"Jason XXVI," Jake read out loud.
Jason was afraid they'd lose their target. The ventus moved like... well, like the wind.
Thalia smiled and rolled her eyes.
"Good one!" Leo snickered.
"Speed up!" he 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.
"Speed up, slow down, what do you want me to do?" the son of Hephaestus muttered, searching through his tool belt.
The storm spirit dove into the grid of the downtown streets. Festus tried to follow, but his wingspan was way too wide. His left wing clipped the edge of a building, slicing off a stone gargoyle before Leo pulled up.
"Nice driving!" Clarisse called out.
Chris chuckled in response.
"Thanks! Not bad for someone without a license, huh?" Leo cheerfully replied.
...After a few minutes, Jason spotted the storm spirit again, zipping through the streets with no apparent purpose- blowing over pedestrians, ruffling flags, making cars swerve.
"Oh great," Piper said. "There's two."
...A second ventus blasted around the corner of the Fenaissance Hotel and linked up with the first.
"Guess this is where they all hang out." Chris said.
"Or breeze through!" Leo joked, earning groans from some of the other readers.
"It makes sense," Annabeth commented, pretending she never heard that terrible joke (Seriously? Breeze through?) "It's called the Windy City for a reason."
...The dragons 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."
Will gave him an odd look.
"You realize it'll just pass throw him, right?" he asked him.
Leo waved a dismissive hand. "Details."
"I think it's more than that." Jake commented before he continued reading.
But Jason focused on the art installation. The closer they got to it, the faster his heart beat. It was just a public fountain, but it was unpleasantly familiar.
The demigods frowned.
"Uh... why?" Connor asked, looking around at the others as if they knew the answer.
Two five-story 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 hightech, super-sized version of that ruined reflecting pool he'd seen in his dreams, with those two dark masses jutting from either end.
The readers tensed.
Hera shuddered.
As Jason watched, the image on the screens changed to a woman's face with her eyes closed.
YOU ARE READING
Book Cult (New and Improved)
Hayran KurguNew dialogue! New plotlines! And more! It's official. Leo Valdez has worse luck than any of the other six. Yes, he even had worse luck than Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase, who fell into Tartarus. At least they had each other. Meanwhile, Leo finds...
