SAFE . . . reyna ramirez-arellano

19 - festus :(

BRIAR SHUT HER eyes tightly. She half-expected to hear those nasty sun dragons toting a flying chariot with a screaming magical saleswoman throwing potions, but nothing followed them. At least, she'd thought so, but Jason or Leo would've said something about it by now.

Eventually, Briar opened her eyes, but she didn't relax until the suburbs of Chicago gave way to snowy fields, and the sun began to set.

"Good job, Festus." Leo patted the dragon's metal hide. "You did awesome."

The dragon shuddered. Gears popped and clicked in his neck.

"I'll give you a tune-up next time we land," Leo promised. "You've earned some motor oil and Tabasco sauce."

Festus whirled his teeth, but even that sounded weak. He flew at a steady pace, his great wings angling to catch the wind, but he was carrying a heavy load. Two cages in his claws plus three people on his back — the more Briar thought about it, the more worried she got. Even metal dragons had limits.

"Leo." She patted Leo's shoulder, trying not to focus on her problems. "You feeling okay?"

"Yeah . . . not bad for a brainwashed zombie." Leo smiled at her sheepishly. "Thanks for saving us back there, Sleeping Beauty. If you hadn't talked me out of that spell—"

"Don't worry about it," Briar said, too nonchalantly. She tried not to worry about it, tying Reyna's jacket that she'd taken out of her backpack around her shoulders. The scent that was on it had faded mostly, but she could faintly smell vanilla and just Reyna in general. She tried to ignore the unmistakable feeling of longing in her chest.

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

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

She didn't say anything, fiddling with Reyna's jacket and ring. She hated this. Hated that they were heading towards a death trap.

"Reyna," Jason put in. "Something's happened to her, right?"

Briar laughed shakily, wrapping Reyna's jacket around herself more. "Look, Medea said you would both die in the Bay Area. And besides . . . even if we went there, the Bay Area is huge! First we need to find Aeolus and drop 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 Briar didn't see anything except clouds and the lights of a few towns glowing in the dusk.

"What?" Leo asked.

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

Leo glanced back with a confused look. Briar felt just as confused as he looked.

"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?"

"Well, it's a magic trail in the wind," Jason said. "Aeolus is the wind god. I think he knows we've got prisoners for him. He's telling us where to fly."