This Cold Year ― Percy Jackson & Annabeth Chase²

―ix. festus saves the day (and pays the price)

AFTER PIPER SAVED THEM ALL from a near-fatal encounter with a resurrected Medea (y'know, the ancient sorceress who killed her children when their father cheated on her... that lady) and her pet sun dragons, Naomi was glad to be back in the air on Festus's back, once again soaring through the sky.

Naomi found herself looking back constantly, half expecting those nasty sun dragons to appear, toting a flying chariot with a screaming magical saleswoman throwing potions, but luckily, nothing followed them.

Leo steered the dragon toward the southwest. Eventually, the smoke from the burning department store faded in the distance, but Naomi didn't relax until Chicago was far behind them, and the sun began to set.

"Thanks for saving us back there, beauty queen," Leo told Piper. "If you hadn't talked us out of that spell—"

Naomi fought a shudder. She remembered the events of the department store like they were distant, fuzzy memories, but she knew she'd almost suffocated Leo and Jason with her shadows, and could have killed them if Piper's charmspeak hadn't snapped them all out of their Medea-induced trances. It was terrifying how easily the sorceress had turned them against each other.

It was even more terrifying how close Naomi had come to killing her companions.

"Don't worry about it," Piper said, which was far easier said than done.

"We're going to have to put down soon," Leo warned. "Couple more hours, maybe, to make sure Medea's not following us. I don't think Festus can fly much longer than that."

"Yeah," Piper agreed. "Coach Hedge probably wants to get out of his canary cage, too. Question is—where are we going?"

"The Bay Area," Naomi guessed. "Didn't Medea say something about Oakland?"

Piper didn't respond for so long, Naomi wondered if she'd said something wrong.

"Piper's dad," Jason put in. "Something's happened to your dad, right? He got lured into some kind of trap."

Piper let out a shaky breath. "Look, Medea said you guys would die in the Bay Area. And besides ... even if we went there, the Bay Area is huge! First we need to find Aeolus anddrop off the storm spirits. Boreas said Aeolus was the only one who could tell us exactly where to go."

Leo grunted. "So how do we find Aeolus?"

Jason leaned forward. "You mean you don't see it?" He pointed ahead of them, but Naomi didn't see anything except clouds and the lights of a few towns glowing in the dusk.

"Are you hallucinating?" Naomi asked. "Are hallucinations part of getting a concussion?"

"You guys seriously don't see it?"

"See what?" Leo asked.

"That... whatever it is," Jason said. "In the air."

"Right," Leo said. "Could you be more specific on the 'whatever-it-is' part?"

"Like a vapor trail," Jason said. "Except it's glowing. Really faint, but it's definitely there. We've been following it since Chicago, so I figured you saw it."

Leo shook his head. "Maybe Festus can sense it. You think Aeolus made it?"

"It would make sense," Naomi said. "A magic trail in the wind—Aeolus is the wind god. Maybe he knows we have these storm spirits for him. He's telling us where to fly."

"Or it's another trap," Piper suggested gloomily.

Her tone was worrisome. She didn't sound nervous—more like she was broken with despair, like their awful fate was sealed and she'd been the one to seal it.