"THIS IS STUPID," Ophelia declared.
Travis rolled his eyes, crossing his arms over his chest like a petulant child. "It's tradition. Every child of Hermes has to do it!"
Ophelia sighed, looking around at the Hermes cabin. They'd only been back at camp for three days and her siblings were already pestering her about completing their cabin's initiation. "Why do we have to pickpocket someone?" she asked. "Can't I just... win a footrace or something? This is illegal."
"This is illegal," Connor mocked. "C'mon, Phee, Hermes is the god of thieves—it's in our blood! Besides, it's not like you can't just return whatever you steal."
"Which is dumb, but if you wanna be all moral about it..." Jeremy grumbled.
"Mercury was worshiped more as a travel and commerce deity than the god of thieves in Ancient Rome," Ophelia pointed out. "And since I'm technically a daughter of Mercury—"
Sophie shook her head. "Nope, you're not getting out on a technicality," she said. "You're still a child of Hermes, even if it's his Roman aspect. That means you have to be properly initiated. It's not a big deal, Phee, I did it when I was eight."
"Well, no one's going to get mad at an adorable little eight-year-old," Ophelia retorted. "What if whoever I pickpocket punches me in the face?"
"You punch them back," Connor said with a nonchalant shrug.
"You have to pick the right target," Travis said, shoving his brother's arm. "Someone who won't suspect you—someone who trusts you."
Ophelia frowned. "That's messed up."
Jeremy rolled his eyes. "You can give it back as soon as you show us what you stole," he said. "It doesn't have to be anything big or fancy—though we'll be a lot more impressed the bigger it is."
"But it has to have some kind of monetary value," Cecil said. "It can't be something like lint or a loose thread."
"And they can't know you took it, obviously," Sophie added.
The conch shell blew, signaling the end of breakfast and the beginning of the day's activities.
"You've got twenty-four hours, Phee," Travis said, shooting her a wink. "Don't disappoint."
❖
Ophelia swung her body to the side, only using one handhold to stay on the rock wall as lava shot past her, close enough that she could feel the heat of it on her skin. With a grunt, she reached for a higher handhold with her free hand. She found a new foothold and pushed herself up closer to the top.
She rang the bell as she reached the top, the first of her group. Jeremy was only halfway up the wall; Connor had abandoned actually doing the exercise and had turned his focus toward trying to make his little brother fall down onto the mat below; Mitchell from the Aphrodite cabin was barely a few feet off the ground, and looked like he was already terrified that high up; and Piper still a few feet from the top.
"Again?" Piper grumbled, squeaking in surprise as a shot of lava just barely missed her elbow. "That's it, I'm done climbing with you. My pride can only take so much losing."
Ophelia smirked at her. "Don't hate the player, Pepper," she said, starting her quick descent down. "Hate the game!"
By the time Piper rang the bell and made her way back down, Ophelia was sitting in the grass to the side of the climbing wall, watching her brothers continue to struggle up the wall. The daughter of Aphrodite flopped down next to her, panting from exhaustion.
"That stupid wall is going to kill me one day," Piper said in between breaths and gulps of water from the bottle Ophelia handed her.
"Why don't you just charmspeak the lava not to touch you?" Ophelia said. "Worked for Hera's cage."
Piper rolled her eyes. "Lava's inanimate," she said. "That cage thingy was like an extension of Gaea. Totally different."
Ophelia hummed. "Makes sense."
"Is it time for lunch yet?" Piper asked. "I'm starving."
"Should be any time now," Ophelia said.
Piper nodded. She shifted to rest her head on Ophelia's leg. "How's your memory coming along?"
"Some parts are still foggy, but I remember most things," Ophelia answered. "My mom and my aunt, my brother and Gi. Camp life, the barracks—all that good stuff."
"Kind of ironic Hera stole you guys from a military camp and put you in a military school," Piper pointed out. "Though from what I've heard, I'm sure your camp is a lot nicer."
"Oh, definitely," Ophelia agreed. "But we didn't have a Coach Hedge. Just a Terminus."
Piper laughed. "Well, you guys were missing out, then," she joked. "I dunno what a Terminus is, but I doubt it's got anything on Coach."
Ophelia snorted. "Of course not," she agreed. "Hedge is... one of a kind."
The conch horn blew across the camp, signaling the start of lunch. Piper sat up as Ophelia stood, offering her friend a hand up. "C'mon, Pepper," Ophelia said, hooking an arm over Piper's shoulders. "Let's go get some food so you don't starve."
❖
Ophelia would never understand how Leo—or any of the Hephaestus kids, for that matter—could do the things they did. Just watching them at work, sketching details for the Argo II or starting to build any one of the multiple weapons the warship would boast, made Ophelia more than a little envious of how skilled they were.
She looked back down at the maps spread out in front of her, studying them for any clues as to the exact location of Camp Jupiter. On a blank map of the U.S., she'd drawn a wide circle around the Bay Area in California, marking Mount Tam, Mount Diablo, and various other landmarks that sparked something in her returning memory. Scattered around the work table Leo had assigned her and whatever siblings came by to help—Hermes was the god of travelers, so they were pretty good with navigation—were older maps of the U.S., with sites of battles between Roman and Greek demigods marked on each of them.
Despite Hera's warning, she'd tried to see if her compass would at least point her toward the Roman camp. But, alas, it had proven just as useless as Hera had said in showing them where Camp Jupiter was. Ophelia knew that was due to the magic that veiled the camp's location, but it was frustrating nonetheless.
"Any revelations, Phee?" Leo called from a few work tables away where he was sketching designs of the Argo II's interior, using some of Annabeth's notes from her visit to Bunker Nine earlier that afternoon.
"Nope," she said with a scowl. "Just the same vague idea of where it is."
"Maybe it's like instinct or something," Leo suggested. "Like, you won't be able to find it on a map, but you'll know you're close when you get close? If that makes sense?"
Ophelia sighs. "It does make sense," she grumbled, gathering her maps and putting them into a neat stack on top of the table. She'd been working for a few hours and she was starting to go cross-eyed. "That's the problem. I just want a solid destination, not a stupid guessing game."
"It'll all work out," Leo said, shooting her a grin. "We might get lost along the way, but hey—that's the best part about road trips!"
"I doubt road trips are supposed to be this life-or-death, Leo," Ophelia said. She walked over to his workstation, glancing at the watch on his wrist that, since it was one of Leo's inventions, also doubled as a regular compass and a tiny megaphone. "C'mon, dinner already started."
Leo waved her off. "I'll grab something later," he said, studying his sketches with a critical eye.
Ophelia shook her head, taking the pencil out of his hand and setting it down. "I know for a fact you haven't eaten since breakfast, so get up and don't argue."
Leo did argue, but Ophelia ignored him, dragging him by the wrist out of the Bunker and back toward camp.
Eventually, he gave up on protesting. "You think I could use Wii remotes to steer the ship?" Leo asked, thinking out loud. "That'd be more fun than a regular wheel, right? Oh, and I could put in a soundboard!"
❖
The next morning, Ophelia was up bright and early. The rest of her siblings were still fast asleep, Jeremy snoring quietly in the bunk next to Ophelia's. She got ready in silence before grabbing her compass and making her way to the sword fighting arena to meet Jason.
He was already there when she walked into the arena, his back to her as he did drills with a training dummy that had definitely seen better days. She stopped in the doorway for a moment, watching.
He was shirtless—because he was a tease and not at all because he got hot training—and wore just a pair of sweatpants and sneakers. There was also the hair-tie Piper's mom had given him during the quest, which Ophelia had come to remember was actually hers that he stole a year ago and refused to give back because he was a sentimental sap.
"I can feel you staring," Jason said, not even looking back as he did a particularly complicated series of moves with his new sword courtesy of Juno.
Show-off, she thought fondly.
"Your footwork's slow," she said, crossing her arms over her chest.
He finally turned around to look at her, rolling his eyes. "Compared to you, maybe," he said, walking over to her. "Not all of us are children of Mercury who can beat anyone in a footrace."
"True," she conceded. She smiled as he kissed her softly hello. "Ready to get your ass kicked?"
He smirked in amusement. "In your dreams."
"Oh, my dreams are a lot more fun than what we're about to do," she teased.
His cheeks flushed pink, which was exactly what she was hoping for.
They fell into a familiar routine, dodging blows and parrying each other's strikes to the point of intense frustration. They were pretty evenly matched—Jason was stronger but Ophelia was faster. Spars between them were always interesting. He tended to beat her more often than she beat him, but her easily-bruised ego chalked that up to his dad being the king of the gods.
The sound of metal clinking against metal was like music to her ears, reminding her of simpler times—before murderous earth goddesses, traitorous best friends, and life-and-death destinies had taken over their lives. Back when they were just two teenagers training for the sake of training and not for the sake of survival, clueless as to the trauma and horrors a fate like that entailed.
She lost track of time as they continued to spar. She used her sword to smack his out of its path toward her arm, twisting her wrist to force his sword lower. Jason twisted his sword out of the way and used brute force to knock her sword out of her hand. It fell to the ground, quiet against the dirt floor. Jason pointed his gladius at her heart, the tip resting just above her heart.
"I win," he announced, only panting a little.
Ophelia rolled her eyes, pushing his sword away with a careful hand. "Yeah, yeah, don't let it go to your head," she said, bending down to pick up her sword. She willed the weapon back into a compass and slipped it into her pocket.
"Same time tomorrow?" Jason asked, pulling on his discarded t-shirt, which was a shame.
"Sounds like a plan," she said, reaching out and grabbing a handful of his t-shirt to pull him toward her. She stood up on her toes, kissing him. His hands came to rest on her waist—ever the gentleman in public—as she ran a hand through his stupidly soft hair. They pulled apart after a few lingering moments.
When they reached the dining pavilion, she asked, "See you at the Bunker later? Leo wants our input on the designs for our cabins on the ship."
Jason nodded. He kissed her again, and they separated to their respective tables.
As soon as she sat down at her table, her siblings pounced. "Alright, what'd you get?" Travis asked, stealing a grape from her plate.
Ophelia sighed, pulling out a silver business card and placing it on the table.
Connor frowned as he picked it up. "Hunters of Artemis—GIRLS ONLY." He shook his head. "Boring."
"Does that even have monetary value?" Cecil questioned. "I don't think it does."
"Technically they had to pay to get them printed," Travis said, scowling at Ophelia. "It's probably a third of a cent, but it has value. Connor's right, though—boring."
Ophelia reached back into her pocket, taking out the tube of chapstick she'd swiped from Jason's pocket during their kiss and showing it to her siblings.
"I guess that's better," Jeremy conceded. "Still not that impressive, though, got to say."
"Same person or two different victims?" Connor asked.
"Piper and Jason," she answered.
Travis nodded approvingly. "Overachiever. I like that."
She reached into her pocket one more time and pulled out the watch she'd taken from Leo the day before, setting it on the table as well.
Her siblings visibly brightened. "Oh, this one's good," Sophie said, picking up the watch and admiring it.
Jeremy nodded in appreciation. "It's bigger, more valuable," he said, analyzing it along with Sophie. "You get it off the wrist?" At Ophelia's nod, he beamed. "Much more impressive than a business card and chapstick."
Travis threw an arm around her shoulders, pretending to wipe a tear from under his eye. "They grow up so fast," he said. "Welcome to the family, Ophelia."
Ophelia didn't even bother to tamper the smile that tugged at her lips. She missed Matt everyday, and Gianna, but she had found a family at Camp Half-Blood, too. Not just with her half-siblings, but with her friends, too.
As terrified as Ophelia was of the prospect of sailing into the ancient lands, she was grateful that she would have them with her on the journey. She was sure if she had them, she could face any danger, any monster that dared to cross her path. If it meant keeping her friends safe, she'd fight any enemy that came their way.
Until the end.
❖
and that's the end of the lost hero! i'm so excited to get to mark of athena, and hoooo boy is it gonna be fun (i don't know if y'all are ready... 'cause i have plans).
i think what i'm gonna do is post the first chapter of act two monday and then chapter two on friday, and then i might take the next week off b/c i'm going on vacation w/ some friends, but we'll see.