𝗪𝗔𝗜𝗧 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗠𝗘 ━━ l. valdez

vii ━━ none of it is changing, the chariot is waiting

01. chapter seven

━━━━━━━━ ( 💫 ) ━━━━━━━━

𝐈 𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐎𝐃 𝐈𝐍 back of the chariot with leo, piper, and jason, while the bald guy, butch, handled the reinstall, and the blond girl, annabeth, adjusted a bronze navigation device. we rose over the grand canyon and headed east, icy wind ripping straight through my parka. behind us, more storm clouds were gathering.

the chariot lurched and bumped. it had no seat belts and the back was wide open.

i prayed quietly in greek as we flew, my hand clutching my greek cross pendant. i asked for protection for my friends and i. whatever was going on, i knew god was the only one that could save us now.

leo was being annoying, as usual. "this is so cool!" he spit a pegasus feather out of his mouth. "where are we going?"

"a safe place," annabeth said. "the only safe place for kids like us. camp half-blood."

i didn't ask questions. i didn't know if camp half-blood was some well-known place nowadays. i didn't want to risk raising alarm about my past just to get thrown off the chariot.

"half-blood?" piper asked, reassuring me. "is that some kind of bad joke?"

"she means we're demigods," jason said. "half god, half mortal."

annabeth looked back. "you seem to know a lot, jason. but, yes, demigods. my mom is athena, goddess of wisdom. butch here is the son of iris, the rainbow goddess."

leo choked. "your mom is a rainbow goddess?"

"got a problem with that?" butch said.

"no, no," leo said. "rainbows. very macho."

"butch is our best equestrian," annabeth said. "he gets along great with the pegasi."

"rainbows, ponies," leo muttered.

"i'm gonna toss you off this chariot," butch warned.

what annabeth was saying made no sense. i was greek, yes, most definitely, but god? no. i knew there was only one god. those other gods were ancient myths.

"demigods," i said. "you mean you think you're... you think we're—"

lightning flashed. the chariot shuddered, and jason yelled, "left wheel's on fire!"

i stepped back. sure enough, the wheel was burning, white flames lapping up the side of the chariot.

the wind roared. i glanced behind us and saw dark shapes forming in the clouds, more storm spirits spiraling toward the chariot—except these looked more like horses than angels.

i started to say, "why are they—"

"anemoi come in different shapes," annabeth said. "sometimes human, sometimes stallions, depending on how chaotic they are. hold on. this is going to get rough."

butch flicked the reins. the pegasi put on a burst of speed, and the chariot blurred. my stomach crawled into my throat. my vision went black, and when it came back to normal, we were in a totally different place.

a cold gray ocean stretched out to the left. snow-covered fields, roads, and forests spread to the right. directly below us was a green valley, like an island of springtime, rimmed with snowy hills on three sides and water to the north. i saw a cluster of buildings like ancient greek temples, a big blue mansion, ball courts, a lake, and a climbing wall that seemed to be on fire. but before i could really process all i was seeing, our wheels came off and the chariot dropped out of the sky.