Wildfires, Heroes of Olympus ₂

024, bacon bacon bacon...

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
PERSEUS            JACKSON

Airplanes or cannibals? No contest.

Percy would've preferred driving Grandma Zhang's Cadillac all the way to Alaska with fireball-throwing ogres on his tail rather than sitting in a luxury Gulf stream.

He'd flown before. The details were hazy, but he remembered a pegasus named Blackjack. He'd even been in a plane once or twice. But a son of Neptune (Poseidon, whatever) didn't belong in the air. Every time the plane hit a spot of turbulence, Percy's heart raced, and he was sure Jupiter was slapping them around.

He tried to focus as Finley, Hazel, and Frank talked. Finley tried reassuring Frank that he'd done everything he could for his grandmother. She said that Frank had saved them by leading the group out of Vancouver, but Hazel instantly interjected that it had been Finley who had held off the Laistrygonians and gotten the job done. Not that Frank hadn't been incredibly brave. It was just... that kind of performance from Finley had never been seen before. She had radiated power.

Finley refused the claim profusely, but Percy couldn't tell if it was because she was drunk, humble, or trying to make Frank feel better for not pulling the same stunt that she did. He kept his head down like he was ashamed to have been crying, but Percy didn't blame him. The poor guy had just lost his grandmother and seen his house go up in flames. As far as Percy was concerned, shedding a few tears about something like that didn't make you any less of a man.

Percy still couldn't get over the fact that Frank was a distant relative. Frank would be his... what? Great-times-a-thousand nephew? Too weird for words.

Frank refused to explain exactly what his "family gift" was, but as they flew north, Frank did tell them about his conversation with Mars the night before. He explained to Percy and Finley the prophecy Juno had issued when he was a baby—about his life being tied to a piece of firewood, and how he had asked Hazel to keep it for him.

Some of that, Percy had already figured out. Hazel and Frank had obviously shared some crazy experiences when they had blacked out together, and they'd made some sort of deal. It also explained why even now, out of habit, Frank kept checking his coat pocket, and why he was so nervous around fire. Still, Percy couldn't imagine what kind of courage it had taken for Frank to embark on a quest, knowing that one small flame could snuff out his life.

"Frank," he said, "I'm proud to be related to you."

Frank's ears turned red. With his head lowered, his military haircut made a sharp black arrow pointing down. "Juno has some sort of plan for us, about the Prophecy of Nine."

"So it really includes us, doesn't it?" Finley asked, sounding like she was already preparing her own funeral. "That's why Juno's doing this?"

"Yeah," Percy grumbled. "I didn't like her as Hera. I don't like her any better as Juno."

Hazel tucked her feet underneath her. She studied Percy with her luminescent golden eyes, and he wondered how she could be so calm. She was the youngest one on the quest, but she was always holding them together and comforting them. Now they were flying to Alaska, where she had died once before. They would try to free Thanatos, who might take her back to the Underworld. Yet she didn't show any fear. It made Percy feel silly for being scared of airplane turbulence.