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"WHO IS ETHAN?" Hazel asked

Lucia avoided eye contact. Nemesis's words were still buzzing in her ears.

"Long story," She said. "We dated, but I wasn't exactly fit to be in a relationship at the time... He passed away last August..."

"And now you're with Percy?" Leo blurted out. The tone in his voice held a hint of what she thought was judgment.

Her face fell,  "It wasn't that simple. But I don't have to explain myself to you."

The subject was dropped then and there.

Lucia cleared her throat and tried to regulate her anxious heartbeat, she didn't want to focus on her memories. "Hazel, how'd you find out Nico was your brother?."

She blinked like she'd gotten salt in her eyes. "Nico...he found me in the Underworld. He brought me back to the mortal world and convinced the Romans at Camp Jupiter to accept me. I owe him for my second chance at life. If Nemesis is right, and Nico's in danger...I need to help him."

"Nico is important to me." Lucia's voice drooped, "He's like family. Don't worry, We will help him."

Lucia doubted the revenge goddess ever advised out of the goodness of her heart. But there was no way in hell that she was going to let those six days pass without any attempt. She promised Bianca Di Angelo once that she would take care of Nico. And to this day, Lucia swears to.

"Sure," Leo said, though he sounded uneasy."And what Nemesis said about your brother having six days to live, and Rome getting destroyed...any idea what she meant?"

"None," Hazel admitted. "But I'm afraid..."

Whatever she was thinking, she decided not to share it. She climbed one of the largest boulders to get a better view. Leo tried to follow and lost his balance. Hazel caught his hand. She pulled him up and they found themselves atop the rock, holding hands, face-to-face.

Lucia watched awkwardly. seriously? should I leave?

"Um, thanks." He let go of her hand, but they were still standing so close.

"When we were talking to Nemesis," Hazel said uneasily, "your hands...I saw flames."

"Yeah," he said. "It's a Hephaestus power. Usually, I can keep it under control."

"Oh." She put one hand protectively on her denim shirt like she was about to say the Pledge of Allegiance. Lucia got the feeling she wanted to back away from him.

Hazel then realized she was still waiting, apologized, and made space for Lucia to stand next to them.

She disregarded it and helped herself on, gazing across the island. The opposite shore was only a few hundred yards away. Between here and there were dunes and clumps of boulders, but nothing that looked like a reflecting pool.

She then looked beside her and got a glimpse of the usual upbeat fire boy looking down in the dumps.

"Leo?" Hazel asked gently. "You can't take what Nemesis said to heart."

He frowned. "What if it's true?"

"She's the goddess of revenge," Lucia reminded them all. "Maybe she's on our side, maybe not; but she exists to stir up resentment."

"We should keep going," He nodded, though he didn't seem completely convinced. "I wonder what Nemesis meant about finishing before dark."

Lucia gazed at the sun, which was just touching the horizon. She wondered if her dad was driving the chariot. If he wasn't, where was he? Was he struggling with his own identity as well? Did he know anything about these new prophecies? could he help her in any way?

She had none of the answers.

"And who is the cursed boy she mentioned?" Hazel asked,

Below them, a voice said, "Cursed boy she mentioned."

At first, Lucia saw no one. Then her eyes adjusted. She realized a young woman was standing only ten feet from the base of the boulder. Her dress was a Greek-style tunic the same color as the rocks. Her wispy hair was somewhere between brown and blond and gray, so it blended with the dry grass. She wasn't invisible, exactly, but she was almost perfectly camouflaged until she moved. Even then, Lucia had trouble focusing on her. Her face was pretty but each time Lucia blinked, she had to concentrate to find her again.

"Hello," Lucia was polite. "Who are you?"

"Who are you?" the girl answered. Her voice sounded weary like she was tired of answering that question.

The three exchanged looks.

"Are you the cursed kid Nemesis mentioned?" Leo asked. "But you're a girl."

"You're a girl," said the girl.

"Excuse me?" Leo said.

"Excuse me," the girl said miserably.

"You're repeating..." Lucia frowned. She remembered reading once about the nymph who was destined for a fate where she could only repeat the sounds and last words of others. "Your name, is it, Echo?"

"Echo," the girl agreed. She shifted, her dress changing with the landscape. Her eyes were the color of the salt water.

"I know that myth, but I don't remember much," Leo admitted. "You were cursed to repeat the last thing you heard?"

"You heard," Echo said.

"If I remember right, Hera did this?" Lucia asked

"Hera did this," Echo confirmed with bitterness.

Leo scratched his head. "But wasn't that thousands of years...oh. You're one of the mortals who came back through the Doors of Death. I really wish we could stop running into dead people."

"Dead people," Echo said, like she was chastising him.

Lucia realized Hazel was staring at her feet. "Leo." She warned,

"Uh...sorry," he muttered. "I didn't mean it that way."

"That way." Echo pointed toward the far shore of the island.

"You want to show us something?" Lucia asked. She climbed down the boulder, and the younger two followed.

Even up close, Echo was hard to see. But Lucia was able to memorize just a sliver of the details on her face due to her grandmother being the muse of history.

"You sure you're real?" Leo asked. "I mean...flesh and blood?"

"Flesh and blood." She touched Leo's face and made him cringe.

"So...you have to repeat everything?" he asked.

"Everything."

Leo couldn't help smiling. "That could be fun."

"Fun," she said unhappily.

"Blue elephants."

"Blue elephants."

"Kiss me, you fool."

"You fool."

"Hey!"

"Hey!"

"Leo," Hazel pleaded, "don't tease her."

"Don't tease her," Echo agreed.

"Okay, okay," Leo said, though it seemed like he had to resist the urge. "So what were you pointing at? Do you need our help?"

"Help," Echo agreed emphatically. She gestured for them to follow and sprinted down the slope.

"We'd better hurry," Hazel said. "Or we'll lose her."

They found the problem—if you call a mob of good-looking girls a problem. Lucia usually wouldn't.

Echo led them down into a grassy meadow shaped like a blast crater, with a small pond in the middle. Gathered at the water's edge were several dozen nymphs. At least, Lucia guessed they were nymphs. Like the ones at Camp Half-Blood, these wore gossamer dresses. Their feet were bare. They had elfish features, and their skin had a slightly greenish tinge.

They were all crowded together in one spot, facing the pond and jostling for a better view. Several held up phone cameras, trying to get a shot over the heads of the others. Lucia had never seen nymphs with phones.

"What are they looking at?" Leo wondered.

"Looking at," Echo sighed.

"One way to find out." Hazel marched forward and began nudging her way through the crowd. "Excuse us. Pardon me."

"Hey!" one nymph complained. "We were here first!"

"Yeah," another sniffed. "He won't be interested in you." The second nymph had large red hearts painted on her cheeks. Over her dress, she wore a T-shirt that read: OMG, I <3 N!!!!

"If you don't get out of her way you'll find out how interesting we can be. " Lucia demanded.

They grumbled, but they parted to reveal a young man kneeling at the edge of the pond, gazing intently at the water.

Lucia couldn't dismiss the fact that the guy at the pond was one super good-looking dude. He had a chiseled face with lips and eyes that were somewhere between feminine beautiful and masculine handsome. Dark hair swept over his brow. He might've been seventeen or twenty, it was hard to say, but he was built like a dancer—with long graceful arms and muscular legs, perfect posture, and an air of regal calm.

He wore a simple white T-shirt and jeans, with a bow and quiver strapped to his back. The weapons hadn't been used in a while. The arrows were covered in dust. A spider had woven a web in the top of the bow.

As Lucia edged closer, he realized the guy's face was unusually golden. In the sunset, the light was bouncing off a large flat sheet of Celestial bronze that lay at the bottom of the pond, washing Mr. Handsome's features in a warm glow. The guy seemed fascinated with his reflection in the metal.

Hazel inhaled sharply. "He's gorgeous."

Around her, the nymphs squealed and clapped in agreement.

"I am," the young man murmured dreamily, his gaze still fixed on the water. "I am so gorgeous."

Lucia rolled her eyes, "Woop dee doo. I can glow too. What makes him special?" She scoffed, unimpressed.

One of the nymphs showed her iPhone screen. "His latest YouTube video got a million hits in like, an hour. I think I was half of those!"

The other nymphs giggled.

"YouTube video?" Leo asked. "What does he do in the video, sing?"

"No, silly!" the nymph chided. "He used to be a prince, and a wonderful hunter and stuff. But that doesn't matter. Now he just...well, look!"

She showed them the video. It was exactly what they were seeing in real life—the guy staring at himself in the pond.

"He is sooooo hot!" said another girl. Her T-shirt read: MRS. NARCISSUS.

"Narcissus?" Leo asked.

"Narcissus," Echo agreed sadly.

Lucia had forgotten Echo was there. None of the nymphs had
noticed her either.

"Oh, not you again!" Mrs. Narcissus tried to push Echo away, but she misjudged where the camouflaged girl was and ended up shoving several other nymphs.

"You had your chance, Echo!" said the nymph with the iPhone. "He dumped you four thousand years ago! You are so not good enough for him."

"For him," Echo said bitterly.

"Wait." Hazel clearly had trouble tearing her eyes away from the handsome guy, but she managed it. "What's going on here? Why did Echo bring us here?"

One nymph rolled her eyes. She was holding an autograph pen and a crumpled poster of Narcissus. "Echo was a nymph like us, a long time ago, but she was a total chatterbox! Gossiping, blah, blah, blah, all the time."

"I know!" another nymph shrieked. "Like, who could stand that? Just the other day, I told Cleopeia—you know she lives in the boulder next to me?—I said: Stop gossiping or you'll end up like Echo. Cleopeia is such a big mouth! Did you hear what she said about that cloud nymph and the satyr?"

"Totally!" said the nymph with the poster. "So anyway, as punishment for blabbing, Hera cursed Echo so she could only repeat things, which was fine with us. But then Echo fell in love with our gorgeous guy, Narcissus—as if he would ever notice her."

"As if!" said half a dozen others.

Lucia sent them all a death stare.

"Now she's got some weird idea he needs saving," said Mrs. Narcissus. "She should just go away."

"Go away," Echo growled back.

"I'm so glad Narcissus is alive again," said another nymph in a gray dress. She had the words NARCISSUS + LAIEA written up and down her arms in black marker. "He's like the best! And he's in my territory."

"Oh, stop it, Laiea," her friend said. "I'm the pond nymph. You're just the rock nymph."

"Well, I'm the grass nymph," another protested.

"No, he obviously came here because he likes the wildflowers!" another said. "Those are mine!"

The whole mob began arguing while Narcissus stared at the lake, ignoring them.

"Hold it!" Leo yelled. "Ladies, hold it! I need to ask Narcissus something." Slowly the nymphs settled down and went back to taking pictures.

Leo knelt next to the handsome dude. "So, Narcissus. What's up?"

"Could you move?" Narcissus asked distractedly. "You're ruining the view." Leo looked in the water. His own reflection rippled next to Narcissus's on the surface of the submerged bronze. There was no doubt the metal was a sheet of hammered Celestial bronze.

What it was doing in this pond, Lucia wasn't sure. Celestial bronze fell to earth in odd places. She'd heard that most pieces were cast off from Leo's dad's various workshops. Hephaestus would lose his temper when projects didn't work out, and he'd toss his scraps into the mortal world.

"Right, great view," Leo said. "Happy to move, but if you're not using it, could I just take that sheet of bronze?"

"No," Narcissus said. "I love him. He's so gorgeous."

Lucia looked around to see if the nymphs were laughing. This had to be a huge joke. But they were swooning and nodding in agreement. Only Hazel and Lucia seemed appalled.

Hazel wrinkled her nose as if she'd concluded that Narcissus smelled worse than he looked.

"Dude," Lucia said to Narcissus. "You do realize that you're looking at yourself in the water, right?"

"I am so great," Narcissus sighed. He stretched out a hand longingly to touch the water but held back. "No, I can't make ripples. That ruins the image. Wow...I am so great."

Lucia debated on burning through the scrap metal to ruin his oh-so-perfect view, but she had a feeling Leo wouldn't be able to fix the ship with a gaping hole in their material.

"Yeah," Leo muttered. "But if I took the bronze, you could still see yourself in the water. Or here..." He reached into his tool belt and pulled out a simple mirror the size of a monocle. "I'll trade you."

Narcissus took the mirror, reluctantly, and admired himself. "Even you carry a picture of me? I don't blame you. I am gorgeous. Thank you."

Lucia snorted, "Oh, wow he's serious?"

He set the mirror down and returned his attention to the pond. "But I already have a much better image. The color flatters me, don't you think?"

"Oh, gods, yes!" a nymph screamed. "Marry me, Narcissus!" "No, me!" another cried. "Would you sign my poster?"

"No, sign my shirt!"

"No, sign my forehead!"

"No, sign my B—"

Lucia snapped. "Stop it!"

"Stop it," Echo agreed.

Lucia had lost sight of Echo again, but now she realized she was kneeling on the other side of Narcissus, waving her hand in front of his face as if trying to break his concentration. Narcissus didn't even blink.

The nymph fan club tried to shove Hazel out of the way, but she drew her cavalry sword and forced them back. "Snap out of it!" she yelled.

"He won't sign your sword," the poster nymph complained.

"He won't marry you," said the iPhone girl. "And you can't take his bronze mirror! That's what keeps him here!"

"You're all ridiculous," Lucia scoffed. "His ego is bigger than his--"

"Oh, my gods!" Leo's eyes widened.

"I was going to say brain!" She defended,

Hazel looked confused, but nodded in agreement. "This guy is so full of himself, how could you all actually like him?"

"Like him," Echo sighed, still waving her hand in front of his face.

The others sighed along with her.

"I am so hot," Narcissus said sympathetically.

"Narcissus, listen." Hazel kept her sword at the ready. "Echo brought us here to help you. Didn't you, Echo?"

"Echo," said Echo.

"Who?" Narcissus said.

"The only girl who cares what happens to you, apparently," Lucia said. "Do you remember dying?"

Narcissus frowned. "I...no. That can't be right. I am much too important to die."

"You died staring at yourself," she insisted. "I remember the story now. Nemesis was the goddess who cursed you because you were breaking so many hearts. Your punishment was to fall in love with your own reflection. Something that you could never be with."

"I love me so, so much," Narcissus agreed.

"You finally died," Lucia continued. "I don't know which version of the story is true. You either drowned yourself or turned into a flower hanging over the water or—Echo, which is it?"

"Which is it?" she said hopelessly.

Leo stood. "It doesn't matter. The point is you're alive again, man. You have a second chance. That's what Nemesis was telling us. You can get up, and get on with your life. Echo is trying to save you. Or you can stay here and stare at yourself until you die again."

"Stay here!" all the nymphs screamed.

"Marry me before you die!" another squeaked.

Narcissus shook his head. "You just want my reflection. I don't blame you, but you can't have it. I belong to me."

Hazel sighed in exasperation. She glanced at the sun, which was sinking fast. Then she gestured with her sword toward the edge of the crater. "Leo, Lucia,  could we talk for a minute?"

"Excuse us," Leo told Narcissus. "Echo, want to come with?"

"Come with," Echo confirmed.

The nymphs clustered around Narcissus again and began recording new videos and taking more photos.

Hazel led the way until they were out of earshot. "Nemesis was right," she said. "Some demigods can't change their nature. Narcissus is going to stay there until he dies again."

"No," Leo said.

"No," Echo agreed.

"We need that bronze," Leo said. "If we take it away, it might give Narcissus a reason to snap out of it. Echo could have a chance to save him."

"A chance to save him," Echo said gratefully.

Hazel stabbed her sword into the lime. "It could also make several dozen nymphs very angry with us," she said. "And Narcissus might still know how to shoot his bow.

Lucia pondered that. The sun was just about down. Nemesis had mentioned that Narcissus got agitated after dark, probably because he couldn't see his reflection anymore. And Lucia wasn't going to do him any favors.

"Hazel," Leo asked, "your power with precious metal— Can you just detect it, or can you actually summon it to you?"

She frowned. "Sometimes I can summon it. I've never tried with a piece of Celestial bronze that big before. I might be able to draw it to me through the earth, but I'd have to be fairly close. It would take a lot of concentration, and it wouldn't be fast."

"Be fast," Echo warned.

Leo cursed. He had probably hoped they could just go back to the ship, and Hazel could teleport the Celestial bronze from a safe distance.

Ha, like it was ever that easy.

"All right," He said. "We'll have to try something risky. Hazel, how about you try to summon the bronze from right here? Make it sink through the sand and tunnel over to you, then grab it and run for the ship."

"But Narcissus is looking at it all the time," she said.

"All the time," Echo echoed.

"That'll be my job," He said, "Echo, Lucia, and I will cause a distraction."

"What kind of distraction?." Lucia asked

"Distraction?"

"I'll explain," Leo promised them. "Are you willing?"

"Willing," Echo said.

"Whatever," Lucia said. "Let's just try not to die."

༄

"IS IT TOO LATE TO DIE?." Lucia asked miserably. "when you said to cause a distraction. I thought you meant something good!"

"This is good," Leo tried, "Fine, I don't know about good but it's something. C'mon, it'll be great!"

"Says the guy who's getting praised!" Lucia rolled her eyes. "You want me to act like a groupie? I am not a groupie!"

Hazel sighed as she drew more hearts on Lucia's face. "It's our only option right now."

"Well, what are the chances the nymphs find me to be a better distraction?"

Hazel and Leo looked at each other at a loss for words.

Lucia huffed, "Fine! Hurry!"

When they were done Leo had slicked his hair back with machine oil. He'd perched a pair of welding goggles from his tool belt like sunglasses on his head, stuck a wrench in his back pocket, and even had Hazel draw a tattoo on his biceps with a marker: HOT STUFF, with a skull and crossbones.

"Ay Dioses mios." Lucia snorted, Oh my gods

"What in the world are you thinking, Leo?" Hazel asked, looking flustered.

"I try not to think," Leo admitted. "It interferes with being nuts. Just concentrate on moving that Celestial bronze. Echo, you ready?"

"Ready," the nymph said.

"Lucia?"

The girl reluctantly held up the back of her hand which read #TeamLeoValdez. Her cheeks were covered in hearts and an LV was written on her collarbone with an arrow going through it. "Let's get this over with."

Lucia grudgingly followed Leo as he strutted back toward the pond.

"Leo is the coolest!" She shouted.

"Leo is the coolest!" Echo shouted back.

"Oh yeah , check him out!" She yelled.

"Check him out!" Echo said.

"Make way for the king!" Leo yelled.

"The king!"

The crowd of nymphs scattered in surprise. Lucia shooed them away as if they were bothering him. "No autographs, girls."

Leo grinned, "I know you want some Leo time, but I'm way too cool. You better just hang around that ugly dweeb Narcissus. He's lame!"

"Lame!" Echo said with enthusiasm.

The nymphs muttered angrily.

"What are you talking about?" one demanded.

"You're lame," said another.

Leo adjusted his goggles and smiled. He flexed his biceps, though he didn't have much to flex, and showed off his HOT STUFF tattoo. He had the nymphs' attention, if only because they were stunned; but Narcissus was still fixed on his own reflection.

"You know how ugly Narcissus is?" Leo asked the crowd. "He's so ugly, when he was born his mama thought he was a backward centaur—with a horse butt for a face."

Some of the nymphs gasped. Narcissus frowned, as though he was vaguely aware of a gnat buzzing around his head.

"You know why his bow has cobwebs?" Leo continued. "He uses it to hunt for dates, but he can't find one!"

One of the nymphs laughed. The others quickly elbowed her into silence. Narcissus turned and scowled at Leo. "Who are you?"

"I'm the Super-sized McShizzle, man!" Leo said. "I'm Leo Valdez, bad boy supreme. And the ladies love a bad boy."

"Love a bad boy!" Echo said,

Lucia let out a convincing squeal. "Hubba Hubba!"

ground, please swallow me up.

Leo took out a pen and autographed the arm of one of the nymphs. "Narcissus is a loser! He's so weak, he can't bench-press a Kleenex. He's so lame, when you look up lame on Wikipedia, it's got a picture of Narcissus."

"Only the picture's so ugly, no one ever checks it out," Lucia threw in a jab.

Narcissus knit his handsome eyebrows toward Lucia. His face was turning from bronze to salmon pink. For the moment, he'd forgotten about the pond, and Lucia could see the sheet of bronze sinking into the sand.

"Amazing at pure suck," Leo said. "If I was as suck as you, I'd drown myself. Oh wait, you already did that."

"Woah, Burn!"

Another nymph giggled. Then another. Narcissus growled, which did make him look a little less handsome. Meanwhile, Leo beamed and wiggled his eyebrows over his goggles and spread his hands, gesturing for applause.

"That's right!" he said. "Team Leo for the win!"

"Team Leo for the win!" Echo shouted. She'd wriggled into the mob of nymphs, and because she was so hard to see, the nymphs thought the voice came from one of their own.

"Oh my god, I am so awesome!" Leo bellowed.

"So awesome!" Echo yelled back.

"And funny!" Lucia added.

"Funny!"

"He is funny," a nymph agreed.

The nymph next to her disagreed, "What about her though ."

ha!

"Oh, I don't know, He's cute, in a scrawny way," another said.

"Scrawny?" Leo asked. "Baby, I invented scrawny. Scrawny is the new sizzling hot. And I GOT the scrawny. Narcissus? He's such a loser even the Underworld didn't want him. He couldn't get the ghost girls to date him."

"Eww," said a nymph.

"Eww!" Echo agreed.

"What a loser!" Lucia added.

"Loser!"

"Stop!" Narcissus got to his feet. "This is not right! This person is obviously not awesome, so he must be..." He struggled for the right words. It had probably been a long time since he'd talked about anything other than himself. "He must be tricking us."

Narcissus wasn't completely stupid. Realization dawned on his face. He turned back to the pond. "The bronze mirror is gone! My reflection! Give me back to me!"

"Team Leo!" one of the nymphs squeaked. But the others returned their attention to Narcissus.

"I'm the beautiful one!" Narcissus insisted. "He's stolen my mirror, and I'm going to leave unless we get it back!"

The girls gasped. One pointed. "There!" Hazel was at the top of the crater, running away as fast as she could while lugging a large sheet of bronze.

"Get it back!" cried a nymph.

Probably against her will, Echo muttered, "Get it back."

"Yes!" Narcissus unslung his bow and grabbed an arrow from his dusty quiver. As a reflex, Lucia did the same. "The first one who gets that bronze, I will like you almost as much as I like me. I might even kiss you, right after I kiss my reflection!"

"Oh my gods!" the nymphs screamed.

"And kill those demigods!" Narcissus added, glaring very handsomely at Leo and Lucia. "Who are not cooler or more beautiful than I!"

༄

LUCIA NOW KNEW WHAT IT WAS LIKE TO BE CHASED BY A MOB OF FANS. Granted they weren't her fans and wanted to kill her. But hey, She had to take what she could get.

They overtook Hazel, which was easy, since she was struggling with fifty pounds of Celestial bronze. Leo took one side of the metal plate to help her.

As Lucia glanced back. Narcissus was notching an arrow, but it was so old and brittle, it broke and splintered.

"Ow!" he yelled. "My manicure!"

Normally nymphs were quick—at least the ones at Camp Half-Blood were— but these were burdened with posters, T-shirts, and other NarcissusTM merchandise. The nymphs also weren't great at working as a team. They kept stumbling over one another, pushing and shoving. Echo made things worse by running among them, tripping and tackling as many as she could. Still, they were closing in on them.

"Call Arion!" Leo gasped.

"Already did!" Hazel said.

They ran to the beach. They made it to the edge of the water and could see the Argo II, but there was no way to get there. It was much too far to swim, even if they hadn't been toting bronze. And honestly, Lucia hardly believed in her limited swimming skills to get her there as is.

Lucia turned. The mob was coming over the dunes, Narcissus in the lead, holding his bow like a band major's baton. The nymphs had conjured assorted weapons. Some held rocks. Some had wooden clubs wreathed in flowers. A few of the water nymphs had squirt guns—which seemed not quite as terrifying—but the look in their eyes was still murderous.

Is there a toy store on this island?!

"Oh, man," Leo muttered, summoning fire in his free hand. "Straight-up fighting isn't my thing."

Lucia felt her body heat rise, She notched an arrow into her golden bow. "Get behind me!"

"Get behind me!" Echo repeated.

The camouflaged girl was racing ahead of the mob now. She stopped in front of them and turned, spreading her arms as if she meant to personally shield them.

"Echo?" Leo could hardly talk. "You're one brave nymph."

"Brave nymph?" Her tone made it a question.

"I'm proud to have you on Team Leo," he said. "If we survive this, you should forget Narcissus."

"Forget Narcissus?" she said uncertainly.

Lucia nodded, "You're way too good for him."

The nymphs surrounded them in a semicircle.

"Trickery!" Narcissus said. "They don't love me, girls! We all love me, don't we?"

"Yes!" the girls screamed, except for two confused nymphs.

"Team Leo!" One squeaked,

"Can we keep the one with purple eyes!" asked the other

"Kill them!" Narcissus ordered.

The nymphs surged forward, but the sand in front of them exploded. Arion raced out of nowhere, circling the mob so quickly he created a sandstorm, showering the nymphs in white lime, spraying their eyes.

"I love this horse!" Lucia exclaimed.

The nymphs collapsed, coughing and gagging. Narcissus stumbled around blindly, swinging his bow like he was trying to hit a piñata.
Hazel climbed into the saddle and hoisted up the bronze, Lucia quickly followed and offered Leo a hand.

"We can't leave Echo!" Leo said.

"Leave Echo," the nymph repeated.

She smiled, and for the first time, they could clearly see her face. She was pretty. Her eyes were blue.

"Why?" Leo asked. "You don't think you can still save Narcissus..."

"Save Narcissus," she said confidently. And even though it was only an echo, Lucia could tell that she meant it. She'd been given a second chance at life, and she was determined to use it to save the guy she loved—even if he was a completely hopeless moron.

Leo tried to protest, but Echo leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek, then pushed him gently away.

"Leo, come on!" Hazel called.

The other nymphs were starting to recover. They wiped the lime out of their eyes, which were now glowing green with anger. Leo looked for Echo again, but she had dissolved into the scenery.

"Yeah," he said, his throat dry. "Yeah, okay."

He climbed up behind Lucia. Arion took off across the water, the nymphs screaming behind them, and Narcissus shouting, "Bring me back! Bring me back!"