𝗪𝗔𝗜𝗧 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗠𝗘 ━━ l. valdez

𝐗𝐗𝐈𝐕 ; lucid dreams like electricity (the current flies through me)

title from 'i hate it here' by taylor swifts

౨ৎ･ﾟ:*

I KEPT LOOKING BACK. i half expected to see those nasty sun dragons toting a flying chariot with a screaming magical saleswoman throwing potions,
but nothing followed us.

we flew toward the southwest. eventually, the smoke from the burning department store faded in the distance, but i didn't relax until the suburbs of chicago gave way to snowy fields, and the sun began to set.

"camille." piper patted her shoulder. "you feeling okay?"

"yeah... i'm alright. just happy to be out of that cage." i hoped i didn't look as embarrassed as i felt. "thanks for sticking with me back there."

"of course," piper said. "anyway, we make a good team."

"we do," i agreed.

i thought about what medea had said to me about being a part of two prophecies. that made me think back to boreas and his mention of aphrodite's prophecy. so it turned out everybody knew about said prophecy except for me. it made me kind of annoyed.

also, medea helped put me into the labyrinth. she told her patron (or whatever) and that patron was the one who swallowed me up, or as medea framed it 'buried the problem.'

i thought about the fact that leo was given similar, if not more devastating news as well. i looked at him. he seemed deep in thought as he navigated festus.

"leo." i said with what felt like unnatural sympathy. "are you okay?"

"yeah... not bad for a brainwashed zombie." leo said, but i could hear the confliction in his voice. "thanks for helping save us back there, ghost girl. if you hadn't known that medea cheated death or whatever—"

"don't worry about it," i said. "it was all piper, anyway. and thanks for freeing me from that cage."

"it was seriously no problem," leo said.

"don't make saving my life a habit, valdez, or i'll be indebted to you for the rest of my life."

"there's one way you could repay me," leo said. i could hear from his voice that he was grinning and obviously had something devious planned.

"what is it, bronze brain?"

he didn't give me a verbal response. instead, he took a hand of the reins and tapped his right cheek with his index finger. i understood.

"if we survive all this, i'll think about it."

leo must've been satisfied with that answer because he didn't allocate his usual witty response.

when we had left medea in that exploding store, i felt a little too good. a pulling sensation in my gut told me that medea had died again and was now back in the underworld. i debated telling my friends, but ultimately decided against it. they would think i was a freak.

"we're going to have to put down soon," leo warned us. "couple more hours, maybe, to make sure medea's not following us. i don't think festus can fly much longer than that."

"yeah," piper agreed. "coach hedge probably wants to get out of his canary cage, too. question is—where are we going?"

"the bay area,"  leo  guessed.  "didn't medea say something about oakland?"

i thought back to when medea said that leo and jason would die in the bay area.

"piper's dad," jason put in. "something's happened to your dad, right? he got lured into some kind of trap."

piper let out a shaky breath. "look, medea said you would both die in the bay area. and besides... even if we went there, the bay area is huge! first we need to find aeolus and drop off the storm spirits. boreas said aeolus was the only one who could tell us exactly where to go."