BLOODSHOT . . . piper mclean

76.

EDEN HAD SPENT a couple hours walking around the city of Malta, or so some tourist said, until she'd found the cafe.

Now, naturally, she needed coffee if she was going to find the others. She went to the counter and stared at the menu, wondering what the shit half of the items were when she felt someone tap her shoulder.

She turned, tensing, her hand on her new sword that Hercules had given her, but then relaxed when she saw it was Fire Boy.

"Leo, holy shit," Eden hugged him, and he didn't put his arms around her, probably because of the sword on her back.

"It makes it hard to hug you when that's on your back," he said, as she pulled away. "Where'd you get it?"

Eden let out a small snort. "Dude, you look like you're still in December." But she put her hand on it, feeling the hum of the power already. "Went on a heist. Want something?"

"Coffee," he said. "Just black."

"You hate coffee," she frowned.

"I'll let you drink it."

He didn't look the same. The glint in his eyes was gone, replaced by something else. Eden had seen that exact look before on someone. But she didn't push.

"As long as you take out the money, I can't read and I've been overpaying people." She stood in line, and he went with her, grabbing her wallet and grabbing the money.

They sat at a table overlooking the sea. Eden could feel her power just looking at it. But she looked away.

"I got sent to the sky when the ship froze over," Leo said, and she nodded. "What happened to you?"

"I did, too." Eden sipped at her coffee. "Do you know anything about them?"

"No. I'm guessing you didn't end up in the same place as me."

"Unless you were sent to the Mediterranean, then Miami, I don't think so," she stirred her coffee with her straw. "You don't wanna talk about what happened to you."

"Not yet," Leo said quietly. "But later."

Eden understood. She nodded, and sighed. "Well, I got sent to Hercules's island."

Leo paused. "You what?"

She was telling the story when out of the corner of her eye, she saw Piper running over.

Piper nearly knocked Eden out of her chair with a hug. "Eden! Gods, where have you been?"

And there, she felt like home. She sighed and leaned into Piper's embrace, bringing her wrist up to her mouth and kissing it.

"Fairchild! Valdez!" Coach Hedge grinned. Then he seemed to remember he had a reputation to protect and he forced a scowl. "You ever disappear like that again, you punks, I'll knock you into next month!"

Frank patted Leo on the back so hard it made him wince. Nico even patted Eden's head. He was half an inch shorter than her.

Hazel kissed Leo on the cheek. "We thought you two were dead!"

Leo mustered a faint smile. "Hey, guys. Nah, nah, I'm good. And of course Eden's fine."

He literally wouldn't meet their eyes. His hands were perfectly still on the table.

Eden put on a smile, taking her sword off the table and putting it on the ground. "Yeah, what he said. Of course we'd be fine."

The others grabbed chairs from the nearby tables. Perfect Jason leaned in to talk to Leo. Eden pulled Piper on her lap, getting a few looks but honestly she'd just escaped from stealing thousands of dollars worth of artifacts from a museum. She didn't really care about a few looks.