Heroes of Olympus: The Lost Heroes

Chapter Five-Magical Sleepy House

Rachel, Alex, and Annabeth all worked together to lift Piper up, Alex was holding her legs as Rachel and Annabeth both grabbed an arm. They all went as fast as they could to reach a big house on the hill. They blew open the front door to reveal Jason and Chiron sitting there.

"What happened?" Jason asked as he rushed over. "What's wrong with her?"

"Hera's cabin," Annabeth gasped, "vision. Bad."

Then Rachel looked at him to reveal her face, she had been crying the whole way over.

"I think..." Rachel gulped. "I think I may have killed her."

They all lifted Piper up to place her on the couch while Annabeth rushed down the hall to get a medkit. Alex could see that Piper was still breathing, but she wouldn't wake up. It was as if she was in some kind of coma.

"We've got to heal her," Jason insisted. "There's a way, right?"

Alex could only hope that was the case along with Jason. Seeing Piper so pale, barely breathing Alex felt as if she let her down. Why couldn't she be the one on the couch? Hera was speaking to her too. They'd survived almost falling to death at the Grand Canyon, she entered a place a little before her and then this happens? It made Alex feel guilty.

Chiron put his hand on her forehead and grimaced. "Her mind is in a fragile state. Rachel, what happened?"

"I wish I knew," she said. "As soon as I got to camp, I had a premonition about Hera's cabin. I went inside. Annabeth and Piper came in while I was there. We talked, and then—I just blanked out. Annabeth said I spoke in a different voice."

"A prophecy?" Chiron asked.

"No. The spirit of Delphi comes from within. I know how that feels. This was like long distance, a power trying to speak through me."

Annabeth ran in with a leather pouch. She knelt next to Piper. "Chiron, what happened back there—I've never seen anything like it. I've heard Rachel's prophecy voice. This was different. She sounded like an older woman. She grabbed Piper's shoulders and told her and Alex—"

"To free her from a prison?" Jason guessed.

Annabeth stared at him. "How did you know that?"

Chiron made a three-fingered gesture over his heart, like a ward against evil.

"Jason, tell them. Annabeth, the medicine bag, please."

Chiron trickled drops from a medicine vial into Piper's mouth while Jason explained what happened when the room froze—the dark misty woman who had claimed to be Jason's patron.

When he was done, no one spoke, which made Alex anxious.

"So does this happen often?" Alex asked them desperate to break the silence. "Supernatural phone calls from convicts demanding you bust them out of jail?"

"Your patron," Annabeth said. "Not your godly parent?"

"No, she said patron. She also said my dad had given her my life." Jason clarified.

Annabeth frowned. "I've never heard of anything like that before. You said the storm spirit on the skywalk—he claimed to be working for some mistress who was giving him orders, right? Could it be this woman you saw, messing with your mind along with Alex's?"

"I don't think so," Jason said. "If she were my enemy, why would she be asking for my help? She's imprisoned. She's worried about some enemy getting more powerful. Something about a king rising from the earth on the solstice—"

Annabeth turned to Chiron. "Not Kronos. Please tell me it's not that."

The centaur looked miserable. He held Piper's wrist, checking her pulse.