ONE LAST TIME . . . heroes of olympus

75

THE DWARFS DIDN'T try very hard to lose them, which was hella suspicious. They stayed just at the edge of their vision, scampering over red-tiled rooftops, knocking over window boxes, whooping and hollering and leaving a trail of screws and nails from Leo's tool belt — almost as if they wanted them to follow.

Of course, Kat could've ran quicker, but she was too busy laughing at Leo every time his pants fell down to think clearly. It was really funny. Can you blame her?

She turned a corner and saw two ancient stone towers jutting into the sky, side by side, much taller than anything else in the neighborhood — maybe medieval watchtowers? They leaned in different directions like gearshifts on a race car.

The Kerkopes scaled the tower on the right. When they reached the top, they climbed around the back and disappeared.

Had they gone inside? Kat could see some tiny windows at the top, covered with metal grates; but she doubted those would stop the dwarfs. She watched for a minute, but the Kerkopes didn't reappear. Which meant she and Leo had to get up there and look for them.

"Great," Leo muttered. "Kat, I don't suppose your ancestors gave you flying powers that have been conveniently dormant until now?"

She concentrated for a moment before shaking her head. "Nope, sorry." She glanced around and saw a set of double glass doors open and an old lady hobbled out, carrying plastic shopping bags. "Luchik, do you wanna go grocery stealing — I mean, uh, shopping?"

He looked at her suspiciously. "You steal stuff from grocery stores?"

She shrugged. "It's a fun game we — uh, me and my siblings — play sometimes," she explained, though she grabbed her wallet from Cortana's scabbard and waggled it in front of his face. "But if you want to pay, we can. Though it's not as fun."

Leo started running for the store, his pants falling along the way. Kat laughed as she followed him, ever the nice one.

They scoured the aisles, Kat not sure what they were looking for. She picked up some things along the way, such as sweets and hair ties and skincare materials, because those were absolutely necessary. Listen, she needed them. She'd have a skincare day with Hazel and Piper or something. And if they didn't want to have one, then either Frank or Jason would. They're not picky.

Leo, ever the madman, unceremoniously dumped toothpaste, charcoal, sugar, baking soda, matches, bug spray, and aluminium foil, and a laundry cord into the cart. Then, as they were going to the register, he dumped more junk food into the cart. Kat rolled her eyes but didn't question his madness as they got to the register and she put all of the items onto the conveyor belt, evading all of the cashier's questions with a too-big smile and some of that charisma she inherited from her papa. Leo bagged all their items, Kat paid the cashier, and they rushed out of the store.

"See, you didn't need to steal anything from the store! It all worked out," he said, ducking into the nearest doorway. "Keep an eye on the towers."

She rolled her eyes, staring at the towers. "Yeah, and I'm a shit ton of euros short," she countered. "Mama's gonna kill me. You know, if your insanity doesn't kill me first."

"Yeah, well, you love me somehow," out of the corner of her eye, she saw his hand aflame.

"This has not worked out so far," argued Kat. "And mama's going to yell at me for wasting her money on stupid shit. Well, at least it was funny."

There was no sign of the dwarfs. Or of Jason. Maybe he was still tangled at the Neptune fountain, or scouring the streets looking for Kat and Leo, which would be surprising because by the train of chaos they were leaving behind them, there was no way they wouldn't have been found. No one else from the ship came to help. Probably it was taking them a long time to get all those pink rubber bands out of Hedge's hair.