──── chapter seven

{ ☀️ } · dreams come true. . ݁ ٬٬ ࣪

JASON DREAMED HE WAS WRAPPED in chains, hanging upside down like a hunk of meat. Everything hurt ─ his arms, his legs, his chest, his head. Especially his head. It felt like an overinflated water balloon.

"If I'm dead," he murmured, "why does it hurt so much?"

"You're not dead, my hero," said a woman's voice. "It is not your time. Come, speak with me."

Jason's thoughts floated away from his body. He heard monsters yelling, his friends screaming, fiery explosions, but it all seemed to be happening on another plane of existence ─ getting farther and farther away.

He found himself standing in an earthen cage. Tendrils of tree roots and stone whirled together, confining him. Outside the bars, he could see the floor of a dry reflecting pool, another earthen spire growing at the far end, and above them, the ruined red stones of a burned-out house. Next to him in the cage, a woman sat cross-legged in black robes, her head covered by a shroud. She pushed aside her veil, revealing a face that was proud and beautiful ─ but also hardened with suffering.

"Hera," Jason said, recognizing the woman that was in front of him.

"Welcome to my prison," said the goddess. "You will not die today, Jason. Your friends will see you through ─ for now."

"For now?" he asked.

Hera gestured at the tendrils of her cage. "There are worse trials to come. The very earth stirs against us."

"You're a goddess," Jason said. "Why can't you just escape?"

Hera smiled sadly. Her form began to glow, until her brilliance filled the cage with painful light. The air hummed with power, molecules splitting apart like a nuclear explosion. Jason suspected if he were actually there in the flesh, he would've been vaporized. The cage should've been blasted to rubble. The ground should've split and the ruined house should've been leveled. But when the glow died, the cage hadn't budged. Nothing outside the bars had changed. Only Hera looked different ─ a little more stooped and tired.

"Some powers are even greater than the gods," she said. "I am not easily contained. I can be in many places at once. But when the greater part of my essence is caught, it is like a foot in a bear trap, you might say. I can't escape, and I am concealed from the eyes of the other gods. Only you can find me, and I grow weaker by the day."

"Then why did you come here?" Jason asked. "How were you caught?"

The goddess sighed. "I could not stay idle. Your father Jupiter believes he can withdraw from the world, and thus lull our enemies back to sleep. He believes we Olympians have become too involved in the affairs of mortals, in the fates of our demigod children, especially since we agreed to claim them all after the war. He believes this is what has caused our enemies to stir. That is why he closed Olympus."

"But you don't agree."

"No," she said. "Often I do not understand my husband's moods or his decisions, but even for Zeus, this seemed paranoid. I cannot fathom why he was so insistent and so convinced. It was. . . unlike him. As Hera, I might have been content to follow my lord's wishes. But I am also Juno."

Her image flickered, and Jason saw armor under her simple black robes, a goatskin cloak ─ the symbol of a Roman warrior ─ across her bronze mantle.

"Juno Moneta they once called me ─ Juno, the One Who Warns. I was guardian of the state, patron of Eternal Rome. I could not sit by while the descendants of my people were attacked. I sensed danger at this sacred spot. A voice ─ " she hesitated. "A voice told me I should come here. Gods do not have what you might call a conscience, nor do we have dreams; but the voice was like that ─ soft and persistent, warning me to come here. And so the same day Zeus closed Olympus, I slipped away without telling him my plans, so he could not stop me. And I came here to investigate."

"It was a trap," Jason guessed.

The goddess nodded. "Only too late did I realize how quickly the earth was stirring. I was even more foolish than Jupiter ─ a slave to my own impulses. This is exactly how it happened the first time. I was taken captive by the giants, and my imprisonment started a war. Now our enemies rise again. The gods can only defeat them with the help of the greatest living heroes. And the one whom the giants serve. . . she cannot be defeated at all ─ only kept asleep."

"I don't understand."

"You will soon."

The cage began to constrict, the tendrils spiraling tighter. Hera's form shivered like a candle flame in the breeze. Outside the cage, Jason could see shapes gathering at the edge of the pool — lumbering humanoids with hunched backs and bald heads. Unless Jason's eyes were tricking him ─ they had more than one set of arms. He heard wolves too, but not the wolves he'd seen with Lupa. He could tell from their howls this was a different pack ─ hungrier, more aggressive, out forblood.

"Hurry, Jason," warned Hera "My keepers approach, and you begin to wake. I will not be strong enough to appear to you again, even in dreams."

"Wait," he said; he had a lot more questions to asked. "Boreas told us you'd made a dangerous gamble. What did he mean?"

Hera's eyes looked wild, and Jason wondered if she reallyhad done something crazy.

"She kept it to herself like she's supposed to," the goddess muttered more to herself than to the boy, "An exchange," she continued. "The only way to bring peace. The enemy counts on our divisions, and if we are divided, we will be destroyed. You are my peace offering, Jason ─ a bridge to overcome millennia of hatred."

"What? I don't ─ "

"I cannot tell you more," Hera said. "Don't force answers till the time is right ─ even when she wants to tell you. You have only lived this long because I have taken your memory. Find this place. Return to your starting point. Your sister will help."

Jason had forgotten everything ─ his life, his home, everything that he knew about himself except his name and, "Thalia?"

The scene began to dissolve. "Good-bye, Jason. Beware Chicago. Your most dangerous mortal enemy waits there. If you are to die, it will be by her hand."

Too much was happening around him. His brain buzzed, thinking about everything he's been warned ─ Thalia. Chicago. Enemy. Death. Even when she wants to tell you. . . who wants to tell him what? He was so confused; but he must not think of that now. There will be time. . . hopefully.

Yet there were so many unanswered questions that plunged his thoughts, but only one left his lips, "Who?" 

But Hera's image faded, and Jason awoke.

His eyes snapped open. "Cyclops!"

"Easy, you're okay," Madeline's voice was soft and caring, soothing him back to sleep and calming his body to not fall off. She sat behind him on the bronze dragon, holding his waist to keep him balanced. Her fingers were clutching the material of his shirt, warm despite the biting cold ─ his head placed against her front. His eyes looked up at her face, his cheeks on fire when her black ones met his.

Tearing his eyes from the soft ones of the girl, Jason focused on the others. Piper sat in front of him like before and in front of her was Leo, driving. They flew peacefully through the winter sky as if nothing had happened.

"D-Detroit," Jason stammered. "Didn't we crash-land? I thought ─ "

"It's okay," Leo said. "We got away, but you got a nasty concussion. How you feeling?"

Jason's head throbbed. He remembered the factory, then walking down the catwalk, then a creature looming over him ─ a face with one eye, a massive fist ─ and everything went black.

What a leader he was.

"How did you ─ the Cyclops ─ "

"Leo ripped them apart," Piper said, turning her head to look at the boy. Her eyes quickly glanced from Madeline to him before she continued speaking, a tight lipped smile on her face, "He was amazing. He can summon fire ─ "

"It was nothing," Leo said quickly.

Madeline shook her head, "Leo, being a fire user is a big thing, nothing to be ashamed off. Just listen. . ."

And she told him what had happened ─ how Leo single-handedly defeated the Cyclopes family; how they freed Jason, then noticed the Cyclopes starting to re-form; how Leo had replaced the dragon's wiring and gotten them back in the air just as they'd started to hear the Cyclopes roaring for vengeance inside the factory. Jason was impressed. Taking out three Cyclopes with nothing but a tool kit? Not bad. It didn't exactly scare him to hear how close he'd come to death, but it did make him feel horrible. He'd stepped right into an ambush and spent the whole fight knocked out while his friends fended for themselves. What kind of quest leader was he?

When Piper told him about the other kid the Cyclopes claimed to have eaten, the one in the purple shirt who spoke Latin, Jason felt like his head was going to explode. A son of Mercury. . . Jason felt like he should know that kid, but the name was missing from his mind. There was an ache in hi chest ─ grief consuming his body as he listened.

"I'm not alone, then," he said. "There are others like me."

"Jason," Piper said, "you were never alone. You've got us."

"I-I know. . . but something Hera said. I was having adream. . ." he told them what he'd seen, and what the goddess had said inside her cage.

All throughout the story, as Jason spoke he noticed the way Madeline's fingers twisted into his shirt. She kept quiet, her eyes glaring at the sky, her lips in a thin line. Jason felt a jab to his chest ─ there was something in those eyes that were telling Jason she was keeping quiet; he just didn't know what. The blonde boy tried to rise a bit from his position but the girl kept a hold onto him ─ as if afraid he would disappear like. . . her friend did. Jason only noticed that now.

"An exchange?" Piper said. "What does that mean?"

"It goes two ways," Madeline muttered for the first time after Jason had told them about his dream. Her body was tense, eyes glossed and a look of desperation painted across her face, "Hera gave you to us, Camp Half-Blood. . . and she took someone from us. . ." she didn't need to finish the sentence for the rest to understand.

Percy Jackson was the other demigod.

Jason already felt like he understood this Percy Jackson. He was out there alone, with no memories, going though what the blonde boy is. But they couldn't focus on his right now. Things are starting to get challenging.

"Hera's gamble is me." Jason cleared his throat. "Just by sending me to Camp Half-Blood, I have a feeling she broke some kind of rule, something that could blow up in a big way ─ "

"Or save us," Piper said hopefully. "That bit about the sleeping enemy ─ that sounds like the lady Leo told us about."

Leo cleared his throat. "About that. . . she kind of appeared to me back in Detroit, in a pool of Porta-Potty sludge."

Jason wasn't sure he'd heard that right. "Did you say. . . Porta-Potty?"

Leo told them about the big face in the factory yard. "I don't know if she's completely unkillable," he said, "but she cannot be defeated by toilet seats. I can vouch for that. She wanted me to betray you guys, and I was like, 'Pfft, right, I'm gonna listen to a face in the potty sludge.'"

"She's trying to divide us." Madeline finally slipped her arms from around Jason's waist, straightening her posture ─ the boy already missed the warmth. He could sense her tension without even looking at her.

"What's wrong?" he asked, his hand resting on her knee.

Madeline looked towards it before locking her eyes with his. Jason could see pain written in her eyes, so many unspoken things she lounged to say. Yet they forbade her to. 

"Nothing," was all she said.

There was a tense silence after her answer; one that Piper broke by asking, "Why are they toying with us? Who is this lady, and how is she connected to Enceladus?"

"Enceladus?" Jason didn't think he'd heard that name before.

"I mean. . . " Piper's voice quavered. "That's one of the giants. Just one of the names I could remember."

Jason got the feeling there was a lot more bothering her, but he decided he not to press her. Yet it seemed that both Madeline and Piper were harboring something ─ something that made them feel guilt-stricken.

Leo scratched his head. "Well, I dunno about Enchiladas ─ "

"Enceladus,"

"Whatever. But Old Potty Face mentioned another name. Porpoise Fear, or something?"

"Porphyrion?" Madeline asked. "He is the giant king. The war between giants and gods begun when Porphyrion kidnapped Hera. But, there isn't much to say about it. It's like, people don't want to remember it. Plus the fact they are impossible to kill."

"Heroes and gods had to work together," Jason said. "That's what Hera told me."

"Kind of hard to do," Leo grumbled, "if the gods won't eventalk to us."

They flew west, and Jason became lost in his thoughts ─ all of them bad. He wasn't sure how much time passed before the dragon dove through a break in the clouds, and below them, glittering in the winter sun, was a city at the edge of a massive lake. A crescent of skyscrapers lined the shore. Behind them, stretching out to the western horizon, was a vast grid of snow-covered neighborhoods and roads.

"Chicago," Jason said.

He thought about what Hera had said in his dream. His worst mortal enemy would be waiting here. If he was going to die, it would be by her hand.

"One problem down," Leo said. "We got here alive. Now, how do we find the storm spirits?"

Jason saw a flash of movement below them. At first he thought it was a small plane, but it was too small, too dark and fast. The thing spiraled toward the skyscrapers, weaving and changing shape ─ and, just for a moment it became the smoky figure of a horse.

"How about we follow that one," Jason suggested, "and see where it goes?"

Jason was afraid they'd lose their target. The ventus moved like. . . well, like the wind.

"Speed up!" he urged.

"Bro," Leo said, "if I get any closer, he'll spot us. Bronze dragon ain't exactly a stealth plane."

"Slow down!" Piper yelped.

"I second that!" Madeline shouted.

The storm spirit dove into the grid of downtown streets. Festus tried to follow, but his wingspan was way too wide. His left wing clipped the edge of a building, slicing off a stone gargoyle before Leo pulled up.

"Get above the buildings," Jason suggested. "We'll track him from there."

"You want to drive this thing?" Leo grumbled, but he did what Jason asked.

After a few minutes, Jason spotted the storm spirit again, zipping through the streets with no apparent purpose ─ blowing over pedestrians, ruffling flags, making cars swerve over pedestrians, ruffling flags, making cars swerve.

"Oh great," Piper said. "There're two."

She was right. A second ventus blasted around the corner of the Renaissance Hotel and linked up with the first. They wove together in a chaotic dance, shooting to the top of a skyscraper, bending a radio tower, and diving back down toward the street.

"Those guys do not need any more caffeine," Leo said.

"I do." the black-haired girl muttered from behind Jason.

"I guess Chicago's a good place to hang out," Piper said. "Nobody's going to question a couple more evil winds."

"More than a couple," Jason said. "Look."

The dragon circled over a wide avenue next to a lake-side park. Storm spirits were converging ─ at least a dozen of them, whirling around a big public art installation.

"Which one do you think is Dylan?" Leo asked. "I wanna throw something at him."

But Jason focused on the art installation. The closer they got to it, the faster his heart beat. It was just a public fountain, but it was unpleasantly familiar. Two five-story monoliths rose from either end of a long granite reflecting pool. The monoliths seemed to be built of video screens, flashing the combined image of a giant face that spewed water into the pool.

Maybe it was just a coincidence, but it looked like a high tech, super-size version of that ruined reflecting pool he'd seen in his dreams, with those two dark masses jutting from either end. As Jason watched, the image on the screens changed toa woman's face with her eyes closed.

"Leo. . ." he said nervously.

"I see her," Leo said. "I don't like her, but I see her."

Then the screens went dark. The venti swirled together into a single funnel cloud and skittered across the fountain, kicking up a waterspout almost as high as the monoliths. They got to its center, popped off a drain cover, and disappeared underground.

"Did they just go down a drain?" Piper asked. "How are we supposed to follow them?"

"Maybe we shouldn't," Leo said. "That fountain thing is giving me seriously bad vibes. And aren't we supposed to, like, beware the earth?"

Jason felt the same way, but they had to follow. It was their only way forward. They had to find Hera, and they now had only two days until the solstice.

"Put us down in that park," he suggested. "We'll check it out on foot."

Festus landed in an open area between the lake and the skyline. The signs said Grant Park, and Jason imagined it would've been a nice place in the summer; but now it was afield of ice, snow, and salted walkways. The dragon's hot metal feet hissed as they touched down. Festus flapped his wings unhappily and shot fire into the sky, but there was no one around to notice. The wind coming off the lake was bitter cold. Anyone with sense would be inside. Jason's eyes stung so badly, he could barely see.

They dismounted, and Festus the dragon stomped his feet. One of his ruby eyes flickered, so it looked like he was blinking.

"Is that normal?" Jason asked.

Leo pulled a rubber mallet from his tool bag. He whacked the dragon's bad eye, and the light went back to normal.

"Yes," Leo said. "Festus can't hang around here, though, in the middle of the park. They'll arrest him for loitering. Maybe if I had a dog whistle. . ."

He rummaged in his tool belt, but came up with nothing.

"Too specialized?" he guessed. "Okay, give me a safety whistle. They got that in lots of machine shops."

This time, Leo pulled out a big plastic orange whistle. "Coach Hedge would be jealous! Okay, Festus, listen." Leo blew the whistle. The shrill sound probably rolled all the way across Lake Michigan. "You hear that, come find me, okay? Until then, you fly wherever you want. Just try not to barbecue any pedestrians."

The dragon snorted ─ hopefully in agreement. Then he spread his wings and launched into the air.

"Let's get out of the wind," Jason suggested.

They wrapped themselves up as best they could and headed toward the fountain. According to the plaque, it was called Crown Fountain. All the water had emptied out except for a few patches that were starting to freeze. It didn't seem right to Jason that the fountain would have water in it in the winter anyway. Then again, those big monitors had flashed the face of their mysterious enemy Dirt Woman. Nothing about this place was right.

They stepped to the center of the pool. No spirits tried to stop them. The giant monitor walls stayed dark. The drain hole was easily big enough for a person, and a maintenance laddered down into the gloom.

Jason went first. As he climbed, he braced himself for horrible sewer smells, but it wasn't that bad. The ladder dropped into a brickwork tunnel running north to south. The air was warm and dry, with only a trickle of water on the floor. Madeline, Piper and Leo climbed down after him.

"Are all sewers this nice?" Piper wondered, Jason helping her hobble around.

"No," Leo and Madeline said in union. They shared a look before high-fiving each other with grins on their faces.

Jason frowned, "How do you know ─ "

"Hey, man, I ran away six times. I've slept in some weird places, okay?"

When they looked at Madeline, she just shrugged her shoulders with unbothered look, "Part of being a demigod and running away from monsters. You'll get used to it. . . eventually. Now, which way do we go?"

No one asked her anything else, thinking it was better not knowing. Jason tilted his head, listening, then pointed south. "That way."

"How can you be sure?"

"There's a draft blowing south," Jason said. "Maybe the venti went with the flow."

It wasn't much of a lead, but nobody offered anything better. Unfortunately, as soon as they started walking, Piper stumbled. Jason had to catch her.

"Stupid ankle," she cursed.

"Let's rest," the blonde decided. "We could all use it. We've been going nonstop for over a day. Leo, can you pull any food from that tool belt besides breath mints?"

"Thought you'd never ask. Chef Leo is on it!"

Piper and Jason sat on a brick ledge while Leo shuffled through his pack. Madeline stood above them, her hands crossed as she looked around the place. The boy reached towards her, his finger locking in the belt hoop of her jeans and pulling her towards him. She stumbled a bit, but regain her balance rather quickly. Madeline glared down at him with a raised eyebrow.

"You should rest too." he told her.

"I'm okay," Madeline huffed.

"Maddy," he said her nickname, "Just sit for a bit."

The girl took in a deep breath before doing what he had said. Jason was glad that the girl listened to him, taking a bit of a rest she so needed too. He was still tired and dizzy, and hungry, too. But mostly, he wasn't eager to face whatever lay ahead. He turned his gold coin in his fingers.

If you are to die, Hera had warned, it will be by her hand. Whoever "her" was. After Khione, the Cyclops mother, and the weird sleeping lady, the last thing Jason needed was another psycho villainess in his life.

"It wasn't your fault," Piper said.

He looked at her blankly. "What?"

"Getting jumped by the Cyclopes," she said. "It wasn't your fault."

He looked down at the coin in his palm. "I was stupid. I left you two alone and walked into a trap. I should've known. . ."

He didn't finish. There were too many things he should have known ─ who he was, how to fight monsters, how Cyclopes lured their victims by mimicking voices and hiding in shadows and a hundred other tricks. All that information was supposed to be in his head. He could feel the places it should be ─ like empty pockets.

If Hera wanted him to succeed, why had she stolen the memories that could help him? She claimed his amnesia had kept him alive, but that made no sense. He was starting to understand why Annabeth and Vivi had wanted to leave the goddess in her cage.

"Hey." Madeline said with a soft smile. "Don't be so hard on yourself. Just because you're the son of Zeus doesn't mean you're a one-man army. No one is perfect. Everyone makes mistakes. It's how humans do."

A few feet away, Leo lit a small cooking fire. He hummed as he pulled supplies out of his pack and his tool belt.

"Back in the factory," Jason said, addressing Piper, "you were you going to say something about your dad."

She traced her finger over the bricks, almost like she was writing out a scream she didn't want to vocalize. "Was I?"

"Piper," he said, "he's in some kind of trouble, isn't it?"

Over at the fire, Leo stirred some sizzling bell peppers and meat in a pan.

Piper looked on the verge of tears. "I. . . can't talk about it."

"We're your friends. Let us help."

That seemed to make her feel worse. She took a shaky breath. "I wish I could, but ─ "

"And bingo!" Leo announced.

He came over with two plates in each of his hands, holding it like a waiter. Jason had no idea where he'd gotten all the food, or how he'd put it together so fast, but it looked amazing: pepper and beef tacos with chips and salsa.

"Leo," Piper said in amazement. "How did you ─ ?"

"Chef Leo's Taco Garage is fixing you up!" he said proudly. "And by the way, it's tofu, not beef, beauty queen, so don't freak. Just dig in!"

The doors slid open on the fourth floor, and the scent of perfume wafted into the elevator.

Jason stepped out first, sword ready. "Guys," he said. "You've got to see this."

Madeline and Piper joined him and caught her breath.

"This is not Macy's."

The department store looked like the inside of a kaleidoscope. The entire ceiling was a stained glass mosaic with astrological signs around a giant sun. The daylight streaming through it washed everything in a thousand different colors. The upper floors made a ring of balconies around a huge central atrium, so they could see all the way down to the ground floor. Gold railings glittered so brightly, they were hard to look at.

Aside from the stained glass ceiling and the elevator, Isa couldn't see any other windows or doors, but two sets of glass escalators ran between the levels. The carpeting was a riot of oriental patterns and colors, and the racks of merchandise were just as bizarre. There was too much to take it at once, but the girl saw normal stuff like shirt racks and shoetrees mixed in with armored manikins, beds of nails, and fur coats that seemed to be moving.

Leo stepped to the railing and looked down. "Check it out."

In the middle of the atrium a fountain sprayed water twenty feet into the air, changing color from red to yellow to blue. The pool glittered with gold coins, and on either side of the fountain stood a gilded cage ─ like an oversize canary cage. Inside one, a miniature hurricane swirled, and lightning flashed. Somebody had imprisoned the storm spirits, and the cage shuddered as they tried to get out. In the other, frozen like a statue, was a short, buff satyr, holding a tree-branch club.

"Gleeson!" Madeline said.

A voice said, "May I help you find something?"

All four of them jumped back. A woman had just appeared in front of them. She wore an elegant black dress that hugged her every curve with diamond jewelry, and she looked like a retired fashion model ─ maybe fifty years old, though it was hard for Madeline to judge. Her long dark hair swept over one shoulder, and her face was gorgeous in that surreal supermodel way ─ thin and haughty and cold, not quite human. With their long red-painted nails, her fingers looked more like talons.

She smiled. "I'm so happy to see new customers. How may I help you?"

Jason looked towards the daughter of Apollo, seeing as she had the most experience, but she backed away and nodded her head for him to say.

The blonde rolled his eyes.

"Um," Jason started, "is this your store?"

Now it was Madeline's turn to roll her eyes.

The woman nodded. "I found it abandoned, you know. I understand so many stores are, these days. I decided it would make the perfect place. I love collecting tasteful objects, helping people, and offering quality goods at a reasonable price. So this seemed a good. . . how do you say. . . first acquisition in this country."

She spoke with a pleasing accent, but Madeline couldn't guess where from. Clearly she wasn't hostile, though. Her voice was rich and exotic. She wanted to hear more. . . She shook her head almost instantly. The feeling was warm, one she recognized from being enchanted by it before.

"So you're new to America?" Jason asked.

"I am. . . new," the woman agreed. "I am the Princess of Colchis. My friends call me Your Highness. Now, what are you looking for?"

The black-haired girl had heard of rich foreigners buying American department stores. Of course most of the time they didn't sell poisons, living fur coats, storm spirits, or satyrs, but still ─ with a nice voice like that, the Princess of Colchis couldn't be all bad.

Piper poked Jason in the ribs. "Jason. . ."

"Um, right. Actually, Your Highness. . ." he pointed to the gilded cage on the first floor. "That's our friend down there, Gleeson Hedge. The satyr. Could we. . . have him back, please?"

"Of course!" the princess agreed immediately. "I would love to show you my inventory. First, may I know your names?"

Jason hesitated.

Piper started to say, "Jason, I wouldn't ─ "

"This is Piper," he said. "This is Leo and that's Madeline. I'm Jason."

The princess fixed her eyes on him and then with a cordial smile and a soothing voice. "Jason. What an interesting name," she said, her eyes as cold as the Chicago wind. "I think we'll have to make a special deal for you. Come, children. Let's go shopping."

Piper wanted to run for the elevator.

Her second choice: attack the weird princess now, because she was sure a fight was coming. The way the lady's face glowed when she'd heard Jason's name had been bad enough. Now Her Highness was smiling like nothing had happened, and Jason and Leo didn't seem to think anything was wrong. When Piper saw that Madeline had her eyes narrowed at the woman and her body language suggesting for an attack, she wanted to cry in relief. It looked like the girl knew what was happening.

The princess gestured toward the cosmetics counter. "Shall we start with the potions?"

"Cool," Jason said.

"Guys," Piper interrupted, "we're here to get the storm spirits and Coach Hedge. If this ─ princess ─ is really our friend ─ "

"Oh, I'm better than a friend, my dear," her Highness said. "I'm a saleswoman." her diamonds sparkled, and her eyes glittered like a snake's ─ cold and dark. "Don't worry. We'll work our way down to the first floor, eh?"

"We're leaving," Madeline said in a forceful voice.

The highness looked at her with her head tilted and eyes sparkling with interest.

"Oh, come on, Maddy," Leo said eagerly, "We can shop for a bit!"

"Yes, Maddy, they can shop." the Highness grinned, "Come along, children."

Piper didn't have much choice except to follow. She hated department stores ─ mostly because she'd gotten caught stealing from several of them. Well, not exactly caught, and not exactly stealing. She'd talked salesmen into giving her computers, new boots, a gold ring, once even a lawnmower, though she had no idea why she wanted one. She never kept the stuff. She just did it to get her dad's attention.

Usually she talked her neighborhood UPS guy into taking the stuff back. But of course the salesmen she duped always came to their senses and called the police, who eventually tracked her down. Anyway, she wasn't thrilled to be back in a department store ─ especially one run by a crazy princess who glowed in the dark.

"And here," the princess said, "is the finest assortment of magical mixtures anywhere."

The counter was crammed with bubbling beakers and smoking vials on tripods. Lining the display shelves were crystal flasks ─ some shaped like swans or honey bear dispensers. The liquids inside were every color, from glowing white to polka-dotted. And the smells ─ ugh! Some were pleasant, like fresh-baked cookies or roses, but they were mixed with the scents of burning tires, skunk spray, and gym lockers.

The princess pointed to a blood red vial ─ a simple test tube with a cork stopper. "This one will heal any disease."

"Even cancer?" Leo asked. "Leprosy? Hangnails?"

"Any disease, sweet boy. And this vial" ─ she pointed to a swan-shaped container with blue liquid inside ─ "will kill you very painfully."

"Awesome," Jason said. His voice sounded dazed and sleepy.

"Jason," Piper said. "We've got a job to do. Remember?"

She tried to put power into her words, to snap him out of his trance with charmspeak, but her voice sounded shaky even to her. This princess woman scared her too much, made her confidence crumble, just the way she'd felt back in the Aphrodite cabin with Drew.

"Job to do," Jason muttered. "Sure. But shopping first, okay?"

The princess beamed at him. "Then we have potions for resisting fire ─ "

"Got that covered," Leo said.

"Indeed?" the princess studied Leo's face more closely. "You don't appear to be wearing my trademark sunscreen. . . but no matter. We also have potions that cause blindness, insanity, sleep, or ─ "

"Wait." Piper was still staring at the red vial. "Could that potion cure lost memory?"

The princess narrowed her eyes. "Possibly. Yes. Quite possibly. Why, my dear? Have you forgotten something important?"

Piper tried to keep her expression neutral, but if that vial could cure Jason's memory. . .

Do I really want that? She wondered. If Jason found out who he was, he might not even be her friend. Hera had taken away his memories for a reason. She'd told him it was the only way he'd survive at Camp Half-Blood. What if Jason found out that he was their enemy, or something? He might come out of his amnesia and decide he hated Piper. He might have a girlfriend wherever he came from. It doesn't matter, she decided, which kind of surprised her. Looking over at Madeline ─ who was trying to snap Jason out of the spell the Highness placed upon them ─ she wondered how someone could be so made for each other. She didn't know how her mother's power worked, but in her eyes, Piper could see love and desire radiating from the two of them.

She gripped the bottle, "How much?"

The princess got a far away look in her eyes. "Well, now. . . The price is always tricky. I love helping people. Honestly, I do. And I always keep my bargains, but sometimes people try to cheat me." her gaze drifted to Jason. "Once, for instance, I met a handsome young man who wanted a treasure from my father's kingdom. We made a bargain, and I promised to help him steal it."

"From your own dad?" Jason still looked half in a trance, but the idea seemed to bother him.

"Oh, don't worry," the princess said. "I demanded a high price. The young man had to take me away with him. He was quite good-looking, dashing, strong. . . " she looked at Piper. "I'm sure, my dear, you understand how one might be attracted to such a hero, and want to help him."

Piper got the creepiest feeling the princess could read her thoughts. She also found the princess's story disturbingly familiar. Pieces of old myths she'd read with her dad started coming together, but this woman couldn't be the one she was thinking of.

"At any rate," her Highness continued, "my hero had to do many impossible tasks, and I'm not bragging when I say he couldn't have done them without me. I betrayed my own family to win the hero his prize. And still he cheated me of my payment."

"Cheated?" Jason frowned, as if trying to remember something important.

"That's messed up," Leo said.

Her Highness patted his cheek affectionately. "I'm sure you don't need to worry, Leo. You seem honest. You would always pay a fair price, wouldn't you?"

Leo nodded. "What were we buying again? I'll take two."

Piper broke in: "So, the vial, Your Highness ─ how much?"

The princess assessed Piper's clothes, her face, her posture, as if putting a price tag on one slightly used demigod. "Would you give anything for it, my dear?" the princess asked. "I sense that you would."

The words washed over Piper as powerfully as a good surfing wave. The force of the suggestion nearly lifted her off her feet. She wanted to pay any price. She wanted to say yes. Then her stomach twisted. Piper realized she was being charmspoken. She'd sensed something like it before, when Drew spoke at the campfire, but this was a thousand times more potent. No wonder her friends were dazed. Was this was what people felt when Piper used charmspeak? A feeling of guilt settled over her. She summoned all her willpower. "No, I won't pay any price. But a fair price, maybe. After that, we need to leave. Right, guys?"

Just for a moment, her words seemed to have some effect. They all looked confused.

"Leave?" Jason said.

"You mean. . . after shopping?" Leo asked.

Piper wanted to scream, but the princess tilted her head, examining Piper with newfound respect.

"Impressive," the princess said. "Not many people could resist my suggestions. Are you a child of Aphrodite, my dear? Ah, yes ─ I should have seen it. And you?" she looked towards Madeline, her eyes sparkling in interest, "Probably figured how it worked. Some can do that. No matter. Perhaps we should shop a while longer before you decide what to buy, eh?"

"But the vial ─ "

"Now, children." she turned to Jason and Leo. Her voice was so much more powerful than Piper's, so full of confidence, Piper didn't stand a chance. "Would you like to see more?"

"Sure," Jason said.

"Okay," Leo said.

"Excellent," the princess said. "You'll need all the help you can get if you're to make it to the Bay Area."

Piper's hand moved to her dagger. She thought about her dream of the mountaintop ─ the scene Enceladus had shown her, a place she knew, where she was supposed to betray her friends in two days.

"The Bay Area?" Piper said. "Why the Bay Area?"

The princess smiled. "Well, that's where they'll die, isn't it?"

Then she led them toward the escalators. Jason and Leo still looking excited to shop.

"You want them shopping for their deaths, Medea?"

Madeline cornered the Princess as Jason and Leo went off to check out the living fur coats ─ she signaled for Piper to go after them and try to stop them from playing around.

"She told me your one of the smart ones." Medea looked at the girl with slight disgust written on her face.

The daughter of Apollo frowned, "Who did?"

"My patron, of course, but I think you know who she is." the woman told her with a quirk in her smile, "See, she doesn't bring just anyone through, mind you ─ only those who have special talents, such as me. And really, she insists on so little ─ a store entrance that must be underground so she can, ah, monitor my clientele; and a favor now and then. In exchange for a new life? Really, it was the best bargain I'd made in centuries."

Run, Madeline thought. We have to get out of here.

But before she could even turn her thoughts into words, Jason called, "Hey, check it out!"

From a rack labeled distressed clothing, he held up a purple T-shirt like the one he'd worn on the school field trip ─ except this shirt looked as if it had been clawed by tigers. Jason frowned. "Why does this look so familiar?"

Medea turned towards Madeline, an mischievous look settled upon her face, "It does, doesn't it." she mused, "Perhaps, Madeline here could tell you why."

Madeline glared at the sorceress, imagining her hands around her throat or how her arrow would pierce her skin. She wanted for the girl to tell her friends the truth, how she knew where Jason was from and how she knew where everything was going. She wanted to place Madeline as a liar and the look of confusion and hurt on Piper's face seemed like only the beginning.

"We are leaving." she said through gritted teeth.

But she wasn't sure he could even hear her anymore through the princess's enchantment. After all, she was a child of Apollo, not Aphrodite.

"Nonsense," the princess said. "They aren't done, are they? And yes, my dear. Those shirts are very popular ─ trade ins from previous customers. It suits you."

Leo picked up an orange Camp Half-Blood tee with a hole through the middle, as if it had been hit by a javelin. Next to that was a dented bronze breastplate pitted with corrosion ─ acid, maybe? ─ and a Roman toga slashed to pieces and stained with something that looked disturbingly like dried blood.

"Your Highness," Madeline said, trying to control her nerves. "Why don't you tell them how you betrayed your family? I'm sure they'd like to hear that story."

"Yes!" Piper joined in, "They would love to hear it." her words didn't have any effect on the princess, but Jason and Leo turned, suddenly interested.

"More story?" Leo asked.

The princess flashed the girls an irritated look. "Oh, one will do strange things for love, Piper. You should know that. I fell for that young hero, in fact, because your mother Aphrodite had me under a spell. If it wasn't for her ─ but I can't hold a grudge against a goddess, can I? But, everyone shall experience the feeling of betrayal once, or being betrayed" she glared at Madeline, "When the time is right, you will know."

"Don't you fucking threaten her!" Piper said, focusing her charmspeak onto her every word, making Medea step back in surprise, "We should go ─ "

"Let's continue, shall we?" Medea recovered quickly, "I believe you wanted to talk about a price for the storm spirits ─ and your satyr."

niki speaks!

things are getting interested!
the fact there are three povs here
i'm sorry, but it had to be done
i wanted for u all to see how other

people view maddy

she's my precious sunshine

who needs a lot of therapy and hugs!

have a nice day/night!
bye!