I 015. I

𝑮𝒍𝒐𝒓𝒚 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑮𝒐𝒓𝒆

❝ spotlight ❞

     ARIADNE KEPT LOOKING BACK. She half expected to see those nasty sun dragons toting a flying chariot with a screaming magical saleswoman throwing potions, but nothing followed them.

Her body felt odd. And guilty.

Yes, in the end, she had taken the dragons down, but for the first three-quarters of the whole department store experience, she had been out of her mind and not thinking straight. Annabeth would've slapped her at how stupid she had been. In the end, it was as if she had let this new group down. Like she was the worst quest member in the world.

Riding on the back of Festus she was think deeply. The other three could see. Her amethyst eyes were stormy, clouded over with some dangerous thought that could be their undoing. Truthfully, that may just as well be the case. Whoever she envisioned was behind this wanted them gone.

She kept a tight hold on her backpack, scared to let it go, in fear of losing it as she had Percy's note. She still hadn't forgiven herself for that one.

Oh, Percy. Every part of her was itching to find him. There was a deep yearning in her to be able to hold him again. To feel his hands holding hers, those sea-green eyes that haunted her every waking moment, the crooked grin that sparked every good feeling in her soul—she was harboring so much grief and longing, it was hard to decipher which of her emotions were about him or the quest.

Ariadne hoped somewhere, wherever Hera had stored him, he was thinking the same of her. That he was missing her touch just as much as she missed his. The feeling of their hearts beating at the same quick pace when they kissed, those fireworks igniting in their brains.

Imagining that was enough to feel like she was close to him again—just the tiniest bit, she was okay.

Her necklace weighed heavy around her neck. Part of her believed it was a tether to him, that he would lead her to him through it. The other part knew it was the guilt of not having the right amount of strength to focus on the quest at hand, she could only imagine what he would say:

"You can't always worry for me. As long as you come back to me, I'll be saved. Go be the savior that you are."

They were near and dear to her heart.

Leo steered the dragon toward the southwest. Eventually, the smoke from the burning department store faded in the distance, but none relaxed until the suburbs of Chicago have way to snowy fields, and the sun began to set.

"Good job, Festus." Leo patted the dragon's metal hide. "You did awesome."

The dragon shuddered. Gears popped and clicked on his neck.

Leo frowned.

"I'll give you a tune-up next time we land," Leo promised. "You've earned some motor oil and Tabasco sauce."

Festus whirled his teeth, but even that sounded weak. He flew at a steady pace, his great wings angling for catch the wind, but he was carrying a heavy load. Two cages in his claws plus four people on his back.

"Leo." Piper patted his shoulder. "You feeling okay?"

"Yeah...not bad for a brainwashed zombie." He hoped he didn't look as embarrassed as he felt. "Thanks for saving us back there, beauty queen. You too, fire bird."

"Don't worry about it," Piper said.

It was quiet. The younger girl noticed the older was shivering slightly. The black coat around her felt heavy in guilt at letting her friend shiver in the freezing air.

Piper removed the coat and wrapped it over the girl's shoulders. Ariadne opened her mouth, but she cut her off. "Take it. It's yours, anyways. Festus is keeping me warm enough."

Ariadne didn't look convinced, but she slipped her arms through and zipped it up. A flash of relief went through her eyes.

"What was with that headache of yours back there?" Piper asked.

"It was nothing." Ariadne gazed down below. Her ponytail whipped around her face, curls bouncing in the harsh breeze. "Just something I get sometimes."

Piper touched her shoulder. "Did it have anything to do with that fountain?"

Her heart dropped. Ariadne hoped not. With everything that was happening, she didn't need another bomb shell dropped on her. For all she knew they could've just been from the stress or the worry for Percy, but they started long before that.

The obvious silence from her made the conversation drop quickly.

"We're going to have to put down soon," Leo warned his friends. "Couple more hours, maybe, to make sure Medea's not following us. I don't think Festus can fly much longer than that."

"Yeah," Piper agreed. "Coach Hedge probably wants to get out of his canary cage, too. Question is—where are we going?"

"The Bay Area," Leo guessed. "Did Medea say something about Oakland?"

Piper didn't respond for so long.

"Piper's dad," Jason put in. "Somethings happened to your dad, right? He got lured into some kind of trap."

Piper let out a shaky breath. "Look, Medea said you would both die in the Bay Area. And besides...even if we went there, the Bay Area is huge! First we need to find Aeolus and drop off the storm spirits. Borras said Aeolus was the only one who could tell us exactly where to go."

Leo grunted. "So how do we find Aeolus?"

Jason leaned forward. "You mean you don't see it?" He pointed ahead of them, but Ariadne didn't see anything except clouds and lights of a few towns glowing in the dusk.

"What?" Leo asked.

"That...whatever it is," Jason said. "In the air.

Leo glanced back. Piper looked just as confused as he was.

Ariadne rolled her eyes. "We're not all children of Jupiter, Jason. Clarify."

"Like a vapor trail," Jason said. "Except it's glowing. Really faint, but it's definitely there. We've been following it since Chicago, so I figured you saw it."

Leo shook his head. "Maybe Festus can sense it. You think Aeolus made it?"

"Well, it's a magic trail in the wind," Jason said. "Aeolus is the wind god. I think he knows we've got prisoners for him. He's telling us where to fly."

"Or it's another trap," Piper said.

She didn't just sound nervous. She sounded broken with despair, like they'd already sealed their fate, and like it was her fault."

"Pipes, you all right?" Leo asked.

"Don't call me that."

"Okay, fine. You don't like any of the names I make up for you. But if your dad's in trouble and we can help—"

"You can't," she said, her voice getting shakier. "Look, I'm tired. If you don't mind..."

She leaned back against Jason and closed her eyes.

They flew in silence for a while. Festus seemed to know where he was going. He kept his course, gently curving toward the southwest and hopefully Aeolus's fortress. Another wind god to visit, a whole new flavor of crazy.

"Catch a few Z's," Jason said to a group exhausted looking Leo. "It's cool. Hand me the reigns."

"Nah, I'm okay—"

"Leo," Jason said, "you're not a machine. Besides, I'm the only one who can see the vapor trail. I'll make sure we stay on course."

Leo's eyes started to close on their own. "All right. Maybe just..."

He didn't finish the sentence before slumping forward against the dragon's warm neck.

Ariadne was caught in her thoughts, not noticing the glanced Jason was giving her. The blond was a bit worried for her. There was much she wasn't explaining to them, and maybe that was just because they hadn't known each other for years like her other friends, or it was her way of coping.

Jason kept them at a steady pace. He wondered what Percy was like. From the way Ariadne always looked when she spoke of him, it was as if he put the stars in the sky, not the gods. Frankly, it was endearing to see feelings like that.

It was like love.

Love. Jason doubted Ariadne even understood that was what she had with Percy. She was strong, incredibly strong, and the boy must've brought some vulnerability for her. But he guessed that was what love was like. He felt as if he had experienced it in his distant memories, but he wasn't sure.

A few more minutes turned into another hour, and that turned into two. Ariadne was queso quiet he assumed she was asleep, but catching her sparkling eyes of the sky he understood she couldn't sleep.

But the peace was soon interrupted when Festus began losing bright, his ruby eyes turning dead and dim.

Leo snapped awake to Jason, Piper, and Ariadne screaming.

They spiraled through the dark in a free fall, still on the dragon's back, but Festus's hide was cold. His ruby eyes were dim.

"Not again!" Leo yelled. "You can't fall again!"

Leo could barely hold on. The wind stung his eyes, but he managed to pull open the panel on the dragon's neck.

Ariadne knew that Festus didn't have the strength to keep flying, and Leo couldn't get to the main control panel on the dragon's head—not in midair. She saw the lights of a city below them—just flashes in the dark as they plummeted in circles. They had only seconds before they crashed.

"Jason!" Leo screamed. "Take Piper and Ariadne and fly out of here!"

"What?"

"We need to lighten the load! I might be able to reboot Festus, but he's carrying too much weight!"

"What about you?" Piper cried. "If you can't reboot him—"

"He's right," Ariadne yelled. "We can follow him to the ground. We need to go!"

Jason grabbed Piper and Ariadne around the waist. All three unbuckled their harnesses, and in a flash they were gone—shooting into the air.

Whatever Leo pulled seemed to trigger something. Festus groaned—metal creaking inside his neck. His eyes flickered weakly to life, and he spread his wings. Their fall turned into a steep glide.

Ariadne watched as Jason followed them closely. He held a tight grip on both girls, but Piper had her head pressed to his chest, afraid foe their friend. Ariadne was reminded her of Percy in those split seconds, before she returned to the matter at hand.

They were still flying in way too hot, and the ground was too close. Leo needed a place to land—fast.

There was a big river—no. Not good for a fire-breathing dragon. Then, on the riverbanks, a white mansion with a huge snowy lawn inside a tall brick perimeter fence—like some rich person's private compound, all of it blazing with light. A perfect landing field. Leo did his best to steer the dragon toward it, and Festus seemed to come back to life.

Then everything went wrong. As they approached the lawn, spotlights along the fence fixed on them, blinding Leo. He heard bursts like tracer fire, the sound like metal being cut to shreds—and BOOM.

Leo blacked out.

When Leo came to his senses, Ariadne, Jason, and Piper were leaning over him. He was lying in the snow, covered in mud and grease. He spit a clump of frozen grass out of his mouth.

"Where—"

"Lie still." Piper had tears in her eyes.

Ariadne looked relieved. "You rolled pretty hard when—when Festus..."

"Where is he?" Leo sat up. They'd landed inside the compound.

"Seriously, Leo," Jason said. "You could be hurt. You shouldn't—"

Leo pushed himself to his feet. Then he saw the wreckage. Festus must've dropped the big canary cages as he came over the fence, because they'd rolled in different directions and landed on their sides, perfectly undamaged.

Festus hadn't been so lucky.

The dragon had disintegrated. His limbs were scattered across the lawn. His tail hung on the fence. The main section of his body had plowed a trench twenty feet wide and fifty feet long across the mansion's yard before breaking apart. What remained of his hide was a charred, smoking pile of scraps. Only his neck and head were somewhat intact, resting across a row of frozen rose bushes like a pillow.

"No," Leo sobbed. He ran to the dragon's and stroked its snout. The dragon's eyes flickered weakly. Oil leaked out of his ear.

"You can't go," Leo pleaded. "You're the best thing I ever fixed."

The dragon's head whirred its gears, as if it were purring. Ariadne, Jason, and Piper stood next to him, but Leo kept his eyes fixed on the dragon.

"It's not fair," he said.

The dragon clicked. Long creak. Two short clicks. Creak. Creak.

"Yeah," Leo said. "I understand. I will. I promise."

The dragon's eyes went dark. Festus was gone.

Leo cried. He wasn't even embarrassed. His friends stood on either side, patting his shoulders, saying comforting things:: but the buzzing in Leo's ears drowned out their words.

Finally Jason said, "I'm so sorry, man. What did you promise Festus?"

Leo sniffled. He opened the dragon's head panel, but to be sure, but the control dish was cracked and burned beyond repair.

"Something my dad told me," Leo said. "Everything can be reused."

"Your dad talked to you?" Jason asked. "When was this?"

Leo didn't answer. He worked at the dragon's neck hinges until the head was detached. It weight about a hundred pounds, but Leo managed to hold it in his arms. He looked up at the starry sky and said, "Take him back to the bunker, Dad. Please, until I can reuse him. I've never asked you for anything."

The wind picked up, and the dragon's head floated out of Leo's arms like it weighed nothing. It flew into the sky and disappeared.

Piper looked at him in amazement. "He answered you?"

Leo could barely speak.

Ariadne placed her hand on his shoulder. He didn't need to speak about it. Festus was dear to his heart, as if he relayed to him, and losing him was like a piece of his own soul. She could understand that completely. All they could do was keep him going and ensure that Festus hadn't died for nothing.

She looked around. The large white mansion glowed in the center of the grounds. Tall brick walls with lights and security cameras surrounded the perimeter.

"Where are we?" Leo asked. "I mean, what city?"

"Omaha, Nebraska," Piper said. "I saw a billboard as we flew in. But I don't know what this mansion is. We came in right behind you, but as you were landing, Leo, i swear it looked like—I don't know—"

"Lasers," Leo said. He picked up a piece of dragon wreckage and threw it toward the top of the fence. Immediately a turret pipped up from the bricks all and a beam of pure heat incinerated the bronze plating to ashes.

Jason whistled. "Some defense system. How are we even alive."

"Festus," Leo said miserable. "He took the fire. The lasers sliced him to bits as he came in so they didn't focus on you. I led him into a death trap."

"You couldn't have known," Ariadne said. "He saved our lives again."

"But what nos!" Jason said. "The main gates are locked, and I'm guessing I can't fly us out of here without getting shit down."

Leo looked up the walkway at the big white mansion. "Since we can't go out, we'll have to go in."

authors note:

This was so short and bad but oh well

I reread war and vines and some spark came back but not this amount before I began watching a movie so

Q: what song do you think describes Ariadne?
A: Control by Halsey

That song is just ✨everything✨

Hold you all are good, I'm okay

I'm scheduling for my junior year this week so that's shit. I went driving again and ended up in this huge line of cars in my neighborhood and felt so panicked like it's so scary please

Hope y'all have fun this week and make sure if you guys need help with anything I'm here!

I've had a few people ask me to help them write prophecies so if you want that I can maybe create like a sort of Google meet thing and can talk you guys through it because it's so much easier than typing I swear—

Or like writing help in general!

Love you guys!