CHAPTER VIII ——
ONCOMING ICE STORM.

Sometimes Mare dreamt of death, mostly her own, but sometimes she saw other's. This time it was vague, a flash of blonde hair and a spear piercing through a heart. She felt the loss in her bones, the terrible ache of losing a loved one.

She saw the blood on her hands, and felt a terrible guilt. She opened her eyes, and was sure she would be the one to kill the faceless person in her dream.

In the waking world her hands were clean. The was no trace of blood, but Mare could still see it as clear as day. She rubbed her eyes and shook her head, looking around to see how much time had passed. Daylight had begun to fade, and Piper was shaking Leo awake. Jason turned to do the same as her, but startled when he saw Mare looking straight at him.

"Nice timing." He said.

"My sleep cycle usually links up with people i'm around, makes life easier."

He raised a brow, made a 'nice' face and turned back around.

Below them, a city sat on a cliff overlooking a river. The plains around it were dusted with snow, but the city itself glowed warmly in the winter sunset. Buildings crowded together inside high walls like a medieval town. In the center was a castle with massive red brick walls and a square tower with a peaked, green gabled roof.

"Tell me that's Quebec and not Santa's workshop," Leo said.

"Yeah, Quebec City," Piper confirmed. "One of the oldest cities in North America. Founded around sixteen hundred or so?"

"Nice facts! You know a lot of about history?" Mare asked.

Leo raised an eyebrow. "Your dad do a movie about that too?"

"I read sometimes, okay?" Piper said to Leo. Then she turned towards Mare, and smiled. "History is cool, when it's actually being told properly."

Mare didn't care much for the way the world was, she didn't care for much at all.

"Feisty!" Leo said. "So you know so much, what's that castle?"

"A hotel, I think."

Leo laughed. "No way."

Mare herself had no clue, so she waited. Piper was right, the grand entrance was bustling with doormen, valets, and porters taking bags. Sleek black luxury cars idled in the drive. People in elegant suits and winter cloaks hurried to get out of the cold.

"The North Wind is staying in a hotel?" Leo said. "That can't be—"

"Heads up, guys," Jason interrupted. "We got company!"

Mare leaned backwards, before quickly remembering how far up she was, and leant forward again. She grabbed the handle of her sword in her backpack, and twirled it around, adjusting her grip. She'd be ready for whatever came, but she also wouldn't be a threat at the start.

She looked to the side and caught a glimpse of the danger they'd be facing. Rising form the top of the tower were two winged figures— angry angels, with nasty looking swords.

Luckily for them, Mare had a nasty sword of her own, and knew how to use it.

Mare swallowed a scream and the dragon swooped to a halt in midair, wings beating and talons bared. He made a sounds in his throat and Mare gripped her sword tighter. She focused on the spot between Jason's shoulder blades and he turned, feeling the weight of her dead gaze. They shared a look for a moment, before Jason turned back around.

Leo muttered something Mare was too far away to hear.

"I don't like this," Jason said. "They look like storm spirits."

Mare glanced back and squinted, it was too far to see. As they got closer, she realised they were far more solid than Anemoi Thuellai. They looked like teenagers, except for their icy white hair and feathery purple wings. Their bronze swords were jagged, like icicles. They had similar faces, perhaps even brothers.

One wore a bright red hockey jersey, baggy sweatpants, and black leather cleats. He was the size of an ox and would be harder to take down in a fight. He was clearly banged up, sporting multiple black eyes. He bared his teeth, and several of them were missing.

She blinked slowly as she took in the other guy, laughing internally as she saw his poor attempt at fitting in. His mullet hair was long and ice-white. He wore pointy-toed leather shoes, designer pants that hugged him in all the wrong places and a silk shirt with the top three buttons open. He couldn't have weighed more than ninety pounds and Mare would have been happy to snap him like a twig.

The weird guys blocked the path of the dragon and stayed there, swords at the ready.

The big guy grunted. "No clearance."

"'Scuse me?" Leo said.

"You have no flight plan on file," explained the other one. Mare almost rolled her eyes at his fake accent, she knew French people, and she knew they didn't sound like that. She wondered how long it had taken them to curate this fake persona and found that they should have spent far more time on it. "This is restricted airspace."

"Destroy them?" The big guy grinned, like nothing would please him more.

The dragon began to hiss steam, ready to defend them. Jason summoned his golden sword, Mare drew her whistle from her pocket but Leo cried, "Hold on! Let's have some manners here, boys. Can I at least find out who has the honor of destroying me?"

"I am Cal!" the big guy grunted. He looked very proud of himself, like he'd taken a long time to memorize that sentence.

"That's short for Calais," the other said. "Sadly, my brother cannot say words with more than two syllables—"

"Pizza! Hockey! Destroy!" Cal offered.

This guy totally had his priorities straight.

"—which includes his own name," the love god finished.

"I am Cal," Cal repeated. "And this is Zethes! My brother!"

"Wow," Leo said. "That was almost three sentences, man! Way to go."

Mare felt the bones of a smile creep on her face and slapped it off.

Cal grunted, obviously pleased with himself.

"Stupid buffoon," his brother grumbled. "They make fun of you. But no matter. I am Zethes, which is short for Zethes. And the lady there, and the other back there—" He winked at Piper before doing the same to Mare, but the wink was more like a facial seizure. "Th at can call me anything they like. Perhaps the ladies would like to have dinner with a famous demigod before we must destroy you?"

If Mare went to dinner with them she'd poor graveyard dirt into their food and watch them choke on it before burning from the inside out.

She was so consumed in her thoughts she almost didn't notice Jason's grip on his sword becoming tighter, and his shoulders tensing.

Piper made a sound like gagging on a cough drop. "That's ... a truly horrifying offer."

Mare turned her deadliest glare onto him, and his smile faltered. "No thanks."

"It is no problem." Zethes recovered quickly, and wiggled his eyebrows at Piper. "We are a very romantic people, we Boreads."

"Boreads?" Jason cut in. "Do you mean, like, the sons of Boreas?"

Ah, Demigods would be harder to kill, but Mare was certain she could still do it. She had killed dozens in the war, until she'd been pierced—

She took a deep breath, and turned to her shaking hands. She had to get it together, she would be no help if she was trapped in her own mind, remember what she had thought would be her last moments.

Zethes was already speaking when she focused. "...gatekeepers. So you understand, we cannot have unauthorized people flying in his airspace on creaky dragons, scaring the silly mortal peoples."

He pointed below and Mare risked a glance, and took a steadying breath and the drop. Mortals were beginning to notice, several were pointing and staring with confusion. The mist was at work, and she was suddenly so thankful for Hecate that she might have sang.

"Which is sadly why, unless this is an emergency landing," Zethes said, brushing his hair out of his face, "we will have to destroy you painfully."

Mare focused her body and watched as Jason did the same, both of them getting ready for a fight. He looked just as prepared as she did and that annoyed her. This amnesiac Demigod looked like he had experience in a fight, and a unexpected bitterness rose in her. She couldn't care less if he was the leader, she'd never be suited for that job, but she'd been hoping to be the one with advice.

"Destroy!" Cal agreed, like the prospect of destroying us was the best thing to ever happen to him.

"Wait!" Piper said. "This is an emergency landing."

"Awww!" Cal's face pulled into disappointment and Mare blinked very slowly at him.

Zethes studied Piper, curiosity mixed with something else Mare didn't like. "How does the pretty girl decide this is an emergency, then?"

"We have to see Boreas. It's totally urgent! Please?" She forced a smile, Piper was already beautiful, one of the most beautiful people Mare had ever seen but with the blessing of Aphrodite, she looked even more striking. There was something in her voice too, so alluring that Mare agreed immediately, Piper was right, this was an emergency.

Something wasn't right...

Zethes picked at his shirt as he contemplated Piper's words, likely making sure it was open wide enough. He seemed to think it was in anyway alluring. "Well ... I hate to disappoint a lovely lady, but you see, my sister, she would have an avalanche if we allowed you—"

"And our dragon is malfunctioning!" Piper quickly added. "It could crash any minute!"

Festus shuddered helpfully, then turned his head and spilled gunk out of his ear, splattering a black Mercedes in the parking lot below.

Mare cringed inwardly, she didn't want to think about what would happen if the dragon did suddenly crash.

"No destroy?" Cal whimpered.

Mare would have liked to destroy him.

Zethes pondered the problem. Then he gave Piper another spasmodic wink. Mare wanted to throttle him. "Well, you are pretty. I mean, you're right. A malfunctioning dragon—this could be an emergency."

"Destroy them later?" Cal offered, he was just as hung up on a fight between them as Mare was.

"It will take some explaining," Zethes decided. "Father has not been kind to visitors lately. But, yes. Come, faulty dragon people. Follow us."

The Boreads sheathed their swords and pulled something smaller from their belts, they switched the device on, flashlights with orange cones, the type used on a runway. Cal and Zethes turned and swooped toward the hotel's tower.

Leo towards. "I love these guys. Follow them?"

"If we have to." Mare said, she couldn't see Jason or Piper's faces but their silence didn't bleed excitement.

"I guess," Jason decided. "We're here now. But I wonder why Boreas hasn't been kind to visitors."

"He's a God," Mare deadpanned. "I think that explains enough."

"Pfft, he just hasn't met us." Leo whistled. "Festus, after those flashlights!"

"Yay! Certain doom." Their quest had truly begun.