Daughter of the Sea || HoO

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Halfway up, things went wrong. Piper and Hedge had already made it safely to the top and were waving at them, encouraging them to keep climbing, but Leo got distracted. Tori was walking behind him, when he suddenly stopped in his tracks. 

"Why do they have a bridge?" he asked.

Thalia frowned. "Leo, this isn't a good place to stop. What do you mean?"

"They're wind spirits," Leo said. "Can't they fly?"

"Yes, but sometimes they need a way to connect to the world below," Tori explained.

"So the bridge isn't always here?" Leo asked.

Thalia shook her head. "The wind spirits don't like to anchor to the earth, but sometimes it's necessary. Like now. They know you're coming." 

Leo's mind was racing. He was so excited he could almost feel his body's temperature rising. He couldn't quite put his thoughts into words, but he knew he was on to something important. 

Leo?" Jason said. "What are you thinking?"

"Oh, gods," Thalia said. "Keep moving. Look at your feet."

Leo shuffled backward. With horror, Tori realized his body temperature was rising. His pants steamed in the cold air. His shoes were literally smoking, and the bridge didn't like it. The ice was thinning.

"Leo, stop it," Tori warned. "You're going to melt it."

"I'll try," Leo said. But his body was overheating on its own, running as fast as his thoughts. "Listen, Jason, what did Hera call you in that dream? She called you a bridge."

"Leo, seriously, cool down," Thalia said. "I don't what you're talking about, but the bridge is—"

"Just listen," Leo insisted. "If Jason is a bridge, what's he connecting? Maybe two different places that normally don't get along—like the air palace and the ground. You had to be somewhere before this, right? And Hera said you were an exchange."

Tori thought back to what Hera had said: You are my peace offering, Jason—a bridge to overcome millennia of hatred. She knew that exchanges worked both ways, and even asked the goddess, but she of course got no response.

"An exchange." Thalia's eyes widened. "Oh, gods." 

Tori's brain thought it was going to explode. She had similar thoughts in Chicago, but she thought she was being stupid (which was a normal occurrence for her.) But now Leo had similar thoughts and Thalia seemed to know the connection. 

Thalia murmured something like a prayer. "I understand now why Artemis sent me here. Jason—she told me to hunt for Lycaon and I would find a clue about Percy. You are the clue.Artemis wanted us to meet so I could hear your story."

Tori's eyes widen, "are you fucking serious!"

She thought back to when Annabeth first got the vision: the guy with one shoe. That was Jason. Now Artemis leading Thalia and the hunters to track the psycho wolf king to eventually meet  Jason. Jason was the clue to finding her brother, but where the fuck was Percy then? 

"Pinecone face, you brother doesn't know where Percy is," Tori said

"I don't understand," Jason added. "I don't have a story. I don't remember anything."

"But Leo's right," Thalia said. "It's all connected. If we just knew where—" 

Leo snapped his fingers. "Jason, Tori, what did you call that place in your dream? That ruined house. The Wolf House?"