SANITY; heroes of olympus

01.14

"It's okay," Piper said. "The airport is good."

"Yeah, the airport is good," the pilot agreed immediately. Then she frowned, as if uncertain why she'd changed her mind. "Isn't he Tristan McLean, the movie star?"

"No," Piper said. "He only looks like him. Forget it."

"Yeah," the pilot said. "Only looks like him. I—" She blinked, confused. "I forgot what I was saying. Let's get going."

Piper didn't understand how Andromeda did it so easily, changing people's perceptions of reality. But the more she thought about it, the more she knew that it wasn't easy for the redhead. She could tell by the guilty expression on her paled face, or the way she avoided their eyes. She continued shifting through Tristan McLean's mind, calming him before they went anywhere.

Finally, they got him on board, and the helicopter took off. The pilot kept getting questions over her radio, asking her where she was going, but she ignored them. They veered away from the burning mountain and headed toward the Berkeley Hills.

"Piper." Her dad grasped her hand and held on like he was afraid he'd fall. "It's you? They told me—they told me you would die. They said...horrible things would happen."

"It's me, Dad." It took all her willpower not to cry. She had to be strong for him. "Everything's going to be okay."

"They were monsters," he said. "Real monsters. Earth spirits, right out of Grandpa Tom's stories—and the Earth Mother was angry with me. And the giant, Tsul'kälû, breathing fire—" He focused on Piper again, his eyes like broken glass, reflecting a crazy kind of light. "They said you were a demigod. Your mother was..."

"Aphrodite," Piper said. "Goddess of love."

"I—I—" He took a shaky breath, then seemed to forget how to exhale. Andromeda placed her hand next to his temple and moved her fingers, creating a ball of madness at her fingertips. She snapped and the wisp of purple magic connected with his forehead, seeping into his mind, yet instead of inducing madness, it slowly began to cure what was already there.

Piper's friends were careful not to watch. Leo fiddled with a lug nut from his tool belt. Jason gazed at the valley below—the roads backing up as mortals stopped their cars and gawked at the burning mountain. Coach Hedge chewed on the stub of his carnation, and for once the satyr didn't look in the mood to yell or boast. After doing her thing, Andromeda leaned back and stared ahead, not a thought in her mind.

She tried not to listen; to keep her eyes and ears in her own business. This was a family matter, one that Piper was solely a part of, so they all let the two be, quietly talking to each other.

As they passed over the hills into the East Bay, Jason tensed, drawing Andromeda's attention. She followed his line of sight, and her breath hitched in her chest.

He pointed. "What is that?"

Looking down, there wasn't 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?" Piper asked.

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

He looked at Andromeda, silently asking if she could see it...or feel it, too. She nodded, her eyes not straying from the tunnel.

Piper picked up the com helmet the pilot had given her and relayed the question over the radio. The answer wasn't very exciting.

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