𝕺𝖕𝖕𝖔𝖘𝖎𝖙𝖊𝖘 𝕬𝖙𝖙𝖗𝖆𝖈𝖙 - 𝕱𝖊𝖒𝕺𝕮 𝖃 𝕷𝖊𝖔 𝖁𝖆𝖑𝖉𝖊𝖟

Kiera

I was afraid we'd lose our target. The wind spirit moved like. . .well, the wind.

"Speed up!" Jason urged from behind me.

"Bro," Leo said. "If I get any closer, he'll spot us. Bronze dragon ain't exactly a stealth plane."

"Slow down!" Piper yelped as a bird almost hit her.

I was grinning like a maniac and holding onto Festus's horns.

The storm spirit five into the grid of downtown streets. Festus tried to follow, but his wingspan was too wide. His left wing clipped the edge of a building, slicing off a stone gargoyle before Leo pulled up.

"Get above the buildings," I said. "I can track him from there."

"You want to drive this thing?" Leo grumbled, but he did as I asked.

After a few minutes I could feel the chaos energy from the monster, zipping through the streets with no apparent purpose—blowing over pedestrians, ruffling flags, making cars swerve. A fun guy, basically.

"Oh great," Piper said. "There's 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 in a chaotic dance, shooting to the top of a skyscraper, bending a radio tower, and diving back down toward the street.

"Those guys do not  need anymore caffeine," Leo said.

"Yet you drink some," I laughed.

He poked my side, but he was smiling.

"I guess Chicago's a good place to hang out," Piper said. "Nobody's going to question a couple more evil winds."

"More than a couple," Jason said. "Look."

My dragon circled over a wide avenue next to a lake-side park. Storm spirits were converging—at least a dozen of them, whirling around a big public art installation.

"Which one do you think is Dylan?" Leo asked. "I wanna throw something at him."

"I've got. . ." I searched through my bag. "A can of beans—what the fuck? Why is that in here? Uh. . .oh! I've got a transportable weight!"

"Why the hell do you have a transportable weight, and a can of beans?" Leo asked.

I shrugged. "Normal demigods can't hold my weapons, so they need something to throw."

Leo palmed the can of beans, dropping it into his tool belt.

I focused on the art installation. The closer we got to it, the faster my heart beat. It was just a public fountain, but it was unpleasantly familiar. Two five-story monoliths rose from either end of a long granite reflecting pool. The monoliths seemed to be built of video screens, flashing the combined image of a giant face that spewed water into the pool.

Maybe it was just a coincidence, but it looked like a high tech, supersize pool. And Jason had mentioned something like that from his dream. As I watched, the image on the screens changed to a woman's face with her eyes closed. A familiar state that I remember seeing so long ago.

"Oh my gods," I whispered. "It was her."

Leo frowned. "Huh?"

That face. Even her voice. It was the goddess who had appeared to me when I was twelve, just after defeating Medusa. The sleeping lady had tried to convince me to leave my brother and Annabeth. Of course, I told her off, and I forgot all about the incident.

"Leo. . ." Jason said nervously.

"I see her," Leo said. "I don't like her, but I see her."

Then the screens went dark. The venti swirled together into a single funnel cloud and stuttered across the fountain, kicking up a waterspout almost as high as the monoliths. They got to its center, popped off a drain cover, and disappeared underground.