SANITY; heroes of olympus

01.9

"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. His memories of the department store were fuzzy, but he seemed to remember hearing that. "Didn't Medea say something about Oakland?"

"Piper's dad," Andromeda said. "Something's happened to your dad, right?"

Jason nodded. "He got lured into a trap or something."

Piper let out a shaky breath. "Look, Medea said you would all 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 Andromeda 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."

"Well," Andromeda grumbled. "There are a lot of things in the air, Jason. Like cats and dogs and blonde supermen who see things, and a metal dragon named Happy."

"Right," Leo said. "Could you be more specific on the 'whatever-it-is' part?"

"Like a vapour 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.

Andromeda nodded in agreement. "Probably. Actually, definitely another trap. It's a demigod thing, we walk into traps like a little kid at a toy store or something like that."

"Pipes, you all right?" he asked, noticing the edge in the daughter of Aphrodite's voice.

"Don't call me that."

"Okay, fine. You don't like any of the names I make up for you." He heard Andromeda let out a little 'woo' because she always called Piper the same name. "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 Andromeda, who leaned back against Jason, and closed her eyes.

They flew in silence for a while. Festus seemed to know where he was going. He kept his course, gently curving toward the southwest and hopefully Aeolus's fortress. Another wind god to visit, a whole new flavour of crazy, it was going to be interesting.

Jason had gently wrapped his arms around Andromeda as she leaned her head back on his shoulder, shutting her eyes.

The boy leaned down and whispered, "Just close your eyes, I'll be right here when you wake up."

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