chapter eleven

─── i am very protective over someone i never met

         ℑ hadn't been able to sleep whilst we flew, my mind was whirring, trying to find memories that were just out of reach and all the things that could go wrong. I had come up with a lot of what could go wrong, and very little in terms of memories, which was annoying. By the time the sun was setting, Piper had woken up and was in the process of waking Leo, and Quebec was coming into view.

It was beautiful. Cold but stunning, and it looked like everything had been dusted with icing sugar.

"This is Quebec and not Santa's workshop, right?" Leo checked.

"Yeah, Quebec City," Piper confirmed. "One of the oldest cities in North America. Founded around sixteen hundred or so?"

Leo raised an eyebrow. "Your dad do a movie about that too?"

I was confused. I knew Piper's dad was an actor, but what movies were he in? If I knew them would be a whole other issue.

"I read sometimes, okay? Just because Aphrodite claimed me, doesn't mean I have to be an airhead."

"I don't think all Venus children are airheads." I shook my head, stopping her. "She's a powerful goddess in her own right, for her to be an airhead makes little to no sense. You know, she used to be a war goddess."

Piper went silent, as Leo changed the subject and moved on quickly.

"So you know so much, what's that castle?"

"A hotel, I think."

Leo laughed. "No way."

I leant forward, looking down at the ground, watching doormen, valets and porters taking bags for people in elegant clothes and winter cloaks. Luxury cars idled in the drive, but there was something else. Looking around, I tried to find what was putting me on edge.

"The North Wind is staying in a hotel?" Leo said. "That can't be—"

"Watch out." I interrupted, nodding upwards. "We've got company."

Rising from the top of the tower were two winged figures—angry angels, with nasty-looking swords. The dragon didn't seem to like the winged figures, coming to a stop in mid-air, wings beating and talons bared. 

"I don't like this." I muttered, shaking my head. "They look like storm spirits."

Considering our last encounter with the wind spirits, I wasn't too happy to meet another one again. But these looked different. They looked like regular teenagers except for icy white hair and feathery purple wings. Their bronze swords were like icicles, and the similarities between them suggested that they were brothers.

The angels pulled up in front of Festus and hovered there, swords at the ready.

"No clearance."

"'Scuse me?" Leo blinked a few times.

"You have no flight plan on file," explained the skinnier one, leering at both me and Piper as my face turned dark. "This is restricted airspace."

"Destroy them?" The ox showed off his gap-toothed grin.

Festus began to hiss steam, ready to defend us and I had the same idea. I flipped the coin, turning it into a sword, before Leo held a placating hand out to us, "Hold on! Let's have some manners here, boys. Can I at least find out who has the honour of destroying me?"

"I am Cal!" the ox grunted, with a proud glint plastered across his face.

"That's short for Calais," the skinny one said. "Sadly, my brother cannot say words with more than two syllables—"

"Pizza! Hockey! Destroy!" Cal offered examples.

"—which includes his own name."

"I am Cal," Cal repeated. "And this is Zethes! My brother!"

"Wow," Leo said. "That was almost three sentences, man! Way to go."

Cal grunted, obviously pleased with himself.

"Stupid buffoon," his brother grumbled. "They make fun of you. But no matter. I am Zethes, which is short for Zethes. And the ladies there—" He smiled over at Piper and me, causing my glare to grow. I assumed I was eighteen ish, but Piper was younger than me. "They can call me anything they like. Perhaps they would like to have dinner with a famous demigod before we must destroy you?"

Piper made a sound like gagging on a cough drop. "That's...a truly horrifying offer."

"It is no problem." Zethes wiggled his eyebrows. "We are a very romantic people, we Boreads."

"Boreads?" I cut in, my brain finally whirred up. "Do you mean, like, the sons of Boreas?"

"Ah, so you've heard of us!" Zethes looked pleased. "We are our father's gatekeepers. So you understand, we cannot have unauthorized people flying in his airspace on creaky dragons, scaring the silly mortal peoples which is sadly why, unless this is an emergency landing, we will have to destroy you painfully."

"Destroy!" Cal agreed.

"Wait!" Piper said. "This is an emergency landing."

"Awww!" The ox like one seemed disappointed.

Zethes studied Piper, which of course he'd already been doing. "How does the pretty girl decide this is an emergency, then?"

"We have to see Boreas. It's totally urgent! Please?" Her words were lilted, and I struggled to place what the powers were. It must be a Child of Venus power, that was the only explanation.

Zethes picked at his silk shirt, probably making sure it was still open wide enough. "Well...I hate to disappoint a lovely lady, but you see, my sister, she would have an avalanche if we allowed you—"

"And our dragon is malfunctioning!" Piper added. "It could crash any minute!"

Festus shuddered helpfully, then turned his head and spilled gunk out of his ear, splattering a black Mercedes in the parking lot below.

"No destroy?" Cal whimpered.

Zethes pondered the problem. Then he gave Piper another wink that looked more like a nervous twitch. "Well, you are pretty. I mean, you're right. A malfunctioning dragon—this could be an emergency."

"Destroy them later?" Cal offered, which was probably as close to friendly as he ever got.

"It will take some explaining," Zethes decided. "Father has not been kind to visitors lately. But, yes. Come, faulty dragon people. Follow us."

The Boreads sheathed their swords and pulled flashlights from their pockets, like traffic controllers.

"I love these guys. Follow them?" Leo turned to them, a grin on his face but I wasn't sure that Piper and I were so eager.

"I guess," I decided. "We're here now. But I wonder why Boreas hasn't been kind to visitors?"

"Pfft, he just hasn't met us." Leo whistled. "Festus, after those flashlights!"

The Boreads made right for the green gabled peak and didn't slow down. Then a section of the slanted roof slid open, revealing an entrance easily wide enough for Festus. The top and bottom were lined with icicles like jagged teeth.

"This cannot be good," I muttered, but Leo spurred the dragon downward, and we swooped in after the Boreads. I didn't like this, I didn't like being trapped in such a confined space with no clear way out. Especially with the doors locking behind us.

As I slid off the dragon, ice crunched beneath my feet and I could see my breath hovering up ahead of me. Everything was covered in ice, and I tightened my grip on my sword as I looked around.

"Guys," Leo said, "fix the thermostat in here, and I would totally move in."

"Not me." I looked round, searching for the cause of my confusion. "Something feels wrong. Something up there..."

Festus shuddered and snorted flames. Frost started to form on his scales.

"No, no, no." Zethes marched over, towering over Leo. "The dragon must be deactivated. We can't have fire in here. The heat ruins my hair."

Festus growled and spun his drill-bit teeth.

"S'okay, boy." Leo turned to Zethes. "The dragon's a little touchy about the whole deactivation concept. But I've got a better solution."

"Destroy?" Cal suggested.

"No, man. You gotta stop with the destroy talk. Just wait."

"Leo," Piper said nervously, "what are you—"

"Watch and learn, beauty queen. When I was repairing Festus last night, I found all kinds of buttons. Some, you do not want to know what they do. But others...Ah, here we go."

Leo hooked his fingers behind the dragon's left foreleg. He pulled a switch, and the dragon shuddered from head to toe. Everyone backed away as Festus folded like origami. His bronze plating stacked together. His neck and tail contracted into his body. His wings collapsed and his trunk compacted until he was a rectangular metal wedge the size of a suitcase.

"Um...yeah. Hold on. I think—aha." He pushed another button. A handle flipped up on the top, and wheels clicked out on the bottom. "Ta-da! The world's heaviest carry-on bag!"

"That's impossible," My jaw dropped, having never seen anything like that before. "Something that big couldn't—"

"Stop!" Zethes ordered. He and Cal both drew their swords and glared at Leo.

Leo raised his hands. "Okay...what'd I do? Stay calm, guys. If it bothers you that much, I don't have to take the dragon as carry-on—"

"Who are you?" Zethes shoved the point of his sword against Leo's chest. "A child of the South Wind, spying on us?"

"What? No!" Leo said. "Son of Hephaestus. Friendly blacksmith, no harm to anyone!"

Cal growled. "Smell fire," he said. "Fire is bad."

"Oh." Leo looked panicked. "Yeah, well...my clothes are kind of singed, and I've been working with oil, and—"

"No!" Zethes pushed Leo back at sword point. "We can smell fire, demigod. We assumed it was from the creaky dragon, but now the dragon is a suitcase. And I still smell fire...on you."

"Hey...look...I don't know—" He glanced back at us. "Guys, a little help?"

I stepped forward, my sword in my hands. "Look, there's been a mistake. Leo isn't a fire guy. Tell them, Leo. Tell them you're not a fire guy."

"Um..."

"Zethes?" Piper tried her dazzling smile again, though she looked a little too nervous and cold to pull it off. "We're all friends here. Put down your swords and let's talk."

"The girl is pretty," Zethes admitted, "and of course she cannot help being attracted to my amazingness; but sadly, I cannot romance her at this time." He poked his sword point farther into Leo's chest as I scrambled forward, ready to protect the younger teen.

"Destroy him now?" Cal asked his brother.

Zethes nodded. "Sadly, I think—"

"No," I insisted, trying to appear as calm as possible in the face of almost being murdered. "Leo's just a son of Hephaestus. He's no threat. Piper here is a daughter of Aphrodite. I'm the daughter of Zeus. We're on a peaceful..."

They both turned to me and my voice almost broke.

"What did you say?" Zethes demanded. "You are the daughter of Zeus?"

"Um...yeah," I didn't like this, didn't like that they had changed their tone the moment they found out who my dad was. "That's a good thing, right? My name is Cressida."

Cal looked so surprised, he almost dropped his sword. "Can't be Cressida," he said. "Doesn't look the same."

Zethes stepped forward and squinted at my face. "No, she's not the Cressida we knew. Our Cressida was dark haired, and stylish. Not as much as me—but stylish. Besides, our Cressida died millennia ago."

"Wait," I muttered. "Your Cressida...you mean the original Cressida? The one ?"

"Of course," Zethes said. "We heard of her...her betrayal, traded to the Greeks and spurning her previous lover."

"That's not her fault." I narrowed my eyes. "She was traded by a man for a prisoner, that is his fault that he traded her, she was only trying to survive in a place that she did not know, in enemy territory!"

"You're not her." Zethes had ignored me to finish the story as my temper flared, my skin crackling with pins and needles as I tried to stay calm.

"So, destroy?" Cal asked. Clearly the conversation was too much for his little brain to handle.

"No," Zethes said regretfully. "If she is a daughter of Zeus, she could be the one we've been watching for."

"Watching for?" Leo asked. "You mean like in a good way: you'll shower her with fabulous prizes? Or watching for like in a bad way: she's in trouble?"

A girl's voice said, "That depends on my father's will."

At the top of the stairs stood a girl in a white silk dress. Her skin was unnaturally pale, the colour of snow, but her hair was a lush mane of black, and her eyes were coffee brown. She looked over at us and seemed to understand the situation immediately.

"Father will want to see the one called Cressida," the girl said as I straightened my shoulders.

"Then it is her?" Zethes asked excitedly.

"We'll see," the girl said. "Zethes, bring our guests."

I started forward, patting Piper and Leo on the back. We'd need all of us to be on our best form just in case something was to go wrong, or they were to attack. We had to be ready and prepared.

"Not you, Leo Valdez," The new woman said,

"Why not?" Leo sounded like he was winding.

"You cannot be in the presence of my father," the girl said. "Fire and ice—it would not be wise."

"We're going together," I stopped, my eyebrows furrowed, "or not at all."

The girl tilted her head, like she wasn't used to people refusing her orders. "He will not be harmed, Cressida Grace, unless you make trouble. Calais, keep Leo Valdez here. Guard him, but do not kill him."

Cal pouted. "Just a little?"

"No," the girl insisted. "And take care of his interesting suitcase, until Father passes judgment."

I turned back to Leo, cocking an eyebrow. What did he want us to do? Leave him or stay here with the other teenager?

"It's fine, guys," he said. "No sense causing trouble if we don't have to. You go ahead."

"Listen to your friend," the pale girl said. "Leo Valdez will be perfectly safe. I wish I could say the same for you, daughter of Zeus. Now come, King Boreas is waiting."

∘☽༓☾∘

Hiya,

So, little filler chapter but you kind of get a little hint behind Cressida's name, with her namesake having been traded to the Greek camp and then is considered to be unfaithful for being with a different man instead of the one that she left. So, the more you know.

Let me know what you think,

Love Li xx