REMEMBER ME ---- BOOK I / Heroes of Olympus / Leo Valdez Fanfiction

guys like me, but I don't like them. Heck no one does

☀

IT SEEMED SHE SLEPT ONLY FOR SECONDS, but when Piper shook her awake, the daylight was fading.

when had she fallen asleep again?

"We're here," she said.

She stretched her arms above in the air. Below them, a city sat on a cliff overlooking a river. The plains around it were dusted with snow, but the city itself glowed warmly in the winter sunset. Buildings crowded together inside high walls like a medieval town, way older than any places. The height gave her a little heart attack, but with a human heater in front, she calmed down.

In the center was an actual Disney castle—at least Penelope assumed it was a castle—with massive red brick walls and a square tower with a peaked, green gabled roof. She would not mind sleeping here.

"Tell me that's Quebec and not Santa's workshop," Leo said.

"Yeah, Quebec City," Piper confirmed. "One of the oldest cities in North America. Founded around sixteen hundred or so?"

Leo raised an eyebrow. "Your dad do a movie about that too?"

She made a face at him, which Leo was used to, but it didn't quite work with her new glamorous makeup. "I read sometimes, okay? Just because Aphrodite claimed me, doesn't mean I have to be an airhead."

"Ooooohhhh!" Penelope squealed.

"Feisty!" Leo added. "So you know so much, what's that castle?"

"A hotel, I think."

Leo laughed. "No way."

But as they got closer, Penelope saw Leo was wrong. The grand entrance was bustling with doormen, valets, and porters taking bags. Sleek black luxury cars idled in the drive. People in elegant suits and winter cloaks hurried to get out of the cold.

"The North Wind is staying in a hotel?" Leo said. "That can't be—"

"Heads up, guys," Jason interrupted. "We got company!"

Penelope looked below and saw what Jason meant. Rising from the top of the tower were two winged figures—angels she would never date.

Festus didn't like the angel guys. He swooped to a halt in midair, wings beating and talons bared, and made a rumbling sound in his throat that Penelope recognized. He was getting ready blowtorch angels.

"Steady, boy," Leo muttered. 

"I don't like this," Jason said. "They look like storm spirits."

At first Penelope thought they were dead, but as the angels got closer, she could see they were much more solid than the evil espresso drinks. They looked like regular teenagers except for their icy white hair and feathery purple wings. Their bronze swords were jagged, like icicles. Their faces looked similar enough that they might've been brothers, but they definitely weren't twins.

One was the size of an ox, with a bright red hockey jersey, baggy sweatpants, and black leather cleats. The guy clearly had been in too many fights, because both his eyes were black, and when he bared his teeth, several of them were missing.

The other guy looked like he'd just stepped off one of dad's 1980s rock album covers—Journey, maybe, or Hall & Oates, or something even lamer. His ice-white hair was long and feathered into a mullet. He wore pointy-toed leather shoes, designer pants that were way too tight, and a god-awful silk shirt with the top three buttons open. Maybe he thought he looked like a groovy love god, but the guy couldn't have weighed more than ninety pounds, and he had a bad case of acne.