daylight | percy jackson

voice of an angel

˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚

BOOK THREE

CHAPTER TWELVE.

❝ and i don't like many people. ❞

"TELL ME when it's over," Thalia said. Her eyes were shut tight, and her hands were clenched so tightly around Grover's arm that Aria was surprised the satyr was still alive and breathing. 

"Everything's fine," Percy promised, yelling over the wind.

"Are...are we very high?"

Aria looked down. Below, a range of snowy mountains zipped by. She stuck out her foot and kicked snow off one of the peaks. 

"Nah," Percy said. "Not that high."

"We are in the Sierras," Zoë yelled. "I have hunted here before. At this speed, we should be in San Francisco in a few hours."

"Hey, hey, Frisco!" the angel said, momentarily letting go of Aria to wave to his other angelic friend. 

"Percy!" she screamed. "I'm gonna die!"

The angel caught her once more.

"Never mind!"

"Yo, Chuck," the other angel said. "We could visit those guys at the Mechanics Monument again! They know how to party!"

"Oh, man," angel number two said. "I am so there!"

"You guys have visited San Francisco?" Percy asked, now holding onto Aria tightly in case of another drop. 

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

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

"Oh, right." Somehow, the statue blushed. If that was even possible. "Back to flying."

They sped up, so Aria could tell the angels were excited. The mountains fell away into hills, and then they were zipping along over farmland and towns and highways. 

Grover played his pipes to pass the time. Zoë got bored and started shooting arrows at random billboards as they flew by. Every time she saw a Target department store--and they passed dozens of them--she would peg the store's sign with a few bulls-eyes at a hundred miles an hour. Aria told Percy more about Taylor Swift lore, and the boy nodded each sentence. Maybe he should become an actor. He seemed very good at feigning interest. 

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."

It was hard to tell what she was thinking with her eyes closed. "Maybe," she said. "How did you two get away from the skeletons in the generator room, anyway? You said they cornered you."