The Second Jackson- Piper McLean book 1

Who doesn't love a good Tyson cameo?

Percy

Airplanes or cannibals? No contest.

I would've preferred driving Grandma Zhang's Cadillac all the way to Alaska with fireball- throwing ogres on my tail rather than sitting in a luxury Gulfstream.

I'd flown before. The details were hazy, but I remembered a Pegasus named Blackjack. I'd even been on a plane once or twice. But a son of Neptune (Poseidon, whatever) didn't belong in the air. Every time the plane hit a spot of turbulence, my heart raced, and I was sure Jupiter was slapping us around.

I tried to focus as Frank and Hazel talked. Hazel was reassuring Frank that he'd done everything he could for his grandmother. Frank had saved us from the Laistrygonians and gotten us out of Vancouver. He'd been incredibly brave.

Frank kept his head down like he was ashamed to have been crying, but I didn't blame him. The poor guy had just lost his grandmother and seen his house go up in flames. As far as I was concerned, shedding a few tears about something like that didn't make you any less of a man, especially when you had just fended off an army of ogres that wanted to eat you for breakfast.

I still couldn't get over the fact that Frank was a distant relative. Frank would be my... what? Great-times-a-thousand nephew? Too weird for words.

Frank refused to explain exactly what his "family gift" was, but as we flew north, Frank did tell us about our conversation with Mars the night before. He explained the prophecy Juno had issued when he was a baby- about his life being tied to a piece of firewood, and how he had asked Hazel to keep it for him.

Some of that, I had already figured out. Hazel and Frank had obviously shared some crazy experiences when they blacked out together, and they'd made some sort of deal. It also explained why even now, out of habit, Frank kept checking his coat pocket, and why he was so nervous around fire. Still, I couldn't imagine what kind of courage it had taken for Frank to embark on a quest knowing that one small flame could snuff out his life.

"Frank" I said. "I'm proud to be related to you"

Frank's ears turned red. With his head lowered, his military haircut made a sharp black arrow pointing down. "Juno had some sort of plan for us, about the Prophecy of Eight"

"Yeah" Lani grumbled. "I didn't like her as Hera. I don't like her any better as Juno"

Hazel tucked her feet underneath her. She studied Lani and I with her luminescent golden eyes, and I wondered how she could be so calm. She was the youngest one on the quest, but she was always holding us together and comforting us. Now we were flying to Alaska, where she had died once before. They would try to free Thanatos who might take her back to the Underworld. Yet she didn't show any fear. It made me feel silly for being scared of airplane turbulence.

"You're children of Poseidon, aren't you?" She asked. "You are Greek demigods."

I gripped my leather necklace, noticing Lani do the same. "I started to remember in Portland, after the gorgon's blood. It's been coming back to me slowly since then. There's another camp- Camp Half-Blood"

Just saying the name made me feel warm inside. Good memories washed over me: the smell of strawberry fields in the warm summer sun, fireworks lighting up the beach on the Fourth of July, satyrs playing panpipes at the nightly campfire, and a kiss at the bottom of the canoe lake.

"I've been having flashes. Every time I see, hear, smell, or feel something familiar, a little piece of memory comes back. The more I experience the more I remember. I remember capture the flag, pieces of it anyway. I also have a vague memory of being electrocuted by Zeus's daughter, but I think I started it" Lani shrugged, wincing as she remembered how it felt to be electrocuted.