This Cold Year ― Percy Jackson & Annabeth Chase²

―xi. ANOTHER kidnapping plot?

BEING TURNED INTO GOLD SUCKED—plain and simple. By the time Naomi finally woke from her gold-induced semi-coma, she was so cold she was sure she was going to die of hypothermia. 

What a way to go, she thought sarcastically. All those battles, and this is what gets me in the end?

Piper was only fairing slightly better. Leo, with his stupid fire-magic bullshit (it wasn't actually bullshit, it was pretty cool—Naomi was just bitter) had helped him warm up faster than Naomi and Piper. 

"Please tell me that donkey king and his cornhusker son are dead," Naomi said through chattering teeth, so it took a moment to get it out. 

"Midas's statues got their revenge," Jason assured her. "And Lit got the gold treatment, too." 

"Good," Naomi said with a scowl.

Jason and Hedge gave them a short rundown of what had happened (with the coach exaggerating just a little bit). Naomi shivered through the whole thing, cursing every god connected to winter and cold (including her own mother) and praying to all the gods connected to warmth and heat and fire (especially Hestia—what Naomi would give to be sitting by her hearth right about now). 

Apparently Jason had harnessed the storm spirits to bring them as far as Pikes Peak, almost crashing into the side of the mountain. 

"Why are we here?" Piper asked him. 

Leo sniffed from under his blanket. "That's what I asked him." 

Jason gazed into the storm as if he was looking for something, or maybe someone. "That glittery wind trail we saw yesterday? It was still in the sky, though it had faded a lot. I followed it until I couldn't see it anymore. Then—honestly I'm not sure. I just felt like this was the right place to stop."

"'Course it is," Coach Hedge said. "Aeolus's floating palace should be anchored above us, right at the peak. This is one of his favorite spots to dock."

"Maybe that was it." Jason knit his eyebrows. "I don't know. Something else, too ..."

"The Hunters were heading west," Naomi remembered. "Do you think they're around here?" 

Jason rubbed his forearm, like a nervous habit. "I don't see how anyone could survive on the mountain right now. The storm's pretty bad."

"The Hunters can survive just about anything," Naomi reassured him. 

Jason nodded. "It's already the evening before the solstice, but we didn't have much choice except to wait out the storm here. We had to give you guys some time to rest before we tried moving." 

He didn't need to convince them. The wind was howling outside of the cave, and Naomi wasn't sure she'd ever get warm again.

Jason and Piper started to cuddle by the fire. It was painfully awkward to watch, but even so, it reminded Naomi of the last time she was this cold, and Percy had wrapped her in his coat. She remembered how warm her cheeks had been. They hadn't even been dating back then. 

It felt like so long ago, but it was only two. It was so strange to think. 

Leo waggled his eyebrows at Naomi from across the campfire, arms open in invitation. Naomi just narrowed her eyes at him. 

Not a chance, she mouthed.

So instead, Leo broke out some cooking supplies and started frying burger patties on an iron skillet. "So, guys, long as you're cuddled up for story time... something I've been meaning to tell you. On the way to Omaha, I had this dream. Kinda hard to understand with the static and the Wheel of Fortune breaking in—"