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Chapter Text

Even before he got electrocuted, Oliver was having a rotten day. As far as he remembered, Gryffindor was winning with 120 points, while Slytherin was losing with a total of 30 points. But as soon as Oliver blocked the quaffle from coming through the goals, he was zapped by a lightning bolt, which led him to fall off his broom, and cause chaos among the Quidditch Pitch. Three of his teammates vanished, as well as he. So four vanished in total, leaving Gryffindor stranded with only the Beaters and the Seeker. Maybe the Substitute Chaser as well, but he was almost never called in for a game. 

Oliver groaned as he woke up A girl was leaning against him - she had dark skin, tall, with long braided hair. Anelinga Johnson, he remembered. Now, where was he? Oliver looked around in the moving vehicle - it was one of those bright yellow Muggle buses he’d seen for the students who needed to be picked up for school if they lived further away. A few dozen kids were sprawled around the bus, and every one of them looked to be about fifteen and sixteen, listening on iPods. He knew what those were. Oliver and the three other girls with him were older than they were, and all three of them were asleep. 

The bus rumbled along a bumpy road. Out the windows, desert rolled by under a bright blue sky. That was weird. Scotland doesn’t even have that many deserts. Where was he? 

Angelina woke up and yawned slightly as and tapped Oliver on the shoulder. “Dude, where are we?” 

She still wore her Gryffindor Quidditch Uniform, the same goes for Oliver, and she looked very disorientated. 

“I don’t know -” 

In front, a teacher shouted, “All right, cupcakes, listen up!” The two other girls who sat in front of Angelina and Oliver jolted awake at the loud shouting and rubbed their eyes. The girl with a long black ponytail yawned slightly, and the girl with short hair stretched. This guy was obviously a coach. One of those Muggle coaches from the sports teams, like Madam Hooch - but she was a witch instead of a Muggle. 

His baseball cap was pulled low, over his hair, so you could just see his beady black eyes. He has a wispy goatee and a sour face, like he had eaten something moldy. His buff arms and chest pushed against a bright orange polo shirt. His nylon pants and Nikes were spotless white. A whistle hung from his neck, and a megaphone was clipped to his belt. He would’ve looked pretty scary if he weren’t five feet zero. When he stood up in the aisle, one of the students called, “Stand up, Coach Hedge!” 

“I heard that!” The coach scanned the bus for the offender. Then his eyes landed on Oliver, and his scowl deepened. Yeesh. This guy is serious, Oliver thought, as a jolt went down his spine. Coach Hedge’s scowl was much more terrifying than Professor Snape’s scowl when you make a potion explode. Coach Hedge looked away from Oliver and cleared his throat. “We’ll arrive in five minutes! Stay with your partner. Don’t lose the worksheet. And if any of you precious little cupcakes cause any trouble on this trip, I will personally send you back to campus the hard way.” 

He picked up a baseball bat and made it look like he was hitting a homer. Oliver didn’t know much about baseball, let alone Quidditch. What was he doing out of the country then?

“What are we in for?” Oliver whispered to Angelina, who shrugged. 

“The last thing I remember was falling off my broom,” Angelina muttered back. “And my head still hurts like hell.” 

“It still does?” Katie asked in front of them. She turned herself around to face the two of them. “Mine’s gone away for now. Honestly, I wouldn’t think it could get any worse than this.” 

“Katie, we’re stuck in a school bus, with random students we don’t even know!” Alicia hissed from her seat next to her. “It could get worse than this!” 

“Stop complaining for once!” Katie hissed back at her. Oliver’s teammates were never like this. Sure, they’d joke around, but hissing at one another? 

“Well, we’re in for something,” Oliver interrupted them. “I think.” 

“I love it when you think,” Angelina mumbled, rolling her eyes. 

“Do you guys have the worksheet?” Katie asked, holding hers out from her Quidditch robes. It was crinkled a bit, given she stuffed it in. She frowned at it. “I don’t remember getting one.” 

“Someone tell me we get out of this stinky bus,” Angelina said, putting her hands in a prayer. 

“I forgot you were a half-blood,” Oliver muttered, and Angelina just shook her head. 

“And I forgot this place is called ‘Wilderness School’,” Alicia groaned. “Now I see why we’re all out here in the open.” 

“The Wilderness, what now?” Oliver asked. 

“I asked some kid in front of us,” Alicia replied, shrugging. “They said we’re in Wilderness School, a school for troublemakers.” 

“We hardly ever cause trouble, though?” Oliver asked.

“Don’t complain,” said Alicia. “Might get us more in trouble.” 

The bus dropped them off in front of a big red stucco complex like a museum, just sitting in the middle of nowhere. Oliver gaped at the building. It seems almost as impressive as Hogwarts itself. A cold wind blew through the desert, and Oliver was lucky enough even to wear his Quidditch robes, even if they looked out of fashion, with everyone else wearing t-shirts and jeans. Even jackets were thrown in the mix. Some random - a guy named Dylan - with superman-like hair, and an awful sense of style - decided to walk up to Alicia and told her that they were partners for this trip. Like hell - absolutely not! But they left anyway, with Alicia unfortunately linking arms with the guy. Angelina looked pissed. 

“Easy there, Angie,” Oliver said, calming her down. “She’ll be alright.” 

“Easy for you to say,” Angelina grumbled, crossing her arms. “I’ve never seen such a dick like him in my life. He might be worse than Malfoy.” 

“Malfoy is thirteen,” Oliver said, rolling his eyes. “That guy might be fifteen or sixteen. She can handle him in a fight if she needs to.” 

“Hphm, I suppose you’re right,” Angelina said. “But I’m still watching him, very closely.” She glanced back at Katie, who looked like she wanted to punch the guy as well. “And I’m doing this for Katie’s sake - she’s ready to get in a fist fight with the bloke.” 

“And this is why you’re in the team,” Oliver chided, earning a small punch on the shoulder as a sign of gratitude. 

They went inside the museum, and Coach Hedge was barking orders to everyone to get in line properly. Oliver tried to focus on the exhibits, since they were about the Grand Canyon, something that hinted at where Oliver was, and something about the Hualapai Tribe, which owned the place. He wasn’t in Scotland anymore. He was in a whole different country with oh no, different time zones. It must’ve been a day since he was unconscious, given that it was morning. Scotland would be asleep by now. 

Over near the entrance of the Museum, some of the “popular girls”, at least that’s what Oliver thought they were, given that they wore matching jeans, and pink tank tops, and enough makeup for a Halloween party. He’d never seen anything worse in his life. Sure, some Ravenclaws were popular and bratty about how smart they are, but this? Oh, Merlin, please let me out of here! Oliver thought. They were definitely talking about Alicia and her new partner, Dylan, 

They reached the far end of the exhibit hall, where some big class doors led out to a terrace. “All right, cupcakes,” Coach Hedge 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 extra paperwork.” 

The coach opened the doors, and they all 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. 

“Wicked,” Angelina whistles as she looks down beneath her. “It’s just like flying in the air once more, right, Ollie?” 

“Yes, and don’t call me ‘Ollie,’” Oliver chided, as he too looked below. Despite him not feeling like he belonged here, Oliver couldn’t help what the muggles over in this country felt when they saw the Grand Canyon for the first time. 

The canyon was bigger and wider than you could appreciate from the pictures. They were so high up that the birds circled below their feet. Five hundred feet down, a river snaked along the canyon floor. Banks of storm clouds had moved overhead while they’d been inside, casting shadows like angry faces across the cliffs. As far as Oliver could see in any direction, red and gray ravines cut through the desert like some crazy god had taken a knife to it. 

Oliver got a piercing pain behind his eyes. Crazy gods. . . do they even exist? The only god Oliver knew from the stories of Hogwarts was Lady Hecate, the Goddess of Witchcraft, Magic, Mist, Crossroads, and Ghosts. Oliver had gotten a feeling that he was in danger, but he had never felt that feeling in his life before. 

“You okay there, Ollie?” Angelina asked, looking worried. “You’re not going to throw up, right? You hardly ever do that when you’re up in the sky!” 

Oliver grabbed the railing. He was shivering and sweaty. That was completely normal, right? He was wearing his Quidditch robes, which would’ve been toasted in this “hot” weather if it weren’t for the storm clouds pulling in. And it definitely doesn’t have anything to do with heights. He blinked, and the pain behind his eyes. Thunder rolled overhead. A cold wind almost knocked him sideways. 

“This can’t be safe, nor normal,” Angelina said, biting her fingernails. “The storm’s right over us, but it’s clear all the way around.” 

A dark circle of clouds had parked itself over the skywalk, but the rest of the sky in every direction was perfectly clear. Oliver had a bad feeling about that, and he was internally freaking out. 

“All right, cupcakes!” Coach Hedge yelled. He frowned at the storm like it bothered him, too. “We may have to cut this short, so get to work! Remember, complete sentences!” 

The storm rumbled, and Oliver’s head began to hurt again. He had never felt this much pain before when a storm came during his time at Hogwarts. Not knowing why he did it, Oliver pulled out a coin from his Quidditch Robes, which apparently had pockets now. Since when?! Oliver thought. His panic only made the storm worse, with thunder rumbling every second, as if waiting for the right time to strike. Angelina looked like she’d seen a ghost with how pale she’s gone, and Oliver knew standing in the middle of a storm was not on her wish list of things she could be doing to pass the time. 

They didn’t try hard on the worksheet, except for Angelina, of course. Oliver knew she was doing her best to keep her mind off of the storm, as she wrote in complete sentences on the worksheet they were given on the bus while they were asleep. 

Katie, on the other hand, was building a Muggle helicopter out of pipe cleaners she’d brought. 

“Check it out.” She launched the copter. Oliver thought it would just plummet, but the pipe-cleaner blades actually spun. The little copter made it halfway across the canyon before it lost momentum and spiraled toward the void. “Aw, that was my best piece of work.” 

“Since when can you do that?” Oliver asked.

“I wanted to add a flying charm on it, but even without it, it spun,” Katie shrugged. “I’m a natural at it, I suppose.” 

Oliver blinked. And the storm rumbled again. “Take my worksheet.” Oliver handed Katie his worksheet. “I’ll be right back.” 

Before Katie could protest, Oliver headed across the skywalk. Their school group had the place to themselves. It could be too early in the day for tourists, or the weird weather had scared them off. The Wilderness School kids spread around in pairs across the skywalk. Most of them were joking around or talking. Some of the guys were dropping pennies over the side. About fifty feet away, Alicia was trying to fill out her worksheet, but her stupid partner Dylan was hitting on her, putting a hand on her shoulder and giving her the blinding white smile. She kept pushing him away, and when she saw Oliver, she gave him a look like, Punch this guy for me, and I’ll stop complaining about those intense Quidditch Practices. 

Oliver motioned her to hang on. He walked up to Coach Hedge, who was leaning on his baseball bat, studying the storm clouds. 

“Did you do this?” the coach asked him.

Oliver took a step back. “Do what?” It sounded like the coach had just asked if he had made the thunderstorm. WHICH HE DID NOT - AT LEAST. Maybe? The storm, unfortunately, reacted to his emotions and rumbled once more. 

Coach Hedge glared at him, his beady black eyes glinting under the brim of his cap. “Don’t play games with me, kid. What are you doing here, and why are you messing up my job?” 

“You mean, you don’t know me?” Oliver asked. “And I’m not one of your students? What about those other girls?” 

Hedge snorted. “You and those three girls. I’ve never seen any of you before today.” 

Oliver was so relieved that he almost wanted to cry. At least he wasn’t going insane. One minute, he was in the Quidditch Pitch at Hogwarts, and the next, he was here on a trip. “Look, sir, I don’t know how I got here. I just woke up on a school bus. All I know is I’m not supposed to be here - supposed to be back at school.”

“You are at school,” Hedge said in his gruff voice. “But then again, you got a powerful way with the Mist, kid, you can make all these people think they know you; but you can’t fool me. I’ve been smelling monsters for days now. I knew we had an infiltrator, but you don’t smell like a monster. You smell like a half-blood. So - who are you and where’d you come from?” 

Coach Hedge got one part right. Oliver was a half-blood - his mother was a witch and his father was a muggle. But Hedge made it sound like it wasn’t about pureblood status. Something more dangerous. 

“I’m from Hogwarts in Scotland, Hogwarts - I was in the middle of a game before me and three of my teammates got zapped by lightning and we ended up unconscious for a day before we woke up on your bus,” Oliver replied honestly. 

Hedge’s eyebrows raised. “Hogwarts?” he chided. “There is no such thing as Hogwarts. However, there is a Scotland.” He grunted. “Great, now I’ve got more on my plate. We’ve got more monsters. I don’t know who you are, but I know what you are, and it means trouble. Now I’ve got to protect four of you instead of three. Are you the special package? Is that it?” 

“What are you talking about?” 

Oliver knew not to question the monster part, but it made him curious. Is that why he could feel danger? Like he’d never add before? 

Hedge looked at the storm. The clouds were getting thicker and darker, hovering right over the skywalk, and with Oliver’s emotions conflicted, it was getting worse by the minute. 

“This morning,” Hedge said, “I got a message from camp. They said an extraction team is on the way. They’re coming to pick up a special package, but they won’t give me any details. I thought to myself, Fine. When three girls appeared, I told the camp, and the camp tasked me to watch them, even if they don’t know what’s going on, and they are very powerful, and older than most of the students here. I know they’re being stalked. I can smell a monster in the group. I figure that’s why the camp is suddenly frantic to pick them up. But you pop in with the same girls out of nowhere as well. So, are you the special package?” 

The pain behind Oliver’s eyes got worse than ever. He’d never felt this much pain before when he was young. Half-bloods. They had a deeper meaning than just status. Camp. Monsters. Percy mentioned them one night by accident and asked Oliver to keep that a secret. He didn’t know what Hedge was talking about - the information Hedge gave him was making his brain freeze. It was like the information Hedge gave him was supposed to be there since his birth, but here it wasn’t. 

He stumbled, and Coach Hedge caught him. For a short guy, the coach had hands like steel. “Whoa, there, cupcake. You say you’re from another part of this world? Fine. I’ll have to watch you, too, until the team gets here. We’ll let the director figure things out.” 

“What director?” Oliver asked. “What camp?”

“Just sit tight. Reinforcements should be here soon. Hopefully nothing happens before -” 

Lightning crackled overhead. The wind picked up with Oliver’s disoriented emotions, and it picked up with vengeance. Worksheets flew into the Grand Canyon, and the entire bridge shuddered. Kids screamed, stumbling and grabbing 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!” Oliver shouted over the wind. 

“Under normal circumstances,” Hedge agreed. “Which these aren’t. Come on!” 

Chapter Text

The storm churned into a mini hurricane. Funnel clouds snaked toward 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. Oliver skiddied across the slick floor. 

Katie almost lost her balance and almost toppled off the railing, but Oliver grabbed her Quidditch robe and pulled her back.

“Thanks, Captain!” Katie yelled.

“Go, go, go!” Hedge shouted, urging the kids to get inside. 

Alicia and Dylan were holding the doors open, herding the other kids inside. Alicia’s Quidditch robes were flapping widely, and her dark, long ponytail was all in her face. Oliver thought she might be freaking out and freezing, but instead she looked calm and confident - telling the others it would be okay, encouraging them to keep moving.

Oliver, Katie, and Coach Hedge ran towards them. But it was like quicksand. The wind seemed to be fighting them, pushing them back. Oliver was lucky enough that Angelina was safe inside instead of being out there in the storm. 

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

Alicia tugged at the handles. Inside, the kids pounded on the glass, but the doors seemed to be stuck. 

“Dylan, help!” Alicia shouted.

Dylan just stood there with an idiotic grin, his Cowboys jersey rippling in the wind, like he was suddenly enjoying the storm. 

“Sorry, Alicia,” he said. “I’m done helping.” 

He flicked his wrist, and Alicia flew backward, slamming into the doors and sliding to the skywalk deck. “Alicia!” Oliver cried as he watched his friend struggling against the storm. He tried to push forward, but Coach Hedge pushed him back. 

“Coach,” Oliver said. “Let me go!” 

“Oliver, Katie, Angelina, stay behind me,” the coach ordered. “This is my fight. I should’ve known that was our monster.” 

“Monster?” Angelina demanded. A rogue worksheet slapped her in the face, but she swatted it away. “That boy was a monster?!” 

She was pissed. Even if she was inside, safe and sound, she busted through the doors and took her stance on the skywalk. 

“Coach let me kick his ass!” Angelina cursed, cracking her knuckles, wanting to punch this guy straight in the face. 

“Not today!” Coach Hedge said, as his cap blew off, revealing two stubby bumps. Coach Hedge lifted his baseball bat - but it wasn’t a regular bat anymore. Somehow it changed into a crudely shaped tree-branch club, with twigs and leaves still attached. 

Dylan gave him that psycho happy smile. “Oh, come on, Coach. Let that 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.” 

That made the coach angry. “That’s it, cupcake. You’re going down.”

“You think you can protect four half-bloods at once, old man?” 

“EXCUSE YOU, I’M A PUREBLOOD!” Alicia shouted from the skywalk deck, struggling to hold on. 

“A what?” 

“NOTHING YOU PSYCHO!” 

“Well, then, good luck, old man,” Dylan said, returning to Coach Hedge. He pointed at Katie, and a funnel cloud materialized around her. So it wasn’t just Oliver’s emotions causing a huge storm. Katie yelped and flew off the skywalk like she’d been tossed. Somehow, she managed to twist in midair, most likely due to the Quidditch Practice Oliver gave her, and slammed sideways into the canyon wall. She skidded, clawing furiously for any handhold, damaging her nails. Finally, she grabbed a thin ledge about fifty feet below the skywalk and hung there by her fingertips. 

“Help!” she yelled. “Rope, please? Bungee cord? A flying broom would be nice! Something?” 

Coach Hedge cursed - didn’t even question the flying broom Katie was requesting - and tossed Oliver his club. “I don’t know who you are, kid, but I hope you’re good at fighting. Keep that thing busy,” - he stabbed a thumb at Dylan - “While I get Katie.” 

“Get her now?” Oliver demanded. “Are you going to fly?”

“Not fly. Climb.” Coach Hedge kicked off his shoes, and Oliver almost had a coronary. The coach didn’t have any feet. He had hooves - goat’s hooves. Which meant those things on his head, Oliver realized they weren’t bumps. They were horns. But he still had no idea what Coach Hedge was. 

“Are you a goat?” Oliver asked.

“A satyr!” Hedge snapped. “Never call me a goat, but I’ll let this one slide!” 

Hedge leaped over the railing. He sailed toward the canyon wall and hit hooves first. He bounded down the cliff with impossible agility, finding footholds no bigger than postage stamps, dodging whirlwinds that tried to attack him as he picked his way towards Katie. 

“Isn’t that cute!” Dylan turned towards Oliver. “Now it’s your turn, boy.” 

Oliver didn’t know how to fight with a weapon other than a wand, so he threw the club. It seemed useless since the winds were so strong, but once he threw it, the winds were in his favor, rather than the monster’s. The club flew and landed on Dylan’s head, smacking it so hard that he stumbled and fell to his knees. 

Angelina took hold of the club as it rolled over to her, and she, too never used a weapon like this before. She closed her fingers around it, but before she could throw it again, Dylan rose. Blood - golden blood - trickled from his forehead. 

“Nice try, boy.” He glared at Oliver. “But you have to do better.” 

The skywalk shuddered. Hairline fractures appeared in the glass. Inside the museum, kids stopped banging on the doors. They backed away and watched in terror. They must be able to see through the mist. . . , Oliver thought. Now, even his own thoughts sounded crazy to him. What mist?! What’s a mist?! 

Dylan’s body dissolved into smoke, as if his molecules were coming unglued. He had the same face, the same brilliant white smile, but his whole form was suddenly composed of swirling black vapor, his eyes like electrical sparks in a living storm cloud. He sprouted his black, smoky wings and rose above the skywalk. If angels could be evil, Oliver decided. They would look exactly like this. 

“He’s a ventus!” Angelina shouted, pointing at Dylan. “Read about it in one of those Greek Mythology books back at school!” 

“What’s a ventus?” Oliver asked. 

“A storm spirit!” 

“Correct - ding, ding, ding!” Dylan laughed. “I’m so glad I waited, demigod. Angelina, Alicia, and Katie, I’ve known them for several weeks. Or was it minutes? Whatever. I could sense their half-blood status, and could’ve killed them on the spot, while they were asleep. But my mistress said a fourth was coming - someone special. She’ll reward me greatly for your death!” 

Thunder boomed. Two more funnel clouds touched down on either side of Dylan, turning him into a. . . 

“A venti!” Angelina shouted from her spot. 

“Good thing you read those books at the library when you wanted to!” Oliver shouted back. 

“We’ll talk about that later!” 

Alicia stayed down, pretending to be dazed, her hand still gripping tightly on the club that Angelina threw over since the monster had an eye on Oliver and her. Alicia’s face was pale, but she gave Oliver a determined look, and he understood the message: Keep their attention. I’ll brain them from behind. 

Oliver clenched his fists, ready to charge, but he never got the chance. Slow for a keeper, Oliver thought, before Dylan raised his hand, arcs of electricity running between his fingers, and blasted Oliver in the chest. Madam Hooch is going to kill me for ruining the uniform! 

Bang! Oliver found himself on his back. His mouth tasted like burning aluminium foil. He lifted his head and saw that his Quidditch robes were smoking. Well shit. 

The lightning bolt had gone straight through his body and blasted off his left shoe. His toes were black with soot. Double shit. 

The storm spirits were laughing. The winds raged. Alicia screamed defiantly, but all sounded tinny and far away. 

Out of the corner of his eye, Oliver saw Coach Hedge climbing the cliff with Katie on his back. He almost forgot Katie was hanging onto a cliff when this happened. Alicia was on her feet, desperately swinging the club to fend off the two extra storm spirits, but they were just toying with her. The club went right through their bodies like they weren’t there. Angelina was reaching for her wand in Quidditch robes, wanting to defend Alicia, and realized it wasn’t there. 

And Dylan, a dark and winged tornado with eyes, loomed over Oliver. 

“Stop,” Oliver croaked. He rose unsteadily to his feet, and he wasn’t sure who was more surprised: him or the storm spirits. 

“How are you alive?” Dylan’s form flickered. “That was enough lightning to kill twenty men!” 

“My turn,” Oliver said. That sounded stupid to him. He couldn’t control the storm. Even if he could, he would've used his wand and used underage magic to defeat him. Instead of pulling out a wand, he pulled out a quill. That’s lovely. He tossed his quill he used for writing papers in Hogwarts - he might buy another one before he returns (Also, why was he doing it? He had no idea.) - into the air, and turned it into a wickedly sharp double-edged weapon. The rigged grip fit his fingers perfectly, and the whole thing was gold - hilt, handle, and blade. Since when can his quill turn into a sword? Also, since when did he carry a weapon? He didn’t have time to think when Dylan snarled and backed up. He looked at his two comrades and yelled, “Well? Kill him!” 

The other storm spirits didn’t look happy at the order, but they flew at Oliver, their fingers cackling with electricity. 

Oliver swung at the first spirit. His blade passed through it, and the creature’s smoky form disintegrated. The second spirit let loose a bolt of lightning, but Oliver’s blade absorbed the charge. Oliver stepped in - with one quick thrust, and the second storm spirit dissolved into gold powder. 

Dylan wailed in outrage. He looked down as if expecting his comrades to re-form, but their gold dust remains dispersed in the wind. 

“Impossible! Who are you, half-blood?” 

Alicia was so stunned she dropped her club. “Oliver, how. . . ?” 

The Coach Hedge leaped back onto the skywalk and dumped Katie like a sack of flour. 

“Spirits, fear me!” Hedge bellowed, flexing his short arms. Then he looked around and realized there was only Dylan. 

“Curse it, boy!” he snapped at Oliver. “Didn’t you leave some for me? I’d like a challenge!” 

Katie got to her feet, breathing hard. She looked completely humiliated, her hands bleeding from clawing on the rocks. Her Quidditch robes were also tattered a bit, revealing some smoke coming out of her hands. She must’ve burned her own Quidditch robes - what was she thinking?! “Yo, Coach Supergoat, whatever you are - I just fell down a fucking Grand Canyon! Stop asking for challenges!” 

Dylan hissed at them, but Oliver could see the fear in his eyes.”You have no idea how many enemies you have awakened, half-bloods.” Okay, that was an insult. “My mistress will destroy all demigods. This is a war you cannot win.” 

Above them, the storm exploded into a full-force gale. Cracks expanded on the skywalk. Sheets of rain poured down, and Oliver had to crouch to his balance. 

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, will come with me!” 

He lunged at Oliver, but Alicia tackled the monster from behind. Even though he was made of smoke, Alicia managed to make contact with him. Both of them went sprawling. Katie, Angelina, Oliver, and the coach surged forward to help, but the spirit screamed in rage. He let loose a torrent that knocked them all backward. Oliver, Angelina, and Coach Hedge landed on their butts. Oliver’s sword skidded across the glass. Katie hit the back of her head and curled on her side, dazed and groaning. 

Alicia got the worst of it. She was thrown off Dylan’s back and hit the railing, tumbling over the side until she was hanging by one hand over the abyss. 

Oliver started towards her, but Dylan screamed, “I’ll settle for this one!”

He grabbed Katie’s arm, and Angelina tried to grab Katie’s leg as she began to rise with Dylan. She was half-conscious while Angelina jumped like a maniac, trying to save her friend the hard way. The storm spun faster, pulling them upward like a vacuum cleaner. 

“Help!” Alicia shouted. “Somebody!”

Then she slipped, screaming as she fell. No source of magic - even her wand - will be a use to save her from plummeting to her doom. 

“Oliver, go!” Hedge yelled. “Save her!” 

The coach launched himself at the spirit with some serious goat fur - lashing out with his hooves, knocking Katie free from the spirit’s grasp, and having Angelina catch Katie in her arms. Dylan grappled the coach’s arms instead. Hedge tried to head-butt him, then kicked him and called him a cupcake. They rose into the air, gaining speed. 

Coach Hedge shouted down once more, “Save her! I got this!” Then the satyr and the storm spirit spiraled into the clouds and disappeared. 

Save her? Oliver thought. She’s gone! 

But his instincts won. He ran to the railing, thinking, I’m a lunatic, and jumped over the side. “Oliver, what the fuck are you doing?!” he heard Angelina shout as he plummeted after Alicia. 

Oliver wasn’t scared of heights. Why would he? He was the Captain and the Keeper of the Gryffindor Quidditch Team for Merlin’s sake! But he was scared of being smashed against the canyon floor five hundred feet below, and dying without seeing Percy again. He’d figured he wasn’t accomplishing anything - he would have accomplished more if he had his wand and summoned his broom, but that might’ve taken days for the broom to finally reach him. He was going to die with Alicia who was screaming her head off. She would’ve been fine - over, say, at least one hundred feet, but five hundred? She’s losing her mind!

Oliver tucked in his arms and plummeted headfirst. The sides of the canyon raced past like a film fast-forward. His face felt like it was peeling off. 

In a heartbeat, he caught up with Alicia, who was flailing wildly. He tackled her waist and closed his eyes, waiting for death. But then he felt it. His own Quidditch robes began to rip from the back, and something large sprang out of his back, as he continued to dive.

Alicia screamed. The wind whistled in Oliver’s ears. He wondered what dying felt like. Something similar to the killing curse, perhaps? He was thinking, probably not the best time. He wished somehow they never could hit the bottom. 

Suddenly, the wind died. Alicia’s scream turned into a strangled gasp. Oliver thought they must be dead, but he hadn’t felt any impact. 

“O-O-Oliver,” Alicia managed. 

He opened his eyes. They weren’t falling. They were floating in midair, a hundred feet above the river, with Olivre’s huge eagle-like wings flapping to keep them aloft. “What the fuck?” Oliver asked, looking back at his wings. They were in different shades of brown - dark brown, light brown, you name it. A couple of white specks could be shown in the feathers as well. 

Alicia hugged Oliver in a sisterly manner, and Oliver returned a hug as well. “How the fuck can you fly?” Alicia asked after a minute. 

“I didn’t even know these wings existed!” Oliver replied, outstretching his wings as he flapped. 

Alicia blinked. “Weird,” she said. “But also that would be considered cheating by the rules of the Quidditch sports.” 

“Right,” he said. He wondered how his wings worked. So he flapped his eagle wings and they flew. Alicia yelped as they shot up a few feet higher, when Oliver’s wing began to flap. “Well my wings are supporting us,” he said. 

“Well then, make it support us more, and get us out of here!” Alicia said.

Oliver looked down. The easiest thing would be to sink gently to the canyon floor. Then he looked up. The rain had stopped. The storm clouds didn’t seem as bad as before - Oliver’s emotions had cleared up, and part of the storm had vanished as well. There was no guarantee the spirits were gone for good. He had no idea what happened to Coach Hedge. And he’d left Katie there with Angelina, barely conscious. 

“We have to help them,” Alicia said, as if she were reading his thoughts. “Can you -”

“Let’s see.” Oliver flapped his wings again, and they shot forward very quickly. Faster than Harry's Firebolt. They were there in less than a minute. As soon as they landed on the skywalk, they ran up to Katie and Angelina. 

Alicia turned Katie over, and she groaned. Her Quidditch robes were soaked from the rain. Her short hair glittered gold from rolling around in the monster’s dust. But at least she wasn’t dead. 

“Stupid. . . ugly. . . goat,” Katie muttered.

“Where did he go?” Alicia asked.

Katie pointed up. “Never came down. Please don’t tell me he didn’t actually save my life.” 

“Twice,” Oliver grinned. 

Katie groaned even louder. “What happened? The tornado guy, the gold sword. . . I hit my head. That’s it, right? I’m hallucinating?” She looked over at Oliver, and noticed his eagle wings. “And when did you have eagle wings?” 

“Long story,” Oliver sighed. Oliver walked over to where the sword was lying and picked it up. The blade was well-balanced. On a hunch, he flipped the sword, and it shrank back into the quill he used for the papers. Oliver then spread his wings open again, before gently letting them shrink, and hiding them in his ripped Quidditch robes. 

“Yep,” Katie said. “Definitely hallucinating.” 

Alicia shivered in her rain-soaked robes. “Oliver, those things -” 

“Venti,” Angelina answered. She’d doubted that Oliver remembered what they were. Which was rude. Her own Captain? Ouch. “Storm spirits.” 

“You read that somewhere, didn’t you?” Alicia asked. Angelina nodded. 

The storm dissipated. The other kids from the Wilderness School were staring out the glass doors in horror. Security guards were working on the locks now, but they didn’t seem to have any luck. 

“Coach Hedge said he had to protect four people,” Oliver remembered. “I think he meant us.” 

“And that thing, Dylan turned into. . .” Alicia shuddered. “Merlin, I can’t believe he was hitting on me. He called us. . . what, demigods?” 

Katie lay on his back, staring at the sky. She didn’t seem anxious to get up, even after what happened. “I don’t know what demi means,” she said. “But I’m not feeling too godly. Are you guys feeling godly?” 

“Oliver looks like he is,” Angelina said, looking over at her friend, who looked like he’d been windblown the wrong way. 

There was a brittle sound like dry twigs snapping, and the cracks in the skywalk began to widen. “Well, shit,” Angelina said. 

“We need to get off this thing,” Oliver said. “Maybe if we -” 

“Ohhhh-kay,” Katie interrupted. “Look up there and tell me if those are flying horses.” 

At first, Oliver thought Katie had hit her head too hard. Then he saw a dark shape descending from the east - too slow for a plane, too large for a bird. As it got closer he could see a pair of winged animals - gray, four-legged, exactly like horses - except each one had a twenty-foot wingspan. And they were pulling a brightly painted box with two wheels: a chariot. 

“Reinforcements,” Oliver said. “Hedge told me an extraction squad was coming for us.” 

“Extraction squad?” Katie struggled to her feet. “That sounds painful.” 

“And where are they extracting us to?” Alicia asked.

Oliver watched as the chariot landed on the far end of the skywalk. The flying horses tucked their wings and cantered nervously across the glass, as if they sensed it near breaking. Two teenagers stood in the chariot - a tall blonde girl maybe a little older than Oliver, and a bulky dude with a shaved head and a face like a pile of bricks. They both wore jeans, and orange T-shirts, with shields crossed tossed over their backs. The girl leaped off before the chariot even stopped moving. How did Oliver know that thing the horses were pulling was a chariot, he doesn’t know. 

She pulled a knife and ran towards Oliver’s group while the bulky dude was reining the horses. 

“Where is he?” she demanded. Her gray eyes were fierce and a little startling. 

“Where’s who?” Oliver asked. 

She frowned like his answer was unacceptable. Then she turned over to the three girls, who had a very confused look on their faces. “What about Gleeson? Where is your protector, Gleeson Hedge?”

The coach’s first name was Gleeson? Oliver might’ve laughed if the morning hadn’t been quite so weird and scary. Gleeson Hedge: football coach, goat man, protector of demigods. Sure. Why not?

Katie cleared her throat. “He got taken by some. . . tornado things.” She looked at Angelina helplessly. “What are they called again?” 

“Venti,” Angelina replied. “Storm spirits.” 

The blonde girl arched an eyebrow. “You mean, anemoi thuellia? That’s the Greek term. Who are you, and what happened?” 

Oliver tried his best to explain, though it was hard to meet those intense gray eyes. Angelina looked like she wanted to punch the girl’s guts, even if they just met her a minute ago. Halfway through the story, the other guy from the chariot came over. He stood there glaring at them, his arms crossed. He had a tattoo of a rainbow on his biceps, which seemed a little unusual. And of course, while Oliver was explaining their story, the guy was still glaring, and sizing up Angelina who looked like she wanted to kill him since she didn’t get a chance at murdering anything back with the storm spirits. 

When Oliver had finished his story, the blonde girl didn’t look satisfied. “No, no, no! She told me he would be here. She told me if I came here, I’d find the answer.”

“Annabeth,” the bald guy grunted. “Check it out.” He pointed at Oliver’s feet. 

Oliver hadn’t thought much about it, but he was still missing his left shoe, which had been blown off by the lightning. His bare foot felt okay, but it looked like a lump of charcoal. 

“The guy with one shoe,” said the bald dude. “He’s the answer.” 

“No, Butch,” the girl insisted. “He can’t be. I was tricked. Again. Twice.” She glared at the sky as though it had done something wrong. “What do you want from me?” she screamed. “What have you done with him?”

The skywalk shuddered, and the horses whined urgently. 

“Annabeth,” said the bald dude, Butch, “we gotta leave. Let’s get these four back to camp and figure it out there. Those storm spirits might come back.” 

She fumed for a moment. “Fine.” She fixed Oliver with a resentful look. “We’ll settle this later.” 

She turned on her heel, and marched toward the chariot. 

Alicia shook her head. “What’s her problem? What’s going on?”

“Seriously,” Katie agreed. She didn’t like how she acted towards their Captain. 

“We have to get you out of here,” Butch said. “I’ll explain on the way.” 

“I’m not going anywhere with her,” Oliver gestured toward the blonde. “She looks like she wants to kill me. I don’t know why. I haven’t done anything.” 

Butch hesitated. “Annabeth’s okay. You gotta cut her some slack. She had another vision telling her to come here, to find a guy with one shoe. That was supposed to be the answer to her problem.” 

“Well, let me tell you this, we ain’t got nothing to be on that girl’s list of solutions,” Angelina hissed, crossing her arms. 

“I think what she means is, ‘What problem?’” Alicia chided, elbowing Angelina to calm down. 

“She’s been looking for one of our campers, who’s been missing for three days,” Butch said. “She’s going out of her mind with worry, though she shouldn’t be. She hoped he’d be here, like when another trio of demigods had been - but they were completely useless to her. They weren’t useful to her since they couldn’t provide any information on the missing camper.” 

“Who?” Oliver asked.

“Her arch Nemesis,” Butch said. “A guy named Percy Weasley.”