Andromeda Jackson

Leo

I'm totally buzzing. 

The expression on everyone's faces when I flew the dragon into camp? Priceless! I thought my cabinmates were going to bust a lug nut.

Festus was awesome too. He didn't blowtorch a single cabin or eat any satyrs, even if he did dribble a little oil from his ear. Okay, a lot of oil. I can work on that later.

So maybe I didn't seize the chance to tell everybody about Bunker 9 or the flying boat design. I need some time to think about all that. I can tell them when I come back.

If I come back, part of me thinks.

Nah, I'll come back. I scored a sweet magic tool belt from the bunker, plus a lot of cool supplies now safely stowed in my backpack. Besides, I have a fire-breathing, only slightly leaky dragon on my side. What can go wrong?

Well, the control disk could bust, the bad part of me suggests. Festus could eat you.

Okay, so the dragon isn't quite as fixed as I might've let on. I worked all night attaching those wings, but I didn't find an extra dragon brain anywhere in the bunker. Hey, we're under a time limit! Three days until the solstice. We had to get going. Besides, I cleaned the disk pretty well. Most of the circuits are still good. It'll just have to hold together.

My bad side starts to think, Yeah, but what if—

"Shut up, me," I say aloud.

"What?" Andy asks, her arms still wrapped tightly around me in terror.

"Nothing," I say. "Long night. I think I'm hallucinating. It's cool."

Sitting in front, I can't see their faces, but I assume from their silence that my friends are not pleased to have a sleepless, hallucinating dragon driver.

"Just joking." I decide it might be good to change the subject. "So what's the plan, bro? You said something about catching wind, or breaking wind, or something?"

As we fly over New England, Jason lays out the game plan: First, find some guy named Boreas and grill him for information—

"His name is Boreas?" I have to ask. "What is he, the God of Boring?"

Second, Jason continues, we have to find those venti that attacked us at the Grand Canyon—

"Can we just call them storm spirits?" Andy asks, unfortunately releasing my waist. "Venti makes them sound like evil espresso drinks."

And third, Jason finishes, we have to find out who the storm spirits work for, so we can find Hera and free her.

"So you want to look for Dylan, the nasty storm dude, on purpose," I say. "The guy who threw me off the skywalk and sucked Coach Hedge into the clouds."

"That's about it," Jason says. "Well...there may be a wolf involved, too. But I think she's friendly. She probably won't eat us, unless we show weakness."

Jason tells us about his dream—the big nasty mother wolf and a burned-out house with stone spires growing out of the swimming pool.

"Uh-huh," I say. "But you don't know where this place is."

"Nope," Jason admits.

"There's also giants," Piper adds. "The prophecy said the giants' revenge."

"Hold on," I say. "Giants—like more than one?"

Andy sighs. "Why can't it be just one giant who wants revenge?"

"I don't think so," Piper says. "I remember in some of the old Greek stories, there was something about an army of giants."

"Great," I mutter. "Of course, with our luck, it's an army. So you know anything else about these giants? Didn't you do a bunch of myth research for that movie with your dad?"

"Your dad's an actor?" Jason asks.

I laugh. "I keep forgetting about your amnesia. Heh. Forgetting about amnesia. That's funny. But yeah, her dad's Tristan McLean."

"Uh—Sorry, what was he in?"

Andy, who is gripping her leather harness so tightly that her knuckles are white, suddenly grins. "King of Sparta, right?"

"It doesn't matter," Piper says quickly. "The giants—well, there were lots of giants in Greek mythology. But if I'm thinking of 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 from the earth 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 it was happening again," Jason remembers. "The last chapter. That's what he meant. No wonder he didn't want us to know all the details."

I whistle. "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 time to bring up my psycho babysitter."

"Is that another joke?" Piper asks.

I tell them about Tía Callida, who's really Hera, and how she appeared to me at camp. I don't tell them about my fire abilities. That's still a touchy subject, especially after Nyssa told me fire demigods tend to destroy cities and stuff. Besides, then I'd have to get into how I caused my mom's death, and...No. I'm not ready to go there. I do manage to tell about the night she died, not mentioning the fire, just saying the machine shop collapsed. It's easier without having to look at my friends, just keeping my eyes straight ahead as we fly.

And I tell them about the strange woman in earthen robes who seemed to be asleep, and seemed to know the future.

I estimate the whole state of Massachusetts passes below us before my friends speak.