#loveforge

they meet in an airport café when leo’s fully dead on his feet and more than a little jet lagged.

he’s carrying the suit jacket of his rented suit as his only form or luggage. he has a half day at work tomorrow that he isn’t looking forward to but he’ll need a bit of a pick me up to make it home.

leo orders a coffee and a muffin; both overpriced but he’s starving and nothing else is open in the middle of the night at this shitty airport.

he looks around for a table to eat at but all of them are unclean, flagged down to be taken care of by the half asleep barista at a later time.

every table except for one at the very back, tucked away out of sight and almost secluded. by airport café standards that is.

it’s a two seater with a woman buried in a book, a half drank strawberry frappe in front of her.

the first thing leo notes about her is that she’s an odd mix of obviously wealthy and cartoonishly alt.

she’s wearing an orange, pink, and white, silk shrug that slips down the graceful arch of one shoulder. underneath that is a white crop top plastered with with hello kitty’s face. the sleeves are taken off.

there’s a pair of ray-ban aviators hooked into the collar of her shirt.

her neck is adorned with a bottle choker that has garfield’s unimpressed face hot glued into the center.

her long, wavy, brown hair is held back by a hot pink, no slip headband with little zigzag hooks. there’s a small bit of thick, fringe that’s getting in her eyes it isn’t long enough to tuck either way behind her ears and sort of falls awkwardly at the center of her forehead.

the second thing he notices is that she’s seriously beautiful. like, drop dead gorgeous, so pretty that if he didn’t know better he’d almost think she’s a movie star hiding away from the paparazzi.

“you mind if i sit here and eat real quick?” leo asks her.

“knock yourself out,” she says without looking up from her book; sontag’s regarding the pain of others.

leo doesn’t hesitate to dig in. he’s seriously starving and he wasted the money on this, so he might as well eat it all before it goes cold.

he wipes the crumbs from his mouth and takes a long pull of his coffee. the muffin tasted better, but again: he paid for it, so he isn’t going to waste it.

“so…what’re you doing here so late? flight delay?” he asks.

that gets her to finally look up at him. it’s like he’s been electrocuted, the all too sudden, sharp zing of energy that hits his system.

“waiting for my dad to fly in. you?”

“just got back from a funeral.” a few of his cousins had tracked him down and pestered him into attending his aunt rosa’s service.

it’d been nicer than anything the woman deserved. she’d taken everything when leo’s mom died—her entire life’s savings, the money she’d been setting aside for leo’s college fund, and all of her personal affects. in the end all leo had been left with was a photo album and his baby blanket.

the woman gives him a glance over. the kind that leo didn’t think existed outside of movies, the kind that he’d never actually been on the receiving end of.

his cheeks felt warm.

“you clean up nice for a funeral.”

“are you seriously coming on to me right now?”

she laughs. nice sound for a strange woman.

her pretty lips curve up into a playful grin.

“you tell me. is it working?”

he looks at her and she meets his gaze unflinchingly.

“leo,” he tells her.

and it’s like you just told her she won the lottery.

“piper.”

Piper couldn’t blame them. The dragon was huge. It glistened in the morning sun like a living penny sculpture —different shades of copper and bronze—a sixty-foot-long serpent with steel talons and drill-bit teeth and glowing ruby eyes. It had bat-shaped wings twice its length that unfurled like metallic sails, making a sound like coins cascading out of a slot machine every time they flapped. “It’s beautiful,” Piper muttered. The other demigods stared at her like she was insane.

tlh pg. 140

Piper couldn’t breathe. Poor Leo. The idea of never seeing him again almost destroyed her. Khione must’ve seen it in her face. “Alas, my dear Piper!” She smiled in triumph. “But it is for the best. Leo could not be tolerated, even as an ice statue…not after he insulted me. The fool refused to rule at my side! And his power over fire…” She shook her head. “He could not be allowed to reach the House of Hades. I’m afraid Lord Clytius likes fire even less than I do.” Piper gripped her dagger. Fire, she thought. Thanks for reminding me, you witch. She scanned the deck. How to make fire? A box of Greek fire vials was secured by the forward ballista, but that was too far away. Even if she made it without getting frozen, Greek fire would burn everything, including the ship and all her friends. There had to be another way. Her eyes strayed to the prow. Oh. Festus the figurehead could blow some serious flames. Unfortunately, Leo had switched him off. Piper had no idea how to reactivate him. She would never have time to figure out the right controls at the ship’s console. She had vague memories of Leo tinkering around inside the dragon’s bronze skull, mumbling about a control disk; but even if Piper could make it to the prow, she would have no idea what she was doing. Still, some instinct told her Festus was her best chance, if only she could figure out how to convince her captors to let her get close enough…

hoh pg. 272

“You remember our dragon?” Piper asked. Khione scoffed. “This cannot be your secret. The dragon is broken. Its fire is gone.” “Well, yes…” Piper stroked the dragon’s snout. She didn’t have Leo’s power to make gears turn or circuits spark. She couldn’t sense anything about the workings of a machine. All she could do was speak her heart and tell the dragon what he most wanted to hear. “But Festus is more than a machine. He’s a living creature.”

hoh pg. 278

Before the goddess could go after the sphere, Piper cried, “Our secret weapon, Khione! We’re not just a bunch of demigods. We’re a team. Just like Festus isn’t only a collection of parts. He’s alive. He’s my friend. And when his friends are in trouble, especially Leo, he can wake up on his own.” She willed all her confidence into her voice—all her love for the metal dragon and everything he’d done for them. The rational part of her knew this was hopeless. How could you start a machine with emotions? But Aphrodite wasn’t rational. She ruled through emotions. She was the oldest and most primordial of the Olympians, born from the blood of Ouranos churning in the sea. Her power was more ancient than that of Hephaestus, or Athena, or even Zeus. For a terrible moment, nothing happened. Khione glared at her. The Boreads began to come out of their daze, looking disappointed. “Never mind our plan,” Khione snarled. “Kill her!” As the Boreads raised their swords, the dragon’s metal skin grew warm under Piper’s hand. She dove out of the way, tackling the snow goddess, as Festus turned his head one hundred and eighty degrees and blasted the Boreads, vaporizing them on the spot. For some reason, Zethes’s sword was spared. It clunked to the deck, still steaming. Piper scrambled to her feet. She spotted the sphere of winds at the base of the foremast. She ran for it, but before she could get close, Khione materialized in front of her in a swirl of frost. Her skin glowed bright enough to cause snow blindness. “You miserable girl,” she hissed. “You think you can defeat me—a goddess?” At Piper’s back, Festus roared and blew steam, but Piper knew he couldn’t breathe fire again without hitting her too.

hoh pgs. 279-280

Fortunately, Festus had been listening. He faced front and blew a plume of fire. The ship’s engine clattered and hummed. It sounded like a massive bike with a busted chain—but they lurched forward. Slowly, the Argo II headed toward the shore. “Good dragon.” Piper patted Festus’s neck. The dragon’s ruby eyes glinted as if he was pleased with himself. “He seems different since you woke him,” Jason said. “More…alive.” “The way he should be.” Piper smiled. “I guess once in a while we all need a wake-up call from somebody who loves us.”

hoh pg. 358

“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…”

hoh pg. 361

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