ANTI-HERO, j.grace

EIGHTEEN

     Jason Grace felt terrible. There's an insurmountable pit of guilt swirling in his stomach that only seemed to grow every time Klein Maddox turned to look over her shoulder in the direction of the department store that was long gone. She's situated in front of him this time - Jason had just barely caught the girl when she launched herself over the railing of the second floor, hazily pulling her onto the seat in front of him as he was worried she was fall off the back of the dragon amidst their rushed escape. And she's unhappy to be sitting there, that much he knows, but she hadn't asked to switch.

In fact, Klein hadn't said anything since they took off into the sky. Not a word as the smoking department store disappeared behind them and Chicago's busy streets turning into rolling snowy fields. Jason wished she would, because the silence that overlapped them all only make the venomous words echoing in the back of his mind seem even louder.

Your camp is right, he had spat at her, you're not even a good person. Cruel words that spilled from his mouth not even hours after he sat beside her in the sewer tunnel and swore that unlike the demigods of Camp Half-Blood, he didn't think she was bad.

Jason wasn't familiar with much at that point, the sound of his own name not even sounding like his. But that cruelty, that spite and detest in his tone, even his body that recognized not a single memory rejected the notion of those words even festering inside of him.

Yet Klein didn't say anything. Not as she sat there, not as she turned to peer over her shoulder and around Jason's frame to make sure there were no sun dragons flying after them, and certainly not as she avoided acknowledging Jason's eyes on her whenever she looked back.

He thought her angry, but all Klein Maddox felt was guilty. What she had said to Jason, what she had said to Leo... it was every ounce as cruel and steely as the campers of Camp Half-Blood expected of her. And for every time she let each of those cabins paint her as the problem and acted just as they said she would, she hadn't meant any of it in that store. That cruelty, that spite and detest in her tone, even her lips that were all too familiar with her brutal remarks let those words sour on her tongue.

"Leo." Piper placed a hand on the boy's shoulder as Festus whirred beneath them, "You feeling okay?"

"Yeah... not bad for a brainwashed zombie." Leo tries to let out a chuckle, "Thanks for saving us back there, beauty queen. If you hadn't talked me out of that spell-"

"Don't worry about it."

Klein Maddox was extremely worried about it.

"We're gonna have to put down soon. Couple hours, maybe, to make sure Medea isn't following us." Leo clears his throat as the bronze dragon gives another flap of his wings, "I don't think Festus can fly much longer than that."

Piper nodded, "Yeah, Coach Hedge probably wants out of his canary cage, too. Question is - where are we going?"

"The Bay Area." Leo answered, one of the only memories standing out amidst the haze the princess had inflicted upon the group, "Didn't Medea say something about Oakland?"

It's silent for a long moment, and faintly in the back of her head Klein can hear Medea cooing 'well that's where they'll die, isn't it?'.

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

"Look, Medea said you would die in the Bay Area. And, besides... the Bay Area is huge." Piper looked like she's swallowed an entire shaker full of salt, "First, we need to find Aeolus and drop off the storm spirits. Boreas said that Aeolus was the only one who could tell us exactly where to go."

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

"You mean you don't see it?" Jason leaned forward, pointing out to open sky ahead of them. Klein barely turned her head to face him, realizing he was far closer than she expected given his leaning, "Uh... you mean the clouds?"