Chapter Forty Four-Leo

Fly a helicopter? Sure, why not? Leo had done plenty of crazier things that week.

The sun was going down as they flew north over the Richmond Bridge, and Leo couldn't believe the day had gone so quickly. Once again, nothing like ADHD and a good fight to the death to make time fly.

Piloting the chopper, he went back and forth between confidence and panic. If he didn't think about it, he found himself automatically flipping the right switches, checking the altimeter, easing back on the stick, and flying straight. If he allowed himself to consider what he was doing, he started freaking out. He imagined his Aunt Rosa yelling at him in Spanish, telling him he was a delinquent lunatic who was going to crash and burn. Part of him suspected he was right.

"Going okay?" Piper asked from in the back with Jason. She sounded more nervous than he was, so Leo put on a brave face.

"Aces," he said. "So what's the Wolf House?"
"What I was wondering…" Wisty muttered from the copilot's seat and Leo thought, Score!

Jason knelt between their seats, and Piper came up too. "An abandoned mansion in the Sonoma Valley. A demigod built it-Jack London."

Leo couldn't place the name. "He an actor?"
"Writer," Piper said. "Adventure stuff, right? Call of the Wild? White Fang?"

"Yeah," Jason said. "He was a son of Mercury-I mean, Hermes. He was an adventurer, traveled the world. He was even a hobo for a while."
"Interesting guy," Wisty said, and Leo's heart pumped. She looked drop-dead gorgeous. Leo wanted to kiss her so badly, but that would be weird and random.

"Then he made a fortune writing." Jason continued. "He bought a big ranch in the country and decided to build this huge mansion-the Wolf House."
"Named that 'cause he wrote about wolves?" Leo guessed.
"Partially," Jason said. "But the site, and the reason he wrote about wolves-he was dropping hints about his personal experience. There's a lot of holes in his life story-how he was born, who his dad was, why he wandered around so much-stuff you can only explain if you know he was a demigod."

The bay slipped behind them, and the helicopter continued north. Ahead of them, yellow hills rolled out as far as Leo could see.

"So Jack London went to Camp Half-Blood," Leo guessed.
"No," Jason said. "He didn't."
"Bro, you're freaking me out with this mysterious talk. Are you remembering your past or not?"

"Pieces," Jason said. "Only pieces. None of it good. The Wolf House is sacred ground. It's where London started his journey as a child-where he found out he was a demigod. That's why he returned there. He thought he could live there, claim that land, but it wasn't meant for him. The Wolf House was cursed."
"Oh wow, that's nice." Wisty said with large sarcasm. "Then why are we going there if it's cursed?"

Jason looked at her. "Hera, duh."
Wisty rolled her eyes. "Do you think I'm dense? I know that!"

Jason sighed, then continued. "It burned in a week before he and his wife were supposed to move in. A few years later, London died, and his ashes were burned on the site."

"So," Piper said. "how do you know all of this?"

A shadow crossed Jason's face. Probably just a cloud, but Leo could swear it looked like an eagle.

"I started my journey there too," Jason said. "It's a powerful place for demigods, a dangerous place. If Gaea can claim it, use its power to entomb Hera on the solstice and raise Porphyrion-that might be enough to awaken the earth goddess fully."

Leo kept his hand on the joystick, guiding the chopper at full speed-racing toward the north. He could see some weather ahead-a spot of darkness like a cloudbank or a storm, right where they were going.

Piper's dad had called him a hero earlier. And Leo couldn't believe some of the things he'd done-smacking around Cyclopes, disarming exploding doorbells, battling six-armed ogres with construction equipment. They just seemed like they had happened to another person. He was just Leo Valdez, an orphaned kid from Houston. He'd spent his life running away, and part of him still wanted to run. What was he thinking, flying toward a cursed mansion to fight more evil monsters.

His mom's voice echoed in his head: Nothing is unfixable.
Except the fact that you're gone forever, Leo thought.

Seeing Piper and her dad back together had really driven that home. Even if Leo survived this quest and saved Hera, Leo wouldn't have any happy reunions. He wouldn't be going back to a loving family. He wouldn't see his mom.

The helicopter shuddered. Metal creaked, and Leo could almost imagine the tapping was Morse code: Not the end. Not the end.

"Did you hear that?" Wisty asked Leo quietly, so no one could hear.
Leo looked at her, confused. "Hear what?"
"The Morse code. The helicopter."

Leo was stunned. Wisty was the first person he'd ever met who knew Morse code.

As he leveled out the helicopter, and the creaking stopped, Leo asked, "So, you know Morse code too?"
Wisty looked suddenly uncomfortable, like it reminded her of a bad memory. "When I was seven, my mom was still around, and she taught me it on my birthday."
"How was your mom still around? Zeus probably was mad."

Wisty laughed bitterly. "Ha. Bunch of thunderstorms in Dallas for years. Because of me." She looked at him with curious eyes. "Doesn't that feel so wrong? Some people were thinking it was global warming, but it was just some god mad at another god for staying around with their kid. Zeus…"

Wisty's voice faded, and Leo knew she was going to say something not very nice.

As Wisty explained her mom/daughter bonding by Morse code, Leo flew the helicopter, concentrating on listening, not flying.

Wisty swallowed hard, and she looked like she couldn't say anymore. It was the part where she was eight. She'd said it so sadly, Leo knew it was a bad part.

"Thirty minutes out," he told his friends, though he wasn't sure how he knew. "If you want to get some rest, now is a good time."

"Piper," Wisty said. "Switch me spots."
"Okay…"

In a flash, Piper was next to Leo, and Wisty and Jason were passed out in the back. Piper and Leo were the only ones awake.

After a few minutes of awkward silence, Leo said, "Your dad'll be fine, you know. Nobody's gonna mess with him with that crazy goat around."

Piper glanced over and Leo was stuck by how much she'd changed. Not just physically. Her presence was stronger. She seemed more… here. At Wilderness School, she'd spent the semester trying not to be seen, hiding out in the back row of the classroom, the back of the bus, the corner of the lunchroom as far as possible from the loud kids. Now she would be impossible to miss. It didn't matter what she was wearing-you'd have to look at her.

"My dad," she said thoughtfully. "Yeah, I know. I was thinking about Jason. I'm worried about him."

Leo nodded. The closer they got to that bank of clouds, the more Leo worried, too. "He's starting to remember. That's got to make him a little edgy."
"But what if…what if he's a different person?"

Leo had had the same thought. If the Mist could affect their memories, could Jason's whole personality be an illusion, too? If their friend wasn't their friend, and they were going into a cursed mansion-a dangerous place for demigods-what would happen if Jason's full memory came in the middle of a battle?

"Nah," Leo decided. "After all we've been through? I can't see it. We're a team. Jason can handle it."

Piper smoothed her blue dress, which was tattered and burned from their fight on Mount Diablo. "I hope you're right. I need him…" She cleared her throat. "I mean I need to trust him…"
"I know," Leo said. After seeing her dad break down, Leo understood Piper couldn't afford to lose Jason as well. She'd just watched Tristan McLean, her cool suave movie star dad, reduced near insanity. Leo could barely stand to watch that, but for Piper-Wow, Leo couldn't even imagine. He figured that would make her insecure about herself, too. If weakness was inherited, she'd be wondering, could she break down the way her dad did?

"Hey, don't worry," Leo said. "Piper, you're the strongest, most powerful beauty queen I've ever met. You can trust yourself. For all it's worth, you can trust me too."

The helicopter dipped down, and Leo almost jumped out of his skin. He cursed and righted the helicopter.

Piper laughed nervously. "Trust you, huh?"
"Ah, shut up already." But he grinned at her, and for a second, it felt like he was just relaxing comfortably with a friend.

Then they hit the storm clouds.