Leona thought it was odd that Nico insist that she find a taxi for them in Livorno. "I don't speak Italian. Doesn't it make more sense for you or Will to do it?"

"It's a Spanish-speaking district. Most taxi drivers are more receptive to Spanish. You do it."

Piper smiled at her. "I'll keep you company."

Translation: I'll make sure you don't bully the taxi drivers or set them on fire.

It wasn't until the taxi driver stared at Leona, blinked, and said, "Scusa?" that Leona realized she'd been duped—not even by a child of Hermes, at that.

Piper glanced at Leona with concern as he soothed the driver and explained their situation. French and Italian were similar enough that the two could understand each other. The driver nodded and called out to one of his colleagues with waving hands, and soon, two white SUVs plastered with ads rolled up to their group.

Their group had shrunk by four persons, the son of Hades included. Leona combusted spontaneously. "He left me behind! How dare he!"

Several passersby screamed. Annabeth and Percy exchanged an exasperated look. Jason stared hard at Piper, who shrugged as if to say, Not even Aphrodite powers can tame a Hephaestus-born fire. Shoon joined in the chaos by darting around the on-fire Leona, shouting, "Chupa cabra! Chupa cabra!"

Percy took control of the situation by dousing Leona with water, while Annabeth shouted at everyone to calm down. Piper snuck a bucket into Percy's hands in case anyone was watching closely. With their group reduced to six, they only needed one taxi. The two drivers initially argued about who'd get the honour of ripping off these poor foreigners. Then Leona sneezed, shivering in her wet clothes, and the drivers then argued about who'd get the "honour" of putting up with a dripping passenger who was more flammable than the average person.

"I call shotgun!" Shoon declared. The driver of the car she'd chosen yelled in dismay, his hands flying to his hair. His colleague let out a sharp guffaw before speeding away.

Percy and Annabeth claimed the two seats in the back, leaving the remaining three to squeeze in the middle row, Leona wedged between the two boys. She sneezed twice more into her lollipop-stained napkin. Jason strained against the seatbelt to avoid even a small corner of the napkin touching him. The driver stared at Shoon, and in English asked: "Why?"

Shoon grinned. "Your car had an ad for my favourite video game."

The driver recognized the name and groaned. "Where do you want to go?"

"The nearest airport, pronto. And don't try one of your local-taxi-driver-rips-off-foreign-passenger tricks, because I'll know if you aren't taking the shortest route. And we're only gonna pay you for the shortest route. Piper, can you say that in French so he gets it?"

"No need—I got it, boss." The driver sighed, resigned. They arrived at the airport in less than fifteen minutes.

Shoon spread out her arms when they entered, whacking both Percy and Jason in the gut. The two boys groaned as she inhaled deeply. "Smell that fresh artificial air! This has gotta be the biggest shopping mall in all of Liver-no."

Leona ruffled Shoon's black hair. It had grown over the past few months, thicker than most pixie cuts now. "You mean Livorno. Also, this is Pisa."

"The biggest shopping mall in all of Tuscany, then." She stared with hungry eyes at the bright neon shops. "I want to buy duty-free liquor."

Annabeth tugged the younger girl's wrist like a no-nonsense parent. "No, because you're too young to buy liquor – even in Italy – and, more importantly, we're on a time crunch here. Greece first, liquor later. Much, much later."

"Aww..."

Naturally, their flight was delayed. Some passengers yelled at the attendants, their arms making flamboyant circles. Most were patient, passing the time by purchasing and consuming the duty-free liquor from the eye-catching stores. Leona sympathized with Shoon—both in wanting to try some alcohol and that Tuscany ought to have a city called Liver-no. Meanwhile, Annabeth made them spend the extra time reviewing various defense formations.

Percy kissed her cheek. "You know this will all go downhill when the others arrive and have no idea what the hell a phalanx is, right?"

"Yes, but this is how I relieve stress."

"Well, it's causing me stress."

Leona flicked a crumb from the table at him. "That's because you're a Seaweed Brain."

"Hey!"

Annabeth stifled a giggle, and Leona grinned at her. Finally, the plane arrived, and people began boarding. They were fortunate enough that the six of them got two consecutive rows of three. Leona and Shoon sat behind Jason and Percy because they liked to prop their feet up on the seats in front of them, while Piper and Annabeth got the window seats. Not even five minutes after takeoff, Shoon wanted to stretch her legs. She squeezed past Leona. Sensing this would be a repeating occurrence, Leona shifted to the middle seat. She stood up to see what the row in front was up to.

Percy and Jason were trying to sync their movie so they could watch at the same time. Annabeth was writing a formula to describe the mathematical process of synchronization. Leona said, "You know, you could just hit play at the same time, see which one lags, and then do it again but with the time difference in mind."

Annabeth was about to ball up her paper, then seemed to think better of it. "Or that." She folded the square paper into an origami blueprint, following all the mathematical rules. If Leona folded paper at all, she preferred to wing it and see what came out of it. She supposed that was the difference between an architect and an engineer.

The plane entered some turbulence, so Leona couldn't watch the twins in the movie duke it out anymore. Shoon curled up in her seat, kicking at the back of Jason's seat in frustration. The son of Zeus had remarkable patience.

Leona glanced over at what Piper was doing. The Native boy weaved a simple but elegant pattern with silver and viridian threads, recreating moonlight over an ocean. She thought of their nights on the Glorious. Piper was immortalizing the scenery, transforming it from something eerie to a gentle entity.

Piper noticed Leona watching. They smiled at each other. Leona rested her head on Piper's shoulder – his soft green sweater was a wonderful pillow – and let Piper's deft, precise movements lull her to sleep.