[camera obscura]

Tessa felt her pulse hammer away through her veins, the edge of Vinny's blade pressing too close to her carotid artery. One wrong move and she'd be dead, and she doubted that her uncle would bring her back to life again. She grit her teeth, forcing herself to remain calm as she watched the scene before her play out.

            "Get them," Vinny said tiredly from behind Tessa. She could feel the resonations of his voice, the pulse of his own heartbeat. It made her sick, but at the same time, she wished that she could take her own blade and pierce it right through the son of Victoria's heart.

            Vinny's henchmen moved forward, and her friends sprang into action. Sophia leapt towards one of the goons, slashing her blade at him. However, the man was too fast, and apprehended her in a similar way to how Tessa had been. Reese strung arrow after arrow, firing at the man who blitzed him, but with a well-executed kick, Reese's golden bow clattered out of his hands and skittered across the floor. The only one left standing was Kaden, his golden sword in his hands and a deadly look in his glittering green eyes.

            "How are you, Kaden?" Vinny asked, his voice dripping in sarcasm. "Heard they made you praetor. Think you'll be able to handle the job?"

            Kaden didn't so much as blink. A muscle in his clenched jaw twitched, and Tessa noted how as his grip on his sword tightened, the angry look from his eyes melted away. "Let my friends go, Vinny. It doesn't have to be like this."

            "Oh, but it does." Vinny said breathily. "And I'm afraid that your little girlfriend here is wanted dead or alive. I should take her prisoner just as I did that daughter of Pluto."

            Sophia gasped from within the grasp of her captor. Her pale blue eyes shimmered with rage and sorrow, and she struggled against her captor's embrace. Tessa knew in that moment: Vinny had captured Alexia. That's why she wasn't at camp.

            Kaden's face paled a bit, but he recovered. "Don't hurt her," He breathed, desperation in his visage.

            "You mean like this?" Vinny said, an amused tone in his voice. Tessa felt the edge of the blade dig into the skin of her neck, and stars danced before her eyes at the sudden stab of pain. Trickles of blood ran down her neck.

            Kaden's eyes flickered with a deadly fire. "If you hurt her, I swear to the gods that I will kill you myself."

            "You're just a son of Venus, Kaden, what harm can you possibly do?" Vinny drawled.

            "What harm can I do?" Kaden looked almost offended. "You said it yourself, I was made praetor. I defeated the drakon. I've fought a whole lot of monsters and baddies in my lifetime that I bet you can't even fight yourself. Besides, your little friends aren't attacking me." He glanced at the goons surrounding them before gazing back at Vinny. "I'd say they're afraid."

            Tessa took a sharp breath, trying not to dwell on the blade at her throat. She tried to meet Kaden's gaze, but as he continued to speak, she felt her heart leap.

            "Face it, Vinny, deep down, you don't want to hurt me. Or my friends." Kaden said, his voice taking on the lacy quality of his charmspeak. "You must be so tired of following orders. First, Kaya and Alex, and then Orion and the Regiment."

            Maybe it was Tessa's imagination, but she felt Vinny's grip on her begin to loosen.

            "You're so tired and angry and all you want's gotta be having people you can count on," Kaden continued, slowly taking steps forward. "I left you and the others, and I'm sorry."

            As Kaden continued to charmspeak Vinny, Tessa tried her best to analyze the situation. Sophia was still apprehended by Henchman One, her arms crossed behind her back. Reese was in a similar situation, but as Tessa looked closer, she thought she could see his blue eyes begin to glow. Quickly, her eyes darted over to Kaden, who was looming closer.

            "So rest, Vinny," Kaden said. His voice sent a wave of magic through Tessa's body, and even though it wasn't directed to her, she wanted to just slide to the ground and take a good nap. She fought the feeling and looked around the room, finding that Vinny's henchmen were looking a little hazy-eyed too.

            Tessa waited, her heart pounding in her chest.

            Three--

            Vinny's grip on her hands loosened.

            Two—

            The blade he had against her throat hovered away from it.

            One.

            The cavern erupted into light, and despite Tessa's initial confusion, she needed to get away from Vinny. She'd fought the former centurion once before, and hopefully, he'd be too dazed to fight back. She slammed her elbow behind her, hitting him forcefully, then stamped down on his foot. Before he could get too far, Tessa turned, gripping his shoulders as she brought her knee between his legs, and after the impact, she elbowed him again.

            The traitor crumbled to the ground, too incapacitated to even try to overwhelm her.

            "That," Kaden said, a soft smirk on his face. "Was amazing."

            Tessa matched his smirk with one of her own as she bent down to retrieve Tempest from the cavern floor. "What else did you expect from me?"

            Another flare of light burst into the cavern, and Tessa followed it back to Reese. The son of Apollo stood in the center of his own solar burst, flares and whips and rays of light erupting around him like the creation of a new dawn. His blond hair shimmered in the light, reflecting heat like the locks were molten gold. However, most entrancing of all was Reese's blue eyes, which blazed like the hottest rings of fire.

            Reese fought like a demon, blasting away the goons that approached him with rays and beams of light. They flew against the cavern wall, slumping to the ground in unconscious dazes. After a moment, they all were down, Vinny included.

            "When'd you learn to do that?" Sophia asked breathlessly as she sauntered away from where she'd been fighting her captor.

            The light faded from around Reese, and he stumbled a little bit. Kaden helped him stand, and Tessa darted over to retrieve his fallen bow. "That's a secret," He flashed a weak smile at Sophia.

            Tessa handed him his bow before turning to scan the room. Their enemies seemed to be disabled, but as she gazed back to the edge of the pool, Vinny was nowhere to be found.

            "That's cute," His voice drawled, echoing off the room. "You all thought you could knock me out."

            Tessa clenched her jaw. "Vinny," She called. "Show yourself. Or are you and your cohorts too big of cowards to face your enemies?"

            As if she had charmspoken him, the son of Victoria sauntered into view, as if he'd materialized out of thin air. His hands were stuffed in his pockets, but the malicious glint in his blue eyes was enough to tell Tessa that he could kill them if he wanted. Vinny eyed the weapons that were now aimed at him, and he only chuckled.

            "Careful," He chided. "If you all attack me with those, I'll make sure that those prisoners I mentioned earlier are taken care of."

            Prisoners? Aside from Alexia, who else had he taken?

            Vinny must have read her mind, because he smirked at her, his face phantasmal. "No weapons, no one gets hurt."

            "Do you swear on the Styx?" Tessa asked, batting her eyelashes innocently.

            "I swear on the Styx." Vinny grinned a fox's smile.

            Well, if he insisted.

            "Have it your way, then," Tessa gave him her most dazzling smile. She tapped Tempest's hilt, shoving it into her pocket.

            "There we go, now I suggest that you all follow suit—" Vinny started, but Tessa cut him off.

            Behind Vinny, the reflecting pool of the cavern erupted at Tessa's silent will. She forced the water into hands, snatching the son of Victoria up and dragging him back under. His screams were muffled and Tessa forced herself to maintain her grip on him.

            So what if he drowned? So what if he died? One less enemy to worry about.

            "Tessa, what are you doing?" Sophia asked incredulously.

            Tessa didn't answer. She marched over to the edge of the pool, expecting to see the body of a traitor floating to the top.

            But there was nothing. No one. The pool was as empty as it had been before.

            "What?" Tessa's face paled as she looked around in bewilderment. "That doesn't make any sense."

            A rumble shook the cavern, and a flare of panic shot through Tessa's heart. She cursed Vinny's name under her breath, hurrying back to her friends. "Let's go." She grumbled.

            Without so much as a second glance, Tessa and her friends barreled through the cavern and back into the Labyrinth, hearts pounding as loud as the cavern caving on itself once again.

~~

            "He's a monster," Kaden grumbled, his arms propped up on his knees. He leant against the red brick wall of the Labyrinth, staring at the orb of light that Reese had formed before he and Sophia fell asleep.

            "That's a given," Tessa concurred. She took a sip from her water bottle, even though it was lukewarm, savoring the feeling of the energy rushing through her. "But at least he's gone."

            "For now," Kaden countered, meeting her gaze from across the tunnel. "How do we know where he could be?"

            "Well," Tessa set down her water bottle. "We don't. But my best guess would be that he fled back to the Regiment's base."

            Kaden nodded, his eyes flickering in the low light. "This needs to end, Tessa. We can't let any more people get hurt."

            Tessa forced the image of Alex's dying face from her mind. "I know." Her voice was soft, hardly a whisper. "But every war has its casualties."

            "I just don't want you to be among them," Kaden said, and the heartbreak in his voice, in his eyes, made Tessa press her lips together. "I've seen you die, Tessa. I was there, holding your body, and I couldn't fathom that I'd lost you. I...I can't let it happen again."

            "It won't," Tessa tried to offer solace, but she couldn't promise something like that. She was wanted dead or alive, nothing was certain anymore. The lines were all blurred, as obscure as the maze they sat in at that moment.

            Kaden took a ragged breath. "I'm just afraid that something awful is going to happen to someone I care about. There are so many variables to keep track of, so many faces in so many places, and what hurts me most is that I can't protect them all." He met Tessa's gaze. "Especially you. I'd do anything to make sure you were safe, even..." His voice trailed off, a light brightening in his eyes.

            "Even what?" Tessa asked softly, although a slight edge had crept into her voice.

            Kaden looked up at her. "You mentioned that the rogue members of the Regiment were at Camp Half-Blood, right?"

            "Right, but—"

            "I think I just figured out how the Regiment recruits their soldiers." Kaden said, his voice laced with discovery.

~~

            "So you think that Orion somehow promises his recruits something and that makes them loyal to him?" Reese asked as they continued on down the Labyrinth.

            "Something like that," Kaden confirmed. Hours later and the light in his eyes still hadn't faded.

            "How do you know?"

            "Vinny mentioned something about Orion promising him everything he couldn't have at Camp Jupiter. And I know Vinny. He wouldn't just go along with some stranger for no reason." Kaden theorized.

            "Or maybe he's a backstabbing, lying, traitorous urchin who's trying to be a power vacuum." Sophia grumbled, folding her arms across her chest.

            "Let's call that Option B." Kaden flashed her a sympathetic smile, and Sophia tried weakly to match it.

            Tessa met Sophia's gaze, trying to return some sense of solace to the daughter of Athena. She could only image how she was feeling, having just found out that her girlfriend had been captured by the Regiment. However, if Tessa knew Sophia, she'd only let the news drive her even more.

            Tessa bit back a laugh. The Regiment would never knew what hit them if that was the case.

            "Regardless," Tessa spoke. "It's as good of a theory as any. Three members of the Regiment are at camp right now, so we can ask them about how they joined to get more information."

            "Then let's hope we get there before the turn of the century," Reese clapped his hands together. The son of Apollo looked to be in better health than he had been after the battle at Crystal Cave, which was good, considering he'd need it for what was surely to come.

            The demigods continued on down the maze, and before long, the red brick of the tunnel began to turn into polished gray ones set into a labyrinthine pattern. Tiles materialized along the walls, with blue deltas engraved into them. Sounds of swords clashing and arrows firing and chatter echoed throughout the tunnel, and Tessa felt her heart begin to race.

            "Come on!" She said, speeding up her gait.

            Tessa barreled down the remainder of the tunnel, her friends in her wake. Surely enough, a ladder stood at the end of the hall, its rungs leading up to where two boulders seemed to be shielding the entrance. Tessa could see light filtering in through the crevice at the top, as well as green grass and the shimmer of Celestial Bronze.

            She was home.