Ethereal

VIII

Jason

JASON AND THE REDHEAD, WHO INTRODUCED herself as Rachel, put Alessandra on the couch while Annabeth rushed down the hall to get a med kit. Piper lent down and pressed her ear against the slow rising chest, he figured she was checking of Alessandra was still breathing. She seemed to be in some kind of coma.

"We've got to heal her," Jason insisted. "There's a way, right?"

Seeing her so pale, barely breathing, Jason felt a surge of protectiveness. Maybe he didn't really know her. Maybe she wasn't his best fiend or the girl he had feelings for. But they'd survived the Grand Canyon together. They'd come all this way. He'd left her side for a little while, and this had happened.

Piper gripped the pale hand of the sleeping girl, she had tears in her eyes. "Tell me she'll wake up, please."

Chiron put his hand on her forehead and grimaced. "Her mind is in a fragile state. Rachel, what happened?"

"I wish I knew," she said. "As soon as I got to camp, I had a premonition about Hera's cabin. I went inside. Annabeth, Piper, and Alessandra came in while I was there. We talked, and then—I just blanked out. Annabeth said I spoke in a different voice."

"A prophecy?" Chiron asked.

"No. The spirit of Delphi comes from within. I know how that feels. This was like long distance, a power trying to speak through me."

Annabeth ran in with a leather pouch. She knelt next to Piper beside Alessandra. "Chiron, what happened back there—I've never seen anything like it. I've heard Rachel's prophecy voice. This was different. She sounded like an older woman. She grabbed Alessandra's shoulders and told her—"

"To free her from a prison?" Jason guessed, his eyes leaving the girls prone form to look at Annabeth.

Annabeth stared back at him. "How did you know that?"

Chiron made a three-fingered gesture over his heart, like a ward against evil.

"Jason, tell them. Annabeth, the medicine bag, please."

Piper stood up to make room for Chiron and he stepped by Alessandra's side and trickled drops from a medicine vial into her mouth while Jason explained what had happened when the room froze—the dark misty woman who had claimed to be Jason's patron.

When he was done, no one spoke, which made him more anxious.

"So does this happen often?" he asked. "Supernatural phone calls from convicts demanding you bust them out of jail?"

"Your patron," Annabeth said. "Not your godly parent?"

"No, she said patron. She also said my dad had given her my life."

Piper tilted her head confused. "What does that even mean? Did your dad, like, sell you out to someone?"

Annabeth frowned and shook her head. "I've never of heard anything like that before. You said the storm spirit on the skywalk—he claimed to be working for some mistress who was giving him orders, right? Could it be this woman you saw, messing with your mind?"

"I don't think so," Jason said. "If she were my enemy, why would she be asking for my help? She's imprisoned. She's worried about some enemy getting more powerful. Something about a king rising from the earth on the solstice—"

Piper gasped and Jason looked at her, she bit her lip and shook her head.

Annabeth turned to Chiron. "Not Kronos. Please tell me it's not that."

The centaur looked miserable. He held Alessandra's wrist, checking her pulse.

At last he said, "It is not Kronos. That threat is ended. But..."