Andromeda Jackson

Piper

I tumble through the sky. Far below I see city lights glimmering in the early dawn, and several hundred yards away the body of the bronze dragon spinning out of control, its wings limp, fire flickering in its mouth like a badly wired lightbulb.

Two bodies shoot past me—Leo, screaming and frantically grabbing at the clouds, "Not coooooool!" and Andy, also screaming, but using much stronger language than not cool.

I try to call to them, but they're already too far below.

Somewhere above me, Jason yells, "Piper, level out! Extend your arms and legs!"

It's hard to control my fear, but I do what he says and regain some balance. I fall spread-eagle like a skydiver, the wind underneath me like a solid block of ice. Then Jason is there, wrapping his arms around my waist.

Thank god. But part of me also thinks: Great. Second time this week he's hugged me, and both times it's because I'm plummeting to my death.

"We have to get Leo and Andy!" I shout.

Our fall slows as Jason controls the winds, but we still lurch up and down like the winds don't want to cooperate.

"Gonna get rough," Jason warns. "Hold on!"

I lock my arms around him, and Jason shoots toward the ground. I probably scream, but the sound is ripped from my mouth. My vision blurs.

And then, thump! We slam into another warm body—Leo, still wriggling and cursing.

"Stop fighting!" Jason says. "It's me!"

"Andy!" Leo yells. "You gotta save Andy!"

Jason is already struggling to keep the three of us aloft, and I know there's no way he could take a fourth. But before I can think of a solution, a fireball rolled into the sky from behind a warehouse complex, and Leo sobs, "Festus!"

"No way Andy hasn't hit the ground yet," I mutter. I try not to think about that too much. Even though I don't know her very well, I like Andy. Plus, she knew what she was doing. I can't stand to think that she's dead just because Jason got to us first.

"No," Leo sobs again. "She can't be dead."

Jason's face reddens with strain as he tries to maintain an air cushion beneath us, but intermittent slow-downs are the best he can manage. Rather than free-falling, it feels like we're bouncing down a giant staircase, a hundred feet at a time, which isn't doing my stomach any favors.

As we wobble and zigzag, I can make out details of the factory complex below—warehouses, smokestacks, barbed-wire fences, and parking lots lined with snow-covered vehicles. We're still high enough so that hitting the ground will flatten us into roadkill—or skykill—when Jason groans, "I can't—"

And we drop like stones.

We hit the roof of the largest warehouse and crash through into darkness.

Unfortunately, I try to land on my feet. My feet don't like that. Pain flares in my left ankle as I crumple against a cold metal surface.

For a few seconds I'm not conscious of anything but pain—pain so bad that my ears ring and my vision goes red.

Then I hear Jason's voice somewhere below, echoing through the building. "Piper! Where's Piper?"

"Ow, bro!" Leo groans. "That's my back! I'm not a sofa! Piper, where'd you go?"

"Here," I manage, my voice a whimper.

"Andy?" Leo calls. 

Silence.

I hear shuffling and grunting, then feet pounding on metal steps.

My vision begins to clear. I'm on a metal catwalk that rings the warehouse interior. Leo and Jason landed on ground level, and are now coming up the stairs toward me. I look at my foot, and a wave of nausea sweeps over me. My toes aren't supposed to point that way, are they?

Oh, god. I force myself to look away before I throw up. Focus on something else. Anything else.

The hole we made in the roof is a ragged starburst twenty feet above. How we even survived that drop, I have no idea. Hanging from the ceiling, a few electric bulbs flicker dimly, but they don't do much to light the enormous space. Next to me, the corrugated metal wall is emblazoned with a company logo, but it's almost completely spray-painted over with graffiti. Down in the shadowy warehouse, I can make out huge machines, robotic arms, half-finished trucks on an assembly line. The place looks like it's been abandoned for years. I don't see any sign of Andy. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not.

Jason and Leo reach my side.

Leo starts to ask, "You okay...?" Then he sees my foot. "Oh no, you're not."

"Thanks for the reassurance," I groan.

"You'll be fine," Jason says, though I can hear the worry in his voice. "Leo, you got any first aid supplies?"

"Yeah—yeah, sure." He digs around in his tool belt and pulls out a wad of gauze and a roll of duct tape—both of which seem too big for the belt's pockets. I noticed the tool belt yesterday morning, but I hadn't thought to ask Leo about it. It doesn't look like anything special—just one of those wraparound leather aprons with a bunch of pockets, like a blacksmith or a carpenter might wear. And it seems to be empty.

"How did you—" I try to sit up, and wince. "How did you pull that stuff from an empty belt?"

"Magic," Leo says. "Haven't figured it out completely, but I can summon just about any regular tool out of the pockets, plus some other helpful stuff." He reaches into another pocket and pulls out a little tin box. "Breath mint?"

Jason snatches away the mints. "That's great, Leo. Now, can you fix her foot?"

"I'm a mechanic, man. Maybe if she was a car..." He snaps his fingers. "Wait, what was that godly healing stuff they fed you at camp—Rambo food?"

"Ambrosia, dummy," I say through gritted teeth. "There should be some in my bag, if it's not crushed."

Jason carefully pulls my backpack off my shoulders. He rummages through the supplies the Aphrodite kids packed for me, and finds a Ziploc full of smashed pastry squares like lemon bars. He breaks off a piece and feeds it to me.

The taste is nothing like I expected. It reminds me of Dad's black bean soup from when I was a little girl. He used to feed it to me whenever I got sick. The memory relaxes me, though it makes me sad. The pain in my ankle subsides.

"More," I say.

Jason frowns. "Piper, we shouldn't risk it. They said too much could burn you up. I think I should try to set your foot."

My stomach flutters. "Have you ever done that before?"

"Yeah...I think so."

Leo finds an old piece of wood and breaks it in half for a splint. Then he gets the gauze and duct tape ready.

"Hold her leg still," Jason tells him. "Piper, this is going to hurt."

When Jason sets the foot, I flinch so hard I punch Leo in the arm, and he yells almost as much as I do. When my vision clears and I can breathe normally again, I find that my foot is pointing the right way, my ankle splinted with plywood, gauze, and duct tape.

"Ow," I say.

"Jeez, beauty queen!" Leo rubs his arm. "Glad my face wasn't there."

"Sorry," I say. "And don't call me 'beauty queen,' or I'll punch you again."

"You both did great." Jason finds a canteen in my pack and gives me some water. After a few minutes, my stomach begins to calm down.

Once I'm not screaming in pain, I can hear the wind howling outside. Snowflakes flutter through the hole in the roof, and after our meeting with Khione, snow is the last thing I want to see. 

"What happened to the dragon?" I ask. "Where are we?"

Leo's expression turns sullen. "I don't know with Festus. He just jerked sideways like he hit an invisible wall and started to fall. Have you guys seen any sign of Andy? She fell past me and..." he doesn't finish his thought. He looks heartbroken.

Jason's expression drops. "I could barely carry the two of you. I couldn't grab her too. We have to hope she's somehow okay."

I remember Enceladus's warning: I'll show you how easily your rebellious spirit can be brought to earth. Did he manage to strike us down from so far away? It seems impossible. If he's that powerful, why does he need me to betray my friends when he can just kill us himself? And how could the giant be keeping an eye on me in a snowstorm thousands of miles away?

Leo points to the logo on the wall. "As far as where we are..." It's hard to see through the graffiti, but I can make out a large red eye with the stenciled words: MONOCLE MOTORS, ASSEMBLY PLANT 1.

"Closed car plant," Leo says. "I'm guessing we crash-landed in Detroit."

I've heard about closed car plants in Detroit, so that makes sense. But it seems like a pretty depressing place to land. "How far is that from Chicago?"

Jason hands me the canteen. "Maybe three-fourths of the way from Quebec? The thing is, without the dragon, we're stuck traveling overland."

"No way," Leo says. "It isn't safe."

I think about the way the ground pulled at my feet in the dream, and what King Boreas said about the earth yielding up more horrors. "He's right. Besides, I don't know if I can walk. And three people—Jason, you can't fly that many across country by yourself."

"No way," Jason says. "Leo, are you sure the dragon didn't malfunction? I mean, Festus is old, and—"

"And I might not have repaired him right?"

"I didn't say that," Jason protests. "It's just—maybe you could fix it."

"I don't know." Leo sounds crestfallen. He pulls a few screws out of his pockets and starts fiddling with them. "I'd have to find where he landed, if he's even in one piece."

"It was my fault," I say without thinking. I just can't stand it anymore. The secret about my father is heating up inside me like too much ambrosia. If I keep lying to my friends, I feel like I'll burn to ashes.

"Piper," Jason says gently, "you were asleep when Festus conked out. It couldn't be your fault."

"Yeah, you're just shaken up," Leo agrees. He doesn't even try to make a joke at my expense. "You're in pain. Just rest."

I want to tell them everything, but the words stick in my throat. They're both being so kind to me. Yet if Enceladus is watching me somehow, saying the wrong thing could get my father killed.

A sound on the stairs make us all freeze. It sounds like something big and heavy is stomping up the stairs. 

Jason pulls his gold coin out of his pocket. I put a hand on the hilt of my dagger, though I'm not sure how helpful I'll be with my ankle. 

The stomping makes its way up the catwalk, and Jason flips his coin. Then, into the light steps Andy. She's soaked and dripping with something blue that smells like chemicals, and she looks angry. "You guys yell a lot."

"Andy!" Leo grins like a maniac. "You're alive!" He goes to hug her, but then backs up quickly. "Wow. You smell..."

"Oh my god." Jason says. "You...you're alive."

"Yeah," she says it so casually, like she just got back from the grocery store. She shoots Jason a look. "Thanks for the assist, bro."

Jason looks stunned. "I-I'm sorry. I couldn't...I mean, I tried, but...too heavy."

She wrings out her hair, still scowling. Blue ooze drips out. "Don't worry about it. I dealt with it."

"How did you survive that fall?" I ask. "I broke my ankle, and I fell from way closer to the ground."

"Porta-Potties," she says, without much explanation. To be fair, I don't want an explanation. Based on how she looks, I've got a general idea. 

She turns to Leo. "I found your dragon, by the way."

"You found Festus?" Leo perks up.

"He looks fine to me, but I don't know much about machines."

Leo stands. "Look, um, Jason, why don't you stay with Piper, bro? Andy can show me where Festus is, and maybe I can figure out what happened and fix him."

Andy glares at him. "You want me to go back out there?"

"I need to fix Festus." Leo says. "You know where he is."

"It's too dangerous," Jason says. "We shouldn't split up."

"Ah, we've got duct tape and breath mints. We'll be fine," Leo says, a little too quickly, and I realize he's a lot more shaken up than he was letting on. Or, he's excited to go off with Andy. 

 "You guys just don't run off without us." Andy sighs, pulling her pen out of her pocket to have it handy. 

Leo reaches into his magic tool belt, pulls out a flashlight, and heads down the stairs. Andy begrudgingly follows behind him, leaving me and Jason alone.