Andromeda Jackson

Jason

The storm dissipates. The other kids from the Wilderness School are staring out the glass doors in horror. Security guards are working on the locks now, but they don't seem to be having any luck. 

"Coach Hedge said he had to protect three people," I remember. "I think he meant us."

"And that thing Dylan turned into..." Piper shudders. "God, I can't believe it was hitting on me. He called us...what, demigods?"

Leo lays on his back, staring at the sky. He doesn't seem anxious to get up. "Don't know what demi means," he says. "But I'm not feeling too godly. You guys feeling godly?"

There's a brittle sound like dry twigs snapping, and the cracks in the skywalk begin to widen. 

"We need to get off this thing," I say. "Maybe if we-"

"Ohhh-kay," Leo interrupts. "Look up there and tell me if those are flying horses." 

At first I think Leo has hit his head too hard. Then I see a dark shape descending from the east—too slow for a plane, too large for a bird. As it gets closer I can see a pair of winged animals—gray, four-legged, exactly like horses—except each one has a twenty-foot wingspan. And they're pulling a brightly painted box with two wheels: a chariot.

"Reinforcements," I say. "Hedge told me an extraction squad was coming for us." 

"Extraction squad?" Leo struggles to his feet. "That sounds painful."

"And where are they extracting uss to?" Piper asks. 

I watch as the chariot lands on the far end of the skywalk. The flying horses tuck in their wings and canter nervously across the glass, as if they sense it's near breaking. Two teenagers stand in the chariot—a tall blond girl maybe a little older than me, a bulky dude with a shaved head and a face like a pile of bricks, and a smaller girl with long, glossy black hair. 

They all wear jeans and orange T-shirts, with shields tossed over their backs. The girls leap off before the chariot has even finished moving. The blond pulls a knife, and the black-haired girl pulls a...pen? They run toward my group while the bulky dude reins in the horses. 

"Where is he?" The blond girl demands. Her gray eyes are fierce and a little startling. 

"Where's who?" I ask. 

The black-haired girl uncaps her pen, and a bronze swords springs out in her hand. She points it at us threateningly. "Where's my brother?" She's just as intimidating as the blond girl. Her sea-green eyes are full of anger, and something about her makes me want to melt into the dirt. 

"Who?" I ask again. 

The girls frown like my answer is unacceptable. Then the blond turns to Leo and Piper. "What about Gleeson? Where is your protector, Gleeson Hedge?"

The Coach's first name is Gleeson? I might laugh if my morning hadn't been quite so weird and scary. Gleeson Hedge: football coach, goat man, protector of demigods. Sure. Why not?

Leo clears his throat. "He got taken by some...tornado things." 

"Tornado things?" The black-haired girl whirls on him, and Leo's cheeks redden. 

"Venti," I say. "Storm spirits."

The blond girl arches an eyebrow. "You men anemoi thuellai? That's the Greek term. Who are you, and what happened?"

I do my best to explain, though it's hard to meet those intense sets of eyes. About halfway through the story, the other guy from the chariot comes over. He stands there glaring at us, his arms crossed. He has a tattoo of a rainbow on his bicep, which seems a little unusual. 

When I finish my story, the girls don't look satisfied. 

"No, no, no!" The black haired girl paces back and forth, pulling the sides of her hair. 

The blond girl doesn't look much better. She puts her head in her hands. "She told me he would be here. She told me if I came here, I'd find the answer."

"Annabeth. Andy." The bald guy grunts. "Check it out." He points at my feet. 

I didn't think much about it, but I'm still missing my left shoe, which got blown off by the lightning. My bare foot feets okay, but it looks like a lump of charcoal. The two girls look over in surprise.

"The guy with one shoe," says the bald dude. "He's the answer."

"No, Butch," the blond insists. "He can't be. I was tricked." 

The black haired girl glares at the sky as though it has done something wrong. "What do you want from us?" she screams and stomps her foot on the cracked glass, making me wince. "What have you done with him?"

The skywalk shudders, and the horses whinny urgently. 

"Annabeth, Andy," says the bald dude, Butch, "we gotta leave. Let's get these three back to camp and figure it out there. Those storm spirits might come back."

The girls glance at each other, fuming, for a moment. 

"Fine," The blond fixes me with a resentful look. "We'll settle this later."

She turns on her heel and marches toward the chariot. 

Piper shakes her head. "What's her problem? What's going on?"

"Seriously," Leo agrees. 

"We have to get you out of here," the black-haired girl says. Her voice is sharp with anger. "We can explain on the way." She doesn't look very happy about it. She's still glaring up at the sky as if it has committed a personal offense against her. 

"I'm not going anywhere with her." I gesture towards the blonde. "She looks like she wants to kill me."

Butch hesitates. "Annabeth's okay. You gotta cut her some slack. She had a vision telling her to come here, to find a guy with one shoe. That was supposed to be the answer to her and Andy's problem." 

"What problem?" Piper asks, looking at the black-haired girl who must be Andy. 

"She's been looking for one of our campers, who's been missing for three days," Andy says, staring at the ground with an expression of pure defeat. 

Butch puts a hand on her shoulder comfortingly. "They've both been going out of their minds with worry. They hoped he'd be here."

"Who?" I ask. 

"Andy's twin brother, and Annabeth's boyfriend." Butch says. "A guy named Percy Jackson."