Halcyon [Leo Valdez x Reader]

The Lost Hero

Fly a helicopter? Sure, why not. Leo had done plenty of crazier things that week.

The sun was going down as we flew north over the Richmond Bridge, and I couldn’t believe the day had gone so quickly. Once again, nothing like ADHD and a good fight to the death to make time fly.

Piloting the chopper, Leo went back and forth between confidence and panic. If he didn’t think about it, he found himself automatically flipping the right switches, checking the altimeter, easing back on the stick, and flying straight. If he allowed himself to consider what he was doing, he started freaking out. He’d start to hyperventilate, and the chopper would tilt about.

“Going okay?” I asked from the copilot’s seat.

“Aces,” Leo said, putting on a brave face. “So what’s the Wolf House?”

“Uh,” I said. “I’m not answering that.”

Jason and Piper knelt between our seats. “An abandoned mansion in the Sonoma Valley. A demigod built it—Jack London.”

Leo squinted. “He an actor?”

“Writer,” Piper said. “Adventure stuff, right? Call of the Wild? White Fang?”

“Yeah,” Jason said. “He was a son of Mercury—I mean, Hermes. He was an adventurer, traveled the world. He was even a hobo for a while. Then he made a fortune writing. He bought a big ranch in the country and decided to build this huge mansion—the Wolf House.”

“Named that ’cause he wrote about wolves?” Leo guessed.

“Partially,” Jason said. “But the site, and the reason he wrote about wolves—he was dropping hints about his personal experience. There’re a lot of holes in his life story—how he was born, who his dad was, why he wandered around so much—stuff you can only explain if you know he was a demigod.”

The bay slipped behind us, and the helicopter continued north. Ahead of us, yellow hills rolled out as far as I could see.

“So Jack London went to Camp Half-Blood,” Leo guessed.

“No,” Jason said. “No, he didn’t.”

“Bro, you’re freaking me out with the mysterious talk. Are you remembering your past or not?”

“Pieces,” Jason said. “Only pieces. None of it good. The Wolf House is on sacred ground. It’s where London started his journey as a child—where he found out he was a demigod. That’s why he returned there. He thought he could live there, claim that land, but it wasn’t meant for him. The Wolf House was cursed. It burned in a fire a week before he and his wife were supposed to move in. A few years later, London died, and his ashes were buried on the site.”

“So,” Piper said, “how do you know all this?”

A shadow crossed Jason’s face. Probably just a cloud, but I could swear the shape looked like an eagle.

“We started our journey there, too,” Jason said, looking over at me. “It’s a powerful place for demigods, a dangerous place. If Gaea can claim it, use its power to entomb Hera on the solstice and raise Porphyrion—that might be enough to awaken the earth goddess fully.”

Leo kept his hand on the joystick, guiding the chopper at full speed—racing toward the north. I could see some weather ahead—a spot of darkness like a cloudbank or a storm, right where we were going.