EDEN HAD SPENT a couple hours walking around the city of Malta, or so some tourist said, until she'd found the cafe.
Now, naturally, she needed coffee if she was going to find the others. She went to the counter and stared at the menu, wondering what the shit half of the items were when she felt someone tap her shoulder.
She turned, tensing, her hand on her new sword that Hercules had given her, but then relaxed when she saw it was Fire Boy.
"Leo, holy shit," Eden hugged him, and he didn't put his arms around her, probably because of the sword on her back.
"It makes it hard to hug you when that's on your back," he said, as she pulled away. "Where'd you get it?"
Eden let out a small snort. "Dude, you look like you're still in December." But she put her hand on it, feeling the hum of the power already. "Went on a heist. Want something?"
"Coffee," he said. "Just black."
"You hate coffee," she frowned.
"I'll let you drink it."
He didn't look the same. The glint in his eyes was gone, replaced by something else. Eden had seen that exact look before on someone. But she didn't push.
"As long as you take out the money, I can't read and I've been overpaying people." She stood in line, and he went with her, grabbing her wallet and grabbing the money.
They sat at a table overlooking the sea. Eden could feel her power just looking at it. But she looked away.
"I got sent to the sky when the ship froze over," Leo said, and she nodded. "What happened to you?"
"I did, too." Eden sipped at her coffee. "Do you know anything about them?"
"No. I'm guessing you didn't end up in the same place as me."
"Unless you were sent to the Mediterranean, then Miami, I don't think so," she stirred her coffee with her straw. "You don't wanna talk about what happened to you."
"Not yet," Leo said quietly. "But later."
Eden understood. She nodded, and sighed. "Well, I got sent to Hercules's island."
Leo paused. "You what?"
She was telling the story when out of the corner of her eye, she saw Piper running over.
Piper nearly knocked Eden out of her chair with a hug. "Eden! Gods, where have you been?"
And there, she felt like home. She sighed and leaned into Piper's embrace, bringing her wrist up to her mouth and kissing it.
"Fairchild! Valdez!" Coach Hedge grinned. Then he seemed to remember he had a reputation to protect and he forced a scowl. "You ever disappear like that again, you punks, I'll knock you into next month!"
Frank patted Leo on the back so hard it made him wince. Nico even patted Eden's head. He was half an inch shorter than her.
Hazel kissed Leo on the cheek. "We thought you two were dead!"
Leo mustered a faint smile. "Hey, guys. Nah, nah, I'm good. And of course Eden's fine."
He literally wouldn't meet their eyes. His hands were perfectly still on the table.
Eden put on a smile, taking her sword off the table and putting it on the ground. "Yeah, what he said. Of course we'd be fine."
The others grabbed chairs from the nearby tables. Perfect Jason leaned in to talk to Leo. Eden pulled Piper on her lap, getting a few looks but honestly she'd just escaped from stealing thousands of dollars worth of artifacts from a museum. She didn't really care about a few looks.
"I missed you," Piper muttered against her skin. "What happened to you?"
"I got marooned," Leo said, answering for Eden. "Long story. Water Girl was just telling me how she's gotten to go on a heist. How about you guys? What happened with Khione?"
Coach Hedge snorted. "What happened? Piper happened! I'm telling you, this girl has skills!"
"Coach . . ." Piper protested.
Hedge began telling the story, but Piper was a kung fu assassin and there were a lot of Boreads. Now, Eden didn't doubt the fact that she could fight off lots of Boreads and that she could be a kung fu assassin, but she doubted the story.
Coach Hedge was just describing how Piper had defeated Khione with a roundhouse kick when she'd interrupted.
"Coach!" she said. "It didn't happen like that at all. I couldn't have done anything without Festus."
Leo raised his eyebrows. "But Festus was deactivated."
"Um, about that," Piper said. "I sort of woke him up."
Piper explained her version of events — how she'd rebooted the metal dragon with charmspeak.
Leo tapped his fingers on the table, like some of his old energy was coming back.
"Shouldn't be possible," he murmured. "Unless the upgrades let him respond to voice commands. But if he's permanently activated, that means the navigation system and the crystal . . ."
"Crystal?" Perfect Jason asked.
Leo flinched. "Um, nothing. Anyway, what happened after the wind bomb went off?"
Hazel took up the story. A waitress came over and offered them menus. In no time they were chowing down on sandwiches and sodas, enjoying the sunny day almost like a group of regular teenagers.
Frank grabbed a tourist brochure stuck under the napkin dispenser. He began to read it. Piper ran her fingers through Eden's hair, and she sighed and held on tighter to her. Nico stood at the edge of the group, eyeing the passing pedestrians as if they might be enemies. Coach Hedge munched on the salt and pepper shakers.
Despite the happy reunion, everybody seemed more subdued than usual — like they were picking up on Leo's mood.
"So then Jason harnessed the venti," Hazel finished. "And here we are."
Leo whistled. "Hot-air horses? Dang, Jason. So basically, you held a bunch of gas together all the way to Malta, and then you let it loose."
Eden let out a snort.
Perfect Jason frowned. "You know, it doesn't sound so heroic when you put it that way."
"Yeah, well. I'm an expert on hot air. I'm still wondering, why Malta? I just kind of ended up here on the raft, but was that a random thing, or—"
"Maybe because of this." Frank tapped his brochure. "Says here Malta was where Calypso lived."
A pint of blood drained from Leo's face. "W-what now?"
Wow, Eden was right. She's so smart.
Frank shrugged. "According to this, her original home was an island called Gozo just north of here. Calypso's a Greek myth thingie, right?"
"Ah, a Greek myth thingie!" Coach Hedge rubbed his hands together. "Maybe we get to fight her! Do we get to fight her? 'Cause I'm ready."
"No," Leo murmured. "No, we don't have to fight her, Coach."
Piper frowned. "Leo, what's wrong? You look—"
"Nothing's wrong!" Leo shot to his feet. "Hey, we should get going. We've got work to do!"
"But . . . where did you go?" Hazel asked. "Where did you get those clothes? How—"
"Jeez, ladies!" Leo said. "I appreciate the concern, but I don't need two extra moms!"
Piper smiled uncertainly. "Okay, but—"
"Ships to fix!" Leo said. "Festus to check! Earth goddesses to punch in the face! What are we waiting for? Leo's back!"
He spread his arms and grinned.
Eden looked over at Nico and nodded. She knew, god, she knew.
Perfect Jason got up and put an arm around his shoulders. "Leo's right. We should get going."
Everybody took the cue. They started wrapping up their food and finishing their drinks.
Suddenly, Hazel gasped. "Guys . . ."
She pointed to the northeast horizon. Eden didn't see anything.
"I don't see anything," Coach Hedge grumbled.
"Me neither," Piper said.
"That can't be . . ." Nico muttered. "Greece is still hundreds of miles away."
"You think it's Epirus?" Perfect Jason asked.
Nico nodded. "The House of Hades is open for business."
A few seconds later, a rumbling sound washed over them like distant artillery.
"It's begun," Hazel said.
"What has?" Eden asked.
Hazel's gold eyes darkened like foil in fire. "Gaea's final push," she said. "The Doors of Death are working overtime. Her forces are entering the mortal world en masse."
"We'll never make it," Nico said. "By the time we arrive, there'll be too many monsters to fight."
Perfect Jason set his jaw. "We'll defeat them. And we'll make it there fast. We've got Leo back. He'll give us the speed we need."
He turned to his boyfriend. "Or is that just hot air?"
Leo managed a crooked grin.
"Time to fly, boys and girls," he said. "Uncle Leo's still got a few tricks up his sleeves!"