Zoë
I stared at my dad, and I seriously started to think he had finally gone off the deep end! I mean, Blackjack is a card game.
"Wait, are you talking about the card game," Zia asked incredulously.
"No, a pegasus," my parents said in unison, causing them to share one of those secretive glances that drives anyone who doesn't know the secret crazy!
"I'm really confused," Mathew told us, seeking an answer. I turn to my dad, waiting for an explanation when my mom yelled at the sky.
"Over here!" she hollers, waving her arms in our direction at the sky.
"It's official, both my parents have finally gone off the deep end," I tell Mathew matter-of-factly. I can tell Matt's trying to hold back his laughter, but he's failing miserably.
Don't call Boss crazy...Avaleko, a voice spoke in my mind.
"Hey, Blackjack," Mom said, turning to a pure black horse…that had wings. My eyes widened with surprise, but the voice spoke in my head again.
Boss sent me to pick you up, Avaleko, it told me.
"Is the horse talking to me?" I asked my mom, thinking that I had gone crazy.
Instead of my mother answering, it was my dad. "Yeas it was. Since Poseidon created the horse, most equestrians can communicate with his descendants," he said.
"Oh," I said in a small voice filled with surprise. Who knew I could talk to horses?
I did, Avaleko. The horse sounded smug if that was at all possible.
"Is Blackjack calling you boss?" my dad asked me.
"How did you know?" I asked him.
"Because, he always does that to me," he said shaking his head, but I could tell he was smiling.
"But yes, he's calling me boss in Greek," I tell Dad.
Will you ever stop calling me Boss or Avaleko? I ask Blackjack who just shakes his furry head.
"Is that another pegasus?" Bianca asks my mom, pointing to four rapidly approaching figures in the sky.
"Yes, I believe it is," she said smiling. I assumed she was happy to be heading home, I knew I was.
Guido, Porkpie, and Bandi at your service, they said in unison, which can sound very weird in your head. It also gave me a headache.
"Guido? Porkpie? Bandi? Did you name yourselves?" I asked the pegasi.
"Bandi is…new to the world of demigods. I think she's Blackjack's daughter or something," my dad told me as the pegasi came closer. Bandi sounded like Bandit without the't', and if you pronounced the 'I' like a long 'e'. So yeah, these names were weird to say the least.
"Has Blackjack been busy?" my mom asked the black horse with a raised eyebrow. I swear, if horse could blush, that horse would be tomato red. Mathew, Bianca, Zia, and I were all trying to stifle our laughter because it truly was amusing watching one's mother tease a horse with wings.
"They'll take you to camp and you'll be here in no time," Dad said with a grin.
"Wait, how is that even possible? We are across the country, how do you expect us to get back to New York anytime soon?" I asked my dad not bothering to keep the skepticism from my voice.
"The magical world tends to bend time, Zoë. Don't worry, though, it took your father years to finally get it," my mom said, glancing at my dad, who was red in the face, at the last comment.
"So who gets which pegasi?" Mathew asked me.
Well, I'll take Annabeth. Guido, you can take the girl with dark hair and Porkpie can take the boy. Bandi, you get Boss's daughter and her friend, Blackjack told his companions.
I relayed the information. "Mom, Blackjack says you're with him. Bianca is with Guido, Porkpie is with Matt, and Bandi will take Zia and me," I tell them. "And he stopped calling my Avaleko," I told Dad.
"It won't last for long," he countered as we all mounted our ride back to camp. Bandi kneeled so we could reach her and I hauled Zia up. Then, I jumped up behind her.
With a flourish, we are in the air. When I realized we're in the air, I started to panic. What if Zeus blasts me out of the sky? Then, like she's reading my mind, Bandi offered me a solution.
Lord Zeus wouldn't blast us out of the sky because we're Lord Poseidon's creation. It's like a balance, the horse told me.
My tense muscles relaxed, knowing that I won't die anytime soon, which was a relief.
O~O~O~O~O
We were coasting over some state in the mid-west, when Zia and I struck up a conversation. "I can't hear her," my sister murmured.
"What do you mean," I asked her, confused. We were the only people in the air, so who is she expecting to hear?
"Bandi. You said you can hear her, so why can't I?" Zia asked me. Her voice was tinged with worry, about what, I'm not sure.
I puzzled it out, trying to come up with a plausible answer because, the truth was, I didn't know. I wanted to ask my mom, but I knew she would get suspicious. She already thought something was up. "I don't know," I answered truthfully.
"And why doesn't she remember me?" she asked, and I assumed she meant Mom.
Now this, I could answer. "I think it has something to do with Hera. Maybe she's keeping something from Mom and we just have to figure out what, but when I mentioned your name, she seemed like she recognized it."
"She did," Zia asked her voice full of hope.
I nodded, but then remembered that her back was to me. "Yes, but nothing beyond that. We can always do a little research," I stated.
Zia turned around to face me and smiled. "Thanks," she whispered, and I could tell she was getting tired, but was probably scared of falling off in mid—air.
"You can sleep if you're tired, I won't let you fall," I told her gently. She leaned back against me and quickly fell asleep.
I looked over at everyone else. Mom and Bianca were flying side-by-side, talking about something, and Mathew looked like he was asleep. I couldn't wait to get back, to see Dad and Aunt Thalia. It felt really odd calling her 'Aunt' because she didn't look too much older than me, but it felt equally weird to call her Thalia since she was so much older than me. I have no idea how much sense that made, and my guess is none. I would just have to ask her about that when we landed.
"Hey," Matt said close by, making me jump a foot in the air.
"What the Hades, Mathew!" I whispered-yelled, not wanting to wake Zia up. He just grinned at me and I stuck my tongue out at him. So, of course, he had to stick his back out at me.
If this was what the entire ride back was going to be like, then it was going to be a long ride.
I hope you liked this chapter, and I apologize for the shortness of the last chapter. I want to warn my readers that I see no more than five chapters for this in the future, but there is a sequel. Also, thanks go to my marvelous Beta, I'mDifferent-GetOverIt!