I should have been scared. The skywalk was unsafe, the wind was harsh and kids were screaming but I wasn't.
Well, ok... I may have panicked for a minute.
Fear is death young pup, you never let it control you. Fear is a demon and you kill it by telling yourself you're not scared. I clutch my head.
It like it was about to split in two.
Was that a memory or do I just have people living in my head?
The storm churned into a hurricane. Funnel clouds snaked toward the skywalk like the tendrils of a monster jellyfish.
Kids screamed and ran for the building. The wind snatched away their notebooks, jackets, hats, and backpacks. Jason skidded across the slick floor.
Leo lost his balance and almost toppled over the railing, but Jason grabbed his jacket and pulled him back.
"Go, go, go!" said Coach Hedge.
Piper and Dylan were holding the doors open, herding the other kids inside. Piper's snowboarding jacket was flapping wildly, her dark hair all in her face. She must've been freezing, but she looked calm and confident—telling the others it would be okay, encouraging them to keep moving.
Jason, Leo, Coach Hedge and I ran toward them, but it was like running through quicksand. The wind seemed to fight us, pushing us back.
Dylan and Piper pushed one more kid inside, then lost their grip on the doors. They slammed shut, closing off the skywalk.
Piper tugged at the handles. Inside, the kids pounded on the glass, but the doors seemed to be stuck.
"Dylan, help!" Piper shouted.
Dylan just stood there with an idiotic grin, his Cowboys jersey rippling in the wind, like he was suddenly enjoying the storm.
"Sorry, Piper," he said. "I'm done helping."
What weirdo. I should have hit him when I had the chance.
He flicked his wrist, and Piper flew backward, slamming into the doors and sliding to the skywalk deck.
"Piper!" Jason tried to charge forward, but the wind was against him, and Coach Hedge and I pulled him back.
"Guys," Jason said, "let me go!"
"Jason, Leo, rude girl, stay behind me," the coach ordered. Rude girl? Seriously? Why? "This is my fight. I should've known that was our monster."
"Monster?" I yelled incredulously.
"What?" Leo demanded. A rogue worksheet slapped him in the face, but he swatted it away. "What monster?"
The word caused my head to throb and it looked like the same was happening to Jason. The coach's cap blew off, and sticking up above his curly hair were two bumps—like the knots cartoon characters get when they're bonked on the head. Coach Hedge lifted his baseball bat—but it wasn't a regular bat anymore. Somehow it had changed into a crudely shaped tree-branch club, with twigs and leaves still attached.
"Holy shit!" I yelled earning a glaring from Coach. "
Language, cupcake!"
Dylan the douche gave him that psycho happy smile. "Oh, come on, Coach. Let the boy attack me! After all, you're getting too old for this. Isn't that why they retired you to this stupid school? I've been on your team the entire season, and you didn't even know. You're losing your nose, grandpa."
The coach made an angry sound like an animal bleating. "That's it, cupcake. You're going down."
"You think you can protect four half-bloods at once, old man?" Dylan laughed. "Good luck."
Half-bloods?
Dylan pointed at Leo, and a funnel cloud materialized around him. Leo flew off the skywalk like he'd been tossed. Somehow he managed to twist in midair, and slammed sideways into the canyon wall. He skidded, clawing furiously for any handhold.
Finally he grabbed a thin ledge about fifty feet below the skywalk and hung there by his fingertips.
"Leo!" I yelled worried for the strange little prankster.
"Help!" he yelled up at them. "Rope, please? Bungee cord? Something?"
Coach Hedge cursed and tossed Jason his club. "I don't know who you are, kid, but I hope you're good. Keep that thing busy"—he stabbed a thumb at Dylan—"while I get Leo."
Why did Jason get to have all the fun? Bit sexist.
"Get him how?" Jason demanded. "You going to fly?"
Idiot. How was this little man supposed to fly?
"Not fly. Climb." Hedge kicked off his shoes, and I had a minor heart attack. The coach didn't have any feet. He had hooves—goat's hooves. Which meant those things on his head, I was right, weren't bumps. They were horns.
"You're a faun," Jason said. Beating me to it which was disappointing considering I connected the dots first.
"Satyr!" Hedge snapped. "Fauns are Roman. But we'll talk about that later."
Hedge leaped over the railing. He sailed toward the canyon wall and hit hooves first. He bounded down the cliff with impossible agility, finding footholds no bigger than postage stamps, dodging whirlwinds that tried to attack him as he picked his way toward Leo.
Jason and I turned to Dylan who had upgraded from Dylan the douche to Dylan the dick.
"Isn't that cute!" Dylan turned toward Jason. "Now it's your turn, boy."
I'M HERE TOO YA KNOW!
Jason threw the club. It seemed useless with the winds so strong, but the club flew right at Dylan, even curving when he tried to dodge, and smacked him on the head so hard he fell to his knees.
"Ha! Suck it loser." I laughed like a crazy person but hey maybe I was a crazy person.
Piper wasn't as dazed as she appeared. Her fingers closed around the club when it rolled next to her, but before she could use it, Dylan rose. Blood—golden blood—trickled from his forehead.
"Nice try, boy." He glared at Jason. "But you'll have to do better."
The skywalk shuddered. Hairline fractures appeared in the glass. Inside the museum, kids stopped banging on the doors. They backed away, watching in terror.
Dylan's body dissolved into smoke, as if his molecules were coming unglued. He had the same face, the same creepy white smile, but his whole form was suddenly composed of swirling black vapor, his eyes like electrical sparks in a living storm cloud. He sprouted black smoky wings and rose above the skywalk.
"You're a ventus," I said, though I had no idea how I knew that word.
"A storm spirit." Jason said looking as confused as I felt
Dylan's laugh sounded like a tornado tearing off a roof. "I'm glad I waited, demigods. Leo and Piper I've known about for weeks. Could've killed them at any time. But my mistress said two more were coming—they're special. She'll reward me greatly for your deaths!"
"That's cool and all but I don't really feel like dying today can we rearrange it.... how about never?" I smiled sweetly and Jason laughed.
Two more funnel clouds touched down on either side of Dylan and turned into venti—ghostly young men with smoky wings and eyes that flickered with lightning.
Great cause that's what we needed more bad guys.
Piper stayed down, pretending to be dazed, her hand still gripping the club. Her face was pale, but she gave Jason and I a determined look, and I understood the message: Keep their attention. I'll brain them from behind.
Cute, smart, and violent. I wished Piper was my forgotten girlfriend not Jason's.
I let my instincts take over and slipped my hand into the big pocket on the front of my hoodie and pulled out a blank piece of paper.
"Ante bellum." I whispered and the paper started to shift until it became a folded up sword in her hand.
Great I can do magical origami. How is that useful? When I looked back down a golden double edged sword glinted wickedly in my hand.
"Come at me storm boys!" I called gaining all three storm spirits attention.
"Where did you get that?" Dylan asked sounding nervous.
I got into a familiar stance and was about to charge.
Dylan raised his hand, arcs of electricity running between his fingers, before I could feel at the pain of dying, before I could feel anything I had hit the skywalk a few meters away from where I was before and stood in my place was Jason who was hit straight in the chest with electricity.
Bang! Jason was flat on his back. The blonde I had woke up with, the one I felt a weird connection to, had just saved my life and in turn sacrificed his.
I may have not known Jason or remembered knowing Jason but it hurt someone I was supposed to protect was dead because of me and the pain felt both real and familiar.
Jason lifted his head and both piper and I gasped.
The storm spirits were laughing. The winds raged.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Coach Hedge climbing the cliff with Leo on his back.
Piper was on her feet, desperately swinging the club to fend off one of the two extra storm spirits, but it was just toying with her. The club went right through its body like it wasn't there.
I wasn't having much luck either the storm spirit wouldn't let me get close like it was scared or something.
"Stop," Jason croaked. He rose unsteadily to his feet. Dumbass was just electrocuted.
"How are you alive?" Dylan's form flickered. "That was enough lightning to kill twenty men!"
"My turn," Jason said.
He reached in his pocket and pulled out the gold coin. He let his instincts take over, flipping the coin in the air like he'd done it a thousand times. He caught it in his palm, and suddenly he was holding a sword—a wickedly sharp double-edged weapon. The whole thing was gold—hilt, handle, and blade. Just like mine.
Dylan snarled and backed up. He looked at his two comrades and yelled, "Well? Kill him!"
I charged one of the storm spirits my moves fast and agile. I faked a move right then moved left and sliced my sword through the smoky figure in front of me. Surprisingly the storm spirit dissolved into some weird golden dust. Cool.
The two remaining members of the
Psycho boy band had decided Jason was the biggest threat and focused all their attention on him.
Jason swung at the storm spirit but missed. The spirit let loose a bolt of lightning, but Jason's blade absorbed the charge. Jason stepped in—one quick thrust, and the second storm spirit dissolved into gold powder.
Dylan wailed in outrage. He looked down as if expecting his comrades to re-form, but their gold dust remains dispersed in the wind. "Impossible! Who are you, half-bloods?"
Piper was so stunned she dropped her club. "Jason, Lila, how ... ?"
Then Coach Hedge leaped back onto the skywalk and dumped Leo like a sack of flour.
"Spirits, fear me!" Hedge bellowed, flexing his short arms. Then he looked around and realized there was only Dylan.
"Curse it, boy!" he snapped at Jason. "Didn't you leave some for me? I like a challenge!"
Again, why Jason? I'm a capable killer too!
"What you going to do now dickhead?" I laughed.
In a rage Dylan through his hand out and the wind was so strong it knocked me over the railing. I tried her best to hang onto the edge.
"Help!" I yelled but it was too late my fingers had already slipped by the time Coach got to me. "NEVER MIND!" I called.
Great, I am going to die falling in to the Grand Canyon! And my last words were never mind god, how stupid. For some weird reason I spread my arms and stay as still as possible like I was waiting for someone.
Oh god, who am I waiting for superman?
Then I felt arms hook around my waist. I opened my eyes to see Jason.
Lovely, now we're both going to die but instinctively I wrapped my arms around his neck anyway.
To my astonishment the wind started to die around us and our descent seemed to slow. Jason's face was a couple inches in front of mine with eyes screwed shut. "Jason..." he opened his eyes and looked around we were hovering just above the creek.
"No way." Jason whispered.
I felt the most at peace I had been since I had woken up on the bus. This was familiar me and Jason like this it felt like we had been in this position before on multiple occasions. The rain was stopping and Jason looked up "hold on."
"Well, I wasn't going to let go of the only thing that is stopping me from falling to my death."
Jason rolled his eyes and looked up again. Then we suddenly shot into the air. My weird sort of friend could fly it was awesome.
As soon as we landed on the skywalk, they ran to Leo and Piper.
I turned Leo over, and he groaned. His army coat was soaked from the rain. His curly hair glittered gold from rolling around in monster dust. But at least he wasn't dead.
"Stupid ... ugly ... goat," he muttered.
"Where did he go?" I asked.
Leo pointed straight up. "Never came down. Please tell me he didn't actually save my life."
"Twice," Jason said.
Leo groaned even louder. "What happened? The tornado guy, the gold swords ... I hit my head. That's it, right? I'm hallucinating?"
I had forgotten about the swords. I walked over to where they lay and picked them up handing Jason his. The blade was well balanced.
On a hunch I muttered "Pax." And the gold sword sifted into a map? It definitely wasn't a map before, it was blank but now it was a map to Long Island.
Am I from Long Island? No... that doesn't feel right.
"Yep," Leo said. "Definitely hallucinating."
Piper shivered in her rain-soaked clothes. "Jason, those things—"
"Venti," he said. "Storm spirits."
"Okay. You guys acted like ... like you'd seen them before. Who are you?"
He shook his head. "That's what We've been trying to tell you. We don't know."
I was to busy looking at the map. In the corner the letters L.C. What did it mean? Were they initial? Were they my inusuales?
"Coach Hedge said he had to protect four people," Jason remembered. "I think he meant us."
"And that thing Dylan turned into ..." Piper shuddered. "God, I can't believe it was hitting on me. He called us... what, demigods?"
Leo lay on his back, staring at the sky. He didn't seem anxious to get up. "Don't know what demi means," he said. "But I'm not feeling too godly. You guys feeling godly?"
There was a brittle sound like dry twigs snapping, and the cracks in the skywalk began to widen.
"We need to get off this thing," I said. "Maybe if we—"
"Ohhh-kay," Leo interrupted. "Look up there and tell me if those are flying horses."
A/N
What do you think L. C stands for?
Translations
ante bellum = Before war
Pax = Peace