The Blazing Fate

Chapter One

Even before a mystery man landed on the bus and she broke her brother's chariot, Astrid was having a sucky day.

She was woken up with a new message from camp saying: Today is the day. At least, that's all she got from Annabeth during her Iris call. Annabeth had a dream last night telling her to come here later that day. She'd find her answer. She had to look for the boy with the missing shoe. Whatever that meant. Annabeth had been spending the last few days trying to find her boyfriend with no luck. Any dream she had was big news back at camp. Everyone was waiting. Still, Astrid wasn't holding out hope that Percy Jackson was suddenly going to appear at a wilderness school out of nowhere. Especially the school Astrid just so happens to be scouting.

Today, the wilderness school was going on a field trip to the Grand Canyon. Astrid was worrying the whole bus ride. Unable to stay still for even a couple seconds. She hadn't had the chance to talk to Hedge about the extraction squad.

Gleeson Hedge was an... older satyr and not one of Astrid's favorite people. He was undercover as the Coach at the wilderness school and his disguise was... interesting. He had a baseball cap pulled over his head so you could only see his eyes. He had a goatee and a sour expression on his face. A whistle hung around his neck. He was wearing a bright orange shirt, nylon work pants and Nikes that were both spotless white. He had a megaphone attached to his belt, and he would have looked scary, if he weren't five foot zero.

Astrid sat next to Leo Valdez on the bus. He was probably her closest friend at the school. Leo looked like a Latino Santa's elf, with curly black hair, pointy ears, a cheerful, babyish face, and a mischievous smile that told you right away this guy should not be trusted around matches or sharp objects. His long, nimble fingers wouldn't stop moving—drumming on the seat, sweeping his hair behind his ears, fiddling with the buttons of his army fatigue jacket. He had ADHD worse than Astrid had seen in ages. A demigod for sure, though he didn't know yet, son of Hephaestus if Astrid had to guess. She had sniffed him out the second she met him.

In the front of the bus, Hedge shouted, 'All right, cupcakes, listen up!'

When he stood up in the aisle, one of the other students called, 'Stand up, Coach Hedge!'

'I heard that!' Hedge scanned the bus for the offender. His eyes landed on someone behind Astrid and his scowl deepened.

That's when memories slammed so hard into her mind, she thought she might pass out.

Coach cleared his throat. 'We'll arrive in five minutes! Stay with your partner. Don't lose your worksheet. And if any of you precious little cupcakes cause any trouble on this trip, I will personally send you back to campus the hard way.'

He picked up a baseball bat and made it like he was hitting a homer.

'Can he talk to us that way?' came a voice from the back.

Astrid whipped around so fast Leo jumped a little. At the start of this trip Astrid could've sworn Piper McLean was sitting by herself. Piper was... beautiful. She wore faded jeans, hiking boots, and a fleece snowboarding jacket. Her chocolate brown hair was cut choppy and uneven, with thin strands braided down the sides. She wore no makeup like she was trying not to draw attention to herself, but it didn't work. She was seriously pretty. Her eyes seemed to change color like a kaleidoscope—brown, blue, and green. Astrid had no clue who her mother was, but she had a couple guesses.

Next to her now, however, was a guy around their age. Astrid knew everything about him but his name. She couldn't focus enough on any of the memories she suddenly had. She knows Piper used to complain to her all the time about how dense the boy is. She knows she and Leo would hang out after Piper and the guy finally got together. Everything from the past couple of months was altered. Can the Mist do that? Astrid didn't know. She just knew something was going to happen today. Something big.