memories | j.grace

012 | nap time

leo kept looking back. he half expected to see those nasty sun dragons toting a flying chariot with a screaming magical saleswoman throwing potions, but nothing followed them.

he steered the dragon toward the southwest. eventually, the smoke from the burning department store faded in the distance, but leo didn't relax until the suburbs of chicago gave way to snowy fields, and the sun began to set.

"good job, festus." he patted the dragon's metal hide. "you did awesome."

the dragon shuddered. gears popped and clicked in his neck.

phoebe frowned. those noises didn't sound good. but she didn't say anything, knowing leo was probably thinking the same thing.

"i'll give you a tune-up next time we land," leo promised. "you've earned some motor oil and tabasco sauce."

festus whirled his teeth, but even that sounded weak. he flew at a steady pace, his great wings angling to catch the wind, but he was carrying a heavy load. two cages in his claws plus three people on his back—the more leo thought about it, the more worried he got. even metal dragons had limits.

"leo." piper patted his shoulder. "you feeling okay?"

"yeah... not bad for a brainwashed zombie." he hoped he didn't look as embarrassed as he felt. "thanks for saving us back there, ladies. if you hadn't talked me out of that spell—"

"don't worry about it. phoebe helped a lot too," piper said. the girls shared a small smile.

leo did worry. and he couldn't help but wonder if souls were coming back from the underworld ...was it possible leo's mom could be brought back?

he tried to put the idea aside. that was frankenstein thinking. it wasn't natural. it wasn't right. medea might've been brought back to life, but she hadn't seemed quite human, with the hissing nails and the glowing head and whatnot.

no, leo's mom had passed on. thinking any other way would just drive leo nuts. still, the thought kept poking at him, like an echo of medea's voice.

"we're going to have to put down soon," he warned his friends. "couple more hours, maybe, to make sure medea's not following us. i don't think festus can fly much longer than that."

"yeah," phoebe agreed. "hedge probably wants to get out of his canary cage, too. he's pretty wild; i knew him a bit at camp. what i'm wondering is—where are we going?"

"the bay area," leo guessed. his memories of the department store were fuzzy, but he seemed to remember hearing that. "didn't medea say something about oakland?"

piper and phoebe didn't respond for so long, leo wondered if he'd said something wrong.

"piper, your dad," phoebe eventually said. "something's happened to your dad, right? he got lured into some kind of trap."

piper let out a shaky breath. "look, medea said you would all die in the bay area. and besides ... even if we went there, the bay area is huge! first we need to find aeolus and drop off the storm spirits. boreas said aeolus was the only one who could tell us exactly where to go."

"bold of you to assume i'm ever gonna die." phoebe huffed.

leo grunted. "so how do we find aeolus?"

jason leaned forward. "you mean you don't see it?" he pointed ahead of them, but phoebe didn't see anything except clouds and the lights of a few towns glowing in the dusk.

"see what?" phoebe asked.

"that... whatever it is," jason said. "in the air."

"are you on crack, jason?" phoebe asked, looking behind her.