Daughter of Wine

Leo

At first, I think rocks are pelting the windshield. Then I realize it's sleet. Frost builds up around the edges of the glass, and slushy waves of ice blot out my view. 

"An ice storm?" Calli shouts over the engine and the wind. "Is it supposed to be this cold in Sonoma?"

I'm not sure, but something about this storm seems to be conscious, malevolent, like it's intentionally slamming us. 

Jason and Piper wake up quickly. They crawl forwards, grabbing our seats for balance. "We've got to be getting close."

I'm too busy wrestling the stick to reply. It's suddenly not so easy to drive the chopper. It's movements have turned sluggish and jerky. The whole machine shudders in the icy wind. The helicopter probably hasn't been prepped for cold weather flying. The controls refuse to respond, and we're starting to lose altitude. 

Calli has the manual open on her lap. She's flipping switches and pushing buttons frantically. It seems to help a little. We don't completely drop out of the sky. Gods, she's perfect.

Below us, the ground is a dark quilt of trees and fog. The ridge of a hill looms in front of us and I yank the stick, just clearing the treetops. 

"There!" Jason shouts. 

A small valley opens up in front of us, with the murky shape of a building in the middle. I aim the helicopter straight for it. All around us are flashes of light that remind me of the tracer fire at Midas's compound. Trees crack and explode at the edges of the clearing. Shapes move through the mist. Combat seems to be everywhere. 

I set down the helicopter in an icy field about fifty yards from the house and kill the engine. I'm about to relax when I hear a whistling sound and see a dark shape hurtling towards us out of the mist. 

"Out!" Calli and I scream simultaneously. 

We leap from the helicopter and barely clear the rotors before a massive BOOM shakes the ground, knocking me off my feet and splattering ice all over me. 

I get up shakily and see that the world's largest snowball, a chunk of snow and ice and dirt the size of a garage, has completely flattened the Bell 412. 

"You alright?" Jason runs up to me, Piper at his side. They both look fine except for being speckled with snow and mud. 

Calli spits out a mouthful of snowy dirt a dozen feet away and pushes herself up. "I'm alright too, by the way." She brushes the dirt off of herself and joins us. "Yeah, I'm a-okay." 

"Yeah, I'm good." I shiver. "Guess we owe that ranger lady a new helicopter." 

Piper points south. "Fighting's over there." 

"No." Calli frowns. "It's all around us." 

She's right. The sounds of combat ring across the valley. The snow and mist make it hard to tell for sure, but there seems to be a circle of fighting all around the Wolf House. 

Jason!" A girl's voice calls. 

Thalia appears from the fog, her parka caked with snow. Her bow is in her hand, and her quiver is almost empty. She runs towards us, but makes it only a few steps before a six-armed ogre, one of the Earthborn, bursts out of the storm behind her, a club raised in each hand. 

"Look out!" I yell, but Calli is two steps ahead of me. She launches her knife faster than I've ever seen her move before. It sinks deep into the monster's shoulder. As Calli runs to her, Thalia launches herself into a flip, notching an arrow as she pivots like a gymnast and lands in a kneeling position. The two girls act in unison, as if they've been fighting together for years. Calli's thyrsus appears in her hand as she swings, and Thalia launches her arrow. The arrow lands right between the monster's eyes, while the thyrsus slices clean through him, loincloth and all. The Earthborn very obviously melts into a pile of clay.