“Ah…” I could have lied. I could have magically produced an exact likeness of the pipe-cleaner figure and said Of course. But the truth was, I had no idea where the little guy had ended up, perhaps in Delphi or Tartarus or Chaos? I told her the truth. “Would you make me another one?”
Georgina thought about this. “Nah.”
Then she went back to quenching hot blades with her mom.
The swordsman Lityerses seemed to be adjusting well. He was overseeing an “elephant visitation program” with Waystation resident Livia and Hannibal from Camp Jupiter. The two pachyderms were romping around together in the back lot, flirting by throwing medicine balls at each other.
After dinner, I got to visit with Leo Valdez, who had just straggled back home after a full day of community service. He was teaching homeless kids shop skills at a local shelter.
“That’s amazing,” I said.
He grinned, biting off a chunk of Emmie’s fresh-made buttermilk biscuits. “Yeah. Bunch of kids like me, you know? They never had much. Least I can show them somebody cares. Plus, some of them are excellent mechanics.”
“Don’t you need tools?” I asked. “A shop?”
“Festus!” Leo said. “A bronze dragon makes the best mobile shop. Most of the kids just see him as a truck, with the Mist and all, but a few of them…they know what’s up.”
Jo passed by on her way to the griffin lofts and patted him on the shoulder. “Doing good, this one. He’s got potential.”
“Thanks, Mom,” Leo said.
Jo scoffed, but she looked pleased.
“And Calypso?” I asked Leo.
A flurry of emotions passed across his face—enough to tell me that Leo was more lovesick than ever over the former goddess, and things were still complicated.
“Yeah, she’s good,” he said at last. “I’ve never seen anyone actually like high school before. But the routine, the homework, the people…She ate it up. I guess it’s just so different from being stuck on Ogygia.”
I nodded, though the idea of an ex-immortal liking high school didn’t make much sense to me either. “Where is she now?”
“Band camp.”
I stared. “Excuse me?”
“She’s a counselor at a band camp,” Leo said. “Like, for regular mortal kids who are practicing music and stuff. I don’t know. She’s gone all summer.”
He shook his head, clearly worried, clearly missing her, perhaps having nightmares about all the hot clarinet-player counselors Calypso might be hanging around with.
“It’s all good,” he said, forcing a smile. “You know, a little time apart to think. We’ll make it work.”
Reyna passed by and heard the last part. “Talking about Calypso? Yeah, I had to have a heart-to-heart with mi hermano here.” She squeezed Leo’s shoulder. “You don’t call a young lady mamacita. You got to have more respect, entiendes?”
“I—” Leo looked ready to protest, then seemed to think better about it. “Yeah, okay.”
Reyna smiled at me. “Valdez grew up without his mom. Never learned these things. Now he’s got two great foster moms and a big sister who isn’t afraid to smack him when he gets out of line.” She flicked a finger playfully against his cheek.
“Ain’t that the truth,” Leo muttered.
“Cheer up,” Reyna said. “Calypso will come around. You’re a doofus sometimes, Valdez, but you’ve got a heart of Imperial gold.”
Next stop: Camp Jupiter.
It did not surprise me that Hazel and Frank had become the most efficient and respected pair of praetors ever to run the Twelfth Legion. In record time they had inspired a rebuilding effort in New Rome, repaired all the damage from our battle against Tarquin and the two emperors, and started a recruitment drive with Lupa’s wolves to bring in new demigods from the wild. At least twenty had arrived since I left, which made me wonder where they’d all been hiding, and how busy my fellow gods must have been in the last few decades to have so many children.
“We’re going to install more barracks over there,” Hazel told me, as she and Frank gave me the five-denarius tour of the repaired camp. “We’ve expanded the thermal baths, and we’re constructing a victory arch on the main road into New Rome to commemorate our defeat of the emperors.” Her amber eyes flashed with excitement. “It’s going to be plated with gold. Completely over-the-top.”
Frank smiled. “Yeah. As far as we can tell, Hazel’s curse is officially broken. We did an augury at Pluto’s shrine, and it came up favorable. She can summon jewels, precious metals…and use them or spend them now without causing any curses.”
“But we’re not going to abuse that power,” Hazel hastened to add. “We’ll only use it to improve the camp and honor the gods. We’re not going to buy any yachts or private airplanes or big golden necklaces with ‘H plus F 4Ever’ diamond pendants, are we, Frank?”
Frank pouted. “No. I guess not.”
Hazel ribbed him.
“No, definitely not,” Frank amended. “That would be tacky.”
Frank still lumbered along like a friendly grizzly bear, but his posture seemed more relaxed, his mood more cheerful, as if it were starting to sink in that his destiny was no longer controlled by a small piece of firewood. For Frank Zhang, like the rest of us, the future was open for business.
He brightened. “Oh, and check this out, Apollo!”
He swirled his purple praetor’s cloak like he was about to turn into a vampire bat (which Frank was fully capable of doing). Instead, the cloak simply turned into an oversize sweater wrap. “I figured it out!”
Hazel rolled her eyes. “My sweet, sweet Frank. Could you please not with the sweater wrap?”
“What?” Frank protested. “It’s impenetrable and comfortable!”
Later that day, I visited my other friends. Lavinia Asimov had made good on her threat/promise to teach the Fifth Cohort to tap-dance. The unit was now feared and respected in the war games for their ability to form a testudo shield wall while doing the three-beat
