SAFE . . . reyna ramirez-arellano

15 - soaring, flying

BRIAR FINALLY FELT relaxed as she flew Festus to Chicago.

That was a mistake. All it took was a, "Cyclops!" from Jason and Briar nearly fell off of the dragon. She vowed to herself to never relax in the presence of Leo and Jason.

"Whoa, sleepyhead." Leo said behind Briar. She'd convinced him to teach her how to drive Festus just so he could keep Jason company while he was asleep, and without charmspeak. Gods, she was so good.

"D-Detroit," Jason stammered. "Didn't we crash-land? I thought—"

"It's okay," Leo said. "We got away, but you got a nasty concussion. How you feeling?"

"How did you — the Cyclops—"

"Leo ripped them apart," Briar said. "He was amazing. He can summon fire—"

"It was nothing," Leo said quickly.

Briar laughed. "Shut up, Valdez. I'm going to tell him. Get over it."

"You're driving!" Leo protested.

"Festus is basically doing it all," Briar rolled her eyes. "Let me explain, idiot."

And she did — how Leo single-handedly defeated the Cyclopes family; how they freed Jason, then noticed the Cyclopes starting to re-form; how Leo had replaced the dragon's wiring and gotten them back in the air just as they'd started to hear the Cyclopes roaring for vengeance inside the factory. Briar told him about the other kid the Cyclopes claimed to have eaten, the one in the purple shirt who spoke Latin.

Briar had had time to think about this. A son of Mercury . . . she'd known the kid, but there wasn't a name or a face to put on the kid.

"There are others like us," Jason said.

"Well, obviously," she snorted. "My girlfriend exists. And she definitely has the same tattoo as us, and the purple shirt."

"I — I know . . . but something Hera said. I was having a dream . . ."

He told them what he'd seen, and what the goddess had said inside her cage.

"An exchange?" Briar asked. "What does that mean?"

She could practically feel Jason's frown. "But Hera's gamble is us. Just by sending us to Camp Half-Blood, I have a feeling she broke some kind of rule, something that could blow up in a big way—"

"Or save us," Briar said hopefully. "That bit about the sleeping enemy — that sounds like the lady Leo told us about."

Leo cleared his throat. "About that . . . she kind of appeared to me back in Detroit, in a pool of Porta-Potty sludge."

"Did you say . . . Porta-Potty?" Jason asked.

Leo told them about the big face in the factory yard. "I don't know if she's completely unkillable," he said, "but she cannot be defeated by toilet seats. I can vouch for that. She wanted me to betray you guys, and I was like, 'Pfft, right, I'm gonna listen to a face in the potty sludge.'"

"She's trying to divide us." Briar clutched the reins tighter.

"What's wrong?" Jason asked. Damn it, he knew her too well.

"I just . . . Why are they toying with us? Who is this lady, and how is she connected to Enceladus?"

"Enceladus?" Jason repeated.

"I mean . . ." Shit, shit, shit. Briar hated herself. "That's one of the giants. Just one of the names I could remember."

Leo scratched his head. "Well, I dunno about Enchiladas—"