Arion heaved beneath me as we blitzed around the battlefield, dispatching monsters left and right. We were focussing on the centaurs, duelling any that we could see. I had just taken down a chestnut centaur with Scottish war paint streaking his bare chest when Frank flew into through view. Literally. He had been flung through the air by one of the larger cyclopes. I spurred Arion to go to where he had landed, and he flew through the ranks. Frank was lying in a small crater, no longer transformed as a bear.

"Are you okay? Maybe you should go to the infirmary."

"I'm fine, I can still fight. I'll be alright, so long as my stick doesn't burn." The stick that had been given to Reyna. Reyna, who was at the camp fighting. Reyna, who was hacking into the rogue centaurs. Oh, no.

"Frank, Reyna still has your stick, right?"

Frank's eyes widened as he realised what I was implying. He climbed to his feet, pain flickering across his features. He transformed into a bear again, letting loose a vicious roar. We both made our way towards Reyna, fighting through ranks of empousai, griffons and lamiae. Reyna stabbed the centaur just as we reached her.

"Reyna!" I yelled over the battle. It was lucky that she could see me in the thick of it, let alone hear me.

"Hazel, what's up?"

"Where's Frank's stick? Is it safe?"

"It's here."

She took it out of the fireproof bag in her clock. The biggest and only mistake Reyna had ever made. Clambering up behind us, a cyclops lifted his giant club. Everything happened in slow-motion. As he lowered his club, the Greek kids catapulted a flaming ball at him.

Too late.

His club connected with Arion beneath me, sending me flying into a tree, and leaving Arion downed. The fire connected with the cyclops, and sent him stumbling back, flames engulfing his body. He fell on the praetor, the fire spreading to her. And the stick she was holding. Frank's stick. I scrambled towards the scraggly remains of the cindered cyclops, trying in vain to heave him off of Reyna. Finally, muscles straining, I pushed the burnt cyclops off her, coughing as the ash lifted into the air. Reyna groaned. I noticed with relief that she didn't seem too badly burnt, and thankfully neither was the stick. She must have used her shield to block the brunt of the force and fire. I reached out a hand and pulled her up. She leaned heavily on me, trying to get her breath back.

"Are you okay?"

Reyna grunted, massaging her shoulder.

"I'll live."

She turned to me, face apologetic. She slowly took the fireproof bag that Frank's stick was in out of her cloak. She pushed it towards me.

"I can't."

What was she talking about? She placed it in my hands.

"I need to fight, and I can't fight properly if I'm worried about Frank," she explained, "I'm sorry Hazel. Take it. I know you will guard it with your life."

I felt slightly sick as I placed my boyfriend's flammable life-force into my pocket. Frank's life was at stake here. Reyna shouted and I spun, stabbing and killing the empousa that was sneaking up behind me.

"Let's get going."

"Quick, Arion's this way."

Reyna and I fought across the battlefield to where I had left Arion. He was frantic and very clearly wounded, his coat sticky with blood. I rushed to his side.

"Shh, shh, you're alright boy," I murmured to him, stroking him gently.

He wasn't. The wound in his flank wasn't very deep, but his leg looked broken and I hated to imagine the internal damage that the cyclopes club had caused. Arion snorted and tried to rise. He couldn't, and he fell back to the ground with a strangled whinny. I already knew that he wasn't going to make it out of this battle alive. Tears welled in my eyes, as he snorted again, shaking his regal head slowly at me. He'd accepted his fate. Moving his head closer and closer to the ground, he lay still. His golden coat crackled and shifted. The stained ground where his bulking body had once been was replaced by a pile of golden barley ears. I wiped the tears from my eyes. Now wasn't the time for mourning. Now wasn't the place. I coughed, trying to clear my throat. I couldn't think about that now. I had to find Frank. I had to go; I had to keep him safe.

Sprinting across the battlefield towards Frank's crater, I was surprised to see that he was still there. That no monsters had come close. I could hear in the distance, "Leo! Can you light this?" He was still deep in the crater, maybe 8 feet down. I reached for the bag, opening it and stretching my arm and the stick towards him. Click. Click. Click. Within a fraction of a second after he'd grasped the stick, a ball of green fire hurtled through the air towards us. In that fraction of a second, I raised enough agate from the rocky ground to shield me from the fire. Another fraction and there was enough to barricade it from harming Frank and his very vulnerable stick.

"Frank, I did it! Phew, that was-"

I turned around. Frank had dove towards me to protect me from the flames, throwing away his stick in the process. It had been hit, orange embers lighting it up throughout the entire length. He was horror struck, immobile, unmoving.

"No!" I shrieked, "Frank, your stick!".

There came no reply. I lunged for it, embers and flames encasing it all. The smoke stung my eyes and caught in my throat, the flames burnt my hands and arms. I was in agony. Glancing back at Frank to make sure he was okay, I could see a faint orange glow around his body. The glow grew brighter by the second. He was sweating, but still sat motionless, eyes fixed on me. The stick on the other hand was moving; it was shrinking rapidly. Every blink, it snuffed out part of Frank's life. Every breath, an inch of ash fell from it.

"No, no, no," I muttered to myself, trying to smother the flames, ignoring the pain.

But it wasn't working. Once the flame started, it wouldn't stop. In a matter of seconds, what had once been a six-inch long stick was just a pile of ash in my hands. And what had once been a lactose-intolerant son of Mars, my boyfriend, the man I loved, was just a single fire, smouldering and close to death.

Gone.

"Frank! Frank! Frank?"

Falling to my knees, I wept. For Arion. For Frank. Why had they been taken? Why were the Fates so cruel? Did I deserve this? Part of me wanted to lie down and wait for a monster to slash me to pieces. Part of me wanted to strangle each of the Greek Vulcan kids one by one. Part of me wanted to find Percy, and Annabeth, and Leo, Jason, Piper. Heck, even Dakota. I listened to that final part of me, because deep down I knew that's what Frank would do. Help our friends. Pulling myself shakily to my feet, I wiped away my tears. For Frank. We would win this for Frank. With another wracking breath I turned to go help my friends.