{Kiara}
Kiara plummeted down and crashed through the roof of the building, using her hands to protect her head.
Her whole body flared in pain, but her left arm felt as if a thousand screws had been nailed into her skin.
Then she hit the ground and the pain in her body increased. She cried out in agony and tears of pain spilled from her eyes. She wished she was dead so she could escape the pain. She was sure her whole body was bruised, and her left arm was broken in several different places.
The pain started to lessen and she felt lightheaded. Her stomach did a flip inside her and she sat up, ignoring the pain that had turned back to the level of agony, and threw up. In the dim moonlight, she couldn't see, but was sure she vomited up blood.
She felt a fever coming on. Sweat trickled down her temples and onto her shirt. She managed to look down and noticed dark splotches over the purple fabric. The splotches were too dark to be sweat, she noticed. With great difficulty, she raised her hand to the side of her face. She touched the tip of her fingers and felt the dampness of her skin. When she brought her hand back down, her fingers were stained dark red.
Carefully, she leaned back and closed her eyes, trying to calm herself down and trying not to die. Not just yet, she told herself, hang on a bit longer. Piper and the others will be here soon. The side of her face where she'd cut it throbbed. Kiara could feel the blood oozing down her jawline and dripping on her shirt.
She took deep breaths and slowly, she drifted off to a slumber where, hopefully, she wouldn't feel the agonizing pain of her broken arm and bruised body.
In her dream, Kiara was at the edge of the ruins of some kind of old Roman town.
She looked around. The town must have been huge once. Kiara could make out the shells of temples and bathhouses, a half-buried amphitheater, and empty pedestals that must have once held statues. Rows of columns marched off to nowhere. The old city walls wove in and out of the hillside like stone off to nowhere. The old city walls wove in and out of the hillside like stone
thread through a green cloth.
Some areas looked like they'd been excavated, but most of the city just seemed abandoned, as if it had been left to the elements for the last two thousand years.
In the distance, she saw four people. One was tall and blond with pale skin, wearing a gray shirt over jeans. The second person was two heads shorter than the blond dude. He had an olive complex and dark hair. He was wearing full black and had a black sword sheathed at his side. The third person wasn't exactly a person. He wore a red tank top, Bermuda shorts, and huarache sandals. He had wings in the shades of russet—the colors of a lazy sunset—and had a deep tan and black hair almost as curly as Leo's.
The fourth person was a girl with short dark hair that fell to her shoulders. Kiara could see white streaks between the coal dark hair. She was about the height of the short guy with dark hair. She was wearing black shorts, sneakers, and a flannel over a purple t-shirt.
They were talking, but Kiara couldn't hear them. She started walking towards them, and froze when she saw the face of the girl. It was her. Kiara tried to run towards the group of four, but suddenly everything darkened and she woke up.
She opened her eyes and sat up so quickly that she bumped her head onto something. No, someone.
She clutched her head with her good arm, and the memories of everything that had happened came rushing back, along with the pain.
"What— what happened?" she asked, her voice barely a shaky whisper. "What happened to Festus? Where's Piper?"
"Calm down." It was Jason's voice that spoke, but her vision was still darkened and blurry. "Piper's here. We don't know what happened to Festus. As for what happened to you, you fell over several hundred feet and crashed on the lower floor."
Kiara's vision started to clear just enough for her to make out Jason's features a bit easier. "I— I broke my arm—"
"I bandaged it," Jason said. "It'll heal in some time." He gave Kiara a bar of ambrosia. "Here, eat this."
Kiara took the ambrosia and nibbled on it. It tasted like hot chocolate. The taste was really familiar, but she couldn't remember why. It was probably one of the memories Hera had stolen from her. The pain subsided and her vision cleared fully, but she felt sad that she couldn't remember.
"Where's Piper?" she asked again. This time, her answer came from somewhere a dozen feet away from her.
"Kiara!" Piper got to her feet, and limping, she rushed to Kiara's side and hugged her tightly. "Thank the gods you're fine," she mumbled into her hair.
Ignoring the butterflies in her stomach, Kiara gently pushed Piper away with her good arm. "I wouldn't put it as fine. It feels like I've been trampled by a herd of pegasi."
Piper looked as if she was about to cry out of happiness. "But you're alive."
"Last I checked I was," Kiara confirmed. She noticed Leo standing a few feet behind Piper.
"Good to know you're not dead," he told her, grinning. "You're probably the only hot girl—after Piper—who doesn't think I'm way below their league."
"Now, I never said that," Kiara said.
Leo gasped mockingly overdramatically. "I thought we were friends!"
All four of them burst out laughing at that.
"What happened to Festus," Kiara asked finally. "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." Leo pointed to the logo on the wall. "As far as where we are..." It was hard to see through the graffiti, but Kiara 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."
The smile left on Kiara's face disappeared completely. "It's my fault," she muttered. "I wasn't supposed to be in the air."
"It can't be your fault," Piper assured her, putting a hand on her shoulder.
Kiara shrugged off Piper's hand. "It's my fault," she said, a bit louder this time. "I'm the daughter of Pluto. The sky is Jup—Zeus's territory. I'm not allowed up there."
"You think it was Zeus's fault that we crashed?" Jason asked. Kiara nodded.
Leo stood. He looked crestfallen. "'ll scout around for Festus. I think he fell outside the warehouse somewhere. If I can find him, maybe I can figure out what happened and fix him."
"It's too dangerous," Jason said. "You shouldn't go by yourself. I'll come with you."
"Ah, I got duct tape and breath mints. I'll be fine," Leo said, a little too quickly, and, despite not being all that good at reading people, Kiara realized he was a lot more shaken up than he was letting on. "You guys just don't run off without me." Leo reached into his magic tool belt, pulled out a flashlight, and headed down the stairs,
"Breath mints?" Kiara asked, confused.
"Our little mechanic friend's tool belt can conjure many sorts of stuff, including breath mints," Piper said.
"How— You know what, I don't want to know," Kiara said and ran a hand through her hair. "So we are in Detroit, huh? How far is that from Chicago?"
"Maybe three-fourths of the way from Quebec?" Jason suggested. "I just hope the dragon's alright. Without him, we're stuck traveling on ground."
"With which it would be impossible to free Hera before the solstice," Piper said. After a minute of awkward silence, she spoke again. "You did a good job, healing Kiara and me," she told Jason. "Where'd you learn first aid?"
He shrugged. "Same answer as always. I don't know."
"But you're starting to have some memories, aren't you? Like that prophecy in Latin back at camp, or that dream about the wolf."
"It's fuzzy," he said. "Like déjà vu. Ever forgotten a word or a name, and you know it should be on the tip of your tongue, but it isn't? It's like that—only with my whole life."
Kiara wondered if she should tell them about the vision she had, how she'd seen images of temples and buildings and demigods wearing purple shirts under golden armor, holding various weapons.
"Hey, guys, about that—" She was cut short when somewhere below, metal clanged against metal, like a door slamming shut. The sound echoed through the warehouse.
Jason stood. He took out his coin and flipped it, snatching his golden sword out of the air. He peered over the railing. "Leo?" he called.
No answer.
He crouched next to Piper and Kiara. "I don't like this."
"He could be in trouble," Piper said. "Go check."
"I can't leave you two alone."
"We'll be fine," Kiara assured. "We are two strong women. Anyone gets close, we'll skewer them." Piper nodded.
Jason hesitated. "I'll leave you the pack. If I'm not back in five minutes—"
"Panic?" Piper suggested.
Jason managed a smile. "Glad you're back to normal. The makeup and the dress were a lot more intimidating than the dagger."
"He's right, you know," Kiara agreed.
Piper rolled her kaleidoscopic eyes. "Get going, Jason, before I skewer you."
He smiled at her and made his way to the stairs and disappeared into the dark.
Kiara started counting the seconds, trying to count the time that had passed. She lost track at around forty-three. Then something in the warehouse went bang! The echo died. Kiara could hear the sound of Piper's heart pounding next to her.
Piper's hand went to her backpack. She took out the ambrosia squares.
Boom. The sound was closer this time, directly below them. Piper stuffed the ambrosia square in her mouth. A few seconds later, she was cutting her make-shift cast made of duct tape.
"What are you doing?" Kiara whispered into her ear, afraid that someone might hear them, though she had no idea who could be down there except for Jason. Maybe Leo? No way, Leo was even scrawnier than Jason.
Before Piper could reply, they heard heavy steps on the stairs—like metal boots. Had it been five minutes? Longer? The steps didn't sound like Jason, but maybe he was carrying Leo. No, that wasn't it. Something was wrong. Kiara looked at the Monocle Motors sign again: a large red eye under a ton of graffiti.
The gears in Kiara's head started churning. She had to remember. One eye. It had to do something with mythology. One, singular eye. That had to be the sign of something, some kind of monster. Right? Kiara had probably fought one before. Maybe she had encountered one on one of her previous quests. Then why couldn't she remember...?
"Jason?" Piper called out, gripping her dagger.
"Yeah," he said from the darkness. "On my way up."
Definitely Jason's voice. But it didn't feel like it was Jason. Something felt wrong.
Next to Kiara, Piper got to her feet but Kiara grabbed her wrist and shook her head. Piper shot her a questioning look. Kiara raised a finger to her lips, signing for her to stay quiet, but it was already too late.
The steps came closer.
"It's okay," Jason's voice promised.
Kiara was sure it was not okay.
At the top of the stairs, a face appeared out of the darkness—a hideous black grin, a smashed nose, and a single bloodshot eye in the middle of his forehead.
"It's fine," the Cyclops said, in a perfect imitation of Jason's voice. "You're just in time for dinner."