My stomach feels as if it was still back upstairs. I fall rapidly, my arms flailing wildly. Debris falls with us, some of which bumps into me.
I will the shoes to fly, and they begin flapping in rapid succesion.
I spot a yellow shape below me and I also see the ground, growing larger--a little too quickly for comfort.
My body arches downward and I yell, "HELEN!" until my throat burns.
She looks up and extends her arm and hand. I do the same, diving towards her.
My heart reaches my throat when I see the debris crumble and shatter on the ground.
My hand is inches away from Helen and I remember my dream. I saved her in my dream. I have to do it now, too.
I reach until my arm feels like it's going to leave its socket. She's below me, her eyes colored with terror, her hair whipping wildly. I grab her tightly and will the shoes to fly up.
Helen's weight has an immense pull but the shoes only dip slightly before rising. There is the residual dropping of pebbles and then there is only silence.
We lower onto the ground and I massage my arm and shoulder blades. "They make it look so easy in the movies."
Helen is still silent, recovering from initial shock. "I thought we were finished," she finally whispers.
I'm about to explain my dream when I hear a series of slow claps.
A familiar paunchy old man stands beside a structure with bodies laying on top of it.
"Jeremiah!" Jessie's voice cries.
"Are you guys alright?" shouts Anton.
I realize the two of them are cut and bruised badly, strapped to what looks like a platform with steps.
Mr. B smiles crookedly. "They won't be, very soon." He lets out a whistle and a familiar screech immediately follows.
"Helen, get ready," I warn, and pull out Riptide.
Helen readies her bow and we train our eyes on the shaft in the roof. It was the only way in or out. But then how did the others get down here? No time.
The shaft crumples and widens as giant wings flap rhythmically. A massive Hippogriff descends and stares us down with its piercing eagle eyes.
"Those claws aren't just for show," Mr. B boats in his thick Egyptian accent. "Render them incapacitated!"
The Hippogriff swoops towards us. Helen fires an arrow straight for the underbelly but the Hippogriff merely flaps it wings and sends the arrow awry.
It comes in and tries to scrape me off the ground but I narrowly hop out of the way.
When I think I'm safe, it slams its wings into me and sends me crashing and tumbling into the ground.
Mr B. laughs sadistically and says, "Who does this kid belong to?"
I try to get my bearings together and get on all fours. "My father is Hermes, for your information," I reply gruffly.
He bursts into laughter, so much so that the Hippogriff actually pauses to cock its head.
"You leave him alone. He has twice the heart you'll ever have," shouts Helen.
I get up and charge towards the Hippogriff. It swings with its claws and I leap on top of its arm, running towards its head. It leans in and opens its beak, craning its neck violently.
Before it can make a meal out of me, I sink my sword into its arm and Helen sends an arrow into its wing.
The Hippogriff throws a fit, swinging and screaming, tossing me to the side.
I prop myself up on my elbow. "It doesn't matter who my parents are or where I'm from. I define myself. My actions. Besides, I'll still kick your butt."
The Hippogriff screams as if to say, "I'm still here."
It claws the ground and bounds towards Helen. She fires an arrow into its underbelly and the monster nearly claws off her head.
I run and swing at its arm, missing completely. It swipes with its wing but I stamp my sword into it and hold on as it takes off.
The monster takes flight, flapping its wings clumsily as I dangle helplessly. The ground grows smaller and I realize I accidentally purchased a ticket with the wrong airline.
It tries to slam me into the wall but I run along the rocks, avoiding getting pancaked briefly. Then, I luck out: Riptide comes loose and I fall down.
I let out a scream and then Helen yells, "Your shoes!"
I grin and begin laughing like a maniac as I fly. Helen fires another arrow but the monster snaps it with the sheer force of its wings.
I fly towards the Hippogriff and hack its hind leg, landing a deep cut that sends the thing reeling into a wall.
Helen fires a round of arrows and the monster starts spiraling like a helicopter with a busted tail. It shrieks and flaps it's wings so hard, I lose my balance and start falling.
I try to gain control of the wings but I was so close to the monster, I got the brunt of the blow. My body takes a nosedive and I try to straighten out with little success.
I collapse into someone's arms and we both roll over onto the floor, preventing my becoming a pancake. I look around and see Helen. I grin weakly at her. Then, I turn as the monster cries out in agony.
It dives for us and I help Helen up, and we both struggle to get out of the way. It hits me with a hand and gets Helen too, just as she fires a blind arrow.
I find myself pinned under a mass of feathers. The Hippogriff quivers in pain and I slide my hand into my pocket but Riptide isn't there. I can hear Helen's muffled voice but I can't understand what she's saying. The feathers start weighing heavier, as if they were recently coated in iron.
My bones cry out as they become one with the ground. I slide my fingers into my pocket and pull out Riptide. I shift onto a knee and slide my other hand under my belly to uncap the pen. I do so and stand it upright, removing my knee. The sword sinks into the mass of feathers and there is a series of writhing and galloping as the Hippogriff gets up, stomps a few yards before it collapses.
Helen rubs her ankle and stands up unsteadily. I barely make it to my feet when I register footsteps behind us.
The next series of events happen without much thought. A shape runs with a spear pointed towards Helen and I lash out with my sword, deflecting the tip towards the air.
Sparks fly and electricity buzzes at the tip of the spear. Then I see the attacker, caught red handed.
Mr. B scowls as he rolls the spear in his hands.
"Its over, Mr. B," I declare.
"Jeremiah!" a voice calls.
I look over my shoulders towards the platform. The voice calls again: "That's the king!"
It was Anton's voice. But why was he still helping us? And king?
"That king is our enemy. He's Bu--"
I don't hear the rest of his sentence because Mr. B swings at my neck.
I deflect the blow easily. He's getting desperate. Why doesn't he want me to know his name?
My thoughts are interrupted by a series of rumbling noises and tremors coming from above. Jim and Lucas must be going at it.
I jab at Mr. B's stomach and pull my elbow up to connect with his jaw. He staggers back but swipes with the butt of the spear and then spins it toward my leg. The hairs on my shin standing up from how close the electrical tip was.
I fake towards his neck and he raises his spear, falling for it. I quickly swipe the back of his legs with one of my own and he falls backwards.
I bring Riptide down towards his chest but a shock runs through my body and I drop my sword.
I notice his spear tip has sliced my thigh, just barely but enough to immobilize me.
Mr. B smiles crookedly as he stands up. He removes his spear and I fall to my knees. He raises it triumphantly and I pray my end will be swift. He swings. However, he misses completely.
Mr. B falls forward onto the ground and doesn't get up.
Helen stands behind him, and brings down her bow.
She gives me a relieved smile and then her eyes dart to my wound. "Get the Ambrosia!" she yells.
We nearly finish all the cubes when we hear shouts from the platform.
"A little help here!" Anton shouts. We run and notice the roof start to crumble. The fissures grow from the ends of the walls.
"We have to hurry," I explain, pointing towards the pebbles falling from the ceiling.
I cut the straps off of Jessie but I eye Anton carefully.
"What's going on? Why aren't you cutting me out of here?" he asks, a little too innocently for my liking.
Bigger rocks are slamming down now.
"Don't act like you don't know," I say, a little unsure now.
He raises his eyebrows. "We don't have time for games!"
Helen and I exchange a nervous glance. She must be thinking the same thing: what's going on? Either he's a really good actor or he really doesn't know what's going on.
Jessie finishes applying lip balm and exclaims, "You got the others out?!"
I nod and she wraps me in a hug. "I knew you'd do it!"
"Actually, it wasn't me--Jim and Lucas came back and we rescued the rest of the kids," I explain.
Jessie's expression hardens at the mention of Lucas.
A shower of rocks lands on the platform. Wait, this isn't just a platform. It's an altar.
"Hey! I'm still here!" Anton shouts, writhing painfully in his straps.
I frown. "Jacob told me you were the traitor," I admit. "I'm not sure I can trust you."
He has a distant look for a moment and remains silent and pensive for a moment, despite a few pebbles landing on his shirt. Then, his gray eyes light up in fear.
"Jacob?" he asks.
"Yeah," I say, getting a feeling of Déjà vu.
"He can't be trusted," Anton says.
Helen and I share a confused look.
"That's exactly what he said about you," Helen explains.
Anton has an expression of terror in his eyes. "You have to believe me."
"If you can offer a valid explanation, we'll let you go," Helen promises.
Anton swallows hard and watches the rocks fall in the distance. "He was contacting the monsters and I found out. I was going to stop him but he knew. And, and he drugged me in Iowa. You have to believe me--he's a son of Hypnos!"
Now it's my turn to get nervous. I look at Helen and she looks just as worried as I feel. "Jacob was a son of Hypnos. All that yawning..." I say.
"He schemed with the monsters to save himself. He was going to lead us all to them," Anton explains, breathlessly.
I look down. Thats exactly what Jacob said Anton was doing.
"Okay, that's what you've been accused of doing. How come he just drugged you and left you in Iowa? And how come he was chained here?" I ask.
He bites his lip as another tremor rocks the building. "I--I don't know. Maybe he thought no one would find me...Were the others chained too?"
"Wait!" he says, before I reply. "Were they awake?!"
"No. Ah, they were all asleep except for him. He was in my dream as well but he was the only one who was restrained," I say, realizing how sketchy things were.
Helen and I seem to realize it at the same time.
"He entered your dream, no surprise, as he's the son of Hypnos. He wasn't asleep because he's immune to those drugs. He must have been chained to remove suspicion," Anton concludes, exasperated.
Jessie looks at us, dagger in hand, and we nod.
"But if you aren't the deciever--" I begin.
"We have to save Jim and Lucas!" Helen finishes.
Anton gets up and rubs his wrists.
"Call him! Lucas, I mean," I say.
Jessie takes out her phone and dials Lucas.
"You know, at this point, I'm not even surprised that she has service down here," I joke.
Anton still looks troubled. "We got here before summer's time," he says as he examines his watch. "Still three hours till dawn. "We saved the campers from a land that is sublime," he says pointing up towards the now shaky estate. "Now--" he begins.
Jessie shakes her head. "He's not picking up."
We all jump when a boulder smashes into the ground.
"Let's go but...how do we get out of here?" I ask.
"The only exit is through that shaft," Anton explains.
"But how did you guys get here if that shaft wasn't open before?" Helen asks.
Anton shakes his head. "It was some kind of shadow travel, like the one Hades is known to use. We can't do that."
Jessie shrieks as a pebble shatters her pocket mirror.
"Then..." I look at my shoes. "This is our only ticket out."
"Grab on," I order.
Jessie willingly grabs my arm and snuggles a little too close for comfort but Helen stays to the side.
"What's wrong?!" I shout, the falling rocks too loud for normal conversation to be heard.
Helen shakes her head and my enthusiasm fades. 'One withheld at the altar of the king.' I look towards the altar and feel my heart shatter. I step in front of her.
"Not you, Helen. Please," I let out. "I can't lose you."
There is water in her eyes. "Such is the life of a demigod. I have to do this," she chokes out.
The roof is really coming down now. Stalagmites pierce the powder of what was once a Hippogriff.
"Helen, you mean too much to me. I can't leave you to die. Never," I say.
She just shakes her head slowly, tears running down her cheek and falling off of her chin.
I don't see the rocks coming down and smashing into the ground. I don't see the wounds on my leg. My stomach. My head. I only see the girl who's cared for me from the start. The girl who would always reassure me. The girl who nurtured me back to health whenever I was wounded. The girl who had saved my life numerous times. The girl who just wanted a peaceful life with her sister. The, simple, sweet girl whom I loved. I look at her again, and think, She's the most beautiful thing I ever set eyes upon. I realize I'm crying.
"Hel--" I begin but stop as someone places a hand on my shoulder. Anton. He must have been staring at me.
"I'll do it," he states. "I'll stay."
I stare at him and he shoves me back. I'm still confused as a rock smashes the place where I was just standing. "I'll stay here. I've been proud, all my life. Thinking I was superior to everyone simply because I was a child of Athena. Chiron didn't entrust me with the money of the group--I hoarded it because I thought I was the only one who could spend it the right way. I've done things in not proud of. This will be one right to conquer my many wrongs. I--" he's cut off as a series of stalagmites nearly skewer him.
"Go!" he shouts, pushing Helen and Jessie towards me.
Helen still looks shocked. The two of them hold on to my arms as I will the shoes to fly. I look up to the light coming from the shaft and then back at the now dilapidated altar.
I mouth the words 'thank you' as we rise slowly. For a terrifying moment, it seems like we're too heavy. But the shoes flap harder and we gain altitude. My arms feel the pull of gravity and I clench my teeth as I struggle to hold the two. They slip a little lower but I manage to hold them. I feel that same calm befall me. The calm I felt in my battles, during that football game. It had probably been there all my life. My father's blessing.
We're about twenty feet up when I last see Anton. He smiles grimly and I return his expression. Then, a vast stretch of the ceiling comes crashing down. By the time the ground clears of dust, we are already on the next floor.
When we look around, we notice this floor isn't doing so well either. The portraits have fallen off the walls and the chandeliers are swaying on the ceiling. "Which way is the exit?!" I shout.
We race down the hall and luckily for us, we don't need a door. We find a window and before we leave, I remember the others.
"Call Lucas to see how the others are doing. Warn him about Jacob," I say.
A glass decoration shatters nearby and the pieces spray everywhere. Jessie picks up her phone and calls.
She waits a few moments and then she says, "Hello?"
I hear some strange sounds coming from the other line but I'm too far to make out what's going on.
Jessie's face immediately turns to horror. "Lucas! Lucas!" she calls.
"What's going on?" Helen asks.
Jessie brings the phone down slowly. "He's in trouble."
A chandelier comes crashing down, the pieces scattering and showering everywhere. "We have to get out of here!" Helen exclaims.
I grab Helen's wrist and we jump through the window onto the grass. Luckily, we were on ground floor.
Jessie comes behind us and we all run until we reach a safe distance. Then, we pant and lean against a tree.
A car honks in the distance and we all jump. We turn to see a familiar red Jaguar with a door left ajar. Jim steps out of the car, his body bandaged and wrapped in numerous places. One cut in his side is fresh and unwrapped. It's then when I see two bodies to the side of the car. I realize they're corpses.
Jessie gasps and I realize why: one of the corpses belongs to Lucas. The other one is of Jacob.
"I was getting the campers to safety, so I had no idea what was going on. This kid stabbed Lucas when you called. He didn't make it," Jim says slowly.
"I finished the boy, just barely. He had some act going--we thought he couldnt handle a knife," Jim says, and points to his wounded side. Jim was the best sword fighter in camp.
Helen turns away and I stare at the ground. Big boy Ares, they had called him in jest. Even he didn't deserve this. So Anton was right, after all.
"One crossed at the sound of the ring," Helen says. The phone that rang. Who knew it was Lucas who would suffer." Her question is more of a statement.
We all just slump down and stare at the now devastated estate. No one speaks for a very long time.
Then, the first rays of sunlight start shining. Birds begin chirping in the distance. "In other news, we've saved the campers before summer's time. It's finally over," I say.
Helen smiles but it fades slowly. "I guess Echo wasn't a pawn in this game of chess."
"And Anton. We doubted him but he ended up being the most noble of us all," I add, plaintively.
We explain everything to Jim and he twirls his curly hair in his fingers. "So Mr. B. I think that's short for Busiris. A king of Egypt."
I snap my fingers. "Yes. That would explain his thick Egyptian accent."
"Legend has it, he would slay travelers in an attempt to end a drought in his land. Seems he was trying to slay you guys at the sacrificial altar at the crack of dawn. Pretty creepy if you ask me," Jim says, shrugging his shoulders.
"I wonder what his reasoning was for all this. Maybe his stocks weren't going his way and he was promised profits if he slayed some demigods," I say, and laugh at how ludicrous it sounds.
We bury Lucas and decide not to send an iris message just yet.
We give the other demigods money for a train ride home, and we part.
Pretty soon, we're on the highway, Fallout boy blaring. Helen beams as she takes out her finished product. She had been knitting it earlier but turns out, all of our stuff was still here.
She turns to me, holding something behind her and says, "Close your eyes and hold out your hands."
I smirk and say, "Fine." When I do as I'm told, she hands me something soft.
"You can open them now," she says.
My eyes open to a knit button-down shirt, blue and white in the center with navy blue sleeves.
I gape and Helen giggles. "Close your mouth before a fly goes in."
"Helen, I--this is great! How did you know I wanted a button down?" I ask.
She smiles wryly. "I saw your wardrobe when you came. Apart from one Naruto shirt and a few t shirts, all your shirts are button downs."
My cheeks feel hot. "I love it. Thanks."
"Alright love birds, I'm glad things are back to normal," Jim says.
The California sun is bright, but the son of Hermes has a future that's even brighter.