The Veiled Legacy | PJO - Book Two

thirteen

ALASKA

Aeroplanes or cannibals? No contest.

Ariana would've preferred driving Grandma Zhang's Cadillac all the way to Alaska with fireball-throwing ogres on his tail rather than sitting in a luxury Gulfstream.

She'd flown before on Blackjack. (Percy's Pegasus.) she'd even been in a plane once or twice. But a daughter of Pluto (Hades, whatever) didn't belong in the air.

Every time the plane hit a spot of turbulence, Ariana's heart raced, and she was sure Jupiter/Zeus was slapping them around.

She just had to hope he wouldn't throw his own ambassador of the gods out of the air. Ariana tried to focus as Frank and Hazel talked.

Hazel was reassuring Frank that he'd done everything he could for his grandmother. Frank had saved them from the Laistrygonians and got them out of Vancouver. He'd been incredibly brave.

Frank kept his head down like he was ashamed to have been crying, but Ariana didn't blame him. The poor guy had just lost his grandmother and seen his house go up in flames.

As far as Ariana was concerned, shedding a few tears about something like that didn't make you any less of a man, especially when you had just fended off an army of ogres that wanted to eat you for breakfast.

Frank refused to explain exactly what his 'family gift' was, but as they flew north, Frank did tell them about his conversation with Mars the night before.

He explained the prophecy Juno had issued when he was a baby - about his life being tied to a piece of firewood, and how he had asked Hazel to keep it for him.

Some of that, Ariana had already figured out. Hazel and Frank had obviously shared some crazy experiences when they had blacked out together, and they'd made some sort of deal.

It also explained why even now, out of habit, Frank kept checking his coat pocket, and why he was so nervous around fire.

Still, Ariana couldn't imagine what kind of courage it had taken for Frank to embark on a quest, knowing that one small flame could snuff out his life.

"Frank." Percy said. "I'm proud to be related to you."

Frank's ears turned red. With his head lowered, his military haircut made a sharp black arrow pointing down. "Juno has some sort of plan for us, about the Prophecy of Eight."

"Yeah." Percy grumbled. "I didn't like her as Hera. I don't like her any better as Juno."

Ariana shivered, thinking of the many meetings she had to endure with Hera. The Queen of the gods spent 90% of her time ranting about her husband and the other 10% about her other family members.

Hazel tucked her feet underneath her. She studied Percy with her luminescent golden eyes, and Ariana wondered how she could be so calm.

She was the youngest one on the quest, but she was always holding them together and comforting them.

Now they were flying to Alaska, where she had died once before.

They would try to free Thanatos, who might take her back to the Underworld. Yet she didn't show any fear. It made Ariana feel silly for being scared of aeroplane turbulence.

"You're a son of Poseidon, aren't you? And Ariana your a daughter of Hades?"  asked. "You are both Greek demigods."

Percy gripped his leather necklace.

"I started to remember in Portland, after the gorgon's blood. It's been coming back to me slowly since then. There's another camp - Camp Half-Blood." Percy said, then he turned to Ariana. She was the one who fully remembered.