The Lost Hero

Chapter 37

Chapter 37

How many more times are we going to crash land

FLY A HELICOPTER? SURE, WHY NOT. Leo had done plenty of crazier things that week.

The sun was going down as they flew north over the Richmond Bridge, and Vivian couldn't believe the day had gone so quickly. Once again, nothing like ADHD and a good fight to the death to make time fly.

Piloting the chopper, Leo went back and forth between confidence and panic. If he didn't think about it, he found himself automatically flipping the right switches, checking the altimeter, easing back on the stick, and flying straight. If he allowed himself to consider what he was doing, he started freaking out. He imagined his Aunt Rosa yelling at him in Spanish, telling him he was a delinquent lunatic who was going to crash and burn. Part of him suspected she was right.

"Going okay?" Vivian asked from the copilot's seat. She sounded more nervous than he was, so Leo put on a brave face.

"Aces," he said. "So what's the Wolf House?"

Jason knelt between their seats. "An abandoned mansion in the Sonoma Valley.A demigod built it—Jack London."

Vivian couldn't place the name.

"He is an actor?" Leo asked.

"Writer," Vivian said. "Adventure stuff, right? Call of the Wild? White Fang?"

"Yeah," Jason said. "He was a son of Mercury—I mean, Hermes. He was an adventurer, traveled the world. He was even a hobo for a while. Then he made a fortune writing. He bought a big ranch in the country and decided to build this huge mansion—the Wolf House."

"Named that 'cause he wrote about wolves?" Leo guessed.

"Partially," Jason said. "But the site, and the reason he wrote about wolves—he was dropping hints about his personal experience. There're a lot of holes in his life story—how he was born, who his dad was, why he wandered around so much —stuff you can only explain if you know he was a demigod."

The bay slipped behind them, and the helicopter continued north. Ahead of them, yellow hills rolled out as far as Vivian could see.

"So Jack London went to Camp Half-Blood," Leo guessed.

"No," Jason said. "No, he didn't."

"Bro, you're freaking me out with the mysterious talk. Are you remembering your past or not?"

"Pieces," Jason said. "Only pieces. None of it is good. The Wolf House is on sacred ground. It's where London started his journey as a child—where he found out he was a demigod. That's why he returned there. He thought he could live there, claim that land, but it wasn't meant for him. The Wolf House was cursed. It burned in a fire a week before he and his wife were supposed to move in. A few years later, London died, and his ashes were buried on the site."

"Okayyy. That is a creepy backstory," Vivian said.

"So," Piper said, "how do you know all this?"

A shadow crossed Jason's face. Probably just a cloud, but Vivian could swear the shape looked like an eagle.

"I started my journey there too," Jason said. "It's a powerful place for demigods, a dangerous place. If Gaea can claim it, use its power to entomb Hera on the solstice and raise Porphyrion—that might be enough to awaken the earth goddess fully."

Leo kept his hand on the joystick, guiding the chopper at full speed—racing toward the north.

Vivian could see some weather ahead—a spot of darkness like a cloudbank or a storm, right where they were going.

Piper's dad had called him a hero earlier. And Leo couldn't believe some of the things he'd done—smacking around Cyclopes, disarming exploding doorbells, battling six armed ogres with construction equipment. They seemed like they had happened to another person. He was just Leo Valdez, an orphaned kid from Houston. He'd spent his life running away, and part of him still wanted to run. What was he thinking, flying toward a cursed mansion to fight more evil monsters?

His mom's voice echoed in his head: Nothing is unfixable.

Except the fact that you're gone forever, Leo thought.

Seeing Piper and her dad back together had really driven that home. Even if Leo survived this quest and saved Hera, Leo wouldn't have any happy reunions. He wouldn't be going back to a loving family. He wouldn't see his mom.

Vivian felt Leo's mood shift and went over to him.

"Are you okay?" Vivian asked.

"Yeah," Leo said, hoping that his voice didn't crack.

The helicopter shuddered. Metal creaked, and Leo could almost imagine the tapping was Morse code: Not the end. Not the end.

Leo leveled out the chopper, and the creaking stopped. He was just hearing things. He couldn't dwell on his mom, or the idea that kept bugging him—that Gaea was bringing souls back from the Underworld—so why couldn't he make some good come out of it? Thinking like that would drive him crazy. He had a job to do.

He let his instincts take over—just like flying the helicopter. If he thought about the quest too much, or what might happen afterward, he'd panic. The trick was not to think—just get through it.

"Thirty minutes out," he told his friends, though he wasn't sure how he knew. "If you want to get some rest, now's a good time.

Jason strapped himself into the back of the helicopter and passed out almost immediately. Piper, Vivian and Leo stayed wideawake.

After a few minutes of awkward silence, Leo said, "Your dad will be fine, you know. Nobody's gonna mess with him with that crazy goat around."

"Leo's not wrong. That goat is crazy!" Vivian said.

"My dad," she said thoughtfully. "Yeah, I know. I was thinking about Jason. I'm worried about him."

Vivian nodded. The closer they got to that bank of dark clouds, the more Vivian worried, too. "He's starting to remember. That's got to make him a little edgy."

"But what if ... what if he's a different person?"

Leo had had the same thought. If the Mist could affect their memories, could Jason's whole personality be an illusion, too? If their friend wasn't their friend, and they were heading into a cursed mansion—a dangerous place for demigods—what would happen if Jason's full memory came back in the middle of a battle?

"Nah," Leo decided. "After all we've been through? I can't see it. We're a team. Jason can handle it."

Piper smoothed her blue dress, which was tattered and burned from their fight on Mount Diablo. "I hope you're right. I need him ..." She cleared her throat. "I mean I need to trust him..."

"I know," Vivian said. After seeing her dad break down, Vivian understood Piper couldn't afford to lose Jason as well. She'd just watched Tristan McLean, her cool suave movie star dad, reduced to near insanity. Vivian could barely stand to watch that, but for Piper—Wow, Vivian couldn't even imagine. She figured that would make her insecure about herself, too. If weakness was inherited, she'd be wondering, could she break down the same way her dad did?

"Hey, don't worry," Leo said. "Piper, you're the strongest, most powerful beauty queen I've ever met. You can trust yourself. For what it's worth, you can trust me too."

"You are one of the strongest people that I know," Vivian encouraged.

The helicopter dipped in a wind shear, and Leo almost jumped out of his skin. He cursed and righted the chopper.

Piper laughed nervously. "Trust you, huh?"

"Ah, shut up, already." But he grinned at her, and for a second, it felt like he was just relaxing comfortably with friends.

Then they hit the storm clouds.