ichor - jason grace

XII

Nell couldn't help but glance behind her back every now and again. She half expected to see the sun dragons toting a chariot with a screaming magical saleswoman throwing potions, but nothing followed them. Hopefully, Nell thought, Medea had been dragged back to Tartarus.

Eventually, the smoke from the burning department store seemed to fade, but nobody seemed to relax until they were away from Chicago and flying over snowy fields.

"Good job, Festus." He patted the dragon's metal hide. "You were awesome."

The dragon shuddered. Gears popped and clicked in his neck. Nell clenched her fists, she was no mechanic, but those noises didn't sound good at all.

"I'll give you a tune-up next time we land," Leo promised. "You've earned some motor oil and Tabasco sauce." Tabasco sauce? Huh.

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 said, sounding quite embarrassed. "Thanks for saving us back there, beauty queen. If you hadn't talked me out of the spell -"

"Don't worry about it," Piper said.

"You too, Nell. And, uh, sorry about your bow,"

"It's fine, Leo. I'll figure something out," Nell said with a wry smile.

She played with the necklace around her neck, her weapon had transformed back into the jewellery, but she knew it would still be broken when she next called it. Hopefully, the next place they land, there'll be something that she can use, she doesn't want to be the dead weight without a weapon for the rest of the trip.

Nell thought about the ball of sunlight she was able to mould. She knew whatever she made would be solid, she wouldn't be forgetting that anytime soon, but Nell wasn't sure if she'd be able to shape it into a weapon. The furthest she's gotten is a shape that vaguely resembled a baseball bat and even that was hard to keep up for long.

Nell kept up both her musings until Leo's voice snapped her out of it.

"We're going to have to put down soon," he warned them. "Couple more hours, maybe, to make sure Medea's not following us. I don't think Festus can fly much longer than that."

"Yeah," Piper agreed. "Coach Hedge probably wants to get our of his canary cage, too. Question is - where are we going?"

"The bay area," Leo guessed. "Didn't Medea say something about Oakland?"

Piper went quiet, and Nell briefly wondered if she'd fallen asleep, or if Leo had said something wrong.

"Piper's dad," Jason put in. "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 both 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."

Leo grunted. "So where do we find Aeolus?"

Jason leaned forward. "You mean you don't see it?" He pointed ahead of them, but Nell couldn't see anything except for clouds and a few lights in the town.

"What?" Leo asked.

"That... whatever it is," Jason said. "In the air."

Nell watched as Leo glanced back towards Jason, looking confused.