She doesn't fall to her death. That's a win. But, the experience still isn't pleasant.
Her wings collide with tree trunks. Sticks embed themselves in her skin and tear her clothes as Julie crashes through the vegetation. She does her best to keep up her transformation to slow her descent, but a particularly painful head-on with a large oak tree sends a snapping noise through the forest and a blinding pain down her right wing. She falls from her transformation and tumbles into the dirt.
The canopy of leaves above her spins and morphs like a kaleidoscope. Julie groans and blinks to get her head to stop swimming.
Taking inventory, her arm is definitely broken. But, that seems to be the worst of it. Her backpack is currently hanging like 30 feet above her head in a tree, so that sucks. But, aside from some scrapes, bruises, and an impressive collection of splinters, Juliette seems to have made it through that without too much damage.
She lets out a relieved sigh. A tiny twitch of her lips arcs them into a smile.
Aphrodite listened.
Whadd'ya know?
If she knows her mother, the goddess probably would have delivered Julie's friends to somewhere near Mount Diablo. That's good. Juliette has a destination.
It's East of the San Francisco Bay, Piper had said. Okay, cool. So, all Julie has to do is...find the bay.
That shouldn't be too hard, right? She doesn't have a map, but, like...how many bays could there be?
In California.
The coastal state.
Julie groans and lifts her uninjured arm to rub at her eyes.
"Miss?"
Juliette startles violently and leaps to her feet. She wobbles, but tries her best to look imposing as she yanks the arrow charm off her bracelet and holds out her bow defensively.
Maybe she can't draw it with a broken arm, but these recurves are sharp. She can still shank a sucker.
Standing hesitantly in front of her is a man in his early forties. His palms are up in surrender like he's approaching a wounded animal, face nervous and sweaty dark curls hidden underneath a wide-brimmed hat like those safari guys wear on the Discovery channel. Julie hides her injured arm behind her and widens her stance for combat.
The man purses his lips. "I'm not going to hurt you!" He says hastily.
Julie narrows her eyes at him and doesn't move. He nods at her right side.
"That looked like quite a fall. That arm is probably broken."
"Yeah, thanks, Sherlock." Julie snaps, raising her bow higher.
This man is mortal. She can sense his hesitance and...fear. But, there's something about him. Something that scares her. She makes no move to drop her stance.
The man lowers his hands slowly and frowns, something strange sparking in his eyes as he studies her. His eyes scan her face. Then, her hair. Then, they rest on her eyes, and his own widen comically. His posture falters, and his mouth drops open in surprise as the fear in his aura swells so much Julie's skin starts to buzz.
She glares at him. "Get lost," Julie snaps impatiently. "I don't have time for this. Go away."
He blinks at her. Then, he blinks at her arm again. And the scratches on her face. His shoulders slump, and his aura dims. "You're...you're a demigod, right?"
Julie freezes. She grips her bow tighter as the man raises his palms again frantically.
"I'm harmless, I swear! It's..." He struggles with words, guilt radiating from him. "My daughter. My daughter is like you."
The words seem to tear from his very soul. A flash of grief hits Julie square in the face. She feels some of the smaller cuts start to close.
"And, if she were out here alone, I'd want somebody to help her." continues the man gently. "I want to help."
Juliette watches him warily. Nothing in his emotions gives her any reason to think he's being dishonest. Still, there's something about him. Something that sets her teeth on edge. So, instead of letting him approach her, she steps a few feet to the side and nods up at her backpack in the tree.
"Can you get that for me?" She asks flatly.
The man looks up to where she gestured and a small, cheeky smile tugs at his mouth. He raises an eyebrow at her. "Not much of a climber?"
"Not with a broken arm." She snips.
He shrugs like 'fair enough,' and approaches the tree. With surprising agility that suggests a strange amount of tree-climbing skills for a man his age, the stranger hauls himself into the branches and retrieves Juliette's bag. When he drops to the ground a few minutes later with it slung over his shoulder, Julie finally lowers her weapon and shrinks it back to the charm.
He hands the backpack over no problem and watches with interest as she drops to one knee and starts riffling through it. Julie locates a fold out splint and bandages in the bottom of the bag and sends a private prayer of gratitude to the merciful deity that is William Solace. She immediately unfolds it and starts working on resetting the bone.
The man watches her in silence. He doesn't speak again until at least ten minutes later, when Juliette drops the splint for the twentieth time and curses colorfully in Ancient Greek.
"Do you need help?" He asks hesitantly.
"No."
"Are you sure? I'm trained."
Julie glances up at him warily. She's exhausted. Her arm hurts, and if she drops this damn splint one more time, she's going to start cursing every god in Olympus. He seems harmless enough, weird instincts aside.
"Am I going to regret trusting you?" She asks bluntly.
His face contorts. Pain emanates from him, an agonizingly regretful expression crossing his face. Then, he seems to swallow it down and gives her a hesitant smile.
"No." He answers softly.
So, Julie sighs and holds out the splint for him to take, shrugging off her silver parka the rest of the way to give him better access to her arm. He approaches her like she's a spooked doe that might split at any second, but eventually crouches down in front of her and takes her injured hand gently in his.
Spoiler alert, the process of resetting a bone is painful. So, to distract herself, Julie stares the man down. His skin is heavily tanned and evidence of sun damage seems to be popping up with his age. He's got bug bites up and down his arms and dirt under his fingernails. Actually, there's dirt on almost every part of him. Julie wrinkles her nose.
"What are you doing in the middle of the woods, anyway?" She sniffs.
The man glances at her. "Oh, uh...I'm a horticulturalist."
Julie blinks at him blankly. He grins a little in amusement.
"I study plants." He explains. "I'm out here...looking for something."
"A plant?"
"Sort of."
"Sort of?"
"It's complicated," He sighs, screwing down the splint to start moving her bone back into place. There's an awful scraping noise as it shifts under her skin, and she grits her teeth. The man winces apologetically. "What's your name, kid?" He asks.
Latching onto the distraction, she answers without thinking. "Juliette."
"Juliette..." He huffs a laugh and smiles. Julie raises an eyebrow at him, and he shakes his head dismissively. "I just like that name."
"Thanks? Kind of a weird thing to say to a random kid in the woods."
"I think you could probably take me no problem if I were a danger to you." He laughs.
Julie shrugs. Fair point.
"I'm...Phil."
Juliette snorts. "Phil?"
"Yes, Phil. Why, what's wrong with that?" He asks defensively.
Juliette mimics his dismissive head shake. "I just don't like that name."
Phil seems to find this exceedingly funny. He lets go of her arm to rock back on his heels and let out a boisterous laugh. It's a bit contagious. Julie catches herself smiling against her wishes as she watches him try to get ahold of himself.
Finished with resetting her arm, Phil pats Julie's uninjured shoulder and backs out of her bubble. She reaches over with a tired sigh and digs the last few bites of ambrosia out of the container from her bag. And to think, she'd thought she overpacked the stuff. Yikes.
She munches on the taste of mac and cheese and chocolate chip cookies as she goes back to studying her companion. Between bites, she asks, "You know where Mount Diablo is, Phil?"
The man looks surprised. "Oh, yeah. I can-" He cuts himself off and opens his hip pack. From underneath a pile of herbs and leaf cuttings, he pulls a creased and heavily used map of California and lays it out on the forest floor beside them. Julie leans over in interest as he points down at a triangular shape East of the bay. "Right there. It's probably a two hour drive from where we are right now."
Julie frowns. "I don't have a car."
Phil looks hesitant, but glances over at her healing arm and frowns in concern. "I do." He offers.
"Stranger danger."
"I thought we covered this already?"
"Still valid." Julie grumbles. Deciding to think on it for a bit, she turns back to the map. "What about the Wolf House? Ever heard of a place like that?"
Phil's head snaps to her so fast his hat tilts crookedly. "The Wolf House? You know about the Wolf House?"
"Well, yeah. That's kind of where I'm going."
Phil studies her. "Are you Greek?"
Juliette blinks. "Uhh...yeah? Aphrodite."
The name seems to startle him. His head snaps back down, and he starts to focus way more intensely on that map. His voice comes out rougher when he points down at the Sonoma Valley area. "It's around here. About three hours by car."
Juliette sighs and rubs her tired eyes against the heel of her hand. By the time she gets to Mount Diablo, even if she accepts this random man's offer to drive her there, her friends will probably be long gone. Assuming they stay on schedule and also don't die. If she wants to meet back up with them, the Wolf House is probably her best bet.
And, if they didn't make it through the fight with Enceladus...the Hunters will be there. They'll need backup. The quest still needs to be finished.
So, Julie huffs and turns to her new companion. "If you're serious, a ride to Sonoma would be great."
"Oh!" He looks genuinely surprised his offer was accepted, but nods eagerly. "Yeah, of course. I parked this way."
Phil drives a minivan. For some reason, Juliette finds that very fitting.
He has to spend a minute shifting around bags of potting soil and fertilizer before there's enough room in the front seat for Julie to squeeze in. Her seatbelt is trapped underneath a giant crate of gravel, though, so she just ends up wedging her feet underneath some heavier flower pots and hoping for the best as they pull out of the parking area and onto an old dirt road.
It's uncomfortably silent for a bit. Phil reaches down and fiddles with the radio until some old country song starts playing.
Julie picks at a rip in her black cargo pants. So many innocent clothes destroyed on this quest. What a waste.
"So," She clears her throat awkwardly. "You...have a daughter?"
Phil glances at her, lips pursed, and nods.
Julie nods too. Awkwardly. "Where is she?"
Phil's hands grip the steering wheel harder. Guilt and anxiety leak from him. "She was taken."
Oh. "I'm sorry." mumbles Juliette. She turns to look out the window. Her people skills have been very rusty lately. Maybe not talking is the way to go, after all.
She hears Phil take a deep breath beside her. "It's alright." He says dismissively. "She's...safer elsewhere. I was putting her in danger."
The idea makes Julie frown. She looks back at him, perplexed. "I thought you said she was taken."
"...She was."
"So, why would she be safer, then?"
"She's learning to defend herself."
Juliette blinks at him. It's probably not her business. Still. Something about the situation is rubbing her the wrong way. "How old is she?"
Phil turns his head to look at her, eyes wide like a kicked puppy. "She was six." He breathes. "She'd be ten now."
Hmm. Julie had been ten once. Purple Aster had probably thought she'd be safer with Luke, too.
But, this isn't her business. She drops the subject with a frown and turns to the window.
They drive in silence for a few hours. They do stop for gas at one point, and Phil comes back to the car with snacks. Julie inhales them at the speed of light. Gods, there's nothing like a Honey Bun after two days of cold rations.
By the time they pass the first street sign for Sonoma Valley, Julie's arm feels pretty much healed. She starts unscrewing the splint as Phil glances at her from the corner of his eye. He'd tossed his giant hat into the back seat at some point during the drive, revealing a huge mess of frizzy black curls. His hair sort of reminds Julie of Nico's.
Gods, she misses Nico. She'll have to call him if she's still alive later tonight. Especially since their last conversation ended so nasty.
"What are you up against?" asks Phil quietly.
Julie looks at him in surprise, tucking the splint back into her bag. "Oh, uh...y'know, I'm not totally sure." She laughs nervously.
He looks even more concerned. It's kind of sweet.
"Probably werewolves." She guesses. "And, I sort of pissed off an ice goddess. I'm guessing I'll have to face up to that at some point."
"An ice goddess?"
"Yeah. That's not gonna be fun." Julie sighs in exasperation.
Phil looks at her like she's crazy. "Is this...normal for you?"
She shrugs. "Yeah, pretty much. I guess I'm used to it by now. Been fighting since I was ten."
He looks like he's going to be sick. It's kind of funny.
"It's fine. I'm a demigod. It comes with the territory."
They exit the freeway and hear a piercing howl only seconds later. Julie snaps her head over to look at Phil. He's ghostly pale.
"Werewolf?" He guesses weakly.
Julie nods. She yanks the charm from her bracelet and nocks an arrow. When the tail of the missile brushes against the snowflake on her palm, a tingling sensation runs up her arm. She ignores it and rolls up the window.
"Stop here. I don't want you getting mixed up in this." She orders gently.
Phil sighs shakily and complies, pulling to the side of the road and unlocking the doors. The moment the minivan comes to a stop, Julie leaps from her seat and into the glow of the sunset. She turns around to send one last smile to her driver.
"Thanks for the ride, Phil. It was good to meet you."
She nods at him and turns to race off towards the howls, but he calls out to her last second. Julie turns expectantly.
Unmistakable fear is painted across his features. It seeps into Julie's skin, strengthening her. The beginnings of panicked tears are building in Phil's eyes.
His eyes are green. Very green. They sort of remind her of green apples.
The thought just makes her hungry again.
"Juliette," He mumbles fearfully. Julie blinks at him in surprise as he stumbles over his words. His mouth opens and closes a few times before he sighs and looks down in defeat. He taps his thumbs against the steering wheel. "Just, be safe."
She blinks. "Oh. Yeah, I'll do my best. You too."
There's a strange tension between them. It makes her feel weird. Nervous. She'd very much like to leave now.
"I hope you find your daughter." She says with a tiny smile. "As somebody who grew up without a dad, demigods die young. Make the most of the time she's still here."
He clenches his jaw at the advice, but nods. Julie sends him one last half smile before slamming the door shut behind her and taking off into the woods.
What a weirdo.
She's here on time thanks to him, though. So, she's grateful that they met.
Julie is running out of arrows and patience.
As is Thalia.
"Where are those idiots?!" shouts the daughter of Zeus. She looses an arrow into the eye of a werewolf, and Julie vaults over her own victim gracefully to retrieve it for her.
Julie tosses the arrow to Thalia and nocks her own, taking aim at a nearby ogre. "They went to get Piper's dad."
"And that's taking all day?"
Julie's arrow lodges itself in the monster's cheek, but the hulking beast doesn't even stumble. It charges Juliette like an angry bull. She curses and leaps into a series of acrobatic dodges. "I don't know! I got ditched, remember?!"
Thalia huffs in annoyance. She opens her mouth to shout something else, only to freeze and point at the sky. "Look!"
"I'm a little busy - woah, that was close!"
"There's a helicopter!" Thalia yells, taking off through the trees.
Julie groans in irritation and drops into a baseball slide. The ogre picks up its foot last second and stumbles, tripping forward into a face-plant. Julie seizes the opportunity to slam the recurve of her bow into the nape of its neck, dissolving the monster into dust. She snatches her arrow from the pile and turns to follow her friend through the forest.
By the time she catches up, Thalia's hopping over another pile of golden dust to throw her arms around a beat-up looking Jason. Piper and Leo flank the siblings in front of a crashed helicopter, looking just as bruised and exhausted. Relief rushes through Julie's system. She shoves her arrow back into her quiver and takes off towards her friends at a sprint.
"Guys!"
All of their faces drop in surprise as they whip around to face her. Piper immediately bursts into tears and rushes to meet her halfway, wrapping Julie into the tightest hug of her life.
"I thought you were dead!" Piper sobs.
Julie laughs, earning a stomping for her little piggies, and squeezes her sister back. "Not dead. Just took a tumble."
Piper pulls back and pinches Julie's cheeks like an old grandmother. "I chewed Mom out for you. You're lucky you didn't get me smote."
"Wait, what?" Julie blinks. "What do you mean, you chewed her out?"
Leo interrupts them before Piper can respond, throwing an arm around Julie's shoulders and digging his knuckles aggressively into the top of her head. "You need to stop hogging all the attention! Let someone else have a near death experience for once!"
Julie yelps and squirms out of his hold, hands going up to smooth out her (now thoroughly ruined) braid. "It's not like I'm trying to almost die!"
"That seems like a fib, at this point."
Julie punches Leo in the arm and turns to Jason. He's standing stiffly by his sister with an unreadable expression. His eye is bruising, and something about him being so battle worn is making her heart rapidly pick up speed. She panics.
"I'm sorry," Julie blurts. Jason's eyebrows raise, and he steps towards her. The closer he gets, the higher pitched Julie's voice comes out. "I know I said that I wouldn't let anybody get hurt. My stupid plan almost got everyone killed. It was dumb, and I totally get if you-"
With a roll of his eyes, Jason grabs Juliette by the shoulder and pulls her into a tight embrace. She chokes on her rambling words, overwhelmed by the scent of him. He smells like sweat and blood, but also something fresher. Something distinctly Jason. She relaxes into his shoulder.
"Nobody's mad at you, Juliette. It's good to have you back." He laughs into her hair.
She sighs happily and snuggles closer. "Good to be back. Every minute apart was agony, Soldier Boy."
She pulls back so she can wink, and he snorts, shaking his head with a fond smile. Their noses are millimeters apart. She's noticing a little fleck of gold in his left eye for the first time. It looks a little like a teeny tiny pegasus. It's fascinating.
Someone clears their throat pointedly, and they leap apart. Thalia is staring at them with her arms crossed, unimpressed, but smirking. Julie feels her face start to burn.
"If you two are done," Thalia snickers. "We do have a goddess to rescue."
Jason nods at her and rolls out his shoulders. He turns to the rest of the group with a confident grin. "Let's finish this, guys."
Turns out, that's easier said than done.
Half an hour later finds Juliette and Jason standing protectively over Thalia's frozen body as Khione, Goddess of Snow, advances on them, slow and dangerous. Leo and Piper are behind them getting started on breaking Hera out of her prison (bickering continuously with the goddess even in the face of mortal peril). Julie's just trying to keep her nerve as the cold in her right palm starts stinging into her nerve endings.
"So, little dove, this is the side you've chosen, is it?" Khione sighs, checking her nails.
Juliette tightens her grip on her bow. "Yessiry."
"Well, that's disappointing, I'll admit, but, I'm hardly surprised. You never had what it took."
Jason scoffs, small sparks rippling off the icy board he'd snapped up as an improvised weapon. Julie misses his sparkly gold sword. They'll have to find him a new one. "To what? Help you murder innocent demigods? Yeah, I'd hope she doesn't."
The goddess scowls at him. "I am not speaking to you, son of Jupiter. I find you inconsequential in this matter."
"You've clearly never fought him, then." Julie smirks darkly. Then, her face drops. "Where's Azalea?"
Khione's face screws up in irritation. She tosses her hair over her shoulder. "Your dryad was released, per our agreement. He is in safe hands back at your silly camp. But, don't think Lady Styx hasn't taken notice of your little grey area. She sees all. She knows all."
"Oooh, scary." drones Juliette. "I think I'll take that up with her, thanks."
"You won't get the chance." Khione snarls. The temperature in the mansion drops dangerously. Puffs of air rise from Julie and Jason's mouths as they drop further into their defensive positions.
They've done everything they can to stall. Khione's explained her intentions - her plan to get the two groups of demigods fighting to weaken Olympus. She's paved the way for the Earth Mother to return, she boasted. The King of Titans is awakening, and they need to act.
"Leo!" Julie calls. The son of Hephaestus looks up from where he's sawing through the bars of Hera's cage. "Keep the heat turned up, will you?"
He salutes her. Then, pandemonium ensues.
Jason is immediately knocked backwards by a horse shaped wind spirit. While he starts to grapple with it, Khione lunges for Juliette. Spires of ice erupt from the ground everywhere she steps. She dodges smoothly and looses an arrow at the goddess. It nicks her upper arm, sending a splash of gold down her pale skin and a shriek of anger from her blue lips.
"I am a goddess, you despicable, filthy mortal!"
Julie shrugs and shoots another arrow right at her face. Khione bats it away. She narrows her eyes at the demigod, and, with a snap of her fingers, Juliette's beautiful weapon - her Stygian ice bow gifted to her by Hades himself - shatters.
Julie's stomach drops. The shards rain down from her grip and land in a pile at her feet. The carvings of tortured souls stare up at her. Through her. Julie forgets how to blink.
"You cannot fight me," hisses Khione. "I am eternal. So long as there is Winter, I shall exist. You, however, are nothing."
Nothing. Yeah, she's heard that before.
Nothing, in the silence of her bedroom every night when she was ten.
Nothing, in the whispers and glares that followed her for days after every camp tragedy.
Nothing, in the confusion in Jason's face when her favorite person no longer remembered her.
Nothing, in the sharp pain of a broken arm from a fall her mother could have saved her from.
What bullshit.
"For 'nothing,' I sure have given you a lot of trouble lately." Julie snaps.
She leaps from side to side as she dodges more spikes of ice. Because, you know what? She's pretty damn cool. She has overcome every hurdle placed in front of her since she was ten years old. She has defeated giants, cannibals, vampires, and so much more.
She can handle one bitchy goddess with control issues.
So, when Khione finally catches her, freezing Juliette's boots to the plank floor, she isn't afraid. Not even a little. The pulsing cold in her right palm gets stronger. Her veins freeze up her arm. Her skin feels like it's shaped out of snow and superglue. But, she holds strong. And, when Khione lobs a spike of ice at her, triumph etched across her face in a cruel smirk, all Julie has to do is raise up her palm.
And it shatters.
For a moment, neither of them move. Both of their eyes are fixed on the crumbled chunks of ice piled up between them in a useless heap. Then, Khione's face contorts in rage, and power erupts throughout the house.
"How dare you? You would lay claim to my own domain? To my power?"
Her screeching leaves ringing in Julie's ears.
She can feel Khione's essence leeching every bit of warmth from the room. The temperature of the Wolf House is plummeting at a dangerous rate, and if Julie doesn't stop it, they're done for. She points her hand down at her feet and shatters the restraints keeping her boots in place.
Then, she throws herself at Khione.
She never thought she'd one day be wrestling with a goddess on the floor of a burned down mansion. Her life seems to get weirder with every passing day.
Khione overpowers Juliette fairly quickly, but the moment she reaches out to deal a fatal blow, Julie slams her hand up into the goddess' cheek. She squooshes the woman's face with her fingers and prays to every deity she knows that this will work.
"Whut arrr yiu doowung?!" garbles Khione behind Julie's palm.
"Night night!" Julie mocks with a smile. The goddess growls in rage, but, before she can move, Juliette shoves all of her power into the palm of her hand.
Frost erupts in the space their skin is making contact.
Khione's eyes widen comically as it climbs up her face. Confusion shines behind her pupils. She starts to struggle, to pull away, but Julie locks her ankles behind Khione's and holds her still as the ice crawls all the way up the goddess' face.
In seconds, with only a few muffled grunts of alarm, the goddess is frozen solid on the floor of the Wolf House.
Well. Hello, new superpower.