¹On This Spring Day, percy jackson & the olympians

007.

ON THIS SPRING DAY
━━━━━ chapter seven

━━━━━ THERE WAS SOMETHING so absurd about flying on a pegasus during the daytime, but there was no other choice. ( If you want to get technical, there were plenty of other choices to be made, but Violet had to get on this quest. ) If you're not careful about keeping the pegasus hidden from mortal eyes, you can cause a serious traffic accident on the Long Island Expressway. Percy had to keep Blackjack up in the clouds, which were fortunately pretty low in the winter. They darted around, trying to keep the white Camp Half-Blood van in sight. And if it was cold on the ground, it was seriously cold in the air, with icy rain stinging Violet's skin.

They lost the van twice, but Percy had a pretty good sense that they would go into Manhattan first, so it wasn't too difficult to pick up their trail again. And with traffic being so bad with the holidays around the corner, the van wasn't making very good mileage anyway. It was mid-morning before they got into the city. Percy landed Blackjack near the top of the Chrysler Building and watched the white camp van as it drove on and on.

"Why'd we stop?" Violet asked, peering around Percy to look around.

"Argus didn't stop at the station like I thought he would," said the boy, narrowing his eyes to keep them on the van. "That's where he dropped us off last time. He'd let us get wherever we needed to go with a Greyhound."

"And that's a big deal because ...?" prompted Violet.

"'Cause I thought that's how he always did it," admitted Percy.

Blackjack neighed, forcing his way into their conversation.

"Which girl?" Percy asked.

Violet looked quizzically at the pegasus. Soon, Blackjack neighed, saying something else to Percy.

"Zoë?" asked the son of Poseidon.

"Is Zoë driving?" Violet caught on. "Either Argus was that mad about the 'boil-brained lout' comment that he left them to fend for themselves or she said something even worse for him to leave."

Blackjack neighed and Percy sighed, going on to explain why taking a flying horse through the drive-thru would give every cop in a doughnut shop a heart attack. Meanwhile, the van kept snaking its way toward the Lincoln Tunnel. It had never even occurred to Violet that Zoë could drive. Well, the Hunter didn't look sixteen. Then again, she was also immortal.

"Come on," Violet said. "We need to catch up to them."

They were about to leap off the Chrysler Building when Blackjack whinnied in alarm and almost threw the two half-bloods. Percy clung onto the pegasus's mane as Violet grabbed the boy's shirt to stay on. Something was curling around the girl's leg like a snake.

Percy reached for Riptide, but there was no snake to get rid of. It was vines—grapevines, at that. Grapevines had sprouted from the cracks between the stones of the building. They were wrapping around Blackjack's legs, lashing down Violet and Percy's ankles so they couldn't move.

"Going somewhere?" Mr. D asked.

The god was leaning against the building with his feet levitating in the air, his wine-colored dress shirt and black hair whipping in the wind.

Blackjack gave a sharp neigh. Mr. D sighed in exasperation, glaring at the pegasus.

"The next person—or horse—who calls me the 'Wine Dude' will end up in a bottle of Merlot!"