HORIZON ⸺ jason grace

xii. violet tries the newest skincare trend

VIOLET SLUMPED BACK into Jason, exhausted.

"Boys are so stupid," she sighed.

Jason poked her lightly in the side, making her swat his hand away.

Leo steered the dragon toward the southwest. Eventually, the smoke from the burning department store faded in the distance, but nobody relaxed until the suburbs of Chicago gave way to snowy fields, and the sun began to set.

"Good job, Festus." Leo patted the dragon's metal hide. "You did awesome."

The dragon shuddered. Gears popped and clicked in his neck.

"I'll give you a tune-up next time we land," Leo promised. "You've earned some motor oil and Tabasco sauce."

Festus whirled his teeth, but even to Violet, it sounded weak. He flew at a steady pace, his great wings angling to catch the wind, but he was carrying a heavy load. Two cages in his claws plus three people on his back. Even metal dragons had limits.

"Leo." Piper patted his shoulder. "You feeling okay?"

"Yeah... not bad for a brainwashed zombie." He looked embarrassed. "Thanks for saving us back there, beauty queen. If you hadn't talked me out of that spell—"

"Don't worry about it," Piper said.

Violet could tell that Leo was worrying, but she assumed it was probably more to do with the news about his mother than anything else. He quickly changed the conversation.

"We're going to have to put down soon," he warned his friends. "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?" Piper didn't respond for a long time.

"Piper's dad," Violet put in. "Something's happened to your dad, right? He got lured into some kind of trap."

Piper let out a shaky breath, and Violet took her hand in comfort. Piper gave it a thankful squeeze. "Look, Medea said you boys would die in the Bay Area, and some strange things about you, Vi. 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."

Leo grunted. "So how do we find Aeolus?"

Jason leaned forward. "You mean you don't see it?" He pointed ahead of them, but Violet was with Leo. She didn't see anything except clouds and the lights of a few towns glowing in the dusk.

"What?" Leo asked.

"That ... whatever it is," Jason said. "In the air."

Piper and Leo turned around, and Violet made circular motions around her right ear. Leo laughed as Jason huffed.

"Right," Leo said, regaining his composure slightly. "Could you be more specific on the
'whatever-it-is' part?"

"Like a vapor trail," Jason said. "Except it's glowing. Really faint, but it's definitely there. We've been following it since Chicago, so I figured you saw it."

Leo shook his head. "Maybe Festus can sense it. You think Aeolus made it?"

"Well, it's a magic trail in the wind," Jason said. "Aeolus is the wind god. I think he knows we've got prisoners for him. He's telling us where to fly."