¹On This Spring Day.

014.

Right, Thalia's fear of heights. Violet figured this ride was torturous for the daughter of Zeus.

Eventually, the mountains fell away into hills, and then they were zipping along over farmland and towns and highways.

Grover played his reed pipes to pass the time, and Violet was grateful to the winds carrying the sound away. Not that he wasn't good player, but ... he wasn't a good player. Zoë got bored and started shooting arrows at random billboards as they flew by. Every time she saw a Target department store—and they passed dozens of them—she would peg the store's sign with a few bullseyes at a hundred miles an hour.

Violet perked up as she spotted a fifth Target department store in the distance. She yelled over to Zoë, pointing to the red logo. "Do you think I could hit it?" she shouted through the wind.

The Hunter shrugged. "Possibly."

The daughter of Eros sat up straighter, pushing the braids of hair out of her face. She shrugged the bow on her back off and notched an arrow. She pulled the bow taut as they flew upon another Target department store. She let the arrow fly and the Celestial bronze tip imbedded itself in the outer rim of the smallest circle.

"Hell yeah!" Violet said excitedly over the wind. "Er— ... yay," she said awkwardly as Zoë gave her a stern look.

She shifted and turned to face away from the Hunter. She grinned sheepishly at Percy, who snorted to himself.

Thalia still had her eyes closed. Her lips moved in a silent prayer. Still, after all this time.

"You did good back there," Percy told her suddenly. "Zeus listened."

Thalia didn't open her eyes. And it was hard to tell what she was thinking with her eyes closed.

"Maybe," she finally said. "How did you get away from the skeletons in the generator room, anyway? You said they cornered you."

Percy chewed on his bottom lip before telling them about an odd girl he nearly sliced in half with Riptide. Rachel Elizabeth Dare, he said her name was. And she seemed to be able to see through the Mist.

"Yeah," Violet spoke up, "there are just some mortals like that. Nobody really knows why. I wonder how many can see through the Mist, though."

"Can your mom see through the Mist?" Percy asked.

Violet bristled. She frowned and coldly said, "Yeah, she can."

Percy winced and seemed apologetic for bringing up the topic. "Well, the girl was annoying," he decided, changing the topic. "But I'm glad I didn't vaporize her. That would've been bad."

Thalia nodded. "Must be nice to be a regular mortal."

She said that as if she'd given it a lot of thought. And Violet couldn't blame her.

🌷

It was a long while before she found sleep, but it was futile. She dreamt of that blonde woman, the monster shrouded in darkness, and whatever was going down between them. And then she dreamt of Bianca, of the girl inside the Celestial bronze body of Talos, her being struck by lightning, of the darkness consuming her.

It was ... fitful sleep, to say the least. Violet felt more tired when she woke up than when she had fallen asleep.

"Where you guys want to land?" Hank yelled over the wind, waking up the rest of the quester.