Where You Go ― Jason Grace

xv. hot chocolate in july

AFTER THE ICE bitch, the hot southern winds were a welcome change.

But after the second day, Ophelia was perpetually sweaty and pissed off.

They had been stuck at the palace of the South Wind for five days now, and it didn't look like they'd be going anywhere anytime soon.

On their best days, the southern venti were slow and lazy. On their worst days, they were gusty and angry. They'd initially welcomed the Argo II, since any enemy of Boreas was a friend of the South Wind, but they seemed to have forgotten that the demigods were their guests. The venti quickly lost interest in helping repair the ship, and their king's mood got worse every day.

At the dock, Ophelia and the crew—minus Jason and Nico, who seemed to be having a tense conversation on the dock—worked on repairing the ship. The main sail had been repaired, the rigging replaced. Now they were mending the oars. Without Leo, they were unable to repair the more complicated parts of the ship, even with the help of Buford the table and Festus.

But they kept trying.

Ophelia, Hazel, and Frank stood at the helm, tinkering with the controls. Of the remaining crew, Ophelia had the best understanding of the ship's hundreds of controls and buttons, but she wasn't Leo.

Still, she and her friends managed to figure some stuff out. Piper relayed their commands to Coach Hedge, who was hanging over the side of the ship, banging out dents in the oars. Hedge was well suited for banging on things.

They weren't making much progress, but after what they'd been through, it was a miracle the ship was still in one piece. Ophelia had managed to direct the explosion of the icy sphere, so even though the ship had been pushed halfway across the Mediterranean, it had sustained only relatively minor damage.

Down below, Hedge yelled, "Try it now!"

Hazel and Frank pulled some of the levers. All Ophelia felt was the ship trembling, and then she heard Coach Hedge screaming, followed by a splash.

"He's fine!" Piper called.

Ophelia sighed. "We're doomed."

Frank blinked at her. "That's comforting."

"Do you want me to lie and say we're going to be fine?" she asked.

"Honestly? I wouldn't mind it."

Ophelia patted his shoulder, which was several inches higher than the top of her head, so it was a reach. "Then we're going to be just fine, Zhang."

"Very convincing," Frank muttered.

Ophelia shrugged. "Never said I was a good liar," she told him.

❖

When Jason returned from his meeting with the South Wind with four rearing venti in horse form and told everyone to go below deck, Ophelia thought it was the perfect opportunity for a nap.

Then she spotted Nico sitting alone in the mess hall, glowering at the table as if it had verbally assaulted him, and decided her nap could wait.

Everyone else had gone to their cabins, which gave Nico and Ophelia the mess hall/lounge area all to themselves. Nico looked up when she walked in, but he didn't speak. He also didn't get up and leave the second he spotted her, which Ophelia figured was about as good a welcome as she'd get from the son of Hades.