THE HOUSE OF MEMORIES [J. GRACE]

TWENTY-TWO

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ THE HOUSE OF MEMORIES ༉‧₊˚.[THE HEROES OF OLYMPUS]

J A S O N
chapter twenty-two: piper shows off her mad aphrodite skills
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JASON WAS afraid they'd lose their target.

the ventus moved like...well, like the wind. "speed up!" he urged, desperately looking as if he wanted to jump off the dragon, and start flying after them like he was superman himself.

"look," leo said, mild amusement in his tone as if he, too, was imagining jason flying after them since the honey blonde was getting so antsy, "if i get any closer, he'll spot us. bronze dragon ain't exactly a stealth plane."

"slow down!" piper yelped, and they slowed immediately. the storm spirit dove into the grid of downtown streets. festus tried to follow, but his wingspan was way too wide. his left wing clipped the edge of a building, slicing off a stone gargoyle before leo pulled up.

"get above the buildings," jason suggested, trying to bite back the smile on his face of chandler squeezing him. it should've hurt as she had a pretty tight grip on him, but his body wouldn't let him feel pain because the girl he was crushing on was, well, crushing him. "we'll track him from there."

"you want to drive this thing?" leo grumbled under his breath, but he did what jason asked. after a few minutes, the honey blonde spotted the storm spirit again, zipping through the streets with no apparent purpose, blowing over pedestrians, ruffling flags, making cars swerve.

"oh great," piper said. "there's two." she was right. a second ventus, or anunmoi thullai as chandler's voice corrected annoyedly in the back of his mind, blasted around the corner of the renaissance hotel, and linked up with the first. they wove together in a chaotic dance, shooting to the top of a skyscraper, bending a radio tower, and diving back down toward the street.

"those guys do not need any more caffeine," leo said blankly, looking utterly exhausted even thinking of trailing them. chandler thought it was funny as that was a thought others constantly had about him.

"i guess chicago's a good place to hang out," the hephaestus girl said amusedly. she nodded to herself, "nobody's  going to question a couple more evil winds."

"more than a couple," jason sighed, and gestured. "look." the dragon circled over a wide avenue next to a lake-side park. storm spirits were converging, at least a dozen of them, whirling around a big public art installation.

"which one do you think is dylan?" leo asked them over his shoulder. "i wanna throw something at him."

chandler pulled a softball out of her backpack, absolutely remembering who dylan was. some storm spirit leo told her used to bully him. no one was allowed to bully her younger brother but her. "jason," her tone was completely serious, which was why he whipped around so quickly. she placed the soft ball in his hand as if it were extremely important, "can you pass this up to leo?"

his expression must've been hilarious the way everyone else tried to stifle their laughter, and conceal it from him. he passed the ball to piper, he passed it to leo. jason doubted the hephaestus half-blood would be able to pick out which spirit was the one that bullied him, but leo was still happy to lob the ball. disappointingly, it just right through a spirit.

jason focused on the art installation. the closer they got to it, the faster his heart began to beat. it was just a public fountain, but it was unpleasantly familiar. two five-story monoliths rose from either end of a long granite reflecting pool. the monoliths seemed to be built of video screens, flashing the combined image of a giant face that spewed water into the pool. maybe it was just a coincidence, but it looked like a high-tech, super-size version of that ruined reflecting pool he'd seen in his dreams, with those two dark masses jutting from either end. as jason watched, the image on the screens changed to a woman's face with her eyes closed. "chandler..." he said nervously.