Wildfires, Heroes of Olympus ₂

034, please like he's my friend

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
SILVIANA DUVALL

Sylvie was pretty sure she was the only person keeping the Argo II crew from mutinying against Leo. And even though she got her friends not to attack him, Annabeth was still giving him a look so terrible he might as well have been pulverized anyway.

"One more time," she demanded. "Exactly what happened?"

"Annabeth," Sylvie whispered, pleadingly.

Leo slumped against the mast. He clearly felt horrible, and it certainly wasn't helping that everyone was mad at him. Sylvie tried doing her best to cheer him up—she held an ice pack to his head from where it had hit the deck. Still, Leo was depressed.

All around, his beautiful new ship was in shambled. The aft crossbows were piles of kindling. The foresail was tattered. The satellite array that powered the onboard Internet and TV was blown to bits, which really made Coach Hedge mad. Their bronze dragon figurehead, Festus, was coughing up smoke like he had a hairball. The ship was listing and shuddering as it flew. The engine wheezed like an asthmatic steam train.

Leo choked back a sob. "I don't know. It's fuzzy."

Sylvie glanced at the people looking at Leo, silently begging them to go easier on him. There was Annabeth (whose anger made her seem a million times more scary), Coach Hedge with his furry goat legs, orange polo shirt, and baseball bat (did he have to carry that everywhere?), and the newcomer, Frank.

Sylvie wasn't sure what to make of Frank. He looked like a baby sumo wrestler, though Sylvie wasn't stupid enough to say that loud. And even so, she thought the fact Frank had turned into a huge dragon was a lot more important.

"You mean you don't remember?" Annabeth crossed her arms.

"I..." Leo swallowed dryly. "I remember, but it's like I was watching myself do things. I couldn't control it."

Sylvie set him an empathetic look, hoping the ice pack she held to his head was at least doing something to ease the agony he was in. Meanwhile, Coach Hedge tapped his bat against the deck, glowering at Leo.

"Look, kid," Hedge said, "you blew up some stuff. You attacked some Romans. Awesome! Excellent! But did you have to knock out the satellite channels? I was right in the middle of watching a cage match."

"Coach," Sylvie said, "why don't you make sure all the fires out?"

"But I already did that."

"Well, do it again."

"Why—"

"Do. It. Again."

The satyr trudged off, muttering under his breath. Sylvie never got scary like that, so he knew better than to defy her.

Sylvie directed her attention back to Leo, still kneeling next to him. She gently set the ice pack down at her side so she could focus on conversing with him.

"Leo," she said calmly, "did Octavian trick you somehow? Did he frame you, or—?"

"No," Leo interjected. Sylvie was surprised at how easily he told the truth. "The guy was a jerk, but he didn't fire on the camp. I did."

The new kid, Frank, scowled. "On purpose?"

"No!" Leo squeezed his eyes shut. "Well, yes..."

"Leo," Sylvie urged under her breath to him. "You're not really helping me defend you, here."