The Wishing Sequence

Prologue

(The prologue was taken straight from The House of Hades, pages 403 and 404. The credit for this belongs to Rick Riordan. I am just using this because this makes a good start to my fanfic.)

Leo was too dazed to move, but Calypso sprang to her feet.

"Hurry!" She sprinted across the beach, grabbed some supply bags, and ran them to the raft. "I don't know how long it will stay!"

"But..." Leo stood. His legs felt they'd turned to rock. He had just convinced himself he had another week on Ogygia. Now he didn't have time to finish dinner. "That's the magic raft?"

"Duh!" Calypso yelled. "It might work like it's supposed to and take you where you want to go. But we can't be sure. The island's magic is obviously unstable. You must rig up your guidance device to navigate."

She snatched up the console and ran toward the raft, which got Leo moving. He helped her fasten it to the raft and run wires to the small rudder in the back. The raft was already fitted with a mast, so Leo and Calypso hauled their sail aboard and started on the rigging.

They worked side by side in perfect harmony. Even among the Hephaestus campers, Leo had never worked with anyone as intuitive as this immortal gardener girl. In no time, they had the sail in place and all the supplies aboard. Leo hit the buttons on the Archimedes sphere, muttered a prayer to his dad, Hephaestus, and the Celestial bronze console hummed to life.

The rigging tightened. The sail turned. The raft began scraping against the sand, straining to reach the waves.

"Go," Calypso said.

Leo turned. She was so close he couldn't stand it. She smelled like cinnamon and wood smoke, and he thought he'd never smell anything that good again.

"The raft finally got here," he said.

Calypso snorted. Her eyes might have been red, but it was hard to tell in the moonlight. "You just noticed?"

"But if it only shows up for guys you like-"

"Don't push your luck, Leo Valdez," she said. "I still hate you."

"Okay."

"And you are not coming back here," she insisted. "So don't give me any empty promises."

"How about a full promise?" he said. "Because I'm definitely-"

She grabbed his face and pulled him into a kiss, which effectively shut him up.

For all his joking and flirting, Leo had never kissed a girl before. Well, sisterly pecks on the check from Piper, but that didn't count. This was a real, full-contact kiss. If Leo had had gears and wires in his brain, they would've short-circuited.

Calypso pushed him away. "That didn't happen."

"Okay."

"Get out of here."

"Okay."

She turned, wiping her eyes furiously, and stormed up the beach, the breeze tousling her hair.

Leo wanted to call to her, but the sail caught the full force of the wind, and the raft cleared the beach. He struggled to align the guidance console. By the time Leo looked back, the island of Ogygia was a dark line on the distance, their campfire pulsing like a tiny orange heart.

His lips still tingled from the kiss.

That didn't happen, he told himself. I can't be in love with an immortal girl. She definitely can't be in love with me. Not possible.

As his raft skimmed over the water, taking him back to the mortal world, he understood a line from the Prophecy better- an oath to keep with a final breath.

He understood how dangerous oaths could be. But Leo didn't care.

"I'm coming back for you, Calypso," he said to the night wind. "I swear it on the River Styx."