𝟬𝟭𝟲. aera loves skincare products

FINDING LEO A BETTER PROM DATE than Khione was one of the many dilemmas running marathons inside Jason's head. As the glow of Quebec City faded behind them, Jason could hardly stomach the food Leo brought out for them from his tool belt. This...mistress, the one who commanded the storm spirits, Jason was not looking forward to meeting her. They'd barely managed to get out of Boreas' kingdom in one piece and now they were walking straight into another crossfire.

Nobody talked. Whatever they might find in Chicago, they all knew Boreas had only let them go because he figured they were already on a suicide mission. Even Aera was doing her makeup with an unusual amount of tranquility, quietly putting something on her eyelashes and occasionally taking small nibbles of the bread in her sandwich. He thought back to how she had crashed their audience with Boreas. Aera had threatened the gods so openly, and yet, she had arrived right when Jason needed her...

Part of Jason was starting to see where Aera was coming from. As uncivil and frivolous as she could be, it was frustrating how little information they had. They were being ordered to clean up Aeolus' mess and risk their lives without even fully knowing what they were getting themselves into. If anything bad happened to them, Jason would feel responsible. Being cornered in the throne room like that made him realize he couldn't do this alone. Jason just wished he knew what was coming so that he could protect his friends.

"It's exhausting, isn't it?" Aera spoke suddenly. "Constantly pretending."

Jason stopped chewing halfway. It took him a moment to register that she was talking to Piper. Piper whipped around. She had already finished her veggie sandwich.

"I don't know what you're talking about," she said, an uneasy edge in her voice.

"The whole mediator act." Aera shrugged. She was in her usual sideways saddle position, dangling her feet off one side as her sparkly new toy of a dress fluttered freely through the air. Her barely touched sandwich was resting in her lap, two bites in. "You have the ability to charmspeak, so naturally, you think it's your job to keep the peace. But you don't have to force yourself to do all that."

Charmspeak? Jason pondered, finishing the last bite of his sandwich. Is that what was in Piper's voice?

"Were you really going to take all of them on?" Piper questioned after a strange pause. "I mean, I know you're like a war veteran or whatever, but come on. That would've gone ugly."

"It would've gone ugly if you kept trying to impress him with your bad French," Aera countered. "Boreas is a tin god with a lame beard. All you have to do is show him some smoke. His suits aren't even real designer."

"Maybe you should tone it down a notch or two," Piper suggested darkly, putting her back to Aera. "If he hadn't thought you were amusing, we would've become part of their subzero hero collection. And I didn't even know I could speak French until today. Obviously, I wouldn't be as fluent as you."

"So," Leo interjected, nervously looking back at the two, "when should I ask Khione to be my prom date?"

"Amusing," Aera repeated harshly.

"Aight, never mind," Leo muttered.

"I'll have you know!" Aera proclaimed, puffing up her chest. "I am the most well-trained demigod in the whole North American hemisphere. I would not lose to some—"

Jason shoved the rest of Aera's sandwich in her mouth before she could go any further. Her eyes widened to the size of plates.

"Finish your food," Jason said. "You'll need the energy."

Aera chomped at her sandwich angrily.

That's aggressive. Though, Jason decided he would take that aggressive sight over a fight between the two girls. Jason thought he heard a small snicker from Leo. Piper stayed silent. He got a weird feeling that Aera had pressed one of Piper's buttons without realizing it. Secretly, though, Jason thought Aera did amazing back at Boreas' castle.

Now that Aera was pacified with food and the evening was swiftly creeping up on them, Jason began to doze off in thought. He had to stay awake at the back of the dragon for obvious reasons. The moon rose and stars turned overhead. Some more of his memories came back to him, but they were generally all incomprehensible. He spent most of his concentration making no progress in sorting them out.

Green fire. The sweet smell of chocolate. A smile that could end wars.

A golden bridge with a giant gate. A faith treaty bound by a handshake. Those same hands bruising his best friends.

Violet knuckles. An electric shock. His heart stopping. Saltwater pearl.

A black crow perched on a body faced down. A drop of blood tainting the white snow red. Orders to kill.

Now Aera was standing on a beautiful balcony overseeing the skyline of a city shrouded in storm clouds. Rose vines coiled around the iron bars of the Victorian railing. Overhead, a full moon shone brightly high in the sky. Jason couldn't see past the precipitation hovering over the city. All he could see was Aera.

Her hair was curled in pretty ringlets, her face rosy from the bitter evening. She wore a lilac dress with gold detailing that made her brown eyes appear bigger and softer than their usual catlike glower. Jason liked her in purple. It suited her.

Despite how romantic the scene was, Aera was wielding her weapon. A sense of urgency flooded Jason. Aera's bronze sword gleamed in the faint light, a wicked glare as lethal as its owner. Her other hand was on the railing, her fingernails glittering as she backed towards the edge of the balcony away from Jason.

Footsteps were thumping up the stairs behind him. Someone, or a group of someones, was pounding on the door and relentlessly rattling the doorknob, trying to break in.

Jason could feel his adrenaline rushing. It was all happening too fast. This was his worst fear. Things spiraling out of his control.

"You are unbelievable," Aera said, gripping the hilt of her sword. Her voice was neither shrill or harsh, rather firm and finite, which honestly scared him more. "Didn't I warn you what would happen if you chose this route? Whatever comes next, you brought this upon yourself."

Jason's heart sank.

Aera turned and jumped off the balcony. Jason booked for the railing but it was too late. Aera was gone, lost to the thick mist.

The flashback dissolved.

Jason came back to his senses, free-falling through the air.

As he shot through the sky, Jason tried to piece together the circumstance. One second, Festus was taking them to Chicago and the next they were plummeting through the sky. Far below Jason saw city lights glimmering in the early dawn, and several hundred yards away the body of the bronze dragon spinning out of control, its wings limp, fire flickering in its mouth like a badly wired lightbulb.

What had happened?

Jason willed the wind to gather beneath him, cushioning his fall until he was simply floating in the air.

Then a body shot past him—Leo, screaming and frantically grabbing at the clouds. "Not coooooool!"

Jason tried to call out to him, but he was already too far below. He saw Piper and Aera holding onto each other a little farther right. They were at a reasonable distance from him but they were falling too fast.

"Aera, Piper, level out!" he yelled. "Extend your arms and legs!"

Thankfully, they could hear him over the wind ripping through their ears. They each did what he said and regained some balance. They fell together spread-eagle like two skydivers. Jason propelled himself down.

He collided into Aera, who helped him steady Piper. Together, they formed a triangle.

"We have to get Leo!" Piper shouted.

"Where even is he?" Aera shrieked. Her eyes were squeezed shut. She's definitely not a fan of heights, Jason concluded. Or maybe just not falling.

Their fall slowed, but something was fighting against Jason like invisible arms dragging him down. They still lurched up and down. The winds didn't want to cooperate.

"There!" Piper pointed toward a falling figure. Jason moved Aera in front of him and wrapped his arms around her waist so that they became a cluster of bodies.

"Gonna get rough," Jason warned. "Hold on!"

Aera screamed in his ear as they shot toward the ground. Jason's vision blurred. Thankfully, his perception was better than he expected. Thump! They slammed into another warm body—Leo, still wriggling and cursing. Jason managed to bring all three bodies together, but Leo's thrashing was making it harder for Jason to focus on the winds.

"Stop fighting!" Jason said. "It's me!"

"My dragon!" Leo yelled. "You gotta save Festus!"

Jason was already in the trenches trying to keep the four of them aloft. There was no way he could help a fifty ton metal dragon. Jason could feel his strength waning. He was straining his muscles so hard, he couldn't even try and reason with Leo.

Then Jason heard an explosion beneath them. A fireball rolled into the sky from behind a warehouse complex, and Leo sobbed, "Festus!"

Jason's whole body seemed to burn as he tried to maintain an air cushion beneath them, but intermittent slow-downs were the best he could manage. Gravity was working against him. Rather than free-falling, it felt like they were bouncing down a giant staircase, a hundred feet at a time, which wasn't exactly doing wonders for his stomach.

"When I said I wanted my guts rearranged," Aera still had the peace of mind to whine, "this isn't what I meant!"

"What did you mean?" Piper shouted.

As they wobbled and zigzagged, Jason could barely make out details of a factory complex below—warehouses, smokestacks, barbed-wire fences, and parking lots lined with snow-covered vehicles. They were still high enough so that hitting the ground would flatten them into roadkill—or skykill—when Jason's muscles finally gave out. He groaned. "I can't—"

They dropped like stones. Gravity yanked the four of them apart.

Aera's hand slipped from his. Despite his fatigue, the tiniest instinct kicked Jason awake, taking over his body before he could realize what he was doing. Facing the earth, Jason pushed himself forward. He stretched his arm out as far as he could and grabbed hold of Aera's hand.

Aera opened her eyes for the first time since they started falling. Her brown eyes were round and misty. Jason interlocked his fingers with hers. Something told him not to let her go.

Hand-in-hand, they hit the roof of the largest warehouse and crashed into the darkness.

Jason forced his body to roll against the hard ground and hoped Aera did the same. Eventually, the momentum stopped and he landed on his back with Aera right next to him. For a few seconds he wasn't conscious of anything but the thundering of his heart and the warmth of Aera's hand.

"Don't hate me," Aera said through a series of pants, "but can we not make skydiving our thing? At this rate, my hairdresser is going to hate me."

"Got it," Jason agreed, equally out of breath. "No more skydiving."

"I agree, bro." Leo groaned, appearing on the other side of Aera. "No more skydiving."

Aera squeezed Jason's hand. He could feel her smile even without looking at her. She was okay. They were okay.

For a moment, the three of them just laid there, staring up at the broken ceiling. The hole they'd made in the roof was a ragged starburst twenty feet above. How they'd even survived that drop, he had no idea. Hanging from the ceiling, a few electric bulbs flickered dimly, but they didn't do much to light the enormous space.

"Piper!" Aera suddenly sat up straight. "Where's Piper?"

"Ow, hot stuff!" Leo cried, as she had sat right on him. "That's my back! I'm not a sofa! Piper, where'd you go?"

"Here," a weak voice whimpered through the darkness.

Aera quickly got to her feet and went up a set of stairs to a metal catwalk. Jason followed her, Leo right behind him.

They found Piper sprawled on the catwalk, her toes pointed in a funny direction. Her ankle must have been broken.

Leo started to ask, "You okay..." Then he saw her foot. "Oh no, you're not."

"Thanks for the reassurance." Piper smacked her hand to her forehead. Aera gagged and turned the other way.

"You'll be fine," Jason assured, trying to keep the worry out of his voice for Piper's sake. Reacting would make things worse. "Leo, you got any first aid supplies?"

"Yeah—yeah, sure." He dug around in his tool belt and pulled out a wad of gauze and a roll of duct tape—both of which seemed too big for the belt's pockets. Jason had noticed the tool belt yesterday morning, but he hadn't thought to ask Leo about it. It didn't look like anything special—just one of those wraparound leather aprons with a bunch of pockets, like a blacksmith or a carpenter might wear. And it seemed to be empty.

"How did you—" Piper tried to sit up, and winced. "How did you pull that stuff from an empty belt?"

"Magic," Leo answered, waving both his hands in a rainbow shape. "Haven't figure it out completely, but I can summon just about any regular tool out of the pockets, plus some other helpful stuff." He reached into another pocket and pulled out a little tin box. "Breath mint?"

Aera reached for one. Jason snatched away the mints before they could get too distracted. He ignored Aera's pout. "That's great, Leo. Now, can you fix her foot?"

"I'm a mechanic, man. Maybe if she was a car..." Leo snapped his fingers. "Wait, what was that godly healing stuff they fed you at camp—Rambo food?"

"Ambrosia," Aera corrected, her eyes looking everywhere but Piper's foot. "The food of the gods. It has healing properties too astounding for mortals to comprehend or ingest. Gods, did none of you watch the demigod orientation video?"

"There's a demigod orientation video?" Jason asked in disbelief.

"Say wha-a-at?" Leo voiced.

"Yeah," Aera said slowly like it was obvious. She scratched her arm. Khione's dress must have been itchy. "Every demigod has to watch it as soon as they get to camp."

"Well," Piper said, "I was kind of busy with the tour and getting attacked by a supernatural goddess telling me to bust her out of jail."

"Same," Jason said.

"Same," Leo said. "But dragon."

Aera rolled her eyes. "Ugh."

Piper gritted her teeth. "Please tell me you packed some of that ambrosia stuff in the backpack and not just your skincare products."

"We'll see," Aera said and Jason really couldn't tell if she was joking or not. She carefully pulled the backpack off Piper's shoulders. Aera rummaged through a set of face masks, three large bottles of some white sticky looking stuff (that Leo obviously made an inappropriate joke about), and a hairbrush before she found a Ziploc full of smashed pastry squares like lemon bars. Aera broke off a piece and fed it to Piper.

Thankfully, the demigod orientation video wasn't bluffing about the ambrosia. The color instantly returned to Piper's face. Her foot got less swollen. She didn't seem as in pain anymore. She looked healthier almost instantly.

"More," Piper implored.

"Uh-uh." Aera shook her head, wisely keeping the ambrosia out of Piper's reach. "Too much of anything god is bad. It'll burn you up."

Jason nodded. "We should try setting her foot. Do you know how to do that?"

"What do I look like?" Aera snapped, sealing the Ziploc shut. "A licensed practitioner?"

"Okay," Jason surrendered, crouching in front of Piper's broken ankle, "I'll do it then."

"Um," Piper said, biting her lip, "Have you ever done that before?"

"Yeah...I think so."

"Great," Aera said sarcastically. "Very reassuring."

Leo found an old piece of wood and broke it in half for a splint. Then he got the gauze and duct tape ready.

"Hold her leg still," Jason instructed. "Piper, this is going to hurt."

Jason let his instincts take over. He hoped this was right. Aera covered her face with her hand. When he set the foot, Piper flinched so hard she punched Leo in the arm, and he yelled almost as much as she did.

"Ow!" she shouted painfully. Luckily, her foot was now pointing the right way, her ankle splinted with plywood, gauze, and duct tape. That looked right...right?

"Jeez, beauty queen!" Leo rubbed his arm. "Glad my face wasn't there."

"Is it over now?" Aera asked, peeking through her fingers.

"Yeah, it's over," Jason confirmed.

"Sorry," Piper apologized to Leo. "And don't call me 'beauty queen,' or I'll punch you again."

"You all did great." Jason found a hot pink Hello Kitty canteen in Piper's pack and gave her some water.

Outside, the wind was howling. Snowflakes fluttered through the hole in the roof, and after their meeting with Khione, snow was kind of the last thing Jason wanted to see. Aera started shivering.

"What happened to the dragon?" Piper asked. "Where are we?"

Leo's expression turned sullen. "I don't know with Festus. He just jerked sideways like he hit an invisible wall and started to fall."

Jason saw Piper's face darken. Was she in pain again? Leo pointed to the logo on the wall. "As far as where we are ..." It was hard to see through the graffiti, but Jason could make out a large red eye with the stenciled words: Monocle Motors, Assembly Plant 1. "Closed car plant," Leo explained. "I'm guessing we crash-landed in Detroit."

Jason had heard of closed car plants in Detroit from somewhere so that made sense. The only thing missing was where he had heard it from.

"How far is that from—" Piper stopped, gaze lingering on Aera. "Hey, Aera? Is it just me or is your dress melting?"

"Melting?" Aera made a funny face. "Did I give you too much? Are you high on ambro—" The ice blue dress sloshed like a slushie.

There was a blur of fabric slipping down. Jason jerked his whole body around before he saw something he shouldn't have. Thinking fast, he forced Leo to face the logo wall, too. Oh, gods.

"Yeah, bro?" Leo asked. He reached into his pack, oblivious to the dilemma, and smirked at Jason. "You want the breath mints now, don't you—"

Then Aera screamed so loud anyone nearby would have thought she was murdered in cold blood. Her voice echoed through the empty warehouse. Jason swore he could hear the scream bouncing off the walls, being repeated again and again.

"Ow?" Leo gingerly rubbed his ears. "Jeez, all right. I'll save some for you, hot stuff." Jason grabbed Leo's arm to keep him from turning around. "Huh?"

"That icy witch!" Aera cried out furiously. "She tricked me!"

"What?" Piper asked. "You mean, Khione?"

"She got so jealous I looked better in her dress, she made it melt!" Aera exasperated. Stomping. "I-" Stomp. "-hate-" Stomp. "-the gods so much! Ugh!" More stomping. "This is so unfair! Why me? What did I do to deserve this?"

"To be fair," Piper reasoned, "you did steal her clothes."

"And torch her room," Leo reminded.

"Blackmailed her father, too," Piper added.

"Are you done?" Aera snapped.

"Everything's going to be fine," Jason said, but his entire face felt really hot. He had prepared for turbulent winds, unforgiving gods, and a fight to the death maybe—but a wardrobe malfunction?

Totally out of his field.

Jason tried to keep his head clear. "You have the dress you had on earlier, don't you?"

Aera gasped. "I never repeat an outfit. I'm not Drew! I left it at the castle."

"Washing machines are an invention of the 19th century, you know?" Piper said.

"But wearing the same outfit two times a quest? Oh, that's just distasteful."

"So, you don't have any clothes?" Jason demanded, seriously trying to, but failing to, contain his horror. "At all?"

Leo let out a low whistle. Jason elbowed him so he wouldn't peek.

"No!" Aera wailed, her voice shaking. "What am I going to do? This is bad. This is so, so bad. Even the icicle heels are gone!" Aera whimpered. "There are so many pervs in this world. They're all going to be looking at my feet now!"

"Are you sure that's what they're gonna be looking at?" Leo teased then he saw the look in Jason's eye. "Sorry."

"Relax," Piper said, in which the simple remark was somehow relaxing. "Just calm down, Aera. I stuffed an extra outfit at the bottom of the backpack, just in case something like this happened."

"Piper!" Aera exclaimed joyously. Jason heard the sound of Aera's body colliding into Piper's and Piper groaning. "You're a lifesaver in last year's running shoes!"

"Yeah—uh-huh—oomph—I'm squished."

Shuffling.

"Be right back!" Aera announced.

Jason made sure she heard her footsteps go down the metal stairs and stop for a few seconds before he slowly ventured back around. Where Aera had stood next to Piper's feet was a puddle of icy water. Looking at it, Jason felt like Khione's frozen fingers were pressed against his neck again and there was some kind of whisper in his ear...

"Is she gonna be okay?" Leo asked, staring at the puddle and then Piper.

Jason crouched over to check if the puddle really was a puddle. "Yeah," he deduced after a second. "She'll be fine. I don't think the dress did anything to hurt her. It just melted." Which hurt in other ways.

"No, I mean—" Leo snorted like he was choking back a laugh. "No way Pipes packed a ballgown."

Piper pursed her lips. She was silent for a long drawn moment as if bracing herself before she said, "I didn't."

Jason froze, the realization hitting harder than a factory truck. "Wait. So, Aera's going to be wearing—"

Another blood-curdling scream.

"Yup." Piper smiled so euphorically, her features narrowed. "Sweatpants."

Jason's jaw dropped. Leo choked on his own saliva.

Piper remained unflinching. To Jason, she looked high. Whether it be off the ambrosia or the overarching fear of Aera's impending rampage, Jason didn't know. What he did know was that he was going to be living in a world of pain if he didn't do something about it soon.

"Leo, stay here with Piper," he decided. "I'll go talk to Aera."

Leo saluted him. "Thank you for your service." He wiped a fake tear. "Our hero!"

"Good luck." Piper sent him off with that same high-looking smile. "You're going to need it...and some skincare products. Take some skincare products. Aera loves skincare products."

Jason took the skincare products. He found Aera hiding in the middle of a group of giant wooden crates covered with dusty grey tarps. She was dressed in a black sweatshirt, a grey pair of sweatpants, and a pair of ordinary sneakers.

"This is the worst day of my life," she complained, sulking as she sat against a crate. "And I once had to fist-fight six-thousand other ARMYs for BTS tickets."

"You look great," Jason encouraged.

"No, I don't," she grumped and Jason could imagine a dark black cloud raining over her head. "I don't think I've worn sweatpants since I was in 3rd grade."

To make her feel better, Jason showed her the skincare products. Thankfully, Aera's eyes softened. She took the skincare products and hugged them to her chest.

The hairs on the back of Jason's neck randomly stood up. He surveyed the empty warehouse. This place creeped him out. Was it actually abandoned...?

"They sent you because they didn't want to deal with me, didn't they?" Aera asked, in an unusually small voice. When he looked back at her, Aera's eyes were glued on her tennis shoes, which she was kicking the ground with. "They think I'm being dramatic. They think I'm a joke, don't they?"

"Of course not," Jason said immediately. "A bad thing just happened to you. They're worried about you."

She scoffed. "Yeah, right. I have ears. I can hear what they say about me."

Jason could feel himself frowning again. Not because she was being difficult but because he couldn't bear to let her think that way.

"They don't mean any harm," he said. "They're just playing. You—" Jason clipped his words off too late.

"Usually say things worse than that?" Aera filled in the blank. She scoffed again, staring indignantly at the ground.

Jason wrung his hands, which were red and growing numb from the cold. He felt bad. As tough and angry as Aera was acting, he could tell she was embarrassed and a little sad, too.

"Aera," he ventured carefully, squatting to her height, "if we're going to be a team, we're gonna have to learn to trust one another."

"Ugh," Aera groaned like that idea was as hard to swallow as a clam shell.

"We don't have to be friends," Jason said quickly. "We just...have to work together until this quest is over."

"Fine, then I won't trust you like a friend," Aera agreed, to his surprise. "I'll trust you like I trust my loose translucent powder to keep my makeup in place all day."

"Thanks..." Jason said, trying to digest what that meant. Did he just get loose-powder-zoned? He offered her a hand up. "Are you ready to join Piper and Leo again?"

Aera closed her eyes and took a deep breath. It was clear this had been a very stressful ordeal for her. She opened her eyes. They were burning with fierce determination that could have melted the snow pouring in. She took his hand and Jason helped her to her feet. "I'm ready."

"One more thing," Jason said before they headed back. He got on one knee in front of her. "You'll trip if you don't double knot them." Jason grabbed Aera's shoelaces. "The bunny-" He made two loops. "-went into the hole-" He tied the two strands together. "-and hopped out again." He fastened the shoelaces. Jason smiled at her secured shoes and patted the top of her foot for good luck.

He lifted his head. Aera was peering down at him with a peculiar expression on her face.

Jason's smile vanished. "What?"

"Do you think I'm five?" she asked, deathly calm. "I know how to double-knot shoelaces."

Jason was taken aback by the coldness of her voice. "I wasn't—that wasn't—"

"Piper and Leo are waiting."

Without even looking back, Aera left Jason alone by the crates. Jason wanted to ram his fist into the nearest one.

So much for being trusted like loose powder.