𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝔾𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕥 𝕎𝕒𝕣||HoO

𝐈𝐈𝐈

THE STORM had churned itself into a tiny hurricane that only covered the skywalk. Storm clouds reached down like tentacles reaching for the kids down below. The wind carried notebooks, jackets, and hats away, including Maisie's yellow beanie.

Maisie almost slipped as  she ran toward the doors, once again wishing she had a weapon on her. Dylan and Piper were holding open the doors, while everyone else ran inside. The only problem was, Maisie, Jason, Leo, and Coach Hedge weren't moving. They were trying to run inside  like everyone else, but the wind seemed to be stopping them.

Grace ran inside, then Dylan and Piper lost their grip on the doors and they slammed shut, trapping the rest of them outside.

Piper tugged on the handles, trying to open the doors while kids inside pounded on the glass, but the doors were stuck.

"Dylan, help!" she shouted.

Dylan just stood there, Cowboys jersey rippling in the wind, with an idiotic grin on his face, as if he were enjoying the storm.

"Sorry, Piper," he said. "I'm done helping."

He flicked his wrist, and Piper flew into the doors, sliding down and landing on the deck of the skywalk. Maisie then realized why she had gotten a bad feeling about him earlier: Dylan was a monster. An Amemoi, or storm spirt, if Maisie's instincts were correct.

"Piper!" Jason shouted, and tried to charge Dylan, but between Coach Hedge holding him back and the wind he didn't make it very far. He said something to the coach that Maisie couldn't hear over the wind.

"Jason, Leo, stay behind me," the Coach shouted over the wind, then looked over at Maisie. "You got a weapon?"

Maisie shook her head.

"Well, then you stay behind me too," Hedge ordered. "This is my fight. I should have known that was our monster."

"What?" Leo demanded. A worksheet flew into his face, but he quickly swatted it away. "What monster?"

Coach Hedge's had blew off, revealing his horns that stuck up out of his hair. The coach raised his club, preparing to fight Dylan. Maisie wished she could help more, but without a weapon she wouldn't do much good.

Dylan gave him a psychotic smile, "Oh, come on, Coach. Let the boy attack me! After all, you're getting too old for this. Isn't that why they retired you to this stupid school? I've been on you're team the entire season, and you didn't even know. You're loosing your nose, grandpa."

Coach Hedge bleated angrily, "That's it, cupcake. You're going down.

"You think you can protect four half-bloods at once, old man?" Dylan laughed. "Good luck."

Dylan pointed a finger in Leo's direction, but Maisie jumped in front of him. She wished she hadn't. Both of them were caught in a funnel cloud and thrown off the edge of the skywalk. Maisie grabbed Leo's arm, and twisted herself out of the cloud, taking the other boy with her. They were now free falling, which it wasn't Maisie's first time. The only problem was Lina wasn't here to catch her.

Maisie reached out, grabbing onto the edge of the canyon, trying to find a handhold.  Most of them broke under the weight of both her and Leo, but she managed to find one. Her hand screamed at her, protesting that it wasn't strong enough to hold both her and Leo.

Leo let go, grabbing onto two small holds on the side of the canyon. Maisie reach up, distributing her weight between both of her hands. That's when she noticed the bright red liquid trailing down her arm and her stomach seemed to drop right out of her stomach and down to the bottom of the canyon. There was nothing Maisie hated more than blood, especially her own.

The sound of lightning crashing brought Maisie out of her trance and she tore her gaze away from her blood soaked hand. She noticed Coach Hedge reaching a hand out to her, and she took it with her uninjured hand. He pulled her up, then hoisted Leo up onto the ledge with her.

"I can only carry one of you up at a time-" the coach began.

"Take Leo," Maisie cut him off. "I'll be fine."

Hedge nodded, then hoisted Leo over his shoulder and began climbing up the ledge again. While the coach took him up, Maisie looked around for something to bandage her hand with. A few feet above her, someone's sweatshirt had caught on a thorny bush. Maisie reached up and grabbed it, ripping off a strip and wrapping it around her hand. It was nowhere near as good as her twin brother, Will, could do, but Maisie didn't really get the healing gene from Apollo.

Within a minute, Coach Hedge was back to get her. She climbed up onto his back and he carried her up to the skywalk, where Jason was fighting the Anemoi with a golden sword. He swiped at one of the storm spirits, and it completely disintegrated into golden dust. The other sent a bold of lightning at him, which he blocked with his blade, which absorbed the charge. He thrust the blade at the spirt and it also disintegrated.

Maisie's jaw dropped. Jason had fought better than some demigods that Maisie had seen at camp - like he had been training for years.

Dylan wailed in outrage, looking at the golden dust that had been the other Anemoi as it blew away in the wind, "Impossible! Who are you, half-blood?"

Maisie couldn't help but wonder the same thing. She had never seen Jason at camp, and yet he could fight like he had been doing it for years.

"Jason, how...?" Piper trailed off, dropping Coach Hedge's club which she had been using to fight the storm spirits.

Coach Hedge dropped Maisie next to Leo on the skywalk, and flexed his arms, "Spirits, fear me!"

He looked around and realized Dylan was the only spirit left to fight, "Curse it, boy! Didn't you leave some for me? I like a challenge!"

Leo stood up, breathing heavily, "Yo, Coach Supergoat, whatever you are - Maisie and I just fell down the freaking Grand Canyon! Stop asking for challenges!"

Dylan hissed, bringing the attention back to him, "You have no idea how many enemies you have awakened, half-bloods. My mistress will destroy all demigods! This war you cannot win!"

Above them, the storm exploded into a full force gale. Cracks expanded in the sidewalk. Sheets of rain poured down from the sky, and Maisie had to squint to see through it.

A hole in the clouds opened up - a swirling black and silver vortex.

"The mistress calls me back!" Dylan shouted with glee. "And you, demigod, will come with me!"

He lunged for Jason, but Piper tackled the monster from behind. Even though he was  made of smoke, Piper somehow managed to connect. Both of them went sprawling. Leo, Jason, Maisie, and the coach all went to help, but the spirit screamed with rage. He let loose a gust of wind that nocked them all backwards. Jason and Coach Hedge landed on their butts. Maisie flew into the glass wall keeping them from falling into the canyon, and cut her hand of a shard of glass, further injuring her hand. Leo hit the side of his head and curled over, dazed and groaning. But Piper was the one who got the worst of it. She was thrown off Dylan's back and over the railing, and just barely managed to keep herself from falling off the edge.

Jason got up and started to make his way towards her, but Dylan screamed, "I'll settle for this one! Mistress will be pleased with the fallen war hero!"

He grabbed Maisie's arm, who was too dazed from seeing her blood soaked hand to fight at first. He picked her up, flying into the sky, the storm seeming to pull them up.

Maisie, now out of her trance, struggled, trying to break free, and Dylan hid her over the head, knocking her out. The world seemed to blur around Maisie as she fell unconscious. She vaguely heard someone loudly shouting, before the world went black.