~ { Shadow and Beauty } ~

Dirt Face

{Kiara}

Kiara agreed with Nemesis on one thing: good luck was a sham. At least when it came to Kiara's luck.

Hazel and Frank had been knocked out by the tendrils of a possessed steampunk bowling ball. Two suits of armor with bad attitudes were about to kill Leo. Kiara could summon a few skeletons. She sensed a few dead below them. But the area was too small, and she didn't want to hurt Hazel and Frank.

On Kiara's right, the suit of armor with a lion's head helmet creaked its wiry neck and regarded Hazel and Frank, who were still lying unconscious.

"A male and female demigod," said Lion Head.

"These will do, if the others die." Its hollow face mask turned back to Leo and Kiara. "We do not need you, Leo Valdez, or you, Kiara Morrigan."

"Oh, hey!" Leo tried for a winning smile. "You always need Leo Valdez!" He spread his hands, but he looked desperate and terrified.

The one with the wolf-headed helmet snarled, "I have been in your mind, Leo. I helped you start the war."

Leo's smile crumbled. He took a step back. "That was you? You made me fire the ballista?" he demanded. "You call that helping?"

"I know how you think," said Wolf Head. "I know your limits. You are small and alone. You need friends to protect you. Without them, you are unable to withstand me. I vowed not to possess you again, but I can still kill you."

The armored dudes stepped forward. The points of their swords hovered a few inches from Leo's face.

That's when Kiara decided to interfere. She slammed her sword to the blades of the manikins, pushing them away from Leo, and stood between him and the armored dudes. She hoped Leo could come up with an idea before they got skewered, because she was sure she wouldn't be able to beat 3 armored machines at once.

Leo glanced at the dormant spheres on the worktables. "Run at my signal," he muttered in Kiara's ear. Then he turned to Wolf Head. "First: you don't know me. And second: Bye."

Kiara guessed that was the signal, and they both lunged for the stairs and bounded to the top. The suits of armor were scary, but they were not fast. Leo and Kiara threw themselves in a loft with doors on either side—folding metal gates. Leo slammed both gates shut and summoned fire to his hands, fusing the locks.

"Now what?" Kiara asked, panting. Her heart was racing, but she didn't know if it was because she was scared or because of the adrenalin.

The suits of armor closed in on either side. They rattled the gates, hacking at them with their swords.

"This is foolish," said Lion Head. "You only delay your death."

"Delaying death is one of my favorite hobbies." Leo scanned the place.

Kiara decided to do the same. Overlooking the workshop was a single table like a control board. It was crowded with junk, but most of it Kiara dismissed immediately: a diagram for a human catapult that would probably never work; a strange black sword that looked a lot like Kiara's; a large bronze mirror (Kiara's hair was all messed up); and a set of tools that someone had broken, either in frustration or clumsiness.

Leo focused on the main project. In the center of the table, someone had disassembled an Archimedes sphere. Gears, springs, levers, and rods were littered around it. All the bronze cables to the room below were connected to a metal plate under the sphere. It was all too jumbled up for Kiara to understand anything.