Chapter Text
When Jason woke up, he couldn’t remember anything.
He had woken to the jolt of a vehicle, smacking his head against the back of a leather seat. He heard the rumbling of an engine and the low roar of teenage chatter. When Jason opened his eyes, he realized he was on a school bus.
Why he was on a school bus, he didn’t know, which scared Jason more than he wanted to admit.
The bus was packed with kids his age - which Jason realized he wasn’t quite sure of at the moment (fifteen? sixteen?) - heads leaning over the backs of seats to talk to friends behind them, notes being passed down the isles, and random bursts of laughter from different groups all the way to the front.
Jason was sitting in the back, between two other kids. To his left, leaning against the window with her chin resting in her hand, was a girl with warm bronze skin and choppy brown wolf-cut hair. Behind her, a desert landscape rolled past. Her eyes were closed, but even sleeping all Jasoin could think was she is beautiful.
Jason’s face suddenly felt hot, and he looked away, to his right, where there was a boy leaning somewhat-too-comfortably against him, his legs stretched out into the aisle, knee jostling as his feet tapped restlessly against the floor of the bus. He was wearing a green army-jacket with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows revealing terracotta brown arms crossed against his chest. He was scrawny, but Jason couldn’t help but notice the way muscles worked under the skin, calloused fingers gripping his elbows.
The boy turned to look at him, black curls whipping around quickly. His dark brown eyes gave him a quick once-over before he grinned. “Finally awake?”
Jason opened his mouth to respond, but hesitated. This boy spoke to him like Jason should know him, but as far as Jason could tell, this was the first time he had ever seen him. “I… um…”
Next to him, the girl groaned as she woke up, stretching her arms, twisting to try and avoid hitting Jason.
“Morning, Sleeping Beauty,” The boy teased, “Prince Charming just woke up too.”
The girl rolled her eyes, which seemed to shift between blue, green, and hazel in the fraction of a second, her cheeks turning a bit pink. “Are we there yet?”
Before the other boy could answer - since Jason didn’t even know where they were going - a man’s voice shouted: “Alright listen up!”
The talking on the bus quickly faded. The other kids in the seats around them turned to look at whoever was talking. Jason tried looking over the top of his seat, but no matter how much he craned his neck, he could only just barely see the top of a man’s head, curly ginger hair tucked under a baseball cap, standing in the middle of the aisle.
“We’ll be there in five minutes! Stay with your partner, and don’t wander off! If any of you mess this thing up, you can kiss the homecoming dance goodbye!”
There were a few sounds of indignation as the man stumbled back down the aisle and back into one of the seats at the front of the bus. Eventually the chatter picked up again, and Jason turned to his… friends? These had to be his friends, right?
The longer that time went on, the more and more lost Jason felt. He’d hoped that things would start to come back to him, but as nothing became any clearer, anxiety started to creep up into his chest.
“Hey,” The girl beside him said softly, her brow furrowed, “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, dude,” the boy said, “you look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“I -” Jason felt his mouth grow dry, blubbering like a fish out of water as he tried to find the words. “Who are you?”
The two of them blinked. The boy cracked a nervous grin.
“You’re pulling my leg, aren’t you?” The boy said, “Is this your way of getting back at me for using my worksheet for spitballs? You don’t want to be partners with me anymore?”
“No, I -” Jason looked anxiously between them, “I don’t remember anything - I don’t even remember who I am. Where are we?”
The boy and the girl exchanged glances in front of Jason just as the bus began to slow to a stop.
“You think he’s being serious?” the boy asked.
“Yeah,” the girl said, glancing nervously at Jason, “Do you think we should say something?”
“Who, Coach Hedge?” the boy scoffed, “I think our best bet is to get through this field trip and say something once we’re back on campus.”
“Alright, cupcakes!” bellowed the voice of the man from earlier - Coach Hedge, Jason guessed. He was standing at the front of the bus now, and Jason could see him better than before. He was a short, pudgy man, wearing an orange polo and khaki gym pants, with a baseball bat slung over his shoulder.
“Can he even have that?” Jason asked.
His friends shushed him, but it was too late. The Coach had heard and was glaring right at them.
For a moment, Jason locked eyes with him, and saw a mix of surprise and suspicion. Then, the Coach seemed to recover and turned on Jason's friends.
“Leo Valdez!” the Coach barked. “Got something to say to me?”
The boy - Leo - winced for a moment before giving Jason a reassuring look and slipping an easy smile on his face. “What’s that Coach? Sorry, I couldn’t hear you.”
The Coach seemed all too pleased as he pulled out a megaphone from his seat. “As I was saying -” the Coach continued to try and give out directions, but the rest of his words came out as if he were talking to them from the other end of a cave, echoing and blending together until it sounded like gibberish. The bus started falling apart with giggles and whispered comments until it eventually erupted with laughter. The Coach’s face was red when he finally gave up, pointing to the bus doors. “Okay, everyone out!”
Everyone stood and started shuffling out of the bus in a single file line. The girl leaned over to Leo. “How did you even do that?”
Jason raised an eyebrow. “He did that?”
“I’m crafty,” said Leo, winking at him. “We all ended up in Wilderness School for a reason, didn’t we Piper? Some of us steal cars and others know how to hot-wire them.”
The words Wilderness School sounded strangely familiar to Jason - but whatever he was thinking of, it certainly wasn’t this. Maybe more like learning about survival, where the teacher were wolves -
Jason felt a sudden, sharp pain behind his eyes, losing his train of thought. The girl - Piper - was protesting as they finally made their way down the aisle. “I didn’t steal any cars, Leo.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Leo said, clearly not believing her.
“What’s Wilderness School?” Jason asked as they stepped out of the bus.
Piper frowned at him, looking nervous. “Leo, are you sure we shouldn’t -”
“He-hey, Pipes!” said a voice from ahead of them. One of the guys had stuck behind from the rest of the group as they all funneled towards some sort of building. He looked cool - with perfect, dark hair and tanned skin, his hands casually tucked into the pockets of his letterman jacket. “You’re my partner from this project, remember? Why are you hanging back with these losers?”
Piper grimaced. “I’m hanging back with my friends. I’m sorry you can’t do that without it being a popularity contest.”
“You heard the Coach - we need to stick with our partners.”
“Fuck off, Dylan,” said Leo.
Just then Coach Hedge pulled out his megaphone and attempted to start spewing more orders. This time, his voice was drowned out by cheery ice-cream truck music, but Jason managed to catch: “worksheet”, “partners'', and “no chatting!”
Dylan shrugged, hooking Piper by the arm and flashing a blinding smile as he led her into the building. There was a sign above the doorway. It took a moment for Jason to read it - which surprised him how much that didn’t surprise him - but it read: HUALAPAI VISITOR CENTER AND SKYWALK.
When they got inside, there was a friendly museum worker with a weary smile who led them around the exhibit, talking about the Hualapai people and their relationship to the Grand Canyon, which was apparently just on the other side of the building. A few paces away from where Jason stuck to Leo’s side, Piper was shrugging off Dylan’s touches as a group of girls nearby kept casting glances at her and giggling. Jason could tell they were making jokes at Piper’s expense, but he was too far away to hear it.
“Alright, here’s the rundown,” Leo whispered, glancing around to make sure no one could hear them. “We’re students at the Wilderness School - a school for ‘troubled kids’. Everyone here was sent because either their family, or the courts, decided they were too much trouble. So now we’re all shoved together in an old school building in the middle of Armpit, Nevada, going on hikes and making daisy chains, like that will change the fact that I ran away six times and Piper stole a BMW - though she’ll tell you she just talked the dealership guy out of a brand new car… Any of this coming back to you?”
“No,” said Jason, keeping an eye on Dylan and Piper, and the girls.
Leo must have noticed, because he nudged him comfortingly. “Hey man, Piper can hold her own. I know things between you and her are a little… well…” Whatever Leo was about to say seemed to die off and he cleared his throat before continuing. “Anyway, we just gotta get this worksheet done and get out of here. Once we’re back on campus We’ll take you to the nurse or something - but until then, we gotta play it cool. Trust me, Coach Hedge isn’t the type of guy you want to go to about a concussion, or amnesia, or whatever this is.”
The our wrapped up inside the building, and they made their way towards the back doors, which were big and made of glass, overlooking the view of the Grand Canyon and a large, round skywalk that jutted out the side of the cliff. As the group was funneled through the doors, Jason overheard some of the girls talking to Piper.
“Does your family run this place?” One of them asked, giggling to herself.
“My dad’s Cherokee, not Hualapai,” Piper corrected, “Of course, you would have to have a couple of brain cells to know that.”
The girls all hummed condescendingly, clearly not taking anything Piper was saying seriously.
“What about your mom then?” the girl asked, raising her eyebrows and tilting her head innocently.
Piper’s face turned red. Behind her, Dylan was laughing.
“And what about your mom?” Leo interjected, “Too busy playing house without you there to ruin the picture?”
The girl and her friends glared at him. “Whatever, Valdez.”
Dylan whisked Piper away towards the skywalk to start working on their worksheet, but as she was pulled away Piper looked over her shoulder and mouthed Thank you.
Jason looked back at Leo. “Wow.”
Leo sighed. “Some of these people act like they don’t have their own shit going on. C’mon. Let’s get this over with.”
Leo wasn’t much help with the worksheet. Jason quickly found out just how well Leo was able to keep still - which was to say, not a lot. He pulled out loose gum wrappers, pipe cleaners and hair ties which looked like they may have belonged to Piper. He fidgeted with them relentlessly, making little origami cranes and simple machines that he launched off the side of the canyon. One particular creation that vaguely resembled a helicopter made it almost halfway over the gorge before it plummeted to its demise.
Jason’s memory must have been too busted to know what ha;f the stuff on the worksheet even meant. Almost like he had never learned it. It all felt like useless information anyway - naming different types of erosion and observations about sedimentary strata. He was never gonna use this. They should be learning about how to defend themselves and how to survive out in the -
Jason felt that sharp pain behind his eyes again, losing his train of thought.
“You okay?” Leo asked, turning his focus away from the gum wrapper propeller he was making for helicopter 2.0.
“Yeah,” said Jason, clutching his head.
Leo frowned. “Maybe you do have a concussion or something. Do you need ice?”
Jason glanced back at the museum building. At the end of the skywalk, Coach Hedge was standing guard, keeping an eye on the rest of the students… or at least, Jason thought he was. He realized that the Coach wasn’t looking at anyone else. He was staring directly at Jason.
“Is it just me?” Jason asked, “or…”
Leo followed his gaze. “Man, I hope he’s not still pissed at me for messing with his megaphone.”
The Coach must have noticed Jason staring back at him, because he pointed a finger and gestured. You. Come here.
Leo grimaced. “We’d better go talk to him, I’ll clear things up -”
“No,” said Jason, “You stay here, I’ll go talk to him.”
“Are you sure?” Leo looked nervous, “Because you can just tell him that I was the one who messed with it.”
“I’m sure.” Jason got the impression that the Coach wanted to talk to him. Just him. “I’ll be right back.”
He left the worksheet behind with Leo and made his way over to the shorter, though very much intimidating man. His baseball bat was tucked under his arm, and he grabbed it, as though he felt like he was going to need to use it on Jason.
“Look, Coach,” Jason started, “I don’t know -”
“Where did you come from?”
The question caught him off guard. “Excuse me?”
“You’re not from here,” the Coach said, his patience evidently wearing thinner, “You weren’t here when we got on the bus this morning, and as far as I can tell, you just appeared out of thin air. So where did you come from?”
Oddly, Jason felt relieved. He wasn’t going crazy - he really hadn’t ever met these people before. But that still didn’t explain how he’d ended up on that bus. “I don’t know,” he answered honestly, “I can’t remember anything from before I woke up on the bus. Can you help me?”
The Coach stared at him for a moment, squinting his eyes like he was trying to read Jason’s mind. “At least you’re being honest,” he grumbled, before lowering his voice like he was about to tell Jason a secret, “Another half-blood, aren’t you? Are you the ‘special package’?”
For a moment, Jason’s relief was squashed. This guy was just as crazy as Jason was. But the word ‘half-blood’ sounded familiar to him.
“Special package?” Jason asked.
The Coach grunted. “Got a message from Camp this morning, said something about an extraction squad coming for a ‘special package.’ I figured that had something to do with the other two but… is it you?”
Camp. Jason thought. Finally, something that sounded right, although he wasn’t sure what any of it meant.
Jason must have looked as lost as he felt, because the Coach reached out and potted him on the shoulder. “Don’t worry about it kid, I’ll keep an eye on you. In the meantime -”
They were cut off by a loud crash of thunder. Json looked up to see large, dark clouds that must have been gathering above them as they spoke. The wind had started to pick up, and Jason heard shrieks as worksheets started to fly out of people’s hands. The skywalk shuddered beneath their feet, and Jason could feel the sense of panic wash over the group
“Right,” said Coach, dropping his hand and reaching for his megaphone on the ground by his feet. “Everyone off the skywalk and into the museum! Now!”
Nobody hesitated. They all scrambled to get back inside. Jason made a dash to catch back up with Leo, who crashed into him as they ran towards each other.
“This is so crazy, dude,” said Leo, panting as Jason pulled him towards the building. “It just came out of nowhere!”
Piper and Dylan were standing outside the museum, holding open the doors as everyone crowded inside. Piper was frantically ushering people in, her other hand firmly gripping the door handle. She was calmly encouraging everyone to get inside, even as the storm started to intensify around them. Jason felt like he was trying to walk the wrong way down a lazy river - everything was pushing him back, keeping him away from the doors. Then, Piper and Dylan lost their grip on the doors, and they slammed shut, leaving only a handful of them still outside.
Piper started pulling at the handles, trying to get the doors to open again. “Help!”
Beside Jason, Leo tried to push himself forward to help. He screamed as his feet slipped out from beneath him and pulled him closer to the cliff’s edge.
“Sorry, Piper,” Dylan said, smiling as though this was the best day of his life. “I’m done helping.”
He flicked his wrist, and Piper was sent flying down the length of the skywalk, directly across from Jason. The back of her head smacked against the glass walkway, and she crumpled to the ground.
“Piper!” Leo screamed, valiantly trying to hold onto rocks and tree roots to keep himself from falling off the edge of the cliff behind Jason.
Jason found himself whipping his gaze between the two of them, unsure of what to do.
“Stay behind me!” Coach said, stepping in front of Jason and raising his baseball bat. “I should have known this was our monster.”
Dylan laughed, his dark hair flowing almost majestically in the wind. It could have been handsome if his eyes hadn’t started to glow a sickening shade of yellow. “You’ve lost your nose, old man.”
The few other kids still left outside surrounded them, unencumbered by the winds, eyes glowing.
Monsters, Jason mentally corrected, plural.
Piper wasn’t moving on the skywalk, which Jason realized might not be a good thing, but at least she was no longer sliding towards the cliffside. The longer Jason waited to act, the more Leo began to lose his grip.
Jason lunged for the cliffside, grabbing Leo’s hand and pulling. The wind pounded on his back, threatening to bowl him over.
Jason felt his grip on Leo’s hand begin to slip. Leo gasped, his eyes flashing with fear as they locked with Jason’s.
“You’re okay.” Jason’s voice shook. “I’ve got you.”
Jason pulled backward, and the pressure in the air popped. The two of them tumbled backward onto the ground, the momentum pulling Leo on top of him.
Above them, Jason could hear Coach grunting as he hurled his bat towards Dylan. There was a sharp swoosh as the bat cut through the air, and Jason looked up just in time to see Dylan raise his hand. The winds turned, sending the bat careening towards Piper’s unconscious form on the skywalk.
“Nice try,” Dylan taunted Hedge, before turning his focus on Jason and Leo, “but now I think I’ll just collect what I came here for.”
Jason and Leo quickly untangled themselves from one another, and Jason found himself acting out of instinct. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a gold coin. As he did so, it was like there was a miniature battle of his own happening inside his head. Half of him observed the coin with curiosity, rolling it between his fingers - IVLIVS, it read. The other half of Jason screamed at him to focus - don’t ask questions, just fight. It was this half that told him to toss the coin up into the air where it flipped, once, twice, before falling back into his hand as a fully formed golden sword.
Leo gawked at him. “Dude, what -?”
But Leo didn’t have time to question him, because Dylan had evaporated into a cloud of boy-shaped black smoke with huge smoky wings, and was flying straight towards them.
“Get down!” Jason yelled, and as Dylan sailed towards them, he thrust out his sword and stabbed at the smoky angel boy - a ventus, he briefly thought, a wind spirit. The tip of Jason’s sword just glanced off of Dylan’s middle, and a line of blood - golden blood - started to weep out of his side.
“Now that’s what I call a fair fight,” Coach Hedge shouted. “You handle him, I’ll take care of the rest.”
From where Leo was crouched at Jason’s feet, he shouted, “You’ll what?!”
Then, the man kicked off his shoes to reveal that where there should have been feet, Coach Hedge instead had cloven hooves. He sprinted onto the skywalk towards Piper, who seemed to be beginning to come back around, and scooped up his baseball bat.
A faun, Jason thought to himself, though he didn’t know where that particular thought had come from. He didn’t have time to question it either, because Dylan turned to his companions and yelled, “Don’t just stand there - Kill them!”
Dylan lunged at Jason again, hand outstretched, sparks of electricity dancing between his fingers. Before Jason could land another hit, Dylan blasted him in the chest.
The feeling was like if Jason had been set on fire, a line of hot energy surging from the point of contact and down to his feet. He dropped his sword and fell backwards onto the ground. His ears rang - a tinny, high pitched sound as he blinked up at the sky. Distantly he could hear the other wind spirits laughing, and the faint echo of Leo calling for him to wake up.
Jason groaned and rolled on his side, his hand reaching out to grab his golden sword. He pushed himself back onto his feet, and with each breath he felt a little bit stronger.
Dylan stared, his pleased expression morphing into one of shock and rage. “How are you - ?”
Jason didn’t give him time to finish before he lunged again, thrusting his sword at the spirit. Dylan dodged, swinging around to push them back towards the cliff’s edge. Over the span of Dylan’s wings, Jason could see Coach Hedge swinging wildly at the other wind spirits with his baseball bat. None of his swings hit, cutting through their smokey bodies without doing any damage. Piper was starting to get to her feet, looking around and assessing the situation. She stayed down, but Jason could tell she wasn’t as dazed as she was trying to appear.
They wouldn’t stand a chance for much longer - those were smaller than Dylan, but there were more of them. At least Jason had a weapon that actually did some damage.
Dylan was winding up again, lightning crackling between his finger tips. Something told him that even though he’d survived, Leo wouldn’t bounce back from a hit like that like Jason had.
Jason reached back and grabbed Leo’s hand, ducking under Dylan’s wings as he soared towards them.
Jason momentarily felt the wind pushing against them, trying to keep them from running - but with a distant thought of ‘two can play at this game’ he suddenly felt the gails shift, until they were being propelled towards Piper and Coach.
“Stay back!” Coach yelled, waving his bat like a madman and punching at the air, “I’ve got this!”
Jason seriously doubted that.
He raised his sword, keeping Piper and Leo behind him, as he swung wide, slashing through two wind spirits in one sweep. They immediately dissipated into golden dust, their remnants floating away in the strong winds. He turned to the one the Coach was still desperately trying to fight, and with a single thrust the spirit evaporated.
“What’s going on?!” Piper screamed.
“Coach, are you a goat?!” Leo shouted, staring at the faun’s feet.
“Satyr,” Coach Hedge barked.
“Who are you, demigod?” Dylan asked. His wispy form had almost doubled in size. His glowing golden eyes flashing bolts of lightning throughout his body. He advanced on them slowly, keeping out of range of Jason’s sword.
Jason stepped forward, sword at the ready. “Care to find out?”
Dylan sneered. For a moment it looked as if he might take the bait, if it weren’t for the fact that just then, the sky seemed to grow ten shades blacker, and in the swirling on the clouds grew a large hole - like the eye of a hurricane.
“My mistress summons me,” Dylan yelled, turning to look at the funnel forming behind him. “And you, demigod, will come with me. This is not a war you can win, little hero.”
Dylan lunged, so quickly Jason almost lost his footing. But Piper lunged, somehow managing to make contact and tackling Dylan to the skywalk.
The spirit looked momentarily stunned, but it didn’t last long. The winds picked up, causing the walkway to shudder, cracks forming all over the surface of the glass. Dylan threw Piper off of him, sending her over the edge of the skywalk.
Jason cried out, and Leo started to sprint towards her.
“Leo!” Jason warned, as Dylan charged, grabbing Leo by the arm and pulling him up towards the funnel. Leo screamed, kicking and flailing to try and get out of the spirit’s grasp.
Over the side of the walkway, Piper was screaming too. “Help! Somebody! Please!”
“You save Piper!” Coach yelled from beside Jason. “I’ve got Leo!”
Before Jason could protest, the Coach sprinted down the cracking walkway and leapt into the air, grabbing Dylan around the middle, jostling them enough that Leo fell out of Dylan’s grasp and onto the skywalk.
As Coach continued to fight with Dylan midair, jason scrambled out onto the breaking glass, pulling Leo to his feet and back towards safe ground.
“Coach?!” Jason yelled, hoping Hedge could still hear him.
“Jason!” Piper screamed, before she finally slipped over the edge.
“Save her!” Coach screamed, “I’ve got this.”
Save her? Jason briefly thought. But before he could question how he was even supposed to do that, Jason found his instinct once again taking over, before jumping off the walkway as it shattered into a million pieces.
It all happened quickly after that. Jason spotted Piper’s plummeting form about halfway down the canyon, her arms outstretched toward him. He reached his arms out towards her and willed himself to fall faster than she was, so he could catch her before they both hit the ground. It shouldn’t have been possible, and yet Jason found his hand wrapping around Piper’s wrist, pulling her towards him, and holding her against his chest.
Then, the air went still around them.
Jason could hear Piper’s shaky breathing in his ear, stuttering panicked breaths. He could feel her eyelashes flutter against his neck as she opened her eyes.
“J-Jason,” she stuttered. “Look.”
Jason hadn’t realized he’d closed his eyes until Piper’s words forced him to open them.
They were no longer falling. Instead, they were hovering above the canyon floor, maybe a hundred feet or so above the ground.
“What’s happening?” Piper gasped.
“I-I don’t know,” Jason said.
“Are you doing this?”
For a moment, Jason wondered how Piper had come to that conclusion, but after everything that had just happened, everything Jason had done that even he couldn’t explain, he supposed he couldn’t blame her.
“Maybe?” He said, not quite sure himself.
“Can you get us out of here?” Piper asked.
Jason thought for a moment. He realized they weren’t floating, or even flying. He could feel the pressure of the air beneath his feet, holding them aloft. He thought about the number of times during the fight when the wind had seemed to help them, rather than hold them back, even as they fought spirits who could control the wind.
Up, Jason thought, and to his amazement the winds listened, lifting them up and back to the top of the canyon. Jason hadn't had to think about it so consciously before - he had just… known to do it. Like it was second nature.
“This is so weird,” Piper said, voice shaking.
“Yeah,” Jason said. He could agree with hat much.
When they made it back up to the top of the cliff, Leo was staring at them. Coach and Dylan were nowhere to be seen, but the sky hadn’t lightened up any. Something told Jason that this wasn’t going to be over as easily as he’d hoped.
“Did you just -” Leo stopped, raising his hands in defeat. “You know, that’s not even the weirdest thing that’s happened today - what is going on.”
Both Piper and Leo looked at Jason, expecting him to have all the answers. “I’m just as lost as you are,” said Jason.
Piper sighed, crossing her arms like she was trying to give herself a hug.
Leo looked over at her with concern. “Are you okay?”
Piper huffed a laugh. “I’m fine.”
Leo raised an eyebrow. “You just fell off the Grand Canyon. It’s okay if you’re not okay.”
“I’m not the one who was almost abducted by that… thing.” Piper countered.
“A ventus,” Jason supplied. The other two turned look at him as if to say ‘I thought you said you didn’t know what was going on?’ “Where’s Coach?”
“Gone,” Leo said, looking up at the funnel in the sky that didn’t seem to be dissipating at all, “should we get out of here?”
“Coach said something about an extraction squad,” Jason replied, “Something about a ‘special package’.”
“What does that mean?” Piper asked. “And where is this ‘special package’ being extracted too?”
“I don’t know,” said Leo, his eyes locked on something on the horizon, “But I’m getting the idea that we’re about to find out. Look.”
Jason and Piper both turned to where Leo was pointing. On the horizon, outlined by the golden glow of a storm-lit sky, was something that resembled a pair of horses pulling a chariot - only it was flying, and the horses had wings.
Jason’s grip tightened around the handle of his sword, ready to fight again if he needed to. Soon the chariot was landing along the cliff’s edge, several feet away from them. Inside was a tall girl with blonde hair, and a terrifying expression that jason could tell, even from where he stood, meant that she was not someone to be trifled with. Next to her was a somewhat squirrely guy, with brown curly hair, and two horns curling out of his skull. When the two of them stepped out of the chariot, Jason could see the boy had shaggy, cloven goat’s legs, just like Hedge.
Another faun, Jason thought, or - what had Coach called himself? A satyr?
The girl marched up to them. In her hand, she held a small, bronze dagger, and she didn’t seem afraid to use it. “Where is he?”
Jason blinked. “Where is who?”
This seemed to make her even more mad, but the girl pursed her lips, as if trying to figure out what she should or shouldn’t say.
“Gleeson Hedge,” she said, which Jason was almost certain was not the ‘he’ she’d been asking about earlier.
Piper stepped up beside Jason on his left, and Leo flanked him on the right. Strength in numbers, Jason thought.
“He got taken,” Leo said, “by those… wind things. What did you call them?”
“Venti,” Jason said.
The girl raised an eyebrow. The boy who had been in the chariot with her approached them, joining the girl at her side.
“Nothing?” he asked quietly. His eyes looked mournful.
“Nothing,” she said.
“I don’t understand.” The satyr sighed, “You seemed so sure -”
“I was tricked,” the girl said, she sheathed her dagger and turned, heading back to the chariot. “Let’s just get them back to camp.”
“Annabeth -” the boy protested. But she was too far away.
“What’s her problem?” Piper asked.
The boy sighed. “Forgive her. It’s been a tough few days for both of us. My name is Grover - Grover Underwood. That was Annabeth Chase. We’re here to make sure you get to camp safely.”
“What Camp?” Leo asked, “and not to be rude, but after the day we’ve just had - how do we know we can trust you?”
“We’re friends of your protector, Gleeson Hedge,” Grover explained, “And, like I said, Annabeth isn’t always like this… a mutual friend of ours went missing recently and we were really hoping he would be here.”
“Who?” Jason asked, feeling like all the electricity from earlier on was making the hairs on his neck stand on end.
“Her boyfriend,” Grover said, “My best friend. His name is Percy Jackson.”