Leo's POV

I knew the Fates were messing with me. Or maybe it was Piper's mom, Aphrodite. No way could I go into the woods being the stressed-out mechanic guy whose name nobody remembered and come out having made out twice with an Apollo girl. No way could my life be that awesome.

And now I was running at full speed after her (or as fast as I could wearing a tool belt and carrying a jacket across my arm) through the woods.

I could see her now in front of me as she burst out from underneath the cover of the trees and sprinted in the direction of the cabins. "Come on, Valdez, move your butt!" she taunted over her shoulder.

"Oh, shut up! You sound like Coach Hedge!" I grumbled, remembering the annoying satyr who'd accompanied me, Piper, and Jason on our quest.

She laughed and ran harder. Her long hair had come loose from its bun and streamed behind her as she ran.

As we neared the cabins, I was forced to slow down. I didn't want to make a lot of noise. Anne's bare feet made no noise on the grass as she slowed down to a walk too. She'd held the tops of the arrows in her quiver so they didn't rattle, and she was absolutely soundless.

"I guess you won," I grumbled.

She grinned.

"Well, you got a head start," I complained.

She laughed quietly and lightly punched my arm. "Come on, you know I would have beaten you anyway," she whispered.

I rolled my eyes, but smiled. It was true. "Let me walk you back to your cabin."

She smiled when I offered my arm to her. She took it and together we walked toward the Apollo cabin, which seemed to be made of solid gold. I was really glad the sun wasn't up yet. Getting jalapeno juice in my eyes would be only slightly less painful than looking at that cabin gleaming in the sun.

We reached the doorstep of the cabin, careful to be quiet. She slipped her arm out of mine and said, "Thank you, Leo."

I had no idea what she was thanking me for, but I said, "You're welcome."

She stepped closer and hugged me. We stood there for a few seconds before she pulled gently away and walked soundlessly through the door of her cabin.

I just stood there, trying to get my jumbled thoughts in order. A few seconds later, I realized it was hopeless. I would never be able to figure out exactly what had happened tonight.

I walked next door to the Hephaestus cabin, trying to make a silent entrance like Anne had. I wasn't that lucky.

"Where were you?" Nyssa whisper-yelled at me as soon as I got one foot in the door.

"Yeah, man, we were worried," Jake said from his bed in the corner.

"Chill, guys," I said. "I fell asleep in the bunker. No big deal."

Nyssa hesitated. "All right, but you'd better get to bed. We've got another busy day ahead of us tomorrow."

She walked away into the shadows of the dark cabin. I heard the creak of her getting into bed.

"Dude, it's cool that you're putting in so much work on the ship, but you're not a machine," Jake Mason whispered to me. "Don't overwork yourself. We need you."

I was glad that he cared about me, but I had already caught on to the fact that I was stressed out from crying like an idiot in the woods.

I mumbled an "I won't," and crawled into bed. I pressed the button that would take me down to the Leo Cave, but before the bed even achieved motion, I was asleep.

Anne's POV

Lucky for me, nobody woke up as I tiptoed into the cabin. I stuffed my bow and quiver under my bed. I could return them to the archery pavilion later.

I slid underneath my covers and leaned back on my pillow. What a crazy night. But I mean crazy in a good way. I couldn't believe I'd gotten my first kiss. And not from just any guy or half-blood. From a hero. I'd gotten my first kiss from a hero.

I had heard all about the great things Leo had done (how in Hades did I not remember his name?), and I could scarcely believe how unconfident he was. How could he think that he was any less of a hero than Jason or Piper? But I liked that. He didn't come back from his quest with a big ego. He was humble. He wasn't ashamed to cry in front of me. And he was a fantastic kisser.

I know the last one had little to do with his personality. But I couldn't help it. He was so sweet. And he really seemed to like me.

I remembered his beautiful dark eyes and curly hair, his sense of humor, and his awesome fire power. But my happiness died a little when I remembered the flame—Leo's flame—I had seen from all the way across the woods. How had I seen that far? Was Aphrodite messing with me? Had she been trying to get me to meet Leo? Why?

Had it been Aphrodite that had made us kiss? Had Leo really wanted to kiss me? Or was he under a goddess's spell? Was I under a goddess's spell?

I wanted to cry. I had just spent a night in the woods with a wonderful guy. Was it even real?

I rolled over and buried my face in my pillow. I guess I would find out tomorrow. If Leo actually remembered who I was, then I knew he hadn't been controlled. But what if he didn't? What would I do then?

"Anne, wake up! It's time for breakfast, and I'm starving!" Scott, one of my younger half-brothers, complained.

My eyes flew open and I sat up in bed. "What time is it?"

"It's time you got your butt outta bed," Scott replied, looking annoyed.

"Scott, leave her alone," Will called, pulling on his shoes. "She didn't get much sleep last night. Her lava burn was still bothering her."

Scott rolled his eyes and paced the cabin floor. I mouthed "Thanks" to Will, who nodded to me.

"If you guys want to leave soon, I won't need to take too long," I said, throwing on a hooded sweatshirt over my pajama top and slipping some shoes onto my feet. I ran a hand through my messy hair, which was loose around my shoulders. Where had my scrunchie gone?

It all came back to me. The forest. Leo. The crying, the hugging, the kisses. And the wild dash back through the woods, during which my scrunchie must have come loose. I rummaged in my trunk for another one and twisted my hair up in a bun. "There," I said, walking toward the door of the cabin with the rest of my siblings.

My younger half-sister Isabel sniffed at me and wrinkled her nose. "You smell like smoke," she said, sounding confused.

"I do?" I asked, sniffing my shirt. Isabel was right, it smelled like Leo. "Oh, you know what that is? When…when I was walking to the shower area last night, I tripped near the hearth in the middle of the commons area and fell down. Some ashes must have gotten onto my clothes."

"Why were you walking to the shower area at night?"

"So I could run cold water on my burn," I said, rubbing my arm. "It still hurts a lot."

"Gods, I said I was sorry!" Scott exclaimed. Touch-y.

"I didn't mean that," I replied. "I'm not mad at you."

Scott huffed indignantly. Little brothers are such a pain.

Will led us to the mess hall, where we each got some breakfast. I chose waffles with blueberry syrup and some orange juice. Then I followed my siblings to the brazier, where I scraped the best waffle, which didn't have a single burn mark on it, into the flames. "Apollo," I murmured, and when the smoke drifted to me, laden with delicious scents, I knew my father was pleased.

I walked back to the Apollo table and sat down just as the other cabins began to straggle in. There was Jason Grace, striding solo across the pavilion, and I remembered what Leo had said about him the night before. He looked confident, his head was up and a smile was on his face, but now I wondered if he was hiding some insecurity as well. Piper McLean led the Aphrodite cabin into the hall, and Jason's smile grew when he saw her. I grinned to myself. How cute.

Annabeth Chase and her cabin came in, and I felt a pang of sadness for her when I noticed the grief-filled glance she gave to the empty Poseidon table. The rest of the cabins came in: Demeter, Ares, Hermes, Iris. I didn't see the Hypnos cabin. They were probably asleep, as usual. Didn't they ever get hungry? Most likely they paid someone to bring them food. I rolled my eyes, and then quickly turned my head as Leo led the Hephaestus cabin into the pavilion. He looked like he hadn't gotten a wink of sleep all night. His curly hair was disheveled, and his steps were unsteady. He accidentally blundered into one of the Ares campers, and the kid whipped out his knife. Leo held up his hands like, I come in peace! and trudged off to the Hephaestus table. I saw Jake Mason and Nyssa exchange a confused glance before following, and I bit my lip. I hoped they didn't think he was sick or something.

Leo stumbled to the table and got some food. He scraped some of it into the fire and turned in my direction. I noticed he still had that grease smudge on his face, and I snorted with laughter. He hadn't remembered to wash it off.

"What's so funny?" Isabel asked, turning to me.

"Huh? Oh, a Hecate camper just changed a Hermes kid's food into rocks," I improvised.

Isabel craned her neck, trying to see. "Where? I don't see anything."

"Um, she just changed it back," I said.

Isabel shrugged just as Chiron stomped a hoof to get our attention. "Good morning, campers," he said, towering over us in full centaur form. "I understand that work on the Argo II is going well?" he asked, casting his eyes at the Hephaestus table.

All the campers' eyes fell on Leo, who jumped as if he hadn't noticed what was going on. "Yep, yep, it's going good," he said, looking around at everyone.

Chiron cocked his head a fraction of a degree, but he changed the subject. "Well, resume your eating. But tonight, I hope to see you all tonight for capture the flag. Currently, Hecate holds the laurels."

Their table cheered.

"We're gonna get them tonight," Will grumbled, clearly not forgetting when they had won last week by turning our weapons into stuffed animals. Do you know how hard it is to disarm an enemy with your blade when your whole knife suddenly turns into a CareBear?

I set my jaw, determined. We were gonna teach those guys a lesson!

Chiron had finished speaking, so we ate. My waffles were fantastic, but I couldn't stop glancing over at Leo. Why wasn't he looking for me? Didn't he remember me? Oh gods, he really was under a spell last night. I shot an angry glare at the Aphrodite table. Their mom had just about broken my heart.

I finished my food and followed my siblings back to the cabin, where I got dressed and prepared for archery class, totally determined to banish all thoughts of Leo from my mind.