Daughter of Neptune, Book one

XL

Tori's pov

I woke up to what sounded like rocks pelting the windshield. Then I realized it was sleet. There was a frost built up around the edges of the glass, and slushy waves of ice blotted out my view.

Jason and I crawled forward, grabbing our seats for balance. "We've got to be getting close."

Leo was too busy wrestling with the stick to reply. Suddenly it wasn't so easy to drive the chopper. It's movements turned sluggish and jerky. The whole machine shuddered in the icy wind. The helicopter probably hadn't been prepped for cold-weather flying. The controls refused to respond, and we started to lose altitude.

Below us, the ground was a dark quilt of trees and fog. The ridge of a hill looked in front of us and Leo yanked the stick, just clearing the treetops.

"There!"

A small valley opened up before us, and the murky shape of a building in the middle. Leo aimed the helicopter straight for it. All around us were flashes of light that reminded me of the tracer fire at Midas's compound. Trees cracked and exploded at the edges of the clearing. Shapes moved through the must. Combat seemed to be everywhere.

Leo set down the helicopter in an icy field about fifty yards from the house and killed the engine. He was about to relax when I heard a whistling sound and saw a dark shape hurling toward us out of the mist.

"Out!" I screamed.

We leaped from the helicopter and barely cleared the rotors before a massive BOOM shook the ground, knocking Leo and I off our feet and splattered ice all over us.

We got up shakily and saw that the world's largest snowball—a chunk of snow, ice and dirt the size of a garage—had completely flattened the Bell 42.

"You two all right?" Jason ran up to us, Piper at his side. We both looked fine except for being speckled with snow and mud.

"Yeah." I shivered. "Guess we owe that ranger lady a new helicopter."

Piper pointed south. "Fighting's over there." Then she frowned. "No...it's all around us."

She was right. The sounds of combat rang across the valley. The snow and mist made it hard to tell for sure, but there seemed to be a circle of fighting all around the Wolf House.

Behind us looked Jack London's dream home—a massive ruin of red and gray stones and rough-hewn timber beams. I could imagine how it look how it looked before it burned down—a combination log cabin and castle, like a billionaire lumberjack might build. But in the mist and sleet, the place had a lonely feel.

"Jason!" a girl's voice called.

Thalia appeared from the fog, her parks caked with snow. Her bow in her hand, and her quiver was almost empty. She ran toward us, but made it only a few steps before a six-armed ogre—one of the Earthborn—burst out of the storm behind her, a raised club in each hand.

"Look out!" Leo yelled. We rushed to help, but Thalia had it under control. She launched herself into a flip, notching an arrow as she pivoted like a gymnast and landed in a kneeling position. The ogre got a silver arrow right between the eyes and melted into a pile of clay.

Thalia stood and retrieved her arrow, but the point had snapped off. "That was my last one." She kicked the pile of clay resentfully. "Stupid ogre."

"Nice shot, though," Leo said.

Thalia ignored him as usual, my heart sank a little. Why hasn't he ever complimented me on my weaponry skills. Is this what jealousy feels like, I thought. Thalia hugged Jason and nodded to Piper and I. "Just in time. My Hunters are holding a perimeter around the mansion, but we'll be overrun any minute."