anti hero - percy jackson ²

ii. beginning... of the end

"what else do you want from me?"

Three days.

It had been three days since Percy went missing, and there was still no trace of him anywhere.

The only information they had, was a dream Cassandra had had, where Hera—her least favorite goddess—had told her to go to the Grand Canyon and find 'the boy with one shoe.'

Cassandra was entirely convinced they were going on a wild goose chase, but had grabbed Annabeth, Butch Walker—a son of Iris—and the flying chariot, and set out for the Grand Canyon.

As the chariot approached the ground, every once of patience she had left in her body seemed to evaporate.

She didn't even wait for the chariot to reach the ground before jumping out, ignoring protests from Annabeth. When she had successfully landed, she looked around.

No signs of Percy.

There was also no sign of a homeless hippy with one shoe.

The only thing she saw, was a confused trio standing at the opposite end of the skywalk.

Cassandra grabbed Moonlace out of its sheath, and stormed toward the trio.

Annabeth followed quickly behind, also drawing her knife.

"Where is he?" Cassandra demanded, her voice filled with a chill.

"Where's who?" A blond boy asked.

Annabeth frowned beside her, but turned to the other two teenagers. "What about Gleeson? Where is your protector, Gleeson Hedge?"

The other boy cleared his throat. "He got taken by some... tornado things."

"Venti," The blond said. "Storm spirits."

Cassandra raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything. Her mind raced faster.

"You mean anemoi thuellai?" Annabeth asked. "That's the Greek term. Who are you, and what happened?"

He did his best to explain, although he seemed to be having a hard time under Cassandra's intense glare.

Halfway through his story, Butch joined the blondes. He stood alongside them, also glaring, with his arms crossed.

When the boy—he'd introduced himself as Jason—was done, Cassandra clenched her fists by her side. She was doing her best to avoid screaming in frustration.

"I am so stupid" She muttered, squeezing her eyes shut. "I knew she was lying. What has she ever done to help us?"

"We'll find him" Annabeth assured.

"Annabeth, Cassandra" Butch grunted. "Check it out." He pointed at Jason's feet.

Cassandra took a breath and opened her eyes, to see Jason's left shoe missing.

"The guy with one shoe" Butch said. "He's the answer."

She shook her head. "No, no, no. We got lied to." She turned her glare to the sky, as though she was looking directly at Hera, and through gritted teeth asked, "What else do you want from me?"

The skywalk shuddered, and the pegasi whinnied urgently.

"Cassie, we need to go" Annabeth said. "Those storm spirits could show up any minute. We can't risk it."

Cassandra sighed angrily. "Fine." She glared at Jason again. "We can settle this later."

She turned on her heel and matched toward the chariot.