Daughter of Neptune, Book one

XIX

Tori's pov

I was afraid we'd lose our target. The ventus moved like...well, like the wind.

"Speed up!" Jason urged.

"Bro," Leo said, "if I get any closer, he'll spot us. Bronze dragon ain't exactly a stealth plane."

"Slow down!" Piper yelped.

The storm spirit dive into the grid of downtown streets. Festus tried to follow, but his wingspan was too wide. His left wing clipped the edge of a building, slicing off a stone gargoyle before Leo pulled up.

"Get above the buildings," Jason suggested. "We'll track him from there."

"You want to drive this thing?" Leo grumbled, but he did what Jason asked.

After a few minutes, Jason spotted the storm spirits again, zipping through the streets with no apparent purpose--blowing over pedestrians, ruffling flags, making cars swerve.

"Oh great," Piper said. "There're two."

She was right. A second ventus blasted around the corner of the Renaissance Hotel and linked up with the first. They wove together in a chaotic dance, shooting to the top of a skyscraper, bending a radio tower, and driving back down toward the street.

"Those guys do not need any more caffeine," I said.

"I guess Chicago's a good place to hang out," Piper said. "Nobody's going to question a couple more evil winds."

"More than a couple," Jason said. "Look."

The dragon circled over a wide avenue next to a lakeside park. Storm spirits were converging--at least a dozen of them, whirling around a big public art installation.

"Which one do you think is Dylan?" Leo asked. "I wanna throw something at him."

I focused on the art installation. The closer they got to it, the faster my heart beats.It was just a public fountain, but it was unpleasantly familiar. Two five-story monoliths rose from either end of a long granite reflecting pool. The monoliths seemed to be built of video screens, flashing the combined image of a giant face that spewed water into the pool.

Maybe it was just a coincidence, but it looked like a high-tech, super-size version of that ruined reflecting pool I'd seen in my dreams, with those two dark masses jutting from either end. As I watched, the image on the screens changed to a woman's face with her eyes closed.

"Leo..." I said nervously.

"I see her," Leo said. "I don't like her, but I see her."

The screens went dark. The venti swirled together into a single funnel cloud and skittered across the fountain, kicking up a waterspout almost as high as the monoliths. They got to its center, popped off the drain cover, and disappeared underground.

"Did they just go down a drain?" Piper asked. "How are we supposed to follow them?"

"Maybe we shouldn't," Leo said. "That fountain thing is giving me seriously bad vibes. And aren't we supposed to, like, beware the earth?"

I felt the same way, but we had to follow. It was our only way forward. We had to find Hera, and we only had two days until the solstice.

"Put us down in that park," I suggested. "We'll check it out on foot."

Festus landed in an open area between the lake and the skyline. The sign said Grant Park, and I imagined it would've been a nice place in the summer; but now it was a field of ice, snow, and salted walkways. The dragon's hog metal feet hissed at they touched down. Festus flapped his wings unhappily and shot fire into the sky, but there was no one around to notice. The wind coming off the lake was bitter cold. Anyone with sense would be inside. Even through my glasses, my eyes stung so badly, I could barely see.