LEO'S POV

I woke up with her name on my lips.

My beautiful Argo II.

My chest rose and fell rapidly, and my eyes darted around frantically. I felt myself floating weightlessly, and the space around me was dim.

I was in some sort of cave about the size of a two-car garage. Phosphorescent moss covered the ceiling, bathing the room in a blue-and-green glow. The floor was a carpet of sea urchins, which would've been all kinds of uncomfortable to walk on, so I was glad I was floating. But how could we be breathing with no air.

"About time." Frank's voice had too much reverb like he was speaking through several layers of plastic wrap.

In my mind, I was rushing at him full speed and putting him up against the wall like a badass cop who wanted answers. But in reality, I levitated over to him at semi-moderate speed and kinda pouted at him. I probably still looked pretty intimidating.

"Where is everyone?" I demanded. "Where are we? What happened? Are we under fucking water?"

Frank's frown increased. "After the monster attacked I blacked out. I don't know anything more than you."

I glared at him. "Where are the others? Where's Peri? Hazel-"

"Don't you say her name." Frank's fists clenched. "You were with Hazel when all of this happened- when you were supposed to be watching the ship. This is your fault! If something happened to her because you two were kissing, so help me gods-"

"Hey, man, I don't want to hear it from you, too!" I snapped.

I looked Frank dead in the eye. "I swear on the Styx, Hazel and I were not kissing. We weren't doing anything like that."

Frank's eyes softened, and he blinked. "You weren't?"

I shook my head. "Nah, man. She showed me a flashback. We learned how the two of us were connected- Sammy was my great-grandfather."

I saw him gulp. "So. . . So you two aren't secretly seeing each other or anything?"

I couldn't help but chuckle a little, and I clapped him on the shoulder. "No way man. I don't see Hazel like that- and I honestly don't think she's got eyes for any guy but you. She looked devastated when you were mad earlier."

Frank's cheeks tinted a slight pink, and he sighed with relief. "Well I'm glad to hear it, because I really like her."

I swallowed, my next words ready to fly from my mouth. "Oh yeah? Maybe you should be around her more, I mean you've been hanging out with Peri quite a lot lately and. . ."

I trailed off when I spied Frank's broad grin. "What?"

"Oh nothing," he sang. "I just knew it, is all."

I narrowed my eyes. "Knew what?"

He smirked, a look that would take some practice on his features. "Don't worry, Valdez. I'll keep to my lady, and you keep to yours."

I didn't know how to respond to that. Not quite yet. Instead, I turned away from him as quickly as I could underwater and changed the subject.

"Right, so. . ." I looked around myself. "We need to make a plan. How are we breathing? If we're under an ocean, shouldn't we be crushed by the water pressure?"

Frank shrugged. "Magic, I guess. I'm willing to bet whatever has us captive here wants to keep us alive."

I studied the abalone door at the front of the cave. "Can you bust us out? Turn into a hammerhead shark or something?"

Frank shook his head glumly. "My shape shifting doesn't work. I don't know why. Maybe whoever's got us here cursed me, or maybe I'm too messed up in the head to focus."

"Our friends could be in trouble," I said. "We've got to get out of here."

I swam to the door and ran my fingers along the abalone. I couldn't feel any kind of latch or other mechanism. Either the door could only be opened by magic or sheer force was required- neither of which was my specialty.

"I've already tried," Frank said miserably. "Even if we get out, we have no weapons."

"Well, at least I've still got my-" I began, reaching for my tool bag only to find nothing at my hip. Immediately, I panicked. Without my tool bag I felt naked, and not in the fun way.

Another frightening thought came to me, and I held up my hand.

I concentrated, and fire flickered over my fingers. For a split second, I was excited, because I hadn't expected it to work underwater. Then my plan started working a little too well. Fire raced up my arm and over my body until I was completely shrouded in a thin veil of flame. I tried to breathe, but I was inhaling pure heat.

"Leo!" Frank flailed backward like he was falling off a bar stool. Instead of racing to my side, he hugged the wall to get as far away as possible.

I forced myself to stay calm. I understood what was going on. The fire itself couldn't hurt me. I willed the flames to die and counted to five. I took a shallow breath. I had oxygen again.

Frank stopped trying to merge with the cave wall. "You're. . . you're okay?"

"Yeah," I grumbled. "Thanks for the assist."

"I-I'm sorry." He looked so horrified and ashamed it was hard for me to stay mad at him. "I just. . . what happened?

"Clever magic," I stated. "There's a thin layer of oxygen around us, like an extra skin. Must be self regenerating. That's how we're breathing and staying dry. The oxygen gave the fire fuel.- except the fire also suffocated me."

"I really don't. . ." Frank gulped. "I don't like that fire summoning you do." He started getting cozy with the wall again.

I didn't mean to, but I couldn't help laughing at his expression. An enormous Chinese Canadian baby man afraid of little old me?

"Dude, I'm not going to attack you!"

"Fire," Frank repeated, like that one word explained everything.

My laughter came to a screeching halt.

I remembered what Hazel had said- that my fire made Frank nervous. I'd seen the discomfort in Frank's face before, but I hadn't taken it seriously. Frank just seemed way more powerful and scary than I was.

Now it occurred to me that Frank might have had a bad experience with fire. My own mom had died in a machine ship blaze. I'd been blamed for it. I'd grown up being called a freak, an arsonist, because whenever I got angry, things burned.

"Sorry I laughed," I said, and I meant it. "My mom. . . she died in a fire when I was a little kid. I can understand being afraid of it. Did, uh. . . did something bad like that happen to you?"

Frank seemed to be weighing how much to say. "My house. . . my grandmother's place. It burned down. But it's more than that. " He stared at the sea urchins on the floor. "Annabeth said I could trust the crew. Even you."

I shrugged. "Well, yeah, of course you can, man. I mean, we're a crew, a team. We shouldn't be fighting. We should be working together." I looked up at him. "You can tell me. Or, if you're not ready, you don't have to."

Frank wrung his hands. "My weakness. . ." He started, like the words cut his mouth. "There's this piece of firewood-"

The abalone door rolled open.

I turned and found myself face-to-face with the weirdest creature I had ever met. So far.

From the waist up, he was more or less human- a thin, bare-chested dude with a dagger in his belt and a band of seashells strapped around his chest like a bandolier. His skin was lima bean green, his beard scraggly brown, and his longish hair was tied back in a seaweed bandana. A pair of lobster claws stuck up from his head like horns, turning and snapping at random.

From the waist down, the guy was more complicated. He had the forelegs of a blue-green horse, sort of like a centaur, but towards the back, his horse body morphed into a long fishy tail about ten feet long, with a rainbow colored, V-shaped tail fin.

"I am Bythos," said the green man. "I will interrogate Frank Zhang."

His voice was calm and firm, leaving no room for debate.

"Why did you capture us?" I demanded. "Where are our friends?"

Bythos narrowed his eyes. His expression seemed to say: Did this tiny creature just address me? "You, Leo Valdez, will go with my brother."

"Your brother?"

Then I realized that a much larger figure was looming behind Bythos, with a shadow so wide, it filled the entire cave entrance.

"Yes," Bythos said with a dry smile. "Try not to make Aphros mad."