Haunted || Leo Valdez

18 - Free Falling on to Some Rich Guy's Lawn (feat. Festus the Shredded Dragon)

"Leo." Piper patted his shoulder. "You feeling okay?"

"Yeah ... not bad for a brainwashed zombie. Thanks for saving us back there, beauty queen." Leo turned around and grinned at Rebecca. "You, too, Death Girl. You saved me from that nasty dragon."

"Leo," Rebecca said. She sat up a bit more, and pain stabbed in her side. "About the ghost--"

"Don't apologize for that," he said. "I kind of needed that. I just want to know... If Medea's back, do you think my mom could be back, too?"

Rebecca closed her eyes. She searched through the Underworld, trying to see if Esperanza Valdez was there. She found Leo's mother smiling and talking with what looked like an elderly version of Leo.

"She's not alive," Rebecca said. "I can see her spirit in Elysium."

"That's a good thing, right?" Leo asked.

"Yes." Rebecca opened her eyes again. "It's basically fields and fields of nothing but happiness."

"Okay." Leo nodded. "We're going to have to put down soon. Couple more hours, maybe, to make sure Medea's not following us. I don't think Festus can fly much longer than that."

"Yeah," Piper agreed. "Coach Hedge probably wants to get out of his canary cage, too. Question is—where are we going?"

"The Bay Area," Leo guessed.

"Didn't Medea say something about Oakland?" Rebecca wondered.

Piper didn't respond for so long, Rebecca wondered if she'd said something wrong.

"Piper's dad," Jason put in. "Something's happened to your dad, right? He got lured into some kind of trap."

Piper let out a shaky breath. "Look, Medea said you would both die in the Bay Area. And besides ... even if we went there, the Bay Area is huge! First we need to find Aeolus and drop off the storm spirits. Boreas said Aeolus was the only one who could tell us exactly where to go."

Leo grunted. "So how do we find Aeolus?"

Jason leaned forward. "You mean you don't see it?" He pointed ahead of them, but Rebecca didn't see anything except clouds and the lights of a few towns glowing in the dusk.

"What?" Leo asked.

"That ... whatever it is," Jason said. "In the air."

Rebecca glanced back. Piper looked just as confused as she was.

"I think you're going to need to be more specific," she told him.

"Like a vapor trail," Jason said. "Except it's glowing. Really faint, but it's definitely there. We've been following it since Chicago, so I figured you saw it."

Leo shook his head. "Maybe Festus can sense it. You think Aeolus made it?"

"Well, it's a magic trail in the wind," Jason said. "Aeolus is the wind god. I think he knows we've got prisoners for him. He's telling us where to fly."

"Or it's another trap," Piper said. Her tone worried Rebecca. She didn't just sound nervous. She sounded broken with despair, like they'd already sealed their fate, and like it was her fault.

"Pipes, you alright?" Leo asked, probably thinking along the same lines.

"Don't call me that."

"Okay, fine. You and Rebecca don't like any of the names I make up for you two. But if your dad's in trouble and we can help—"

"You can't," she said, her voice getting shakier. "Look, I'm tired. If you don't mind ..."

She leaned back against Jason and closed her eyes. A clear signal she didn't want to talk.