╔═══ -ˋˏ *.·:·.⟐.·:·.* ˎˊ- ═══╗
CHAPTER SIX
one eyed terror
╚═══ -ˋˏ *.·:·.⟐.·:·.* ˎˊ- ═══╝

*.·:·.⟐.·:·.*

THE COLD AIR had Dorothy praying that Josephine packed a jacket for her, and it was like her prayers were answered. Dorothy's favorite jacket was pulled out of her bag. Whether Josephine knew it was her favorite when she packed it, or if it was just the only jacket that would be good for a broad amount of different climates, Dorothy didn't care and she quickly put it on, a shiver of warmth had her settling in her seat.

"You were amazing, Piper," Jason told the girl in front of Dorothy.

"You really were, you saved our asses so many times tonight," Dorothy smiled brightly, "whatever that charm speak thing is, it's mighty useful."

Piper had a troubled look on her face, she tried sending an appreciative smile to the two of them, but something was seriously weighing on her. Dorothy knew that she probably didn't want to talk about it but she couldn't help herself. She leaned forward to get closer to Piper's ear.

"Are you alright?" Dorothy asked, pulling Piper's attention to her, "You look like something is on your mind, and it's troubling you."

"Si vous saviez la vérité sur moi, vous ne penseriez pas que j'étais si incroyable," Piper spoke, making Dorothy tilt her head in confusion.

"What'd you say?" Jason asked.

"I said I only talked to Boreas. It wasn't so amazing." Piper didn't look at either Dorothy or Jason, making her squint her eyes. She wasn't being honest about something.

"Hey," Jason said, "you saved us from joining Khione's subzero hero collection. I owe you one."

"We both do," Dorothy said.

Piper didn't say anything after that, guilt seemed to cross her face but Dorothy knew that when the time came, Piper would eventually have to say something. They just needed a minute to relax and start a game plan for how they're going to track down and capture these winds.

Leo passed them some sandwiches from his pack. He'd been quiet ever since they'd told him what happened in the throne room. "I still can't believe Khione," he finally said. "She looked so nice."

"Trust me, man," Jason said. "Snow may be pretty, but up close it's cold and nasty. We'll find you a better prom date."

"What's prom?" Dorothy asked, making Leo gasp as he looked back at Dorothy who was now chewing on the sandwich, it was good and she realized that she hadn't eaten all day, it wasn't anything she wasn't used to.

"What were you doing all day back then?" Leo asked.

"Well when it wasn't camp chores with Jon—" she cut herself off from saying his full name, distaste roiling in her gut at the thought of that traitor, "I was scouting out stages and trains with expensive cargo, maybe hunt down a bounty or two if the local town didn't know me, and if the bounty wasn't something I couldn't handle alone."

Something crossed Leo's face, it seemed that her answer only got more questions.

"You're like, old," He finally said, making Dorothy blink back in shock.

"I'm 16," Dorothy frowned, "Hera and that damned Saloon, I should've just cut my losses with that traitorous coot but I spent so much time preparing for that train that I didn't think to question why he would stop in that saloon."

"How does that place even work?" Jason asked, after swallowing another bite of his sandwich, "How long were you in there?"

"It felt like I was in a haze for a few months, I had forgotten why I was in there in the first place," Dorothy frowned as she looked down at her food, "you may have noticed based on how different my clothes are to you guys, but when I went in, the year was 1862, Chiron told me that I was in there for a hundred and fifty years..."

Dorothy's eyes began to well up at the fact that she left her father. In her mind, regardless of her mother being an immortal goddess, she felt that she was an orphan. She knew absolutely nobody on this earth now, well, she knew Jonathon was still there, but she would let him rot in there for all she cared, after all, he stole the damn money in the first place, and now look where she was at.

There were no more questions after that, just silence and the sounds of chewing. They ate their sandwiches as they flew. Dorothy figured that the pouched belt that Leo wore around his waist had similar enchantments to her satchel, he could probably carry anything in that.

Dorothy's mind traveled to the information Boreas gave them. She wasn't particularly excited to go to Chicago, the last time she visited, she ended up leaving with a 3 thousand-dollar bounty on her head with the rest of her father's gang. It's what pushed them west, it's where she heard of the train full of rich aristocrats heading to California.

Surely her bounty is gone now that she's believed to be dead, but this new information about Chicago sent a chill down her spine, Boreas had only let them go because he reckoned they were already on a suicide mission.

The moon rose and stars shined in the sky, reminding her of the stargazing she would do with one of the few women in the gang, Adelia, her father had taught her how to navigate the stars like how he learned when he first escaped the south. And Adelia had taught her how to navigate it too. Dorothy looked for Orion's sword, finding that it was just below his belt. Noticing it almost immediately, she could see that they were heading in the right direction and she wondered if this was what their prophecy meant, her navigating the stars to lead them to Hera.

Piper's head started to droop and eventually, she leaned back into Dorothy for support. She didn't mind and gave her a pat on the shoulder before checking to see if a blanket was packed into her satchel. There wasn't one, but Piper didn't seem to need one anyway.

"She seemed troubled by something," Dorothy spoke when Piper was deep in her sleep, "she's holding onto something."

"How could you tell?" Jason asked.

"It's the same way I could tell that you felt out of place back at camp," Dorothy shrugged, "I'm good at reading people, I had to be, it's the only way I could tell when a situation was about to go south."

Jason nodded. Leo looked back at Piper's sleeping figure, he too had a troubled look on his face, Dorothy wanted to ask about the fire that the Boreas nearly killed him over, but it would be better for Piper to be awake for that conversation, and the girl needed to rest. It was quiet once more as Dorothy kept her eye on the stars.

It was nearly peaceful, Dorothy looked down at the city and town lights, she never thought that the earth could shine so bright, yet there it was. It was like a constellation of its own on the Earth, all the lights forming new patterns to navigate, nothing ever the same.

"The Earth is so," Dorothy tilted her head, looking for the word, "beautiful."

Jason didn't have a chance to respond before Festus hit an invisible wall forcing his head to go sideways, crashing and knocking them all off his back. Dorothy instinctively wrapped her arms tight around Piper, the girl was still sleeping but she figured it wouldn't be for long. Dorothy's stomach lurched as the speed of their fall seemed to increase, it took everything in her to keep her sandwich down. She couldn't help her scream.

Piper woke up screaming as they were free-falling through the air. Dorothy couldn't control her cussing as her mind scrambled on what to do next.

She looked over and saw that Leo was falling faster and shot right past them. His own screams and curses were being taken by the howling wind.

Far below the city lights glimmering in the early dawn, we're getting closer, Dorothy's heart thundered in her chest as she looked over and saw several hundred yards away, the body of the bronze dragon spinning out of control, its wings limp, fire flickering in its mouth like it was going to try and slow its fall with the flame.

Leo's screaming brought her attention to him as he was frantically grabbing at the clouds.

"Not coooooool!"

Jason was behind her, already in action.

"Piper!" Jason yelled out, "Grab onto Dorothy!"

Piper managed to get her arms around Dorothy as tightly as possible, her face buried into Dorothy's shoulder. Dorothy looked back and over her shoulder to see Jason desperately trying to get down to them, his body pin straight and his head downwards.

"Dorothy! Spread your arms and legs out!" Jason yelled for her. Dorothy nodded and opened up her body. The impact of the wind wasn't as bad with Piper attached to her so tightly.

Jason caught up to the girls and he wrapped his arms around Dorothy, using his powers to slow their fall.

"We have to get Leo!" she shouted.

Their fall slowed as Jason controlled the winds, but they still jumped up and down like the winds didn't want to cooperate.

"Gonna get rough," Jason warned. "Hold on!"

"TO WHAT?" Dorothy yelled, but it turned into a scream as they dived again, her eyes watering from the steaming stream of wind blowing into her face, her hair blowing behind her head.

Dorothy managed to hold onto Jason and Piper tightly as they plummeted. Dorothy's vision grew dark and blurry and she felt like the breath was knocked from her lungs when they slammed into another warm body— Leo, still wriggling and cursing.

"Stop fighting!" Jason said. "It's me!"

"My dragon!" Leo yelled. "You gotta save Festus!"

Dorothy looked up at Jason and it was clear that he was already struggling to keep the four of them from splattering onto the Earth below them. There was no way he could help a fifty-ton metal dragon. She opened her mouth to disappoint Leo, but she heard an explosion below them. A fireball rolled into the sky from behind a warehouse complex, and Leo sobbed.

"Festus!"

Jason's face reddened with strain as he tried to maintain an air cushion beneath them, but intermittent slow-downs were the best he could manage. Rather than free-falling, it felt like they were riding a wild, bucking, horse that refused to break. There was a reason Dorothy only did that kind of chore on an empty stomach.

She didn't even think when she pushed her hands out in front of her, Piper's grip never relenting as she even wrapped her legs around Dorothy in a desperate attempt to not fall to her death.

A blanket of purple energy spread out before them, blocking most of the wind and giving Jason some reprieve. Her arms shook with the strain as she fought the furious wind that refused to behave. She felt ripples running up and down her arms from her shoulders to the tips of her fingers, this had to be an effect of her powers. Sweat formed on her brow that would cool her face instantly when it dried later from the remaining wind.

As they wobbled and zigzagged, Dorothy could barely see the details of what she assumed was a factory, smokestacks that she was all too familiar with seeing in cities like Chicago. There was a paved lot full of more of those strange snow-covered machines she saw outside Boreas's hotel. They were still too high in the air when Jason groaned, "I can't-"

And they dropped like stones. Panic flooded Dorothy's senses and sent a blast at their feet, pushing them sideways and had them crashing through the roof of the nearby warehouse. Instinct took over when Piper released Dorothy. The girls tried landing on their feet but Dorothy rolled her body, spreading the impact.

Unfortunately, Piper didn't do the same. The poor girl yelped as she crumpled against the cold metal surface. Piper didn't do anything but groan and wobble on her back, the pain clearly overwhelming her. Dorothy scrambled over to her, her wide eyes assessing Piper's foot that was definitely facing the wrong direction.

"Piper! Dorothy!" Jason's voice called out from below, "Where are the girls?"

"Ow, bro!" Leo groaned. "That's my back! I'm not a sofa! Guys, where'd you go?"

"We're over here!" Dorothy yelled out, "Piper's hurt!"

She heard shuffling and grunting, then feet pounding on metal steps. Dorothy assessed their surroundings, looking for anything to help her set Piper's foot. She had seen an injury like this once before and she knew that the fact that Piper wasn't screaming shows that she had true strength under her skin.

They were on a metal catwalk that ringed the warehouse interior. Leo and Jason had landed on ground level and were now running up the stairs toward them. Piper looked at her foot, and Dorothy swore that Piper looked to be turning a shade of green. She looked away almost immediately after, not wanting to see that.

The hole they'd made in the roof was a jagged circle. Dorothy could barely process the fact that they survived a fall like that, even with her last-minute assist at the end. There were a few dim light bulbs scattered around the ceiling, doing nothing for the group in ways of lighting. Strange paint covered the wall near Piper, Dorothy wondered how such a design could be made to be so flat, all of the best art that she's managed to see is a little red with the texture of acrylic with the vents and blossoms of a paintbrush, but this clearly painted wall was... flat.

Down in the shadowy warehouse, there were more huge machines that Dorothy could only assume were advanced versions of the machines she'd seen in her time. This warehouse seemed to be building more of the machines that sat in the lot outside, collecting snow. And dust. This place looked like it had been abandoned for years.

Jason and Leo reached the girls and Dorothy anticipated disgust with Piper's odd foot angle. She started to dig around her satchel, looking for anything to help keep Piper's foot together once it was set. She seemed to have everything except for what she needed.

Leo started to ask, "You okay...?"

Then he saw her foot, his face contorting into a cringe.

"Oh no, you're not."

"Thanks for the reassurance," Piper groaned.

"You'll be fine," Jason said, though Piper could hear the worry in his voice. "Leo, you got any first aid supplies?"

"Yeah-yeah, sure." He dug around in his belt and pulled out a wad of gauze and a roll of... something— both of which seemed too big for the belt's pockets. Dorothy tilted her head at the quickness of the supplies. Those were some seriously good enchantments.

"How did you-" Piper tried to sit up and winced. "How did pull that stuff from an empty belt?"

"Magic," Leo said. "Haven't figured it out completely, but I can summon just about any regular tool out of the pockets, plus some other helpful stuff."

He reached into another pocket and pulled out a little tin box. Dorothy furrowed her eyebrows as she looked on.

"Breath mint?"

Jason snatched away the mints. "That's great, Leo. Now, can you fix her foot?"

"I'm a mechanic, man. Maybe if she was a car..." He snapped his fingers. "Wait, what was that godly healing stuff they fed you at camp— Rambo food?"

"Ambrosia, dummy," Piper said through gritted teeth. "There should be some in my bag if it's not crushed."

Jason carefully pulled her backpack off her shoulders. He rummaged through the supplies that Piper had packed and pulled out a plastic bag full of smashed pastry squares like lemon bars. He broke off a piece and fed it to her.

When Piper bit in, her expression turned from confusion to something Dorothy could only call melancholy. Piper's eyes seemed to water slightly as she looked at the bag Jason still held.

"More," she said.

Jason frowned. "Piper, we shouldn't risk it. They said too much could burn you up. I think we should try to set your foot."

"Have you ever done that before?"

"I have." Dorothy finally spoke again, her mind finished up on trying to wrap itself around her situation, "Jumping off a train that's in motion can be harder than it looks."

The group paused at her admission, all eyes on her, it seemed they were trying to figure out what to say if they wanted to say anything at all. Leo was the first to jump back into action, he found an old piece of wood and broke it in half for a splint. Then he got the gauze and that odd roll ready.

"Hold her leg still," Dorothy told Jason. "Piper, I'm gonna be plain with you, this is going to hurt."

Dorothy reached into her satchel and pulled out a bundle of clean socks, she balled the fabric up tighter and Piper all but snatched it in understanding. Her knuckles are white with the tension in her grip.

Jason held her leg firmly as Dorothy took hold of her foot. Her eyes narrowed, she recalled everything she remembered that day, and everything Juan told her later about doing it the right way.

Dorothy was swift, not wanting to inflict any more pain than what Piper was already feeling. Piper flinched so hard, she punched Leo in the arm, and he yelled almost as much as she did. Dorothy was handed the strange roll, the gauze, and the sticks. Dorothy furrowed her eyebrows as she held up the roll and Leo widened his eyes and grabbed the roll, picking at the side until the roll seemed to undo itself with a strange noise. She tilted her head at the noise.

"Is that tape?" She asked, "Oh dear, give me that."

Dorothy shook her head at her own stupidity. She knew what tape was, but her group never had much need for it beyond when Juan was patching someone else up, it was just that his tape wasn't as strong. She was quick to set the splint, wrapping the gauze tightly around her ankle. everything else came together quickly. Piper was finally coming to when Dorothy finished up. She assessed her foot, a frown carved into her face from the residual pain.

"Ow," she said

"Jeez, beauty queen!" Leo rubbed his arm. "Glad my face wasn't there."

"Sorry," she said. "And don't call me 'beauty queen,' or I'll punch you again."

"You all did great." Jason found a canteen in Piper's pack and gave her some water.

Dorothy looked around now that they could finally calm down a little bit now. Outside, the wind howled, its threatening chill made Dorothy shudder. Snowflakes filtered through the hole that the group made in the roof. Despite their meeting with Khione, Dorothy could only remember the winter that the gang spent trapped on a mountain the circumstances weren't pleasant, but Clara, the youngest girl in the group other than Dorothy made the time bearable. One day, Dorothy would crack open her friend's journal, she hoped that the gang was still alright after she... disappeared.

"What happened to the dragon?" she asked. "Where are we?"

Leo's expression turned sullen. "I don't know with Festus. He just jerked sideways like he hit an invisible wall and started to fall."

Leo pointed to the logo on the wall. "As far as where we are..."

It was hard to see through the paint. Dorothy squinted as she tried to decipher the words. Monocle Motors, Assembly Plant 1.

"Closed car plant," Leo said. "I'm guessing we crash-landed in Detroit."

Dorothy sighed as she looked around. Detroit wasn't too bad the last time she had passed through the city, she was curious now as to what it looked like.

Piper had heard about closed car plants in Detroit, so that made sense. But it seemed like a pretty depressing place to land. "How far is that from Chicago?

"It's a long trip without a dragon, I would say it's about 4 or 5 days depending on how many stops we take."

"No way," Leo said. "It isn't safe."

Dorothy nodded in agreement, but with Festus crashing in a ball of fire, she wasn't hopeful about his return, hopefully, Leo and his magic belt can work a miracle.

"He's right. Besides. I don't know if I can walk." Piper spoke up, "And three people- Jason, you can't fly that many across the country by yourself."

"No way," Jason said. "Leo, are you sure the dragon didn't malfunction? I mean, Festus is old, and-

"And I might not have repaired him right?"

"I didn't say that," Jason protested. "It's just maybe you could fix it."

"I don't know." Leo sounded crestfallen. He pulled a few screws out of his pockets and started fiddling with them. "I'd have to find where he landed. If he's even in one piece."

"There's a tracking spell in the book my sister gave me," Dorothy perked up now, a spark of hope flickering in her chest, "I'll help you find him."

"It was my fault," Piper said without thinking.

Dorothy's attention snapped over to the girl, confused. Was this a part of whatever she was hiding?

*Piper," Jason said gently. "You were asleep when Festus conked out. It couldn't be your fault."

"Yeah, you're just shaken up," Leo agreed. He didn't even try to make a joke at her expense. "You're in pain. Just rest."

"Does this have to do with whatever you've been hiding?" Dorothy's tone wasn't accusatory, she just wanted to know the truth, and making Piper feel attacked wouldn't get her anywhere.

There was something on Piper's mind and she clearly wanted to say it but something else was holding her back. Dorothy was willing to wait all night, though they all knew that there wasn't time, they needed to get back on track.

Leo stood. "Look, um, Jason why don't you stay with her, bro? I'll scout around for Festus. Think he fell outside the warehouse somewhere. If I can find him, maybe I can figure out what happened and fix him."

"It's too dangerous," Jason said. "We shouldn't split up like this."

"Ah, I got duct tape and breath mints. I'll be fine," Leo said, a little too quickly, and Piper realized he was a lot more shaken up than he was letting on. "Plus, I'm sure her guns will stop anything from getting to us. You guys just don't run off without us"

Dorothy stood up and went to adjust the hat on her head. When she touched her scalp, her heart lurched as she looked around, her breath going heavy. Jason chuckled and picked something up on the other side of him. He stepped over to her and placed something on her head, the familiar weight sent a rush of relief through her body.

"You're making this a habit," Jason joked, making Dorothy smile softly. She looked over at Leo who was shifting his weight on either foot.

"Thank you, Jason," She spoke softly before meeting with Leo, reaching into her satchel and pulling out her book. Leo reached into his magic tool belt, pulled out a flashlight, and they headed down the stairs.

When they were outside, Dorothy opened up the book to find that the words glowed in the dark. she sent a blessing to the gods for that fact as she flipped to the page she had finished reading before they hit Quebec City. The instructions for the spell were in Ancient Greek, a language that she didn't realize that she had known. But the actual spell was in Latin.

"Did you manage to snag anything off Festus before we got thrown off?" Dorothy asked, "Or would there maybe be a piece of him in your magic belt?"

Leo tilted his head and reached into the pocket of his pants, a small screw made of celestial bronze was dropped into her palm. Dorothy nodded in thanks and recited the spell, pushing her power outside of her body as she tried searching with it. A thin purple glowing strand appeared in her fist, when she opened her hand, the end of it was tied around the screw, and the rest of it led around the building near the tree lines.

Dorothy let a prideful 'humph' leave her as the two followed the glowing tether.

"It probably doesn't seem like the best time to ask this," Dorothy started, "but what's a car?"

Leo looked over at Dorothy wide-eyed. He looked like he was trying to find the right words to use with Dorothy. She was grateful for the patience the group had with her, she knew the questions were probably annoying, but this was her world now, and she couldn't go back.

"Imagine a wagon that doesn't need a horse to move," Leo finally spoke, " it's got an engine that makes the wheels turn on its own, when this is over, I'll show you a car in better detail."

The two turned another corner and Leo groaned at the sight before them.

"Not the damn port-a-potties," Leo complained as the two drew closer to the crash sight.

A dozen of the blue plastic boxes had been set up in the factory yard, and Festus had flattened them all. The crash had set fire to most of the contents; but still, some unknown liquids were leaking out of the wreckage. Dorothy nearly gagged when she got closer to it, she quickly discovered what a porta-potty was without another explanation. Leo started to pick his way through the wreckage carefully, Dorothy followed his steps, hoping that more of her magic could help him get the dragon back in the air can get them back on track. Heavy snow was coming down, but the dragon's hide was still hot to the touch, which melted any snow instantly upon contact.

That didn't seem to bother Leo. Dorothy squinted her eyes as he started climbing over Festus' body, he was lost in his work. Dorothy took this time to find a cooler part of Festus's arm that wasn't covered in muck and sat down, opening her book. She continued reading more spells, hoping to find anything about magic dragons. She was sure there had to be something.

Huffs of irritation from above made Dorothy look up to see Leo's frowning face, he was looking pissed off.

"Not my fault," he muttered. "Festus, you're making me look bad."

"No one said it was, Leo," Dorothy spoke up, "whatever happened might have to do with the mission as a whole."

Leo furrowed his eyebrows as he looked down at her. Something was sparking in his eyes now, a softening in the warmth of the brown of his irises, it almost reminded Dorothy of Jonathon, she forced back her scowl at the thought of the traitor.

"What makes you say that?"

"Well, I remember your half-sister talking about how no one could fix him before, and you not only fixed him in one night, but you managed to find wings for him too, and that tool belt, I know that it didn't come from your cabin because your sister didn't recognize it either, I saw that in her eyes," Dorothy noticed his slightly alarmed expression, "I know that just about everyone on this mission is hiding something, that's fine, that'll be fixed when Festus is okay again, but for now, I trust your abilities, whatever happened, couldn't have been you."

Leo seemed to digest that, looking away, guilt crossed his expression before he seemed to mask it with something else, a devilish grin crossed his face.

"You're very observant of me," Leo pointed out, "got a crush, old timer?"

Leo shot a wink at her, making her scoff and roll her eyes. She knew what he was doing, she saw her father do it all the time with the women in the group when times were tough, she knew that he was a charmer, especially to Ms. Catherine.

"In your dreams, Valdez," Dorothy chuckled, "Now hurry up and fix the dragon so I'll have someone intelligent to talk to while we're out here."

Leo let out an indignant noise of mock offense, Dorothy didn't bother to look and see what his visible reaction was, if he had one, anyway.

"Oh, Festus, what the heck?"

Dorothy didn't mind the small chatter, she was used to noise in the gang's campsites, whether it was Jonathon absentmindedly playing his guitar, or if it was Miss. Catherine and Mr. Taylor arguing about how to dress the deer she would bring in, or just the random noise you'd expect of a group of people all living together in the wild.

She was accustomed to tuning people out to focus. Leo worked away, his actions becoming background noise as she read. More tracking spells for different things, knowledge about ancient magic artifacts. Dorothy found an interesting page of a magical artifact that worked similarly to Jason's coin; she made a mental note to bring it up later.

Her foot tapped rhythmically, the noise helping her attention. She found another page about masking demigod scents from monsters, making her gasp. She sat up straighter, reading every word intently.

"Right," Leo muttered, brushing the snow off his shoulders. "Gimme a nylon bristle detail brush, some nitrile gloves, and maybe a can of that aerosol cleaning solvent."

Dorothy looked up, her eyebrows furrowed to see that he was talking to his belt. She held back a snicker at how silly he looked, not wanting to distract him from his work.

Dorothy looked back down, no longer interested in what he was doing. She found a page referring to the Maiden. That was what Lou called her when she destroyed her room in her sleep. There wasn't much about it in the page she read, just little notes about the first Demigod born from Hecate. Her name wasn't even written, which made Dorothy frown as she read on.

The first daughter was a force to be reckoned with, and moments before she passed, she put a curse on her power, never letting its echo dissipate... only letting it be passed down to the next female demigod Hecate has next.

Dorothy sighed, she pulled the short straw at birth. There were a couple of ideas that this writer had for the powers Dorothy possessed, it wasn't enough that she didn't have to vocalize any of her spells like her siblings did for some of their spells, apparently that purple mist truly was exclusive to her, and it was pretty damn versatile.

Dorothy stood up, avoiding the muck, she stepped away from the dragon a few feet.

"I'm gonna put a little distance between us to make sure I don't hurt you practicing these spells," Dorothy called over her shoulder.

"Oh, uh, sure," Leo barely processed what she said, too lost in his work.

Dorothy memorized the words on the page, practicing movements with her hands before she was a good 15 feet away from Leo and Festus. She put the book in her satchel. There was a pile of empty bottles and a few empty boxes nearby, Dorothy moved to set the bottles up to use her powers, but then she remembered what her powers did to her room and squinted at the opportunity in front of her.

Her hands now outreached, she concentrated on expanding her purple mist, her arms rippling up to her forearms as she slowly used her powers to set the bottles that were still intact on one of the boxes. They were all in a neat row, her forehand began to sweat in the cool air, only bringing a chill down her body.

Dorothy stopped when the bottles were set up and closed her jacket. She paused for a moment as she assessed it, she's had it for years, and only recently had it started to look like it would finally fit her. It was still a big large on her, but she'd always preferred it that way. The worn brown leather did a good job of protecting her from the weather, and even though people like her father and uncle insisted that she get something new, she could never find herself parting from it.

She shook the memories out of her head and focused on the bottles in front of her. Her aim hadn't always been good, and the urge to draw her guns and make sure her aim was still accurate was there, but she was also excited to see what exactly it meant to have the powers she did.

Dorothy focused on the bottles, using her hands to make small balls of energy, and threw them at the bottles. At first, she was missing them, somehow managing to throw them into the wall behind the bottles. With a change in her stance and point with her dominant foot, her aim was significantly better. After she knocked all the bottles down, she once again practiced picking them up with her powers.

"Leave me alone!" Leo yelled out from behind her, making her jump.

Dorothy didn't hesitate to draw her guns and run after him, looking around, she tried to find who he yelled at to see a toilet seat sinking into the ground, a face was in the dirt, making Dorothy's eyes widen.

"Who the hell is that?" She asked as the face disappeared, "You alright, Leo?"

Leo hesitated as he looked at her drawn guns. His furrowed eyebrows relaxed. His features softened.

"Dirt lady," Leo said, he opened his mouth like he was finally confessing something, but of course, he was getting cut off.

From the direction of the factory, they heard a crash, like train cars toppling over themselves. Metal crumpled and groaned, and the noise echoed across the yard. Instantly, the pair knew that Jason and Piper were in trouble.

"Not likely," Leo growled to himself and then looked down at his tool belt. "Gimme the biggest hammer you got."

He reached into his tool belt and pulled out a three-pound club hammer with a double-faced head the size of a baked potato. Then he jumped off the dragon's back and the two ran after the warehouse.

Leo stopped at the doors making Dorothy halt before kicking them down, he seemed to be trying to control his breathing. Dorothy could see the fear in his blown-out eyes and paling complexion. Dorothy remembered how his mom passed and she realized his reluctance to jump back into another warehouse.

"We got this, Leo," Dorothy assured him, she put a hand on his shoulder, squeezing, "we'll get them out and get the hell out of here."

She dug into her satchel, pulled out the neckerchief her father gave her for her first job with him, and tied it around her head, covering her mouth and nose. It did more than hide her face from the law, Dorothy noticed very early on that it always did a great job at hiding her breathing, she never really questioned it, but now she wondered if it was charmed.

Leo was still scared and that was understandable, Dorothy was too, this was her first fight with a monster, and she had no idea what she was going to run into, and to be honest, she wished she had taken a nap when she had the chance.

But none of that mattered, Jason and Piper are her friends now, so if she needed to kick the doors down, guns blazing, she would. Leo took a deep breath and nodded before he peered inside. Dorothy joined him. Nothing looked different. It was morning, and the sky was finally waking up, letting the smallest amount of light filter through the hole in the roof. A few lightbulbs flickered, but most of the factory floor was still plunged into darkness. Dorothy looked up at the part of the catwalk that she and Piper crashed onto and found that neither Piper nor Jason were there. Something was definitely off. Her mouth clamped shut as she silently stepped forward.

There was a smell permeating the air that made Dorothy want to gag, it was worse than the pile of shit that Festus landed in. It smelled of burning oil and sour breath. Whatever was inside the factory, it wasn't human. Dorothy didn't know how she made it 16 years without running into smelly beasts but she was glad that she had some semblance of normalcy growing up. If growing up in an outlaw gang was normal. Adrenaline was flowing through her veins at the sense of danger, and her knees started its small quake until she jumped into action.

Somewhere on the factory floor, Piper's voice cried out: "Leo, Dorothy, help!"

Dorothy glanced over at Leo, he shared a look with her as he held his tongue. There was no way Piper would call out for help like that, and there was no way she was getting down that catwalk without at least someone else along with Jason.

The two of them slipped inside and ducked behind a cargo container. Following Dorothy's lead, the pair slowly made their way to the center of the building, hiding behind cargo boxes and metal frames of the cars that Leo explained to her, looking at them and the stages of assembly on the line, she could see where they diverged from the stage coaches and wagons she was accustomed to. Finally, they reached the assembly line. When they crouched, it was behind the nearest piece of machinery—a strange machine with a strange robotic arm.

Piper's voice called out again: "Guys?" Less certain this time, but very close.

The two silently peeked around and Dorothy had no idea what the hell what she was looking at. Hanging directly above the assembly line, suspended by a chain from a machine like the one she was hiding behind on the opposite side, was another machine she wasn't familiar with—just dangling thirty feet up as if it had been left there when the factory was abandoned. Below it on the conveyor belt sat an empty frame of these cars but it was larger, and clustered around it were three dark shapes the size of the largest machines this place had. Nearby, dangling from chains on two other robotic arms, were two smaller shapes—maybe more of these machines, but one of them was twisting around as if it were alive.

Then one of the large shapes rose, and Leo realized it was a humanoid of massive size.

"Told you it was nothing," the thing rumbled. Its voice was too deep and feral to be human.

One of the other large lumps shifted, and called out in Piper's voice: "Leo, Dorothy! Help me! Help—" Then the voice changed, becoming a masculine snarl. "Bah, there's nobody out there. No demigod could be that quiet, eh?"

The first monster chuckled. "Probably ran away, if they know what's good for them. Or the girl was lying about two more demigods. Let's get cooking."

Snap. A bright orange light burst through the darkness and Dorothy blinked back the stars she saw from being temporarily blinded. They ducked behind the machine, Leo looked to be facing the same issue as they rubbed their eyes until the spots cleared. Leo seemed to have recovered quicker as he took another peep. Dorothy's vision cleared up just enough to see the horrified expression on his face illuminated by the fire that those monsters started.

Dorothy finally took a peek of her own and her blood turned to ice as the cold feeling of dread snaked down her spine. The two smaller things dangling from the arms weren't machines. They were Jason and Piper. Both hung upside down, tied by their ankles, and wrapped up with chains up to their necks. Piper was violently thrashing around, trying to break free to no avail. Her mouth was gagged, but the queasiness eased in Dorothy's gut seeing that Piper was alive. When she looked over at Jason, Leo had to hold Dorothy down before she tried ambushing these beasts, tears stung her eyes and her breathing grew heavy as anger was fueling her body. Jason looked horrible. He looked lifeless, his eyes rolled up in his head. A red welt the size of an apple had swollen over his left eyebrow.

On the conveyor belt, the flat end of a car that didn't really look like a car was being used as a fire pit. The monsters had ignited a mixture of tires and wood, which, from the smell of it, had been doused in some sort of highly flammable fuel. A big metal pole was suspended over the flames—a spit.

"Oh god," Dorothy whispered, realizing that the set up of the fire was all too familiar, "they're going to cook them."

Dorothy looked further at the monsters who were just using Piper's voice, disgust roiled in her gut at the sight of them. She wondered how she didn't realize where they were before, the logo she saw after they crashed told them where they were.

These were Cyclopses.

There were three in total around the fire, but two were standing, stoking the flames. The largest one was crouched with its back to the two of them. The two that were standing were each ten feet tall, with hairy muscular bodies and skin that glowed red in the firelight. One of the monsters wore a chain mail loincloth that looked impractical and Dorothy found that she wanted to look everywhere else in the room than at the monster. The other wore a ragged fuzzy toga made of a mysterious pink fluffy material. The two of them could be twins, their singular eye was the same color, and both were stuck on ugly, mean faces.

Leo's legs started quaking. Dorothy looked down at them and then sized him up, she couldn't blame him, this was weird as hell. They were teenagers, they should be in school, learning about the world. Well, they were learning about the world, just not the one Dorothy pictured for her future.

Leo slipped off his backpack and quietly started to unzip it. Dorothy alternated her attention between him and the sight before her, her mind blanking on a plan. She would normally find a way to use her surroundings to her advantage but she was in a building full of equipment that she had no clue how to operate.

The Cyclops in the chain mail loincloth walked over to a squirming Piper who was trying to head-butt him in the eye. He assessed her as if he was deciding what to season her with first.

"Can I take her gag off now? I like it when they scream."

The question was directed at the third Cyclops, apparently the leader. The crouching figure grunted, and Loincloth ripped the gag off Piper's mouth.
She didn't scream. She took a shaky breath like she was trying to keep herself calm.

Leo pulled out different parts of some devices that were ahead of Dorothy's time and a couple of tools. It was clear that what he was going to do was going to make noise but they didn't have a choice. Dorothy knew what she needed to do to buy him time. A Pat on his shoulder and she recalled the spell she read about masking her scent from monsters, she recited it in her head and she hoped that whatever she did worked as she silently crept away from Leo. He seemed to understand what she was doing and while he didn't like it from the expression on his face, he knew there was no other way.

Dorothy was going to mess with these beasts. Guns drawn, she let them audibly click when she was far enough away from Leo that if they had any inkling of him being there, it was gone.

The Loincloth looked around, unable to spot Dorothy who lurked in the shadows, making silent steps. She assessed the area, if she could find a good spot in the building, her gunshots would echo and hopefully, these cyclopses wouldn't know where the noise was coming from.

Alternatively, if she could get all three of them to face the same direction, she could quickly take out all three eyes, which would make the ambush much easier.

The Cyclops in the toga poked at the fire, which was now blazing away and billowing noxious black smoke toward the ceiling. His buddy Loincloth glowered at Piper, waiting for her to do something entertaining. "Scream, girl! I like funny screaming!"

When Piper finally spoke, her tone was calm and reasonable, like she was correcting a naughty puppy. "Oh, Mr. Cyclops, you don't want to kill us. It would be much better if you let us go."

Loincloth scratched his ugly head. He turned to his friend in the fiberglass toga. "She's kind of pretty, Torque. Maybe I should let her go."

Torque, the dude in the toga, growled.

"I saw her first, Sump. I'll let her go!"

Sump and Torque started to argue, but the third Cyclops rose and shouted, "Fools!"

Dorothy could see now that the third Cyclops was a female. She was several feet taller than Torque or Sump, and even more muscular. She wore a tent of chain mail cut like one of the dressing gowns the women in camp used to wear to bed. Her greasy black hair had clearly hadn't been brushed for years but she managed to have them tied back in pigtails, woven with copper wires and metal washers. Her face looked smashed as if she had lived most of her life using her head to beat things into submission; but her eye. Her single red eye shined and Dorothy could see that she was smarter than the other two, way smarter. This could get complicated.

The woman Cyclops stalked over to Sump and shoved him aside, sending him over the conveyor belt. Torque backed up quickly.

"The girl is Venus spawn," the lady Cyclops snarled. "She's using charmspeak on you."

Venus... Jason said Venus instead of Aphrodite too. Dorothy looked over where Leo was to see him peeking out and finding her. They shared a look. Dorothy would distract them only if needed. Leo seemed to be doing well on his side of the machine, for now, Dorothy would keep track of all the information that she was getting from this woman Cyclops.

Piper started to say, "Please, ma'am—"

The lady Cyclops roared in anger as she grabbed Piper around the waist. "Don't try your pretty talk on me, girl! I'm Ma Gasket! I've eaten heroes tougher than you for lunch!"

Dorothy's teeth clenched as she restrained herself, keeping a careful eye on Piper, seeing if she could tell if Piper was in pain from a new injury, but Ma Gasket just dropped her and let her dangle from her chain. Then she started yelling at Sump about how
stupid he was.

Dorothy noticed some motion out of the corner of her eye and saw that Leo was quickly and quietly making his way over to the robotic arm nearby as the Cyclopses distracted themselves with their talking.

"—eat her last, Ma?" Sump asked.

"Idiot!" Ma Gasket yelled, it brought Dorothy back to what she recalled a lot of the gang members describing their mothers to be like, Dorothy's own grandmother was a different story, and so was Johnathon's mom. She could tell that Ma Gasket was their actual mother just based on how she spoke to them now. Even if the apple didn't fall far from the tree regarding their looks. "I should've thrown you out on the streets when you were babies, like proper Cyclops children. You might have learned some useful skills. Curse my soft heart that I kept you!"

"Soft heart?" Torque muttered.

"What was that, you ingrate?"

"Nothing, Ma. I said you got a soft heart. We get to work for you, feed you, file your toenails—"

"And you should be grateful!" Ma Gasket bellowed. "Now, stoke the fire, Torque! And Sump, you idiot, my case of salsa is in the other warehouse. Don't tell me you expect me to eat these demigods without salsa!"

"Yes, Ma," Sump said. "I mean no, Ma. I mean—"

"Go get it!" Ma Gasket picked up a nearby empty frame and smashed it over Sump's head. Sump crumpled to his knees. Dorothy winced at the action, a blow like that should kill someone, but considering that Sump is a cyclops, she wasn't surprised to see him staggering to his feet as he pulled the frame off his head. He didn't waste time running off to get the salsa.

This was a perfect opportunity, Dorothy's guns felt like they were vibrating in her hands. Confused, she looked down at the two weapons that she finally noticed had a bit of a soft golden glow to them in the darkness. The vibration turned to a pulling sensation as if they were drawn to each other. Raising an eyebrow, Dorothy pressed the guns together and held her gasp as the two revolvers turned into a Henry-model Repeating Rifle with a lever function, Dorothy remembered seeing this gun in their new release catalog just a month before she went into the saloon, it wasn't new by any means, but it was new to her.

Aiming her gun, she zeroed in on Torque, hoping to find the perfect weak spot to end him quickly. She didn't want to draw out a long fight against giant beasts, not when half of her team was dangling upside down in chains.

Leo was farting around between robots, unnoticed by the Cyclopses, but not by Piper. Her expression turned from terror to disbelief, and she gasped.

Ma Gasket turned to her. "What's the matter, girl? So fragile I broke you?"

Dorothy was catching onto the fact that Piper was good at last-minute thinking. She looked away from Leo and said, "I think it's my ribs, ma'am. If I'm busted up inside, I'll taste terrible."

Ma Gasket bellowed with laughter. "Good one. The last hero we ate— remember him, Torque? Son of Mercury, wasn't he?"

Yet another Roman name for the gods, Dorothy found herself frowning even further, Mercury, Hermes equivalent, her father's father. The demigod wasn't her father, she was sure of it, but she found herself feeling a bit stronger about Hermes kids, Roman equivalent included.

"Yes, Ma," Torque said. "Tasty. Little bit stringy."

"He tried a trick like that. Said he was on medication. But he tasted fine!"

"Tasted like mutton," Torque recalled. "Purple shirt. Talked in Latin. Yes, a bit stringy, but good."

Dorothy's eyes widened, her jaw going a bit slack as she raised her head from the sight of the gun, processing what Torque said. Glancing between Piper and Leo, she knew they caught on too. Piper was already ten steps ahead, finding the perfect opportunity to learn about where Jason may have been from, "Purple shirt? Latin?"

"Good eating," Ma Gasket said fondly. "Point is, girl, we're not as dumb as people think! We're not falling for those stupid tricks and riddles, not us
northern Cyclopes."

Dorothy kept her aim on Torque, she couldn't kill him now, Ma Gasket was something to be feared. She needed an opening, one that only Leo could give her. And she soon realized that she would need a better angle from above where she was originally.

She silently cussed herself out as she went back the way she came. Looking around, Dorothy tried to find a spot that would give her an advantage. She climbed a series of boxes, her heart thundering in her chest as she did everything to stay silent. Dorothy wouldn't be surprised if her neckerchief was soaked with her hot breath.

Eventually, she was on a rickety catwalk that overlooked the warehouse, she had no idea why it would even be there when the place was still running, but she was grateful for it now as she laid flat on her stomach, adjusting her rifle as she aimed down on Torque. Now, when Leo made his move, he would have extra protection from above.

Piper kept talking, saying anything that would hold Ma Gasket's attention, complimenting anything she could.

"Oh, I've heard about the northern Cyclopes!" Dorothy doubted that, but it was clear Piper was subtly charm speaking with how convincing she sounded, "I never knew you were so big and clever!"

"Flattery won't work either," Ma Gasket said, though she sounded pleased. "It's true, you'll be breakfast for the best Cyclopes around."

"But aren't Cyclopes good?" Piper asked. "I thought you made weapons for the gods."

"Bah! I'm very good. Good at eating people. Good at smashing. And good at building things, yes, but not for the gods. Our cousins, the elder Cyclopes, they do this, yes. Thinking they're so high and mighty 'cause they're a few thousand years older. Then there's our southern cousins, living on islands and tending sheep. Morons! But we Hyperborean Cyclopes, the northern clan, we're the best! Founded Monocle Motors in this old factory—the best weapons, armor, chariots, fuel-efficient SUVs! And yet—bah! Forced to shut down. Laid off most of our tribe. The war was too quick. Titans lost. No good! No more need for Cyclops weapons."

"Oh, no," Piper sympathized. "I'm sure you made some amazing weapons."

Torque beamed with pride.

"Squeaky war hammer!" He picked up a large pole with an accordion-looking metal box on the end.
He slammed it against the floor and the cement cracked. It was squeaky alright, the noise was horrible to Dorothy's ears, she hoped that Torque didn't do any more presentations.

"Terrifying," Piper said.

Torque looked pleased. "Not as good as the exploding ax, but this one can be used more than once."

"Can I see it?" Piper asked. "If you could just free my hands—"

Torque stepped forward eagerly, but Ma Gasket said,

"Stupid! She's tricking you again. Enough talk! Slay the boy first before he dies on his own. I like my meat fresh."

Dorothy's breathing grew heavy as she fought her trigger finger from firing. These bullets were specialized in killing, but Dorothy figured that a Gatling gun would be more effective on a monster this size.

"Hey, wait," Piper said, trying to get the Cyclopes' attention. "Hey, can I just ask—"

From below Dorothy, she could hear the sparking of wires. Letting a cuss out from under her breath, she watched as the Cyclopes froze and turned in his direction. Then Torque picked up a truck and threw it at Leo.

From above, Dorothy could see everything, she could see Leo roll as the truck steamrolled over the machinery. If had been there a second longer Dorothy would have been witness to him being crushed. Leo got to his feet, and Ma Gasket spotted him. She yelled, "Torque, you pathetic excuse for a Cyclops, get him!"

Torque barreled toward him. Leo frantically worked on the device in his hand, whatever he was doing, he needed to hurry the hell up.

Torque was fifty feet away. Twenty feet. Dorothy aimed her gun at Torque's eye, firing a single shot, he cried out, his hands flying to his face as he stumbled in Leo's direction.

Then the first robotic arm came to life, startling Dorothy as she watched on. A three-ton yellow metal claw slammed the Cyclops in the back so hard, he landed flat on his face. Before Torque could do anything else, the claw grabbed him by his leg and threw him straight up.

"AHHHHH!" Torque was at eye level with Dorothy when his body slammed into one of the ceiling supports, blowing up into a cloud of yellow dust. Her wide eyes never blinked as she watched what was left of Torque flutter down to the ground.

Ma Gasket stared at Leo in shock. "My son... You... You..."

As if on cue, Sump lumbered into the firelight with a case of salsa. "Ma, I got the extra-spicy—"

Dorothy had cut him off, firing a few more rounds into Sump's eye. When Sump cried out, that too was cut off when Leo somehow made the second robotic arm spin around and slam into Sump's chest. The jar of salsa that he held exploded as if Dorothy had shot it too and Sump flew backward, right into the base of another large machine. The arm of the machine he crashed into also came to life thanks to Leo. It slammed Sump against the floor so hard, he exploded into dust just like his brother.

Two out of three were dead. Dorothy started to feel confident in herself until Ma Gasket locked her eye on Leo. Her heart felt as if it dropped to the ground next to Leo. Ma Gasket grabbed the nearest robot arm and ripped it off its pedestal with a booming roar.

"You busted my boys! Only I get to bust my boys!"
Leo hit something on the device he held, and the two remaining arms swung into action. Ma Gasket caught the first one and tore it in half. The second arm smacked her in the head, but that didn't do anything but piss her off. She grabbed it by the clamps, ripped it free, and swung it around. It missed Piper and Jason by an inch. Then Ma Gasket let it go— spinning it toward Leo. Dorothy yelled out, trying to shoot her magic down to push Leo out of the way, he was already in motion when it struck him, pushing him farther out of the way.

Ma Gasket shot her glare up in Dorothy's direction, but it was obvious that she couldn't see exactly where Dorothy was. That didn't stop from Dorothy letting out a shuddering breath, her hands shook but she made her best efforts to steel her nerves.

"The fourth hero," she sneered, "I'll kill you all!"

She stood about twenty feet away from Leo now, next to the cooking fire. Her fists were clenched, her teeth bared like she was a wild animal. Her appearance maybe would have undermined the threat—but the feral killer glare in her huge red eye and the fact that she was twelve feet tall made Dorothy tremble on her stomach.

"Any more tricks, demigods?" Ma Gasket demanded.

Leo noticed something above him and Ma Gasket, Dorothy followed his line of sight to see a machine hanging from chain links. She wondered what his mind was cooking up as she looked back down at Ma Gasket.

"Hell yeah, I got tricks!" Leo raised his remote control. "Take one more step, and I'll destroy you with fire!"

Ma Gasket laughed. "Would you? Cyclopes are immune to fire, you idiot. But if you wish to play with flames, let me help!"

She grabbed a fistful of red-hot coals into her bare hands and flung them at Leo. Considering the size of her fists, there were a lot of coals but miraculously they all scattered around his feet.

"You missed," Leo said, clearly shocked. Then Ma Gasket grinned and picked up a barrel next to the truck. Dorothy squinted, unable to read the words on the side but she figured that whatever was in there would ignite. She didn't have enough time to use her powers to get Leo out of the way, and even then, she wouldn't be able to get him far away enough.

The barrel cracked open over the coals, one tiny spark, and Leo was engulfed in flames, the heat blasted at Dorothy, the smell making her cringe, but not what she expected. She had unfortunately learned what the smell of a burning body is, and she couldn't smell Leo.

"No!" Piper screamed, her wriggling grew more fierce as she tried everything to get out.

The first died down pretty quickly, and when Leo was revealed to still be fully alive and unscathed, Dorothy tilted her head, her eyebrows furrowed. He was resistant to fire. The fire that the Boreas smelled on him... what was he?

Piper gasped when she saw that Leo was still standing, she was just as confused.

"Leo?"

Ma Gasket looked taken aback.

"You live?" She asked as she took a step forward, her head tilting and her eye narrowing onto him, "What are you?"

"The son of Hephaestus," Leo said. "And I warned you I'd destroy you with fire."

He pointed one finger up at the chain Dorothy caught him staring at earlier. She nearly cried out when a stream of white-hot fire shot out from it. He looked to be targeting a specific spot on the chain, the chain glowing red as the heat boiled it. Dorothy instantly knew what Leo's plan was.

The flames died out and Dorothy aimed her gun up, her hands were still shaking from the rush and fear from Ma Gaskets state. She could hear the monster laughing from below her, a taunt that wasn't aimed at Dorothy but felt like it. That pissed her off.

"An impressive try, son of Hephaestus. It's been many centuries since I saw a fire user. You'll make a spicy appetizer!"

Dorothy's last nerve was fired. Rage burned through her at the idea that they failed and her aim stilled. A single shot was all she needed to break the already weak chain.

The large machine fell, making Dorothy smirk as Ma Gasket was right below it.

"I don't think so," Leo said.

Ma Gasket didn't even have time to look up.
She didn't even crumple, once the machine block fell far enough on her head, like her sons, she exploded into yellow dust.

"Not immune to engines, huh?" Leo said. "Boo-yah!"

Dorothy cheered as she climbed down from her spot the same way she got up, once she was at a low enough point, she jumped the rest of the way down, using her powers similarly to how she did before, the purple, shadowy mist carrying her down to the safety of the warehouse floor.

Leo fell to his knees, holding his head, he seemed to be in a daze. Dorothy ran over to him, setting the gun down on the floor, she pulled his hands away from his head and dug into her satchel, she knew for a fact that Josephine also packed some ambrosia in her satchel. She broke off the tiniest piece from the bar she had and crammed it into Leo's mouth. His pale skin returned to its tan color.

"Leo! Are you all right? Can you move?"

Leo slowly got up, the ambrosia helped him get to his feet, but it was clear he'd never played with fire like that so intensely, it had drained him.

Once Dorothy figured out a plan to get them down that didn't break their necks, she followed Leo's instructions with the machines. He tried helping her but she wanted to make sure he rested up, he would be no help to anyone if he hurt himself too. Once Piper and a still unconscious Jason were down, Piper looked around for her bag while Dorothy got a bit of the bottled nectar she also had down Jason's throat. The drink thankfully brought the lump on his head down and the color back to his skin.

Dorothy sighed in relief. Maybe she has a chance to finally relax now. She looked over at Leo and Piper who now had her bag back.

"Yeah, he's got a nice thick skull," Leo said. "I think he's gonna be fine."

"Thank god," Piper sighed. Then she looked at Leo with something fearful in her eyes. "How did you—the fire—have you always...?"

Leo looked down. "Always," he said. "I'm a freaking menace. Sorry, I should've told you guys sooner but—"

"Sorry?" Piper punched his arm. When he looked up, she was grinning. "That was amazing, Valdez! You saved guys our lives. What are you sorry about?"

"Besides," Dorothy shrugged, a small smile forming on her face, "I would've figured it out anyway."

Leo blinked. He started to smile, but he stopped, his attention locked onto the ground next to Piper. Dorothy looked over to see what caused the alarm and it was like her senses were starting to guard themselves again.

The yellow dust—the only remains of one of the Cyclopes, maybe Torque—was shifting across the floor like an invisible wind was pushing it around, as if he was slowly reforming.

"They're forming again," Leo said. "Look."

Piper stepped away from the dust. "That's not possible. Annabeth told me monsters dissipate when they're killed. They go back to Tartarus and can't return for a long time."

"Well, nobody told the dust that." Leo watched as it collected into a pile, then slowly started forming a shape with arms and legs.

Dorothy didn't want to waste time, her guns were back to being two revolvers that she shoved back into her holsters. She got Jason into a sitting position and moved into a crouching position. Jason was heavy, but if she adjusted her stance, she could at least get him out of the building, out of the three conscious people, Leo was still recovering from his powers and Piper's foot was still healing.

"Oh, god." Piper turned pale. "Boreas said something about this—the earth yielding up horrors. 'When monsters no longer stay in Tartarus, and souls are no longer confined to Hades.' How long do you think we have?"

"I don't know," Leo said, he looked to be thinking back on something, maybe that dirt woman she saw outside, "But we need to get out of here."

*.·:·.⟐.·:·.*

11k words

woooooWEE y'all I'm thinking that I'm on a roll again. Everyone thank uncle Rick and the pjo series for pulling my motivation for this book out of the trenches!!

To be quiet honest, I missed Dorothy and I love exploring her powers and I wanted to see what I could do with her weapons bc her guns are so cool and I wish I had them. (Im floridian, don't hold it against me)

anyways, I want to thank you for reading and I hope to see you at the next update!!

— greta!