Daughter of Pluto | Wattys2017

XLI

LETTING LEO FLY A HELICOPTER? SURE, WHY NOT. Aimee had done plenty of crazier things that week.

The sun was going down as they flew north over the Richmond Bridge, and Aimee couldn't believe the day had gone so quickly. Once again, nothing like ADHD and a good fight to the death to make time fly.

"Going okay?" Piper asked from the copilot's seat. She sounded more nervous than Leo was.

"Aces," he said. "So what's the Wolf House?"

Jason knelt between their seats,Aimee leaned over his shoulder. "An abandoned mansion in the Sonoma Valley. A demigod built it—Jack London."

Leo couldn't place the name. "He an actor?"

"Writer," Piper said. "Adventure stuff, right? Call of the Wild? White Fang?"

"Yeah," Jason said. "He was a son of Mercury—I mean, Hermes. He was an adventurer, traveled the world. He was even a hobo for a while. Then he made a fortune writing. He bought a big ranch in the country and decided to build this huge mansion—the Wolf House."

"Named that 'cause he wrote about wolves?" Leo guessed.

"Partially," Jason said. "But the site, and the reason he wrote about wolves—he was dropping hints about his personal experience. There're a lot of holes in his life story—how he was born, who his dad was, why he wandered around so much—stuff you can only explain if you know he was a demigod."

The bay slipped behind them, and the helicopter continued north. Ahead of them, yellow hills rolled out as far as Aimee could see.

"So Jack London went to Camp Half-Blood," Leo guessed.

"No," Jason said. "No, he didn't."

"Bro, you're freaking me out with the mysterious talk. Are you remembering your past or not?"

"Pieces," Aimee said answering for both of them,Jason looked over his shoulder at her as she spoke. "Only pieces. None of it good. The Wolf House is on sacred ground. It's where London started his journey as a child—where he found out he was a demigod. That's why he returned there. He thought he could live there, claim that land, but it wasn't meant for him. The Wolf House was cursed. It burned in a fire a week before he and his wife were supposed to move in. A few years later, London died, and his ashes were buried on the site."

"So," Piper said, "how do you know all this?"

A shadow crossed their faces.

"We started our journey there too," Jason said. "It's a powerful place for demigods, a dangerous place. If Gaea can claim it, use its power to entomb Hera on the solstice and raise Porphyrion—that might be enough to awaken the earth goddess fully."

Leo kept his hand on the joystick, guiding the chopper at full speed—racing toward the north. Aimee could see some weather ahead—a spot of darkness like a cloudbank or a storm, right where they were going.

Her mom's voice echoed in her head:No matter how scared you are,always run right into the eye of the storm.

Yeah Mom,you did that and now you're gone forever, Aimee thought looking down at her hands. Her mom could have been alive for a lot longer if she hadn't ran into the fire to save that man,if she hadn't tried to dwell in other people's lives.
Seeing Piper and her dad back together had really driven that home. Even if Aimee survived this quest and saved Hera, Aimee wouldn't have any happy reunions. She wouldn't be going back to a loving family. She wouldn't see her mom,she would never get to see any of her really family ever again.

The helicopter shuddered. Metal creaked, and Aimee could almost imagine the tapping was Morse code: Not the end. Not the end.

Leo leveled out the chopper, and the creaking stopped. She was just hearing things. She couldn't dwell on her mom, or the idea that kept bugging her—that Gaea was bringing souls back from the Underworld—so why couldn't she make some good come out of it? Thinking like that would drive her crazy. Her and her friends had a job to do,she couldn't go crazy on them.

She let her instincts take over. If she thought about the quest too much, or what might happen afterward, she'd panic. The trick was not to think—just get through it.

"Thirty minutes out," Leo told them."If you want to get some rest, now's a good time."

Jason strapped himself into the back of the helicopter and passed out almost immediately,Aimee laid her head on his shoulder pretending to be asleep.

After a few minutes of awkward silence, Leo said, "Your dad'll be fine, you know. Nobody's gonna mess with him with that crazy goat around."

"My dad," she said thoughtfully. "Yeah, I know. I was thinking about Jason and Aimee. I'm worried about them."

Piper looked back at Jason and Aimee. "They are starting to remember. That's got to make them a little edgy."

"But what if ... what if they're different people?"

"Nah," Leo decided after a second. "After all we've been through? I can't see it. We're a team. Jason and Aimee can handle it."

Aimee heard Piper sigh."I hope you're right. I need him ..." She cleared her throat. "I mean I need to trust him and Aimee..."

"I know," Leo said.
After seeing her dad break down, Aimee understood Piper couldn't afford to lose Jason as well. She'd just watched Tristan McLean, her cool suave movie star dad, reduced to near insanity. Aimee could barely stand to watch that, but for Piper—Wow, Aimee couldn't even imagine. She  figured that would make her insecure about herself, too. If weakness was inherited, she'd be wondering, could she break down the same way her dad did?

"Hey, don't worry," Leo said. "Piper, you're the strongest, most powerful beauty queen I've ever met. You can trust yourself. For what it's worth, you can trust me too."

The helicopter dipped in a wind shear,He cursed and righted the chopper.Aimee held onto Jason tightly,after everything that has happen she knew that she would most likely be scared of heights now.
Piper laughed nervously. "Trust you, huh?"

"Ah, shut up, already." But he grinned at her, I and for a second, it felt like he was just relaxing comfortably with a friend.Leo look back at Aimee who opened her eyes to look back at him,she smiled slightly.Everything was calm and it seemed so peaceful. 

Then they hit the storm clouds.