LOVE THE WAY YOU LIE . . . hoo

XVIII.

MIA WAS RELIEVED when the wheels fell off.

It was not a fun ride. The horse seemed to bend time and space as he ran, blurring the landscape and making her feel like she'd just seen someone familiar from her old life that wasn't Nico or Sophia. Ella didn't help matters. She kept muttering: "Seven hundred and fifty miles per hour. Eight hundred. Eight hundred and three. Fast. Very fast." Frank agreed with Mia, who deduced this because he'd thrown up twice. Mia half-blamed him, because she would've too, but it was still disgusting. Damn that grilled salmon sandwich that she'd had in Seattle.

The horse sped north across Puget Sound, zooming past islands and fishing boats and very surprised pods of whales. He rocketed onto dry land. He followed Highway 99 north, running so fast, the cars seemed to be standing still.

Finally, after far too much time, the chariot wheels began to smoke.

"Hazel!" Mia yelled. "We're breaking up!"

She got the message and pulled the reins. The horse didn't seem happy about it, but he slowed to subsonic as they zipped through the city streets. They crossed the Ironworkers bridge into North Vancouver, and the chariot started to rattle dangerously. At last Arion stopped at the top of a wooded hill. He snorted with satisfaction, as if to say, That's how we run, fools. The smoking chariot collapsed, spilling Mia, Percy, Frank, and Ella onto the wet, mossy ground.

Mia let herself lay on the ground, before she realized that the ground was wet and yelped, getting up way too quick, extending her arms to balance herself. She tried to blink the yellow spots out of her eyes. Next to her, Frank stumbled to his feet. Percy groaned and started unhitching Arion from the ruined chariot. Ella fluttered around in dizzy circles, bonking into the trees and muttering, "Tree. Tree. Tree."

Only Hazel seemed unaffected by the ride. Grinning with pleasure, she slid off the horse's back. "That was fun!"

"Yeah." Frank choked out, his face green. "So much fun."

Arion whinnied.

"He says he needs to eat," Percy translated. "No wonder. He probably burned about six million calories."

Hazel studied the ground at her feet and frowned. "I'm not sensing any gold around here . . . Don't worry, Arion. I'll find you some. In the meantime, why don't you go graze? We'll meet you—"

The horse zipped off, leaving a trail of steam in his wake.

Hazel knit her eyebrows. "Do you think he'll come back?"

"I don't know," Mia said. "He seems kind of . . . spirited."

Hazel and Percy started salvaging supplies from the chariot wreckage. There had been a few boxes of random Amazon merchandise in the front, and Ella shrieked with delight when she found a shipment of books. She snatched up a copy of The Birds of North America, fluttered to the nearest branch, and began scratching through the pages as fast as she'd devoured Mia's book that she'd given her.

Frank leaned against a tree, trying to control his vertigo. Mia glanced around as she searched in her backpack for some nectar to down. The downtown skyline gleamed red in the sunset. To the north, hills and rain forests snaked between parts of land that gave away to forests. She found some nectar and dropped a little in her mouth, before offering it to Frank.

He took it, having some sips before giving her water bottle back to her. "I'm practically home," he said. "My grandmother's house is right over there."

Hazel squinted. "How far?"

"Just over the river and through the woods."

Mia snorted. "Seriously? To Grandmother's house we go?"

Frank cleared his throat. "Yeah, anyway."