You'll Learn to Love Me (Leo Valdez x OC)

Chapter 16: Time to Entertain a Giant

Laylana woke with a start to what looked like rocks pelting the windshield. Then she realized it was sleet. Frost built up around the edges of the glass, and slushy waves of ice blotted out their view.

"An ice storm?" Piper shouted over the engine and the wind. "Is it supposed to be this cold in Sonoma?"

"Nope!" Laylana cursed, quickly unbuckling herself and grabbing onto the seats for balance as she and Jason crawled up to their friends. 

"We've got to be getting close." Jason yelled over the loud sounds. 

Leo was too busy wrestling with the stick to reply. They had begun to lose altitude, and it was becoming a very rocky ride. Laylana didn't want to waste energy shadow-traveling again, but she prepared herself in case she had to. Jason seemed to read her mind and already had his hand on her shoulder. Below them, the ground was a dark quilt of trees and fog. The ridge of a hill loomed in front of them and Leo yanked the stick, just clearing the treetops.

"There!" Jason shouted.

A small valley opened up before them, with the murky shape of a building in the middle. Leo aimed the helicopter straight for it. All around them were flashes of light. Trees cracked and exploded at the edges of the clearing. Shapes moved through the mist. Combat seemed to be everywhere.

"Holy shit, we're going into a war ground." Laylana breathed out. 

Leo set down the helicopter in an icy field about fifty yards from the house and killed the engine. Before they could relax, both Leo and Laylana heard a whistling sound and saw a dark shape hurtling toward them out of the mist.

"Out!" Leo screamed.

They all dove from the helicopter and barely cleared the rotors before a massive BOOM shook the ground, knocking Laylana off her feet and splattering ice all over her and the others. She sprung to her feet, rushing over to the others to help them up before drawing her dagger. A large chunk of snow, ice and dirt had completely flattened their helicopter.

"You all right?" Jason asked, Piper at his side. They both looked fine except for being speckled with snow and mud.

"Yeah." Leo shivered. "Guess we owe that ranger lady a new helicopter."

"Yeah, that's not happening." Laylana looked around her. There were sounds coming from everywhere, and she couldn't see anything with the snow and ice pelting against her.

Piper pointed south. "Fighting's over there." Then she frowned. "No... it's all around us."

Behind them loomed Jack London's dream home—a massive ruin of red and gray stones and rough-hewn timber beams. It was massive, and run down. Laylana could imagine it would look that way after so many years.

"Jason!" a girl's voice called. Thalia appeared from the fog, her parka caked with snow. Her bow was in her hand, and her quiver was almost empty. She ran toward them, but made it only a few steps before a six-armed ogre—one of the Earthborn—burst out of the storm behind her, a raised club in each hand.

"Look out!" Leo yelled. Laylana ran closer, getting reader to throw her dagger at the monster  but Thalia had it under control. She launched herself into a flip, notching an arrow as she pivoted like a gymnast and landed in a kneeling position. The ogre got a silver arrow right between the eyes and melted into a pile of clay. Thalia stood and retrieved her arrow, but the point had snapped off.

"That was my last one." She kicked the pile of clay resentfully. "Stupid ogre."

"Nice shot, though," Leo said.

Thalia ignored him as usual. She hugged Jason, then Laylana and nodded to Piper. "Just in time. My Hunters are holding a perimeter around the mansion, but we'll be overrun any minute."