THE STORM CHURNED INTO A MINIATURE 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,Aimee staying on her feet somehow. Leo lost his balance and almost toppled over the railing, but Jason grabbed his jacket and pulled him back,Aimee then grabbing his hand pulling him to a safer area away from the edge.
"Thanks,guys!" Leo yelled."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. Aimee thought she must've been freezing, but she looked calm and confident—telling the others it would be okay, encouraging them to keep moving.
Aimee, Jason, Leo, and Coach Hedge ran toward them, but it was like running through quicksand. The wind seemed to fight them, pushing them 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. Aimee knew she was going to hate him...the vibe he gave off had felt so evil.
"Sorry, Piper," he said. "I'm done helping."
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 pushed him back.He didn't notice Aimee disappear from their side running towards Piper who was sliding faster away from her.
"Coach," Jason said not noticing Aimee either, "let me go!"
"Jason, Aimee, 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 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."
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. "You going to fly?"
"Not fly. Climb." Hedge kicked off his shoes, and Jason almost had a coronary. The coach didn't have any feet. He had hooves—goat's hooves. Which meant those things on his head, Jason realized, weren't bumps. They were horns.
"You're a faun," Jason said just before noticing that Aimee wasn't standing by him but over by Piper helping her up.
"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.
"Isn't that cute!" Dylan turned toward Jason,and Aimee who had rejoining him. "Now it's your turn, pests."
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.
Piper wasn't as dazed as she appeared. Her fingers closed around the club when it landed 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. If angels could be evil, Aimee decided, they would look exactly like this.
"You're a ventus," Aimee said aloud, though she had no idea how she knew that word. "A storm spirit."
Dylan's laugh sounded like a tornado tearing off a roof. "I'm glad I waited, demigod. Leo and Piper I've known about for weeks. Could've killed them at any time. But my mistress said a third and fourth were coming—someone special. She'll reward me greatly for your deaths!"
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.
Piper stayed down, pretending to be dazed, her hand still gripping the club. Her face was pale, but she gave Jason and Aimee a determined look, and they understood the message: Keep their attention. I'll brain them from behind.
Cute, smart, and violent. This girl is perfect for Jason,Aimee thought with a small smile.
Jason clenched his fists and got ready to charge, but he never got a chance.
Dylan raised his hand, arcs of electricity running between his fingers, and blasted Jason in the chest.
Aimee watched in horror as her best friend flew back. "JASON!!"
Aimee was then hit with an electric shock as well flying back towards Jason.
Bang! Aimee found herself flat on her back. Her mouth tasted like burning aluminum foil. She lifted her head and saw that Jason's clothes were smoking. The lightning bolt had gone straight through his body and blasted off his left shoe. His toes were black with soot.
The storm spirits were laughing. The winds raged. Piper was screaming defiantly, but it all sounded tiny and far away.
Out of the corner of her eye, Aimee saw Coach Hedge climbing the cliff with Leo on his back. Piper was on her feet, desperately swinging the club to fend off the two extra storm spirits, but they were just toying with her. The club went right through their bodies like they weren't there. And Dylan, a dark and winged tornado with eyes, loomed over Jason and Aimee.
"Stop," Jason croaked. He rose unsteadily to his feet standing between the storm spirit and Aimee, and he wasn't sure who was more surprised: him,Aimee or the storm spirits.
"How are you two alive?" Dylan's form flickered. "That was enough lightning to kill twenty men!"
"Our turn," Jason said. Aimee had gotten to her feet behind him looking perfectly fine except that her skin had gone a bit paler. She held onto a charm on her bracelet. She let her instincts take over,like she'd done it a thousand times.
"Portae mortis et ostia,"she said holding the charm feeling it warm up as Jason flipped his coin into the air. Aimee's charm turned into a long black sword which felt like it was meant to be in her hand. Jason caught his coin in his palm, and suddenly he was holding a sword—a wickedly sharp double-edged weapon. The ridged grip fit his fingers perfectly, and the whole thing was gold—hilt, handle, and blade.
Dylan snarled and backed up. He looked at his two comrades and yelled, "Well? Kill them!"
The other storm spirits didn't look happy with that order, but they flew at the two armed teens, their fingers crackling with electricity.
Jason swung at the first spirit. 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. Aimee 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,Aimee 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 left.
"Curse it,boy!" he snapped at Jason. "Didn't you two leave some for me? I like a challenge!"
Leo got to his feet, breathing hard as he leaned onto Aimee's shoulder. The human contact made her freeze up. Leo 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 Jason could see fear in his eyes. "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 Aimee had to crouch to keep her balance while also holding onto Leo.
A hole opened in the clouds—a swirling vortex of black and silver.
"The mistress calls me back!" Dylan shouted with glee. "And you, demigods, will come with me!"
He lunged at Jason and Aimee, but Piper tackled the monster from behind. Even though he was made of smoke, Piper somehow managed to connect. Both of them went sprawling. Leo, Aimee, Jason, and the coach surged forward to help, but the spirit screamed with rage. He let loose a torrent that knocked them all backward. Aimee, Jason and Coach Hedge landed on their butts.Aimee and Jason's swords 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.
Jason started toward her, but Dylan screamed, "I'll settle for this one!"
He grabbed Leo's arm and began to rise, towing a half-conscious Leo below him. The storm spun faster, pulling them upward like a vacuum cleaner.
"Help!" Piper yelled. "Somebody!"
Then she slipped, screaming as she fell.
"Jason, go!" Hedge yelled. "Save her!"
The coach launched himself at the spirit with some serious goat fu—lashing out with his hooves, knocking Leo free from the spirit's grasp. Leo dropped safely to the floor next to Aimee who laid his head in her lap, 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.
Save her? Jason thought. She's gone!
But again his instincts won. Jason ran to the railing. He's a lunatic, Aimee thought as he jumped over the side.
Aimee watched as he he tucked in his arms and plummeted headfirst.
In a heartbeat, he caught up with Piper, who was flailing wildly. He tackled her waist and closed his eyes, waiting for death. Piper screamed.
Suddenly the wind died. Piper's scream turned into a strangled gasp. Jason thought they must be dead, but he hadn't felt any impact. Aimee watched with a small smile.
They weren't falling. They were floating in midair, a hundred feet above the river.Aimee saw that he hugged Piper tight, and she repositioned herself so she was hugging him too. They were nose to nose. Aimee looked down at Leo,her hand lightly brushing his curls. She could hear Piper and Jason talking but their words were unclear.
Aimee moved Leo just as they shot a few feet higher. She looked down calculating what Jason should do. The easiest thing would be to sink gently to the canyon floor. Then she looked up. The rain had stopped. The storm clouds didn't seem as bad, but they were still rumbling and flashing. There was no guarantee the spirits were gone for good. Aimee had no idea what had exactly happened to Coach Hedge. And Leo had been left with her, barely conscious.
"We have to help them," Aimee heard Piper say, as if reading her thoughts. "Can you—"
"Let's see." Jason thought Up, and instantly they shot skyward.Aimee almost starting laughing,he looked like a blonde Superman.
The fact he was riding the winds might've been cool under different circumstances, but Aimee could tell he was too much in shock. As soon as they landed on the skywalk not far from Aimee,they ran to Leo the two of them.
Piper pokes Leo's side, 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 putting his hand to his forehead.
"Where did he go?" Piper asked Aimee and Leo.
Leo pointed straight up. "Never came down. Please tell me he didn't actually save my life."
"Twice," Aimee said wiping some dirt off her cheek.
Leo groaned even louder. "What happened? The tornado guy, the gold sword ... I hit my head. That's it, right? I'm hallucinating?"
Jason had forgotten about the swords. He walked over to where they were lying and picked them up. The blades were well balanced. On a hunch he flipped his sword. Midspin, the sword shrank back into a coin and landed in his palm.He then handed Aimee her sword after looking at it. It turned back into a charm that she clipped back onto the bracelet.
"Yep," Leo said. "Definitely hallucinating."
Piper shivered in her rain-soaked clothes. "Jason, those things—"
"Venti," Aimee answered cutting her off putting a hand on the confused girl's shoulder. "Storm spirits."
"Okay. You acted like ... like both of you have seen them before. Who are you?"
He shook his head. "That's what we've been trying to tell you. We 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... 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," Jason said. "Maybe if we—"
"Ohhh-kay," Leo interrupted. "Look up there and tell me if those are flying horses."
At first Aimee thought Leo had hit his head too hard. Then she saw a dark shape descending from the east—too slow for a plane, too large for a bird. As it got closer she could see a pair of winged animals—gray, four-legged, exactly like horses—except each one had a twenty-foot wingspan. And they were pulling a brightly painted box with two wheels: a chariot.
"Reinforcements," Jason said. "Hedge told me an extraction squad was coming for us."
"Extraction squad?" Leo struggled to his feet. "That sounds painful."
"And where are they extracting us to?" Piper asked.
Aimee cautiously 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 Jason, and a bulky dude with a shaved head and a face like a pile of bricks. They both wore jeans and orange T-shirts, with shields tossed over their backs. The girl leaped off before the chariot had even finished moving. She pulled a knife and ran toward the group while the bulky dude was reining in the horses.
"Where is he?" the girl demanded. Her gray eyes were fierce and a little startling.
"Where's who?" Jason asked.
She frowned like his answer was unacceptable. Then she turned to Leo and Piper. "What about Gleeson? Where is your protector, Gleeson Hedge?"
The coach's first name was Gleeson? Aimee might've laughed if the morning hadn't been quite so weird and scary. Gleeson Hedge: football coach, goat man, protector of demigods. Sure. Why not?
Leo cleared his throat. "He got taken by some ... tornado things."
"Venti," Aimee said cutting in again. "Storm spirits."
The blond girl arched an eyebrow. "You mean anemoi thuellai? That's the Greek term. Who are you, and what happened?"
Jason did his best to explain, though it was hard to meet those intense gray eyes. About halfway through the story, the other guy from the chariot came over. He stood there glaring at them,and by them I mean glaring at Aimee mostly, his arms crossed. He had a tattoo of a rainbow on his biceps, which seemed a little unusual.
When Jason had finished his story, the blond girl didn't look satisfied. "No, no, no! She told me he would be here. 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.
Jason hadn't thought much about it, but he was still missing his left shoe, which had been blown off by the lightning. His bare foot felt okay, but it looked like a lump of charcoal. Aimee looked away feeling nauseous at the sight of his foot. Leo put a hand on her shoulder trying to distract her from the lumpy black charcoal foot.
"The guy with one shoe," said the bald dude. "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," said the bald dude, Butch, "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 Jason with a resentful look which made Aimee tense up,ready to take a swing at the girl at any moment. "We'll settle this later."
She turned on her heel and marched toward the chariot.
"Well she is just a ray of sunshine,ha the girl has an attitude so sour that even Hades would look happy,"Aimee muttered lowly. No one but Jason heard her and he took her hand lightly to help calm her down.
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 looking away from his best friend. "She looks like she wants to kill me."
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."
"Who?" Jason asked.
"Her boyfriend," Butch said. "A guy named Percy Jackson."
As soon as the name left the rainbow dudes mouth Aimee passed out in Jason's arms.