The Cult of Dionysus

Leo

From the second I see Miami, I love it.

Blue water, palms, shiny silvery buildings, and green trees everywhere. Being a girl who loves nature but also people, I can see why Calli would love it here. Plus, after flying for three weeks, it's a huge relief to finally reach our destination.

Festus flies us over the skyline. Behind me, Calypso gasps. "It's quite beautiful."

I try not to resent her presence. She's stuck with me. I rescued her, and now she's my responsibility.

It's not that I don't like her. We're good friends. We travelled across Europe together. We got stuck in the Sea of Monsters together. But now she's about to make my life ten times harder. Calli is going to get the wrong idea and of course, I can't blame her. Putting myself in Calli's shoes, I'd be angry too.

The one problem with Miami: there's nowhere to land a giant bronze metal dragon. I mean, where is our demigod accessibility?

"How do we land?" Apollo asks, as if reading my mind.

"Working on it." I reply.

Festus, who has become much more intuitive, creaks and squeaks at me.

"Uh, are you sure that's safe?" I asks him.

He doesn't answer. Instead, he begins to fold himself around us. He dives to the street below, folding his wings up. His eyes shift and become glowing red headlights. His tail opens, becoming a bumper and trunk.

Calypso squeaks in alarm from behind me as we bounce into the Miami traffic.

"Your dragon becomes a car." Apollo says, as if it's not obvious.

"I guess so." I reply, still in shock.

The radio in the car starts blasting at full volume, playing a Spanish song.

"Oh, gods!" Calypso covers her ears.

I turn the volume down. "Wow. Okay. So, we're in Miami."

In response, a car honks from behind us. Festus inches forwards in traffic.

"Can we change the radio station?" Apollo asks from the backseat.

The radio has changed from a song to a man speaking in Spanish about traffic. The gist of what he's saying? There's lots of traffic. Everywhere. Which I can see, because we're stuck in the middle of it.

"How about I just turn it off?" I offer. "We need to find any sign of Calli."

I go to turn off the radio, but Apollo and Calypso both freak out. "No!"

"Jeez." I mutter. "Fine, we can leave it on. Just find a good station."

I show Calypso how to change the radio channels, and she starts flipping through them.

"Music is good for the soul." She tells me. "It can never hurt."

"Agreed." Apollo nods.

"Okay." I clap my hands together. "Where do we find a daughter of Dionysus in Miami?"

"Well, it would probably help if we knew where in Miami she grew up." Apollo offers. "It's a big city."

"She always said she grew up in South Beach," I remember, "but I don't think she lived there."

"Great." Apollo sighs. "The whole city is full of madness and alcohol. We can't narrow it down much."

"Wait!" I cry out loudly as Festus inches forwards again. I'd heard something.

Calypso freezes. She's stuck on a channel playing reggaeton music. On station 97.2.

"Go back a station." I command.