Leo V

Leo definitely preferred it when his cabin was the source of explosions. Those didn't result in a full infirmary and a head counselors' meeting.

"Not even the IMs my cabin sends go through," Butch said. "It wouldn't be weird for Mom to get distracted, but Fleecy never ignores IMs."

"Lacy tried to call Brooklyn House with her scrying bowl. It worked but it kept cutting in and out. She couldn't hear enough of what Sadie was saying to call it a conversation," Piper said.

That meant that their safe methods of communication—IMs, portal to Camp Jupiter and even magicians' scrying bowls—were all unavailable. No one had tried using a phone or computer yet. With their luck they'd end up attracting a drakon that could only be killed by a child of Hera.

"This can't be because of the goddess of ghosts," Sapphire said. "I'm pretty sure she's made shadow travel worse again, but communication isn't under her control." She looked across the ping-pong table at Nico. "Right?"

Nico nodded. So, no pinning this mess on Melinoe. That sucked, because it would have made things simple.

They couldn't blame Asher either, no matter how much Leo wanted to. The son of Ares didn't have the power to interfere in Hermes and Iris's domains so thoroughly, even with Melinoe's help.

"Do we have any idea what it could be?" Will asked.

"I'm thinking a god," Leo said. "I mean, this whole situation is pretty god-level."

There were nods all around the table. They were all very familiar with god-level situations.

"The question is which god." Annabeth had a contemplative look on her face. "This doesn't fit any of the Olympians."

"Except our dad, if he was really, really mad," Travis said. "I think he'd have given us some warning before blowing stuff up though."

"I think Dad is madder at his dad right now than he might be at any of us," Connor said.

Travis nodded. "True, true."

Leo agreed with the Stolls. By all reports, Hermes and Apollo were close. The messenger god couldn't be happy that his big brother had been thrown off Olympus for no good reason.

"So, an Underworld or minor god," Percy said. "In other words, we're never going to figure it out."

That wasn't true. Annabeth and her siblings could figure it out. Maybe.

"Aren't Nico and I supposed to be the pessimistic ones?" Sapphire said. "We can...do something."

She definitely sounded pessimistic. Leo reached for her hand under the table. She gave his hand a squeeze and then let go.

They threw around a few more ideas before Annabeth ended the meeting but didn't come up with anything they could really use right away. The Hecate, Hypnos and Athena cabins would be searching for answers, but that was going to take time.

"Be careful and stick together," Percy said. "I don't like the look of any of this."

Neither did Leo.

"Do you have a minute?" Sapphire asked as they were leaving the Big House.

"For you? Always." Leo cracked a smile. "What's up, aside from the impending doom and destruction?"

Sapphire gave a laugh that was more of a choked exhale. "Destruction. Fire. I need to do an experiment, and you and Percy are the only other people here who are fireproof."

"I'm pretty sure Percy's only fire resistant," Leo said.

"Either way, someone has to make sure I don't burn down camp," Sapphire said.

Leo doubted that Sapphire would actually burn down Camp Half-Blood. She was usually the careful one of the two of them.

Then again, by most people's definitions, neither of them was careful. They did a lot of rushing in headfirst with minimal thought put into what they were doing.

"Well, I'm happy to help," Leo said. "Where are we starting a fire?"

There hadn't been any major, lake-emptying fires in months, so they went to the canoe lake to burn stuff.

The naiads in the canoe lake didn't like it when they were disturbed by someone (usually Percy) using their water to put out fires, but they put up with it as long as it didn't happen too often. The flooding they'd caused when Harley kept crashing his prototype flying motorcycle was a demonstration of why every building at camp held at least two fire extinguishers. There was still pondweed stuck on the roof of the Hermes cabin.

Sapphire sat down at the edge of the lake with the water to her right. Leo sat in front of her. A dozen yards over, the uninjured Demeter campers were starting their canoeing class. Activities were going on as usual. It took a lot to make Camp Half-Blood stop running as a summer camp. Leo had only seen activities grind to a halt in the aftermath of the Giant War.

"I'm going to start a normal fire and I want both of us to try to put it out," Sapphire said. "Then I'm going to start a fire on this," she held up a rock the size of her fist that she'd taken out of her shadow storage locker, "and we're both going to try to put it out. Got it?"

"Crystal clear, dear." Leo smiled at her.

Sapphire rolled her eyes, but she was smiling. "I already have one poet in my life." Her smile faded. "Though last I heard even Hermes doesn't know where Apollo is, so there's that."

"He'll be fine," Leo said. "He has to be." Because gods knew they didn't need their sun god dying as a mortal. There was no telling what that would do to them. Was there another god prepped to take over if Apollo died?

Leo decided not to think about that.

"Right." Sapphire sighed. "Okay, fire."

They cleared a space on the ground between them of anything combustible, which didn't take too long since grass grew pretty sparsely around the canoe lake. The constant wear from campers going back and forth and people running canoes into and over the bank saw to that. Then Sapphire leaned a few sticks against each other and set them alight. Her fire flickered merrily. Somehow it always managed to seem upbeat even when Sapphire wasn't, like a literal light in the dark.

"I'll go first?" Leo asked.

Sapphire nodded.

It took a second for Leo to snuff out the flames. They fought him a little, Egyptian and Greek magic clashing, but then they disappeared in a ribbon of smoke. The sticks were charred but still burnable.

Leo looked at Sapphire. "I'm guessing you want me to set them on fire this time?"

Whatever it was that her experiment was looking at probably didn't need her to prove that she could put out her own fire.

"Please and thank you," Sapphire said.

Leo set the sticks ablaze and Sapphire killed the fire only a little slower than he had. Then she put down the rock. Considering that they'd been raining from the sky for most of the morning, Leo was quick to recognize it as a chunk of one of the camp-to-camp portals. He and Sapphire eyed the rock.

"We should stand up," Sapphire said. "And be further away."

"And be ready to duck in case it blows up," Leo said.

They stood and backed away from the rock.

"Hey, Leo, should we be worried?" Miranda Gardiner shouted from a canoe in the middle of the lake.

"Probably," Leo called back.

Miranda said something to her siblings and they all started paddling for the opposite shore. Hopefully they were being overly cautious.

And Leo was the god of luck.

Sapphire bit her lip. "I think you should go first this time."

Leo nodded. "Okay, fireball in three, two, one."

He threw the flames underhand and they landed in the middle of the rock. He and Sapphire tensed, but the only thing that happened was a few sparks popping off of the rock and the fire dying out almost immediately. Most stone didn't burn well unless you used thermite or Greek Fire, so that result wouldn't have been unexpected if it was any other rock.

"This was burning at Camp Jupiter?" Leo asked.

Sapphire nodded. "And here too. I asked Lou Ellen." She flexed her fingers. "Let's see what happens with my turn."

They both took a few more steps back before Sapphire tried to set the rock on fire. This time the flames clung to the rock's surface and continued burning brightly. Nothing exploded.

Yet.

"Can you put that out?" Sapphire asked.

Leo tried. He could sense the fire as usual but when he tried to affect it the flames became slippery and untouchable. He shook his head.

"Yeah, I couldn't either," Sapphire said. "Lou Ellen said it took her whole cabin to put out the fire here."

Camp Jupiter didn't have as many Trivia kids as they had Hecate kids. The portal remains there were probably still on fire.

Leo watched the rock burning. "Are you going to try with this one?"

"In a second." Sapphire studied the fire. "It feels weird. It's too…"

"Too what?" Leo asked when Sapphire didn't continue speaking.

"Too quiet," Sapphire said. "Everything is too quiet."

Somehow, Leo knew exactly what she meant.

They ended up having to find some Hecate kids to put the fire out.