The House of Hades (Heroes of Olympus Book 4)

the annoying guest she couldn’t get rid of. She’d never fall for him, because she was totally out of his league. Not that he cared. She wasn’t his type anyway. She was way too annoying and beautiful and – well, it didn’t matter.
    ‘Fine,’ he said. ‘I’ll leave you alone. I’ll build something myself and get off this stupid island without your help.’
    She shook her head sadly. ‘You don’t understand, do you? The gods are laughing at both of us. If the raft will not appear, that means they’ve closed Ogygia. You’re stuck here the same as me. You can never leave.’

LI
     

LEO
     
    T HE FIRST FEW DAYS WERE THE WORST.
    Leo slept outside on a bed of drop cloths under the stars. It got cold at night, even on the beach in the summer, so he built fires with the remains of Calypso’s dining table. That cheered him up a little.
    During the days, he walked the circumference of the island and found nothing of interest – unless you liked beaches and endless sea in every direction. He tried to send an Iris-message in the rainbows that formed in the sea spray, but he had no luck. He didn’t have any drachmas for an offering, and apparently the goddess Iris wasn’t interested in nuts and bolts.
    He didn’t even dream, which was unusual for him – or for any demigod – so he had no idea what was going on in the outside world. Had his friends got rid of Khione? Were they looking for him, or had they sailed on to Epirus to complete the quest?
    He wasn’t even sure what to hope for.
    The dream he’d had back on the
Argo II
finally made sense to him – when the evil sorceress lady had told him to either jump off a cliff into the clouds, or descend into a dark tunnel where ghostly voices whispered. That tunnel must have represented the House of Hades, which Leo would never see now. He’d taken the cliff instead – falling through the sky to this stupid island. But in the dream Leo had been given a choice. In real life he’d had none. Khione had simply plucked him off his ship and shot him into orbit. Totally unfair.
    The worst part of being stuck here? He was losing track of the days. He woke up one morning and couldn’t remember if he’d been on Ogygia for three nights or four.
    Calypso wasn’t much help. Leo confronted her in the garden, but she just shook her head. ‘Time is difficult here.’
    Great. For all Leo knew, a century had passed in the real world and the war with Gaia was over for better or worse. Or maybe he’d only been on Ogygia for five minutes. His whole life might pass here in the time it took his friends on the
Argo II
to have breakfast.
    Either way, he needed to get off this island.
    Calypso took pity on him in some ways. She sent her invisible servants to leave bowls of stew and goblets of lemonade at the edge of the garden. She even sent him a few new sets of clothes – simple undyed cotton trousers and shirts that she must have made on her loom. They fitted him so well, Leo wondered how she’d got his measurements. Maybe she just used her generic pattern for SCRAWNY MALE .
    Anyway, he was glad to have new threads, since his old ones were pretty smelly and burnt. Usually Leo could keep his clothes from burning when he caught fire, but it took concentration. Sometimes back at camp, if he wasn’t thinking about it, he’d be working on some metal project at the hot forge, look down and realize his clothes had burned away, except for his magic tool belt and a smoking pair of underpants. Kind of embarrassing.
    Despite the gifts, Calypso obviously didn’t want to see him. One time he poked his head inside the cave and she freaked out, yelling and throwing pots at his head.
    Yeah, she was
definitely
on Team Leo.
    He ended up pitching a more permanent camp near the footpath, where the beach met the hills. That way he was close enough to pick up his meals, but Calypso didn’t have to see him and go into a pot-throwing rage.
    He made himself a lean-to with sticks and canvas. He dug a campfire pit. He even managed to build himself a bench and a worktable from some driftwood and dead cedar branches. He spent hours fixing the Archimedes sphere, cleaning it and repairing its circuits. He made himself a compass, but the needle would spin all crazy no matter what he tried. Leo guessed a GPS would have been useless, too. This island was designed to be off the charts, impossible to leave.
    He remembered the old bronze astrolabe he’d picked up in Bologna – the one the dwarfs