ONE LAST TIME . . . heroes of olympus

80

KAT REGAINED CONSCIOUSNESS as she was free-falling through the clouds, which was never a good sign. She had a hazy memory of Khione taunting her right before she got shot into the sky. She hadn't actually seen the spoiled brat princess, but she could never forget that snow witch's voice. She had no idea how long she'd been gaining altitude, but at some point she must have passed out from the cold and the lack of oxygen. Now she was on her way down, heading for her biggest crash ever, which was impressive. She's done some very big crashes before. Usually they're not her fault though; read, every time they crashed during the save Hera quest. None of those had been her fault.

The clouds parted around Kat. She saw the glittering sea far, far below. No sign of the Argo II. No sign of any coastline, familiar or otherwise, except for one tiny island at the horizon. Leo was below her, so at least they were together, but he was too below her and her voice didn't want to work.

Kat couldn't fly. She had a couple of minutes at most before she'd hit the water and go ker-splat. Why couldn't Michael have asked for flight? What the fuck.

Well, this wasn't where her bloodline was ending.

She was still clutching Cortana, which was surprising. Or maybe not, since the sword was essentially sentient. That's her sword.

Cortana, Kat thought, please help me not die.

Because her sword was awesome, it started hovering so it was above her head, holding onto it like a gymnast holds onto a bar.

"This is sick, what the fuck?" Kat grinned. "Why didn't I know I could do this earlier? The shenanigans!"

Naturally, before she could think about too hard, an explosion went off under her. Kat closed her eyes and her ears rang, and she wondered what the actual fuck?

When the explosion petered off, Kat opened her eyes and looked below her.

She could faintly see Leo sitting in a bathtub-sized crater in the sand. A few yards away, a column of thick black smoke roiled into the sky from a much larger crater. The surrounding beach was peppered with smaller pieces of burning wreckage.

"Holy shit," Kat said. "Fly down, Cortana!"

As she flew down, she faintly noticed details about her surroundings. The island looked picture perfect — blue water and soft white sand that was just begging for her to relax and swim and shit — but it didn't look like any of the islands that Kat had been to.

The larger crater was about eight feet deep. It was smoking, and Cortana wisely veered away from it. At the bottom, Kat could barely see because of the smoke that it was littered with broken wooden furniture, shattered china plates, some half-melted pewter goblets, and burning linen napkins. She wasn't sure why all that fancy stuff had been on the beach, but at least it meant that this place was inhabited.

Kat landed on the beach and sprinted toward the big crater, which Leo had gotten into, hand covering her nose and mouth due to the smoke. This was the second time in, like, a week. She was so getting lung cancer. "Leo?"

"Kat?" yelled Leo. "You're here too?"

"Unfortunately," said Kat glumly. "I was standing next to you and the stupid ice princess swept us up and away. Never again."

Suddenly, like right behind Kat, a girl's voice yelled angrily: "What are you doing? You blew up my dining table!"

Kat flinched, instinctively turning and pointing her sword toward the voice.

She wore a sleeveless white Greek-style dress with a gold braided belt. Her hair was long, straight, and golden brown — almost the same color of Hazel's hair. The girl's face was milky pale, with dark, almond-shaped eyes and pouty lips. She looked maybe fifteen, about Kat's age, maybe a year younger. And, sure, she was pretty, but that angry expression made it a hell of a lot worse. Though maybe that's because Kat was holding a sword at her. Also, Kat was happily taken.