EDEN WAS HAPPILY sipping on her coffee and having chocolate that Connor had put in her backpack when someone behind her went, "Cyclops!"
She flinched. "Oh, Jesus," she swore, glaring back at Perfect Jason. "That was my last piece of chocolate! Stupid white boy."
"Eden," Pretty Girl glared at her, though it didn't really work, before looking down at Jason. "Sleepyhead. You're alright."
"D-Detroit," Perfect Jason stammered, and he seemed a lot like when they crash landed into the lake. Good times. "Didn't we crash-land? I thought—"
"It's okay," Fire Boy said. "We got away, but you got a nasty concussion. How you feeling?"
"How did you — the Cyclops—"
"Leo ripped them apart," Kaleidoscope said. "He was amazing. He can summon fire—"
"It was nothing," Fire Boy said quickly.
Pretty Girl snorted. "Shut up, Valdez. I'm going to tell him"
She told their entire story from start to finish. Eden felt kinda proud at her powers part — it'd taken her forever for her to even bring out a little bit of her power out. Now that she did that, though, her body probably needed a recharge that it wouldn't get.
Pretty Girl finished telling Perfect Jason about the other kid the Cyclopes claimed to have eaten, the one in the purple shirt who spoke Latin. Whatever the fuck that meant. Eden didn't give a fuck.
"I'm not alone, then," Perfect Jason said. "There are others like me."
"Jason," Kaleidoscope said, "you were never alone. You've got us."
Eden scrunched up her nose. "You don't have me."
"Eden!" Kaleidoscope snapped at her.
"I — I know . . ." Muscle Boy said, and he almost sounded as if he was from Twilight. "But something Hera said. I was having a dream . . ."
Wow, a dream? Eden didn't know that a boy who could get everything could have those.
He told them what he'd seen, and what the goddess had said inside her cage.
"Ugh, fuck Hera," Eden said after, and the sky struck with lightning, and she would be lying if she said that it didn't scare her; stupid heights. "Come on, Zeus, you need me in order for you to live. Jesus, what a bunch of whores."
"An exchange?" Pretty Girl asked, sending a glare at Eden. She seemed to like doing that after their adventure in Detroit. "What does that mean?"
Perfect Jason shook his head. "I don't know. But Hera's gamble is me. Just by sending me to Camp Half-Blood, I have a feeling she broke some kind of rule, something that could blow up in a big way—"
"Or save us," Kaleidoscope said hopefully. "That bit about the sleeping enemy — that sounds like the lady Leo told us about."
Fire Boy cleared his throat. "About that . . . she kind of appeared to Eden and I back in Detroit, in a pool of Porta-Potty sludge."
Muscle Boy frowned. "Did you say . . . Porta-Potty?"
Fire Boy told them about the big face in the factory yard, because Eden didn't know how to explain it. "I don't know if she's completely unkillable," he said, "but she cannot be defeated by toilet seats. I can vouch for that. She wanted us to betray you guys, and I was like, 'Pfft, right, I'm gonna listen to a face in the potty sludge.'"
Eden snorted. "I wanted to. But hero complex. You're lucky I have it."
"She's trying to divide us." Pretty Girl said, a little sadly.
"What's up with that?" Eden asked, looking back at her, raising her eyebrows.
"I just . . . Why are they toying with us? Who is this lady, and how is she connected to Enceladus?"
"Enceladus?" Perfect Jason asked.
"I mean . . ." Kaleidoscope's voice quavered. "That's one of the giants. Just one of the names I could remember."
Fire Boy scratched his head. "Well, I dunno about Enchiladas—"
"Enceladus," Pretty Girl corrected.
"Enchiladas would be better," Eden mused. "I miss Grover. He was so scared of everything. Those were the times."
"Whatever. But Old Potty Face mentioned another name. Porpoise Fear, or something?"
"Porphyrion?" Pretty Girl asked. "He was the giant king, I think."
"I'm going to take wild guess," Fire Boy said. "In the old stories, Porphyrion kidnapped Hera. That was the first shot in the war between the giants and the gods."
"I think so," Kaleidoscope agreed. "But those myths are really garbled and conflicted. It's almost like nobody wanted that story to survive. I just remember there was a war, and the giants were almost impossible to kill."
"Heroes and gods had to work together," Perfect Jason said. "That's what Hera told me."
"Kind of hard to do," Eden grumbled, "if the gods won't even talk to us. Except for when I insult them. That always helps."
They flew west, and Eden got lost in her monster and chocolate. She wasn't sure how much time passed before the dragon dove through a break in the clouds, and below them, glittering in the winter sun, was a city at the edge of a massive lake. A crescent of skyscrapers lined the shore. Behind them, stretching out to the western horizon, was a vast grid of snow-covered neighborhoods and roads.
"Chicago," Perfect Jason said.
"No shit," Eden snorted, putting her food and drinks away.
"One problem down," Fire Boy said. "We got here alive. Now, how do we find the storm spirits?"
"How about we follow that one," Muscle Boy suggested, "and see where it goes?"
* * *
"Speed up!" Perfect Jason urged.
"Bro," Fire Boy said, "if I get any closer, he'll spot us. Bronze dragon ain't exactly a stealth plane."
"Slow down!" Kaleidoscope yelped.
"For once, I agree with her!" Eden screamed.
The storm spirit dove into the grid of downtown streets. The dragon tried to follow, but his wingspan was way too wide. His left wing clipped the edge of a building, slicing off a stone gargoyle before Fire Boy pulled up.
"Get above the buildings," Perfect Jason suggested. "We'll track him from there."
"You want to drive this thing?" Fire Boy grumbled, but he did what Fun Police asked.
After a few minutes, Eden spotted the storm spirit, zipping through the streets with no apparent purpose — blowing over pedestrians, ruffling flags, making cars swerve. That was valid though.
"Oh great," Pretty Girl said. "There're two."
She was right. For once. A second ventus blasted around the corner of the Renaissance Hotel and linked up with the first. They wove together in a chaotic dance, shooting to the top of a skyscraper, bending a radio tower, and diving back down toward the street.
"Those guys do not need any more caffeine," Fire Boy said.
"But I do," Eden added, yawning.
"I guess Chicago's a good place to hang out," Kaleidoscope said. "Nobody's going to question a couple more evil winds."
"More than a couple," Muscle Boy said. "Look."
The dragon circled over a wide avenue next to a lake-side park. Storm spirits were converging — at least a dozen of them, whirling around a big public art installation.
"Which one do you think is Dylan?" Fire Boy asked. "I wanna throw something at him."
"Leo, Eden . . ." Perfect Jason said nervously.
Eden looked over on the huge tv screen and saw a woman on it. She scrunched up her nose. "Gross," she said.
"I see her," Fire Boy said. "I don't like her, but I see her."
Then the screens went dark. The venti swirled together into a single funnel cloud and skittered across the fountain, kicking up a waterspout almost as high as the monoliths. They got to its center, popped off a drain cover, and disappeared underground.
"Did they just go down a drain?" Kaleidoscope asked. "How are we supposed to follow them?"
"Maybe we shouldn't," Fire Boy said. "That fountain thing is giving me seriously bad vibes. And aren't we supposed to, like, beware the earth?"
"Put us down in that park," Fun Police suggested. "We'll check it out on foot."
The dragon landed in an open area between the lake and the skyline. The signs said Grant Park, after a moment of squinting at it, and Eden imagined it would've been a nice place in the summer; but now it was a field of ice, snow, and salted walkways. The dragon's hot metal feet hissed as they touched down. Festus flapped his wings unhappily and shot fire into the sky, but there was no one around to notice. The wind coming off the lake was bitter cold. Anyone with sense would be inside. Eden's eyes stung so badly, she could barely see. She willed off the water on her face and sighed.
They dismounted, and Festus the dragon stomped his feet. One of his ruby eyes flickered, so it looked like he was blinking.
"Is that normal?" Perfect Jason asked.
Fire Boy pulled a rubber mallet from his tool bag. He whacked the dragon's bad eye, and the light went back to normal. "Yeah," he said. "Festus can't hang around here, though, in the middle of the park. They'll arrest him for loitering. Maybe if I had a dog whistle . . ."
He rummaged in his tool belt, but came up with nothing. Eden snickered.
"Too specialized?" he guessed. "Okay, give me a safety whistle. They got that in lots of machine shops."
This time, Fire Boy pulled out a big plastic orange whistle. "Coach Hedge would be jealous! Okay, Festus, listen." He blew the whistle. The shrill sound probably rolled all the way across Lake Michigan. "You hear that, come find me, okay? Until then, you fly wherever you want. Just try not to barbecue any pedestrians."
The dragon snorted — hopefully in agreement. Then he spread his wings and launched into the air.
Pretty Girl took one step and winced. "Ah!"
"Your ankle?" Eden looked over, meeting eye contact with Kaleidoscope for an awkward moment before looking forward. "That nectar we gave you might be wearing off. I'll look at it later."
"It's fine." Kaleidoscope shivered. She took a few more steps with only a slight limp, but Eden could tell she was trying not to grimace.
"Let's get out of the wind," Perfect Jason suggested.
"Down a drain?" Kaleidoscope shuddered. "Sounds cozy."
"I hate this," Eden commented.
They wrapped themselves up as best they could and headed toward the fountain.