BLOODSHOT . . . piper mclean

29.

Eden stiffened. Her. A hero? No, that wasn't possible. She wasn't capable of such things.

Unless she was influenced by something — no, someone else.

And that person was dead.

So what was she now? Just your average demigod, fighting just to stay alive? With no real purpose in life? No want to live, just to not be mortal. To not feel anything.

Yeah. Yeah, that was Eden.

Tristan McLean gazed down on the valley, and his grip on Kaleidoscope's hand went slack. "Your mother never told me."

"She thought it was for the best." Kaleidoscope said lamely.

Kaleidoscope held his hand, speaking to him about small things — her time at the Wilderness School, her cabin at Camp Half-Blood. She told him how Coach Hedge ate carnations and got knocked on his butt on Mount Diablo, how Fire Boy had tamed a dragon, how Eden was very good with a sword and summoned a hurricane, and how Perfect Jason had made wolves back down by talking in Latin. Eden smiled reluctantly as she recounted their adventures. She felt like she'd accomplished something, despite the last summer, and the last couple years.

In her mortal years.

As they passed over the hills into the East Bay, Perfect Jason tensed. He leaned so far out the doorway Eden was almost afraid he'd fall. If he did, she'd totally laugh at him.

He pointed. "What is that?"

Eden looked down, but she didn't see anything interesting — just hills, woods, houses, little roads snaking through the canyons. A highway cut through a tunnel in the hills, connecting the East Bay with the inland towns.

"Where?" Kaleidoscope asked.

"That road," he said. "The one that goes through the hills."

Kaleidoscope picked up the com helmet the pilot had given her and relayed the question over the radio.

"She says it's Highway 24," Kaleidoscope reported. "That's the Caldecott Tunnel. Why?"

Perfect Jason stared intently at the tunnel entrance, but he said nothing. It disappeared from view as they flew over downtown Oakland, but Perfect Jason still stared into the distance, his expression almost as unsettled as Kaleidoscope's dad's.

"Monsters," her dad said, a tear tracing his cheek. "I live in a world of monsters."

* * *

Air traffic control didn't want to let an unscheduled helicopter land at the Oakland Airport — until Kaleidoscope got on the radio. Then it turned out to be no problem.

They unloaded on the tarmac, and everyone looked at Kaleidoscope.

"What now?" Perfect Jason asked her.

"First thing," Kaleidoscope said. "I — I have to get my dad home. I'm sorry, guys."

Jason and Leo's faces fell. Eden's didn't, mostly because they didn't need her. They had Eden, and that was enough, because she was more skilled than all of them combined, because one day she'd achieve immortality and then they'd worship at her feet, including all of the gods, and then she'd have the power, at last.

"Oh," Fire Boy said. "I mean, absolutely. He needs you right now. We can take it from here."

"Pipes, no." Her dad had been sitting in the helicopter doorway, a blanket around his shoulders. But he stumbled to his feet. "You have a mission. A quest. I can't—"

"I'll take care of him," said Coach Hedge.

Kaleidoscope stared at him. "You?" she asked.

"I'm a protector," Gleeson said, sounding a little sad. "That's my job, not fighting."