BLOODSHOT . . . piper mclean

23.

EDEN DECIDED THAT she hated it here.

The golden backpack of winds was strapped over Perfect Jason's shoulders. The winds struggled, rumbling and bumping around. Eden was annoyed at the noise.

The only one who seemed in a good mood was Coach Hedge. He kept bounding up the slippery staircase and trotting back down. "Come on, cupcakes! Only a few thousand more steps!"

"Shut up," Eden snapped, in a bad mood now that Pinecone Face wasn't here. She had a way of making her crumble that she hated.

As they climbed, Fire Boy and Kaleidoscope left Perfect Jason in his silence, and naturally Eden didn't want to talk to him.

Kaleidoscope kept glancing back, worried, as if he were the one who'd almost died of hypothermia rather than she. Or maybe she was thinking about Lia's idea. They'd told her what Lia had said on the bridge — how they could save both her dad and Hera. Eden hated how she was so incredulous, as if she couldn't handle the fact that lesbians existed.

God, Eden hated her emotions.

Fire Boy kept swatting his own legs, checking for signs that his pants were on fire. He wasn't steaming anymore, but the incident on the ice bridge had really freaked Eden out. He hadn't seemed to realize that he had smoke coming out his ears and flames dancing through his hair. If he started spontaneously combusting every time he got excited, they were going to have a tough time taking him anywhere. Eden imagined trying to get food at a restaurant. I'll have a cheeseburger and — Ahhh! This loser's on fire! Get me a bucket!

Because, of course, she can't use her powers well. She was never good at using them, that was always Percy's job. She was always the fighter. The one good with every weapon.

The one that destroyed with a third arm in her hands.

Finally they arrived at the top of the island. Bronze walls marched all the way around the fortress grounds, though Eden couldn't imagine who would possibly attack this place, but everything and everyone was surprising. Twenty-foot-high gates opened for them, and a road of polished purple stone led up to the main citadel — a white-columned rotunda, Greek style, like one of the monuments in Washington, D.C., and Eden had a flashback to two winters ago in D.C. — except for the cluster of satellite dishes and radio towers on the roof.

"That's bizarre," Kaleidoscope said.

"Guess you can't get cable on a floating island," Fire Boy said. "Dang, check this guy's front yard."

The rotunda sat in the center of a quarter-mile circle. The grounds were amazing in a scary way. They were divided into four sections like big pizza slices, each one representing a season.

The section on their right was an icy waste, with bare trees and a frozen lake. Snowmen rolled across the landscape as the wind blew, so Eden wasn't sure if they were decorations or alive. She goddamn hoped they weren't alive.

To their left was an autumn park with gold and red trees. Mounds of leaves blew into patterns — gods, people, animals that ran after each other before scattering back into leaves.

In the distance, Eden could see two more areas behind the rotunda. One looked like a green pasture with sheep made out of clouds. The last section was a desert where tumbleweeds scratched strange patterns in the sand like Greek letters, smiley faces, and a huge advertisement that read: watch aeolus nightly! Lovely.

"One section for each of the four wind gods," Perfect Jason guessed. "Four cardinal directions."

"I'm loving that pasture." Coach Hedge licked his lips. "You guys mind—"

"Go ahead," Perfect Jason said. Eden rolled her eyes. Satyrs. She missed Grover. So much. Too bad.

While the satyr ran off to attack springtime, poor spring, what an unproblematic season, Eden, Perfect Jason, Fire Boy, and Kaleidoscope walked down the road to the steps of the palace. They passed through the front doors into a white marble foyer decorated with purple banners that read olympian weather channel, and some that just read ow! Eden related to the ow ones. Everything was ow nowadays.

"Hello!" A woman floated up to them. Literally floated. She was pretty in that elfish way Eden associated with nature spirits at Camp Half-Blood — petite, slightly pointy ears, and an ageless face that could've been sixteen or thirty. Her brown eyes twinkled cheerfully. Even though there was no wind, her dark hair blew in slow motion, shampoo-commercial style. Her white gown billowed around her like parachute material. Eden couldn't tell if she had feet, but if so, they didn't touch the floor. An aura, right? She had a white tablet computer in her hand. "Are you from Lord Zeus?" she asked. "We've been expecting you."

"Are you a ghost?" Jason asked.

The smile turned into a pout. "I'm an aura, sir. A wind nymph, as you might expect, working for the lord of the winds. My name is Mellie. We don't have ghosts."

Kaleidoscope came to the rescue. "No, of course you don't! My friend simply mistook you for Helen of Troy, the most beautiful mortal of all time. It's an easy mistake."

Wow, she was good. The compliment seemed a little over the top, but Mellie the aura blushed. "Oh . . . well, then. So you are from Zeus?"

"Er," Perfect Jason said, "I'm the son of Zeus, yeah."

"Excellent! Please, right this way." She led them through some security doors into another lobby, consulting her tablet as she floated. She didn't look where she was going, but apparently it didn't matter as she drifted straight through a marble column with no problem. "We're out of prime time now, so that's good," she mused. "I can fit you in right before his 11:12 spot."

"Um, okay," Muscle Boy said. Even Eden could be more talkative, and she was, well, Eden Fairchild.

The lobby was a pretty distracting place. Winds blasted around them, so Eden felt like she was pushing through an invisible crowd. Doors blew open and slammed by themselves. Luckily, she was real fucking ADHD.

The things she could see were just as bizarre. Paper airplanes of all different sizes and shapes sped around, and other wind nymphs, aurai, would occasionally pluck them out of the air, unfold and read them, then toss them back into the air, where the planes would refold themselves and keep flying.

An ugly harpy fluttered past. She looked like a mix between an old lady and a chicken on steroids. She had a wrinkled face with black hair tied in a hairnet, arms like a human plus wings like a chicken, and a fat, feathered body with talons for feet. It was amazing she could fly at all. She kept drifting around and bumping into things like a parade balloon. Just like the ones at camp, Eden thought bitterly, because she was always bitter. Right.

"Not an aura?" Perfect Jason asked Mellie as the creature wobbled by.

Eden turned to him. "Shouldn't you know what that is, as a son of Zeus?"

Mellie laughed. "That's a harpy, of course. Our, ah, ugly stepsisters, I suppose you would say. Don't you have harpies on Olympus? They're spirits of violent gusts, unlike us aurai. We're all gentle breezes."

She batted her eyes at Muscle Boy.

"'Course you are," he said. Eden wanted to snort.

"So," Kaleidoscope prompted, as jealous as ever, "you were taking us to see Aeolus?"

Mellie led them through a set of doors like an airlock. Above the interior door, a green light blinked.

"We have a few minutes before he starts," Mellie said cheerfully. "He probably won't kill you if we go in now. Come along!"

Famous last words.