EDEN FLIPPED THROUGH the sky, screaming as if she was in some horror movie, which essentially she was. Far below she saw city lights glimmering in the early dawn, and several hundred yards away the body of the bronze dragon spinning out of control, its wings limp, fire flickering in its mouth like a badly wired lightbulb.
A body shot past her — Leo, screaming and frantically grabbing at the clouds. "Not coooooool!"
She fell faster and faster down until she was right next to Leo.
"Can you fucking shut the fuck up?" She screamed.
"Says the one who's swearing and screaming like a fucking maniac!"
"Are you fucking kidding me? Zeus'll knock me outta the sky any min—"
And then, thump! They slammed into warm bodies — Perfect Jason and Kaleidoscope.
"Stop fighting!" Jason said. "It's me! And, Eden, stop screaming!"
"I hate heights!" Eden screamed, ignoring him and continuing on with her opera concert.
"My dragon!" Leo yelled. "You gotta save Festus!"
Perfect Jason was already struggling to keep the three of them aloft, and Eden knew there was no way he could help a fifty-ton metal dragon, even if he was perfect. She heard an explosion below them and screamed louder. A fireball rolled into the sky from behind a warehouse complex, and Leo sobbed, "Festus!"
Perfect Jason's face reddened with strain as he tried to maintain an air cushion beneath them, but intermittent slow-downs were the best he could manage. Rather than free-falling, it felt like they were bouncing down a giant staircase, a hundred feet at a time, which wasn't doing Eden's stomach any favors. She was holding in the sandwich and samples in her stomach.
As they wobbled and zigzagged, Eden could barely make out details of the factory complex below — warehouses, smokestacks, barbed-wire fences, and parking lots lined with snow-covered vehicles. They were still high enough so that hitting the ground would flatten them into roadkill — or skykill — when Perfect Jason groaned, "I can't—"
And they dropped like stones.
They hit the roof of the largest warehouse and crashed through into darkness.
She landed on both Perfect Jason and Leo and stopped screaming, rolling off of them and shooting up, taking out a gun and glancing all around her, but the only life around her were Perfect Jason and Leo groaning. Nerds.
Perfect Jason said something, the sound echoing through the building scarily. "Piper! Where's Piper?"
"Ow, bro!" Leo groaned. "That's my back! I'm not a sofa! Piper, where'd you go?"
"Here," Kaleidoscope whimpered from above. God, what a loser.
Eden snorted as Perfect Jason and Leo were shuffling and grunting, then their footsteps pounding on metal steps as they ran up.
Eden, Perfect Jason, and Leo reached Kaleidoscope's side.
Leo started to ask, "You okay . . . ?" Then he saw her foot. Her toes weren't pointing the right way. Ouch. "Oh no, you're not."
"Thanks for the reassurance," Kaleidoscope groaned.
Eden looked up. The hole they'd made in the roof was a ragged starburst twenty feet above. How they'd even survived that drop, she had no idea. Hanging from the ceiling, a few electric bulbs flickered dimly, but they didn't do much to light the enormous space. Next to her, the corrugated metal wall was emblazoned with a company logo, but it was almost completely spray-painted over with graffiti. Down in the shadowy warehouse, she could make out huge machines, robotic arms, half-finished trucks on an assembly line. The place looked like it had been abandoned for years.
"You'll be fine," Perfect Jason said, though Eden could hear the worry in his voice. Didn't seem so perfect now. "Leo, you got any first aid supplies?"
"Yeah — yeah, sure." He dug around in his tool belt and pulled out a wad of gauze and a roll of duct tape — both of which were too big for the belt's pockets.
"How did you—" Kaleidoscope tried to sit up, and winced. "How did pull that stuff from an empty belt?"
"Magic," Leo said. "Haven't figure it out completely, but I can summon just about any regular tool out of the pockets, plus some other helpful stuff." He reached into another pocket and pulled out a little tin box. "Breath mint?"
Perfect Jason snatched away the mints, which was really a shame. Fucking fun police. "That's great, Leo. Now, can you fix her foot?"
"I'm a mechanic, man. Maybe if she was a car . . ." He snapped his fingers. "Wait, what was that godly healing stuff they fed you at camp — Rambo food?"
Eden rolled her eyes. "Ambrosia, loser. Gimme a sec."
She threw her backpack to the ground, searched in one of the pockets for ambrosia, and found the pastry squares. She shrugged, deeming it decent, breaking it off and fed it to Kaleidoscope. Eden tried to tell herself that this wasn't her being nice at all — just doing her job.
Just like back then.
"More," Kaleidoscope said.
Eden shook her head. "Kaleidoscope, we shouldn't risk it. Too much could burn you up. You'd turn into ashes, and I don't think that that's a good idea, even for me. I think I should to set your foot."
Kaleidoscope frowned at her. "Have you ever done that before? And what kinda nickname is that?"
Eden snorted, choosing to ignore the last part. "Duh. I'm Eden Achilles-Fairchild, your resident healer. I dabble in some useful things sometimes."
Leo found an old piece of wood and broke it in half for a splint. Then he got the gauze and duct tape ready.
"Hold her leg still," Eden told Leo and Fun Police. "Kaleidoscope, this is going to hurt. Watch the magician at her work."
When Eden set the foot, Kaleidoscope flinched so hard she punched Leo in the arm, and he yelled almost as much as she did. When Eden was done, Kaleidoscope's foot was pointing the right way, her ankle splinted with plywood, gauze, and duct tape. Wow, Eden didn't epically fail at something. Wow. Amazing. Ten out of ten.
"Ow," Kaleidoscope said.
"Jeez, beauty queen!" Leo rubbed his arm. "Glad my face wasn't there."
"Sorry," she said. "And don't call me 'beauty queen,' or I'll punch you again."
"You all did great." Fun Police found a canteen in Kaleidoscope's pack and gave her some water.
Once Kaleidoscope wasn't screaming in pain, Eden could hear the wind howling outside. Snowflakes fluttered through the hole in the roof, and Eden was a little cold, but what could she do. It was a little odd, considering she rarely got cold. And this wasn't her leather jacket. Maybe it was Thalia's. Goddamn that hot bastard not having thick enough jackets.
"What happened to the dragon?" Kaleidoscope asked. "Where are we?"
Leo's expression turned sullen. "I don't know with Festus. He just jerked sideways like he hit an invisible wall and started to fall."
He pointed to the logo on the wall. "As far as where we are . . ." It was hard to see through the graffiti, but Eden could make out a large red eye with the stenciled words: monocle motors, assembly plant 1.
"Closed car plant," Leo said. "I'm guessing we crash-landed in Detroit."
Kaleidoscope stared off into the distance. "How far is that from Chicago?"
Fun Police handed her the canteen. "Maybe three-fourths of the way from Quebec? The thing is, without the dragon, we're stuck traveling overland."
"No way," Eden said. "It isn't safe."
"She's right. Besides, I don't know if I can walk. And four people — Jason, you can't fly that many across country by yourself." Kaleidoscope looked at Fun Police, frowning.
"No way," Fun Police said. "Leo, are you sure the dragon didn't malfunction? I mean, Festus is old, and—"
"And I might not have repaired him right?"
"I didn't say that," Fun Police protested, even though that's exactly what he said. "It's just — maybe you could fix it."
"I don't know." Leo sounded crestfallen. He pulled a few screws out of his pockets and started fiddling with them. "I'd have to find where he landed, if he's even in one piece."
"It was my fault." Kaleidoscope said quickly.
"Piper," Perfect Jason said gently, "you were asleep when Festus conked out. It couldn't be your fault."
"Yeah, you're just shaken up," Leo agreed. "You're in pain. Just rest."
He stood up. "Look, um, Jason, why don't you stay with her, bro? Eden and I will scout around for Festus. I think he fell outside the warehouse somewhere. If we can find him, maybe we can figure out what happened and fix him."
Eden snorted. "We? You wish. I don't have the brain power for that."
"It's too dangerous," Perfecf Jason said.
"Ah, I got duct tape and breath mints and Eden. I'll be fine," Leo said, a little too quickly.
"We'll be fine," Eden rolled her eyes. "I'm Eden Fairchild, remember?" She looked at Perfect Jason pointedly, before taking out a gun. "I've got guns."
Leo reached into his magic tool belt, pulled out a flashlight, and headed down the stairs, and Eden quickly followed down the steps, trying to get away from her memories and herself — because she'd faltered when she'd healed Pretty Girl, and that wasn't good. They didn't need to know the girl who could fight Titans singlehandedly but couldn't sleep at night.