( STEPHANIE PHẠM )

⤹⋆⸙͎۪۫｡˚۰˚☽˚⁀➷｡˚⸙͎۪۫⋆ ༄

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ𝟕𝟗 𝐂𝐄. the year pompeii was destroyed. the first time stephanie lost jason. the first year hecate couldn't pull her daughter from the ruins. 

"we need to leave soon!" stephanie urged her boyfriend as the two of them ran around their small home together. they knew what was to come, there had been warnings from the gods, greek and roman. such a disaster was a sign from the realm above and below.

jason had completely silenced her voice in his mind by then. the only thing on his mind was how they'd both be let into olympus or mount vultur. he knew the gods equivalents wouldn't accept them together for refuge, but he couldn't bare himself to seperate from the girl.

"jason" her tone was full of grief. the rumbling from outside was loud and had the both of them freeze in their spots. it was too late. mount vesuvius had erupted. it wouldn't be long before they were both submerged in ashes.

knowing there was nothing else for the two of them, jason rushed to the only girl he'd ever loved. the girl he continued to love in every lifetime. the girl he couldn't escape even if he tried.

"i love you completely stephanie pham" the boy said as he took her hands into his own. his eyes ached with unshed tears threatening to escape but not wanting to upset her from than she already was. "i will love you no matter what happens to us. i will be yours - i am yours"

stephanie knew it was a risk, she knew of her past with him. she knew deep down whether or not she wanted to admit it that jason grace was her fate. that no matter how many lifetimes they found each other in they would never be allowed to live in peace. but she didn't care. the few moments they were allowed with each other were enough.

"i will find you again jason grace" she said with one last kiss.

how little she knew in that life when uttering her last words. stephanie phams fatal flaw would always be her undying love for jason grace.

𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐩𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐞 𝐟𝐞𝐥𝐭 𝐝𝐞𝐣𝐚 𝐯𝐮. for a minute, jason and thalia faced each other, stunned. then thalia rushed forward and hugged him. it was straight out a book. the reunion the audience has been praying for.

"my gods! she told me you were dead!" she gripped jason's face and seemed to be examining everything about it. "thank artemis, it is you. that little scar on your lip—you tried to eat a stapler when you were two!"

leo laughed. "seriously?"

stephanie only smiled to herself, her assumption of him always been stupid was just proved.

hedge nodded like he approved of jason's taste. "staplers —excellent source of iron."

"w-wait," jason stammered. "who told you I was dead? what happened?"

at the cave entrance, one of the white wolves barked. thalia looked back at the wolf and nodded, but she kept her hands on jason's face, like she was afraid he might vanish. "my wolf is telling me I don't have much time, and she's right. but we have to talk. let's sit."

piper did better than that. she collapsed. she would've cracked her head on the cave floor if stephanie hadn't rushed to catch her. she cradled the top half of the girls body as she hugged her closely on the ground.

thalia rushed over. "what's wrong with her? ah—never mind. I see. hypothermia. ankle." she frowned at the satyr. "don't you know nature healing?"

hedge scoffed. "why do you think she looks this good? can't you smell the gatorade?"

thalia looked at leo for the first time, and of course it was an accusatory glare, like why did you let the goat be a doctor? as if that was leo's fault. then she looked at stephanie and at piper and then at stephanie again.

stephanie didn't notice the double look as she stared worriedly at aphrodite's daughter.

"you and the satyr," thalia ordered, "take this girl to my friend at the entrance. phoebe's an excellent healer."

"it's cold out there!" hedge said. "i'll freeze my horns off."

but leo knew when they weren't wanted. "come on, hedge. i think these two need time to talk."

"humph. fine," the satyr muttered. "didn't even get to brain anybody."

hedge picked piper up and began carrying her out towards the entrance. leo and stephanie following behind when jason called, "actually, stephanie, could you, um, stick around?"

stephanie stopped and looked between the two before she noticed the look in jason's eyes. it was though he was begging her to stay without actually saying anything. he was scared.

she nodded with a gulp as she watched the other's exit. "anything you want"

thalia didn't look too pleased about it, but the three of them sat at the fire. for a few minutes, nobody spoke. jason studied his sister like she was a scary device—one that might explode if handled incorrectly. thalia seemed more at ease, as if she was used to stumbling across stranger things than long-lost relatives. but still she regarded jason in a kind of amazed trance, maybe remembering a little two-year-old who tried to eat a stapler. stephanie traced small shapes on the ground with her fingers.

finally she couldn't bare the silence. "so... nice family reunion right?" the awkwardness definitely increasing after her comment.

thalia only stared at the girl as though she were a perfectly sculpted greek statue. like she was special. it was though thalia saw what everyone else was supposed to see when looking at stephanie pham.

jason smiled to himself before placing a hand on her bare knee. "don't mind her. she's not exactly good with people." his comment making the girl beside him pull a face of mock offence. "but, thalia ... what happened to our family? who told you I was dead?"

thalia tugged at a silver bracelet on her wrist. in the firelight, in her winter camouflage, she almost looked like khione the snow princess—just as cold and beautiful.

"do you remember anything?" she asked.

jason shook his head. "i woke up three days ago on a bus with stephanie, leo and piper."

"none of that being our fault," stephanie said with a scowl. "hera stole his memories."

thalia tensed. "hera? how do you know that?"

jason explained about their quest—the prophecy at camp, hera getting imprisoned, the giant taking piper's dad, how everyone seemed to know stephanie, and the winter solstice deadline. leo chimed in to add the important stuff: how he'd fixed the bronze dragon, could throw fireballs, and made excellent tacos.

thalia was a good listener. nothing seemed to surprise her—the monsters, the prophecies, stephanie's past lives, the dead rising. but when jason mentioned king midas, she cursed in ancient Greek.

"i knew we should've burned down his mansion," she said. "that man's a menace. but we were so intent on following lycaon—well, i'm glad you got away. so hera's been ... what, hiding you all these years?"

"i don't know." jason brought out the photo from his pocket. "she left me just enough memory to recognize your face."

thalia looked at the picture, and her expression softened. "i'd forgotten about that. i left it in cabin one, didn't I?"

jason nodded. "i think hera wanted for us to meet. when we landed here, at this cave ... I had a feeling it was important. like I knew you were close by. is that crazy?"

"for the past few days he's been very intent on the fact that all of this was meant to happen" stephanie added in. although jason didn't remember a lot he very sure of things.

"jason," thalia said, "when you're dealing with the gods, nothing is too crazy. but you can't trust hera, especially since we're children of zeus. she hates all children of zeus."

"but she said something about zeus giving her my life as a peace offering. does that make any sense?"

the colour drained from thalia's face. "oh, gods. mother wouldn't have ... you don't remember—no, of course you don't."

"what?" jason asked.

thalia's features seemed to grow older in the firelight, like her immortality wasn't working so well. "jason ... i'm not sure how to say this. our mom wasn't exactly stable. she caught zeus's eye because she was a television actress, and she was beautiful, but she didn't handle the fame well. she drank, pulled stupid stunts. she was always in the tabloids. she could never get enough attention. even before you were born, she and I argued all the time. she ... she knew dad was zeus, and I think that was too much for her to take. it was like the ultimate achievement for her to attract the lord of the sky, and she couldn't accept it when he left. the thing about the gods... well, they don't hang around."

stephanie could only agree. she'd never met her father, let alone her godly parent. all hecate could bother with was popping in and out of her head with random visions, alongside the random voice that enjoyed tormenting her, who she had no idea of who it belonged to.

she watched jason's face—looking more and more devastated as thalia described their mom—and for the first time since being in his presence, she frowned. stephanie may not have know her father. she might have had a hard life. but at least she had nicholas. she found herself squeezing his hand which had not left her body. she felt sympathy for jason, not having memories like that—not having anything to fall back on.

"so ..." jason didn't seem able to finish the question.

"jason, you have us, you have me" stephanie told him. "and now you got a sister. you're not alone."

thalia offered her hand, and jason took it with his free hand.

"when I was about seven," she said, "zeus started visiting mom again. I think he felt bad about wrecking her life, and he seemed—different somehow. a little older and sterner, more fatherly toward me. for a while, mom improved. she loved having zeus around, bringing her presents, causing the sky to rumble. she always wanted more attention. that's the year you were born. mom ... well, I never got along with her, but you gave me a reason to hang around. you were so cute."

and I didn't trust mom to look after you. of course, zeus eventually stopped coming by again. he probably couldn't stand mom's demands anymore, always pestering him to let her visit olympus, or to make her immortal or eternally beautiful. when he left for good, mom got more and more unstable. that was about the time the monsters started attacking me. mom blamed hera. she claimed the goddess was coming after you too—that hera had barely tolerated my birth, but two demigod children from the same family was too big an insult. mom even said she hadn't wanted to name you jason, but zeus insisted, as a way to appease hera because the goddess liked that name. i didn't know what to believe."

thalia squeezed her brother's hand. "if I'd known you were alive ... gods, things would've been so different. but when you were two, mom packed us in the car for a family vacation. we drove up north, toward the wine country, to this park she wanted to show us. I remember thinking it was strange because mom never took us anywhere, and she was acting super nervous. I was holding your hand, walking you toward this big building in the middle of the park, and ..." 

she took a shaky breath. "mom told me to go back to the car and get the picnic basket. i didn't want to leave you alone with her, but it was only for a few minutes. when I came back ... mom was kneeling on the stone steps, hugging herself and crying. she said—she said you were gone. she said hera claimed you and you were as good as dead. I didn't know what she'd done. I was afraid she'd completely lost her mind. I ran all over the place looking for you, but you'd just vanished. she had to drag me away, kicking and screaming. for the next few days I was hysterical. I don't remember everything, but I called the police on mom and they questioned her for a long time. afterward, we fought. she told me I'd betrayed her, that I should support her, like she was the only one who mattered. finally I couldn't stand it. your disappearance was the last straw. I ran away from home, and I never went back, not even when mom died a few years ago. I thought you were gone forever. I never told anyone about you—not even annabeth or luke, my two best friends. it was just too painful."

"chiron knew." jason's voice sounded far away. "when I got to camp, he took one look at me and said, 'you should be dead.'"

"that doesn't make sense," thalia insisted. "I never told him."

"listen" stephanie said "the important thing is you've got each other now. do you know how lucky you two are." she thought of nicholas. she thought of how long he'd been gone, how long he'd left her for. how long he'd lied to her for. 

she thought of nicholas. she thought of how he'd protected her, watched her, taught her. how he saved her. how nicholas romano saved her life. 

thalia nodded offering stephanie a small smile. "stephanie's right. look at you. you're my age. you've grown up."

"but where have I been?" jason said. "how could I be missing all that time? and the roman stuff"

thalia frowned. "the roman stuff?"

"he speaks latin like it was his first language," stephanie told her. "he calls gods by their roman names, and he's got this tattoo." stephanie pointed out as she ran her hand across his arm. then she gave thalia the rundown about the other weird stuff that had happened: boreas turning into aquilon, lycaon calling jason a "child of rome," and the wolves backing off when jason spoke latin to them. she left out what lycaon had said to her not finding it important.

thalia plucked her bowstring. "latin. zeus sometimes spoke Latin, the second time he stayed with mom. like I said, he seemed different, more formal." it got stephanie thinking of what clover had said about the roman equivalents and it was like a bell had gone off in her head.

she let out a small groan as her hand left jason's and made it's way to her head to squeeze her temples. jason felt the small warmth she was passing leave his body and quickly turned to her. "what's wrong?" there was so much concern in his tone you'd think she was bleeding out.

thalia watched the two with soft eyes. it was like they'd known each other their whole lives. like they were in love with one another. of course she'd heard about metempsychosis. she'd heard about stephanie. it was like she was witnessing an urban legend. what she wondered was if stephanie had heard the legend about herself.

"you think he was in his roman aspect?" jason asked as his eyes didn't leave stephanie, his arm settling around her neck so his hand could rub the spot below her hair. "and that's why I think of myself as a child of jupiter?"

"possibly ," thalia said. "i've never heard of something like that happening, but it might explain why you think in roman terms, why you can speak latin rather than ancient greek. that would make you unique. still, it doesn't explain how you've survived without camp half-blood. A child of zeus , or jupiter, or whatever you want to call him—you would've been hounded by monsters. if you were on your own, you should've died years ago. i know I wouldn't have been able to survive without friends. you would've needed training, a safe haven—"

"he wasn't alone though," stephanie blurted out with a groan. "we've heard about others like him."

thalia looked at her strangely and the way she squinted her eyes as though she was having some kind of revelation. "what do you mean?"

stephanie tried to tell her about the slashed-up purple shirt in medea's department store, and the story the cyclopes told about the child of mercury who spoke latin.

"isn't there anywhere else for demigods?" stephanie asked. "i mean besides camp half-blood? because that's the only logical explanation for all of this, even though none of this could actually be logically explained"

thalia's dazzling blue eyes studied her closesly, making her feel like an animal on display in the zoo.

"i've been all over the country," thalia mused. "i've never seen evidence of demigods in purple shirts. still..." her voice trailed off, like she'd just had a troubling thought.

"what?" jason asked.

thalia shook her head. "i'll have to talk to the goddess. maybe artemis will guide us."

"she's still talking to you?" jason asked. "most of the gods have gone silent."

"artemis follows her own rules," thalia said. "she has to be careful not to let zeus know, but she thinks zeus is being ridiculous closing olympus. she's the one who set us on the trail of lycaon. she said we'd find a lead to a missing friend of ours."

"percy jackson," leo guessed. "the guy annabeth is looking for." thalia nodded, her face full of concern.

stephanie wondered if anyone would care this much if she went missing, but deep down she knew the answer to that question.

"so what would lycaon have to do with it?" stephanie asked. "and how does it connect to us?"

"we need to find out soon," thalia admitted. "if your deadline is tomorrow, we're wasting time. aeolus could tell you—"

the white wolf appeared again at the doorway and yipped insistently.

"i have to get moving." thalia stood. "otherwise I'll lose the other hunters' trail. first, though, I'll take you to aeolus's palace."

"if you can't, it's okay," jason said, though he sounded kind of distressed.

"oh, please." thalia smiled and helped him up. "i haven't had a brother in years. i think I can stand a few minutes with you before you get annoying. now, let's go!"

𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐩𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝𝐧'𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐩 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟, her jaw quite literally almost hit the floor.

she didn't actually know what she'd expected, but the hunter phoebe had set up this silver tent pavilion thing right outside the cave. how she'd done it so fast, stephanie had no idea, but inside was a kerosene heater keeping them toasty warm and a bunch of comfy throw pillows. piper looked back to normal, decked out in a new parka, gloves, and camo pants like a hunter. she and leo and hedge and phoebe were kicking back, drinking hot chocolate.

"how does it feel that well you were sitting in the dingy cave we got hot chocolate?" leo asked with a small smirk in their direction.

phoebe sniffed. "boys," she said, like it was the worst insult she could think of.

"it's all right, phoebe," thalia said. "they'll need extra coats. and we can spare some more chocolate."

phoebe grumbled, but soon stephanie and jason were also dressed in silvery winter clothes that were incredibly lightweight and warm. the warm hot chocolate was first-rate. stephanie had opted to keep the leather jacket she'd been wearing on under the parka.

"cheers!" said coach hedge. he crunched down his plastic thermos cup.

"that cannot be good for your intestines," leo said with a concerned face.

thalia patted piper on the back. "you up for moving?"

piper nodded. "thanks to phoebe, yeah. you guys are really good at this wilderness survival thing. i feel like I could run ten miles."

thalia smiled with a fondness. "she's tough for a child of aphrodite. i like this one."

"hey, I could run ten miles too," leo volunteered. "tough hephaestus kid here. let's hit it."

naturally, thalia ignored him. stephanie placed a hand of comfort on the latino boys shoulder, knowing he was really trying to flirt with the girl.

it took phoebe exactly six seconds to break camp, which no one could not believe. the tent self-collapsed into a square the size of a pack of chewing gum. leo wanted to ask her for the blueprints, but they didn't have time.

thalia ran uphill through the snow, hugging a tiny little path on the side of the mountain, and soon leo was regretting trying to look macho, because the hunters left him in the dust.

coach hedge leaped around like a happy mountain goat, coaxing them on like he used to do on track days at school. "come on, valdez! pick up the pace! let's chant. i've got a girl in kalamazoo—"

"let's not," thalia snapped. so they ran in silence. stephanie smirking at the girl's attitude, glad someone was finally able to make coach actually shut up. 

stephanie ended up being beside jason at the back of the group. "you okay? she questioned softly.

tfor a second jason hadn't realised it was stephanie speaking to him, her tone being so different from usual. however his expression was enough of an answer: not good.

"thalia takes it so calmly," jason said. "like it's no big deal that I appeared. I didn't know what I was expecting, but ... she's not like me. she seems so much more together."

"well she doesn't have amnesia," stephanie said. "besides, she's had more time to get used to being a demigod. you fight monsters and talk to gods for a while, you're going to get used to surprises."

"maybe," jason said. "i just wish I understood what happened when I was two, why my mom got rid of me. thalia ran away because of me."

"jason, whatever's happened, it wasn't your fault. and for what it's worth, you're a lot like your sister. she is a bit cooler though" she said with a small laugh, her joke making the boy turn to her with a growing smile.

jason liked the way stephanie was able to bring his mood up. it helped that he just liked stephanie . stephanie wondered if she'd said the right thing. she wanted to make jason feel better, but this was way outside her comfort zone of interactions.

stephanie wished she could just think of a spell to bring his memory back, to help him remember what he couldn't. although she wondered if once he remembered his life he'd run back to it without even a glance back.

she was so lost in thought, she didn't realize the hunters had stopped. she nearly slammed into thalia and made them both tumble down the mountain. fortunately, jason had noticed her dazed state and grabbed her wrist to pull her back before that could happen.

"that," leo choked, "is a really large rock."

they stood near the summit of pikespeak. below them the world was blanketed in clouds. the air was so thin, stephanie could hardly breathe. night had set in, but a full moon shone and the stars were incredible. stretching out to the north and south, peaks of other mountains rose from the clouds like islands—or teeth.

but the real show was above them. hovering in the sky, about a quarter mile away, was a massive free-floating island of glowing purple stone. it was hard to judge its size, but leo figured it was at least as wide as a football stadium and just as tall. the sides were rugged cliffs, riddled with caves, and every once in a while a gust of wind burst out with a sound like a pipe organ blast. at the top of the rock, brass walls ringed some kind of a fortress.

the only thing connecting pikes peak to the floating island was a narrow bridge of ice that glistened in the moonlight.

then leo realized the bridge wasn't exactly ice, because it wasn't solid. as the winds changed direction, the bridge snaked around—blurring and thinning, in some places even breaking into a dotted line like the vapor trail of a plane.

"this cannot be safe" stephanie said as a shiver racked her spine, her fear of heights not helping out.

thalia shrugged. "i'm not a big fan of heights, i'll admit. but if you want to get to aeolus's fortress, this is the only way."

"is the fortress always hanging there?" piper asked. "how can people not notice it sitting on top of pikes peak?"

"the mist," thalia said. "still, mortals do notice it indirectly. some days, pikes peak looks purple. people say it's a trick of the light, but actually it's the colour of aeolus's palace, reflecting off the mountain face."

"it's enormous," jason said.

thalia laughed. "you should see olympus, little brother."

"you're serious? you've been there?"

thalia grimaced as if it wasn't a good memory. "we should go across in two different groups. the bridge is fragile."

"that's reassuring," leo said. "jason, can't you just fly us up there?" the wilderness school group thinking back to when jason jumped off the canyon and when he grabbed stephanie and piper after festus' malfunction.

thalia laughed. then she seemed to realize leo's question wasn't a joke. "wait... jason, you can fly?"

jason gazed up at the floating fortress. "well, sort of. more like I can control the winds. but the winds up here are so strong, i'm not sure I'd want to try. thalia, you mean ... you can't fly?"

for a second, thalia looked genuinely afraid. then she got her expression under control. stephanie realized she was a lot more scared of heights than she was letting on.

"truthfully," she said, "i've never tried. might be better if we stuck to the bridge."

coach hedge tapped the ice vapor trail with his hoof, then jumped onto the bridge. amazingly, it held his weight. "easy! I'll go first. piper, come on, girl. I'll give you a hand."

"no, that's okay," piper started to say, but the coach grabbed her hand and dragged her up the bridge. when they were about halfway, the bridge still seemed to be holding them just fine.

thalia turned to her hunter friend. phoebe, I'll be back soon. go find the others. tell them I'm on my way."

"you sure?" phoebe narrowed her eyes at leo and jason, like they might kidnap thalia or something. she however gave stephanie a small nod as if asking a silent question to protect the girl.

"it;s fine," thalia promised, the look in her eyes enough to reassure phoebe. the girl nodded , then raced down the mountain path, the white wolves at her heels.

"jason, stephanie, leo just be careful where you step," thalia said. "it hardly ever breaks."

"it hasn't met me yet," leo muttered, but he and jason led the way up the bridge. stephanie shared a quick glance with thalia and followed behind.

halfway up, things went wrong. piper and hedge had already made it safely to the top and were waving at them, encouraging them to keep climbing, but leo got distracted. he was thinking about bridges—how he would design something way more stable than this shifting ice vapor business if this were his palace. he was pondering braces and support columns. then a sudden revelation stopped him in his tracks.

"why do they have a bridge?" he asked.

thalia frowned. "leo , this isn't a good place to stop. what do you mean?"

"they're wind spirits," leo said. "can't they fly?"

"yes , but sometimes they need a way to connect to the world below."

"so the bridge isn't always here?" leo asked.

stephanie didn't like how they had stopped halfway across the bridge, she was able to see everything around her, including the drop. she tried to keep her nerves in but her hands started shaking at her sides.

thalia shook her head. "the wind spirits don't like to anchor to the earth, but sometimes it's necessary. like now. they know you're coming."

leo's mind was racing. he was so excited he could almost feel his body's temperature rising. he couldn't quite put his thoughts into words, but he knew he was on to something important.

"leo?" jason said. "what are you thinking?"

leo shuffled backward. with horror, he realized his body temperature really was rising, just as it had years ago at that picnic table under the pecan tree, when his anger had gotten away from him. now , excitement was causing the reaction. his pants steamed in the cold air. his shoes were literally smoking, and the bridge didn't like it. the ice was thinning.

"leo, calm down," stephanie warned. "you're going to melt the bridge."

"i'll try," leo said. but his body was overheating on its own, running as fast as his thoughts. "listen, jason, what did hera call you in that dream? she called you a bridge."

"leo, seriously, cool down," thalia said. "i don't what you're talking about, but the bridge is—"

"just listen," leo insisted. "if jason is a bridge, what's he connecting? maybe two different places that normally don't get along—like the air palace and the ground. you had to be somewhere before this, right? and hera said you were an exchange."

"an exchange." thalia's eyes widened. "oh, gods."

stephanie eventually caught onto what the two were trying to explain, a bridge between two worlds. the greeks and the romans. 

jason frowned. "what are you two talking about?"

thalia murmured something like a prayer. "i understand now why artemis sent me here. jason—she told me to hunt for lycaon and I would find a clue about percy. you are the clue. artemis wanted us to meet so I could hear your story."

"i don't understand," he protested. "i don't have a story. i don't remember anything."

"but leo's right," thalia said. "It's all connected. If we just knew where—"

leo snapped his fingers. "jason, what did you call that place in your dream? that ruined house. the wolf house?"

thalia nearly choked. "the wolf house? jason, why didn't you tell me that! that's where they're keeping Hera?"

"you know where it is?" jason asked.

then the bridge dissolved. leo would've fallen to his death, but jason and stephanie each grabbed a side of his coat and pulled him to safety. the three of them scrambled up the bridge, and when they turned, thalia was on the other side of a thirty-foot chasm. the bridge was continuing to melt.

"go!" thalia shouted, backing down the bridge as it crumbled. "find out where the giant is keeping piper's dad. save him! i'll take the hunters to the wolf house and hold it until you can get there. we can do both!"

"but where is the wolf house?" jason shouted.

"you know where it is, little brother!" she was so far away now that they could barely hear her voice over the wind. leo was pretty sure she said: i'll see you there. i promise."

then she turned and raced down the dissolving bridge. the other three had no time to waste. they climbed for their lives, the ice vapor thinning under their feet. several times, jason grabbed stephanie and leo and used the winds to keep them aloft, but it was more like bungee jumping than flying.

when they reached the floating island, piper and coach hedge pulled them aboard just as the last of the vapor bridge vanished. they stood gasping for breath at the base of a stone stairway chiselled into the side of the cliff, leading up to the fortress.

leo looked back down. the top of pikes peak floated below them in a sea of clouds, but there was no sign of thalia. and leo had just burned their only exit.

"what happened?" piper demanded. "leo, why are your clothes smoking?"

"i got a little heated," he gasped. "sorry, jason. honest. i didn't—"

"it's all right," jason said, but his expression was grim. "we've got less than twenty-four hours to rescue a goddess and piper's dad. let's go see the king of the winds."