?"

You lured my dad into a trap," Piper said, her face pale. "You helped the giant—"

"Oh, please, dear. You'll work yourself into a fit! I've been preparing for this war for years, even before I was brought back to life. I'm a seer, as I said. I can tell the future as well as your little oracle. Years ago, still suffering in the Fields of Punishment, I had a vision of the eight in your so-called Great Prophecy. I saw your friend Leo here, and saw that he would be an important enemy someday. I stirred the consciousness of my patron, gave her this information, and she managed to wake just a little—just enough to visit him."

Blaire's mouth ran dry, the words seeping past the cobblestone walls she'd built up around her emotions. She played a part in killing Leo's mom.

"Leo's mother," Piper said. "Leo, listen to this! She helped get your mother killed!"

"Uh-huh," Leo mumbled, in a daze. He frowned at his hammer, his mind not registering the words. "So ... I just attack Jason? That's okay?"

  "Perfectly safe," Medea promised. "And Jason, strike him hard. Show me you are worthy of your namesake."

  Piper was totally desperate now. "No! "Jason, Leo—she's tricking you. Put down your weapons."

  The sorceress rolled her eyes. "Please, girl. You're no match for me. I trained with my aunt, the immortal Circe. I can drive men mad or heal them with my voice. What hope do these puny young heroes have against me? Now, boys, kill
each other!"

    Blaire had done nothing but sat around and watched, for years and years, as the people she grew to love were put in danger, neglected by the higher forces. While she wasn't at direct fault for (most of) the deaths, and or downfalls, of her loved ones, she still held a fraction of responsibility. For she hadn't tried hard enough. If she did, they'd still be here.

  And they deserved to be living, thriving, breathing the air that Blaire was wrongly inhaling. But they weren't.

She wouldn't sit around and watch as more innocent people tore eachother to shreds.

"Both of you stop!" Blaire demanded, her voice quivering with pent up emotion, with years and years of greif. She poured all of her desperationand persausion into the words. "Don't listen to her— you guys are good, and your best friends. You'd never fight eachother. You're being charmed! Fight her!"

Somehow, her words had broken the spell. She could feel the charm in the air shatter like a peice of damaged glass, the shards falling onto them in sharp bouts of realization.

Jason blinked. "Leo, was I just about to stab you?"

"Something about my mother ... ?" Leo frowned, then turned toward Medea. "You ... you're working for Dirt Woman. You sent her to the machine shop." He lifted his arm. "Lady, I got a three-pound hammer with your name on it."

Leo was back. Blaire wasn't sure wether to be happy about that or not.

"Bah!" Medea sneered. "I'll simply collect payment another way."

She pressed one of the mosaic tiles on the floor, and the building rumbled. Jason swung his sword at Medea, but she dissolved into smoke and reappeared at the base of the escalator.

"You're slow, hero!" She laughed cruelly. "Take your frustration out on my pets!"

Before Jason could go after her, the giant bronze sundials at either end of the fountain swung open. Three snarling gold beasts—flesh-and-blood winged dragons—crawled out from the pits below. Each was the size of a camper van, maybe not large compared to Festus, but large enough.

"So that's what's in the kennels," Leo murmured meekly.

The dragons spread their wings and hissed. The qaurtet could feel the heat coming off their glittering skin. One turned his angry orange eyes on Piper.

"Don't look them in the eye!" Jason warned. "They'll paralyze you."

"Indeed!" Medea was leisurely riding the escalator up, leaning against the handrail as she watched the fun. "These three dears have been with me a long time—sun dragons, you know, gifts from my grandfather Helios. They pulled my chariot when I left Corinth, and now they will be your destruction. Ta-ta!"

Blaire swore to herself she would never lay her eyes on a weapon of any sort ever again. But she couldn't help but reach for a golden sword, encrusted with glimmering purple gems at the hilt, limed up to create some sort of swirl design, as if somehow it would ward off the large dragons.

  From the corner of her eyes, Blaire spotted Piper following Medea up the elavator, and Blaire wished she was able to follow her. But she didn't, she was stuck with the dragons.

  One of the dragons flew toward her, it's sharp fangs on display, so she swung the sword, which wobbled in her rusty grip. It slashed the dragons metal body, but didn't seem to do much damage.

  Jason and Leo were too busy covering eachother and creating a ruckus, Leo blew Festus' safety whistle frantically, while Jason shouted for the dragons to Stay Back!

  Blaire ran backwards, switching her gaze from the displays she was knocking over as she went, to the enraged dragon tauntingly looming above her. This went on for less then a minute, before one of the dragons had Leo pinned down, Blaire backed up against a shelve of Athena's inventions, a dragon tauntingly looming over her, and Jason was individually fighting off one of the dragons.

    A thick layer of steam rolled from the floor above them, clouding her vision, amd Blaire couldn't help but hope that Piper was at fault for it, not Medea. Though she knew hope was a dangerous thing.

  "Blaire, Jason," Leo yelped desperately from beneath a dragon, "Help me!"

   Tension rose at the dragon tore closer and the distinct smell of fire prevaded the air of the department store. Blaire held the sword at chest level, though the dragon didn't seem very intimidated by it.

   She thought they were completely doomed. And she begin to quiver, preparing to see her father, and Sunny.

  Until—CRASH! The stained glass ceiling splintered in a rain of multicolored shards, and Festus the bronze dragon dropped into the department store.

    He hurtled into the fray, snatching up a sun dragon in each claw, and one in his mouth. Only now did Piper appreciate just how big and strong their metal friend was.

  That's my boy!" Leo yelled, leaping to his feet.

  Festus flew halfway up the atrium, then hurled the sun dragons into the pits they'd come from. Leo raced to the fountain and pressed the marble tile, closing the sundials. They shuddered as the dragons banged against them, trying to get out, but for the moment they were contained.

   Now, the entire fourth floor was aflame. The air filled with noxious gas. Even with the roof open, they could feel the heat intensifying.

   The dragon quickly swept over the perimeters, plucking Jason, Blaire, and Leo from the ruins of the second floor, tossing them haphazardly across his metal back. They all seemed pretty disheveled, but overall, uninjured.

    The bronze dragon flapped his mighty wings, snatched the two cages with the satyr and the storm spirits in his claws, and began to ascend.

    The building rumbled. Fire and the smoke curled up the walls, melting the railings, turning the air to acid.

    Suddenly, Piper's plummeting figure came into veiw, and Festus swerved to catch her. She landed atop the dragon with a thump.

      Medea began screaming in rage as they soared through the broken roof and over downtown Chicago. Then the department store exploded behind them, leaving nothing but a fiery trail of flames in it's wake.

LYNN NOTES : You don't know how fucking boring this chapter was to write... anyways!!! I hope u guys are enjoying my story so far and that u love Blaire as much as i do :) please remember not to be a ghost reader, and enjoy!!

Also Diana Silvers is the PERFECT BLAIRE. like seriously everytime i see her i'm like BABY BLAIRE? like she was born to be blaire.