ACCORDING TO THE plaque, it was called Crown Fountain. All the water had emptied out except for a few patches that were starting to freeze. It didn't seem right to Kat that the fountain would have water in it in the winter anyway. Then again, those big monitors had flashed the face of their mysterious enemy Dirt Woman. Nothing about this place was right.

They stepped to the center of the pool. No spirits tried to stop them. The giant monitor walls stayed dark. The drain hole was easily big enough for a person, and a maintenance ladder led down into the gloom.

Jason went first, then Piper and Leo and Kat because she was guarding their backs. As she climbed, she braced herself for horrible sewer smells, but it wasn't that bad. The ladder dropped into a brickwork tunnel running north to south. The air was warm and dry, with only a trickle of water on the floor.

"Are all sewers this nice?" Piper wondered.

"No," Leo and Kat said at the same time. "Trust me," Leo finished.

Jason frowned. "How do you two know—"

"Listen, you get into weird situations when you're committing crimes," Kat explained.

"I ran away six times," Leo agreed. "I've slept in some weird places, okay? Now, which way do we go?"

Jason tilted his head, listening, then pointed south. "That way."

"How can you be sure?" asked Piper.

"There's a draft blowing south," Jason said. "Maybe the venti went with the flow."

It wasn't much of a lead, but nobody offered anything better.

Unfortunately, as soon as they started walking, Piper stumbled. Kat miraculously caught her. It was the child of Hermes speed reflexes.

"Stupid ankle," Piper cursed.

"Let's rest," Jason decided. "We could all use it. We've been going nonstop for over a day. Leo, can you pull any food from that tool belt besides breath mints?"

"Thought you'd never ask. Chef Leo is on it!"

Piper and Jason sat on a brick ledge while Leo shuffled through his pack. Kat sat next to Leo, throwing her sword on the ground in front of her and murmuring at it to light up. It did, emitting a white glow.

"Is there anything it can't do?" Leo asked her.

Kat shrugged. "My uncle told me that it's more attuned to me than to other wielders," she said. "Theoretically, I could do a lot of things with Cortana. Like, you know, it can set on fire."

At the order, the edge of the blade burst into flame, making Leo grin his manic, unsettling grin. It had always made her feel the opposite. "I love you."

"I know," she smirked, fiddling with her ruby pendant as he pulled supplies out of his pack and toolbelt. He looked at home with the fire, the firelight highlighting his features in just the right way. She wondered if she'd missed something special when she'd broken up with him.

But then he asked her, "you like both of them, don't you?"

She resisted the urge to look back at the both of them, sitting on that ledge. "This really isn't the right time to think about relationships," she sighed, watching as her pendant flickered on and off — probably from the presence of the storm spirits nearby, but it's not like she could do anything about it when they were resting, so she put it away. "Not when Jason's like . . . you know, like this, and Piper's hiding something. I know it." She glanced at him. "Like you were."

Leo's face dropped. "Kat—"

"No, I get it," she waved him off. "I kept the secret of us being demigods for months, remember? It's not like I can talk."

"You had a valid reason for doing it," he pointed out, pulling out ingredients from his toolbelt. "If you told me I was a demigod while we were doing those stupid exercises, I would've immediately tackled you into a cactus."

Kat rolled her eyes, though she felt a pile of guilt start to build up in her chest. "Bold of you to assume you'd be able to tackle me."

"Is that a challenge?"

"It could be if you actually started feeding us."

"I am working on it!"

She let out a laugh that echoed almost too much in the tunnel, but she didn't care as she watched Leo put some peppers and meat ( was that tofu? ) on a pan.

"Hold it for a sec," he ordered. She dutifully took it, holding it over the fire as he took out taco shells, chips, and salsa. Oh, fuck yeah.

"Do you really trust me with this?" she asked.

"Good point." Leo took the pan from her and slid over plates, chips, and salsa. "Can you at least assemble that?"

"We'll see." Kat put chips on the plates haphazardly, before pouring salsa next to them. "The last prank I pulled with my siblings before I left for the Wilderness School involved salsa."

He looked over at her. "Really?"

"Uh huh, my siblings told me during dinner when we came back about how salsa was banned for a solid month," she grinned. "Ohmigosh, lemme tell you!"

She told him about it as he assembled the tacos, still explaining the story as they brought the plates over to Jason and Piper, because that incident had many curveballs and surprises.

"Leo," Piper said in amazement. "How did you—?"

"Chef Leo's Taco Garage is fixing you up!" he said proudly. "And by the way, it's tofu, not beef, beauty queen, so don't freak. Just dig in! And, Kat, you're finishing that story."

And, holy shit, the food was so good. Kat loved Leo with all of her heart, so she did what he asked and explained the whole story again to Jason and Piper.

"So they filled the entire Demeter cabin with two feet of salsa because Travis liked Katie," Kat summed up, "and that's why Chiron banned salsa for a month. Kenzie Fitzgerald was still mad; she overheard the Stolls telling me it and it was so funny; I thought she was going to roll her eyes so hard, she'd see hell behind her eyelids or whatever."

After Kat finished her story, Jason encouraged Piper to get some sleep. Without another word, she curled up and put her head in his lap. In two seconds she was snoring.

Jason looked up at Leo, who was obviously trying not to laugh, and Kat, who was openly snickering.

They sat in silence for a few minutes, drinking lemonade Leo had made from canteen water and powdered mix. Well, except for Kat, who had gotten up, walking over to pick up her sword which was still on fire and extinguishing it with a thought.

"Good, huh?" Leo grinned.

"You should start a stand," Jason said. "Make some serious coin."

He glanced over at Kat when she walked back over to them and sat down, brushing the ashes and other shit off of Cortana.

"Leo," he started, "about this fire stuff you can do . . . is it true?"

Leo's smile faltered. "Yeah, well . . ." He opened his hand. A small ball of flame burst to life, dancing across his palm.

"That is so cool," said Jason. "Why didn't you say anything?"

Leo closed his hand and the fire went out. "Didn't want to look like a freak."

"I have lightning and wind powers," Jason reminded him. "Piper can turn beautiful and charm people into giving her BMWs. Kat has a magic sword and apparently has mind powers. You're no more a freak than we are. And, hey, maybe you can fly, too. Like jump off a building and yell, 'Flame on!'"

Kat stiffened. She hadn't told them about her mind powers, yet. And frankly, she didn't want to.

Leo snorted. "If I did that, you would see a flaming kid falling to his death, and I would be yelling something a little stronger than 'Flame on!' Trust me, Hephaestus cabin doesn't see fire powers as cool. Nyssa told me they're super rare. When a demigod like me comes around, bad things happen. Really bad."

"Maybe it's the other way around," Kat suggested. "Maybe people with special gifts show up when bad things are happening because that's when they're needed most."

Leo cleared away the plates. "Maybe. But I'm telling you . . . it's not always a gift."

"You're talking about your mom, aren't you?" Kat knew. She knew him too well to not know. "The night she died."

Leo didn't answer. He didn't have to.

"Leo, her death wasn't your fault," Jason assured him. "Whatever happened that night — it wasn't because you could summon fire. This Dirt Woman, whoever she is, has been trying to ruin you for years, mess up your confidence, take away everything you care about. She's trying to make you feel like a failure. You're not. You're important."

"That's what she said." Leo looked up, his eyes full of pain. "She said I was meant to do something important — something that would make or break that big prophecy about the eight demigods. That's what scares me. I don't know if I'm up to it."

"You don't have to be," Kat told him. "Not right now. You don't have to be ready even then. I mean, you probably should be, but when the moment comes, it doesn't matter if you're ready for it. You just kinda have to . . . do it."

He snorted. "Really helpful."

She rolled her eyes. "I wasn't ready for war," she said quietly, staring down at her sword. "We even knew the day it'd end — Percy Jackson's birthday, the eighteenth of August. But it just . . . happened. He told us to go to Manhattan, and he told us to protect Olympus from Kronos. That's it. And then the war happened. I wasn't ready for it. We pretended like we were, but the truth was, no one was. But we had to do it anyway. And we won. But, of course, we'll never be done with war. Not with this prophecy right after the last one."

Leo poked at the remnants of his fire, turning over red-hot coals with his bare hand. "You ever wonder about the other four demigods? I mean . . . if we're four of the ones from the Great Prophecy, who are the others? Where are they?"

"To be honest, I didn't think I'd be one of the eight when I first heard the prophecy," Kat shrugged. "But now? I mean, I guess the other four will show up when the time is right. Who knows? Maybe they're on some other quest right now."

Leo grunted. "I bet their sewer is nicer than ours."

The draft picked up, blowing toward the south end of the tunnel.

"Get some rest, Leo, Kat," Jason said. "I'll take first watch."

Leo went to sleep, but Kat snorted and said, "yeah, right," she stood up and started walking around. "Can't tell me what to do."

Jason looked at her, unimpressed. "I just slept for a long time on Festus, Kat. You should probably sleep."

"I'm not that tired," she pouted, thinking that she needed some light, and her sword lit up dimly. "You can make an exception for me, milaya, right?"

"Rina."

"Moya milaya," she countered. "My darling. Just for a little bit?"

He sighed, before patting the spot next to him. She walked over and sat next to him, gently placing her sword on the ground nearby so it wouldn't wake up Piper. Just because Kat could do everything quietly didn't mean that everything else she touched did.

"What's keeping you up?" he asked.

"I don't know," she said. "I'm just . . ."

You like both of them, don't you?

Kat's good at lying her way out of situations. She's done it before, she'll do it again. This one wasn't one she could do that for. She liked Jason. She liked Piper. But now? Really? When they're probably going to die on this quest? No way.

"I feel like I'm not doing enough," she admitted. "I'm supposed to be the experienced one here. You said it yourself, I have a super powerful family, with super powerful powers, and I haven't used them at all. I didn't even think about the Monocle Motors logo being Cyclopes. And Leo was the one who killed them, not me."

She looked over at him. "Is that crazy?"

"No," he said immediately. "Because I feel the exact same."

Her eyebrows furrowed. "'Cause you got knocked out?"

"That's a part of it," he agreed. "But my gut and my mind's telling me that I could be doing better. I should be doing better. I've done this stuff before, so why am I not being better?"

"Well, next time we'll be the ones living up to our expectations, yeah?" Kat held out her pinky. "I refuse to be humbled by some nasty monsters or whatever's waiting for us."

Jason hooked his pinky with hers. "Yeah," he said. Then he gave her a pointed glance. "Sleep, Rina. You need it."

"I d—" she yawned. "Shit."

He laughed quietly. "I'll still be here when you wake up. I promise."

"Where're you gonna go?" she asked, looking down at Piper, before getting up and walking a little bit away where her open pack was. She laid some of her clothes down on the ground, stacked some up for a pillow, and laid down on them, falling asleep in a matter of minutes.

After sleeping for a couple hours, she was woken up rudely by Leo, who she threw her makeshift pillow at. After Jason stopped their 'clothes war', they broke camp and started down the tunnel.

It twisted and turned and seemed to go on forever. Kat wasn't sure what to expect at the end — a dungeon, a mad scientist's lab, or maybe a sewer reservoir where all Porta-Potty sludge ends up, forming an evil toilet face large enough to swallow the world.

Instead, they found polished steel elevator doors, each one engraved with a cursive letter M. Next to the elevator was a directory, like for a department store.

"M for Macy's?" Kat guessed. "They have one in downtown Chicago. Fun place to vandalize."

"Or Monocle Motors still?" Leo said. "Guys, read the directory. It's messed up."

Parking, Kennels, Main Entrance: Sewer Level

Furnishings and Café M: 1

Women's Fashion and Magical Appliances: 2

Men's Wear and Weaponry: 3

Cosmetics, Potions, Poisons & Sundries: 4

"Kennels for what?" Piper said. "And what kind of department store has its entrance in a sewer?"

"Or sells poisons," Leo said. "Man, what does 'sundries' even mean? Is that like underwear?"

Jason took a deep breath. "When in doubt, start at the top."

The doors slid open on the fourth floor, and the scent of perfume wafted into the elevator. Jason stepped out first.

"Guys," he said. "You've got to see this."

Kat stepped out and whistled. "This is not Macy's."

The department store looked like the inside of a kaleidoscope. The entire ceiling was a stained glass mosaic with astrological signs around a giant sun. The daylight streaming through it washed everything in a thousand different colors. The upper floors made a ring of balconies around a huge central atrium, so they could see all the way down to the ground floor. Gold railings glittered so brightly, Kat was sure they weren't gold.

Aside from the stained glass ceiling and the elevator, she couldn't see any other windows or doors, but two sets of glass escalators ran between the levels. The carpeting was a riot of oriental patterns and colors, and the racks of merchandise were just as bizarre. There was too much to take it at once, but Kat saw normal stuff like shirt racks and shoe trees mixed in with armored manikins, beds of nails, and fur coats that seemed to be moving.

Leo stepped to the railing and looked down. "Check it out."

In the middle of the atrium a fountain sprayed water twenty feet into the air, changing color from red to yellow to blue. The pool glittered with gold coins, and on either side of the fountain stood a gilded cage — like an oversized bird cage. You could buy those things online. Kat knew that personally.

Inside one, a miniature hurricane swirled, and lightning flashed. Somebody had imprisoned the storm spirits, and the cage shuddered as they tried to get out. In the other, frozen like a statue, was a short, buff satyr, holding a tree-branch club.

"Coach Hedge!" Piper said. "We've got to get down there."

A voice said, "May I help you find something?"

All four of them jumped back.

A woman had just appeared in front of them. She wore an elegant black dress with diamond jewelry, and she looked like a retired fashion model — maybe fifty years old, though it was hard to judge. Her long dark hair swept over one shoulder, and her face was gorgeous in that surreal super-model way — thin and haughty and cold, not quite human. With their long red-painted nails, her fingers looked more like talons.

She smiled. "I'm so happy to see new customers. How may I help you?"

"Um," started Kat, "is this your store?"

The woman nodded. "I found it abandoned, you know. I understand so many stores are, these days. I decided it would make the perfect place. I love collecting tasteful objects, helping people, and offering quality goods at a reasonable price. So this seemed a good . . . how do you say . . . first acquisition in this country."

She spoke with a pleasing accent, but it made Kat's spidey senses tingle. This did not seem good.

"So you're new to America?" asked Jason.

"I am . . . new," the woman agreed. "I am the Princess of Colchis. My friends call me Your Highness. Now, what are you looking for?"

Kat had heard of rich foreigners buying American department stores — her grandpa had been one of them. Then again, most of the time they didn't sell poisons, living fur coats, storm spirits, or satyrs.

Piper poked Jason in the ribs. "Jason . . ."

"Um, right. Actually, Your Highness . . ." He pointed to the gilded cage on the first floor. "That's our friend down there, Gleeson Hedge. The satyr. Could we . . . have him back, please?"

"Of course!" the princess agreed immediately. "I would love to show you my inventory. First, may I know your names?"

Piper started to say, "Jason, I wouldn't—" as if she hadn't already said his name before.

"This is Piper," he said. "This is Leo and Kat. I'm Jason."

The princess fixed her eyes on Jason and, just for a moment, her face literally glowed, blazing with so much anger, Kat could see her skull beneath her skin. That was suspicious as all hell. Then the moment passed, and Her Highness looked like a normal elegant woman again, with a cordial smile and a soothing voice.

"Jason. What an interesting name," she said, her eyes as cold as the Chicago wind. "I think we'll have to make a special deal for you. Come, children. Let's go shopping."

FANGIRLING AT THE "MOYA MILAYA" PART HELP

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