Where there's smoke // L.Valdez

Chapter fifty-one

"So, flying a chopper vs flying a bronze dragon; which one is easier?" Persephone asked, riding in the passenger seat.

"Let me crash this one first, then I'll answer." Leo told her.

"Right... I know you're joking but could we please not crash? I've completely had enough with falling out of the sky." He chuckled at her.

"Festus."

"Hm?"

"Festus was easier to fly, he listened to me." Her brows furrowed, giving him a pitying look. He cleared his throat and ruffled her hair. "Don't look at me like that, mi Princesa."

She flushed red, and went to retort, when Piper interrupted.

"Going okay?" She asked from the back. She sounded nervous, and Persephone realised Leo putting a brave face on. He wasn't as confident as he made it seem.

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

Jason knelt between the two seats, Piper peering over his shoulder. "An abandoned mansion in the Sonoma Valley. A demigod built it- Jack London."

"Is he an actor?" Leo asked.

"Writer," Piper said. "Adventure stuff, right? Call of the wild? White Fang?"

"Hey, we could do that! I'm sure our quest would be a great book." Persephone giggled. Leo rolled his eyes and smiled. Piper and Jason decided to completely ignore her comment.

"Yeah," Jason told Piper. "He was the son of Mercury- I mean, Hermes. He was an adventurer, travelled 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 the 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 the eye could see.

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

"No, he can't have. Chiron would've told us about him." Persephone puzzled.

"He didn't." Jason confirmed.

"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 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 is 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."

"So," Piper said. "How do you know all this?"

A shadow crossed Jason's face, and Persephone nearly choked on air as it looked extremely similar to an eagle.

"I started my journey there, too." Jason said. "It's a powerful place for demigods, a dangerous place. If Gaia 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."

"So, there's no room to mess up then, huh?" Persephone mumbled.

During the ride, Persephone thought back to all the things the four of them had accomplished on their quest. Leo had fixed them a ride on a bronze dragon. They'd flown to a hotel to visit a wind god, with his spoiled daughter and questionable sons. Their trusted friend had crashed into a line of porta-potty stalls, and Gaia has spoken to Persephone and Leo. Their other two friends had been tied up by three Cyclopes, which Leo basically singlehandedly took out. They slept in a sewer and ate tacos. Had their minds taken over by Medea's charmspeak, fought each other, fought sun dragons, rescued a blood-thirsty satyr, crashed their own dragon. Then got turned into gold, fought a bunch of werewolves, drank hot chocolate and ran up an ice bridge, which Leo melted from excitement. They then got blasted halfway across the country, after 'angering' the master of winds, and landed at a café. Fought a giant at the top of the mountain, rescued Piper's dad, Persephone somehow figured out she could use some sort of underworld voodoo, she turned into an ice sculpture, which, once again, Leo saved the day by defrosting her, and then they hijacked a helicopter. Oh and now they were going to save the queen of the gods, and hopefully not die.

She was exhausted thinking about it.

The chopper shuddered and metal creaked. She clutched the nearest thing; Leo's arm. Said boy managed to level the chopper and the creaking stopped. She glanced at him, wide-eyed.

"I got it." He told her, voice sounding miles away. "Thirty minutes out," he told his friends. "If you want to get some rest, now's a good time."

As though he flicked a switch, Persephone found her eyes drooping, but she shook her head. Leo noticed.

"Get some sleep, Sephy, while you can." He told her. She didn't argue. She just curled up on her seat, Jason already passed out in the back, and fell asleep, the sound of the engine and her friend's soft voices lulling her to sleep.

What woke Persephone up were the sound of bullets.

No... not bullets; sleet was hammering against the window of the helicopter. Frost had built up around the edges of the glass, and slushy waves of ice blocked their view from the front.

"An ice storm?" Piper shouted over the engine and the wind. "Is it supposed to be this cold in Sonoma?"

"I'm sick of ice." Persephone whined.

Jason woke up quickly. He crawled forward, grabbing their seats for balance, Piper's back flush against his chest. If she hadn't been internally panicking, Persephone would've teased her friends for it.

"We've got to be getting close."

Leo didn't reply, his attention was on wresting the stick. The helicopter shuddered in the icy wind, controls refusing to respond, and soon they were losing altitude.

The ground below them was a dark quilt of trees and fog. The ridges of a hill loomed in front of them, and Leo yanked the stick, just clearing the treetops.

"Oh my gods, I'm going to throw up!" Persephone cried.

"There!" Jason shouted.

A small valley opened up before them, with the murky shape of a building in the middle. Leo aimed the helicopter straight for it. All around them were flashes of light, blinding Persephone if she looked at them head on. Trees cracked and exploded at the edges of the clearing. Shapes moved through the mist. Combat seemed to be everywhere.

Leo landed the helicopter down in an icy field about fifty yards away from the house and killed the engine. Persephone almost let out a sigh of relief, when a whistling sound screamed towards them. She barely had enough time to register a dark shape heading straight for them out of the mist.

"Out!" Leo scream.

Her door was frozen shut. Someone was really adamant on killing her. Leo hooked an arm around her waist and jumped from the chopper. They barely cleared the rotors before a massive BOOM shook the ground, knocking the two off their feet, splattering ice all over them.

Leo got up shakily, hand clasped around Persephone's waist, as he looked at where the helicopter had been. In its place was a chunk of ice, dirt and snow the size of a garage.

Jason and Piper ran up to them. "You alright?" Jason asked. The two looked fine except for being speckled in snow and mud.

"Yeah," Leo said. "Guess we owe that ranger lady a new helicopter."

"Priorities, Tinkerbell."

Piper pointed south. "Fighting's over there," then she frowned. "No... it's all around us."