THE LAST THING Ophelia wanted to do on the quest to save Hera was get knocked out by a giant, one-eyed monster—and yet, that was exactly how her day was going. 

In the darkness she succumbed to, she dreamed of the ghost from the warehouse. 

She was shorter, or the ghost was taller, though the former seemed like the more sensible explanation as to why Ophelia was looking up at him so much. She knew she wasn't that short, at least not in the present moment, which pointed toward this dream being a memory from when she was younger.

The ghost was solid now, the worry erased from his face. He wore a purple shirt not that different from the shirt Jason had woken up in, though the sleeves were messily cut off to expose his deep brown arms to the sunlight. He was smirking down at her, a haughty look on his face, though there was a warmth to it. 

"Alright, ready?" the ghost said, crouching down like a runner about to take off in a sprint. 

"Ready to kick your butt," dream-Ophelia declared. She stuck her tongue out for good measure. 

The ghost laughed. "With those scrawny legs? My arms are longer." 

"Don't pick on your sister, Matt," a girl scolded from where she sat cross-legged in the grass next to the dirt track dream-Ophelia and the ghost—Matt—were standing on. Despite her reprimand, there was a sweet smile on her face. 

"Oh, c'mon, Gi, I do it with love," Matt said defensively, his smile growing as he looked at the girl. "Besides, she's gotta get used to tough love if she stands any chance of surviving the Wolf House." 

His tone was light, but there was a worried look in his eyes that real-Ophelia picked up on immediately. 

Gi rolled her eyes, but her smile only wavered a bit, that same hint of worry in her hazel eyes. "Alright, fine. You guys ready?" 

Dream-Ophelia nodded, a determined look on her face.

She and Matt both got into starting positions, taking off down the dirt path as soon as Gi shouted, "Go!"

The wind was a glorious feeling against dream-Ophelia's skin, blowing across her face with the speed she ran. She and Matt ran side-by-side for a few seconds, before Matt's longer legs allowed him to pull ahead of her. Dream-Ophelia growled in frustration, picking up speed. She pivoted around at a certain, predetermined point, taking off back toward the starting line. She ran as fast as her short legs could take her, but Matt still passed the line a few seconds before her. 

"Better luck next time, Phee," Matt teased, not even the slightest bit out of breath. Still, he accepted the bottle of water Gi handed him, chugging half the bottle in one go. 

"I'll beat you when I'm older," Dream-Ophelia declared. She plopped down next to Gi, who passed her a bottle of water as well. 

"I don't doubt it," Matt said with a smile, laying down with his head on Gi's lap. 

"You'll be a force to be reckoned with," Gi said, ruffling dream-Ophelia's hair before immediately fixing it again, which made Matt chuckle. 

Dream-Ophelia puffed her little chest out. "Of course I will," she declared. "I'm gonna go on so many quests and fight so many monsters! I'm gonna be famous—even more famous than that stupid son of Jupiter!" 

Gi smiled. "I can't wait to see it," she whispered, with just a hint of sadness dream-Ophelia didn't catch, but real-Ophelia could see clear as day. 

"Ophelia," Matt said. Dream-Ophelia didn't respond, as if she didn't hear. "Ophelia? Ophelia!" 

❖

Ophelia woke with a sharp gasp, the sound muffled by the cloth gag in her mouth. 

Right in front of her face was the ghost, staring at her intently. "Good," he said. "You're awake. You are lucky these bozos haven't caught your little mechanic friend, or you'd all be Cyclops food by now." 

Ophelia blinked, looking around in confusion. Everything was upside down, including the ghost. Well, not everything. As she looked to her right, she saw Jason hanging next to her, unconscious and sporting a nasty welt on his forehead the size of an apple. To her left was Piper, also gagged and hanging upside-down in chains, though she was more alert and awake than either of her friends. 

Where was Leo?

Before she could look around for the son of Hephaestus, one of the Cyclopes noticed her open eyes. "The other girl's awake, Ma," he said, poking a meaty finger at Ophelia's chained torso. This monster was wearing some kind of chain mail loincloth that didn't look even remotely comfortable. 

Ophelia struggled in her chains, glaring fiercely at the monster before her. The Cyclops seemed to falter at her glare, but he recovered easily—it wasn't like he was the one chained up and helpless. 

Another Cyclops was standing at some kind of fire, stoking it with his bare hand. This one wore a ragged, fuzzy toga made of fiberglass insulation. There was a third, larger than the first two, crouched with its back turned. 

The Cyclops in the loincloth walked over to Piper, who squirmed and tried to headbutt him in the eye with little success, though Ophelia admired the effort. "Can I take this one's gag off now? I like it when they scream."

The crouching Cyclops, who must have been the leader, grunted, and Loincloth ripped the gag off Piper's mouth. 

She didn't scream. Instead, she took a shaky breath like she was trying to keep herself calm. 

"These guys are a bunch of sadistic assholes," Matt grumbled, still floating in front of Ophelia's face. Ophelia opened her mouth to say something, but he shook his head. "Don't try to talk to me unless you want your conscious friends to think your hallucinating. You remember how bad that Ceres girl freaked on your first quest."

She didn't, actually. 

She had a dozen questions on the tip of her tongue. Who was the ghost? How did he die? Who was the other girl, Gi? Despite how much it killed her, she kept her mouth shut.

The Cyclops in the toga poked at the fire, which was now blazing away and billowing noxious black smoke toward the ceiling. His buddy Loincloth glowered at Piper, waiting for her to do something entertaining. "Scream, girl! I like funny screaming!" 

When Piper finally spoke, her tone was calm and reasonable, like she was correcting a naughty puppy. "Oh, Mr. Cyclops, you don't want to kill us. It would be much better if you let us go."

Loincloth scratched his ugly head. He turned to his friend in the fiberglass toga. "She's kind of pretty, Torque. Maybe I should let her go." 

Torque, the guy in the toga, growled. "I saw her first, Sump. I'll let her go!" 

Sump and Torque started to argue, but the third Cyclops rose and shouted, "Fools!"

The third Cyclops was female and several feet taller than Sump and Torque, and even beefier. She wore a tent of chain mail cut like some kind of sack-like dress. Her greasy black hair was matted in pigtails, woven with copper wires and metal washers. Her nose and mouth were thick and smashed together, like she spent her free time ramming into walls; but her single red eye glittered with evil intelligence. 

The woman Cyclops stalked over to Sump and pushed him aside, knocking him over the conveyor belt. Torque backed up quickly. 

"The girl is Venus spawn," the lady Cyclops snarled. "She's using charmspeak on you." 

Piper started to say, "Please, ma'am—" 

"Rarr!" The lady Cyclops grabbed Piper around the waist. "Don't try your pretty talk on me, girl! I'm Ma Gasket! I've eaten heroes tougher than you for lunch!" 

Ophelia feared Piper would get crushed, but Ma Gasket just dropped her and let her dangle from her chain. Then she started yelling at Sump about how stupid he was. 

"Déjà vu," Matt muttered. "This family is seriously dysfunctional. I mean, imagine having to listen to their bickering day in and day out. It's torture—I might as well have gone straight to the Fields of Punishment." 

His expression softened, the hint of a smile on his face. "But now at least I know why Dad asked me to stay." 

Before Ophelia could process that, Ma Gasket yelled, "Idiot!" so loudly that Ophelia flinched. "I should've thrown you out on the streets when you were babies, like proper Cyclops children. You might have learned some useful skills. Curse my soft heart that I kept you!" 

"Soft heart?" Torque muttered. 

"What was that, you ingrate?" 

"Nothing, Ma. I said you got a soft heart. We get to work for you, feed you, file your toenails—" 

"And you should be grateful!" Ma Gasket bellowed. "Now, stoke the fire, Torque! And Sump, you idiot, my case of salsa is in the other warehouse. Don't tell me you expect me to eat these demigods without salsa!" 

"Yes, Ma," Sump said. "I mean no, Ma. I mean—" 

"Go get it!" Ma Gasket picked up a nearby truck bed and slammed it over Sump's head. Sump crumpled to his knees, but he must have gotten hit by trucks a lot, because he managed to push the car part off his head and stagger to his feet. He ran off to fetch Ma's salsa. 

Ophelia spotted movement a few feet away, and saw Leo dashing between machines. Piper must have noticed as well, because she gasped. 

Ma Gasket turned to her. "What's the matter, girl? So fragile I broke you?" 

Thankfully, Piper was a quick thinker. She looked away from Leo and said, "I think it's my ribs, ma'am. If I'm busted up inside, I'll taste terrible." 

Matt winced. 

Ma Gasket bellowed with laughter. "Good one. The last hero we ate—remember him, Torque? Son of Mercury, wasn't he?" 

"Yes, Ma," Torque said. "Tasty. Little bit stringy." 

"I'll show you stringy, you one-eyed waste of space," Matt growled. 

"He tried a trick like that," Ma Gasket said. "Said he was on medication. But he tasted fine!" 

Ophelia raised an eyebrow at Matt. 

"What?" he said defensively. "It was the best I could come up with! You know I don't work well under pressure!"

Ophelia didn't know that, but then again, she didn't know much these days. 

"Tasted like mutton," Torque recalled. "Purple shirt. Talked in Latin. Yes, a bit stringy, but good." 

Piper picked up on that immediately. "Purple shirt? Latin?" 

Matt made a face. "Why's that so shocking?" he questioned. He looked at Ophelia. "She new or something?" 

"Good eating," Ma Gasket said fondly. "Point is, girl, we're not as dumb as people think! We're not falling for those stupid tricks and riddles, not us northern Cyclopes."

Piper kept talking, laying on the praise. "Oh, I've heard about the northern Cyclopes!" Ophelia doubted that, but Piper sounded convincing enough. "I never knew you were so big and clever!" 

"Flattery won't work either," Ma Gasket said, though she sounded pleased. "It's true, you'll be breakfast for the best Cyclopes around." 

"But aren't Cyclopes good?" Piper asked. "I thought you made weapons for the gods." 

"Bah! I'm very good. Good at eating people. Good at smashing. And good at building things, yes, but not for the gods. Our cousins, the elder Cyclopes, they do this, yes. Thinking they're so high and mighty 'cause they're a few thousand years older. Then there's our southern cousins, living on island and tending sheep. Morons! But we Hyperborean Cyclopes, the northern clan, we're the best! Founded Monocle Motors in this old factory—the best weapons, armor, chariots, fuel-efficient SUVs! And yet—bah! Forced to shut down. Laid off most of our tribe. The war was too quick. Titans lost. No good! No more need for Cyclopes weapons. 

"Oh, no," Piper sympathized. "I'm sure you made some amazing weapons." 

Torque grinned. "Squeaky war hammer!" He picked up a large pole with an accordion-looking metal box on the end. He slammed it against the floor and the cement cracked, and there was a sound like the world's largest rubber ducky getting stomped. 

"Terrifying," Piper said. 

Torque looked pleased. "Not as good as the exploding ax, but this one can be used more than once." 

"Can I see it?" Piper asked. "If you could just free my hands—" 

Torque stepped forward eagerly, but Ma Gasket said, "Stupid! She's tricking you again. Enough talk! Slay the boy first before he dies on his own. I like my meat fresh." 

Ophelia wriggled in her chains at that, glaring fiercely at the Cyclopes as if she wasn't wrapped in chains and was an actual threat. 

Matt squinted at Jason, as if trying to figure out who he was. "Is that the Grace kid? You're on a quest with him? I thought you hated his guts." 

Ophelia furrowed her brows. 

"Hey, wait," Piper said, trying to get the Cyclopes' attention. "Hey, can I just ask—" 

Wires sparked in Leo's hands, exposing his position. The Cyclopes froze and turned in his direction. Then Torque picked up a truck and threw it at him. 

Matt winced as Ophelia yelled through her gag. 

Leo rolled as the truck steamrolled over the machinery. If he'd been half a second slower, he would've been smashed. 

He got to his feet, and Ma Gasket spotted him. "Torque, you pathetic excuse for a Cyclops, get him!" 

Torque barreled toward Leo. The son of Hephaestus gunned the toggle on his makeshift remote. 

Torque was fifty feet away. Twenty feet. 

"Oh gods, Phee, don't look," Matt said, putting his hand over her eyes—which might have been a nice gesture if it wasn't for the fact that his hand was see-through.

One of the robotic arms whirred to life. A three-ton yellow metal claw slammed Torque in the back so hard, he landed flat on his face. Before he could recover, the robotic hand grabbed him by one leg and hurled him straight up. 

Torque yelled as he rocketed into the gloom. The ceiling as too dark and too high up to see exactly what happened, but judging from the harsh metal CLANG, Ophelia guessed the Cyclops had hit one of the support girders. 

Torque never came down. Instead, yellow dust rained to the floor. Torque had disintegrated. 

"Pluto's pauldrons," Matt breathed. "That was so cool." 

Ma Gasket stared at Leo in shock. "My son... You... You..." 

As if on cue, Sump lumbered into the firelight with a case of salsa. "Ma, I got the extra spicy—"

He never finished his sentence. A second robotic arm whacked Sump in the chest. The salsa case exploded like a piñata and Sump flew backward, right into the base of a third machine. Sump may have been immune to getting hit over the head with car parts, but he wasn't immune to robotic arms that could deliver ten thousand pounds of force. The third crane arm slammed him against the floor so hard, he exploded into dust like a broken flour sack. 

Two Cyclopes down. One raging Mama Cyclops to go. 

Ma Gasket locked her eyes on Leo. She grabbed the nearest crane arm and ripped it off its pedestal with a savage roar. "You busted my boys! Only I get to bust my boys!" 

Leo punched a button on his remote, and the two remaining arms swung into action. Ma Gasket caught the first one and tore it in half. The second arm smacked her in the head, but that only seemed to make her mad. She grabbed it by the clamps, ripped it free, and swung it like a baseball bat. It missed the three dangling demigods by an inch. Then Ma Gasket let it go—spinning it toward Leo. He yelped and rolled to one side as it demolished the machine next to him. 

Ma Gasket advanced on Leo, now standing about twenty feet from him, next to the cooking fire. "Any more tricks, demigod?" she demanded. 

Leo looked up, his eyes on an engine block suspended on a chain. 

"Heck, yeah, I got tricks!" Leo raised his remote control. "Take one more step, and I'll destroy you with fire!"

Ma Gasket laughed. "Would you? Cyclopes are immune to fire, you idiot. But if you wish to play with flames, let me help!" 

She scooped red-hot coals into her bare hands and flung them at Leo. They all landed around his feet. 

"You missed," Leo said incredulously. 

Ma Gasket grinned and picked up a barrel, hurling it at Leo. The barrel spilled on the floor in front of him, spilling lighter fluid everywhere. 

Coals sparked. Piper screamed, "No!" 

Matt tried to cover Ophelia's eyes again. "Oh, gods," he said mournfully. 

Then, Leo Valdez was on fire. 

Ophelia screamed through the gag in her mouth, thoroughly horrified. 

Ma Gasket shrieked with delight, but right before their eyes, the flames began to die, and Leo remained fully intact—as if the fire hadn't even touched him. 

Piper gasped. "Leo?" 

Ma Gasket looked astonished. "You live?" Then she took a step forward. "What are you?" 

"The son of Hephaestus," Leo said. "And I warned you I'd destroy you with fire." 

"Hephaestus?" Matt questioned. 

Leo pointed a finger in the air. A bolt of white-hot flames shot out of of his finger, right at the chain suspending the engine block over Ma Gasket's head. 

The flames died. Nothing happened. Ma Gasket laughed. "An impressive try, son of Hephaestus. It's been many centuries since I saw a fire user. You'll make a spicy appetizer!" 

The chain snapped and the engine block fell, deadly and silent. 

"I don't think so," Leo said. 

Ma Gasket didn't even have time to look up. 

Smash! No more Cyclops—just a pile of dust under a five-ton engine block. 

"Not immune to engines, huh?" Leo said. "Boo-yah!" 

Then he fell to his knees. 

It took a few minutes for Piper to get his attention back. "Leo! Are you alright? Can you move?"

"Who is this guy?" Matt asked, looking at Ophelia with wide eyes.

Leo stumbled to his feet. It took him a while to get Piper down from her chains, and together they lowered Ophelia next. Leo took a breather as the girls got Jason, who was still unconscious, down from his chains. Piper managed to trickle a little nectar into his mouth, and he groaned. The welt on his head started to shrink, and his color came back a little. 

"Yeah, he's got a nice thick skull," Leo said. "I think he's gonna be fine." 

"Thank god," Piper sighed. Then she looked at Leo. "How did you—the fire—have you always...?" 

Leo looked down. "Always," he said. "I'm a freaking menace. Sorry, I should've told you guys sooner, but—" 

"Sorry?" Ophelia demanded. "What the hell do you have to be sorry for? You saved our lives!" 

Piper punched his arm, grinning at him. "That was amazing, Valdez! What are you sorry about?" 

Leo blinked, starting to smile. 

"That was pretty epic," Matt agreed, still hovering next to Ophelia. "But why'd he say he was a son of Hephaestus? We don't use the Greek names anymore." 

"You know who I am," Ophelia said, swallowing as she stared at the ghost of her... of her brother.

Leo and Piper both looked at her strangely. "Uh, yeah, Phee," Leo said. "We do know who you are." 

Ophelia shook her head. "Not you," she said. "Him. The son of Mercury the Cyclopes..." 

Piper's expression flickered with realization. "That's who you saw on the catwalk," she said. "Wait, so you... you can see ghosts?" 

"You see ghosts?" Leo asked. "Okay, no offense, but I really don't feel like that much of a freak anymore." 

"Of course I know who you are, Phee," Matt said with a confused frown. "You're my little sister." 

"I don't remember anything," she whispered. "But I... I had a dream. With you and—and a girl. Gi." 

Matt's face softened with something like longing. "Gianna," he