RECLUSE - (n) a person who lives a solitary life and tends to avoid other people.
MAISIE ELLIOT WAS ANGRY.
Angry at the world.
Angry at the Gods.
Angry at the demigods who seemed to move on too fast.
And when forced onto a quest with three stranger...
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MAISIE WAS WARM
Which was uncharacteristic for her. She always seemed cold, but Festus's body seemed to be generating heat. Warming Maisie from the inside out.
She had pulled herself up on top of the dragon, ignoring Leo's outstretched hand, once Festus loosened his grip on her forearms. She refused to speak to any of them, which wasn't a problem since they all seemed to wordlessly agree to ride in silence.
"Shut up, me," Leo said aloud.
"What?" Piper asked.
"Nothing," he said. "Long night. I think I'm hallucinating. It's cool."
Great Maisie thought. The person driving the large bronze death machine was having hallucinations. Perfect.
"Just joking." He changed the subject. "So what's the plan, bro? You said something about catching wind, or breaking wind, or something."
As they flew over New England, Jason laid out their game plan: First, find some guy named Boreas and grill him for information—
"His name is Boreas?" Leo had to interrupt, causing Maisie to roll her eyes. "What is he, the good of Boring?"
"Sharp as a marble, Valdez." Maisie snapped.
Second, Jason continued, they had to find those venti that attacked them at the Grand Canyon—
"Can we just call them storm spirits?" Leo asked. "Venti makes them sound like evil espresso drinks."
Maisie resisted the urge to throw him off the dragon.
And third, Jason finished, they had to find out who the storm spirits worked for, so they could find Hera and free her.
"So you want to look for Dylan, the nasty storm dude, on purpose," Leo said. "The guy who threw me off the skywalk and sucked Coach Hedge into the clouds."
Maisie remembered Coach Hedge from camp. The temperamental satyr who talked about killing everything with his club, and referred to everybody as cupcakes.
"That's about it," Jason said. "Well ... there might be a wolf involved too. But I think she's friendly. She probably won't eat us, unless we show weakness."
Jason told the about his dream— the big nasty mother wolf and a burned-out house with stone spires growing out of the swimming pool.
"Uh-huh," Leo said. "But you don't know where this place is."
"Nope," Jason admitted.
"There's also Giants," Piper added. "The prophecy said the giants' revenge."
"Hold on," Leo blurted out. "Giants— like more than one? Why can't it just be one Giant who wants revenge?"
"I don't think so," Piper said. "I remember in some old Greek stories, there was something about an army of Giants."
"Great," Leo muttered. "Of course, with our luck, it's an army. So you know anything else about these giants? Didn't you do a bunch of research for that movie with your dad?"
"Your dad's an actor?" Jason asked.
Leo laughed. "I keep forgetting about your amnesia. Heh. Forgetting about amnesia. That's funny. But yeah, her dad's Tristian McLean."
Maisie was sure the Aphrodite cabin loved that.
"Uh—sorry what was he in?"
"It doesn't matter," Piper said quickly. "The giants— well, there were lots of giants in Greek mythology. But if I'm thinking about the right ones, they were bad news. Huge, almost impossible to kill. They could throw mountains and stuff. I think they were related to the titans. They rose after Kronos lost the war— I mean the first titan war, thousands of years ago— and they tried to destroy Olympus. If we're talking about the same giants—"
"Chiron said to was happening again," Jason remembered. "The last chapter. That's what he meant. No wonder he didn't want us to know all the details."
Leo whistled. "So ... giants who can throw mountains. Friendly wolves that will eat us if we show weakness. Evil espresso drinks. Gotcha. Maybe this isn't the best time to bring up my psycho babysitter."
"Is that another joke?" Piper asked.
It was not.
Leo told them about Tía Callida, who was really Hera, and how she'd appeared to him at camp. Maisie sensed that he was holding back information, hiding something. But decided against pushing for information. It wasn't any of her business. He also told them about the strange woman in earthen robes who seemed to be asleep, and seemed to know the future.
They had flown over the state of Massachusetts before anybody spoke again.
"That's ... disturbing," Piper said.
"Bout sums it up," Leo agreed. "Thing is, everybody says don't trust Hera. She hates demigods. And the prophecy says we'd cause death if we unleashed her rage. So I'm wondering ... why are we doing this?"
"She chose us," Japan said. "All four of us." He emphasized the four. "We are the first four of the eight who have to gather for this big prophecy. This quest is the beginning of something much bigger."
Great. She had been roped into a big prophecy that would probably end up in death. She was so excited.
"Besides," Jason continued, "helping Hera is the only way I can get my memories back. And that dark spire in my dream seemed to be feeding on Hera's energy. If that thing unleashes a king of the giants by destroying Hera—"
"Not a good trade-off," Piper agreed. "At least Hera is on our side— mostly. Losing her would throw the gods into chaos. She's the main one who keeps the peace in the family. And a war with the giants would be even more destructive than the Titan War."
Maisie silently begged them to stop bringing up the titan war before she did something she would regret.
Jason nodded. "Chiron also talked about worse forces stirring on the solstice, with it being a good time for dark magic, and all — something that could awaken if Hera were sacrificed on that day. And this mistress who's controlling the storm spirits, the one who wants to kill all the demigods—"
"Might that weird sleeping lady," Leo finished. "Dirt woman fully awake? Not something I want to see."
"But who is she?" Jason questioned. "And what does she have to do with the giants?"
All those questions were never answered as they fell back into a comfortable silence. Maisie had noticed Leo shaking in front of her; she planned to call him out, but Piper beat her.
"Why don't you get some sleep, Leo?" Piper spoke from behind Maisie. "You were up all night."
Leo turned to protest, but met the haunting eyes of Maisie. Sleep actually sounded pretty good right now.
