Chapter Text
Even before Reyna fell down the Grand Canyon, she was not having a good day.
She’d woken up groggily on a short bus full of teenagers. As if that wasn’t bad enough, she had no idea who she was or how she had gotten there. Reyna tried to push down the lump in her throat that formed when she realized that. She glanced around the bus, looking for clues as to who these people were. The other kids were too busy talking, sleeping, or listening to music to notice her. They were all around her age, about fifteen or sixteen. Wait… which of those was she? Oh, no.
In any case, nothing seemed out of the ordinary, just a group of kids going… somewhere. When she glanced outside the window, a dry barren wasteland of a desert rolled past. Reyna felt a knot form in her stomach, whatever else was going on here one thing was clear, she was trapped.
“Hey, so she was alive after all.” Came a friendly voice next to her that almost made Reyna jump out of her seat. The girl sitting next to her was an incredibly pretty Native American girl. Reyna looked into her eyes and couldn’t decide what color they were, they seemed to change with the light like a kalidescope. Her chocolate hair was cut choppy and uneven, she wore no make up and her clothes were simple and functional but if she wasn’t trying to look pretty, she’d failed miserably. She smiled at Reyna like they were old friends “Did you have a good nap?”
The lump in Reyna’s throat pushed up again. Did she tell this pretty girl she had no idea who she was? Who either of them were? No , Reyna decided. Despite the seemingly normal circumstances around her every ounce of Reyna was screaming at her to get out, that she didn’t belong here. If she told them there was no telling how’d they react. She still had no idea what was going on around her or who she could trust.
“Oh drat! Guess those assassins I hired failed!” Came another voice from the seat behind them. A Latino boy with sharp, elvish features and a mischievous smile that told you right away he should not be left alone with matches or sharp objects poked his head up. “Don’t worry, the garbage truck will be here soon to pick you up either way.”
The girl gave a half hearted laugh “Leo!”
“It was fine, thank you.” Reyna said stiffly, pretending the boy wasn’t even there. She turned back to the window and stared out at the wasteland and felt the knot in her stomach tighten as she wondered just where in the hell they were going “When do we arrive?”
The girl shrugged. “Not long now. You slept most of the way.”
Reyna didn’t answer, she just crossed her arms and sat back in her seat and tried not to look as scared as she was. Apparently it worked because the next thing out of Leo’s mouth was about a worksheet he’d used for spitwads. He chatted a bit with the Native American girl and Reyna picked up that her name was Piper and the two of them seemed to be good friends.
While they talked Reyna searched her person for any clues who she was. She’d been hoping for a wallet with some sort of id inside but no such luck. She wore a purple T-shirt, jeans, combat boots and a thin windbreaker. Around her neck, tucked under her shirt, was a bronze pendant in the shape of a horse’s head. The only things she could find in her pockets was a half-eaten bag of jelly beans and a gold coin. Like a half dollar but more uneven. But she doubted an antique coin could buy her way out of her troubles. Well, at least she’d thought to pack the basics.
She was still racking her brain, trying to figure out the best way to get Leo and Piper to answer her questions without tipping them off about just how in the dark she was when a teacher at the front of the bus shouted “Alright, cupcakes, listen up!”
The guy was obviously a coach, what with his buff physique, bright orange and white work out gear and spotless whistle around his neck. His baseball cap was pulled low over his hair, casting a shadow over his beady eyes and sour face. He would’ve looked pretty scary if he wasn’t five foot zero. When he stood up in the aisle, one of the students called “Stand up Coach Hedge!”
“I heard that!” The coach’s beady little eyes scanned the bus for the offender and zeroed in on Reyna. The knot in Reyna’s stomach tightened. They both knew she didn’t belong there. What if he asked her what she was doing here? What should she say? What would they do with her if she told them the truth? There were a thousand ways this could go badly for her and she simply didn’t have enough information to navigate the situation yet.
But instead of calling on her, Coach Hedge just looked away and cleared his throat “We’ll arrive in five minutes! Stay with your partner. Don’t lose you’re worksheet. And if any of you precious little cupcakes cause any trouble on this trip, I will personally send you back to campus the hard way.” He picked up his baseball bat and made like he was hitting a homer.
Leo winked at the girls “Watch this.” He whispered. “Sorry what was that Coach Hedge? I couldn’t hear you back here. Could you use your megaphone please?”
Coach Hedge grunted like he was glad to have an excuse. He unclipped his megaphone and continued giving directions, but his voice came out like Darth Vader’s. He tried again but this time it blared “The cow says moo!”
The kids howled and the coach slammed down his megaphone “Valdez!”
Piper stifled a laugh “Oh my god, Leo! How’d you do that?”
Leo held up a mini Philips-head screwdriver “I’m a special boy.” He boasted. A twinkle in his eye.
“That’s it! The back row just volunteered for clean-up duty after lunch!” the Coach declared
The bus rest of the bus cheered. “There’s a shocker.” Leo mumbled
“Hilarious.” Reyna said flatly, her arms crossed
“Ah, everyone’s a critic.”
Piper looked at Reyna with a twinge of concern in her face. “Reyna, is everything okay. You seem… tense.”
“Truly these are unprecedented times.” Leo mumbled sarcastically but Piper ignored him and kept her color-changing eyes fixed on Reyna.
“I’m fine, Piper. Just a bit…” she struggled to find the right word. Nervous didn’t do what she felt justice but more accurate words like scared and terrified would beg further questions. “...Overwhelmed.” She settled on finally.
Piper nodded and let the subject drop but she didn’t look away and the look of concern in those kaleidoscope eyes of hers made Reyna feel really bad for keeping things from her.
They arrived in front of a big red stucco complex in the middle of the desert. Storm clouds were gathering in the sky above. As the kids filed off, Reyna made sure to be the last one in line. As she approached the drivers seat an idea crossed her mind. Maybe she could force the driver out of the bus and then she could shut the doors and drive to… to where? Where would she go? Where was her family? Her home? She didn’t know. She might’ve gone through with it anyway, if not for Coach Hedge, who was watching her closely as he tapped threateningly on his baseball bat. They both knew she didn’t belong there, but that didn’t mean he was going to let her pull off a bus jacking just to get out of there.
“Hey Leo.” She said quietly after they’d all unloaded “You’re good with tools right? What do you think the odds are you can hotwire a bus?”
Leo hooted, clearly thinking she was joking “We’re taking a page out of Piper’s playbook today, huh?”
Piper blushed “I didn’t steal that car, Leo!” she insisted
Leo rolled his eyes “Yeah, right, we’ve all been framed! I didn’t run away six times. Isabell didn’t assault an old lady. What was your story again, Pipes? You talked the dealer into lending it to you?” He gave Reyna a look like Can you believe her?
Reyna was taken aback. Piper didn't look like a master car thief, but looks can be deceiving she supposed. She wondered what the heck kind of school this was supposed to be anyway, and why she supposedly belonged there. She tried to read the writing on the bus but found it easier said than done. The letters seemed to shift and move across the side. She was dyslexic? Great, as if today wasn’t hard enough already.
“Yo Piper.” One of the boys dropped back to join them as the majority of the class headed into the museum. He wedged himself between the girls and knocked Leo down. “You don’t have to talk to these bottom feeders. You’re my partner, remember?”
He looked like if Superman had been raised in Dallas instead of Smallville, except his eyes had a mean glint to them as he looked Reyna up and down in a way that made her shiver. She stuck her hands in her pockets and her fingers closed around the mace instinctively.
“Go away, Dylan.” Piper grumbled, “I didn’t ask to work with you.”
“Aw, that’s no way to be. This is your lucky day!” He dragged Piper off to the entrance. She sent a desperate glance over her shoulder and then she was gone.
Leo got up and dusted himself off “I hate that guy.”
“Agreed.” Reyna said. She took a last look at the bus, Coach Hedge still standing between her and it. “We should get inside.”
Reyna was too distracted to pay much attention to the museum. Even if she had been able to focus, her dyslexia made it impossible to read the exhibits and Coach Hedge’s stirring lecture kept getting interrupted by random comments like “The pig says oink!” Apparently they were at the Grand Canyon which was good to know. Some girls that Reyna assumed to be the popular clique kept giving Piper a hard time, making snide comments about her heritage. Piper tried to ignore them but Reyna could feel the anger flowing from her, building like a current behind a dam.
It wasn’t until one of the girls made a comment about Piper’s absentee mom that she snapped and charged. Without thinking, Reyna grabbed her and held her back. Piper fought against her, but Reyna’s grip was too strong for her, she got the distinct impression she’d done this before.
“Enough back there!” Coach Hedge snapped “Set a good example or I’ll break out my baseball bat!” The other girls snickered at Piper and continued down the hall.
“What was that about?” she demanded when Reyna finally released her.
“What would be the point of a battle like that? Don’t waste your energy on a foe that poses no threat.” She responded
Piper raised an eyebrow. She opened her mouth to respond but Leo interrupted before she could.
“Besides, you know if those girls knew who your dad actually was, they’d be bowing down to you and screaming ‘We’re not worthy!’”
“Why? Who’s her dad?” Reyna asked before she could stop herself
Now Piper was looking at her like she’d grown a second head. “Okay, you’re acting really weird, Reyna. Will you please just tell me what’s going on?”
Reyna hesitated. But if these were her friends, they must have answers for her right? And honestly something in the way Piper was looking at her, the earnestness of her voice. Like she really wanted nothing more than to help... It made Reyna feel awful for trying to hide things from her. Besides, it would be wrong to keep them in the dark forever. She sighed and confessed her lack of memory.
“What? You gotta be kidding! What? Is this revenge for the shaving cream on the Jell-O thing?” Leo protested
Piper studied her face closely and frowned, her eyebrows furrowing together “No. I… I think she’s serious.”
“You would know better than me. Am I someone to joke about these things?”
The two shared a look and Reyna knew she had won.
“What’s taking so long?” Coach Hedge’s grumpy voice came from u the hall “Hey you three, no stragglers! Keep with the group!”
“We’ll discuss this later.” Reyna announced and hurried along before her friends could argue. Coach Hedge was still watching her closely with those beady eyes of his.
The three of them reached the end of the exhibit hall and stepped through a large set of glass doors and what Reyna saw before them made her breath catch.
“Man,” Leo said “That’s pretty wicked.”
See, there’s knowing something called the Grand Canyon exists and then there’s seeing it for yourself. It was deeper and wider than you could ever appreciate from a photograph. Gray and red ravines zigzagged across the desert that reminded Reyna of battle scars on the face of the earth. They were standing on a horseshoe shaped walkway made of glass so you could see right through it and so high up Reyna could see birds circling under her feet.
Something about seeing those birds below her stirred something strange in Reyna. Her head began to hurt. She fingered at her pendant and realized something she’d missed before. It wasn’t just a pendant but a whistle, though it didn’t look anything like Hedge’s whistle. This was a bronze color, with a horse’s head molded to one end so the noise traveled out the horse’s mouth. There was something engraved on it but it wasn’t English and Reyna’s dyslexia made it hard for her to read. On a whim, she blew into it but no noise came out. She scowled down at the metal mare like it would somehow give her the answers she so craved but it did no good. Well, what had she expected anyway?
“Piper! There you are! Don’t you know it’s rude to keep your partner waiting?” Dylan came over and swept her away again, despite her protests, this time bumping into Reyna a little to hard to be an accident as he went.
“That can’t be safe.” Leo said, squinting at the clouds “Storm’s right over us, but it’s clear all the way around. Weird huh?”
Reyna looked up and saw that Leo was right. A dark circle of clouds had parked itself over the skywalk but the rest of the sky in every direction was perfectly clear. Reyna had a bad feeling about that but Leo didn’t give it much thought. He was busy pulling out pipe cleaners and building a model helicopter with them.
“Listen, Leo, I need you to answer some questions for me.”
“Shoot.” He said, as he continued working
Reyna hesitated. There were so many things she needed to know where did she even start. “What’s my favorite color?” She decided
Leo snorted “Are you for real? You really that checked out of it?”
“Just answer the question, please.”
Leo thought for a moment and his impish grim faded “You must not have told me. Besides, I’m ADHD, you really can’t expect me to remember details.” He decided
“Okay. Um, where am I from? Do I have any siblings? What did I do to get sent to this school?”
With each question, Leo’s expression got more and more distraught. His frown deepened, his eyebrows knit together, he was thinking hard but not finding any answers. He kept his eyes on his helicopter, his hands working faster and faster. Finally he raised his eyes to Reyna’s and her stomach fell out from under her.
“You don’t know who I am either.”
“No. I… I do know you.” He insisted. Finally finished with his distraction he threw his helicopter over the railing. To Reyna’s surprise the pipe cleaner blades actually spun and it made it halfway across the canyon before it sputtered and fell to it’s doom but Leo paid it no mind. “I’ve known you for months. We started here together. You keep me and Piper from doing dumb stuff. Well, you try. You stop and pet every dog you see. You always wear your hair in a braid. You…” He shook his head “You just didn’t talk much about yourself, okay?” But he said it like he was trying to convince himself as well.
Feeling glum Reyna scanned the skywalk. The school had it to themselves which Reyna thought dimly showed impressive clout for a school for delinquents. About fifty feet away, Piper was trying to fill out her worksheet, but her stupid partner Dylan was hitting on her, putting his hand on her shoulder and giving her that blinding white smile. Piper kept pushing him away and when she caught Reyna’s eye she gave her a look that said I am this close to chucking this guy off the skywalk. Reyna thought she wouldn’t mind seeing that but then she spotted Coach Hedge on the edge of the crowd. He knew she didn't belong with the rest of this class. Could he know other things about her as well? What the hell she'd already thrown caution to the wind with Leo and Piper.
Coach Hedge was leaning on his baseball bat, scowling at the storm clouds like they bothered him too. “Did you do this?” He grumbled as Reyna approached
Reyna blinked. It sounded like he’d just asked if she’d caused a thunderstorm but that couldn’t be right. “Do what?”
“Don’t play with me, cupcake. What are you doing here, and why are you messing up my job?”
“Your job?” Reyna asked. It didn’t sound like he meant teaching.
“You got a powerful way with the Mist, kid, if you can make all these people think they know you; but you can‘t fool me. A half-blood shows up unannounced on my school bus, I’m liable to notice. So, are you the special package or what?”
A sharp pain erupted in Reyna’s head, like a massive brainfreeze. Most of what the coach said made no sense. “Okay could we take a step back here? You’re throwing around a lot of terms I don’t understand. Wait unannounced? You mean you don’t know who I am?”
“Never seen you before today.”
“I knew it.”
The coach narrowed his beady eyes at her “So, who are you?”
Reyna opened her mouth to respond, then stopped herself. Could she trust this man? She figured at this point she didn’t have anything to lose, whatever cover she was trying to keep had already bee blown. “I’m afraid I can’t answer that sir. My memories are missing. I don’t know who I am.”
Hedge straightened a bit at being called “sir” and studied her face carefully, like he was trying to read her mind. “Great.” He numbered “You’re being truthful.”
Reyna sighed “What would the advantage of lying be? You seem to know more than I do at this point. What’s this about a mist?”
Hedge looked at the storm. The clouds were getting thicker and darker, hovering right over the skywalk.
“Look, kid,” Hedge said, “I don‘t know who you are. I just know what you are, and it means trouble. Now I got to protect three of you rather than two. Are you the special package? Is that it?”
“I’m sorry maybe I wasn’t clear before.” Reyna said, not feeling at all sorry but starting to feel distinctly irritable that this man wouldn’t give her a straight answer “I don’t know who I am. Much less anything about a ‘package’ or a ‘mist’ or a ‘half-blood’. Will you please just explain to me what is going on!”
She hadn’t meant to yell, but her voice carried across the skywalk anyway. Other students looked over and snickered. Dylan was flashing a particularly blinding grin.
“Easy there, cupcake. You say you got no memories, huh? Fine. I‘ll just have to watch you, too, until the team gets here. We‘ll let the director figure things out.” Hedge said “As for what’s going on, I’m a little in the dark on that myself. All I know is this morning I got a message from camp, saying an extraction team is on the way. They‘re coming to pick up a special package, but they wouldn‘t give me details. I thought to myself, Fine. The two I‘m watching are pretty powerful, older than most. I know they‘re being stalked. I can smell a monster in the group. I figure that‘s why the camp is suddenly frantic to pick them up. But then you pop up out of nowhere. So I figure you must be the package.”
“But what camp? And what—"
“Just sit tight for now. Reinforcements should be here soon. Hopefully nothing happens before—”
Lightning crackled overhead. The wind picked up with a vengeance. Worksheets flew into the Grand Canyon, and the entire bridge shuddered. Kids screamed, stumbling and grabbing the rails.
“I had to say something,” Hedge grumbled. He bellowed into his megaphone “Everyone inside! The cow says moo! Off the skywalk!”
It was chaos on the skybridge. Kids screamed as they ran for the museum, the wind fighting them and ripping away anything that wasn’t nailed down. The storm had escalated into a mini hurricane with cloud tunnels traveling down towards them, looking like tentacles on some awful sea monster. Leo lost his balance and almost toppled over the railing, but Reyna grabbed his jacket and pulled him back.
“Thanks man!” he yelled over the wind
“You need to get inside now!” Reyna ordered, giving him a shove in the direction of Piper and Dylan, who were holding the doors open for the other students. Running against the wind was hard, and the three of them didn’t make it in time before their grip gave in and the doors slammed shut.
We’re cornered. Reyna thought wildly. But from what?
Piper tried to pry the doors open but to no avail. “Dylan!” she cried “Help me!”
But Dylan just gave his superman grin, like he was suddenly enjoying the storm. “Sorry Piper. But I’m done helping.”
“Piper get out of there!” Reyna yelled but it was no use. Dylan flicked his wrist and Piper went flying backwards, slamming into the doors and sliding to the deck.
Anger roared in Reyna’s ears. She yelled something ugly but the wind ripped away the words as soon as they were out of her throat. She didn't have a weapon but she did have two fists and Dylan had a face that that looked especially punchable right now. But before she could charge she felt a strong grip holing her back.
“Oh no you don’t, cupcake.” Coach Hedge said gruffly “You two stay behind me. This is my fight. I should’ve known he was our monster.”
“What?” Leo demanded. A rogue worksheet slapped him in the face, but he swatted it away. “What monster?”
The coach‘s cap blew off, and sticking up above his curly hair were two bumps—like the knots cartoon characters get when they‘re bonked on the head. Coach Hedge lifted his baseball bat—but it wasn‘t a regular bat anymore. Somehow it had changed into a crudely shaped tree-branch club, with twigs and leaves still attached.
Dylan let out an evil cackle that sounded like storm wind past your window at night. “You think you can protect three half-bloods at once old man? Good luck!”
He flicked his wrist again and this time Leo went flying, skidding across the skywalk like a stone skipping across a lake until he disappeared over the side altogether. Reyna reached out to grab him again but she was half a second too slow and he slipped from her fingers. She screamed, but it wasn’t out of fear. Dylan—or whatever his real name was—was just toying with her friends. Her anger doubled, blood pounded in her ears. She felt something cold and rough bite into her fingers and realized she had instinctively grabbed the coin in her jacket pocket. But why...?
She heard Leo calling for help and Coach Hedge handing her his club and telling her to hold him off while he rescued him, she was even aware of them he took of his shoes to reveal goat hooves and went climbing down the cliff face with impossible agility. But all that seemed far away to her. The only thing that was real to her in that moment was the enemy in front of her. She saw Piper struggling to stand up and decided on a plan.
She charged at Dylan, screaming like a madwoman. Before he had the chance to send her flying like her friends, she chucked the club as hard as she could at Dylan’s head. He dodged it easily but the distraction bought Reyna enough time to get in close to him. With nothing else to attack with she resorted to decking the bully full in the face. He leaned backwards lazily, barely bothering to dodge. The blow landed and Reyna felt a rush of satisfaction as Dylan yelped in pain. But when the bully backed up in pain she noticed that where she might've expected a bruise on his handsome face there was a clean cut under his eye with golden blood flowing from the wound.
But how? Her fist couldn't pierce skin. That was when she remembered the coin. She was still holding the coin! The edge sticking out on the edge of her hand. Somehow it had hurt him. Without thinking she opened her hand and regretted so immediately. The wind caught the coin and ripped it from her grasp.
Dylan's laugh was a roar of triumph that sound like a home being ripped from it's foundation.
"No!" She tried to grab it again as the tiny bit of metal fluttered and twisted in the wind.
Dylan lunged at her, his hands extending into something gnarled and claw-like.
Her hand closed around metal again but it was suddenly much to heavy and long to be a coin. Dylan was coming right at her. There wasn't time to think. She swing with all her strength. Dylan’s eyes widened and he dodged out of the way with a cry of surprise. Reyna was too stunned to react because suddenly she was holding a six foot long spear of solid gold. The weight familiar and comforting in her grip.
“Oh ho! So you’re a tricky one, ey girlie?” Dylan mocked “Looks like I’ll have to take this seriously after all.”
As he said that, his body changed. It dissolved into a swirling black cloud with black wings raising above him, his eyes empty sockets of electricity. He looked like a…
“Ventus. An evil storm spirit” Reyna said, unsure how she knew that
Dylan‘s laugh sounded like a tornado tearing off a roof. “I‘m glad I waited, demigod. Leo and Piper I‘ve known about for weeks. Could‘ve killed them at any time. But my mistress said a third was coming—someone special. She‘ll reward me greatly for your death!”
Behind him Piper was getting to her feet, Hedge’s club gripped tightly in her hand. Her eyes were full of fear and confusion but she nodded at Reyna and she knew what she was thinking. “You have to kill me first!” Reyna said, sounding braver than she felt “And you’ve done a poor job of that so far. I’ve drawn first blood here, monster. Do you really think you can defeat me?”
Dylan sneered and raised his hand. Reyna saw the smallest spark of blue between his fingers and time slowed down. She leapt to the side and rolled across the skywalk, coming up kneeling. The spot where she had been standing a second before was now covered in scorch marks and the distinct smell of burnt ozone hung in the air.
Lighting Reyna thought. But how had she—
She didn’t have time to question it as Dylan wailed in frustration and two other ventus—venti?—appeared next to him. He ordered them to kill her but with Reyna’s spear in hand that was easier said than done. Time slowed down around her. Side-step, parry, block, thrust, dodge, counter, it was amazing how naturally all this came to her. She barely had to think and her body just moved and handled the rest. Like she had been doing it all her life. It was almost relaxing, in a completely terrifying way. In no time at all every spirit Dylan had summoned had been reduced to golden dust in the wind.
She’d forgotten all about Piper until she heard her scream in defiance as she swung the tree branch club at Dylan’s head. But Dylan dodged the blow easily and all Piper had done was make him angrier.
“Why won’t you just DIE!” He screamed as he thrust both his hands out. A hurricane strength wind slammed into the girls and send them sailing right over the edge of the canyon. Reyna just had time to notice Coach Hedge and Leo finally reaching the top of the cliff before she was plummeting to her death.
Reyna wasn’t sure if it was the force of the wind that had knocked the breath out of her or the air her lungs was being ripped out as she fell but either way she couldn’t breath. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Piper plummeting to her doom along with her. She was going to die and it was her fault. Her life didn’t flash before her eyes but then again she didn’t remember her life to begin with. She felt hollow. She closed her eyes and prepared for the end.
Then she heard a horse whinnying and felt herself connect with slam into solid. She grunted as she was tossed around She’d expected the next thing she felt to be the canyon floor but this was… she reached out her hand and felt fine hair and muscular flesh. So, not a canyon floor. She opened her eyes and gasped.
She was sitting on a horse. A beautiful warhorse the color of peanut butter with wings that spread out ten feet on either side of them, keeping then aloft in the sky hundreds of feet up. A pegasus. Reyna didn’t trust her mouth to form complete sentences at the moment so she just reached out a tentative hand and stroked his soft mane. The stallion gave a pleased whinnying sound, like he was happy to see her.
She looked back and saw Piper seated behind her, looking even more stunned than Reyna was sure she did. “Uh—but—wha…” Piper stuttered, not that Reyna could blame her “How did he..?”
“I think… I think I called him here.” Reyna said, suddenly sure of it. "You saved us. Thank you." she told him, running her fingers through his mane. He looked proud of himself and Reyna's heart soared with affection.
A clap of thunder brought her back to the current crisis. Above them the storm clouds still swirling over the skywalk, so dark they were nearly black. “Listen, Piper, Hedge and Leo are still up there. We— I have to go back.” She couldn't very well drop Piper off somewhere in the middle of the sky, but she couldn't ask her to risk her life either.
Then she felt Piper’s hand close around hers, she looked back and saw a fierce determination in Piper's ever-changing eyes. She was scared, it was obvious on her face, but she was not going to let that stop her.
“Let’s kick his butt.” She said. And Reyna couldn’t help but smile at her.
She and the horse exchanged a look, there was an intelligence in his eyes that assured Reyna he knew what to do and he would not disappoint her. He whinnied proudly and they soared upward.
They got there just in time to see the storm clouds dissipate. Leo was groaning on the skywalk but there was no sign of Dylan or Coach Hedge anywhere.
Reyna directed the steed to land on skywalk, he responded to her commands with remarkable ease, and as soon as they’d landed Piper hoped off and ran to Leo. She turned Leo over, and he groaned. His army coat was soaked from the rain. His curly hair glittered gold from rolling around in monster dust. But at least he wasn‘t dead.
“Stupid … ugly … goat.” he muttered.
“What happened?” Piper asked.
“I don’t know, man! He was talking about his mistress and a war and then a hole in the cloud opened up. He said he would take a demigod… whatever the hell that means… and suddenly I was sky born.” He sighed, clearly having a hard time processing “Coach pushed me out of the way. He flew up and never came down. Please tell me he didn’t actually save my life.”
“Twice.” Reyna confirmed grimly
Leo groaned again. He looked at Reyna pleadingly “What is going on?”
Piper shivered in her rain-soaked clothes. “Reyna, those… things. You acted like … like you‘d seen them before. Who are you?”
“I wish I knew.” Was all Reyna could say. It was true, but even so Reyna couldn’t shake the feeling that she should know what was going. Fighting those monsters had given her such strong déjà vu it made her head hurt.
“The tornado guy… spears… is that a fucking pegasus? Am I going insane?” Leo continued
The pegasus pressed his nose into Reyna’s back. At first she thought he was trying to get her attention, then she realized he was going for the pocket where she had her jelly beans stashed.
“Alright.” She laughed. She took out the bag and fed him a handful “Good work out there.” She told him. He nuzzled into her and she wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face in the peanut-butter colored fur. She knew this pegasus, loved him even. She was sure of it. And that sureness brought her so much comfort.
But then the pegasus jerked away from her suddenly, like something had spooked him. His ears were flicked back, listening intensely. Reyna tried to reach out to calm him but before she got close he took off into the sky and was out of sight before Reyna could blink. Reyna was left staring at empty sky feeling very hollow and very abandoned.
Where is he going? she wondered sadly as she watched the winged horse grow smaller and smaller on the horizon, helpless to follow,
Home. A voice inside her answered
Ah, yes. But where is that?
“Yup. Definitely going insane.” Leo decided
“Hey look! He’s coming back!” Piper cried “And he brought… friends?”
Reyna peered up above and saw a dark shape descending from the east—too low for a plane. Pegasi, three gray and one black were coming in for a landing and they were pulling a brightly painted chariot with two wheels: a chariot.
Piper cleared her throat next to her “Reyna.” She whispered “The spear.”
Reyna had forgotten about the spear. She was mildly surprised she hadn’t dropped it when she fell. But she got Piper’s drift, whether these were friends or foe it would be better if they didn’t know she was armed. But what could she do? On a whim, she spun it in mid-air, like she was flipping a coin. Sure enough, the deadly weapon shrunk back down again and she stuffed the coin in her pocket just as the chariot landed and two teenagers hoped out.
There were two teenage boys in jeans and orange T-shirts. One was blond, a little younger than Reyna, with a bow and quiver full of arrows on his back. But it was the other boy the one driving the chariot, that really caught Reyna attention. He was handsome, Reyna supposed, with sea-green eyes and black hair that for some reason had a streak of gray in it despite him only looking perhaps a year older than Reyna. None of that was what struck her about him. Like with the pegagus, she knew somehow that she had seen him before.
She watched him as he studied the badly cracked sky-walk, perhaps looking for the safest place to land. He frowned down at them, like he didn't like what he saw.
"Who are you? Where's Annabeth?" Was the first thing out of his mouth once they'd landed
“Where is who?” Reyna said. She saw no recognition in his eyes and that worried her.
He looked like Reyna had just slapped him. His eyes were so full of worry Reyna couldn’t help but feel sorry for him. “Annabeth!” he yelled across the skywalk. He wandered away from them after that, never giving any of them more than a once-over. He was examining every inch of the skywalk, as if her was looking for someone who was invisible.
“What about your protector?” The blond guy tried “Gleeson Hedge?”
“Coach’s first name is Gleeson?” Piper piped up
“Who cares what his name is. He’s half freaking goat!” Leo retorted
“A satyr.” The blond boy said fondly “They’re stationed in schools all over the country, keeping an eye out for half-bloods.”
Piper stiffened next to her “Half-blood?” she said in an accusing tone, as if he had offended her
"Are you the extraction team Coach mention?" Reyna asked
He nodded "That'd be us. I'm Will by the way. That's Percy, you'll have to excuse him he's been having a rough few days."
"Extraction? That sounds painful." Leo said "What are you extracting exactly?"
The skywalk creaked under them and they were reminded what unstable footing they were on. The other kids from the Wilderness School were staring out the glass doors in horror. Security guards were working on the locks now, but they didn‘t seem to be having any luck. The horses whinnied concernedly at the black haired boy.
“We don’t have time for this.” He said, sounding exhausted suddenly “Please just get in the chariot and we’ll explain on the way.” He started making his way back twoards the chariot but Will grabbed his arm and held him back.
“Look.” He said urgently, pointing to Reyna “The girl with the horse’s head.”
Reyna stiffened. She looked down and fingered the horsehead whistle, not wanting Percy to see it. For some reason, she was certain that the Pegasus had ran off because of his arrival. He must’ve spooked him somehow, or maybe he was intimidated that he had more pegasi. Either way a pool of resentment churned in her stomach.
Percy raised an eyebrow “A Pegasus whistle? Those are rare. Like, really rare. Where did you get that?”
Reyna hesitated. Once again unsure of how much she could trust these strangers, one of which was less of a stranger to her than the other but she still didn't trust him as far as she could spit.
“Does it matter?” Will answered for her “She’s the answer.”
Percy looked at her closely for the the first time since he'd arrived. Something about him made Reyna want to squirm under hes gaze, make herself smaller. There was still no flicker of recognition in those sea-green eyes and somehow that made her afraid and angry at him at the same time. Eventually he just sighed like he'd been given something heavy to carry stamped his foot in frustration. Which Reyna didn’t think was a good idea given where they were standing but decided not to argue. Somehow he seemed restless and tired at the same time. He wanted to argue against this but could see it would do no good. He was stuck with her. For whatever that meant.
“I should’ve known it wouldn’t be that easy.” He said, his voice thick with weariness “Alright, come on.” He made his way back to the chariot, where the pegasi seemed relieved to be leaving so soon.
Nobody else moved.
“Where are we going exactly?” Piper asked
“And what happens if we say no?” Leo followed up
“Camp Half-Blood.” Will said “We’ll explain more on the way but it’s a safe place for people like us. Those monsters that attacked you won’t be able to reach you there.”
Reyna nodded, but Piper and Leo still looked unconvinced. “What? You want to fall down the Grand Canyon twice in one day? Be my guest.” She told them and that got them moving.
“That boy.” She asked Will as they walked towards the chariot “Who is he?”
“Oh, don’t mind him. He’s been glum ever since his girlfriend—”
“Annabeth?” Reyna guessed.
Will nodded “She been missing for three days.”