The school bus dropped them off in front of a big red stucco complex like museum, just sitting in the middle of nowhere. Dottie decided against making a joke about the museum. A cold wind blew across the desert, her face developing goosebumps due to the sudden chill. She was in a puffer jacket with gray sweatpants that were long enough to cover the top of her Uggs.

       She saw Jason shiver in her periphery and saw that was he was wearing wasn't even close to being warm enough. He wore jeans and a pair of sneakers, as well as a purple t-shirt with a thin black windbreaker on top. She pitied the blonde.

"So, a crash course for the amnesiac," Leo said in a helpful tone that always meant he was about to say something extremely unhelpful. "We go to the 'Wilderness School'"— Leo made air quotes with his fingers. "Which means we're 'bad kids' your family, or the court, or whoever, decided you were too much trouble, so they shipped you off to this lovely prison— sorry, 'boarding school'— in Armpit, Nevada, where you learn valuable nature skills like running 10 times a day through the cacti and weaving daisies into hats! And for a special treat we go on 'educational field trips with Coach Hedge, who keeps order with a baseball bat. Is it all coming back to you now?"

Everything that Leo had explained was completely true, however Jason didn't seem to recall any of it which further proved her point that Jason was not a student.

"No." Jason glanced at the kids around them. There were 20 guys and half as many girls, including Dottie and Piper.

Leo rolled his eyes. "You're really gonna play this out, huh? Okay, so the four of us started here together this semester. We're totally tight. You do everything I say and give me your dessert and do my chores—"

Dottie slapped his arm. "Leo, stop. You're really not helping right now."

     "It was worth a shot! Ignore that last part, I guess. But we are friends. Well, Piper's been a little more than your friend your friend, the last few weeks—"

      "Leo, stop it!" Piper snapped. Dottie rolled her eyes as she watched the blonde and brunette blush at the words Leo had just spoken.

"He's got amnesia or something," Piper said.

"Maybe that something is the fact that he randomly appeared, Piper," Dottie suggested.

Piper looked at her like she was crazy. "We've got to tell somebody. I'm really worried."

      Leo scoffed. "Who, Coach Hedge? He'd try to fix Jason by whacking him upside the head."

      The said coach was at the front of the group of delinquent kids, barking orders and blowing his whistle in futile attempts to catch their attention. Every so often his gaze would land on Jason and he would scowl.

"Guys," the desperation in Pipers voice was prominent, "Jason needs help. He's got a concussion or—"

"Yo, Piper." One of the guys dropped back to join the quartet as the group. The guy had dark hair in a Superman style, a deep tan, and teeth so white that it made Dottie jealous. She immediately recognized him as Dylan, a guy who smiled like he's the gods gift to mankind. He wore a Dallas Cowboys jersey, western jeans, and cowboy boots. Dylan wedged himself between Dottie and Piper, slightly shoving Dottie and knocking Leo down.

       "Don't talk to these bottom feeders. You're my partner, remember?" Dylan drawled as Dottie helped Leo off the floor. She glared daggers at the back of Dylan's head. Dottie always felt there was something off with him, she just couldn't pin point it.

       "Go away, Dylan," Piper grumbled. "I didn't ask, and I don't want, to work with you."

"Ah, that's no way to be. This is your lucky day!" Dylan hooked his arm through hers and dragged her through the museum entrance. Piper shot one last look over her shoulder, like 911.

       Leo let go of Dottie's hand and brushed himself off. "I hate that guy." He offered Jason and Dottie his arms, like they should go skipping inside together. "I'm Dylan. I'm so cool, I want to date myself, but I can't figure out how! You want to date me instead? You're so lucky!"

       Dottie chuckled at his attempt at mimicking Dylan.

      "Leo," Jason said, "you're weird."

      Dottie clasped his shoulder. "You get used to it, trust me."

      "Yeah, she's right," Leo added. "She's always right. Anyways, if you don't remember me, I can reuse all my old jokes. Come on, little ducklings!"

       Dottie shook her head with a small smile as she followed Leo into the museum, Jason trailing right behind her.

       The school kids walked through the building, stopping here and there for Coach Hedge to give a lecture with his microphone that either made him sound like some Sith Lord or blared out random comments like 'the pig says OINK!".

       Leo kept pulling out nuts, bolts, and pipe cleaners from the pockets of his army jacket, putting them together and pulling them apart. That was the thing about Leo, he always had to keep his hands busy. Whether it was the ADHD or if that's just how he was remains a mystery to Dottie.

       She ignored the personification of distraction next to her and focused on the exhibits. If she was going to be stuck in a museum with Leo and a random guy named Jason, she might as well get some education out of it. The exhibits were about the Grand Canyon and the Hualapai tribe, which owned the museum.

She didn't have her worksheet, thanks to Leo, so she simply let her eyes wander until she found something interesting. Her eyes finally landed on Isabel and her group, who were snickering looking at Piper and Dylan. The group of girls looked sort of cult-ish, they were all wearing the same pink top with jeans as well as enough makeup for them to be mistaken for cosplayers.

Isabel spoke out to Piper, "Hey, Piper, does your tribe run this place? Do you get in free if you do a rain dance?"

All of her little friends laughed obnoxiously, like her comment was the funniest joke to grace the universe. Even Dylan, who was standing behind Piper, couldn't help but snicker.

Dottie rolled her eyes at the racist remarks Isabel made. She had been on the receiving side of snide remarks from her at one point as well, Isabel making jokes about her culture when Dottie talked about her up and coming quinceñera and telling her she didn't have a 'mexican enough' name. She'd learned that it was better to not react to Isabel, she only wanted reactions out of people. Whenever she would make comments like that Dottie would simply roll her eyes and walk away.

       Piper, however, was not that kind of girl. "My dad's Cherokee," she said. "Not Hualapai. 'Course you'd need a few brain cells to know the difference, Isabel."

       Isabel widened her eyes in mock suprise, resembling an owl with a Smokey eye and blush blindness. "Oh, sorry! Was your mom in this tribe? Oh, that's right. You never knew your mom."

Piper charged her, but before a fight could break out, Coach Hedge barked, "Enough back there! Set a good example or I'll break out my baseball bat!"

The group shuffled on to the next exhibit, but not without calling out little comments to Piper.

"Good to be back on the rez?" One asked in a sickly sweet voice.

"Dad's probably too drunk to work," one said with faux sympathy and a scoff. "That's why she turned klepto."

Piper ignored them but Dottie saw Jason tense beside her. She slightly nudged him, "Chill," she said, Jason looked at her with slight confusion. "Piper doesn't like us fighting her battles."

"Besides," Leo chimed in, "if those girls found out the truth about her dad, they'd all be bowing down to her and screaming, 'We're not worthy!'"

       "Why? What about her dad?"

       Leo laughed in disbelief, refusing to accept the fact that Jason doesn't know them. "You're not kidding? You really don't remember that your girlfriends dad—"

       "Look, I wish I did, but I don't even remember her, much less her dad."

       Leo whistled. "Whatever, man. We need to talk when we get back to the dorm."

       They reached the far end of the exhibit hall, where some glass doors led to a terrace.

"All right, cupcakes," Coach announced. "You are about to see the Grand Canyon. Try not to break it. The skywalk can hold the weight of seventy jumbo jets, so you featherweights should be safe out there. If possible, try to avoid pushing each other over the edge, as that would cause me extra paperwork."

Coach Hedge opened the doors and everyone stepped outside. The Grand Canyon spread before them, live and in person. Extending over the edge was a horseshoe-shaped walkway made of glass, so you could see right through it.

"Man," Leo said. "That's pretty wicked."

Dottie agreed. The canyon was beautiful and much more breathtaking than the pictures. Pictures never do anything beautiful justice. Five hundred feet down, a river snaked along the canyon floor. Storm clouds loomed overhead, not letting a peak of sunlight through, it didn't have an affect on the view however. The canyon was a multitude of shades of grays and reds.

Suddenly Jason lurched forward, as if he was about to throw up.

      "You alright?" Leo asked. "You're not going to throw up over the side, are you? 'Cause I should've brought my camera."

Dottie slapped his arm with a look of disbelief on her face. She watched as Jason grabbed the railing. He was shivering and sweating, she noticed. Maybe he was terrified of heights?

      "I'm fine," he managed. "Just a headache."

     Dottie eyed him warily. Whatever was going on with him was definitely not 'just a headache'. Thunder rumbled overhead. A cold wind almost knocked her over.

      "This can't be safe," Leo squinted at the clouds. "Storms right over us, but it's clear all the way around. Weird, huh?"

     Dottie looked up and saw that Leo was right. A dark circle of clouds had decided to park itself over the side walk and not spread its darkness to the surrounding areas. She gulped, a sinking feeling in her stomach. This whole situation stunk of a monster attack.

The storm rumbled, and Jason squeezed his eyes shut. Dottie assumed it was from his, quote, unquote, headache. He then reached into his jeans pocket and brought out a coin—a circle of gold the size of a half-dollar, except it appeared to be thicker and more uneven. There were images and words inscribed in the coin that she couldn't read.

"Hey," Dottie said, pulling Jason's attention away from the coin. "Where'd you get that?"

Jason put the coin away. "I don't know," a phrase she found him saying over and over again. "It's just a coin, must've found it on the ground somewhere."

Despite his attempts to appear calm and collected, Dottie could see right through Jason. He was scared. Not that she blamed him, he was randomly placed on a school bus with Leo Valdez. But in all seriousness, she couldn't imagine being his predicament.

"Come on," Leo yelled out to Dottie. Him and Jason had already gotten pretty far down the skywalk, leaving Dottie standing alone. "I dare you to spit over the edge!"

She rolled her eyes as she jogged over to where the duo stood.

The two boys didn't try very hard on the worksheet. Jason seemed too distracted by the storm and his own personal problems while Leo busy building a helicopter out of pipe cleaners. Dottie, out of the kindness of her heart, offered to fill out the worksheet for Jason. She needed a distraction from everything that was going on, and she hoped this would suffice.

"Check this out," Leo said. He launched the helicopter, the pipe cleaner blades actually spun. The little copter made it halfway across the canyon before it lost momentum and spiraled into the void.

To anyone else, that would seem impossible to do, it shouldn't have been able to happen, but anything is possible when you're a demigod. When you have ichor running through your veins.

      "How'd you do that?" Jason asked.

       Leo shrugged. "Would've been cooler if I had some rubber bands."

      "Seriously," Jason said, "are we friends?"

      "Last I checked."

       "You sure? What was the day we met? What did we talk about?"

       "It was..." Leo frowned as he reached for a memory that wasn't there, a memory that didn't exist in the first place. "I don't recall exactly. I'm ADHD, man. You can't expect me to remember details."

       "But I don't remember you at all. I don't remember anyone here. What if—"

       "You're right and everyone else is wrong?" Leo asked. "You think you just appeared here this morning, and we've all got fake memories of you?"

       "That's exactly what he thinks," Dottie whispered from where she sat against the skywalk railing. Leo just described what Dottie assumed Jason was thinking, and from the way he turned around to look at her gave her the impression that she took the words right out of his mouth.

       Contrary to what Leo believed, Dottie knew that she and her friends didn't know Jason the way that Leo and Piper claimed they did. She knew Jason felt crazy, and to be honest sometimes Dottie felt so as well.

Jason got up. "I'll be right back."

Before anyone could protest, Jason was already heading across the skywalk. Dottie kept her eyes on him, curious about where he was heading. As soon as she realized he was heading to Coach, she got up.

"Take this," she gave the worksheet to Leo. "I'll be back."

She heard Leo protest but she ignored it and chased after Jason.

        Their school group had the whole place to themselves. Perhaps it was too early in the day for tourists or maybe the horrid weather scared them off. The students were spread out across the entire skywalk. Most were joking around or talking. Some idiots were dropping pennies over the side. About fifty feet away Piper was trying to fill out her worksheet, but Dylan was hitting on her, putting his hand on her shoulder and flashing her a blinding smile. She continuously pushed him off her and tried to get back to work. It was like a never ending cycle.

       By the time she caught up to Jason he and Coach Hedge were already in conversation. She saw Coach Hedge glare at Jason as she stood next tot he blonde. "Don't play games with me, kid. What are you doing here and why are you messing up our"— he gestured to himself and Dottie— "job?"

       "You mean... you don't know me?" Jason asked. "I'm not one of your students or classmates."

       Coach Hedge snorted. "Never seen you before today."

       "I knew it!" Dottie couldn't help but exclaim. She felt relieved that she was right about something for once.

       Jason spoke, relief evident in his voice and body language. "Look, sir, I don't know how I got here. I just woke up on the school bus. All I know is that I'm not supposed to be here."

       "Got that right." Coach's gruff voice then dropped to a murmur, like he was sharing a secret in a silent room. "You got a powerful way with the mist, kid, if you can make all these people think they know you; but you can't fool me and Dorothea. We've been sensing a monster for days now. I knew we had an infiltrator, but you don't smell like monster. You smell like half-blood. So— who are you, and where'd you come from."

       Jason stood there, bewilderment written all over his face as he tried to come up with an answer. "I don't know who I am. I don't have any memories. You've gotta help me."

       The glare that Dottie didn't even realize she had on was quickly replaced with a sympathetic expression. The way he spoke and the hopeless look on his face reminded her all too much of herself when she first arrived at Camp Half-blood.

      "Great," Coach muttered. "You're being truthful."

       "Of course I am! And what was all that about monsters and half-bloods? Are those code words or something?"

"It's a lot to explain, Jason." Dottie interjected. She figured it'd be easier to hear from someone who was his age and less intimidating than Coach Hedge.

"Look, kid," Coach said, "I don't know who you are, but I know what you are, and it means trouble. Now I got to protect four of you rather than three," Dottie attempted to say she didn't need his protection, but he quickly cut her off. "Shut it, Lovejoy," she frowned and crossed her arms over her chest. "Are you the special package? Is that it?"

Now Dottie was just as confused as Jason. What special package? Hedge never told her about that. She couldn't help but feel a little hurt that Hedge didn't tell her, it felt as if he didn't have enough confidence in her to tell her.

"What're you talking about?"

       Coach looked at the storm. The clouds were getting darker and thicker, hovering over the skywalk.

       "This morning," Coach said, "I got a message from camp. They said an extraction team is on the way. They're coming to pick up a package, but they wouldn't give me details. I thought to myself, Fine. The two I'm watching are pretty powerful, older than most. I know they're being stalked, but they have Dorothea so they should be fine. I figure the monster is the reason why camps so frantic to pick them up. But then you pop out of nowhere. So are you the special package?"

       Jason stumbled, and Coach Hedge caught him. Dottie grabbed his arm to help steady him. "Woah there, cupcake. You say you got no memories, huh? Fine. I'll just have to watch you, too, until the team gets here. We'll let the director figure things out."

       "What director?" Dottie could tell he was getting frantic and impatient. "What camp?"

       "Just sit tight. Stick with Dorothea for now, reinforcements should be here soon. Hopefully nothing happens before—"

Lightning crackled overhead. The wind picked up with a vengeance. Worksheets flew into the canyon, and the entire bridge shuddered. Kids screamed, stumbling and clinging to the rails.

       "I had to say something," Hedge grumbled. He bellowed into his megaphone: "Everyone inside! The cow says moo! Off the skywalk!"

       "I thought you said this thing was stable!" Jason shouted over the wind.

       "He meant under normal circumstances!" Dottie shouted right back. "Which this is clearly not. Come on!"

      The storm quickly churned into a miniature hurricane. Funnel clouds snaked towards the skywalk like tendrils of a monster jellyfish.

      Kids screamed and ran for the building. The wind snatched away their notebooks, jackets, hats, and backpacks. Jason and Dottie skidded across the slick floor.

       Leo lost his balance and almost toppled over the railing, but Jason grabbed his jacket and pulled him back. Dottie let out a breath she didn't even realize she was holding in.

      "Thanks, man!" Leo yelled.

       "Go, go, go!" said Coach Hedge.

Piper and Dylan were holding the doors open, herding the other kids inside like sheep. Pipers snowboarding jacket was flapping wildly, her dark hair all in her face. Not only did she manage to still look absolutely gorgeous, she also appeared calm and confident— telling the others it would be okay, encouraging them to keep moving. Dottie's stomach churned for a reason she didn't quite know.

Jason, Leo, Coach Hedge, and Dottie ran toward them, but it was like running through quicksand. The wind seemed to be fighting them, and to be completely honest Dottie wouldn't be surprised if it was.

       Dylan and Piper pushed one more kid inside, then they lost their grip on the doors. They slammed shut, closing off the skywalk.

       Piper tugged at the handles helplessly. Inside, the kids pounded on the doors frantically, but it was no use. The doors were stuck.

"Dylan, help!" Piper shouted.

Dylan just stood there with an idiotic grin on his face, his Cowboys jersey rippling in the wind, as if he was enjoying the awful predicament they had found themselves in.

"Sorry, Piper," he said menacingly. "I'm done helping."

He flicked his wrist, and Piper flew backwards, slamming into the doors and sliding to the skywalk deck. Of course Dylan was the monster she'd been sensing. It all made sense; the sense of dread she had whenever she was relatively close to him.

"Piper!" Dottie yelled. She tried to charge forward, her hand instinctively going to her necklace where she kept her weapon, but the wind was against her and apparently so was Coach Hedge.

"Coach," she struggled against the force of Hedge pushing her back, "let me go!"

"No. You stay behind me and take care of Jason and Leo," he ordered. "This is my fight. I should've known that was our monster."

       "What?" Leo demanded. A rouge worksheet slapped him in the face, but he swatted it away. "What monster?"

The coach's cap blew off, and sticking above his curly hair were two bumps, his satyr horns, and his baseball bat was now a tree-branch club worth twigs and leaves still attached. He lifted his club and readied to attack.

       Dylan gave him that psycho happy smile. "Oh, come on, coach. Let the boy attack me! 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."

       The coach made a bleating sound, like an angry goat. "That's it, cupcake. You're going down."

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

       Dylan pointed at Leo, and a funnel cloud materialized around him. Leo flew off the skywalk like he'd been tossed by Zeus himself. Somehow he managed to twist midair, and slammed sideways into the canyon wall. He skidded, clawing furiously for any handhold. Finally he grabbed a thin ledge about fifty feet below the skywalk and hung there by his finger tips.

Just by his display of power, Dottie had figured out what monster he was. Dylan was an anemoi thuellai, a storm spirit. She'd never seen anything like it. Sure, she'd helped Percy defeat the titan Hyperion, but this was a whole different thing. Dylan was a lot less powerful, but a tad bit scarier. She didn't know what he was capable of.

       "Help!" Leo yelled up at the remaining three demigods and satyr. "Rope, please? Bungee cord? Anything?"

      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 jabbed a thumb at Dylan—"while I get Leo. You do your thing, Dorothea."

     She nodded at his words, tapping the charms she had on her necklace. The heart charm gave her a bow and the ring charm gave her a quiver full of arrows.

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

"Not fly. Climb." Hedge kicked off his shoes, and Dottie swore she saw Piper gag.

       "You're a faun," Jason said.

       Dottie frowned, her nose scrunching in confusion. "A what?"

       "Satyr!" Hedge snapped. "Fauns are Roman. But we'll talk about that later."

Hedge leaped over the railing. He sailed toward the canyon wall and hit hooves first. He bounded down the cliff with seemingly impossible agility, finding footholds no larger than postage stamps while dodging whirlwinds that tried to attack him while picking up Leo.

"Isn't that cute," Dylan turned toward Jason. "Now it's your turn, boy."

Before anyone could react, Dottie had knocked and released an arrow that went right past his head. Dylan turned to look at her. He opened his mouth, no doubt to mock her for missing, when Jason threw the club and smacked Dylan on the head so hard he fell to his knees.

       Dottie had known what she was doing, the whole point of her 'missing' her shot was to distract Dylan in order to give Jason or Piper a chance to attack. Thank Gods they had gotten the memo.

Dottie noticed that Piper wasn't as dazed as she appeared. Her fingers closed around the club as soon as it rolled next to her, but before she could use it, Dylan rose. Ichor— the blood of the gods— trickled from his forehead.

"Nice try, boy," He glared at Jason. "But you'll have to do better than that."

The skywalk shuddered. Hairline fractures appeared in the glass. Inside the museum, kids stopped banging on the doors. They backed away, watching in horror.

Dylan's body dissolved into smoke, as if his molecules were coming undone. He had the same stupid face and smile, but his whole form was now just composed of swirling black vapor rather than the flesh and bones that everyone else was. His eyes were like electrical sparks in a dark storm cloud. He sprouted black Smokey wings and rose above the sidewalk. He reminded Dottie of an evil angel in a way. Him turning into... whatever he was, was confirmation of her earlier suspicions of what monster he was.

       "You're a ventus," Jason said. "A storm spirit."

       "You mean Anemoi Thuellai?" She asked him. "Ventus is the Roman term."

        Jason looked at her, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion. She opened her mouth to give a brief explanation but was quickly cut off by Dylan's maniacal laugh.

        "I'm glad I waited, demigod. Leo, Piper, and Dorothea I've known about for weeks," Dylan turned to Dorothea. "You should really watch how loud you talk to Coach Hedge"— Dottie cursed herself, she should've really made sure no one was around when she would give him updates— "I could've killed you guys at anytime. But my mistress said a fourth was coming— someone special. She'll reward me greatly for your death!"

Two more funnel clouds touched down on either side of Dylan and turned into two other storm spirits— ghostly young men with smoky wings and eyes that flickered with lightning.

Piper stayed down, pretending to be dazed, her hand gripping the club. Her face was unnaturally pale, but she gave Jason and Dottie a determined look, and she understood the message: Keep their attention. I'll brain them from behind.

She turned her head to Jason, raising an eyebrow to ask if he understood what Piper was saying. He nodded. Jason clenched his fists and readied to charge while Dottie knocked and readied another arrow, but before the two had the chance to do anything Dylan raised his hand and blasted Jason in the chest with lightning.

Bang! In a flash, Jason was on the ground, his clothes were smoking. The lightning bolt had gone straight through his body and blasted off his left shoe, his toes were black with soot.

"Holy shit," Dottie muttered. It had all happened in the span of a minute, too fast for her to comprehend what was happening. The storm spirits were laughing while the winds raged. She heard Piper screaming defiantly, but the winds carried her voice away.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Coach Hedge climbing the cliff with Leo on his back. Piper was on her feet, desperately swinging the club to fend off storm spirits, but they were just toying with her. The club went right through their bodies like they weren't there. She noticed how Dylan started to approach to where Jason was laying next to her, she took the fact that Dylan had his gazed fixed on the blonde and used it to move close enough to the other storm spirits.

She came up from behind Piper and called her name. "Move out of the way! I'm going to try to shoot them!"

Piper was startled and looked as if she was questioning when and where she learned how to use a bow and arrow, but she still moved out of the way. Dottie used the arrow she had originally knocked and shot it at the closest storm spirit. It flew right through the middle of his figure. Dottie prayed to whatever god was listening that she had hit the right spot, and it was quickly answered. The storm spirit wailed and turned into gold dust.

     Dottie and Piper stood in shock. Dottie had confidence in herself, she really did, but at that moment her confidence was whisked away in the wind. But as quick as it went it came back. She knocked another arrow, but before she could release it, she heard Jason croak: "Stop." He rose unsteadily to his feet. Dottie didn't know whether the storm spirits or himself were more surprised.

      "How are you alive?" Dylan's form flickered in rage. "That was enough lightning to kill twenty men!"

      "My turn," Jason said.

      He reached in his pocket and pulled out the gold coin from earlier. He flipped the coin in the air. What in the world is this guy doing? Dottie thought to herself. He caught it in his palm, and suddenly he was holding a wickedly sharp double edged sword. The entire weapon was gold— hilt & all.

      Dylan snarled and backed up. He looked to both his sides and noticed one was missing. He turned back to look at Piper and Dottie, wondering which on them killed his other spirit. He saw the bow in Dottie's hand and the arrow stuck in the ground a few feet away, there was his answer. He looked at his remaining comrade and yelled, "Well? Kill him!"

      The storm spirit didn't look very happy about that request, but nonetheless he flew at Jason, his fingers crackling with electricity. The spirit let loose a bolt of lightning , but Jason's blade absorbed the charge. Jason stepped in— one quick thrust, and the second storm spirit dissolved into gold powder.

       Dylan wailed in outrage. He looked down, as if expecting his comrade to reform, but the gold dust dispersed into the winds. "Impossible! Who are you half-bloods."

       Piper was so stunned she dropped her club. Her gaze flickered between Dottie and Jason. "How the fu—"

       "Spirits fear me!" Hedge bellowed after he leaped back onto the skywalk and dumped Leo like a sack of flour. He flexed his short arms in an attempt to intimidate the enemies. Then he looked around and realized there was only Dylan.

      "Curse it, you guys," he snapped. "Didn't you leave some for me? I like a challenge."

       Leo got to his feet looking utterly humiliated. His hands were bleeding from clawing at the rocks. "Yo, Coach Supergoat, whatever you are— I just fell down the fucking Grand Canyon! Stop asking for challenges!"

       Dylan hissed at them, but they could all see the fear in his eyes. "You have no idea how many enemies you've awakened, half-bloods. My mistress will destroy all demigods. This war you cannot win."

Above them, the storm exploded into a full-force gale. Cracks expanded in the skywalk. Sheets of rain poured down, Dottie wouldn't have been surprised if her cause of death was being nailed to death by the rain.

A hole opened in the clouds— a swirling vortex of black and silver.

"The mistress calls me back!" Dylan shouted with glee. "And you, demigod, shall come with me."

He lunged at Jason. Before Dottie could even think her actions through, she found herself tackling the storm spirit from behind. She fully expected that she would fall right through Dylan, but somehow she had made contact with him, even though he was made out of smoke. They both went sprawling as soon as she made contact. She saw Leo, Jason, Piper, and Coach surge forward to help, but the spirit screamed with rage. The scream let loose a torrent that knocked them all backwards.

Dottie didn't get to see what happened to all her friends as she was flung towards the railing. She tumbled until she was hanging by one hand over the abyss.

Don't look down. Don't look down. Don't look down.

Dottie had her eyes closed as she heard the ruckus going on above her. She heard Dylan scream something incoherent. Everything sounded incoherent as she felt her grip on the railing slip.

"Help!" she yelled. "Somebody help!"

       Then she slipped and fell into the darkness of the canyon, screaming and flailing.

Lali Yaps

Hallo brainstorm nation!! This is kinda a long chapter (5470) words my longest chapter ever Me thinks...

This is unedited AF!! Pls don't judge this one sucked the soul out of me... writing the lost hero is like an encounter with a dementor Tbh

Ohhh Dorothea Lovejoy I have PLANS for you...