mastermind - percy jackson

xii. madness

"we fight together"

Cassandra didn't look down. She wasn't the biggest fan of heights ever since the argument she had with her mother leading to her being banished from her grandfather's kingdom.

"Tell me when it's over" Thalia said her eyes shut tight. The statue was holding on to them tight, so they couldn't fall, but Thalia still clutched his arm like it was the most important thing in the world.

"Everything's fine" Percy promised.

"Are... are we very high?" Thalia asked.

"Nah" He said. "Not that high."

"Wait your not telling me that the daughter of Zeus is scared of heights?" Cassandra asked her in a teasing manner.

"Oh, shut up. You're not telling me the granddaughter of Boreas is afraid of heights" She retorted still squeezing her eyes closed.

"I'm not afraid. I just don't like them very much" Cassandra argued. "There's a difference, Sparky."

"We are in the Sierra's!" Zoe yelled. She and Grover were hanging from the arms of the other statue. "I have hunted here before. At this speed, we should be in San Francisco in a few hours."

"Hey, hey, Frisco!" The angel holding them said. "Yo, Chuck! We should visit those guys at the Mechanics Monument again! They know how to party!"

"Oh, man" The other angel said. "I am so there!"

"You guys have visited San Francisco before?" Percy asked.

"We automatons gotta have some fun once in while, right?" Their statue said. "Those mechanics took us over to the de Young Museum and introduced us to these marble lady statues, see. And— "

"Hank!" The other statue, Chuck, cut in. "They're kids, man."

"Oh, right" If bronze statues could blush, Cassandra swore Hank did. "Back to flying." They sped up, so Cassandra could tell the angels were excited.

The mountains fell away into hills, and they were slipping along over farmland and towns and highways.

Grover played his pipes to pass the time. Zoe and Cassandra got bored and started shooting arrows at random billboards as they flew by, seeing who could get closer to a specific target they had set. Every time they saw a Target store— and they passed dozens of them— they would peg the store's sign with a few bulls-eyes at a hundred miles an hour.

They made Percy judge who got closer and would yell things like "You must be blind!" or "This is rigged!" when he didn't pick them, which happened every time seeing as he couldn't pick both of them.

He almost always picked Zoe, because she had much better aim, but occasionally picked Cassandra to make her feel like she was doing good.

Thalia kept her eyes closed the whole way. She muttered to herself a lot, like she was praying.

"You did good back there" Percy told her. "Zeus listened."

"Maybe" Thalia said. "How did you get away from the skeletons in the generator room, anyway? You said they cornered you."

He told them about a mortal girl, Rachel Elizabeth Dare, who was able to see through the Mist. Thalia and Cassandra just nodded.

"Some mortal are like that" Cassandra said. "Nobody knows why."

"Well, the girl was annoying" He said. And for some reason, Cassandra felt a little relieved. "But I'm glad I didn't vaporize her. That would've been bad."

Thalia nodded. "Must be nice to be a regular mortal" She said as if she had given it a lot of thought.

Cassandra nodded thinking what her life would be like if her mother was regular mortal and her father wasn't a demigod. A normal life. Hidden from the true horrors of the world.