𝐦𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫. ── 𝐣𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐞

𝐱𝐢𝐱. 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐞

JASON POV

THEY SPIRALED THROUGH THE DARK in a free fall, still on the dragon's back, but Festus's hide was cold. His ruby eyes were dim.

"Not again!" Leo yelled. "You can't fall again!"

Jason could barely hold on. He saw the lights of a city below them—just flashes in the dark as they plummeted in circles. They had only seconds before they crashed.

"Jason!" Leo screamed. "Take Aella and Piper and fly out of here!"

Piper seemed on the verge of tears. "I'm not leaving without you, Leo!"

"Just go Piper! Jason, you have to leave!"

"What?" Jason froze. "You can't—"

"We need to lighten the load! I might be able to reboot Festus, but he's carrying too much weight! Pipes, you have to go!"

"What about you?" Piper cried. "If you can't reboot him—"

"I'll be fine," Leo yelled. "Just follow me to the ground. Go!"

Jason grabbed Aella gently around the waist, her long brown hair whipping around in the quick winds. She gripped his hands with an iron tight grip, and her palms were clammy.  

Piper stood on the edge of the saddle, grabbing Jason's hand just in time before they all tumbled through the air. Jason quickly caught them, but he couldn't sustain their being in the air for long before—they tumbled.

Jason turned to Aella. "What do you want to do? I mean—"

Piper chimed in. "We have to find a place to land. I don't think I see anywhere we could..."

"There! Jace!" Aella pointed to a large mansion with sprawling greenery. "I don't think you'd mind if we pissed off some random Nebraskan billionaire, over our lives, at least."

She chewed on her lip and looked to face him, her face slowly inching closer to Jason's. He didn't think that he had ever felt this anxious before he lost his memory either. He was obviously a deep shade of crimson, but Aella seemed unbothered.

"You have to drop me." 

He shook his head, and gaped. "What?"

"You're not Hercules, Jason," she sighed. "You have to drop me."

"Are you crazy? You're the— you're not a goddess!"

She rolled her eyes. "Fine. If you won't do it—" Aella wrenched herself from Jason's grasp and plummeted into a free fall.

Jason (and Piper, who was holding on for dear life) dove after her, yelling obscenities Aella would be proud of.

"Are you fucking crazy?" He yelled into the wind. Aella responded with a shrug, and began to circle her legs in a swimming-like motion, creating large gusts of air sparking with blue lightning, cushioning her from falling.

She slowly stopped and plopped on the ground with a thud. "Oomph!"

Jason, in contrast, glided down slowly with Piper, and promptly ran to Aella. "What. Were. You. Thinking? You could've died! Honestly I can't even begin to express how disappointed—"

"Live a little, mom. Nothing happened to me anyway!" Aella chuckled, but Jason's eyes remained stormy. He couldn't let anyone he was close to get hurt—especially if it was his fault. He could have caught her. If she had gotten hurt—he didn't even want to think about it.

But another scream from the sky interrupted his thoughts. Leo, he immediately thought. Ellie and Piper were already by his side.

He woke up writhing in pain.