Where You Go ― Jason Grace

xii. a gold sky

NEXT TIME OPHELIA HAD TO FLY from Greece to Long Island, she'd much rather brave the hours-long plane ride—getting spiked to North America like a volleyball was not a pleasant experience. 

"Go!" Leo yelled the second they stopped moving. "Go, go, go!" 

For once, his voice was deadly serious. 

They'd talked through their evacuation plan, but the slap across the world had left Ophelia's brain scrambled. Buford the table saved them, clattering across the desk with his holographic Hedge blaring, "LET'S GO! MOVE IT! CUT THAT OUT!"

Then his tabletop split into helicopter blades and Buford buzzed away. 

Frank changed form. Instead of a dazed demigod, he was now a dazed grey dragon. Hazel climbed onto his neck. Frank grabbed Percy and Annabeth in his front claws, then spread his wings and soared away. 

Jason grabbed Piper by the waist, and Ophelia's shoes fluttered restlessly, ready to fly. 

"Leo, you won't make it!" Jason shouted. "Come with us!" 

"No! Get out of here!" 

Ophelia's heart climbed into her throat. 

No. Not yet. 

"Leo!" Piper tried. "Please—"

"Save your charmspeak, Pipes! I told you, I've got a plan. Now shoo!" 

"Come on," Ophelia insisted. "We have to go." 

"But Leo—" Piper tried to protest. 

"He'll be okay!" Ophelia shouted, praying just saying the words would make them irreversibly true. "Go! Now!" 

She took one last look at the splintering ship. The Argo II had been their home for so long, and now, they were abandoning it for good. So many memories, so many nights spent soaring through the sky or cutting through the ocean's waves. Ophelia knew she'd never forget a second of her time aboard the ship. 

Even when she was old and senile, she'd remember the flying ship built by her best friend, a mad genius and unstoppable engineer. 

A best friend she was being forced to say goodbye to before they even reached seventeen. 

Not yet. 

Ophelia locked eyes with Leo, hoping he could see the love in hers—the gratitude for his friendship, for his own love, for everything. 

His eyes softened for just a moment. Go, he mouthed.

Jason harnessed the winds, Piper grabbed Ophelia's arm, and the trio shot into the sky. 

❖

The ground was just as chaotic. 

As they flew down to the earth, Ophelia saw a vast army of monsters spread across the hills—cynocephali, two-headed men, wild centaurs, ogres and others she couldn't even name—surrounding two tiny islands of demigods. At the crest of Half-Blood Hill, gathered at the feet of the Athena Parthenos, was the main force of Camp Half-Blood along with the First and Fifth Cohorts, rallied around the golden eagle of the legion. The other three Roman cohorts were in a defensive formation several hundred yards away and seemed to be taking the brunt of the attack. 

Giant eagles circled them, screeching urgently, as if looking for orders.  Frank the grey dragon flew alongside with his passengers. 

"Hazel!" Jason yelled. "Those three cohorts are in trouble! If they don't merge with the rest of the demigods—"