Chapter two, also known as the chapter where Reyna gets to be a badass without Jason's powers of flight and lightning resistance.
Reyna
Reyna obeyed, struggling over to the doors. Kids were screaming, rushing in the same direction. Leo had managed to make his way over to the doors, holding them open for the other kids. Another guy joined him, holding open the other door.
Coach Hedge was behind Reyna. They fought the wind, but their progress was slow. Reyna wasn't even certain they were making any. Leo and the other boy pushed another kid inside before they lost their grip. Leo yanked at the handles hard, but the doors seemed stuck. The kids on the inside hammered on them, but it did no good.
"Dylan," Leo shouted. "Help!"
Dylan didn't move. Instead, he stood there, grinning. Reyna's eyes narrowed as he realized just how still he was standing.
"Sorry, Leo," Dylan smirked, "but I'm done helping."
He flicked his wrist. Leo flew backwards, slamming into the doors and slipping down to the skywalk deck.
Reyna's first instinct was to run forward. She didn't know whether she would have followed her instinct or not, because Hedge's arm shot out, aiding the wind in holding him back.
"Stay back, kid," he ordered. "My fight. This is our monster."
The coach raised his baseball bat – only it didn't look like a baseball bat anymore. Hedge was holding a club, made out of a branch with the twigs and leaves still attached. His cap blew off, revealing twin bumps above his curly hair, almost like horns.
Dylan grinned happily. "Oh, come on. Don't you think you're getting a bit old for this? You didn't even realize what I am – I've been on your team all year, grandpa."
Coach Hedge made an angry sound. It sounded oddly animalistic, like a goat bleating. Reyna frowned. That sounded familiar...
"Okay, that's it, cupcake," the coach growled. "You're going down."
Dylan laughed. "Don't you think you're a bit too old to be protecting two half-bloods at once, grandpa? It's going to be fun to watch you fail."
He turned, pointing at Leo, who had managed to get to his feet. A funnel cloud formed around him, and he flew off the skywalk. Somehow he managed to twist around in midair, slamming into the canyon wall. He skidded, hands clawing desperately for a handhold. He managed to catch hold of a ledge, some fifty feet below the skywalk. He hung there by his fingertips, screaming.
Coach Hedge swore and tossed his club at Reyna. "I may have no idea who you are, kid, but I sure hope you're good. Keep that thing busy while I get Leo."
Reyna nodded, ignoring the obvious question – how? It didn't matter. Hedge kicked off his shoes. Reyna inhaled sharply. Where his feet should be were goat's hooves. Reyna thought back to the twin bumps on Hedge's head – they hadn't resembled horns. They were horns. Which meant...
"You're a faun," she blurted.
"Satyr," Hedge snapped. "We can talk about that later."
Hedge jumped over the railing. He landed hooves first on the canyon wall, scampering down with unbelievable agility, finding tiny footholds and dodging whirlwinds, all while making his way to Leo. Reyna felt a surge of grudging respect rise in her chest.
"As much as I'd like to watch..." Dylan trailed off, turning to Reyna with a predatory grin. "Your turn."
Reyna hurled the club at him. It struck him square in the head, so hard he fell to his knees. He rose, golden blood trickling from his forehead. He glared at Reyna darkly.
"Nice try," he said. "But if you want to beat me, you're going to have to do better than that."
The skywalk shuddered, narrow cracks appearing in the glass. Dylan's body dissolved into smoke, leaving Reyna staring at something with the same face but composed entirely of black smoke. Dylan sprouted black wings, rising above the skywalk like some sort of monstrous angel.
"You're a ventus," she found herself saying, the word rising to her lips easily. Her voice was calm, as if nothing out of the ordinary was happening. Reyna was starting to think that no matter what happened, her voice would always be calm. "A storm spirit."
Dylan laughed. Two more funnel clouds landed on either side of him and turned into venti – ghostly male figures with dark, smokey wings. Great. Three of them. "I'm glad I waited, demigod. I've known about Leo for weeks, could have killed him at any time. But my mistress told me another was coming – someone special. She will reward me greatly for your death!"
He lunged.
Reyna's instincts took over. She dodged, rolling out of the way. By the time she actually realized what was going on, she had slashed at the back of one of the storm spirits with a gold knife that had appeared in her hand. Her blade passed through, the smokey form disintegrating. Another ventus lunged at her. Reyna struck again. With one jab, the ventus dissolved into gold powder.
Reyna's eyes flitted down to her right arm – the sleeve of her sweater was ripped. Had she had the knife up her sleeve? How? Why?
Coach Hedge and Leo had reached the skywalk. Hedge dumped Leo off his back unceremoniously. The boy got to his feet unsteadily, chest heaving. "Reyna, old friend, would you do me the favour of committing me to a mental institution? Right now?"
"Hey, why didn't you leave me a challenge?" Hedge demanded. Reyna raised an eyebrow incredulously.
"A challenge?" Leo gasped. "I fell down the freaking Grand Canyon! Stop asking for challenges! Please!"
Dylan hissed. Reyna noted a glint of fear in his eyes. "You've awakened many enemies. You don't understand how many, how powerful they truly are. My mistress will destroy all demigods. This is a war you cannot win."
The wind picked up into a full force gale, sheets of rain pouring down. Reyna had a hard time keeping her balance.
Above them, a hole opened in the clouds, a swirling vortex of black and silver.
"My mistress calls me back!" Dylan shrieked with twisted mirth. "And you will return with me!"
He hurled himself at Reyna. She flung herself aside. Both collapsed onto the ground. Leo and Coach Hedge surged forward, but Dylan let loose a torrent that knocked them all backwards. Reyna's dagger flew out of her hand, clattering against the glass skywalk. Hedge landed in an undignified pile. Leo slammed against the glass, hitting the back of his head. He curled up on his side, groaning. Reyna didn't even have time to be worried before Dylan grabbed a hold of Leo's arm and began to rise. The storm spun faster, pulling them upward.
Coach Hedge yelled something unintelligible and launched himself at the spirit. He lashed out with his hooves, knocking Leo free of Dylan's grasp. Leo landed safely, but Dylan caught hold of the coach's arms instead. Hedge kicked at him, then tried to headbutt him. When both approaches failed, he called the ventus a cupcake. The two rose into air, spiralling into the clouds, then disappeared.
Reyna strode over to Leo, dropping to her knees next to him. He groaned when she turned him over. His curly black hair glittered with gold from the disintegrated storm spirits. But he was alive.
"Stupid...goat," he mumbled. He looked up blearily at Reyna. "Did he actually...save my life?"
"Twice," Reyna confirmed.
"What happened?" Leo groaned, rubbing his head. "Best friend with a gold knife...I'm hallucinating, right? You're taking me to a hospital?"
Reyna shushed him, getting up and walking over to where her knife had fallen. She picked it up, staring at it. Shrugging, she turned back to Leo, offering him her hand. She hauled him up to his feet once he took it. Leo stared at her as if he had never seen her before – the look on his face was pretty much the embodiment of what Reyna had been feeling since she woke up.
"Reyna, what were those things?" he asked her, wide eyed.
"Venti," she replied. "They're storm spirits."
"How do you know that? You acted like you'd seen them before." Leo hesitated, then asked, "Who are you?"
"Who am I?" Reyna repeated. She gazed at Leo, then and the gold dagger she held in her hand. "To tell you the truth, Leo, I don't know."
She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I don't know who you are. I can't remember who I am. I just woke up on the bus. I don't know anything more than that."
It sounded ridiculous. But Leo nodded slowly. "Under ordinary circumstances, that would sound idiotic. But after this..."
Leo gestured vaguely at the world around them. Reyna looked around. The storm was starting to dissipate. The kids inside the building were still staring out in horror. Security guards were working on the locks, but they didn't seem to be making much progress.
"Reyna?" Leo said suddenly. "Look up there and tell me if those are flying horses. Or am I still hallucinating?"
Reyna looked. A dark shape was descending pulling a brightly coloured object – a chariot? Too slow for a plane, too large for a bird. Grey, four legged animals, exactly like horses – except for the twenty foot wingspan. Reyna felt a small smile cross her lips – the first all day.
"Pegasi," she breathed. Louder, she said, "Reinforcements. Hedge told me an extraction squad was coming to pick us up."
"Extraction squad? What, are they taking us to see a dentist?"
Reyna ignored him. She watched as the chariot landed on the far side of the skywalk. The pegasi tucked in 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 and a bulky guy with a shaved head. Both wore jeans and orange shirts, with shields tossed over their backs.
Reyna's eyes narrowed involuntarily at the sight of the girl, who leaped off before the chariot had even stopped moving. She whipped out a knife and loped toward where Reyna and Leo stood.
"I know you," Reyna said. The other girl frowned, grey eyes narrowing. She looked Reyna up and down, then nodded.
"You do look very familiar," the girl admitted. "I don't know where from, though."
Her gaze hardened, sweeping the skywalk. The guy from the chariot came over to stand next to her. "Where is he?"
"Who?" Leo asked. The girl scowled, clearly dissatisfied with Leo's answer.
"What about Gleeson?" she demanded. "Where is your protector, Gleeson Hedge?"
"Uh..." Leo stammered. He pointed vaguely at the sky. "He got taken by some...tornado things."
"Venti," Reyna cut in. The blonde girl arched an eyebrow.
"You mean annemoi thuellai?" she asked. "That's the Greek term. Now – who are you and what exactly happened?"
Reyna didn't want to answer. A small voice inside her head was warning her that knowledge was power and that the blonde was dangerous. Reyna didn't trust the other girl, and didn't want her to have any more knowledge than necessary. Regardless, Reyna spoke, meeting the other girl's gaze calmly.
By the time she stopped speaking, the blonde was scowling. Reyna couldn't help but feel threatened. Her hand tightened around the hilt of her knife.
"No," the blonde girl muttered. "She told me he would be here. I was supposed to find the answer if I came here."
She started pacing back and forth.
"Annabeth," the bald guy grunted. He pointed to Reyna's shirt. "Check it out."
Reyna glanced down. Plain purple T-shirt.
"The one with the purple shirt," the bald guy said. "She's the answer."
"No, Butch," Annabeth insisted. "She can't be. It was a trick."
She glared up at the sky, as if she wanted to start screaming. Instead, she spoke in a low growl."What have you done with him? What do you want?"
The pegasi were whinnying. The sound was strangely calming to Reyna. The moment she heard it she felt a strange craving for peanut butter.
"Annabeth," Butch said again. "We've got to go. We can figure this out once we get back to camp."
Annabeth fixed Reyna with a resentful stare. Reyna stared right back. Annabeth dropped her gaze first. "Fine. We can settle this later."
Annabeth turned on her heel, marching back to the chariot.
"What's her problem?" Leo shook his head, staring after the girl.
Butch hesitated. "Annabeth's okay. Cut her a bit of slack, she's under a lot of stress right now. She had a vision telling her to come here and find the one with the purple shirt. That was supposed to be te answer to her problem."
"What problem?" Leo asked.
"One of our campers has been missing for the past few days. She's been looking for him," Butch replied. "She's practically out of her mind with worry. She thought he'd be here."
"Who?" Reyna asked. She was alert, almost unusually so. She felt like electricity was coursing through her veins. Like if Butch said the wrong thing, she would pounce.
"Her boyfriend," Butch told her. "A guy named Percy Jackson."
Review? I'm not sure if Annabeth would recognize Reyna or not, but it seems logical – Reyna is said to look like a younger version of Hylla, and I'm guessing Hylla was about Reyna's age, maybe a little older, when Percy and Annabeth were on Circe's island.
Question of the chapter: Who is your favourite Percy Jackson/Heroes of Olympus character and why?