II
PERCY
THE STORM CHURNED INTO A MINIATURE HURRICANE.
Kids screamed and ran for the building. The wind snatched away their notebooks, jackets, hats, and backpacks. Percy skidded across the slick floor, but stayed on his feet, gritting his teeth.
Leo lost his balance, and almost toppled over the railing, but Percy grabbed his jacket and pulled him back.
"Thanks, man!" Leo yelled.
"Go, go, go!" said Coach Hedge.
Piper and Dylan were holding the doors open, herding the other kids inside. Piper's snowboarding jacket was flapping wildly, her dark hair all in her face. Percy thought that she must have been freezing, but she looked calm and confident as she told the others it would be okay and encouraged them to keep going.
Percy, Leo, and Hedge ran towards them, but it was like running through quicksand. The wind seemed to fight them, pushing them back. Dylan and Piper pushed one more kid inside, then lost their grip on the doors. They slammed shut, closing off the skywalk.
Piper tugged at the handles. Inside, the kids pounded on the glass, but the doors seemed to be stuck.
"Dylan, help!" Piper shouted.
Dylan just stood there with an idiotic grin, his Cowboys jersey rippling in the wing, like he was suddenly enjoying the storm.
"Sorry, Piper," he said. "I'm done helping."
He flicked his wrist, and Piper flew backward, slamming into the doors and sliding to the skywalk deck.
"Piper!" Percy tried to charge forward, but the wind was against him, and Coach Hedge held him back.
"Coach," Percy said, "let me go! She's in trouble, I can help!"
"Percy, Leo, stay behind me," the coach ordered. "This is my fight. I should've known that 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 we're to 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 gave him that psycho happy smile. "Oh, come on, Coach. Let the boy attack me! After all, you're getting too old for this. Isn't that why they retired you to this stupid school? I've been on your team the entire season, and you didn't even know. You're losing your nose grandpa."
The coach made an angry sound like an animal bleating. "That's it, cupcake. You're going down."
"You think you can protect these three half-bloods all at once, old man?" Dylan laughed. "Good luck."
Dylan pointed at Leo, and a funnel cloud materialized around him. Leo flew off the skywalk like he'd been tossed. Somehow he managed to twist in midair, and slammed sideways into the canyon wall. He skidded, clawing furiously for any handhold. Finally, he grabbed a thin ledge about fifty feet below the skywalk and hung there by his fingertips.
"Help!" he yelled up at them. "Rope, please? Bungee cord? Something?"
Coach Hedge cursed and tossed Percy his club. "I don't know who you are, kid, but I hope you're good. Keep that thing busy"—he stabbed a thumb at Dylan—"while I get Leo."
"Get him how?" Percy demanded. "You going to fly?"
"Not fly. Climb." Hedge kicked off his shoes, and Percy almost had a heart attack. The coach didn't have any feet. He had hooves. Goat hooves. Which mean those things on his head, Percy realized, weren't bumps. They were horns.
"You're a faun," Percy said. The words tumbled out before he could think, and even he hadn't a clue about the meaning of them.
"Satyr!" Hedge snapped. "Fauns are Roman. But we'll talk about that later."
Hedge leaped over the railing. He sailed towards the canyon wall and hit hooves first. He bounded down the cliff with impossible agility, finding footholds no bigger than postage stamps, dodging whirlwinds that tried to attack him as he picked his way towards Leo.
"Isn't that cute!" Dylan turned towards Percy. "Now it's your turn, boy."
Percy threw the club. It seemed useless with winds so strong, but the club turned against the current and flew right at Dylan. The club must have hit him hard, because in a split second, Dylan was on his knees.
Piper wasn't dazed as she appeared. Her fingers closed around the club when it rolled next to her, but before she could use it, Dylan rose. Blood—golden blood—trickled from his forehead.
"Nice try, boy." He glared harshly at Percy. "But you'll have to do better."
The skywalk shuddered. Hairline fractures appeared in the glass. Inside the museum, kids stopped banging on the doors. They backed away, watching in terror.
Dylan's body dissolved into smoke, as if his molecules were coming unglued. He had the same face, the same brilliant white smile, but his form was suddenly composed of swirling black vapor, his eyes like electrical sparks in a living storm cloud. He sprouted black smoky wings and rose above the skywalk. If angels could be evil, Percy decided, they would look exactly like this.
"You're a ventus," Percy said, though he had no idea how he knew that word. "A storm spirit."
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—somebody special. She'll reward me greatly for your death!"
Two more funnel clouds touched down on either side of Dylan and turned into venti—ghostly young men with smoky wings and eyes that flickered with lightning.
Piper stayed down, pretending to be dazed, her hand still gripping the club. Her face was pale, but she gave Percy a determined look, and he understood the message: Keep their attention. I'll brain them from behind. Cute, smart, and violent. Percy wished he remembered having her as a girlfriend. He clenched his fists and got ready to charge, but he never got the chance.
Dylan raised his hand, arcs of electricity running between his fingers, and blasted Percy in the chest.
Bang! Percy found himself flat on his back. His mouth tasted like burning aluminum foil. He lifted his head and saw that his clothes were smoking. The lightning bolt had gone straight through his body and blasted off his left shoe. His toes were black with soot.
The storm spirits were laughing. The wind raged. Piper was screaming defiantly, but it all sounded tinny and far away.
Out of the corner of his eye, Percy saw Coach Hedge climbing the cliff with Leo on his back. Piper was on her feet, desperately swinging the club to fend off the two extra storm spirits, but they were just toying with her. The club went right through their bodies like they weren't even there. And Dylan, a dark and winged tornado with eyes, loomed over Percy.
"Stop," growled Percy. He rose unsteadily to his feet, and he wasn't sure who was more surprised: him, or the storm spirits.
"How are you alive?" Dylan's form flickered with uncertainty. "That was enough lightning to kill twenty men!"
Percy smirked. "My turn," he said huskily. He looked at the storm spirit, his sea-green eyes seemingly glowing in the darkness of the storm. Anybody could see the violent waves of the ocean crashing down onto the beach in them. Dylan backed up.
Percy reached into his pocket and pulled out the ballpoint pen. He let his instincts take over, clicking the pen as if he had done it a thousand times. He felt it grow heavier in his hands and when he looked over to his hand, he was suddenly holding a sword—a wickedly sharp, three foot long, double-edged sword. The leather grip fit his fingers perfectly, and the whole thing was made of a glowing gold material.
Dylan snarled. He looked at his two comrades and yelled, "Well? Kill him!"
The other storm spirits didn't look happy with that order, but they flew at Percy, their fingers crackling with electricity.
Percy swung at the first spirit. His blade passed through it, and the creature's smoky form disintegrated. The second spirit let loose a bolt of lightning, but Percy's sword absorbed the charge. Percy stepped in—one quick thrust and the second storm spirit dissolved into golden powder.
Dylan wailed in outrage. He looked down as if expecting his comrades to reform, but their gold dust remained dispersed in the wind. "Impossible! Who are you, half-blood?"
Piper was so stunned she dropped the club. "Percy, how…?"
Then Coach Hedge leaped back onto the skywalk and dumped Leo like a sack of flour.
"Spirits, fear me!" Hedge bellowed, flexing his short arms. Then he looked around and realized there was only Dylan.
"Curse it, boy!" he snapped at Percy. "Didn't you leave some for me? I like a challenge!"
Leo got to his feet, breathing hard. He looked completely humiliated, his hands bleeding from clawing at the rocks.
"Yo, Coach Supergoat, whatever you are—I just fell down the freaking Grand Canyon! Stop asking for challenges!"
Dylan hissed at them, but Percy could see fear in his eyes. "You have no idea how many enemies you've awakened, half-bloods. My mistress will destroy all demigods. This war, you cannot win."
Above them, the storm exploded into a full-force gale. Cracks expanded in the skywalk. Sheets of rain poured down, and Percy had to crouch to keep his balance. A hole opened in the clouds—a swirling vortex of black and silver.
"The mistress calls me back!" Dylan shouted with glee. "And you, demigod, will come with me."
He lunged for Percy, but Piper tackled the monster from behind. Even though he was made of smoke, Piper somehow managed to connect. Both of them went sprawling. Percy, Leo, and the coach surged forwards to help, but the spirit screamed with rage. He let loose a torrent that knocked them all backward. Percy and Hedge landed on their butts. Percy's sword skidded across the glass. Leo hit the back of his head and curled on his side, dazed and groaning. Piper got the worst of it. She was thrown off Dylan's back, and hit the railing, tumbling over the side until she was hanging by one hand over the abyss.
Percy started towards her, but Dylan yelled, "I'll settle for this one!"
He grabbed Leo's arm and began to rise, throwing a half-conscious Leo below him. The storm spun faster, pulling them upward like a vacuum cleaner. "Help!" Piper screamed. "Somebody!"
Then she slipped, yelling as she fell.
"Percy, go!" Hedge yelled. "Save her!"
The coach launched himself at the spirit with some hardcore goat fu—lashing out with his hooves, knocking Leo free from the spirit's grasp. Leo dropped safely to the floor, but Dylan grabbed the coach's arms instead, Hedge tried to head-butt him, then kicked him and called him a cupcake. They rose into the air, gaining speed.
Save her? Percy thought. She's gone!
But, again, his instincts won. He ran to the railing, thinking, I'm a lunatic, and jumped over the side.
Percy was afraid of heights, and knowing he was going to smash against the canyon floor five hundred feet below wasn't helping. He figured he hadn't accomplished anything except for dying along with Piper, but he tucked his arms and plummeted headfirst. The sides of the canyon raced past like a film on fast-forward. His face felt like it was peeling off. His mind screamed at him. He somehow knew the air was dangerous territory, but there was nothing he could do about it now. In a heartbeat, he caught up with Piper, who was flailing wildly. He tackled her waist, and closed his eyes, waiting for his death. Piper screamed.
A memory flashed in Percy's eyes. He recalled that strange pull in his gut he had felt earlier on. How the river had begun to rage beneath him as he grew frustrated.
He shut his eyes tighter. Please work. Please, please, please.
He imagined the waves of the river below him slowly rising up, coming to their aid. He pictured the water bending to his will, forming a light circle around the two to keep them from falling to their doom.
His gut twisted.
The wind suddenly died. Piper's scream turned into a strangled grasp. Percy thought they must be dead, but he hadn't felt any impact.
"P-P-Percy," Piper managed.
He opened his eyes. They weren't falling, nor were they dead. They were floating in midair with a giant bubble of water above them, a hundred feet above the river—or what used to be the river. The small line of water that had laid beneath the canyon just a moment earlier was now circling around the pair, keeping them from plummeting down to their deaths.
He hugged Piper tight, and she repositioned herself so that she was hugging him too. They were nose to nose. Her heart beat so hard, Percy could feel it through her clothes.
She said, "How did you—"
"I didn't," he said, cutting her off, "I think I would know if I could bend water like that girl from the Avatar."
But then he thought back to that harsh pull in his gut, and to his condition: I don't even know who I am.
He thought about going up. The bubble around them popped, causing Piper to let out a yelp, but instead formed a wave beneath them and carried them up to the platform.
"The water is helping us," he said.
"Well tell it to help us faster! Get us out of here!"
Percy looked down. The easier thing to do would be to descend slowly onto the canyon floor. Then he looked up. The rain had stopped. The storm clouds didn't seem as bad, but they were still rumbling and flashing. There was no guarantee the spirits were gone for good. He had no idea what happened to Coach Hedge, and he'd left Leo up there, barely conscious.
"We have to help them," Piper said, as if reading his thoughts.
"Can you—"
"Let's see." Percy thought Up, and instantly the water shot them upwards.
The fact that he was riding the water might've been cool under different circumstances, but he was too much in shock. As soon as they landed on the skywalk, they ran to Leo.
Piper 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 he was alive, and that was good enough.
"Stupid…ugly…goat…" he muttered.
"Where did he go?" Piper asked.
Leo pointed straight up. "Never came down. Please tell me he didn't actually save my life."
"Twice," Percy said, chuckling.
Leo groaned even louder. "What happened? The tornado guy, the gold sword... I hit my head. That's it, right? I'm hallucinating?"
Percy had forgotten about the sword. He walked over to where it was lying and picked it up. The blade was well balanced. On a hunch, he pressed the edge of the sword. It shrank back into a pen.
"Yep," Leo mumbled. "Definitely hallucinating."
Piper shivered in her rain-soaked clothes. "Percy, those things—"
Percy's face darkened. "Venti," he growled. "Storm spirits."
"Okay. You acted like… like you'd seen them before. Who are you?"
He shook his head. "That's what I've been trying to tell you. I don't remember."
The storm dissipated. 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.
"Coach Hedge said he had to protect three people," Percy remembered. "I think he meant us."
"And that thing Dylan turned into…" Piper shuddered. "God, I can't believe it was hitting on me. He called us…what, demigods?"
Leo lay on his back, staring at the sky. He didn't seem anxious to get up. "Don't know what demi means," he said. "But I'm not feeling too godly. You guys feeling godly?"
There was a brittle sound like dry twigs snapping, and the cracks in the skywalk began to widen.
"We need to get off this thing," Percy said. "Maybe if we—"
"Ohhh-kay," Leo interrupted. "Look up there and tell me those aren't flying horses."
At first, Percy thought Leo had hit his head too hard. Then he saw a dark shape descending from the east—too slow for a plane, too large for a bird. As it got closer, he could see a pair of winged animals—gray, four-legged, exactly like horses—except each one had a twenty-foot wingspan. And they were pulling a brightly painted box with two wheels: a chariot.
"Reinforcements," he said. "Hedge told me an extraction squad was coming for us."
"Extraction squad?" Leo struggled to his feet. "That sounds painful."
"And where are they extracting us to?" Piper asked.
Percy watched as the chariot landed on the far end of the skywalk. The flying horses tucked their wings and cantered nervously across the glass, as if they sensed it was near breaking. Two teenagers stood in the chariot—a tall blonde girl, maybe a little older than Percy, and a bulky dude with a shaved head and a face like a pile of bricks. They both wore jeans and orange T-shirts, with shields tossed over their backs. The girl leaped off before the chariot even finished moving. She pulled a knife and ran towards Percy's group while the bulky dude was reining in the horses.
"Where is he?" the girl demanded. Her gray eyes were fierce and a little startling.
"Where's who?" Percy asked.
She frowned like his answer was unacceptable. Then she turned to Leo and Piper.
"What about Gleeson? Where is your protector, Gleeson Hedge?"
The coach's first name was Gleeson? Percy might've laughed if the morning hadn't been quite so weird and scary. Gleeson Hedge: football coach, goat man, protector of demigods. Sure, why not?
Leo cleared his throat. "He got taken by some…tornado things."
"Venti," Percy explained. "Storm spirits."
The blonde girl arched an eyebrow. "You mean anemoi thuellai? That's the Greek term. Who are you, and what happened?"
Percy did his best to explain, though it was hard to meet those intense gray eyes. About halfway through the story, the other guy from the chariot came over. He stood there glaring at him, his arms crossed. He had a tattoo of a rainbow on his biceps, which seemed a little odd to Percy.
When Percy had finished the story, the blonde girl didn't look satisfied. "No, no, no! She told me he would be here. She told me if I came here, id find the answer."
"Annabeth," the bald guy grunted. "Check it out." He pointed at Percy's feet.
Percy hadn't thought much about it, but he was still missing his left shoe, which had been blown off by lightning. His bare foot felt okay, but it looked like a lump of charcoal..
"The guy with one shoe," said the bald dude. "He's the answer."
"No, Butch," the girl insisted. "He can't be. I was tricked." She glared at the sky as though it had done something wrong.
"What do you want from me?" she screamed. "What have you done with him?"
The skywalk shuddered, and the horses whinnied urgently.
"Annabeth," said the bald dude, Butch, "we got to leave. Let's get these three to camp and figure it out there. Those storm spirits may come back." She fumed for a moment.
"Fine." She fixed Percy with a resentful look. "We'll settle this later."
She turned on her heel and marched towards the chariot.
Piper shook her head. "What's her problem? What's going on?"
"Seriously," Leo agreed.
"We have to get you out of here," Butch said. "I'll explain on the way."
"I'm not going anywhere with her." Percy gestured towards the blonde. "She looks like she wants kill me."
Butch hesitated. "Annabeth's okay. You gotta cut her some slack. She had a vision telling her to come here, to find the guy with one shoe. That was supposed to be the answer to her problem."
"What problem?" Piper asked.
"She's been looking for one of our campers, who's been missing for three days," Butch said. "She's going out of her mind with worry. She hoped he'd be here."
"Who?" asked Percy.
"Her boyfriend," Butch said. "A guy named Jason Grace."