The Poseidon Girls

Chapter 14 ~ Chicago (CASS)

"Speed up!" Jason urged. My eyes were squeezed shut with nerves. Also, how much longer could we stay in Festus without Zeus sending us off him? With two children of Poseidon, and one child of Hades, it surely wouldn't take long for him to blast us off Leo's dragon. On the plus side, I didn't have to try hide my crush from Leo anymore! He knows I like him, and I know he likes me. But, when should we tell the others that Leo and I are together?
"Bro, if I get any closer, he'll spot us." Leo argued. "Bronze dragon ain't exactly a stealth plane."
"Slow down!" Piper yelped. I felt Festus pull up.
"Get above the buildings," Jason suggested. "We'll track him from there."
"You want to drive this thing?" Leo grumbled. I decided to risk opening my eyes. I peered at the storm spirit we were tracking. It was zooming through trees, while blowing over pedestrians, ruffling flags, and causing cars to swerve.
"Oh, great," Piper groaned. "There're two." She was right. A second storm spirit blasted around the corner of the Renaissance Hotel and linked up with the first. They wove together, shooting to the top of a skyscraper, bending a radio tower, and diving back down towards the street.
"Those guys do not need any more caffeine." Leo declared.
"I guess Chicago's a good place to hang out," Piper said. "Nobody's going to question a few more evil winds."
"More than a couple," Jason corrected. "Look." Festus circled over a wide avenue next to a park by a lake. Storm spirits were grouping together - at least a dozen of them, whirling around a public art installation.
"Which one do you think is Dylan?" Leo asked. "I wanna throw something at him."
"Who's Dylan?" Katherine asked us.
"He's a storm spirit who disguised himself as a mortal in our school and then tried to kill us." Coral explained casually, making it sound like that happened every day to demigods.
"Uh, he's a what?"
"Storm spirit. They're kind of like evil storm clouds, I guess. They either look like people or horses, depending on how violent they are. Or something like that, anyway." I turned my focus back to the art installation. Two five-storey high monoliths rose from the art either end of a long reflecting pool made from granite. The monoliths appeared to be built from video screens, and, combined, they flashed an image of a giant face spewing water into the pool. As I watched, the face on the screens changed to a woman's sleeping face - the same face Leo and I saw at Detroit.
"Leo..." Jason and I said nervously.
"I see her," Leo told us. "I don't like her, but I see her." Then, the screens went dark. The storm spirits swirled together into a single funnel, and skittered across the fountain, kicking up a spout of water almost the height of the monoliths. The arrived at the centre, popped off a drain cover, and vanished underground.
"Did they just go down a drain?" Piper asked.
"Sure looks like it..." Coral didn't seem to happy about where the storm spirits went.
"How are supposed to follow them?"
"Maybe we shouldn't," Leo reasoned. "That fountain thing is giving me seriously bad vibes. And aren't we supposed to, like, beware the earth?" I couldn't help but agree with Leo, but I also had a feeling that something powerful waited for us down where the storm spirits went. Besides, I was pretty sure that following that following the storm spirits was the only way we could go forwards - we couldn't just call up Iron Man, Thor, or the TARDIS. We absolutely had to find Hera, and now the solstice was just two days away. If we didn't follow the storm spirits, we'd be shucked.
"Put us down in that park," Jason suggested. "We'll check it out on foot."

Festus landed in an open area between the lake and the skyline. The signs declared that we were in Grant Park, and it seemed like it would be a nice place in the summer, but in winter, it was a field of ice, snow, and salted walkways. The dragon's hot metal feet hissed as they touched down. Festus flapped his wings unhappily, and shot fire into the sky, but thankfully, there was nobody around to notice. The Mist would cover it up anyway. But to what? A crow cawing? A raven cawing? Who knows. I know if I told Coral the bird possibilities, she'd want it to be a raven. She knows a girl called Erin Taylor who grew up in England, and Erin loves the TV show Raven. So Coral jumped on to YouTube on her family computer (which her mum didn't seem too happy with Coral doing, but Coral is that kind of teenager who has trouble surviving without electronics. Nothing seems to happen when she's on her phone, though), and searched up 'Raven CBBC'. She became obsessed with Raven after the very first episode she saw. The wind blowing at us off the lake was icy cold. Anyone who had any sense with any sense, so no Mortals would even need to see a crow or raven. I could barely see because of how much the wind was stinging my eyes. We all dismounted, and Festus stomped his feet. One of his rub eyes flickered, so it looked as though he was winking.
"Is that normal?" Jason asked. Leo produced a rubber mallet from his tool belt, and whacked Festus's bad eye, and the light returned to normal.
"Yes," he replied. "Festus can't hang around here, though, in the middle of the park. They'll arrest him for loitering. Maybe if I had a dog whistle..." He rummaged around in his tool belt, but came out with nothing. "Too specialised?" He guessed. "Okay, give me a safety whistle. They got that in lots of machine shops." This time, Leo pulled out a large, orange, plastic whistle. "Coach Hedge would be jealous! Okay, Festus, listen." Leo blew the whistle. I'm pretty sure the shrill sound rolled all the way across Lake Michigan. "You hear that, come find me, okay? Until then, you fly wherever you want. Just try not to barbecue any pedestrians." The dragon snorted, hopefully in agreement, before spreading his wings, and launching into the cold air. Piper only took one step forward before crying out in pain.
"Ah!"
"Your foot?" Jason asked. Oh, nuts, in all the rush and excitement of Leo asking me out, I'd forgotten Piper's foot injury! What sort of friend did that? "That nectar we gave you must be wearing off."
"It's fine." Piper shivered in the cold. Coral handed her a hoodie from one of her old schools that read 'Cultural Crew'. "Thanks." Piper smiled, pulling Coral's cultural hoodie on. The next few steps she took with only a slight limp, but it was clear that the daughter of Aphrodite was trying her hardest not to grimace.
"Let's get out of this wind, guys." Katherine suggested.
"Down a drain?" Piper shuddered. "Sounds cozy." We wrapped ourselves up as best as we could (yes, Coral still had a jumper, she had a Manly hoodie that she was already wearing), and headed towards the fountain.