Wildfires, Heroes of Olympus ₂

059, CUPID AN OPP FR!!!!!!

CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE
JASON                GRACE

Jason first saw the angel at the ice cream cart.

The Argo II had anchored in the bay along with six or seven cruise ships. As usual, the mortals didn't pay the trireme any attention; but just to be safe, Jason, Finn, and Nico hopped on a skiff from one of the tourist boats to look like part of the crowd when they came ashore.

At first glance, Split seemed like a cool place. Curving around the harbor was a long esplanade lined with palm trees. At the sidewalk cafés, European teenagers were hanging out, speaking a dozen different languages and enjoying the sunny afternoon. The air smelled of grilled meat and fresh-cut flowers.

Beyond the main boulevard, the city was a crammed hodgepodge of medieval castle towers, Roman walls, limestone townhouses with red-tiled roofs, and modern office buildings. In the distance, gray-green hills marched toward a mountain ridge, which made Jason a little nervous. He kept glancing at that rocky escarpment, expecting the face of Gaea to appear in its shadows.

Finn, Nico, and he were wandering along the esplanade when Jason spotted the guy with wings buying an ice cream bar from a street cart. The vendor lady looked bored as she counted the guy's change. Tourists navigated around the angel's huge wings without a second glance.

Jason nudged Nico. "Are you guys seeing this?"

"Yeah," Nico agreed. Finn just rolled her eyes from behind, because she was being immature, per usual. "Maybe we should buy some ice cream."

They approached the street cart, and Jason noted his red tank top, Bermuda shorts, and huarache sandals. His wings were a combination of russet colors, like a bantam rooster or a lazy sunset. He had a deep tan and curly black hair.

"He's not a spirit," Finn murmured, almost like she didn't even realize she was speaking. "I don't know how I know that."

"He's not a creature of the Underworld, either," Nico said.

"No," Jason agreed. "I doubt they would eat chocolate-covered ice cream bars."

"So what is he?" Nico wondered.

They got within thirty feet, and the winged dude looked directly at them. He smiled, gestured over his shoulder with his ice cream bar, and dissolved into the air.

Jason couldn't exactly see him, but he'd had enough experience controlling the wind that he could track the angel's path—a warm wisp of red and gold zipping across the street, spiraling down the sidewalk, and blowing postcards from the carousels in front of the tourist shops. The wind headed toward the end of the promenade, where a big fortresslike structure loomed.

"I'm betting that's the palace," Jason said.

"Oh, you think?" Finn snarked.

He rolled his eyes, refusing to indulge her anymore. "Just—Come on."

Even after two millennia, Diocletian's Palace was still impressive. The outer wall was only a pink granite shell, with crumbling columns and arched windows open to the sky, but it was mostly intact, a quarter mile long and seventy or eighty feet tall, dwarfing the modern shops and houses that huddled beneath it. Jason imagined what the palace must have looked like when it was newly built, with Imperial guards walking the ramparts and the golden eagles of Rome glinting on the parapets.