🔥🔥🔥🔥Leo's pov🔥🔥🔥🔥
I WAS TOTALLY BUZZING.
The expression on everyone's faces when I flew the dragon into camp? Priceless! I thought my cabin mates were going to bust a lug nut.
Festus had been awesome too. He hadn't blowtorched a single cabin or eaten any satyrs, even if he did dribble a little oil from his ear. Okay, a lot of oil. I could work on that later.
So maybe I didn't seize the chance to tell everybody about Bunker 9 or the flying boat design. I needed some time to think about all that. I could tell them when we came back.
If we come back, part of me thought.
Nah, we'd come back. I'd scored a sweet magic tool belt from the bunker, plus a lot of cool supplies now safely stowed in my backpack. Besides, I had a fire-breathing, only slightly leaky dragon on our side. What could go wrong?
Well, the control disk could bust, the bad part of me suggested. Festus could eat you.
Okay, so the dragon wasn't quite as fixed as I might've let on. I'd worked all night attaching those wings, but I hadn't found an extra dragon brain anywhere in the bunker. Hey, they were under a time limit! Three days until the solstice. They had to get going. Besides, I had cleaned the disk pretty well. Most of the circuits were still good. It would just have to hold together.
My bad side started to think, Yeah, but what if—
"Shut up, me," I said aloud.
"What?" Aimee asked laying her head against my back.
"Nothing," I said. "Long night. I think I'm hallucinating. It's cool."
Sitting in front, I couldn't see their faces, but I assumed from their silence that my friends were not pleased to have a sleepless, hallucinating dragon driver.
"Just joking." I decided it might be good to change the subject. "So what's the plan, m'lady? You said something about catching wind, or breaking wind, or something?"
As they flew over New England, Aimee laid out the game plan: First, find some guy named Boreas and grill him for information—
"His name is Boreas?" I had to ask which made Aimee slap my head slightly. "What is he, the God of Boring?"
Second, Aimee continued, they had to find those venti that had attacked them at the Grand Canyon—
"Can we just call them storm spirits?" I asked. "Venti makes them sound like evil espresso drinks."
And third, Aimee finished, they had to find out who the storm spirits worked for, so they could find Hera and free her.
"So you want to look for Dylan, the nasty storm dude, on purpose," I said. "The guy who threw me off the skywalk and sucked Coach Hedge into the clouds."
"That's about it," Aimee said. "Well ... there may be a wolf involved, too. But I think she's friendly. She probably won't eat us, unless we show weakness."
Jason told them about their dream—the big nasty mother wolf and a burned-out house with stone spires growing out of the swimming pool.
"Uh-huh," I said. "But you don't know where this place is."
"Nope," Aimee admitted her eyes looking down at the cities below them.
"There's also giants," Piper added. "The prophecy said the giants' revenge."
"Hold on," I said. "Giants—like more than one? Why can't it be just one giant who wants revenge?"
"I don't think so," Piper said. "I remember in some of the old Greek stories, there was something about an army of giants."
"Great," I muttered. "Of course, with our luck, it's an army. So you know anything else about these giants? Didn't you do a bunch of myth research for that movie with your dad?"
"Your dad's an actor?" Jason asked. Aimee turned around and looked at Piper too,very confused.
I laughed. "I keep forgetting about your amnesia. Heh. Forgetting about amnesia. That's funny. But yeah, her dad's Tristan McLean."
"Uh—Sorry, what was he in?"
"It doesn't matter," Piper said quickly. "The giants—well, there were lots of giants in Greek mythology. But if I'm thinking of the right ones, they were bad news. Huge, almost impossible to kill. They could throw mountains and stuff. I think they were related to the Titans. They rose from the earth after Kronos lost the war—I mean the first Titan war, thousands of years ago—and they tried to destroy Olympus. If we're talking about the same giants—"
"Chiron said it was happening again," Aimee remembered. "The last chapter. That's what he meant. No wonder he didn't want us to know all the details."
I whistled. "So ... giants who can throw mountains. Friendly wolves that will eat us if we show weakness. Evil espresso drinks. Gotcha. Maybe this isn't the time to bring up my psycho babysitter."
"Is that another joke?" Piper asked but Aimee seemed to know that it wasn't.
I told them about Tía Callida, who was really Hera, and how she'd appeared to me at camp. I didn't tell them about my fire abilities. That was still a touchy subject, especially after Nyssa had told me fire demigods tended to destroy cities and stuff. Besides, then I would have to get into how I'd caused my mom's death, and ... No. I wasn't ready to go there. I did manage to tell about the night she died, not mentioning the fire, just saying the machine shop collapsed. It was easier without having to look at my friends, just keeping my eyes straight ahead as they flew.
And I told them about the strange woman in earthen robes who seemed to be asleep, and seemed to know the future.
I estimated the whole state of Massachusetts passed below them before my friends spoke.I felt that Aimee wanted to say something but she couldn't. I felt her arms tighten slightly around me as if to tell him that everything is alright.
"That's ... disturbing," Piper said.
"'Bout sums it up," I agreed. "Thing is, everybody says don't trust Hera. She hates demigods. And the prophecy said we'd cause death if we unleash her rage. So I'm wondering ... why are we doing this?"
"She chose us," Aimee said quietly that they almost didn't hear her. "All four of us. We're the first demigods who have to gather for the Great Prophecy. This quest is the beginning of something much bigger."
That didn't make me feel any better, but I couldn't argue with Aimee's point. It did feel like this was the start of something huge. I just wished that if there were more demigods destined to help them, they'd show up quick. I didn't want to hog all the terrifying life-threatening adventures.
"Besides," Aimee continued laying her chin on my shoulder,"helping Hera is the only way me and Jason can get back our memories. And that dark spire in my dream seemed to be feeding on Hera's energy. If that thing unleashes a king of the giants by destroying Hera—"
"Not a good trade-off," Piper agreed. "At least Hera is on our side—mostly. Losing her would throw the gods into chaos. She's the main one who keeps peace in the family. And a war with the giants could be even more destructive than the Titan War."
Jason nodded. "Chiron also talked about worse forces stirring on the solstice, with it being a good time for dark magic, and all—something that could awaken if Hera were sacrificed on that day. And this mistress who's controlling the storm spirits, the one who wants to kill all the demigods—"
"Might be that weird sleeping lady," I finished taking one hand off the reins grabbing onto one of Aimee's hands,I smiled when she didn't pull her arms away. "Dirt Woman fully awake? Not something I want to see."
"But who is she?" Jason asked. "And what does she have to do with giants?"
Good questions, but none of them had answers. They flew in silence while I wondered if I'd done the right thing, sharing so much. I'd never told anyone about that night at the warehouse. Even if I hadn't give them the whole story, it still felt strange, like I'd opened up my chest and taken out all the gears that made me tick. My body was shaking, and not from the cold. I hoped Aimee, sitting behind me, couldn't tell.
The forge and dove shall break the cage. Wasn't that the prophecy line? That meant Piper and me would have to figure out how to break into that magic rock prison, assuming they could find it. Then they'd unleash Hera's rage, causing a lot of death. Well, that sounded fun! I had seen Tía Callida in action; she liked knives, snakes, and putting babies in roaring fires. Yeah, definitely let's unleash her rage. Great idea.
Festus kept flying. The wind got colder, and below them snowy forests seemed to go on forever. I didn't know exactly where Quebec was. I'd told Festus to take them to the palace of Boreas, and Festus kept going north. Hopefully, the dragon knew the way, and they wouldn't end up at the North Pole.
"Why don't you get some sleep?" Aimee said in my ear,hugging me tightly. "You were up all night."
I wanted to protest, but the word sleep sounded really good. "You won't let me fall off?"
Aimee patted my shoulder. "Trust me, Valdez. I would never lie."
"Right," I muttered. I leaned forward against the warm bronze of the dragon's neck, and closed my eyes.