Where You Go ― Jason Grace

xxv. ophelia and jason come home (kind of)

"There!" Ophelia shouted.

A small valley opened up before them, with the murky shape of a building in the middle. Ophelia knew it was the Wolf House, the place where she had trained with a she-wolf and a gentleman ghost. It felt like another life, but it was her life—it was the beginning of her journey, where she stopped being a child and became a soldier far too young.

Just like her mother, her aunt, her brother. Just like the thousands of heroes that had come before her.

Ophelia reached into her pack, taking out the bag full of ambrosia and breaking off a piece. She needed to be in as close to perfect working order as she could be with a still-aching stab wound in her side. The ambrosia still tasted like chocolate chip cookies, but judging by the heat that coursed through her veins as it went down, she was pretty sure she was toeing the line between healing and spontaneous combustion.

Leo aimed the helicopter straight for the valley. All around them were flashes of light. Trees cracked and exploded at the edges of the clearing. Shapes moved through the fog—there was combat everywhere.

Leo set down the helicopter in an icy field about fifty yards from the house and killed the engine. Before any of them could relax, there was a whistling sound, and Leo screamed, "Out!"

They all leaped from the helicopter and barely cleared the rotors before a massive BOOM shook the ground.

Leo was knocked off his feet. He got up shakily as the rest of them ran over to him.

"You all right?" Jason asked.

"Yeah." Leo shivered. "Guess we owe that ranger lady a new helicopter."

Piper pointed south. "Fighting's over there." Then she frowned. "No... it's all around us."

She was right. The sounds of combat rang across the valley. The snow and mist made it hard to tell for sure, but there seemed to be a circle of fighting all around the Wolf House.

"Jason!" a girl's voice called.

Thalia appeared from the fog, her parka caked in snow. Her bow was in her hand, and her quiver was almost empty. She ran toward them, but made it only a few steps before a six-armed ogre—one of the Earthborn—burst out of the storm behind her, a raised club in each hand.

"Look out!" Leo yelled. They rushed to help, but Thalia had it covered. She launched herself into a flip, notching an arrow as she pivoted like a gymnast and landed in a kneeling position. The ogre got a silver arrow right between the eyes and melted into a pile of clay.

Thalia stood and retrieved her arrow, but the point snapped off. "That was my last one." She kicked the pile of clay resentfully. "Stupid ogre."

"Nice shot, though," Leo complimented.

Thalia ignored him, pulling Jason into a hug and nodding at Piper and Ophelia. "Just in time. My Hunters are holding a perimeter around the mansion, but we'll be overrun any minute." She frowned at Ophelia's bloody shirt. "You good to fight?"

"If I can stand, I can fight," she answered, pulling her compass out of her pocket.

Thalia nodded with a look of approval.

"We're fighting Earthborn?" Jason asked.

"And wolves—Lycaon's minions." Thalia blew a fleck of ice off her nose. "Also storm spirits—"

"But we gave them to Aeolus!" Piper protested.

"Who tried to kill us," Leo reminded her. "Maybe he's helping Gaea again."