↳ chapter two ₊˚.༄
[# storm spirits]
A STORM BREWED OVERHEAD, AND THEY HAD TO LEAVE. SOON. FUNNEL clouds snaked toward the skywalk like tendrils. The wind picked its pace and took a dozen of notebooks, jackets, hats, and backpacks. Thankfully, Iana had buttoned half of her plaid shirt.
She saw Leo losing his balance a few meters away, nearly toppling over the railing, but Jason caught his jacket just in time. Iana rushed over to the pair.
"You okay, Leo?" The brunette worried.
Leo nodded in reassurance. "No need to worry, EJ. Thanks, man!" Leo yelled over the wind.
"Go, go, go!" Coach Hedge rushed them.
Piper and Dylan were holding the doors open, herding the other kids inside. Piper's snowboarding jacket flapped wildly in the wind, her dark hair tousled all over her face. Contrary to one's belief regarding the situation, she looked calm and collected, confidence radiating from her as she guided students through the doors, providing comfort through words and encouraging them to keep going.
Iana, Jason, Leo, and Coach Hedge ran toward them, but it was like running through quicksand. The wind seemed to fight them as if the thought of four more bodies through the door would provoke a whirlwind. Each step they took caused them to fall back three more steps.
Dylan and Piper pushed one more kid inside right before losing their grip on the doors. It slammed shut, closing off the skywalk, and locking them out. Piper tugged at the handles, each pull disheartening her. Inside, the kids pounded on the glass, but the doors seemed to be stuck.
"Dylan, help!" Piper shouted, looking over her shoulder desperately.
Dylan just stood there with a manic grin, his Cowboys jersey rippling in the wind as if the storm was a popular television program. "Sorry, Piper," he said. "I'm done helping."
With only a flick of his wrist, Piper flew backward and slammed into the doors, sliding away to the skywalk deck.
"Hey, dipshit!" Iana shouted at Dylan over the harsh winds and tried to surge forward, but the winds kept working against her.
"Iana, Jason, Leo, stay behind me," the coach ordered. "This is my fight. I should've known that was our monster."
"What?" Leo demanded. A rogue worksheet slapped him in the face, but he swatted it away. "What monster?"
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.
Dylan gave him that psycho smile. "Oh, come on, Coach. Let the meek girl 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."
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.
"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."
"Get him how?" Jason demanded.
Iana looked at Coach Hedge incredulously. "You think you can fly, Coach?"
"Not fly. Climb." Hedge kicked off his shoes, and that was enough to make Iana think she's gone mad. The coach didn't have any feet. He had hooves— a goat's hooves. Which meant the bumps on his head weren't bumps... They were horns.
"You're a faun," Jason said.
"Faun?" Iana furrowed her brows. "Like in the fairy tales?"
"Satyr!" Hedge snapped. "Fauns are Roman. But we'll talk about that later."
The brunette gasped as Coach 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.
"Isn't that cute!" Dylan turned toward the two teens the satyr left behind, eyes fixed on the blonde beside Iana. "Now it's your turn, boy."
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. Pure luck could never produce such results.
Iana turned to him with a million questions but only received the same look he had been giving, I don't know.
Piper wasn't as dazed as she appeared, thankfully. Her fingers closed around the club as it stopped its movements 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 brilliant 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.
This, Iana thought, was what fallen angels first looked like when they arrived in hell.
"You're a ventus," Jason realised. "A storm spirit."
Iana's jaw dropped. "A spirit? You better be fucking joking, blondie—"
Dylan's laugh sounded like a tear in the atmosphere. "I'm glad I waited, demigod. Leo, Iana, and Piper I've known about for weeks. Could've killed them at any time. But my mistress said a fourth was coming— someone special. She'll reward me greatly for your death!"
Two more funnel clouds touched down on either side of Dylan and turned into, what Iana assumed, storm spirits— ghostly young men with smoky wings and eyes that flickered with lightning.
Piper kept a low profile as the events played out, pretending to be going in and out of consciousness, the grip on the club never loosening. Her face was pale, but she gave the two a determined look, and they understood the message: Keep their attention. I'll brain them from behind.
She glanced at Jason just for a moment, hoping he had some way to lead this surprise attack, but before either of them could take a step forward, the storm spirits struck.
Dylan raised his hand, arcs of electricity running between his fingers, and blasted Jason in the chest. Iana's hand clamped over her mouth, eyes wide as she backed away with fear evident in every feature. The storm spirits were laughing. The winds raged, masking the defiant scream Piper released.
A trail of smoke formed beside Iana, catching it in the corner of her eye just in time for her to move a few meters away from it, though it hardly did anything as it kept trailing her. The cloud of smoke would toy with her and turn into the ghostly figures that haunted her in the back of her mind for years.
"Stop," a small croak came from Jason, shocking both himself and everyone that had witnessed the blast.
"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 flipped the coin in the air caught it in his palm, though, what rested in his hold was no longer a small piece of gold, but instead, a sword that looked sharp enough to cut through — with no problem.
Dylan snarled and backed up. He looked at his two comrades and yelled, "Well? Kill him!"
The other storm spirits didn't look happy with that order, but they flew at Jason, their fingers crackling with electricity. Jason swung at the first spirit. Luckily enough, his blade passed through it, and the creature's smoky form disintegrated. The second spirit let loose a bolt of lightning, but Jason's blade absorbed the charge. The blonde stepped and with one quick thrust, dissolved the spirit 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-blood?"
Piper was so stunned she dropped her club. "Jason, 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!"
Leo got to his feet, breathing hard. He looked completely humiliated, his hands bleeding from clawing at the rocks. "Yo, Coach Supergoat, whatever you are—I just fell down the freaking Grand Canyon! Stop asking for challenges!"
Dylan hissed at them, but Iana could tell when one was hiding their underlying fear. "You have no idea how many enemies you've awakened, half-bloods. My mistress will destroy all demigods. This war you cannot win."
Above them, the storm exploded into a full-force gale. Cracks expanded in the skywalk. Sheets of rain poured down, and Iana had to crouch to keep her balance.
A hole opened in the clouds—a swirling vortex of black and silver.
"The mistress calls me back!" Dylan shouted with glee. "And you, demigod, will come with me!"
He lunged at Jason, but Piper tackled the monster from behind. Even though he was made of smoke, Piper somehow managed to connect. Both of them went sprawling. Iana, Leo, Jason, and the coach surged forward to help, but the spirit screamed with rage. He let loose a torrent that knocked them all backward.
Iana, Jason, and Coach Hedge landed on their butts. Jason's sword skidded across the glass. Leo hit the back of his head and curled on his side, dazed and groaning. Piper got the worst of it. She was thrown off Dylan's back and hit the railing, tumbling over the side until she was hanging by one hand over the abyss.
Iana rushed toward her, but Dylan screamed, "I'll settle for this one!"
He grabbed Leo's arm and began to rise, towing the half-conscious boy below him. The storm spun faster, pulling them upward like a vacuum cleaner.
"Help!" Piper yelled. "Somebody!"
Then she slipped, screaming as she fell.
Iana's face dropped with terror. "Piper!"
"Jason, go!" Hedge yelled. "Save her!"
The coach launched himself at the spirit—lashing out with his hooves, knocking Leo free from the spirit's grasp. Leo dropped safely to the floor, but Dylan grappled the coach's arms instead. Hedge tried to head-butt him, then kicked him and called him a cupcake. They rose into the air, gaining speed.
Coach Hedge shouted down once more, "Save her! I got this!" Then the satyr and the storm spirit spiraled into the clouds and disappeared.
Hopeless eyes met confused ones, and the distraught girl shook her head. There was nothing they could do. Except for the fact that Jason jumped off the skywalk to chase after Piper.
Iana was too shocked to cry, or even scream. Stumbling toward the only person left to accompany her, she checked to see if Leo still had a pulse, his hair looking ten times more tousled than it usually was, glittering gold after whirling in monster dust. The universe couldn't have expected her to abide the decision of killing all her friends. A sigh of relief left her lips, his heart rate still present, irregular, but present.
She didn't realize that the rain had stopped. The storm clouds didn't seem as bad, but they were still rumbling and flashing. Once she tore her eyes away from the sky, Iana saw two familiar figures landing on the skywalk and rushed toward the pair.
"You two scared me," she yelled in disbelief, unaware how they were able to make it back to the skywalk. Iana slapped both of them on the arm before engulfing the two in a hug, letting go of Jason sooner so she could wrap her arms around Piper. "Leo's okay," she reassured them.
They walked back toward the dazed boy, who still lay down facing the sky. "Stupid ... ugly ... goat," he muttered.
"Where did he go?" Piper 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 sword ... I hit my head. That's it, right? I'm hallucinating?"
Jason walked over to where his weapon was lying and picked it up. As if it was instinct, he flipped it. Mid spin, the sword shrank back into a coin and landed in his palm.
"Yep," Leo said. "Definitely hallucinating."
Piper shivered in her rain-soaked clothes. "Jason, those things—"
"Venti," he said. "Storm spirits."
Iana turned to him with interrogating eyes. "Why are talking like you've seen them before?"
"Who are you?" Piper's voice mimicked her apprehension.
He shook his head. "That's what I've been trying to tell you. I don't know."
The storm dissipated. The other kids from the Wilderness School were staring out the glass doors in horror. Security guards were working on the locks now, but they didn't seem to be having any luck.
"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..."
"Demigods," Iana finished. "As if that would help."
Leo lay on his back, staring at the sky. He didn't seem anxious to get up. "Don't know what demi means," he confessed. "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.
"Guys," Iana drew their attention toward the problem at hand, backing away from the larger cracks. "We need to get off the glass ASAP unless falling to death is the preferred choice—"
"Ohhh-kay," Leo interrupted. "Look up there and tell me if those are flying horses."
Part of Iana thought Leo had suffered a far worse concussion than he was letting on. Then she saw a dark shape descending from the east—too slow for a plane and too large for a bird. As it got closer a pair of winged animals—gray, four-legged, exactly like horses could be spotted—except each one had a twenty-foot wingspan. And they were pulling a brightly painted box with two wheels: a chariot.
"Reinforcements," Jason recalled. "Hedge told me an extraction squad was coming for us."
"Extraction squad?" Leo struggled to his feet, lazily straightening his clothes. "That sounds painful."
"And where exactly are they extracting us to?" Piper asked.
The group watched as the chariot landed on the far end of the skywalk. The flying horses tucked in their wings and cantered nervously across the glass, as if they sensed it was near breaking. Two teenagers stood in the chariot—a tall blond girl maybe a little older than Iana, and a bulky dude with a shaved head. They both wore jeans and orange T-shirts, with shields tossed over their backs like medieval soldiers.
The girl leaped off the chariot before it had even finished moving. She pulled a knife and ran toward their group while the other guy was reining in the horses.
"Where is he?" the girl demanded. Her gray eyes were fierce and her features were unwavering.
"Where's who?" Jason asked, knitting his brows.
She frowned like his answer was unacceptable. Then she turned to Leo, Iana, and Piper. "What about Gleeson? Where is your protector, Gleeson Hedge?"
Leo cleared his throat. "He got taken by some ... tornado things."
"Venti," Jason explained. "Storm spirits."
The blond girl arched a brow. "You mean anemoi thuellai? That's the Greek term. Who are you, and what happened?"
Jason did his best to explain, though Iana assumed it was hard to meet those intense gray eyes, considering the fact he kept glancing away and shot Iana a panicked look once or twice. About halfway through the story, the other guy from the chariot came over. He stood there glaring at them, his arms crossed. He had a tattoo of a rainbow on his biceps, which seemed a little unusual but wasn't the weirdest thing Iana had seen that morning.
As Jason's story came to an end, the blond girl didn't look satisfied. "No, no, no! She told me he would be here." she sounded exasperated, frustration taking over her body. "She told me if I came here, I'd find the answer."
"Annabeth," the bald guy grunted. "Check it out." He pointed at Jason's feet.
Iana hadn't realized it, but Jason was missing his left shoe. She was certain it had been blown off by the lightning or something equivalent, the lump of charcoal his foot resembled wouldn't have any other explanation.
"The guy with one shoe," the guy continued. "He's the answer."
"No, Butch," the girl insisted. "He can't be. I was tricked." She glared at the sky as though it had done something wrong. "What do you want from me?" she screamed. "What have you done with him?"
The skywalk shuddered, and the horses whinnied urgently.
"Annabeth," the bald guy— Butch, tapped her shoulder lightly. "we gotta leave. Let's get these four to camp and figure it out there. Those storm spirits might come back."
She fumed for a moment. "Fine." She fixed her gaze on Jason with a resentful look. "We'll settle this later." She turned on her heel and marched toward the chariot.
Piper shook her head. "What's her problem? What's going on?"
"Seriously," Leo agreed.
"We have to get you out of here," Butch said. "I'll explain on the way."
"I'm not going anywhere with her." Jason gestured toward the blonde. "She looks like she wants to kill me."
"She looks like she wants to kill all of us," Iana restated his words, glancing back at the fuming blonde.
Butch hesitated. "Annabeth's okay. You gotta cut her some slack. She had a vision telling her to come here, to find a guy with one shoe. That was supposed to be the answer to her problem."
"What problem?" Piper asked.
"She's been looking for one of our campers, who's been missing three days," Butch said. "She's going out of her mind with worry. She hoped he'd be here."
Iana's head drooped to the side, a small frown coming across her face. "That's sad..."
"Who's missing?" Jason asked.
"Her boyfriend," Butch said. "A guy named Percy Jackson."
author's note!
it's almost my birthday! and the end of the school year!!
also, do you guys think i should watch the live action little mermaid first or the new spiderman film??
anyways, i hope you guys enjoyed it!! please leave your thoughts in the comments!