The Adventure That Lies Ahead | PJO x HP

CHAPTER 67

Jumping out of a window one hundred and fifty meters above the ground is not usually Isa's idea of fun. Especially when she's wearing bronze wings and flapping her arms like a duck.

She plummeted towards the valley and the red rocks below. Isa was pretty sure she was going to become a grease spot in the Garden of the Gods, as Annabeth yelled from somewhere above her, "Spread your arms! Keep them extended."

The small part of Isa's brain that wasn't engulfed in panic heard her, and her arms responded. As soon as Isa spread them out, the wings stiffened, caught the wind, and her descent slowed. She soared downwards, but at a controlled angle, like a kite in a dive.

She looked to her side to see Percy flying beside her. Experimentally, the two flapped their arms once. They arced into the sky, the wind whistling in my ears.

"Yeah!" They yelled. The feeling was unbelievable. After getting the hang of it, they felt like the wings were part of their body. They could soar and swoop and dive anywhere they wanted to.

They turned and saw their friends⎼Rachel, Annabeth, and Nico⎼spiraling above them, glinting in the sunlight. Behind them, smoke billowed from the windows of Daedalus's workshop.

"Land!" Annabeth yelled. "These wings won't last forever."

"How long?" Rachel cried.

"I don't want to find out!" Annabeth said.

They swooped down towards the Garden of the Gods. Isa did a complete circle around one of the rock spires and freaked out a couple of climbers. Then the five of them soared across the valley, over a road, and landed on the terrace of the visitor center. It was late afternoon and the place looked pretty empty, but they ripped off their wings as quickly as they could. Looking at them, Isa could see Annabeth was right. The self-adhesive seals that bound the wings to their backs were already melting, and they were shedding bronze feathers. It seemed a shame, but they couldn't fix them, and couldn't leave them around for the mortals, so they stuffed the wings in the bin outside the cafeteria.

Percy and Isa used the tourist binocular camera to look up at the hill where Daedalus's workshop had been, but it had vanished. No more smoke. No broken windows. Just the side of a hill.

"The workshop moved," Annabeth guessed. "There's no telling where."

"So what do we do now?" Percy asked. "How do we get back in the maze?"

Annabeth gazed at the summit of Pikes Peak in the distance. "Maybe we can't. If Daedalus died... he said his life force was tied to the Labyrinth. The whole thing might've been destroyed. Maybe that will stop Luke's invasion."

Isa thought about Grover and Tyson, still down there somewhere. And Daedalus... even though he'd done some terrible things and put everybody she cared about at risk, it still seemed like a pretty horrible way to die.

"No," Nico said. "He isn't dead."

"How can you be sure?" Isa asked.

"I know when people die. It's this feeling I get, like a buzzing in my ears."

"What about Tyson and Grover, then?"

Nico shook his head. "That's harder. They're not humans or half-bloods. They don't have mortal souls."

"We have to get into town," Annabeth decided. "Our chances of finding an entrance to the Labyrinth will be better. We have to make it back to camp before Luke and his army."

"We could just take a plane," Rachel said.

Percy and Isa shuddered. "We don't fly."

"But you just did."