Chapter 4 – Burning in the Skies

Travis could tell that Katie was just biding her time until she unleashed the full force of her fury upon him. He figured he had maybe another ten minutes of peace, tops. He continued to stare off into space and tried to organize his thoughts but there was only one there: How could she think that he would have let her die?

Katie sat on her bed, fiddling with the soda can in her hands. It was empty, and she kept squeezing it, causing the aluminum to make annoying noises as she shifted it around. She took a deep breath and looked over at him again. His curly hair was still damp and hung across his forehead haphazardly. His eyes were as blue as the sky and about as blank as a cloudless day. Finally she couldn't stand it anymore.

"Travis Stoll, what in Hades is your problem?" She ticked them off on her fingers as she spoke, "we escaped Cassiopeia, so far the cops haven't been on our tail and we're still on track to find your brother. So far, you have nothing to be upset about."

Travis heaved a sigh. She had given him five minutes. He swung his gaze around and looked at her. "Can you just let it go?" he asked, deceptively quiet.

She raised an eyebrow at him, missing the thread of angry violence in his quiet tone. "Not likely. Now tell me what your problem is!"

"Katie-Rose, did it ever occur to you that you might catch more flies with honey? You're bossy and demanding. Do you blame me or anyone else for not wanting to confide in you?" Despite the fact that Travis was extremely annoyed with her, he couldn't stop himself from using the endearment. He wondered if she was going to smack him.

Katie seemed taken aback by his accusation. "You think I'm bossy and demanding?" her voice rose slightly.

He smirked. "Kitty-Kat, I don't think it, I know it. And so does half the camp." Maybe if he went on the offensive she'd just drop the whole 'why are you upset' line of thinking.

"First off, stop calling me that! I don't even know why you call me that. My name is Katie, not Kitty. Secondly, I am not bossy and demanding. I want to help. That's why I am asking what your deal is." Her voice went up another octave. If she wasn't careful they'd be screaming at each other soon.

"Katie, you have done everything except ask me nicely what my 'deal' is. It's bad enough my brother is missing, but I'm beginning to see that being thrown on this quest with you is quite possibly as bad as the fact my brother was taken."

Katie blinked and blinked again. She opened her mouth to say something but no words came out. Then she blinked once more and Travis realized she was blinking back tears. He had hurt her. Badly. "Do you really want to know – " he tried to ask. He wanted to make amends, bring back the peace. Stop the tears that were threatening to spill down her cheeks.

"Don't." she held up her hand to stop his words. "I get it, Travis. You don't like me. I'm bossy, demanding and annoying. You probably think Chiron is punishing you by making you go on this quest with me. Well, it's not like I wanted to be here!"

Oh Zeus, he had really messed up now. "Look, Katie, I'm… I'm sorry. You are bossy and demanding, but in a good way!" he was trying to make her smile, anything but the tears that were trickling down her cheeks. "I don't think this is the worst thing that could happen, Katie-Rose," he said softly. "Honestly. I didn't mean it."

She reached up and wiped away the tears. "You meant it," she said with conviction. "If it wasn't lurking there in your subconscious… Never mind, Travis. We better go to sleep." She tossed her garbage in the wastebasket and got under the covers, turning off the lamp on her side. "Good night," she said, her voice trembling.

Travis sighed as he heard her turn away from him in the bed. He reached over and turned off the lamp. He lay there for a long time, listening to her try to hide her tears. Finally, he said softly, "Katie, I'm really sorry. I didn't mean it. What had me so upset…" he paused, and took a deep breath. "I just couldn't believe that you thought I'd have let you die. I mean…" he trailed off, but he was thinking of that day in Manhattan, near the Empire State Building. "I mean, I'm sorry." When she didn't reply right away he turned over on his side, facing away from her and closed his eyes.

Travis woke up to Katie smacking his arm. "Ow!" he muttered sleepily. He rolled over and looked up into the furious eyes of his currently least favorite demigod. "What'd you do that for?" he asked, yawning and sitting up.

"We gotta go, Travis," she snapped. "I saw a cop drive by a little while ago, and it looked like he was checking out the car. Time to move." She pushed him toward the edge of the bed.

Travis yawned once more and rolled out of bed. He blinked at the bright light streaming in as Katie peeked out the window again. "C'mon, Katie, chill."

"Get dressed, we need to go. Now," she ordered as she threw a few things in her bag. "I think we're going to have to walk."

Travis grumbled as he changed and packed up his backpack. Once he was ready, they both shouldered their bags and left, leaving the key on the TV. Katie said they should go around the back of the motel, where the trees were denser, and as they rounded the corner, Travis saw from the corner of his eye that the cop had returned. He grabbed Katie's hand, ignoring her protest and pulled her toward the trees. "The cop is back," he said quietly once they were out of immediate danger of being discovered.

Katie yanked her hand from his and stalked off in a direction she hoped was south. She didn't care if Travis followed her or not. She was still mad at him. Or was she more upset with herself? She had heard his words last night, his apology and his reasons for being upset, but she wasn't ready to talk about it yet. She still wasn't sure how she felt about his admission. Why had he been so upset she would think that? He had been charmed and wasn't doing anything at all to try and get them out of their predicament.

Travis followed Katie, wondering just what her problem was. He was the one who should be upset. She had accused him of not caring if she lived or died! How could she even think that? He sighed and jogged to catch up with her. "Katie! We need to talk," he demanded.

She glanced over at him before looking straight ahead again. "There's nothing to talk about, unless you want to talk about how we're going to get to Texas now. I think we should stop stealing cars for a while. Someone might start putting two and two together."

Travis sighed but decided to play her game. "Well, we can't walk to Texas," he pointed out. "So what do you suggest we do?"

Katie was at a loss. They didn't really have the money to buy a bus ticket or a train ticket. They had spent the last of their cash aside from a little bit for food on the room the previous night. They didn't have a car. Demigods or not, hitchhiking was a bad idea. She shrugged and kept walking. "We'll figure something out. Just keep walking."

They walked for hours, keeping to the tree line. Travis kept up a steady stream of grumbling, mostly about how they could have stolen another car and been halfway to Texas now, but they were probably only a few miles from the motel instead. Finally Katie spotted a convenience store. "We can go grab something to eat from there," she said, pointing to the back of the store.

"And a ride, please," Travis whined.

"We'll talk about it once we eat," she replied firmly. Wow, maybe he was right. Maybe she was bossy. Wait, did she just think that Travis was right about something? About her? Holy Zeus, it must be the hunger getting to her.

They jumped a drainage ditch and walked around to the front of the store. As they went inside, Katie noticed a sporty looking car, fancier than most in the lot, parked near the door. She swept the room with her gaze while Travis made a beeline for the candy aisle. It would be a miracle if he didn't end up with a stomachache before dinner.

Trying to eat somewhat healthy in a convenience store is tough, to say the very least. She managed to find a box of Triscuit crackers and a block of American cheese. She grabbed a couple bottles of water and brought them up to the cashier, watching for Travis. She wasn't paying attention to where she was going, and bumped right into the person in front of her.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," she said quickly, bending down to grab the things she had dropped.

"It's okay," he replied as he bent to help her.

He handed her the cheese and she looked up into one the most beautiful pair of brilliant blue eyes she had seen. She blinked. "You… you're… You were in that one movie… Gamer." She stumbled over her words.

"Uh, yeah," he said, looking uncomfortable. He looked slightly more at ease when she mentioned Gamer, as if he'd been expecting a different movie to come out of her mouth.

"I'm sorry," she apologized. "I guess you get that a lot. It's just that my step-brother loves that movie, I'm sure I've seen it a million times. You were great in it," she offered.

He smiled. "Thank you. I'm Logan," he said offering her hand. After a moment he withdrew it and just smiled when he noticed her hands were still full.

"Katie," she said trying not to blush. "Wow, how weird to run into you," she paused and giggled nervously. "I mean that very literally too. What are you doing here in…" she trailed off. "Where exactly are we?"

"Middle of Nowhere, North Carolina," he supplied. "And I'm here because I'm shooting a movie, which requires a nice 'woodsy backdrop'" he said, using air quotes. "What brings you here?"

"Oh no, a friend of mine and I are on a road trip." Just then, said friend elbowed her in the side. "Ow! Travis!" she said turning to glare at him.

"Are you ready? We need to get going," he said, swinging his gaze toward the cashier. Something seemed off about her. She was watching them with a little too much interest.

Katie glanced at her snack, then the cashier. "Yeah. It was nice to meet you Logan," she said before she placed her things on the counter.

Katie paid for her things, and made sure Travis did too. They had made it out the door and were walking across the parking lot when all Hades broke loose. An ear-splitting roar rang through the air, followed by a large crash. Travis and Katie whirled around to find the entire front of the convenience store a gaping hole. Half in and half out of the store stood a giant dragon-like creature. A column of flame erupted from its mouth, and a car that had been sitting at the gas pumps caught fire.

Travis dropped his bags and reached into his pocket. Before Katie could even say a word, he was running toward the creature, sword raised. Katie looked at the mortals, running away screaming. She had no idea what they saw, but it wasn't pretty. She set her bag down next to Travis's and drew her dagger from the sheath at her ankle. She jogged toward the fight, watching in amazement as Travis poked and prodded the beast, dodging its tail and fire. She hadn't realized how good Travis had gotten at sword fighting.

"It's belly, Travis!" she yelled as she got closer. He didn't break his concentration but she saw him nod and try to duck under its front leg to get at the soft underside of the belly. The dragon was quick for its size, and lashed out with the same foot, kicking Travis. Katie watched him go flying. She turned her glare on the dragon, and found it watching Travis fly through the air with satisfaction in its eyes. Katie took that moment of distraction and ran toward its side, hoping to duck under its belly in the middle. As she approached, the end of its tail whipped out and knocked her feet out from under her. She landed hard on her front, her dagger skittering across the pavement. All the breath left her body and her eyes fell shut.

Katie lay on her stomach, her cheek to the asphalt. She opened her eyes slowly, and blinked them into focus. She had no idea how long she'd been out but the dragon's attention was being taken away from her. She didn't recognize the one who had its attention but the sword was wielded by a dark haired person. He was jabbing at it, trying to make it mad. She didn't understand why he didn't go for the belly until she saw someone she did recognize doing just that. While the dragon was distracted by the dark haired person, Travis ran right between its front legs and jabbed upward with his sword. For good measure he jabbed it again, and suddenly it was raining monster dust.

Katie reached out and slowly pushed herself over onto her back, wincing. A minute later she was surrounded by Travis and the dark haired boy, who turned out to be Logan the movie star. "Are you okay?" Travis asked anxiously.

She sat up with the help of Logan and nodded. "Yeah… got the wind knocked out of me. Are you okay? You got kicked pretty hard."

"I'm fine," he said and Katie thought she saw him blush. She did a quick inventory and saw a few shallow cuts and bruises from his fight but nothing life threatening.

She turned to Logan and blinked. "You're a demigod?" she asked, astonished.

He shrugged and gave a half smile. "Guilty. Son of Athena."

"I wouldn't have guessed," she said honestly.

Travis retrieved her dagger and handed it to her, then offered a hand to get up. She took both gratefully. "Thanks for the assist," she said to Logan.

"Yeah, thanks," Travis echoed, though Katie thought it sounded a bit insincere.

"No problem. Three children of the Gods probably threw that monster into a frenzy. Glad I could help," he replied.

Travis looked around at the carnage. "We better get out of here. The cops will be here soon."

Katie glanced around and nodded. "Let's go. Thanks again, Logan. Great to meet you!" She and Travis headed off in one direction, Logan in another. They were almost to the edge of the parking lot once again when an explosion rocked the ground. Both of them were thrown off their feet and tumbled through the air.

Chapter title song credit: – Burning in the Skies (Linkin Park; A Thousand Suns album released 2010)