𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐀𝐖𝐀𝐊𝐄𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆 •| ⊱ Jason Grace¹

•| ⊱ THIRTY-SIX

"I know," Leo said. After seeing her dad and Hermia break down, Leo understood Piper couldn't afford to lose Jason and Mia. She'd just watched Tristan McLean, her cool suave movie star dad, reduced to near insanity. She'd also seen a strong girl like Hermia reduce to an emotional reck. Leo could barely stand to watch that, but for Piper-Wow, Leo couldn't even imagine. He figured that would make her insecure about herself, too. If weakness was inherited, she'd be wondering, could she break down the same way her dad did? And worst of all, would she break down like Mia did, even if she's the strongest in the group.

"Hey, don't worry," Leo said. "Piper, you and Hermia are the strongest, most powerful queens I've ever met. You can trust yourself. For what it's worth, you can trust me too."

The helicopter dipped in a wind shear, and Leo almost jumped out of his skin. He cursed and righted the chopper.

Piper laughed nervously. "Trust you, huh?"

"Ah, shut up, already." But he grinned at her, and for a second, it felt like he was just relaxing comfortably with a friend.

Then they hit the storm clouds.

° • ° • °

At first, Leo thought rocks were pelting the windshield. Then he realized it was sleet. Frost built up around the edges of the glass, and slushy waves of ice blotted out his view.

"An ice storm?" Piper shouted over the engine and the wind. "Is it supposed to be this cold in Sonoma?"

Leo wasn't sure, but something about this storm seemed conscious, malevolent-like it was intentionally slamming them.

Jason woke up quickly and his sudden pull woke Hermia as well. She seemed confused for having been woken up so abruptly, but once she noticed something was off her face turned serious. Together, Jason and Mia crawled forward, grabbing their seats for balance.

"What the hell is going on?" Hermia asked as she glanced around the helicopter.

"We've got to be getting close." Jason replied as Mia turned to look at him.

Leo was too busy wrestling with the stick to reply. Suddenly it wasn't so easy to drive the chopper. Its movements turned sluggish and jerky. The whole machine shuddered in the icy wind. The helicopter probably hadn't been prepped for cold-weather flying. The controls refused to respond, and they started to lose altitude.

Below them, the ground was a dark quilt of trees and fog. The ridge of a hill loomed in front of them and Leo yanked the stick, just clearing the treetops.

"There!" Jason shouted as he grabbed onto Hermia.

A small valley opened up before them, with the murky shape of a building in the middle. Leo aimed the helicopter straight for it. All around them were flashes of light that reminded Leo of the tracer fire at Midas's compound. Trees cracked and exploded at the edges of the clearing. Shapes moved through the mist. Combat seemed to be everywhere.

He set down the helicopter in an icy field about fifty yards from the house and killed the engine. He was about to relax when he heard a whistling sound and saw a dark shape hurtling toward them out of the mist.

"Out!" Leo screamed.

They leaped from the helicopter and barely cleared the rotors before a massive BOOM shook the ground, knocking Leo off his feet and splattering ice all over him.

He got up shakily and saw that the world's largest snowball-a chunk of snow, ice, and dirt the size of a garage-had completely flattened the Bell 412.

"You all right?" Jason ran up to him, Hermia at his side. Behind was Piper. The three of them looked fine except for being speckled with snow and mud.