Where You Go ― Jason Grace

ii. gravity is kind of a dick

OPHELIA SHOULD HAVE been terrified. The skywalk was clearly growing unstable, the winds were raging around her, rain was beginning to pour from the sky, and kids were screaming all around her.

But for some reason, she wasn't afraid.

She reached into her front pocket, not sure what she was reaching for. Her fingertips touched something cold and hard, the surface smooth and rounded. She pulled it out, frowning at the item she pulled out.

It was a compass, made of what looked like solid gold. Why did she have a gold compass in her pocket? Where had she even gotten a gold compass? Apparently she was in a school for delinquents—had she stolen it?

Ophelia looked up at the sound of the doors slamming shut, Piper and Dylan having lost their grips. Aside from her and the two of them, Jason, Leo, and Coach Hedge were the only other people on the skywalk.

Piper struggled with the doors, trying to open them back up, but they seemed to be stuck. "Dylan, help!" Piper shouted over the raging winds.

"Sorry, Piper," he said, standing there with a malicious grin like he was enjoying the sudden storm. "I'm done helping." He flicked his wrist and Piper went flying backward, slamming into the doors and sliding to the floor. Ophelia tried to run toward her, but the wind was fighting against her. Dylan looked at her, smirking at her struggle, and flicked his wrist again, sending her backward toward Jason, Leo, and the coach.

Jason caught her around the waist before she could fall all the way to the ground, steadying her.

"Stay behind me," Coach Hedge ordered. "This is my fight. I should've known that was our monster."

"Monster?" Ophelia questioned.

"What?" Leo demanded. A flying worksheet smacked him in the face and he swatted it away. "What monster?"

Coach Hedge's cap blew off, and Ophelia was shocked to see two horns sticking up above his curly hair. He lifted his baseball bat, but it was different. It had somehow changed into a tree-branch club, with a few twigs and leaves still attached.

Dylan grinned like a psycho. "Oh, come on, Coach, let the boy attack me!" he mocked. "After all, you're getting too old for this. Isn't that why they retired you to this stupid school? I've been on your team the entire season, and you didn't even know. You're losing your nose, grandpa."

Coach Hedge let out a sound that was like a goat bleating angrily. "That's it, cupcake—you're going down."

"You think you can protect four half-bloods at once, old man?" Dylan laughed. "Good luck."

Half-bloods?

Dylan pointed at Leo and Ophelia watched in horror as a funnel cloud materialized around the curly-haired boy. He flew off of the skywalk like he'd been tossed, somehow managing to twist in midair and slam sideways into the canyon wall. He skidding, clawing furiously for a handhold, finally grabbing a thin ledge about fifty feet below the skywalk. "Help!" he yelled up at them. "Rope, please? Bungee cord? Something?"

Coach Hedge cursed and tossed Jason his club. "I don't know who you are, kid, but I hope you're good. Keep that thing busy"—he stabbed a thump in Dylan's direction—"while I get Leo."

"Get him how?" Jason demanded. "You going to fly?"

"Not fly. Climb." The coach kicked off his tennis shoes, revealing hooves instead of feet. That settled it—Ophelia had officially lost her mind.

"You're a faun," she said, not sure where the knowledge came but sure it was the truth.

Coach Hedge looked at her with a suspicious glint in his eye. "Satyr!" he snapped. "Fauns are Roman. But we'll talk about that later." He leaped over the railing, sailing toward the canyon wall and hitting it hooves first.