plague bringer - a heroes of olympus insert

𝗂𝗂𝗂. 𝖽𝖺𝖽𝖽𝗒 𝖽𝖾𝖺𝗋𝖾𝗌𝗍 𝗌𝖺𝗒𝗌 𝗁𝖾𝗅𝗅𝗈

After a morning of storm spirits, goat men, and an amnesic best friend, Aria was about to lose her mind. Not only was everything that happened real, none of the people who picked her and her friends up found any of this unusual.

She stood in the back of the chariot with Leo, Piper, and Jason, while the bald guy, Butch, handled the reins, and the blond girl, Annabeth, adjusted a bronze navigation device. They rose over the Grand Canyon and headed east, icy wind ripping straight through Aria's flannel. Behind them, more storm clouds were gathering.

The chariot lurched and bumped. It had no seat belts and the back was wide open, so Aria was hoping she wouldn't fall out. Maybe if she did Jason could go full superman again and save her. Aria had almost forgotten. Not only was he suffering from amnesia, he could fly. She still didn't know which was more crazy.

All semester she'd grown close with her friends, but Jason had become like a big brother. He was, at least in her memories, someone she could always depend on. He helped her dye her hair when she decided that she wanted to make it purple even though he had no clue what he was doing. He always had her back whenever people were mean, as many tended to be to her. She had always been labeled as weird, but Jason and her friends never once cared. Jason was even the first one she told when she determined she was aromantic and asexual, and he was really accepting. I mean, so were all of her friends when she told them, but it still meant a lot. Finding out all of that was a lie was earth shaking. Aria was nervous that once it sunk in she'd break, and she didn't know if she'd be able to fix it.

Suddenly, Leo broke Aria from her thoughts. "This is so cool!" He spit a pegasus feather out of his mouth.

Aria laughed and shot him a smile before asking, "Where are we going?"

"A safe place," Annabeth said. "The only safe place for kids like us. Camp Half-Blood."

"Half-Blood?" Piper was immediately on guard. Aria knew she hated that word. They'd talked about how Piper had been called a half-blood too many times—half Cherokee, half white —before and it was never a compliment. "Is that some kind of bad joke?"

"She means we're demigods," Jason said. "Half god, half mortal."

Annabeth looked back. "You seem to know a lot, Jason. But, yes, demigods. My mom is Athena, goddess of wisdom. Butch here is the son of Iris, the rainbow goddess."

Leo choked. "Your mom is a rainbow goddess?"

"Got a problem with that?" Butch said.

"No, no," Leo said. "Rainbows. Very macho."

Aria lightly smacked him, rolling her eyes with a smile. "Be nice."

"Butch is our best equestrian," Annabeth said. "He gets along great with the pegasi."

"Rainbows, ponies," Leo muttered.

"I'm gonna toss you off this chariot," Butch warned.

"Demigods," Piper said. "You mean you think you're ... you think we're—"

Lightning flashed. The chariot shuddered, and Jason yelled, "Left wheel's on fire!"

Aria stepped back. Sure enough, the wheel was burning, white flames lapping up the side of the chariot.

"You've got to be kidding me." Aria groaned.

The wind roared. Aria glanced behind them and saw dark shapes forming in the clouds, more storm spirits spiraling toward the chariot—except these looked more like horses than angels.

Piper started to say, "Why are they—"

"Anemoi come in different shapes," Annabeth said. "Sometimes human, sometimes stallions, depending on how chaotic they are. Hold on. This is going to get rough."