Chapter Text
‘Percy, are you sure this is a good idea?’ Annabeth cocked a golden eyebrow at the small suitcase half-packed on his bed at New Rome University’s Vesta House.
‘Of course,’ Percy shrugged, rummaging through his tiny chest of drawers for a clean pair of shorts. ‘Tell me you don’t want to go visit Jason in Arizona.’
‘Percy...’
‘Come on, Annabeth, why are you so against this?’
Annabeth grabbed his hand and they stood there for a moment as she sighed. ‘I’m not against this, I’m just worried about you.’
Percy’s smile was not quite convincing enough. ‘Why?’
Annabeth looked him dead in the eyes under her cap. ‘Tell me you aren’t going to Arizona to look for your brother.’
Percy’s jaw clenched. ‘I- I’m... not?’
Annabeth dropped his hand. ‘Godsdamnit, Percy! I knew it. Keith has made it pretty clear that he doesn’t want to be found!’
‘After I went missing you tore the country apart looking for me!’ Percy set both suitcases on the floor.
‘That was different!’ Annabeth insisted. Tears pricked in the corner of her eyes at the memory. ‘You didn’t send me letters reassuring me you were okay!’
Percy suddenly didn’t know what to say. ‘Hey...’ he murmured, gathering her in his arms.
She breathed deeply for a moment and then pulled away just far enough to look him in the eyes. ‘We’re going to Arizona because it's going to be a fun way to start the summer.’ She leaned up and kissed him briefly. ‘And I’m bringing back-up.’
SIMULATION FAILED
Lance ducked his head as he climbed out of the simulator with a carefully neutral expression.
That... could have gone better, he admitted to himself. Pidge pushed past him on his way out, scowling. Hunk was last, shoulders slumped in defeat.
‘Well let’s see if we can use this complete failure as a lesson for the rest of you students,’ Iverson barked. Lance was certain the man was enjoying this. ‘Can anyone point out the mistakes these three so called cadets made in the simulator?’
‘The engineer puked in the main gearbox,’ one guy pointed out immediately. It sounded like Andy but Lance would not let himself look. Thanks a lot asshole .
‘Yes.’ Lance swore Iverson was smiling. ‘As everyone knows, vomit is not an approved lubricant for engine systems.’ Did Iverson just make a joke? Somebody in the class sniggered. ‘What else?’
‘The comms tech removed his safety harness.’ Someone said.
Lance scoffed. A technicality.
‘The pilot crashed!’
It was a hard landing!
‘Correct,’ Iverson agreed, the commander's harsh voice hitting him like a shot. Lance definitely did not flinch. ‘And worst of all, the whole job they’re arguing with each other! Heck, if you’re going to be this bad individually you better be at least able to work as a team! The galaxy Garrison exists to turn young cadets like you into the next generation of elite astroexplorers but these kinds of mental mistakes are exactly what cost the lives of the men on the Kerberos mission!’
Beside Lance, Pidge snapped. ‘That’s not true, sir!’
‘What did you say?’
Lance clamped his hand over Pidge’s mouth before he could say something even more stupid and get expelled for insubordination the same way Keith Jackson had.
‘Sir!’ Someone standing at the back of the room pushed to the front. Lance recognised him with surprise. Jason Grace, one of the top pilots in the class. Lance had never seen him stand up to Iverson before. ‘I think some of us here don’t need reminders of that mission.’
‘Is that so?’ Iverson asked, his voice lowered dangerously. ‘Knew the crew did you?’
‘You know I do.’
Iverson glared at Jason for a moment before growling out a ‘Dismissed,’ and waving the class away.
‘Hey!’ Lance called out, running towards the tall retreating back of Jason Grace. ‘Wait!’
Jason paused and turned. ‘What?’
‘You knew Takashi Shirogane?’ Lance blurted before he could think better of it. Mentally, he kicked himself. The guy had just made it clear he didn’t want to talk about it.
To his surprise, Jason shook his head. ‘I never met Shiro personally, but I know his brothers.’
‘You know Keith Jackson?’ Lance gaped.
‘A little. I was his roommate for a while. I knew their brother first though, Percy.’
‘Does he go to the Garrison too?’ Lance asked, looking around as if another hotshot pilot would appear suddenly out of the wall somewhere.
‘No,’ Jason laughed. ‘You wouldn’t get Percy in an airplane if you paid him, let alone a spacecraft.’
‘He’s scared of flying?’
Jason smirked. ‘Something like that.’
‘Then how did you meet?’ Lance pressed, warming up to this guy.
Jason frowned slightly, thinking. ‘Camp,’ he said slowly, like it wasn’t the whole truth.
‘Space camp?’
‘Boot camp.’
Lance laughed. ‘You went to boot camp? You ?’
‘Yep,’ Jason was starting to look uncomfortable.
Behind Lance, Pidge cleared his throat. ‘Leave the guy alone,’ he snapped, tugging forcefully on Lance’s elbow. ‘Come on.’ As Lance was steered away, he thought he saw Pidge and Jason share an understanding nod.
Sitting at the wheel of Paul’s new minivan, Percy couldn’t help but think that Annabeth’s idea of backup, though admittedly accurate, was just a tad overkill. Not that he was complaining.
‘I don’t see why we couldn’t take Festus,’ Leo complained as Percy pulled away from Leo’s workshop.
‘I don’t think we’d all fit,’ Hazel noted.
‘And also as a son of Posiedon I tend to get blasted out of the sky if I’m up there for too long,’ Percy added.
‘Yikes.’ Leo twisted in his seat to look over his shoulder. ‘Hey, di Angelo pass me that bag by your feet.’
‘Seriously?’ Annabeth, in the passenger seat in the front with Percy, glanced in the rear-view mirror to see Leo procure a bag of chips from the suspiciously large duffel bag Nico handed over. ‘We haven’t even left New Rome yet.’
‘To be fair, usually when we go on trips like this it's because we received some prophecy of doom and didn’t have time to pack snacks.’ Nico punctuated the statement by resting his feet on the headrest in front of him.
‘Feet down, Nico!’ Percy called. ‘This is my step-dad’s car so it has to get home in perfect condition.’
Nico removed his feet. ‘Good luck with that. Hey, Percy, why does your step-dad even have a minivan?’
‘When Estelle was born, my parents realised that they wouldn’t be able to fit the whole family in one car anymore. That was before...’ Percy cleared his throat and focused on the road in front of him. ‘That was before Shiro died, though.’
Piper, sitting in the back beside Nico, punched him in the shoulder. ‘Dumb question Nico.’
‘Hey!’ Nico protested.
‘Uhhh... Guys?’ Hazel called out. ‘Anyone know what this is? It fell out of one of the bags.’ She held up her hand and waved the scrap of paper in the air so the rest could see it.
‘What does it say?’ Nico called.
Hazel began to read aloud in a solemn voice:
Follow signs beneath the ground
A lost brother will be found
When a star falls on desert dry
Beyond Olympus thirteen shall fly
Percy pulled over.
‘“A lost brother...”’ Nico echoed. ‘This is about Keith, isn’t it?’
Percy twisted in his seat. ‘It... was, yeah,’ he admitted. ‘But, as Annabeth pointed out, Keith doesn’t want to be found.’
Annabeth glared at him. ‘Percy, you promised me that you were going to drop this finding Keith idea.’
Percy raised his hands in surrender. ‘I did! I promise, I obviously just forgot to get rid of Rachel’s message that’s all.’
‘I don’t like the sound of this,’ Hazel said, reading over the paper again. ‘Prophecies never end the way you expect.’
‘You think I don’t know that?’ Percy snapped, and then sighed. ‘Sorry, you’re right. We’re not going there because of the prophecy. We’re going to see Jason and bring him home for the holidays.’
‘Yeah, guys you all need to chill,’ Leo crunched on a handful of corn chips, orange powder coating his fingers. ‘It’ll be fine, we’ll get Jason and head back. What’s the big deal?’
‘Thank you, Leo,’ Percy replied. ‘Are we all okay now?’
‘If you’re sure you know what you’re doing,’ Frank agreed.
Piper scoffed. ‘You know I’d be coming anyway.’
‘We’re good,’ Nico leaned back in his seat.
Percy waited. ‘Hazel?’
Hazel looked at him, eyes thoughtful. ‘If you wanted help saving your brother, why didn’t you just ask?’
‘I just wanted to find him,’ Percy murmured. ‘I just wanted to see him.’
‘You will,’ Annabeth said softly, resting her hand on his forearm. ‘When he’s ready.’
Percy nodded. ‘I know.’
‘We shouldn’t be doing this.’ Hunk was not a fan of this plan. No way. This was insanely stupid and yet-
‘You heard Commander Iverson,’ Lance insisted. ‘We need to bond as a team. We’re gonna grab Pidge, hit the town, loosen up, meet some nice girls...’
The lights shut off. Curfew. ‘I-I’m just- I’m just saying this here, now, on the record, this is a bad idea.’
Yeah, okay, that was never going to work. When Lance decided to do something, there was no talking him out of it. They’d been roommates for months now. Hunk knew when he’d lost. Like now, when Lance ducked out from their cover and headed around the corner, sneaking down corridors without even a glance over his shoulder.
‘You know,’ Lance said far too loud for Hunk’s liking ( they were going to get caught! And expelled! And banished to the desert like that Jackson kid! Hunk wouldn’t survive in the desert! He likes his kitchen space sand-free thank you very much ) ‘For someone in a space exploration program, you don’t have much of a sense of adventure.’
‘Not when your little “adventures” end up with me in the principal's office,’ Hunk protested, trying to keep his voice down.
One day. They had one more day before the year ended and they could head home for the summer. This was such a monumentally bad idea. Lance crouched below the window of the instructors lounge in an attempt to get past undetected. Oh man, they were going to get into so much trouble .
The desert at sunset was a surprise. For somewhere that was essentially a giant bowl of dust and sand, the way the setting sun painted the Arizona landscape in all manner of bright pinks, purples and oranges was not what Percy had been expecting.
Annabeth, nose buried in a map book, muttered, ‘Turn left,’ quietly enough that Leo, Nico and Frank sitting in the back wouldn’t be woken by her whispered instructions. Piper was listening to music on an old walkman (they had realised a few months ago that since it was essentially a portable CD player that it wouldn’t attract any monsters) with Nico slumped on her shoulder. Hazel stared out the window with the camera Nico had given her for Christmas sitting on her lap, her expression open and awed.
Percy pulled into the carpark of a tiny empty motel right on the very edge of town. It was the closest place they could stay without camping on Garrison or government property, which, Annabeth had assured him, would be a very bad idea. With a smile, he cut the engine. ‘Hey, guys,’ he announced. ‘We’re here.’
Nico sat bolt upright. ‘What?’
‘Relax, kid, we’re here,’ Percy repeated, getting out of the car. Frank blinked sleepily and reached out to pull the sliding door open.
‘Hey!’ Piper shook Leo’s shoulder. ‘Wake up, man!’
Leo’s hair sparked as his eyes snapped open and Piper jumped back out of singeing range. ‘Dude,’ Leo complained, rubbing his face. ‘Uncalled for.’
‘I’m going to check us in,’ Annabeth informed them, picking up her things and heading towards the main building. Everyone piled out after her, stumbling as they got used to standing again. By the time everyone and their belongings had gotten out of the car, Annabeth was back with two motel room keys in her hand. ‘Come on,’ she called, already unlocking the first door. ‘Hazel, Piper and I can take this one. You four can take the other one.’
‘I’m not sharing with these guys,’ Nico protested. ‘Why couldn’t we have gotten three rooms?’
‘Nico you have literally slept in Hell,’ Percy said, opening the door and walking inside. ‘We’re on a budget, man. Be sensible.’
‘ Said Percy Jackson ,’ Nico muttered, but followed him in anyway. Percy dumped his stuff on one bed, effectively claiming it as his, and turned to the others. ‘I’m getting food. Who’s coming with me?’
‘I’ll go!’ Nico volunteered almost too eagerly. ‘I could use the walk. I’ve been stuffed in that minivan for six hours!’
Leo produced a packet of Cheez-it's. ‘I’m good, man,’ he said, kicking back on the unclaimed bed with one arm behind his head.
‘I’ll get us settled in,’ Frank suggested.
‘Great,’ Percy grinned, poking his head into the girls room. ‘Hey, Nico and I are getting food, who wants in?’
‘I better come,’ Annabeth decided. ‘Somebody’s got to make sure you don’t blow the food budget on candy or get yourselves killed by monsters.’
Percy placed his hand over his heart and pouted. ‘Your lack of faith in me hurts, wise girl.’
‘Awww you know I love you.’
Percy could feel the dopey grin on his face and he honestly didn’t care. Nico pretended to gag. Five minutes later, the three of them were walking down the little town’s main street, a list of dinner orders clutched in Annabeth’s hand.
‘Shhhh! Lance, we’re going to get caught!’
‘No we’re not! Come on, we gotta find out where Pidge is going.’
‘This is so not going to end well.’
With a sigh, Jason opened his door. ‘Hey guys, if you’re trying to sneak out, maybe stop talking.’
Hunk, the intestinally challenged engineer, went pale. ‘ I told you! ’
Lance, the hotheaded pilot from yesterday with all the questions, morphed his face into a confident smile. ‘Don’t worry, Hunk. That’s just my buddy Jason. Hey buddy, how’s it going?’
Jason stared at him. ‘Staying here is probably also going to get you caught.’
Lance’s smile turned awkward. ‘Well you see the thing is we were just following our comms tech, Pidge. He looks like he’s up to something really shady.’
Jason frowned. ‘Pidge is sneaking out?’
‘Yeah,’ said Lance, relaxing slightly. ‘You know him?’
Percy had told Jason about the Holt family after the funeral when Jason asked after the two women Percy had gone to talk to. When a Pidge Gunderson had turned up in his class on day one, it hadn’t taken much to put two and two together. It wasn’t his secret to tell however, so he had kept his mouth shut about it. If Pidge was up to something though... It might have something to do with Percy’s brother.
‘Something like that,’ Jason admitted. This guy asked too many questions. ‘I’m coming with you.’
‘I know we disagreed about this,’ Annabeth said to Percy quietly. ‘But I’m glad we came.’
Percy breathed in the desert night air and smiled. ‘Me too.’ It was good to feel normal for a while. In his pocket, next to riptide, his hand brushed the scrap of paper Rachel had given him.
Follow signs beneath the ground
A lost brother will be found...
For most of the drive over, he had forgotten his nagging worry for Keith, drowned out by Nico, Leo and Piper singing along to the CD in the player or Hazel asking to stop so she could take pictures with her new camera or Annabeth taking his hand where it rested on the gearshift and smiling at him. He had felt like a normal kid for the first time in a long time. No monsters, no gods, no missing brothers. No dead brothers, even.
Percy clenched his fist around Riptide feeling the shape of it dig into his palm.
‘Percy?’ Annabeth asked, squeezing his other hand. ‘Are you okay?’
Percy managed a smile. ‘Yeah, I’m good. I just... miss them.’
Together they turned off the street towards a McDonalds, the only place in town that did takeout, according to Jason. It was fully dark by now, with stars lighting up the sky where the town gave way to desert.
‘Hey!’ Annabeth had already gone in when Nico grabbed Percy’s arm and pointed at the sky back in the direction they’d come, white-faced. ‘Look!’
Above them, a ball of fire streaked through the night, a falling star that landed with an explosion Percy could hear, if not see.
...When a star falls on desert dry
Beyond Olympus thirteen shall fly
‘Nico, can you get me over there?’ Percy demanded once his brain started working again. The prophecy was coming true !
‘You sure?’
Annabeth burst back through the restaurant doors. ‘Percy I know what you’re thinking, but just wait!’
‘You saw the falling star!’ Percy protested. ‘How can I?’
‘Because Keith made it abundantly clear that this isn’t what he wants!’
‘I don’t care!’ Percy snapped. ‘I don’t care! He shouldn’t have left us like that!’
‘Nico, you know I’m right, don’t you?' Annabeth tried. 'When Bianca died-’
‘I’m going to help Percy go and find Keith,’ Nico declared. Both Percy and Annabeth gaped at him, but Nico squared his shoulders, steadfast in his decision. ‘It’s what I would have wanted when I was in Keith’s position.’
Slowly, Annabeth nodded. ‘Go then.’
Without waiting another second, Percy grabbed Nico’s sleeve and they were enveloped in darkness.
Pidge knew she was in trouble when Jason Grace appeared on the rooftop where she was scanning for extraterrestrial signals. She recognised him from the funeral, hanging back like an honour guard, then later talking to one of the Jackson brothers. He had never said anything, but with the way he had stepped in yesterday, she knew he knew who she really was.
And yet, he had never ratted her out. She had been trying to muster up the courage to talk to him all day, but hadn’t been able to work up the nerve. Him possibly knowing was one thing, outing herself to him was another one entirely.
‘Look, Pidge,’ Lance placed his hands on his hips. ‘If we’re going to bond as a team we can’t have any more secrets.’
So Pidge told them. About the alien radio chatter, about the Kerberos mission, about Voltron.
‘What’s Voltron?’ Jason asked, hand on Hunk’s shoulder to stop him from touching her equipment. Out of the three boys, he had taken the news of alien life the best, without question.
‘I don’t know,’ she sighed. ‘But it's gotta be something important for them to keep talking about it. Tonight, it’s going crazier than I have ever heard it. Something is about to happen, I know it is.’
An alarm split the air.
‘Attention students. This is not a drill. We are on lockdown. Security situation zulu niner. Repeat. All students are to remain in barracks until further notice.’
‘What’s going on?’ Hunk pointed at the sky. ‘Is that a meteor?’
Jason gaped. ‘By the gods...’
‘A very... big... meteor?’ Hunk tried.
Pidge picked up her binoculars.
‘It’s a ship,’ Jason breathed, awestruck.
‘How do you know?’ Pidge demanded, taking a look for herself.
Jason didn’t take his eyes off the thing. ‘I just do.’
‘That is definitely not one of ours,’ Lance announced.
Pidge’s heart started to race. ‘No. It’s one of theirs.’
‘Dad is not going to be happy about this,’ Jason murmured. The ship hit the ground with enough of an impact to shake the roof where they sat.
Pidge grinned and immediately packed up her scanners. ‘We gotta see that ship.’
‘Oh, no, you guys have to stay out of this,’ Jason’s voice was hard, like a general giving orders. Pidge bristled.
‘Look, man, you-’
‘Pidge, just trust me okay?’ he said, and without another word, he jumped off the roof.
Lance looked at Pidge, face washed pale by moonlight. ‘Did he just-’
‘Yep.’
When Keith had disappeared, he hadn’t intended to spend his time in the desert learning how to make explosives, but there he was. As soon as he had seen the streak of fire in the sky, he knew his interpretation of those strange markings, whatever they were, was right. The only remaining question was how he was going to get close enough to get a look before the Garrison locked it up somewhere.
Keith might have been expelled, but it wasn’t because he couldn’t remember Garrison procedure. He couldn’t hear the lockdown alarm from this distance, but he knew that any extraterrestrial object landing on earth was considered both dangerous and valuable. If Keith was right, then by the time whatever it was made impact, the whole facility would be on lockdown.
Instead of heading right for it, Keith bolted out the front door of the shack he had settled in. It had belonged to his dad once (his biological father, not Sally’s husband Paul) who had used it as a workshop for... something Keith had never really figured out. Keith had outfitted it into a makeshift home while he searched for... something. He had never really figured that out either.
Tonight, though, he might just find what he was looking for.
Keith skidded through the dust in his haste to get around to the awning out back that he used as a storage room. Underneath a tarpaulin, was a motorbike that had been gathering dust probably since his dad had disappeared nearly sixteen years ago. Over the past few months, Keith had used the manuals he’d found propping up a desk in one corner and anything he had managed to pick up from his time as a Garrison cadet to restore it. He hauled it out into the night, then dove back in to retrieve the fuel cans he had been stockpiling since he got here, stuffing the matches he’d stolen on his last supply run into his pocket.
Keith wasted no time, kicking the motorbike into gear as soon as the cans were all strapped safely onto the back and pointed his wheels in the direction of the valley. The engine roared, and for the first time in months, Keith grinned, enjoying the harsh wind against his face, pricking his skin and making his blood sing. Shiro had owned a motorbike before Sally made him get rid of it when he went away to space. Keith remembered when Shiro had bought it, third hand and falling apart. Shiro had spent months working on that thing until it had gleamed and and ran better than brand new. Over the last few months, Keith had started to wonder if Shiro had picked up the habit from their father.
As the landscape rose up around him, Keith skidded to a stop and dismounted so fast he nearly fell over. He dumped the fuel cans in piles for a few meters, trailing gasoline between them, and lit a match, throwing it onto the gas trail. Keith jumped back onto the bike, gunning it for the crash site.
‘Three... two... one...’
One by one, the piles of canisters exploded and Keith urged the bike to move faster. In the distance, he glimpsed the first of the Garrison’s offroaders peel off to investigate the explosion, moths to a flame.
By the time Keith arrived at the crash site, it was almost totally unguarded. Keith snuck into the prefab they had erected around the it through a back entrance and opened the nearest door.
He barely had time to glance at the table and the body lying on it before he was swarmed by techs in hazmat suits. Keith took them down with very little difficulty; he had been top of his class at the Garrison and the tech division received only minimal combat training. Keith ducked one swing and landed two more, whacking his final opponent in the head hard enough that they were thrown into the table and hit the floor with a final resounding thud.
‘Keith!’ a familiar voice gasped and Keith bit back a curse as he spun to face the newcomer. ‘By the gods, I was so worried about you!’ His brother Percy stood in the doorway, pure relief written on his face.
Keith wanted to snap at him, but he couldn’t help mirroring Percy’s relief. It was surprisingly good to see a familar face. ‘Hey, Nico.’
Nico, who had appeared behind Percy raised an approving eyebrow at the techs littering the floor. ‘Hi, Keith. Long time.’
‘I know I said I wouldn’t look for you, but gods, it’s good to see you. I-’ Percy choked on his words as his gaze fell on the table behind Keith. ‘Shiro?’
Keith followed Percy’s gaze and froze.
His dead brother was lying on the table.
A black bodysuit under a scrap of cloth covered him from chin to toe. The face under a shock of white hair was scarred, but Percy was right. It was definitely Shiro.
With shaking hands, Keith took out a knife and cut his brother free, hauling him upright and propping him up under his shoulder. ‘Percy, help me.’
Percy choked. ‘His arm, Keith.’
‘ Shiro , Percy!’
Blinking through the shock, Percy unfroze and ducked under Shiro’s other arm. Together they managed to keep Shiro - out cold but impossibly alive - upright and steady enough that they could get out before the Garrison came back or the med techs woke up.
‘Jason!’ Nico called and Keith and Percy both jumped as a blond kid poked his head in.
‘Hey guys,’ said Jason. ‘You’ve got incoming. Is Shiro okay?’
‘He’ll be fine,’ Keith muttered, the surreality of the situation warring with his need to get out now !
‘Nope! No, no you- no no no no no you don’t. I’m saving Shiro,’ said and unfamiliar voice as Keith and Percy took their first step towards the door. Someone breezed past Nico and Jason, shoulders set, confident in his mission. He was tall and wiry and immediately tried moving to intercept, reaching out as if to take Shiro from them.
‘Move, kid, we got this,’ Percy said, trying to shoulder past him.
‘Lance, dude, stand down,’ Jason stepped out of the way, allowing Keith and Percy to move through the door without getting stuck. ‘These are my friends, Percy and Keith. ’
The weird stresses on their names seemed to mean something to Lance, who stood back out of the way with his hands up, though he definitely didn't look happy. ‘My bad dude.’
‘You’ve got about two minutes, Percy!’ Nico called.
‘Hey, uh, shouldn’t we, you know, get out of here?’ Another new kid asked. Keith vaguely remembered him from his class at the Garrison. ‘Like, now ?’
‘Big guy’s right,’ Percy said, clear headed once more. ‘We need to get out of here.’
‘Uhhh, do you mind if we catch a ride with you guys?’ asked Big Man, heading for the motorbike. Keith cursed. They were never going to all get out of there on that thing.
Nico stepped forward immediately. ‘I can take some of you,’ he said and something about Nico having some sort of teleportation ability resurfaced in Keith’s mind.
‘Fine,’ Keith said, ducking out from under Shiro’s arm. Lance immediately took up the slack. ‘There’s a shack a few miles west of here. It’s where I’ve been staying for a while. I’ll lose these guys and meet you there?’
Nico was already reaching for Percy, the one closest to him. ‘Got it.’
Percy met Keith’s gaze as Keith mounted the motorbike. ‘I’ll see you soon,’ Keith promised. Percy nodded once and he, Shiro, Nico and Lance melted into shadows and disappeared. Keith grinned. Lance was going to have a heart attack when he realised what had happened.
‘I’m leaving!’ Keith announced.
‘Wait!’ the smallest and surprisingly the most familiar of the newcomers - and once Keith actually looked at him he realised why - leaped onto the bike behind him, wrapping her arms around Keith’s waist. ‘Hunk, come on!’
Jason shook his head. ‘I’ll get Hunk back safe, I promise,’ he said. ‘Go!’
‘But-’ Katie Holt protested, but Keith had already gunned the engine, screaming off into the night.