I stood staring at Piper. She was pretty without all the extra, now she was gorgeous, like drop dead gorgeous. I rolled my eyes and sat down with a huff. Aphrodite always was over the top. I felt a hand slide onto my thigh.

"I still remember what you looked like at that Spring Flower Ball our first quest."

Raph's voice made me shiver. I turned my head towards him. He was staring at me, and not at Piper, like every other boy. Jason's jaw had hit the ground and his eyes just about fell out of his head.

"You're not all googlely eyed for her." I stared.

"No, the only girl I'll ever drool over is you, Sunshine." He said, his voice was low and gravelly. He gently tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. "Ares blessed me on Olympus, remember? My mind will always be my own. No one can manipulate me again, no more Lovesickness, Charmspeak, nothing. And it's been wonderful."

"That's why you can resist Drew."

"Yes, but she's also just a terrible person."

"Yes she is."

Raph leaned in, and just before he kissed me, there was wild yelling and then pushing and shoving.

"That's my cue." Raph groaned. "I'll see you later. Stay out of trouble."

"No promises."

Raph smirked and then he was gone. A few of his brothers had tried to get up and come towards Piper, now that she was 'hot'. Jason had jumped infront of her and Raph also went to control the Ares cabin. I had seen Leo slip out into the shadows.

I know the fire was going to be over after this and Raph was busy with idiot control, I got up and slipped out of the amparheatre. I followed behind him and I had a feeling he was on his way into the forest.

I watched as he muttered to himself. His hands flew around like he was talking to himself. I walked quietly behind him. Not that I was trying to sneak up on him, I wasn't hiding, he was just wrapped in his own world, in his own thoughts. He suddenly stopped at the edge of the forest.

"Hera," Leo muttered louder, "you’re not even here, are you? You’re in a cage somewhere."

"She's definitely not here." I answered.

He jumped and grabbed his chest. He spun. Around looking like he was either going to throw an invisible ball or face palm me. I stood a few feet away, my hands in my jacket pockets and I raised an eyebrow.

"How long have you been following me?"

"Not long. Just from the campfire." I shrugged.

"Oh. So you heard it all?" He asked, his eyes jumped all over the place, like he was looking for a way out.

"Nah. The super sonic hearing- only works when I concentrate."

"Wait. Seriously? You can ease drop on people?"

"Did to a god once. It was awkward. And another demigod, Son of Hades...also battle plans on the Athena cabin and ruined their capture the flag plans."

"Sid use for it... But you didn't uhh hear anything?"

"No Leo. I don't listen in to others existential crisis situations."

"Oh...well thanks." He shrugged, his hands fidgeted with the zipper on his jacket.

"So...whatcha standing at the edge of the woods for?"

"Just uhh checking it out."

"Lier."

"Oh right. Yourike a human lie detector test."

I nodded and stepped up beside him and faced the dark blackness of the woods. Owls hooted, and something far away hissed like a chorus of snakes.

"Will Soluce said not to go in there alone." Leo said

"Good thing I'm here." I smirked.

"He also said not to go unarmed."

"Who says I'm not?" I raised an eyebrow at him and then walked into the woods.

"Dang girl! You got no chill!"

"As my father once said, Leo, Chill is out. Being hot is in." And I concentrated on the tingle in my veins, calling the warm glow to flow through me.

"WHOA!" Leo yelped, and he stumbled backwards. "You're a walking glow stick! No way!"

"I've never been called that before."

"Really?"

"No. People are scared of me, Leo."

"What? Why? You got some sweet powers! What else can you do?"

"They fear what they don't understand. They've never seen a daughter of Apollo so strong before. They've never seen someone with so many different gifts before...they've never seen a half god and half titan before."

Leo stopped dead in his tracks. "Half...titan?" Even in the dark with the glow of my gold veins I could see his shock.

I nodded and explained quietly my titan heritage - leaving it as the All Seeing Titan god of the Sun and Apollo.

"So...like I saw the heat shield thing you did...do...do you have umm..."

"Yes Leo. Fire." I held out my hand and let the flames dance over my skin. He stumbled backwards looking slightly panicked before he straightened up and stepped closer. He reached a hand out. I didn't move. He touched the fire that licked up my hands and arms. It transfered to him and he held his other hand up and his own hand burst into flames. He was looking at his hands with a mix of awe and guilt.

"Fire...can be beautiful and helpful...or devisatting and dangerous." I said quietly.

"My mom said something like that." He said, his eyes still glued to the fire that danced on his hands. He shook his head like he couldn't believe he just said that outloud.

"So, why are we stomping through the forest, it's not just because you wanted to see this..." I held up my hand.

"Well...I agreed to go on a death quest, only if I found a ride."

I hummed, and nodded seriously. "You did indeed."

"And I need to find a ride."

"So naturally you thought of the dark dangerous forest, full of monsters."

"Naturally." Leo grinned. "But monsters are kinda scary..."

"You know the scariest thing you'll find in here is me."

"Ya know...I actually believe you."

"Finally someone with sense." I chuckled. "Come on. Let's go find us a dragon."

We kept walking, looking for dragon-type clues- giant footprints, trampled trees, swaths of burning forest. Something that big couldn’t exactly sneak around, right? But we saw nada. Once I thought I glimpsed a large, furry shape like a wolf or a bear, but it stayed away from our fire, which was fine by Leo. He was slightly jumpy.

"Why are you helping me?"

"I help everyone." I shrugged. He gave me a look that said, try again. "Fine. Honestly, there's something about you that reminds me of me. And only a few people don't look at me in fear. Also... Beckendorf was one of my best friends. I worked in the forges with him a lot. Him and Percy's brother, Tyson. I'm immune to fire, and when I was deaf Beckendorf was one of the few who could communicate with me."

"Whoa whoa whoa! Hold on. What do you mean...WHEN YOU WERE DEAF!" Leo yelped. "Like I may not be great at the whole human anatomy thing...but pretty sure you don't normally come back from that!"

"I was deaf more then a year. Mute too."

"Explain."

I told him what happened as we continued to walk through the forest.

"So you and the love goddess..."

"Not on good terms. At all. The cabin isn't all bad, don't get me wrong. The previous cabin councelor was great. She was my best friend...she was inclusive and her goal was to build up, everyone up, not tear them down, or form cliques and drama, or try steal boyfriends. Drew is everything I hate about Aphrodite."

"Dang. Piper is gonna hate her siblings."

I hummed. "So if you were a dragon, where would you hide?"

"I don't know about hiding...but what about that?" He pointed down at the bottom of a clearing.

"The first trap." A hundred-foot-wide crater ringed with boulders. In the center of the depression, a metal vat the size of a hot tub had been filled with bubbly dark liquid-

"What is that?" I asked staring at the bubbling liquid.

"Tabasco sauce and motor oil."

"Naturally."

On a pedestal suspended over the vat, an electric fan rotated in a circle, spreading the fumes across the forest.

"Can metal dragons smell?" I asked, cocking my head.

Leo shrugged. I could see his eyes darting and his fingers drumming.

"This is your plan. You're the genius. You tell me what you need me to do and what to do. You take all the glory, lift the curse, save your cabin."

He just nodded.

"Dude, outloud. Think outloud. I don't know what I'm looking at."

"Right yeah...okay. The vat seems to be unguarded."

"Seems to be..."

"Do you see the glint of metal beneath the dirt and leaves?"

I looked closer, from the space stars and the fire of Leo and myself.

"Nope. I see nothing."

"Well it's there. It's like ..a bronze net, lining the entire crater."

"I know Cabin 9 has bronze netting...if that helps.."

"Okay... well maybe seeing isn't the right word- I can sense it there, as if the mechanism is emitting heat...like revealing itself."

"Well that's awesome."

"And I can see..or sense six large strips of bronze stretched out from the vat like the spokes of a wheel. They would most likely be pressure sensitive. As soon as the dragon stepped on one, the net would spring closed, and voilà—

"One gift-wrapped monster." I nodded in approval. "Brilliant."

Leo edged closer. He put his foot on the nearest trigger strip. I held my breath, but nothing happened.

"I guess they have it set the net for something really heavy. Otherwise they could catch an animal, human, smaller monster, whatever." Leo looked back at me, "are there monsters heavier or bigger then the metal dragon in these woods."

"Doubt it." I shrugged.

"Encouraging." He muttered and he continued to picked his way down the crater and approached the vat, he would stop every few feet and tell me where to step.

"Dang, these fumes were terrible!" I grumbled. My eyes were watering so bad I was having trouble seeing.

"This is nothing...there was one time when Tía Callida,  my old babysitter who was actually Hera or whatever, made me chop jalapeños in the kitchen an' I got the juice in my eyes. Serious pain! Like the worst! But of course she’d been like, “Endure it, little hero. The Aztecs of your mother’s homeland used to punish bad children by holding them over a fire filled with chili peppers. They raised many heroes that way."

"Well isn't she lovely." I muttered.

"A total psycho, that lady."

"She killed my mom." I said suddenly.

"Whoa...wait what?"

"Umm ya. She...she umm killed my mother. During childbirth. It's...it's a long story. Once we catch a dragon, I'll tell you all about it."

Leo nodded, looking at me funny, the impish mischievous smirk was gone, "So glad I'm on a quest to rescue her."

"Pain, death, glory, possible riches, maybe...? What's not to love?"

He snorted in amusement at my comment. Then his face went serious again.

"Okay, if you can, look for a trigger- something that would disable the net."

I couldn't see anything and Leo looked like he had a mild panic. "Nyssa said there were several traps like this in the woods, and they were planning more. What if the dragon's already stepped into another one? How could we possibly find them all?"

"Slow down Leo. Breathe. We can do this. This trap is made by your brothers and sisters. You got this. I believe in you."

He nodded slowly, taking in my words and then he continued to search. I did my best to help, but we didn’t see any release mechanism. No large button labeled off. It occurred to me that there might not be one. I was just about to voice my thoughts when I heard the sound.

It was more of a tremor- the deep sort of rumbling you hear in your gut rather than your ears. It gave me the jitters, I glanced over my shoulder, but there was nothing there. Leo kept examining the trap.

"Must be a long way off. It’s pounding its way through the woods. I gotta hurry." He was muttering to himself.

I turned back to see if I could help him again, I lit my hands brighter and held them up, so he had better light to see. That's when we heard a grinding snort, like steam forced out of a metal barrel.

"That's not good." I whispered.

"Nope."

We turned slowly. At the edge of the pit, fifty feet away, two glowing red eyes were staring at them. The creature gleamed in the moonlight, and I couldn’t believe something that huge had sneaked up on us so fast. Too late, I realized its gaze was fixed on the fire in our hands.

"Dammit!" I cursed and we extinguished the flames.

I could still see the dragon just fine. It was about sixty feet long, snout to tail, its body made of interlocking bronze plates. Its claws were the size of butcher knives, and its mouth was lined with hundreds of dagger-sharp metal teeth. Steam came out of its nostrils. It snarled like a chain saw cutting through a tree. It could’ve bitten me in half, easy, and used Leo as a toothpick or stomped us flat.

"Leo? Are you crying?" I whispered.

"No! Maybe...It- it's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen!"

"It is pretty epic."

"No! No no no!" He whispered in misery.  "One problem that completely ruins this plan."

"Which is?" I asked

Leo was looking at the Dragon with a frown, "You don’t have wings,"  Leo said.

The dragon’s snarl died. It tilted its head as if to say, Why aren’t you running away in terror?

"Hey, no offense," Leo said, still talking to the dragon. "You’re amazing! Good god, who made you? Are you hydraulic or nuclear-powered or what? But if it was me, I would’ve put wings on you. What kind of dragon doesn’t have wings? I guess maybe you’re too heavy to fly? I should’ve thought of that."

The dragon snorted. And moved forwards.

"No!" Leo cried.

The dragon snarled again.

"It’s a trap, bronze brain," Leo said. “
"They’re trying to catch you."

The dragon opened its mouth and blew fire. A column of white-hot flames billowed over Leo. He stood his ground. When the flames died, he was perfectly fine. Even his clothes were okay.

"Way to go my little demone del fuoco." I grinned at Leo. Who looked quite shocked.

"Ha!" Leo cried in triumph.

The dragon stared at Leo for a moment and then turned its head and then blasted another column of fire at me. I through my hands up over my face, out of instinct, but the fire was like being douced with a hose, a real hot fire hose. The collom of fire stopped and the dragon tipped it's head.

"She's not part of the group trying to hurt. She's hear to help you." Leo said.

"How'd it work thought...like I'm glad my pants didn't burn off- would’ve been pretty embarrassing."

"Not sure how it works, never had to think about it. The dragon looked at us.

"Is it just me or does it look confused."

"Just you demone del fuoco."

"What does that mean?"

"A friend of mine calls me little fire demon. Now I have a padoawn. Your my fire demon."

"Ummm...."

A spark flew out of its neck like it was about to short-circuit.

"You can’t burn me,” Leo said, trying to sound stern and calm.

"Doesn't work on us." I'd never had a dog before Miss O'Leary and she was already fully trained, but Leo talked to the dragon the way I thought you’d talk to a dog.

"Stay, boy. Don’t come any closer. I don’t want you to get caught. See, they think you’re broken and have to be scrapped. But I don’t believe that. I can fix you if you’ll let me-"

The dragon creaked, roared, and charged.

The trap sprang.

🔆