heavy bones [jason grace]

9. we become the teenage mutant ninja turtles

"Speed up!" Jason urges Leo. We're trying to track the storm spirit, but it's not exactly making it easy for us. Now that I've had my third mental breakdown in the past 72 hours, I'm feeling surprisingly refreshed. I have one arm secured around Jason's waist while I also try to snack on the fruit gummies I packed.

Leo scowls. "Bro, if I get any closer, he'll spot us. Bronze dragon ain't exactly a stealth plane."

"Slow down!" Piper yelps as the storm spirit dives into the grid of downtown streets. Festus attempts to follow. Unfortunately, his wings are too wide, and he ends up killing a stone gargoyle. I wince. Thank the Gods we don't have to pay for that.

"Get above the buildings," Jason suggests. "We'll track him from there."

Leo's getting huffy. "You want to drive this thing?" He takes Jason's suggestion, but he certainly doesn't seem happy about it. It takes a few minutes before Jason points out the storm spirit again.

"Oh great," Piper sighs. "There're two." Shit. She's right. Another one comes out of nowhere and joins his buddy. Their movements seem utterly random, but they have to be headed somewhere.

"Those guys do not need any more caffeine," Leo jokes.

Piper shrugs. "I guess Chicago's a good place to hang out. Nobody's going to question a couple more evil winds." I finish my packet of fruit snacks and shove the trash in my bag. Now that my other arm is free, I wrap it around Jason's waist. Holding him like this, I can feel his abs through his shirt.

I do not have a crush on Jason Grace.

"More than a couple," Jason says. "Look." He directs our attention to this park. At least a dozen storm spirits are whirling around this public art installation which is really just a fountain. Two five-story monoliths stand at both ends of a long reflecting pool. The monoliths are built out of screens, or maybe the screens are built into the monoliths. I don't know. But it looks pretty cool.

"Which one do you think is Dylan?" Leo asked. "I wanna throw something at him." I frown. Who the fuck is Dylan? Whatever. I can ask later. As we watch the storm spirits whirl, the image on the screens changes to a woman's face with her eyes closed.

Jason tenses up. "Leo..."

"I see her," Leo replies. "I don't like her, but I see her." The screens go dark. The storm spirits converge into one, forming a funnel cloud. They move across the pool, creating these waterspouts almost as tall as the monoliths themselves. When they reach the center of the fountain, they remove a drain cover and disappear into what has to be the sewers.

Piper looks absolutely bewildered. "Did they just go down a drain? How are we supposed to follow them?"

"Maybe we shouldn't," Leo says. "That fountain thing is giving me seriously bad vibes. And aren't we supposed to, like, beware the earth?"

"No!" I bark. "We didn't come this far to come this far." It was something Erin used to say all the time. It was like her motto. Gods, I miss her.

Jason sets his jaw. "Dee-Dee's right. Put us down in that park. We'll check it out on foot."

I roll my eyes. "Oh, so Dee-Dee's a thing now?"

"I think you mean it's a thing again," Jason corrects me. Leo lands Festus in an open area between a lake and the Chicago skyline. There's a sign, probably to tell us where we are, but my dyslexia is acting up and I can't read it. I make a mental note to come back here when it's warmer, though.

We dismount, our eyes stinging. Festus stomps his feet. One of his eyes flickers as if he's blinking. Jason makes a face. "Is that normal?"

Leo whips out a rubber mallet and whacks the flickering eye. Surprisingly, it works. "Yes. Festus can't hang around here, though, in the middle of the park. They'll arrest him for loitering."