[1] 𝐼𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑢𝑠 - 𝑃𝑒𝑟𝑐𝑦 𝐽𝑎𝑐𝑘𝑠𝑜𝑛

1.13

-

"TELL ME WHEN IT'S OVER."

Thalia's eyes were shut tight. The statue was holding on to them so they couldn't fall, but still Thalia clutched his arm like it was the most important thing in the world.

"Everything's fine," Katniss promised.

"Are... are we very high?"

She looked down. Below them, a range of snowy mountains zipped by. Percy stretched out his foot and kicked snow off one of the peaks.

"Nah," he said. "Not that high."

"We are in the Sierras.'" Zoë yelled. She, Cassiopeia and Grover were in the arms of the other statue. "I have hunted here before. At this speed, we should be in San Francisco in a few hours."

"Hey, hey, Frisco!" our angel said. "Yo, Chuck! We could visit those guys at the Mechanics Monument again! They know how to party!"

"Oh, man," the other angel said. "I am so there!"

"You guys have visited San Francisco?" Cassiopeia asked.

"We automatons gotta have some fun once in a while, right?" our statue said. "Those mechanics took us over to the de Young Museum and introduced us to these marble lady statues, see. And—"

"Hank!" the other statue Chuck cut in. "They're kids, man."

"Oh, right." If bronze statues could blush, Hank did. "Back to flying."

They sped up, so Katniss could tell the angels were excited. The mountains fell away into hills, and then they were zipping along over farmland and towns and highways.

Grover played his pipes to pass the time. Zoë and Cassiopeia got bored and made a competition. Every time they passed a Target department store, they would shoot with their respective weapons and make a few bulls-eyes at a hundred miles an hour.

Thalia kept her eyes closed the whole way. She muttered to herself a lot, like she was praying.

"You did good back there," Percy told her. "Zeus listened."

It was hard to tell what she was thinking with her eyes closed.

"Maybe," she said.

Katniss frowned at Percy. "Wait, how did you get away from the skeletons in the generator room? You said they cornered you."

He told them about the weird mortal girl, Rachel Elizabeth Dare, who seemed to be able to see right through the Mist.

Katniss nooded. "Some mortals are like that. No one knows why."

"Well, the girl was annoying," Percy said. "But I'm glad I didn't vaporize her. That would've been bad."

"Must be nice to be a regular mortal," Thalia said.