Heroes of Olympus: The Blood of Them All (Book 2)

A Familiar Fire

Chapter 9A Familiar Fire

PercyThe GPS showed a dark blink red X, which using my few brain cells, told me that we should probably go there. Hazel was talking to Festus, something about finding Leo soon, while stroking his smooth bronze head. I desperately wanted to get back to Annabeth, go and see how Lauren was doing, I had just kind of ditched her. But there was no way that I was going to force Hazel to take the wheel when it makes her seasick.     I turned the ship around towards the red X and sailed forward at a good 45 knots steady. The air flew past. Knowing that our target must be in the water, I pushed a lever that would dip the ship down, towards the water.     "Hang on to Festus, I've never landed this thing." I glanced over at Hazel, she nodded. I could tell just how grateful she was for myself taking the wheel. She wrapped her arms around Festus's neck. 200 yards to the surface, 100, 50, 20, 10. The landing wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it was. I quickly switched the lever off and continued to sail forward. The water propelled us forward, more than willing to help this son of Poseidon. "I think you can let go, now." I told Hazel.     Her eyes were squeezed closed, like someone was about to slap her in the face. When she heard me she opened her eyes and nodded, her face a little green. "Thanks for warning me, Percy."     "No problem." Leo worked like a mad man at the helm, typically he wouldn't give you warnings that we were coming down hard into the waves, or started tinkering with the ship's alarm systems.     The sea was blue, dark emerald sort of blue. It smelled salty with a brisk, sharp breeze that stirred the deep waters. But that wasn't what had my attention. Just along the horizon there was a bright orange blaze. At first I thought my eyes were messed up, but the closer we got the more distinct the orange blob become.     "Do you-?"    "See that? Yeah, I do." I got a really bad sinking feeling in my gut. I don't know why, and I would never completely understand why, but I knew there was something horribly, horribly, wrong. I made the ship move faster and the specks on the horizon grew bigger and more clear.     "Is that...?" I squinted, I saw something floating, something wooden, it looked like a miniature Argo II, something alarmingly familiar about it...Leo's other boat. The one he used to leave Camp Half-Blood with Autumn and Emma.     "They're here!" Just past it was a flaming island. The island was burning sending up flames high into the sky, as tall as skyscrapers. The Argo coasted next to Leo's ship. I waved at the deck, and after a few seconds, a wave returned mine.         Autumn peered over the deck, but her face looked terrified. Something about the burning island...something was familiar. The white beaches, the burning jungle, something itching in the back of my skull. There was a splash and suddenly Leo was swimming as fast as possible to the shore of the burning island.     His hair was soaked to the sides of his face, and his face looked shocked and scared. Almost...mourning. Having a feeling that his swim to shore was vital and very urgent, I helped him, commanding the waves to push him up the shore quickly. He ran into the flames, his clothes not catching fire.     Sometimes I forget that he's fire-proof. I turned to Hazel, "Should we go help him?" Hazel paused. The same look of shock and terror was over her face,     "This is where she lives." She murmured, I barely heard her.     "Who?" She looked at me, her eyes welling with tears,     "The only girl for Leo. Calypso." The words hit my chest like punches. Like the air had been knocked out of me I gasped. The girl who I said I come back for, the  girl on the island, she gave me the flowers, the flowers in my mother's flower box. The kind beautiful girl, who helped me, and I had forgotten about her. Guilt washed over me, giving me chills, making my hands clammy.     "Calypso?" Hazel nodded.     "Do you know her?" I didn't answer, I didn't know what to say. Before I knew what I was doing, my hands had wrapped around the railing and I threw myself overboard. The water crashed in my ears. Along with the words of the girl I had forgotten: I will never visit this Manhattan of yours. Or anywhere else. I am alone here. And now her island was burning, her birthplace to ashes, along with Calypso herself.     Oh Leo.     I launched myself onto the beach, I could hear Hazel yelling from the deck, along with another feminine voice, probably Annabeth. Taking a deep breath of air and creating a water shield around myself, I threw myself into the flames.     The heat was intense, and light and darkness danced on the inside of my eyelids. My eyes burned and forced my eyes open, the water shield was doing okay against the flames, but the heat still affected me, enough to peel the skin off of a normal person. Of course, none of us are normal.     I could hear screaming, loud, heart broken screaming. Was it Leo or Calypso's scream? Either way, it might have a really bad outcome. I couldn't see, the fire raged all around me. My eyebrows felt like they were burning, but I kept running, trying to follow the path that Leo took.     "Leo!" I shouted. I regretted it, I didn't have a lot of air, and the smoke and fire was pretty much all I had to breath in. Then I thought of something. Water. Water has air in it, right? I tried to think of summoning the bubbles like I had underwater, then took a breath in. Fresh air flooded my lungs and I could breathe. "Leo!" I shouted again. The screaming was getting louder. I ran faster, I was afraid that my sneakers would burst into flame at this rate, but I would make it there. I wouldn't let them die.      Suddenly the fire disappeared, flying up farther in the sky like someone had parted the sea of flame. Leo knelt in the middle of the plain, kneeling over a body. Oh please be alive. I walked over, not sure what to say. Did Leo know, about Calypso and I? Did Calypso remember?     Sure enough it was Calypso, her blonde hair messily braided, and her eyes closed. I held my breath until I realized that her chest was moving. She was breathing. She was alive. Her right arm and her right side were all burned really badly, bloody char covering her right side. Leo propped her up, resting her head in his lap.     "Calypso." Leo murmured, his voice shaking. Calypso's eyes struggled to open.     "Leo?" she coughed, "Is it you?"     "Yeah," Leo made a strange sad laugh, "I made it, after all, this piece of scrap might come on time every once and a while." Calypso's eyes welled up, and she started to cry. But her eyes wandered from his face to mine,     "Percy." she whispered, barely audible. I didn't know what to say, so I just said,     "Hey." Calypso's eyes went wide, her eyes suddenly terrified,     "L-Leo, look, there's-" She pointed just past him. Leo turned around, as did I, and saw 3 gigantic fire monsters emerge. Clothed in flame, flares and sparks flying off of them, they pointed at Leo.     The Earth Mother sends for you. The monsters said. Leo was suddenly on his feet, his legs and arms spread out to protect Calypso.     "You won't touch her." His voice was different, more solemn and more terrifying than I have ever heard. For once, be said it seriously. He really did love her. That was why he had been acting weird since he had come back.     We will leave the girl if you come with us peacefully. You have until the count of 3. 1...the monsters threatened, coming into an offensive position, ready to jump on us. 2...one of the monsters grinned, something wasn't right here 3! The monsters didn't move. But there was a shrieking noise and something and someone burst from the flames.     Hazel's hair was on fire, her face feral, she looked to Calypso and saw the thing that had shrieked. Another bigger, stronger fire monster was throwing itself at Calypso."CALYPSO!!!" Leo screamed. In a split seconds Hazel's eyes opened wide but then narrowed in determination. She had made a decision. "HAZEL NO!!!" She didn't even look at me. She threw herself at Calypso, grabbing her in a hug, just before the monster could touch Calypso.     But just as the monster's hand reached to burn Hazel's back, Hazel and Calypso exploded. Black jagged rock like obsidian expanded from Hazel like giant stone wings. Bigger than the monster, they wrapped around Hazel and Calypso, protecting them from the fire, the rock hardened with an audible crunch, covering my friends in shining black stone like a huge stone casket. Upon touching them, the monster exploded as well into smaller flames that flew into the sky like beacons. As if on cue, the other monster exploded in a bang like a hundred guns firing all at the same time.     Just like that, my friends were gone.