mastermind - percy jackson

xvi. consequences

"you made your choice"

Jumping out of a window, five hundred feet aboveground was something Cassandra could now add to her "Weird and deadly, but kind of fun" list.

Despite having zero idea she could fly, as soon as she reached the open air, cold gusts of winds appeared around her body, carrying her through the sky.

It felt natural to be so high up, engulfed in cold air. She even did a spin to test out how much control she had.

Even though it was fun, Cassandra could feel her powers slowly draining, and knew that if they didn't reach land soon she would crash to the ground.

"Spread your arms! Keep them extended." Annabeth said to the rest of the questers, (you know, the ones that were relying on wings to keep them in the air). She was glancing at Cassandra every couple of seconds, who was flying much higher than the rest of them.

"Yeah!" Percy yelled with delight. "Wait, Cassie you can fly?"

"I guess so" Cassandra replied. "But we need to find land! These wings won't last you guys forever! And I can already feel my powers draining!"

"How long?" Rachel asked.

"Do you really want to find out?" 

Cassandra shot downwards, flying next to Annabeth as they swooped down toward the Garden of the Gods. Percy did a complete circle around one of the rock spires and freaked out a couple climbers. Then the five of them soared across the valley, over a road, and landed on the terrace of a visitor's center. It was late afternoon and the place looked fairly empty, but they (besides, Cassandra) ripped off their wings as quickly as they could.

The wax seals holding the wings to their backs were melting, and bronze feathers were shedding. It seemed a shame, but there was no way to fix them, and they couldn't just leave them around for mortals to find, so they stuffed the wings in the bin outside the cafeteria.

In the distance, Daedalus' workshop had disappeared. No more smoke. No broken windows. Just the bare side of a hill.

"The workshop moved" Annabeth guessed. "There's no telling where."

"So what do we do now?" Percy asked. "How do we get back in the maze?"

Annabeth gazed at the summit of Pikes Peak in the distance. "Maybe we can't. If Daedalus died... he said his life force was tied into the Labyrinth. The whole thing might've been destroyed. Maybe that will stop Luke's invasion."

"Destroy with a hero's final breath" Cassandra recited.

"He isn't dead" Nico said.

"How do you know?" Cassandra asked.

"I know when people die. It's this feeling I get, like a buzzing in my ears."

"What about Tyson and Grover" Percy asked. "Do you know if they're...?"

Nico shook his head. "That's harder. They're not humans or half-bloods. They don't have mortal souls."

"We have to get into town" Annabeth decided. "Our chances will be better of finding an entrance to the Labyrinth. We have to make it back to camp before Luke and his army."

"We could just take a plane" Rachel said.

Percy shuddered. "I don't fly."

"But you just did."

"That was low flying" Percy explained, "and even that's risky. Flying up really high— that's Zeus's territory. I can't do it. Besides, we don't have time for a flight. The Labyrinth is the quickest way back."