Stark's Deadly Daughter (S.P.N.D. Book 4)

Chapter 11: We Make It To Virginia Beach

***

"Thermos!" Percy screamed as we hurtled toward the water.

"What?" Annabeth must've thought he'd lost his mind. She was holding on to the boat straps for dear life, her hair flying straight up like a torch.

But Tyson understood. He managed to open Percy's duffel bag and take out Hermes's magical thermos without losing his grip on it or the boat.

Arrows and javelins whistled past us as I created a shield with the shadows on the boat, though it was hard to keep up without falling out of the boat. When the attacks stopped coming I let down the shield, turning to the boat and hoping for a glance of my sister.

Percy grabbed the thermos and I hoped he was doing the right thing. "Hang on!"

"I am hanging on!" Annabeth yelled.

"Tighter!"

I hooked my feet under the boat's inflatable bench while using the shadows as... well basically a seatbelt with my hands glowing purple, and as Tyson grabbed Annabeth and Percy by the backs of their shirts, Percy gave the thermos cap a quarter turn.

Instantly, a white sheet of wind jetted out of the thermos and propelled us sideways, turning our downward plummet into a forty-five-degree crash landing.

The wind seemed to laugh as it shot from the thermos, like it was glad to be free. As we hit the ocean, we bumped once, twice, skipping like a stone, then we were whizzing along like a speed boat, salt spray in our faces and nothing but sea ahead.

I heard a wail of outrage from the ship behind us, but we were already out of weapon range. The Princess Andromeda faded to the size of a white toy boat in the distance, and then it was gone.

As we raced over the sea, Annabeth and I tried to send an Iris-message to Chiron. We figured it was important we let somebody know what Luke was doing, and we didn't know who else to trust. Percy was making sure we stayed on course.

The wind from the thermos stirred up a nice sea spray that made a rainbow in the sunlight- perfect for an Iris-message -but our connection was still poor. When Annabeth threw a gold drachma into the mist and prayed for the rainbow goddess to show us Chiron, his face appeared all right, but there was some kind of weird strobe light flashing in the background and rock music blaring, like he was at a dance club.

We told him about sneaking away from camp, and Luke and Ahmya and the Princess Andromeda and the golden box for Kronos's remains, but between the noise on his end and the rushing wind and water on our end, I'm not sure how much he heard. Percy had put in the few points that we had missed.

"Percy," Chiron yelled, "you have to watch out for-"

His voice was drowned out by loud shouting behind him- a bunch of voices whooping it up like Comanche warriors.

"What?" Percy yelled.

"Curse my relatives!" Chiron ducked as a plate flew over his head and shattered somewhere out of sight. "Annabeth, you shouldn't have let Percy leave camp! But if you do get the Fleece -"

"Yeah, baby!" somebody behind Chiron yelled. "Woohoooooo!" The music got cranked up, subwoofers so loud it made our boat vibrate.

"-Miami," Chiron was yelling. "I'll try to keep watch-"

Our misty screen smashed apart like someone on the other side had thrown a bottle at it, and Chiron was gone.

***

An hour later we spotted land- a long stretch of beach lined with high-rise hotels. The water became crowded with fishing boats and tankers. A coast guard cruiser passed on our starboard side, then turned like it wanted a second look. I guess it isn't every day they see a yellow lifeboat with no engine going a hundred knots an hour, manned by three kids. Maybe I should have covered us with the Mist, but oh well.