AFTER A MORNING OF STORM SPIRIT'S, goat men, and flying best friends, Aimee should've been losing her mind. Instead,she was stuck laying in Jason's arms like a child with a death vibe pouring off of her in waves.
She sat in back of the chariot with Piper,Leo and Jason, while the bald guy, Butch, handled the reins, and the blond girl, Annabeth, adjusted a bronze navigation device. They rose over the Grand Canyon and headed east, icy wind ripping straight through Aimee's black hoodie. Behind them, more storm clouds were gathering.
The chariot lurched and bumped. It had no seat belts and the back was wide open, so Aimee wondered if Jason would catch her if she fell.
Aimee stared at Piper,she could tell something was bothering her but Aimee couldn't bring herself to ask her. Aimee quickly looked away when Piper looked at her and ended up looking straight at Leo. He was staring at the clouds,his curls looking even messier because of the wind.He looked amazing,Aimee couldn't take her eyes off of him.
Stop it Aimee!! You can't get these feelings,she thought snapping her eyes away from Leo quickly. She felt like she had felt this way before to someone,like she had been hurt before by someone but she couldn't really remember. The fact that she couldn't remember anything really pissed her off.
Apparently she was Leo "girlfriend" but that is the thing,she had never seen him until that moment when she woke up on the bus. As much as she wished that everything was true,she knew it was just a wish.
Aimee sat up slowly and laid her head on Jason's shoulder. Whoever took her memories was going to get their ass kicked when she found them. Aimee looked at Jason: his sky blue eyes, close-cropped blond hair, that little scar on his upper lip. His face was kind and gentle, but always a little sad. And he just stared at the horizon, not even noticing that she had moved. She knew that she had never seen Jason like this,so sad and zoned out. Jason looked down at her as he felt her hug his arm as the pain in her head returned. It felt like someone was messing with her brain with sharp chopsticks. Jason and Piper tried to help make her feel better.
Meanwhile, Leo was being annoying, as usual. "This is so cool!" He spit a pegasus feather out of his mouth. "Where are we going?"
"A safe place," Annabeth said looking back at Aimee who light brown eyes has darkened to be almost black. "The only safe place for kids like us. Camp Half-Blood."
"Half-Blood?" Piper was immediately on guard. She hated that word. She'd been called a half-blood too many times—half Cherokee, half white—and it was never a compliment. "Is that some kind of bad joke?"
Aimee felt that the word half-blood was also a touchy subject to her too but again she couldn't remember why.
"She means we're demigods," Jason said as he rubbed Aimee's back. "Half god, half mortal."
Annabeth looked back. "You seem to know a lot, Jason. But, yes, demigods. My mom is Athena, goddess of wisdom. Butch here is the son of Iris, the rainbow goddess."
Leo choked. "Your mom is a rainbow goddess?"
"Got a problem with that?" Butch said.
"No, no," Leo said. "Rainbows. Very macho."
"Butch is our best equestrian," Annabeth said. "He gets along great with the pegasi."
"Rainbows, ponies," Leo muttered.
"I'm gonna toss you off this chariot," Butch warned. Aimee didn't want to admit it but she was close to throwing Leo over the side of the chariot too.
"Demigods," Piper said. "You mean you think you're ... you think we're—"
Lightning flashed. The chariot shuddered, and Jason yelled, "Left wheel's on fire!"
Piper stepped back. Sure enough, the wheel was burning, white flames lapping up the side of the chariot.
The wind roared. Aimee finally found her way to her feet and glanced behind them to find dark shapes forming in the clouds, more storm spirits spiraling toward the chariot—except these looked more like horses than angels.
She started to say, "Why are they—"
"Anemoi come in different shapes," Annabeth said. "Sometimes human, sometimes stallions, depending on how chaotic they are. Hold on. This is going to get rough."
Butch flicked the reins. The pegasi put on a burst of speed, and the chariot blurred. Aimee's stomach crawled into her throat. Aimee watched as Piper passed out. Jason being the only person close to her,he caught her in his arms and held tightly so that she didn't fly out of the chariot.
A cold gray ocean stretched out to the left. Snow-covered fields, roads, and forests spread to the right. Directly below them was a green valley, like an island of springtime, rimmed with snowy hills on three sides and water to the north. Aimee saw a cluster of buildings like ancient Greek temples, a big blue mansion, ball courts, a lake, and a climbing wall that seemed to be on fire. But before she could really process all she was seeing, their wheels came off and the chariot dropped out of the sky.
Annabeth and Butch tried to maintain control. The pegasi labored to hold the chariot in a flight pattern, but they seemed exhausted from their burst of speed, and bearing the chariot and the weight of six people was just too much.
"The lake!" Annabeth yelled. "Aim for the lake!"
Aimee suddenly remembered something someone had once told her, about hitting water from up high being as bad as hitting cement.
And then—BOOM.
The biggest shock was the dark,she hated the dark. She was underwater, so disoriented that she didn't know which way was up.
She just had time to think: This would be a stupid way to die.Then faces appeared in the green murk—girls with long black hair and glowing yellow eyes. They smiled sweetly at her, grabbed her shoulders, and hauled her up.
They tossed her, gasping and shivering, onto the shore with her black hoodie thrown just beside her. Nearby, Butch stood in the lake, cutting the wrecked harnesses off the pegasi. Fortunately, the horses looked okay, but they were flapping their wings and splashing water everywhere. Jason, Leo, Piper,and Annabeth were already on shore, surrounded by kids giving them blankets and asking questions. Somebody took Aimee by the arms and helped her stand. Apparently kids fell into the lake a lot, because a detail of campers ran up with big bronze leaf blower–looking things and blasted Aimee with hot air; and in about two seconds her clothes were dry and she was a bit uncomfortable.
There were at least twenty campers milling around—the youngest maybe nine, the oldest college age, eighteen or nineteen—and all of them had orange T-shirts like Annabeth's. Aimee looked back at the water and saw those strange girls just below the surface, their hair floating in the current. They waved like, toodle-oo, and disappeared into the depths. A second later the wreckage of the chariot was tossed from the lake and landed nearby with a wet crunch.
"Annabeth!" A guy with a bow and quiver on his back pushed through the crowd. "I said you could borrow the chariot, not destroy it!"
"Will, I'm sorry," Annabeth sighed. "I'll get it fixed, I promise."
Will scowled at his broken chariot. Then he sized up Piper, Leo, Aimee ,and Jason. "These are the ones? Way older than thirteen. Why haven't they been claimed already?"
"Claimed?" Leo asked.
Before Annabeth could explain, Will said, "Any sign of Percy?"
"No," Annabeth admitted.
The campers muttered. Aimee had no idea who this guy Percy was, but his disappearance seemed to be a big deal.
Another girl stepped forward—tall, Asian, dark hair in ringlets, plenty of jewelry, and perfect makeup. Somehow she managed to make jeans and an orange T-shirt look glamorous. She glanced at Leo, fixed her eyes on Jason like he might be worthy of her attention, she gave Aimee one glance before looking away as she felt the vibe that Aimee gave off,then curled her lip at Piper as if she were a week-old burrito that had just been pulled out of a dumpster. Aimee knew this girl's type. She'd seen a lot of girls like this at Wilderness School just during the few hours that she had been on the field trip at the Grand Canyon. Aimee knew instantly they weren't going to be friends.
"Well," the girl said, "I hope they're worth the trouble."
Leo snorted. "Gee, thanks. What are we, your new pets?"
"No kidding," Jason said. "How about some answers before you start judging us—like, what is this place, why are we here, how long do we have to stay?"
Aimee had to be held back by Jason,no one treats her like that and gets away with it. Aimee stopped when Leo set his hand on her shoulder calming her down.
Piper had the same questions, but a wave of anxiety washed over her. Worth the trouble. If they only knew about her dream. They had no idea...
"Jason and Aimee," Annabeth said, "I promise we'll answer your questions. And Drew"—she frowned at the glamour girl—"all demigods are worth saving. But I'll admit, the trip didn't accomplish what I hoped."
"Hey," Piper said, "we didn't ask to be brought here."
Drew sniffed. "And nobody wants you, hon. Does your hair always look like a dead badger?"
Piper stepped forward, ready to smack her, but Annabeth said, "Piper, stop."
Piper did. She wasn't a bit scared of Drew, but Annabeth didn't seem like somebody she wanted for an enemy.
Piper looked at Aimee who gave her an,I'm going to kill this girl,look that made Piper smile a bit.
"We need to make our new arrivals feel welcome," Annabeth said, with another pointed look at Drew. "We'll assign them each a guide, give them a tour of camp. Hopefully by the campfire tonight, they'll be claimed."
"Would somebody tell me what claimed means?" Piper asked stepping up behind Aimee.
Suddenly there was a collective gasp. The campers backed away. At first Aimee thought something bad had happened. Then she realized their faces were bathed in a strange red light, as if someone had lit a torch behind her. She turned and almost fainted again.The scene in front of her brought some forgotten memories back into her mind,they were hazy and she couldn't really make them out.
Floating over Leo's head was a blazing holographic image —a fiery hammer.
"That," Annabeth said, "is claiming."
"What'd I do?" Leo backed toward the lake. Then he glanced up and yelped,Aimee giggled at him. "Is my hair on fire?" He ducked, but the symbol followed him, bobbing and weaving so it looked like he was trying to write something in flames with his head.
"This can't be good," Butch muttered. "The curse—"
"Butch, shut up," Annabeth said. "Leo, you've just been claimed—"
"By a god," Aimee interrupted quietly barely being heard. "That's the symbol of Vulcan, isn't it?"
All eyes turned to her making her shrink back,she hated attention.
"Aimee," Annabeth said carefully, "how did you know that?"
"I'm not sure."
"Vulcan?" Leo demanded. "I don't even LIKE Star Trek. What are you talking about?"
"Vulcan is the Roman name for Hephaestus," Annabeth said, "the god of blacksmiths and fire."
The fiery hammer faded, but Leo kept swatting the air like he was afraid it was following him. "The god of what? Who?"
Annabeth turned to the guy with the bow. "Will, would you take Leo, give him a tour? Introduce him to his bunk-mates in Cabin Nine."
"Sure, Annabeth."
"What's Cabin Nine?" Leo asked. "And I'm not a Vulcan!"
"Come on, Mr. Spock, I'll explain everything." Will put a hand on his shoulder and steered him off toward the cabins. Aimee looked after them,upset that she couldn't talk to Leo about what was going on. She saw Leo look back at her.
Annabeth turned her attention back to Jason and Aimee. Usually Piper didn't like it when other girls checked out her boyfriend and heck no one ever really looked at Aimee, but Annabeth didn't seem to care that Jason was a good-looking guy or that Aimee was a bit paler than normal people. She studied them more like they were a complicated blueprint. Finally she said, "Hold out your arms."
Piper saw what she was looking at, and her eyes widened.
Jason and Aimee had taken off their jackets after their dip in the lake, leaving their arms bare, and on the inside of their right forearms were a tattoo. How had Piper never noticed it before? She'd looked at their arms a million times. The tattoo couldn't have just appeared, but it was darkly etched, impossible to miss: a dozen straight lines like a barcode, and over Jason's was an eagle and Aimee had a skull with the letters SPQR.
"I've never seen marks like this," Annabeth said. "Where did you get them?"
Aimee shook her head. "I'm getting really tired of saying this, but we don't know."
The other campers pushed forward, trying to get a look at their tattoos. Aimee hid behind Jason trying to stay as hidden as possible. The marks seemed to bother them a lot—almost like a declaration of war.
"They look burned into your skin," Annabeth noticed.
"They were," Jason said. Then he winced as if his head was aching,Aimee with the same look. "I mean ... I think so. I don't remember."
No one said anything. It was clear the campers saw Annabeth as the leader. They were waiting for her verdict.
"They need to go straight to Chiron," Annabeth decided. "Drew, would you—"
"Absolutely." Drew laced her arm through Jason's giving Aimee a glance. "This way, sweetie. I'll introduce you to our director. He's ... an interesting guy." She flashed Piper a smug look, and led Jason and Aimee toward the big blue house on the hill.
The crowd began to disperse, until only Annabeth and Piper were left.
"Who's Chiron?" Aimee heard Piper asked. "Is Jason in some kind of trouble?"
Aimee heard Annabeth hesitated. "Good question, Piper. Come on, I'll give you a tour. We need to talk."