created →jason grace

twenty-five

{Lina}

LINA DESPERATELY WANTED THALIA TO COME BACK, she knew it's what Jason wanted that as well. She could see him glancing over his shoulder.

Her mind couldn't help but go back to what Leo had said. An exchange, a bridge, between two parties. Between two camps, and the storyteller, the one who— her thoughts ended there. The same barrier she had experienced before in her memories, stood tall. Not allowing her any way past it.

Lina groaned in frustration, why couldn't they just let her think. She didn't want these stupid barriers in her head, she didn't want these memories seeping through cracks just for them to be repaired when she tried.

The only one who seemed in a good mood was Coach Hedge. He kept bounding up the slippery staircase and trotting back down. "Come on, cupcakes! Only a few thousand more steps!"

As they climbed, Leo and Piper left Jason in his silence. As if noticing Lina was in her own predicament they left her alone as well. The two did notice Lina's and Jason's hands joined, but they said nothing as if them speaking would ruin the moment.

Leo kept swatting his own legs, checking for signs that his pants were on fire. He wasn't steaming anymore, but the incident on the ice bridge had really freaked Lina out, granted she had never been afraid of heights. Leo hadn't seemed to realize that he had smoke coming out his ears and flames dancing through his hair. If Leo started spontaneously combusting every time he got excited, they were going to have a tough time taking him anywhere. Lina imagined trying to get food at a restaurant. I'll have a cheeseburger and—Ahhh! He's on fire! Get me a bucket!

Lina smiled at the thought, wanting it to happen it would be something that she'd truly want to see. Her thoughts drifted back to what Leo had said on the bridge and her face quickly fell, a frown now gracing her features. It didn't make sense, it was completely irrational. She knew that, but the little voice in her head nagged her that it was the only possible thing.

Finally they arrived at the top of the island. Bronze walls marched all the way around the fortress grounds, though Lina couldn't imagine who would possibly attack this place, okay maybe she could think of one person. Twenty-foot-high gates opened for them, and a road of polished purple stone led up to the main citadel—a white-columned rotunda, Greek style, like one of the monuments in Washington, D.C.—except for the cluster of satellite dishes and radio towers on the roof.

"Hmmm, Annie's new designs for Olympus are better." Lina mumbled as she stared.

"That's bizarre," Piper said.

"Guess you can't get cable on a floating island," Leo said. "Dang, check this guy's front yard."

The rotunda sat in the center of a quarter-mile circle. The grounds were amazing in a scary way. They were divided into four sections like big pizza slices, each one representing a season.

The section on their right was an icy waste, with bare trees and a frozen lake. Snowmen rolled across the landscape as the wind blew, so Jason wasn't sure if they were decorations or alive.

To their left was an autumn park with gold and red trees. Mounds of leaves blew into patterns—gods, people, animals that ran after each other before scattering back into leaves.

In the distance, Lina could see two more areas behind the rotunda. One looked like a green pasture with sheep made out of clouds. The last section was a desert where tumbleweeds scratched strange patterns in the sand like Greek letters, smiley faces, and a huge advertisement that read: watch aeolus nightly!