KORI'S POV
I'm not a fan of the cold.
We stood on the edge of the Brooklyn Bridge. The icy water below churned viciously, and cars whizzed back and forth across the bridge nonstop. My fur lined puffer coat kept me insulated from most of Jack Frost's bitter touch, but I mean early March in New York?
Oh yeah, you're gonna feel the chill.
"Are you sure you know where this is supposed to go down?" Leo called over the howling winds, his cheeks and the tip of his nose rosy from the cold.
I scowled at his assumption. "Yeah, trust me I know what I'm doing. You just make sure not to lose... the thing."
He bit his lip, trying and failing to keep the delight out of his voice. "You don't remember what it's called, do you?"
"I know what it's called!" I said quickly. "It's the uh.. the... the thingy. You know. The thing!"
The cocky grin plastered on his features told me he was very pleased with himself. He muttered something under his breath, but it was utterly lost in the wind.
I grabbed my black amethyst encrusted whip from its holster and cracked it in the air, purple sparks flying from the weapon's tip. "Just shut up and let me find the crossroads."
The sound of his snickering fades into the background noise of the city.
I took a deep breath in, channeling my magical energy. The raw amethyst gems embedded in my whip's hilt glowed, feeding off of my magic and traveling down the length of the weapon until every crystal glowed softly with purple energy. Now, I was able to control the whip as if it were an extension of my own body.
I cracked the whip upwards, and it wrapped around one of the bridge's support beams tightly. I held my breath as I swung against the tension and was slingshotted up to the support beam. At my will, the whip unfurled, and I repeated the process until I had successfully scaled the Brooklyn Bridge.
The view was pretty spectacular.
I was about 150 feet in the air, easily high enough to see the roads that crossed and intersected with that of the Brooklyn Bridge, especially with the streetlights illuminating the paths. The Manhattan Bridge was about a mile away on my left side.
The raging harbor swelled and crashed against the rocks below. I made a square with my hands by pressing my thumbs on each hand to my index fingers on the others forming a window and scanned the landscape before me.
"Hmm... crossroads... crossroads... cross—"
My voice died in my throat.
Standing on the Manhattan Bridge in stark contrast to the black of night, was a lone figure dressed in what appeared to be billowing white robes. Even if I was able to make out their face from this distance, it was covered with a white shawl. Something about their energy set my body on high alert.
I had to look closer to understand.
I closed my eyes and hummed with energy, feeling the familiar coiling in my stomach whenever I used my powers. When my eyes reopened, my vision looked almost thermal as I looked at the figure again with new eyes. Now I was able to see their aura, and it extended around them by almost two feet, blazing brilliant red and gold waves rippled like an ocean around their silhouette. It was a beautiful sight, and I couldn't tear my gaze away.
But from the way my stomach was turning in knots, I knew the figure was staring right back at me.
I'm wasting time.
I cursed and managed to pry my eyes away for a moment just long enough to quickly scan the area for the crossroads. There. I spotted an ideal three-way fork in the road in a warehouse district not far from here. I turned my attention back to the Manhattan Bridge, and my heart stopped.
The mysterious figure was gone.
I cursed again and descended my perch atop the bridge as quickly as I could. My mind was racing at top speed with nothing but unanswered questions. Who the heck was that? What the heck were they doing up there? And why were they watching me? Frigid winds nipped at my cheeks and lips all the way down.
One thing was for sure: I didn't like this new development at all.
My black Timberlands met the cement sidewalk of the bridge with a satisfying thud.
Leo appeared from behind a huge suspension pillar. "Ya know, for someone in a rush, you sure took your sweet candy ass— what happened?" His jokey attitude vanished after his eyes scanned my face.
I bit my lip, a little taken aback by his perceptiveness at first, but I guess I owed him more credit than that. Despite his usual silliness and general "wild card" factor, there was a reason Leo was one of the few people I trusted with my life.
I nodded my head in the direction of the crossroads. "Come on, let's walk and talk."
Stacks of shipping crates with faded and chipped paint made it clear that we'd arrived in the warehouse district of Brooklyn. The sound of the busy city around us somehow seemed duller and softer here. It was almost peaceful.
Up until I finished telling Leo what I'd seen, and he decided to never shut the fuck up about it.
I know I shouldn't complain. He always came up with great ideas when we brainstormed. I couldn't even count how many times he's saved my butt with his quick thinking, but gods could the guy talk my ears off.
It wasn't his fault though. Leo was just the kind of ADHD where you get super excited, talkative, and suddenly bursts of energy; whereas I was the daydreamer and schemer with a tendency to get lost in thought but act on impulse. I figured our dynamic was what made us such a great team.
Almost as if on cue, my eyes unglazed over, and I noticed Leo looking at me expectantly. Crap, he totally just said something to me.
"Uh, you're right?" I took a shot in the dark.
The son of Hephaestus nodded fervently. "Yes. Never forget that... but I know you spaced out again."
I twirled my bubblegum pink curls sheepishly. "Sorry. What'd you say? The abridged version, please." I added quickly.
"I said," Leo began, "whoever this Masked Milk Man is—-"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," I chuckled and held my hands up. "I don't remember voting on that name."
"It's just temporary, I'm not too fond of it either," he admitted. "Anyway, the guy you saw could be that Roman demigod I've been hearing about... Jason something? He's the son of Zeus— er, well his Roman counterpart."
"Oh great, that's all we need," I griped bitterly. My dreams of being the most powerful demigod in New York seemed to flicker and fade from my mind's eye. "Some big shot Roman who can fly. That is so overpowered."
"Agreed. And that's coming from the fire guy."
I spotted the fork in the roads dividing the streets like Poseidon's Triton itself and pointed it out to Leo. I glanced at the position of the moon, and a wave of relief washed over me. I was still in this. I was so close to being the strongest demigod in the city.
"Hell yes, we're just in time for the witching hour. Quick, Leo, do the thing!"
I slung my cosmic patterned knapsack off my back and grabbed my satchel of crystals, piece of chalk, and black sheep's wool. The crossroads itself was on the actual road, and the traffic was still too busy right now for me to do the entire ritual over there.
I eyed one of the many seemingly abandoned shipping containers, an idea popping into my head.
Good thing I knew how to improvise.
I hastily drew a huge circle on a nearby shipping container before furiously sketching the rest of the Ancient Greek rune around its circumference. The textured surface made the magic circle look like it was drawn on a crinkly potato chip.
I cringed at the sight and prayed Hekate would forgive my sloppiness.
"Is it supposed to look all... italicized like that?" Leo's voice sounded right behind me.
I groaned dejectedly. "Ugh, it's utter shit."
"Aww, cheer up, mamí," the fire user grinned, holding up a golden amulet set with an enormous red gem. "Look, I did the thing."
My heart swelled with joy as he handed me the gorgeous, glittering jewel. "Yes! Thank you so much for keeping this safe, Leo. I seriously owe you one."
The curly haired young man mumbled something I couldn't quite make out, though I did catch the tips of his pointed ears turn a deep shade of red. Before I was able to inquire about it, though, the amulet in my palms vibrated with energy.
When I gazed into the ruby, I saw three ghostly apparitions floating freely in its depths. I heard their wails and moans of pain, and I felt their despair. Though I couldn't remember the ancient name of this amulet, I distinctly remember hunting three different vengeful spirits and imprisoning them inside of it.
They were dangerous, I chided myself for pitying the souls. Each of them had killed mortals and wouldn't have stopped if Leo and I never came along. But still...
"Kori!"
Leo's voice, urgent and warning, snapped me out of my trance.
The muscles in his jaw tensed and tightened, his fists clenching tightly. There was no mistaking the slight rise in ambient temperature around him. I swallowed hard and reached for my whip before my eyes were even done following his steely gaze.
Because I knew that stance.
While Leo's body seemed to be radiating heat, my blood ran cold, and my fingers twitched around the amethyst hilt at my hip. A look of utter disbelief washed over my face.
Perched atop the storage unit I had just graffitied with an Ancient Greek rune, was the mysterious figure clad in billowing white cloth from head to toe.
Their piercing golden brown eyes narrowed into lethal slits directed right at me.
"Great," Leo muttered. "The Milk Man is here."
