Ethereal

Chapter XV

"Tell me when it's over," Thalia said. Her eyes were shut tight. The statue was holding on to us so we couldn't fall, but still, Thalia clutched his arm like it was the most important thing in the world.

"Everything's fine," I promised.

"Are... are we very high?"

I looked down. Below us, a range of snowy mountains zipped by. Percy stretched out his foot and kicked some powdery snow off one of the peaks.

"Nah," Percy said, sharing a look with me. "Not that high."

"We are in the Sierras.'" Zoe yelled. She and Grover were hanging from the arms of the other statue. "I have hunted here before. At this speed, we should be in San Francisco in a few hours."

"Hey, hey, Frisco!" our angel said. "Yo, Chuck! We could visit those guys at the Mechanics Monument again! They know how to party!"

"Oh, man," the other angel said. "I am so there!"

"You guys have visited San Francisco?" I asked.

"We automatons gotta have some fun once in a while, right?" our statue said. "Those mechanics took us over to the de Young Museum and introduced us to these marble lady statues, see. And—"

"Hank!" the other statue Chuck cut in. "They're kids, man."

"Oh, right." If bronze statues could blush, I swear Hank did. "Back to flying."

We sped up, so I could tell the angels were excited. The mountains fell away into hills, and then we were zipping along over farmland and towns and highways.

Grover played his pipes to pass the time. Zoe got bored and started shooting arrows at random billboards as we flew by. Every time she saw a Target department store—and we passed dozens of them—she would peg the store's sign with a few bulls-eyes at a hundred miles an hour. Eventually, I started copying her, my golden arrows following her silver ones.

Thalia kept her eyes closed the whole way. She muttered to herself a lot like she was praying.

"You did good back there," Percy told her. "Zeus listened."

It was hard to tell what she was thinking with her eyes closed.

"Maybe," she said. "How did you get away from the skeletons in the generator room, anyway? You said they cornered you."

We told her about the weird mortal girl, Rachel Elizabeth Dare, who seemed to be able to see right through the Mist. I thought Thalia was going to call us crazy, but she just nodded.

"Some mortals are like that," she said. "Nobody knows why."

Suddenly I flashed on something I'd never considered.

I knew that some mortals are like that. I feel sorry for them. Some see even better through the Mist than most demigods.

"Well, the girl was annoying," I said. 

"But I'm glad I didn't vaporize her. That would've been bad." Percy continued.

Thalia nodded. "Must be nice to be a regular mortal." She said that as if she'd given it a lot of thought.

After a while, we all drifted off to sleep.

Dreams are weird. Mine started with me standing in a sunny meadow. It was peaceful, the only sounds were birds chirping in the forest off to the side while wind rushed through the tall flowers and long grass.

Suddenly, the sun shined brighter.

I turned around. "Hi, Dad."

"Lia! What's up!" He cheerfully cried.