"Speed up!" Jason urges as we fly over the streets of the city.
"Bro." Leo speaks from behind me. "If we get any closer, he'll spot us. Bronze dragon ain't exactly a stealth plane."
"Slow down!" Piper yelps in response.
I've taken the reins and am trying to keep Festus within sight of the storm spirit without it spotting us. It's hard, especially when the spirit goes downtown. Festus tries to follow, but his wing span is way too wide. His left wing clips the side of the building before I manage to pull up.
"Get above the buildings," Jason suggests. "We'll track him from there."
"Dude, do you want to drive this thing?" I mumble, getting up above the buildings.
After a few minutes, we spot it again, zipping around with no apparent purpose besides blowing over pedestrians and umbrellas.
"Oh, great." Piper says. "There's two."
I don't see it at first, but then a second storm spirit links with the first. They both weave around buildings, spiraling up a skyscraper and bending a radio tower.
"Those guys do not need any more caffeine." Leo notes.
"They look like they drank a venti sized coffee." I chuckle to myself.
"Good one." Leo chuckles too.
"I guess Chicago is a good place to hang out." Piper notes. "Nobody's gonna question a couple more evil winds."
"More than a couple." Jason says. "Look." I can't see where he's pointing, but the more I look around, the more storm spirits I see.
"Which one do you think is Dylan?" Leo asks. "I wanna throw something at him."
The storm spirits are all converging around a public art installation in the middle of a park. But, looking at the park, it's unpleasantly familiar. Two five-story monoliths rise from either end of a long granite reflecting pool. The monoliths seem to be built of video screens, flashing the combined image of a giant face that spews water into the pool.
I hear a voice. But I don't hear it. I feel it. It's in my bones. My flesh. My blood. The cells that make up my body. It's in my DNA.
"Theo."
Out of nowhere, the screens change to the image of the face of a giant sleeping woman.
"Uh, guys... you said something about a sleepy woman?" I can hear my voice shaking.
"Yeah, I see her." Leo says. "I don't like her, but I see her."
The screens go dark, and the storm spirits all tornado into the fountain, kicking up an enormous waterspout in the process. In the center, they pop off the drain cover and disappear underground.
"Did they just go down a drain?" Piper asks, just as confused as me. "How are we supposed to follow them?"
"Maybe we shouldn't." Leo says. "That fountain thing is giving me seriously bad vibes. And aren't we supposed to, like, beware the earth?"
I agree. I don't want to go underground if we were directly told not to.
"Put us down in that park." Jason decides, clearly not excited. "We'll check it out on foot."
Festus lands in the open area between the reflecting pool and the skyline. The sign says Grant Park, and it looks like it would be nice in the summer, but right now it's cold and icy and dreary. Festus's feet sizzle when they hit the cold ground.
We all get down, and Festus stomps his feet unhappily, his eye flickering.
"Is that normal?" Jason asks.
