Daughter of Pluto | Wattys2017

XV

AIMEE TUMBLED THROUGH THE SKY. Far below she saw city lights glimmering in the early dawn, and several hundred yards away the body of the bronze dragon spinning out of control, its wings limp, fire flickering in its mouth like a badly wired light bulb.

A body shot past her—Leo, screaming and frantically grabbing at the clouds. "Not coooooool!"

She tried to call to him, but he was already too far below.

Somewhere above her, Jason yelled, "Piper,Aimee level out! Extend your arms and legs!"

It was hard to control her fear, but she did what he said and regained some balance. She fell spread-eagle like a skydiver, the wind underneath her like a solid block of ice. Then Jason was there, wrapping his arms around her waist already holding Piper.

"We have to get Leo!" She shouting pointing to the falling repair boy. (<<foreshadowing much)

Their fall slowed as Jason controlled the winds, but they still lurched up and down like the winds didn't want to cooperate.

"Gonna get rough," Jason warned. "Hold on!"

Aimee and Piper locked their arms around him, and Jason shot toward the ground. Aimee probably screamed, but the sound was ripped from her mouth. Her vision blurred.

And then, thump! They slammed into another warm body—Leo, still wriggling and cursing.

"Stop fighting!" Jason said. "It's me!"

"My dragon!" Leo yelled. "You gotta save Festus!"

Jason was already struggling to keep the four of them aloft, and Aimee knew there was no way he could help a fifty-ton metal dragon. But before she could try to reason with Leo, she heard an explosion below them. A fireball rolled into the sky from behind a warehouse complex, and Leo sobbed, "Festus!"

Jason's face reddened with strain as he tried to maintain an air cushion beneath them, but intermittent slow-downs were the best he could manage. Rather than free-falling, it felt like they were bouncing down a giant staircase, a hundred feet at a time, which wasn't doing Aimee's headache any favors.

As they wobbled and zigzagged, Aimee could make out details of the factory complex below—warehouses, smokestacks, barbed-wire fences, and parking lots lined with snow-covered vehicles. They were still high enough so that hitting the ground would flatten them into roadkill—or skykill—when Jason groaned, "I can't—"

And they dropped like stones.

They hit the roof of the largest warehouse and crashed through into darkness.

Fortunately, Aimee knew to crouch-roll as she landed. Which meant that she didn't get hurt from the fall,other than the fact that as she fell she cut her side on a very jagged piece of metal.

Then she heard Jason's voice somewhere below, echoing through the building. "Piper! Aimee! Where's Piper and Aimee?"

"Ow, bro!" Leo groaned. "That's my back! I'm not a sofa! Piper, Aimee where'd you go?"

"Here," Aimee heard Piper from somewhere near her, her voice a whimper.

Aimee heard shuffling and grunting, then feet pounding on metal steps.

Her vision began to clear. Her and Piper were on a metal catwalk that ringed the warehouse interior. Leo and Jason had landed on ground level, and were now coming up the stairs toward them. She looked at Piper's foot, and wave of nausea swept over her. Her toes weren't supposed to point that way, were they?

Oh, god. She forced herself to look away before she threw up. Focus on something else. Anything else.

The hole they'd made in the roof was a ragged starburst twenty feet above. How they'd even survived that drop, she had no idea. Hanging from the ceiling, a few electric bulbs flickered dimly, but they didn't do much to light the enormous space. Next to Piper, the corrugated metal wall was emblazoned with a company logo, but it was almost completely spray-painted over with graffiti. Down in the shadowy warehouse, she could make out huge machines, robotic arms, half-finished trucks on an assembly line. The place looked like it had been abandoned for years.

Jason and Leo reached their side.

Leo started to ask, "You okay ... ?" Then he saw Piper's foot and a huge cut down Aimee's side. "Oh no, you're not."

"Thanks for the reassurance," Piper groaned.Aimee lightly touched the cut,hissing quietly as pain shot through her side.

"You'll be fine," Jason said, though Aimee could hear the worry in his voice. "Leo, you got any first aid supplies?"

"Yeah—yeah, sure." He dug around in his tool belt and pulled out a wad of gauze and a roll of duct tape—both of which seemed too big for the belt's pockets. Aimee had noticed the tool belt yesterday morning, but she hadn't thought to ask Leo about it. It didn't look like anything special—just one of those wraparound leather aprons with a bunch of pockets, like a blacksmith or a carpenter might wear. And it seemed to be empty.

"How did you—" Piper tried to sit up, and winced. "How did pull that stuff from an empty belt?"

"Magic," Leo said. "Haven't figure it out completely, but I can summon just about any regular tool out of the pockets, plus some other helpful stuff." He reached into another pocket and pulled out a little tin box. "Breath mint?"

Jason snatched away the mints. "That's great, Leo. Now, can you fix Piper's foot?"

"I'm a mechanic, man. Maybe if she was a car ..." He snapped his fingers. "Wait, what was that godly healing stuff they fed you at camp—Rambo food?"

"Ambrosia, dummy," Aimee said through gritted teeth. "There should be some in my bag, if it's not crushed."

Jason carefully pulled her backpack from under some metal that had fallen with Aimee from the roof. He rummaged through the supplies Annabeth had helped pack for her, and found a Ziploc full of smashed pastry squares like lemon bars. He broke off a piece and fed it to Piper,Leo reached and handed a small piece to Aimee.

The taste was nothing like she expected. It reminded her of Mom's kimchi from when she was a little girl. She used to feed it to her whenever she got sick. The memory relaxed her, though it made her sad. The pain in her side subsided.

"More," she said reaching for the bag.

Jason frowned. "Aimee, we shouldn't risk it. They said too much could burn you up. I need your help to set Piper's foot."

Aimee's head felt like it had electricity flow through it. "Have you ever done that before?"

"Yeah ... I think so."

Leo found an old piece of wood and broke it in half for a splint. Then he got the gauze and duct tape ready.

"Hold her leg still," Jason told him. "Piper, this is going to hurt."

When Jason set the foot, Piper flinched so hard she punched Leo in the arm, and he yelled almost as much as she did. Aimee held Piper's leg still,tuning out the yells as she turned her head away. When she looked back Piper's ankle was splinted with plywood, gauze, and duct tape.

"Ow," Piper said.

"Jeez, beauty queen!" Leo rubbed his arm. "Glad my face wasn't there."

"Sorry," she said glaring at Leo. "And don't call me 'beauty queen,' or I'll punch you again."

"All three of you did great." Jason found a canteen in Aimee's pack and gave Piper some water,then handed it back to Aimee who drank some. After a few minutes, Aimee's head began to calm down.

Once she wasn't thinking about just the pain in her side, she could hear the wind howling outside. Snowflakes fluttered through the hole in the roof, and after their meeting with Khione, snow was the last thing Aimee wanted to see.

"What happened to Festus?" Aimee asked leaning against Leo. "Where are we?"

Leo's expression turned sullen. "I don't know with Festus. He just jerked sideways like he hit an invisible wall and started to fall."

Leo pointed to the logo on the wall. "As far as where we are ..." It was hard to see through the graffiti, but Aimee could make out a large red eye with the stenciled words: Monocle Motors, assembly plant 1.

"Closed car plant," Leo said. "I'm guessing we crash-landed in Detroit."

Aimee had read about closed car plants in Detroit when she was going through the phone she had found in her backpack, so that made sense. But it seemed like a pretty depressing place to land. "How far is that from Chicago?"

Jason took the canteen from her handing it to Piper. "Maybe three-fourths of the way from Quebec? The thing is, without the dragon, we're stuck traveling overland."

"No way," Leo said. "It isn't safe."

Aimee thought about the way the ground had pulled at her feet in her memory with her mom, and what King Boreas had said about the earth yielding up more horrors. "He's right. Besides, I don't know if I can manage to stay awake to walk. And four people—Jason, you can't fly that many across country by yourself."

"No way," Jason said. "Leo, are you sure the dragon didn't malfunction? I mean, Festus is old, and—"

"And I might not have repaired him right?"

"I didn't say that," Jason protested. "It's just—maybe you could fix it."

"I don't know." Leo sounded crestfallen. He pulled a few screws out of his pockets and started fiddling with them. "I'd have to find where he landed, if he's even in one piece."

"It was my fault." Piper said without thinking.

"Piper," Jason said gently, "you were asleep when Festus conked out. It couldn't be your fault."

"Yeah, you're just shaken up," Leo agreed. He didn't even try to make a joke at her expense. "You're in pain. Just rest."

Leo stood. "Look, um, Jason, why don't you stay with her, bro? I'll scout around for Festus. I think he fell outside the warehouse somewhere. If I can find him, maybe I can figure out what happened and fix him."

"It's too dangerous," Jason said. "You shouldn't go by yourself."

"Ah, I got duct tape and breath mints. I'll be fine," Leo said, a little too quickly, and Piper realized he was a lot more shaken up than he was letting on. "You guys just don't run off without me."

Leo reached into his magic tool belt, pulled out a flashlight, and headed down the stairs, leaving Piper and Jason along with Aimee who was leaning against the wall feeling like the third wheel.

"I'll go with him,Piper watch this idiot for me so he doesn't get himself killed,"Aimee said giving Piper a small smile before running in the direction that Leo had gone.

Jason smiled slightly at Aimee's retreating figure.She was hurt by Leo but Jason could tell that she was still worried about him and she still cared.

He looked at Piper."If those two don't get together,I don't know what I am going to do."

Piper laughed slightly but didn't answer.

Truth be told,Aimee and Leo really weren't meant to be together. Aimee's memories would reveal the truth,reveal what was real and what was just imagination.