Hi guys, sorry I'm late again! I think from now on you should just expect updates to be 2 weeks apart or more... I'm just too busy, especially for the last couple of weeks, to write as much as I did during the summer... Anyway, thanks for your input after last chapter! I've decided that sometimes my author's notes will be at the top, and sometimes they'll be at the bottom, depending on the ending of the chapter. If it ends with a cliffhanger, I'll probably put the note at the top so—

Oh, I shouldn't have told you that. *coughs awkwardly* Moving on...

Thank you so much for continuing to read and review this story, despite the slow updates and AU-ness! Hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or HoO.

Part IX

Reyna had been lugging the strange machine for half an eternity by the time Leo showed up again. His orange camp shirt—Leo had insisted on pulling it on over his bandages, despite its less-than-pristine condition—was even more tattered and singed. His curly hair stuck out from the bottom of his bandages wildly, as if he'd been electrocuted, and as much as he tried to hide it, Reyna suspected that he was limping.

"Sorry I'm late," he said, hurrying over to take up the other end of the rope. As soon as he started moving alongside her, the contraption became so light that Reyna felt like she could fly out of Tartarus all by herself, no machine needed. "But the army was closer than I thought. I had to take at least a two-mile detour before I felt comfortable running back here. Also . . ." He looked down at his ragged clothing and frowned. "I miscalculated how far I had to swerve to get away and ran into a couple of monsters at the tail end of the army. I took care of them before they could sound the alarm, no problem, but as you can see, it required some firepower. My poor shirt . . ."

Reyna had to resist the urge to snort. If he really was limping, he had far bigger problems than his shirt to worry about. In fact, he had a serious head injury, they were still stuck in Tartarus, and Octavian was going to destroy Camp Half-Blood in about a day if they couldn't stop him. He definitely had far bigger problems to worry about.

Leo seemed to take her lack of a response as permission to keep talking. "Anyway, I think it looks like we're getting close. I mean, it's getting pretty difficult to drag this thing around without mowing over a family heirloom or half-empty soda can or something, so that's probably a good indication that we're getting close, right?"

Reyna nodded, deciding not to point out that she had noticed the same thing half-a-mile ago. "It's eerie," she said instead. "All these familiar objects, and no other people."

Leo shrugged. "Hey, at least there aren't any monsters, either. And you still have me." He grinned at her cheekily, but it didn't quite reach his eyes. Reyna figured he was probably unnerved by the silence as much as she was, and he was just trying to hide it.

"You should never say something like that," Reyna told him. "We're demigods. Saying stuff like that always jinxes i—"

Suddenly, a loud squeak rang out in the silence. Reyna looked back and cursed. By tugging the machine forward, they had accidentally steamrolled one of the rubber duckies.

Leo followed her eyes. "Styx," he muttered. "Maybe they didn't hear—?"

"It's the godspawn!" The roar came from closer than Reyna had anticipated—and it sounded very annoyed. "Follow that noise!"

"Damn."

"I told you not to say stuff like that," Reyna scolded, trying not to let panic shine through her voice. "What do we do now? We can't drag this thing any faster!"

At her words, Leo's eyes widened. He looked around frantically, apparently found what he was searching for, and grinned. "Maybe we can," he said excitedly—before dropping his rope and racing off.

Reyna stared after him in exasperation. It was just like him to help drag this thing for maybe five steps and then disappear again. She didn't even get an explanation this time. Sighing, Reyna turned and kept tugging the machine along, doing her best to pretend that the noise rising in the background wasn't the sound of an army of monsters.

Soon enough, the son of Hephaestus returned, a pile of green cloth in his arms. Reyna stared at it. "Do I want to know what that is?"

He was still smiling that infuriating grin. "A tent," he said, "without the poles."

"May I ask why. . .?"

"You'll see," he said. "Stop pulling for a minute and give me a hand."

Reyna just kept staring. "You want me to stop," she said slowly, "with an army of monsters at our tails?"

"We need to do this," he insisted. "Trust me."

You? Trust you? Reyna wanted to shout. You bombed my camp! You're a Greek! Why in Mars's name would I trust you? You haven't earned my tru—

Reyna stopped pulling. "Oh, fine," she grumbled. "What do you want me to do?"

Because Reyna was logical. She admitted the truth to herself. And the truth was, Leo had earned her trust days ago.

Ten minutes later, Reyna stared at the bubble of cloth attached to the contraption with one end of the rope. "Okay," she said slowly, "I did what you asked. Now what the Styx does that thing do?"

Leo grinned. "Watch." Before Reyna could answer, he scrambled up the side of the machine and perched on top of it. What the heck—?

As Reyna observed, he lifted up the bubble of cloth and stuck his hand inside. For a second, nothing happened. Then the inside of the tent started to glow. By the time a minute had passed, the tent was floating above the contraption and tugging at its rope.

Leo peeked his head over the side of the machine and grinned at Reyna. "Try pulling it now," he said.

Reyna realized that she had been gaping. Quickly closing her mouth, she ran to the front of the machine, grabbed her end of the rope, and started pulling.

The machine was so light, she overcalculated the amount of force she would need and nearly fell on her face. Luckily, she kept her balance—Leo never would have let her hear the end of it otherwise—and took a few steps, amazed at how easy her load suddenly was, even with Leo's added weight—although that boy was so scrawny, he probably hadn't added much.

She snuck a glance over her shoulder. Leo was grinning so broadly she thought his face might break in half. "Not bad," she admitted grudgingly. "Any chance you could get the thing to lift off the ground altogether?"

Leo hesitated, then shook his head. "Sorry, Rey. This tent isn't big enough to function as a full-size hot air balloon. The only reason we're getting this much lift is because Tartarus air is a lot denser than the surface's, so heating up the molecules of air inside this cloth until it has the same air density as a regular hot air balloon means that the difference between the balloon's air and the outside air is substantially higher down here than up there, therefore making . . ." He noticed Reyna's blank expression. "Um, anyway, this is the best I can do."

Reyna nodded. "All right. In that case, hang on tight."

Leo stared at her. "What are you going to—?"

Reyna adjusted the rope over her shoulder, took a deep breath, and started running.

The machine bounced along behind her, crushing countless objects and sending up an alarm signal as to where they were, but Reyna figured the time for stealth was over. The monsters already knew where they were. Speed was the most important thing now.

"Holy . . . Heph . . . stus . ." Leo said between bumps. He was gripping the edge of the machine for dear life with one hand while his other stayed stuck inside the makeshift balloon, keeping it aloft with his fire. "Gods . . . of . . . Olympus . . . Sweet . . . mother . . . f—" A particularly violent jolt nearly sent him flying before he could finish. "Styx," he yelled when they landed. "Holy Styx, Rey! Could you try to AVOID KILLING ME next time?"

"Keep your voice down," Reyna hissed. "They can probably hear you on the other side of hell right now."

"It's too late for that," Leo responded, jerking his head in the direction of the destruction behind them. "The other side of hell definitely heard all that." But he kept his cursing relatively quiet from then on.

Reyna wasn't sure how long she spent running over other people's stuff. Even when her legs started to burn, and her lungs started to ache from breathing in too much dense, rotten air, she continued sprinting, pushing herself harder and harder. The image that kept her going was the same picture that had haunted her nightmares on and off for weeks—the Greek camp in ruins, the bodies of countless Greek campers and her own legionnaires spread everywhere, their blood thickening over the grass, dirt swirling up to create a massive earth woman taller than a giant, her face stretched in a grotesque smile and her eyes . . . her eyes open. Reyna couldn't help but remember what Gaea had told Leo. When August 1st is over, and I have won, Greeks and Romans will be together at last. War doesn't discriminate, godspawn. Both Greeks and Romans will die that day. Their blood will mix on the battlefield. And their souls will mingle in the Underworld. The goddess's words spun around in Reyna's head, goading her on, pushing her to even faster speeds. Gaea's words would not come true. Her legion would not attack the Greeks. Their blood would not be spilled on Camp Half-Blood. By the gods, Greeks and Romans wouldform an alliance, if it was the last thing Reyna did.

"Reyna?" Reyna ignored Leo and kept running. "Reyna! PRAETOR REYNA CONCESSI OF THE TWELFTH LEGION FULMINATA!"

That was enough to pull her short. Leo had jokingly called her "Praetor" before, but he had never used her full title. Reyna skidded to a halt and turned to stare at the Greeks' most clever repair boy. "What?" she asked, speaking between pants of air. "What the Styx . . . so important . . . you'd want to stop us . . . from getting . . . there . . . fast as possible?"

Leo laughed and extinguished the fire in his hand. The hot air balloon drooped down around him. "Only one thing," he said, poking his head out from underneath the piles of fabric and pointing in the air with his newly flame-free hand. "Look up, Praetor."

Reyna humored him and lifted her head. She was met with a sight that made her mouth drop open with amazement—a dark hole that rose indefinitely above their heads, even higher than the cavern's ceiling.

They were here.

For a while, Reyna just stared upwards, catching her breath.

"Holy Bellona," she whispered eventually, once she had recovered enough to speak in complete sentences. "We actually made it this far."

She probably would have stood there, mesmerized by the endless darkness, until the monster army caught up to her and captured her again, but Leo shook her out of it. "What?" he asked in mock pain, sliding off the machine. "Are you saying you doubted me?"

Reyna smiled and shook her head as she helped Leo untie the balloon. "Not for a moment," she lied smoothly.

"That's okay," Leo said, lifting the cloth off of the machine and dropping it unceremoniously onto the ground. "I doubted me too."

Reyna snorted. "And you're only just telling me now."

Leo opened his mouth to respond, but Reyna cut him off. "Anyway," she said, turning back to the machine, "you never told me how this thing is supposed to take us all the way back to the surface." She narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously. "It can't even fly."

At that, Leo grinned broadly. "I never said that," he said. "Look." He opened the door into the inside of the machine and withdrew . . .

"Helicopter blades?" Reyna asked incredulously. "Are you telling me this thing is a helicopter?"

Leo turned away from her and started attaching the blades, carefully avoiding her gaze. "Okay," he said slowly, "I know that it's kind of a weird shape because I had to make it out of scraps, but that's no reason to—"

Reyna couldn't help but laugh. "I'm not insulting its appearance, Valdez," she told him. "I don't give a Styx what it looks like, as long as it works. I just . . ." Her laughter died out, and she frowned. "I just don't understand why we didn't start flying it the second you finished. We could have flown and gotten here an hour ago—without all of the noise! Why did you make me drag it all this way?" By the time her rant was over, Reyna was thoroughly annoyed. Her calves were still burning, after all.

Then Leo finished with the copter blades and faced her again, and Reyna lost her frustration immediately. He just . . . Leo was always joking, always had a blinding grin on his face. Seeing him like this tugged at Reyna's heart strangely. Seeing him so . . . pained. Upset. Remorseful.

. . . Sad.

Reyna's frown deepened. "Leo," she whispered, "what's wrong?"

Leo looked at the ground. "You asked me why we couldn't just fly this helicopter immediately," he said. "The problem is, my belt would only give me so much fuel. According to my estimations, we only barelyhave enough gas for two trips out of here. We didn't have enough spare to fly this thing the whole time."

Reyna furrowed her eyebrows. "But . . ." she said slowly, "we only need enough gas for one trip. . . ."

Suddenly, a horrible suspicion started to form in her brain. "Leo," she gasped, "you couldn't . . . you wouldn't . . ."

She ran to the helicopter and looked inside. What she saw confirmed her fear.

She turned to the repair boy that she had gotten so close to over the last few days. "Leo Valdez," she said, voice strong and brittle as glass, "why is there only one seat?"

Reyna expected her question to make Leo feel guilty, maybe make him bubble into an incoherent apology. Instead, he straightened up and stared at Reyna with eyes as hard as her voice. When he spoke, his words were clear, articulate, and strong. "When Gaea told us that we only had three days to get to Camp Half-Blood, I knew," he told her. "I had been planning on constructing a helicopter big enough for both of us, but I knew that would take too much time. I modified my original design, gave it a single-person capacity instead. It was faster to build, and the final product is lighter, meaning that it will be more efficient, and the fuel will take it farther with each gallon. Honestly, I should have designed it this way to begin with."

Reyna couldn't stand how emotionless his words were. "But Leo," she said, fighting back a flow of useless, stupid tears before they could emerge, "you've been lying to me all this time! You told me . . . you said . . ."

For the first time, Leo looked shocked. "I never lied to you, Reyna," he said. "I was careful never to lie to you. I told you I'd get you of here before those three days were up. I told you I'd make sure you made it to New York so you could stop Octavian. And that's exactly what I'm about to do."

"Leo," Reyna said in exasperation, "you say that. But how do you know that the monsters won't catch up and capture me again while you're going first an—"

"Whoa!" Leo actually held up his hand and peered at her, looking even more surprised than before, if that were possible. "Who said I was going first?"

His words froze the next sentence on Reyna's tongue. She gaped at him, staring blankly. She had just assumed . . . since he'd been the one who came up with the plan in the first place . . .

She thought back to the very first conversation they'd had about escape.

Just you watch, Leo had told her. I'll get you out of here. This escape plan will work. You're praetor, after all. If you show up alive and well, you can stop them from destroying my camp. In fact, you can get Romans and Greeks to work together.

Oh gods . . . he had said he would get her out of here. She would show up alive and well. She would . . . not they would.

He had known he would be left behind this entire time. And he had helped her escape anyway.

It was funny. A minute ago, she had been all riled up, ready to argue that she should be the one to go first. But now that she realized Leo felt the same way . . .

Suddenly, Reyna found her voice. "No," she said, head held high. Leo stopped fiddling with something in his tool belt and looked at her, his eyes unreadable. "No," she repeated. "Leo, you heard me earlier, when you told me you would go off and create a distraction. I told you I wasn't going to leave you down here. That's still true. I'm not."

At that, Leo crossed his arms. "And I told you that I would catch up to you later, it was only temporary, and I'm not that heroic." He offered the smallest hint of a smile. "That's still true too."

For the first time, Reyna understood why Leo hadn't been smiling properly the last few days—why his grins had been small or hadn't reached his eyes. Gods, no wonder he had been acting so strangely. He had known the helicopter only held one passenger.

"But . . ." She didn't say what was on her mind. But what if it's not temporary? Gods of Olympus, Valdez, stop being an idiot. You might not have lied to me, but you're sure as Styx lying to yourself. You're more gods-damned heroic than I am.

She would've—in the name of Bellona, she would've—except that it offered the possibility that his extended time down here wouldn't be temporary. And Reyna knew the sacrifice Leo was preparing to make was hard enough as it was. She didn't need to make him think it wouldn't be temporary.

Instead, she shook her head. "This is wrong," she insisted. "You should be the one to go first."

Leo half-smiled again. "No, I shouldn't," he said. "Don't you remember our discussion about chivalry? I'm determined to be chivalrous, you know . . . and one of the most chivalrous expressions ever is 'ladies first', Praetor."

For some reason, his weak attempt at humor made Reyna want to cry. He was just . . . Oh gods, he was the one putting himself in extended danger, and he was trying to cheer her up. Reyna was sure now. Leo Valdez was too good.

She blinked away her tears before Leo could see. "Damn you and your chivalry," she said, her voice harsh so she wouldn't start crying again. "You know you should be the one to go. You built this thing, you came up with the escape plan, and you've been in here longer. It's only fair."

Reyna's argument didn't seem to convince the repair boy at all. In fact, it just made him look more determined. The son of Hephaestus shook his head, keeping his eyes fixed firmly on the machine in front of him. "Fair has nothing to do with it, Praetor," he said stiffly. "I don't have a chance of convincing Octavian to stand down, but you do. When you come back, it'll be like their praetor has come back from the dead. They wouldn't listen to me, but they'll sure as Hades listen to you."

Reyna took a deep breath, steadying herself from the shock still reeling through her. "But. . . ." She hesitated. "I don't do public speaking, Leo. I'm Styx at it compared to Octavian. How in Mars's name am I going to override his influence and convince my legion, especially without any proof?"

At that, Leo finally turned to face her. Reyna was surprised to see how steely his expression was. "But you do have proof, Praetor," he said, reaching into his tool belt. "I told you I'd give you proof, remember?"

Honestly, she didn't—remember, that is. Hey, she'd had a lot to take in over the past couple of days. So when Leo pressed a small metal device into her hands, Reyna stared at it blankly. "What is this?"

Slowly, a full grin broke out over Leo's face. It still wasn't as blinding as his usual smiles, but gods of Olympus, it was a huge improvement from the weak half-grins he had been giving her lately. "Oh," he said casually, "it's nothing. Just a small digital recorder that I built right before I got Gaea to tell you about my innocence and the fact that she orchestrated your disappearance to make your legion distrust my friends even more than they already did."

He said the words in one quick breath, so that it took a moment for Reyna to process them. When she did, her eyes widened in spite of herself. "You recorded that entire conversation?" she asked in amazement.

A small smile still lingered on Leo's face. "Yeah, I did. Pretty smart for a lowly repair boy, right?"

Reyna nodded, not trusting herself to speak. When Leo saw her expression, his smile disappeared. Hesitantly, he reached out and closed Reyna's fingers around the recorder, clearing his throat as he moved. "So," he said roughly, "I guess you need to get going if you want to make it in time. Remember to send the device back down to me as soon as you're safely in the Underworld, so I can ride it up next, but by the gods, don't wait for me. Every second is precious right now. Don't waste a single one on me, okay?" He blinked and looked downwards. "I'm not worth it."

Reyna knew Leo was right about every second being precious—gods, she definitely knew he was right—but still, something made her pause. She couldn't just leave—not without acknowledging the strange bond they'd formed down here in the pits of hell. Not without thanking him for being so smart and selfless and wonderful. She couldn't walk away and pretend none of that had ever happened—because gods, it did, and without Reyna wanting it to, it had changed her. She had to convey that to Leo somehow.

Leo noticed her hesitation. "Go on, Praetor," he said quietly. "Get in."

At those simple words, something in Reyna broke—some dam, some barrier that she hadn't even known had existed. Without meaning to, she bridged the gap between them and threw her arms around Leo's neck, hugging him to her. His arms were awkwardly smashed into Reyna's ribs, and his chin was digging into her shoulder blade, but Reyna didn't give a Styx. For the first time in ages—maybe even in Reyna's entire life—she didn't mind physical contact. In fact, she had initiated it herself, and it had made her happier. Holy Bellona, what was happening to her?

After probably a second too long, she drew back and scrutinized Leo's expression, which was pretty much all shock. Feeling a need to lighten the painful mood, she risked smiling at him, the brightest smile she could offer in this hellhole.

"Come on, Leo," she said. "We've been over this. We're long past the 'Praetor' stage."

Leo laughed. It was a small choking sound that Reyna never would have expected to come out of the repair boy's mouth, but in this situation, it seemed to fit. The laugh matched exactly the way Reyna was feeling.

Out of nowhere, Leo offered her a hug of his own, grabbing her around the waist and pulling her against him. Reyna laced her arms around Leo's neck again, and in the two seconds they held that position, she felt something shift in the air between them. Something electric, tingling, and totally foreign to her.

Too quickly, Leo let go and took a step back, grinning at her crookedly. "Go on ahead, mi reina," he said, almost too softly to hear.

Reyna blinked twice in astonishment at the new nickname, but then quickly hid her surprise with her best attempt at a smile. She climbed into the machine, choking down the fresh round of tears that was threatening to overwhelm her. "Better," she said to him, carefully holding eye contact to ingrain the moment into her memory. She wanted to remember this. She wanted to remember him. Just in case.

After a few seconds of silence, Leo looked away and started fiddling with some controls on the outside of the contraption. He was close enough to touch, so Reyna did. She reached out and caught his hand before he could step backwards.

"I'll see you in a bit," she insisted, checking his eyes for confirmation.

He nodded.

"Nos vemos pronto de nuevo, mi chico de fuego," she told him.

She watched his mouth stretch into a surprised—but pleased—smile as she drifted upwards.

We'll meet again soon, my fire boy.

Leo watched the dark metallic helicopter until it merged with the darkness. The farther Reyna rose, the wider his smile grew. Yes, he was still in Tartarus, but not for very much longer. And anyway, Reyna was on her way out, recorder in hand, armor fastened, courage and strength worn like a shield. Leo had faith in her—he knew she would be able to convince her legion to stand down. Their camps were safe. Everything would be fin—

Suddenly, Leo heard a crash, and a string of Greek curses echoed through Tartarus. "Confound these idiotic mortals!" someone—no, something—shouted. "Their junk even infects our domain!"

"Confound these idiotic demigods," another thing countered. "They're the ones who are forcing us to wade through this mortal filth!"

"You're right," the first thing said. "When we get those two back, I'll torture them until they want August 1st to come! Until they're praying for death!"

"Oh, by then they won't be praying," a third thing snickered. "They'll know the gods abandoned them a long time ago."

The first thing started to laugh, and before long, the noise that filled the air was so loud, Leo guessed there were at least fifty monsters in the pack. "It's a good thing they were dragging something heavy," the second thing said eventually, once they had all calmed down. "These crushed mortal artifacts make the perfect trail to follow. We'll catch up to those demigods in no time!"

Leo froze. They sounded . . . oh gods, they sounded so close—maybe a mile away at most. Styx.

Leo had no idea how long it would take his improvised helicopter to reach the Underworld and come back down, but he knew that the monsters would find him first . . . especially if he stayed here. . . . With sudden conviction, Leo turned and started sprinting in a random direction, with no real purpose other than to get away—but then a thought pulled him short.

If the monsters were following his contraption's trail through the debris, it would lead them straight to the entrance/exit from/to the Underworld. They would know exactly where Reyna was headed, and if Gaea's forces were as thick on the surface as she claimed—and Leo was sure they were—Mother Earth would have no problem assembling an army to capture Reyna before she ever made it to her legion. All their escape efforts would be in vain, and Reyna would just end up in Tartarus again—probably separated from him this time. The world would fall anyway, and it would be all fire's fault.

Unless—

Leo hesitated, but he quickly shook aside his indecision. Even if he did disappear into Tartarus now, there was no guarantee that Gaea's army wouldn't catch up to him anyway. In fact, they almost certainly would. Running away, like he'd done in the past so many times, wouldn't solve his problem, and besides that, it would be incredibly selfish and probably result in the destruction of Western civilization.

It was time for the repair boy to fix this situation.

His decision made, Leo whirled around and dashed back to the black hole to the surface. When he reached the right spot, the first thing he did was gather up the objects his helicopter had crushed and scatter whole ones in their place, concealing the trail they had left behind. After he had covered the last hundred feet, he picked up the crushed items and started a false trail that veered to the left instead of continuing straight ahead. When he ran out of objects, he found a refrigerator that had somehow ended up in Tartarus and started dragging them behind him instead, creating a trail that looked almost exactly like the one his helicopter had made. All the while, he heard the shouts of the monsters slowly coming closer and closer. Styx, Styx, Styx . . .

Eventually, Leo figured that he was far enough away from the black hole that the monsters wouldn't suspect that Reyna had escaped that way. Then, in a sudden burst of inspiration, he blasted fire at the refrigerator until it was a half-melted mess, unwrapped his head bandages, and smeared his blood all over the still-warm metal. He stood back, looked at his handiwork, and decided it wouldn't be enough. After quickly rewrapping his head, he pulled his orange shirt over his head, unrolled his purple bandages, and added blood from his back to the refrigerator as well. For good measure, he walked forward several steps, allowing his back's blood to drip onto the ground with each step—gods, he was a mess—and kicked around the objects as he walked to make it look like there had been a struggle. He ended the path by ripping off the end of his camp shirt (it wasn't hard; the thing was practically in shreds anyway) and dropping it haphazardly on top of a bunny slipper. Then he tore off the end of his purple bandages and left that a couple feet away, still covered in blood. He wrapped his bandages around himself as best he could, yanked on what was left of his shirt, and—for the final effect—pulled a hammer out of his belt, dabbled blood onto the head, let loose a bloodcurdling scream, and dropped his hammer onto a frying pan with a clang.

"Reyna!" he yelled. "No—you nasty—filthy—pile of schist—come back here—with—mi reina—stop—come back—Argh! Ah! REYNA! STOP! NO! AH! OUCH! REYNA! REYNA! NO! STO—"

He cut off his screams purposefully, and, work done, he started to run off. But before he could get more than forty feet, a massive stalagmite loomed up out of the darkness, and as Leo swerved to get around it—

Something yanked Leo by his tool belt, and he fell backwards and smacked his head on the very rock he'd been trying to avoid.

The next thing Leo had knew, he was on the ground, eyes only half-focused, staring up blearily at a humanoid figure.

"Where's the other one?" the monster growled.

For a moment, Leo considered grabbing the mixing bowl at his side and chucking it at the monster's head. Once he was distracted and possibly knocked out, Leo could get around him . . . maybe escape him completely . . .

Then another figure crowded into Leo's vision. "Answer the question, godspawn!" it grumbled. "Where's the other one?"

Other monsters started to push and shove the first two, jostling for space to jeer down at him. There were so many, it made Leo dizzy just trying to count them all. He gulped. One mixing bowl wasn't going to cut it.

"Where's the other one?"

Leo thought of Reyna, hovering somewhere between Tartarus and the surface, rising slowly towards the latter, trusting him to get her there safely. Reyna, trusting him. Reyna, hugging him. Reyna, calling him her chico de fuego.

La reina de la legión, not minding when he made her his queen instead. Smiling about it, even.

He wasn't about to let down su reina now.

"Where's the other one?"

Leo forced tears to leak out of his eyes and his voice to sound choked, which wasn't hard. "Gone," he gasped out. "Taken . . . dragon . . ." He closed his eyes, seemingly reliving the moment. Instead, he was envisioning the face of a certain beautiful praetor of Rome. "So much blood . . ." he whispered. "And then the dragon . . ." He shook his head, wincing convincingly as he spoke—mostly because shaking his head really did hurt. "Dioses malditos," he said with a dry sob. "Mi reina es muerta."

As Leo spoke, he knew that this lie wouldn't stop Gaea forever. She would find out that Reyna was really alive sooner or later, and then probably destroy him for lying to her. But he didn't care. He only prayed that his words were a lie—that his helicopter had worked perfectly, and Reyna was really on the surface right now, convincing her legion to stop their violence. If she could stop the civil war—if she could stay alive—then this sacrifice would be worth it.

The first monster growled in frustration. "The mistress won't be pleased with this. And anyway, I wanted to pulverize them both."

"Don't worry," the second monster consoled. "We've still got this one."

Suddenly, Leo remembered the threatening words of the monsters. The ones that the empousae had hissed, and the words that monster had shouted just after Reyna had disappeared.

Even think about escaping, and you'll beg for another whipping as lenient as the last one.

I'll torture them until they want August 1st to come! Until they're praying for death!

The mistress won't be pleased.

Leo gulped.

It was really over now. These monsters were going to do everything in their power to break him. And if they didn't, Gaea would.

Styx.