Absent. Heroes of Olympus

14. Leo lights up a bridge

Whoever invented hiking deserved to rot in Tartarus.

Gods, I wanted nothing more than to stop and give up but Jason wouldn't let me. Just because I was fast didn't mean I wanted to run everywhere, why couldn't we get a cab or something?

I decided to forget about Luke. No point worrying about someone you don't even remember knowing.

Coach Hedge leapt around like a happy mountain goat, coaxing us on. "Come on, Valdez! Pick up the pace! Let's chant. I've got a girl in Kalamazoo—"

"Let's not," Thalia snapped.

"No!" I snapped and Coach mumbled something about athletes being rude.

We ran in silence.

Leo leaned over to me and whispered, "What's wrong with you?" I glared and muttered about being fine but the truth was I wasn't fine.

Even though I had decided to forget about Luke my brain was pulling itself apart trying to find where I knew Luke from and it was incredibly painful.

I felt a little bad for calling Piper a liar. Was Piper a liar? Yes. Was I going to apologise? No. She'd just have to get over it.

Leo kept poking me in the side asking what was wrong. "If poke me one more time I'll throw you over the side of this mountain."

Leo held up his hands in surrender, we ran in silence for thirty seconds before Leo spoke again. "You know you can talk to me, right?"

I glared at him and he got the message 'no talking'.

We continued to run in silence until we reached the summit of Pikes Peak. "That," Leo choked, "is a really large rock."

Below us, the ground was covered in clouds. The air was so thin, I 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.

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 I 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 I realised the bridge wasn't 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 vapour trail of a plane.

"We're not seriously crossing that," Leo said.

"I'm not crossing that." I said and Jason grabbed my arm as if that was going to reassure me.

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.

"No, we hadn't noticed." I said sarcastically making Jason roll his eyes.

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?"

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. I 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 vapour trail with his hoof, then jumped onto the bridge. Amazingly, it held his weight. "Easy! I'll go first. Piper, Lila, come on, girls. 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. I followed warily.

We were about halfway, the bridge still seemed to be holding us just fine.

we got to the other side easily. "Maybe we should listen to Coach more often." I muttered to myself. Coach began to do a sort of celebratory dance and I felt embarrassed for him.

The boys and Thalia began to cross the bridge. I didn't pay much attention to what was happening, I assumed everything would be normal. Everything was fine at first but then Leo started smoking and everything turned to shit.

The bridge dissolved. When I looked back Thalia was on the other side of a thirty ft chasm. They would've fallen to their deaths, but Jason grabbed Leo's coat and pulled him to safety. The two of them scrambled up the bridge. The bridge was continuing to melt.

"Go!" I heard Thalia's voice faintly, 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. It felt like someone was pounding at my skull with an ice pick. 'Wolf house' I had been there, I was connected to that place even if I didn't remember it.

"You know where it is, little brother!" She was far away and I could barely hear her voice over the wind.

Then she turned and ran for it.

Leo and Jason climbed for their lives. Several times, Jason grabbed Leo and used the winds to keep them aloft.

When they reached the floating island, Piper and Coach Hedge pulled them aboard just as the last of the vapour bridge vanished. I stood shocked. The people I tried not to care about scared me. I ran up to them and pulled them both in a hug. "You asshats die and I'll murder you." Once I released them they stood gasping for breath at the base of a stone stairway chiselled into the side of the cliff, leading up to the fortress.

I looked down. The top of Pikes Peak floated below us in a sea of clouds, but there was no sign of Thalia. How were we supposed to get off of the island?

"What happened?" Piper demanded. "Leo, why are your clothes smoking?"

"I got a little heated," he gasped. "Sorry, Jason. Honest. I didn't—"

I smacked Leo's head and hissed "Dumbass." He laughed.

"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."

"Should be fun, let's try not to screw it up." I said as we walked towards the front door.

A/N

Lila and Leo have to be one of my favourite duos.

Hope you enjoyed, let me know what you think!