𝐦𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫. ── 𝐣𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐞

𝐱𝐱𝐱𝐢𝐯. 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐨𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐤𝐬

FLY A HELICOPTER? SURE, WHY NOT. Andy was sure that Leo had done plenty of crazier things that week.

The sun was going down as they flew north over the Richmond Bridge, and Andy couldn't believe the day had gone so quickly. Once again, nothing like ADHD and a good fight to the death to make time fly.

Andy noticed that when Leo was piloting the chopper, he went back and forth between confidence and panic. If he didn't think about it, he found himself automatically flipping the right switches, checking the altimeter, easing back on the stick, and flying straight. If he allowed himself to consider what he was doing, he started freaking out. Andy knew the feeling—how everything she did was always wrong, and it was never good enough.

"Going okay?" Andy asked from the copilot's seat. She was sure that she was more nervous than he was, so she hoped that Leo at least put on a brave face.

"Aces," he said. "So what's the Wolf House?"

Jason knelt between their seats. "An abandoned mansion in the Sonoma Valley. A demigod built it—Jack London."

Leo couldn't place the name. "He an actor?"

"Writer," Piper said, practically sitting on Jason's lap. "Adventure stuff, right? Call of the Wild? White Fang?"

"Yeah," Jason said. "He was a son of Mercury—I mean, Hermes." Andy smirked and shot finger guns at Jason. 

"Ay, that's my bro!" She grinned at Leo, who smiled back.

Jason continued, "He was an adventurer, traveled the world. He was even a hobo for a while. Then he made a fortune writing. He bought a big ranch in the country and decided to build this huge mansion—the Wolf House."

"Named that 'cause he wrote about wolves?" Leo guessed.

"Partially," Jason said. "But the site, and the reason he wrote about wolves—he was dropping hints about his personal experience. There're a lot of holes in his life story—how he was born, who his dad was, why he wandered around so much—stuff you can only explain if you know he was a demigod."

The bay slipped behind them, and the helicopter continued north. Ahead of them, yellow hills rolled out as far as Andy could see.

"So Jack London went to Camp Half-Blood," Leo guessed.

"No," Jason said. "No, he didn't."

"Bro, you're freaking me out with the mysterious talk. Are you remembering your past or not?"

"Pieces," Jason said. "Only pieces. None of it good. The Wolf House is on sacred ground. It's where London started his journey as a child—where he found out he was a demigod. That's why he returned there. He thought he could live there, claim that land, but it wasn't meant for him. The Wolf House was cursed. It burned in a fire a week before he and his wife were supposed to move in. A few years later, London died, and his ashes were buried on the site."

"So," Piper said, "how do you know all this?"

A shadow crossed Jason's face. Probably just a cloud, but Andy could swear the shape looked like an eagle.

"I started my journey there too," Jason said. "It's a powerful place for demigods, a dangerous place. If Gaea can claim it, use its power to entomb Hera on the solstice and raise Porphyrion—that might be enough to awaken the earth goddess fully."

Leo kept his hand on the joystick, guiding the chopper at full speed—racing toward the north. Andy could see some weather ahead—a spot of darkness like a cloudbank or a storm, right where they were going.

Piper's dad had called her a hero earlier. And Andy couldn't believe some of the things she'd done just in the last week—smacking around Cyclopes (part two), fighting hot human reapers, and battling ugly, tall giants. That one had been a first. They seemed like they had happened to another person. She had never once believed that she could have done all those things, but she had, and she'd done much more as well. She and her brother, his girlfriend, and a really awesome satyr. She loved them to death, just as Sally said her mom loved her.

Seeing Piper and her dad back together had really driven that home. Even if Andy survived this quest and saved Hera, Andy wouldn't have any happy reunions. She wouldn't be going back to a loving family—she would be going back to a dead mother, a missing father, and an aunt who tried her best.

The helicopter shuddered. Metal creaked, and Andy got the sudden urge to hold something, and somehow found Leo's arm—among everything that she could have grabbed. She saw Jason's face darken, but Andy had always been afraid of heights—she wasn't letting go till the crazy shaking stopped.

Leo leveled out the chopper, and the creaking stopped. Andy couldn't dwell on her mom, or the idea that kept bugging her—that Gaea was bringing souls back from the Underworld—so why couldn't she make some good come out of it? Thinking like that would drive her crazy. He had a job to do.

"Thirty minutes out," he told his friends, though he wasn't sure how he knew. "If you want to get some rest, now's a good time."

Jason and Piper strapped themselves into the back of the helicopter and passed out almost immediately. Andy and Leo stayed wide-awake.

After a few minutes of awkward silence, Leo said, "We haven't really talked much, you know, since we met..."

Leo glanced over, and Andy was struck by how much he'd changed. Not just physically. His presence was stronger. He seemed more... here. She hadn't really noticed him at Camp Half-Blood, but now he would be impossible to miss. It didn't matter what he was wearing—you'd have to look at him, with all his tousled, curly hair, and newly muscled arms.

"Yeah," she said thoughtfully. "Yeah, I know. I was thinking about Jason. I'm worried about him."

Leo nodded. The closer they got to that bank of dark clouds, the more Andy worried, too. "He's starting to remember. That's got to make him a little edgy."

"But what if ... what if he's a different person?"

Andy was stricken by the thought. If the Mist could affect their memories, could Jason's whole personality be an illusion, too? If their friend wasn't their friend, and they were heading into a cursed mansion—a dangerous place for demigods—what would happen if Jason's full memory came back in the middle of a battle? What would happen to all of them—to the both of them?

"Nah," Leo proclaimed. "After all we've been through? I can't see it. We're a team, all four of us. Jason can handle it."

Andy smoothed her gold dress, which was tattered and burned from their fight on Mount Diablo.

"I hope you're right. I need him..." She cleared her throat. "I mean I need to trust him..."

"I know," Leo said.

"Hey, don't worry," Leo said. "Andy, you're one of the strongest, most powerful demigods I've ever met. You can trust yourself. For what it's worth, you can trust me too."

The helicopter dipped in a wind shear, and Andy almost jumped out of her skin, practically hugging Leo out of fear. Leo cursed and righted the chopper.

Andy laughed nervously. "Trust you, huh?"

"Ah, shut up, already." But he grinned at her, and for a second, it felt like she was just relaxing comfortably with a friend.

Then they hit the storm clouds.