She didn't think things could get worse. After her brawl with Hera, the exhaustion from the fight with Enceladus and the panicking feeling that they were running out of time, Freya was at her wits end. Then the temperature dropped. Frost coated the walls of the Wolf House. Venti rushed in —but instead of winged men, these were shaped like horses, with dark storm-cloud bodies and manes that crackled with lightning. Some had silver arrows sticking out of their flanks. Behind them came red-eyed wolves and the six-armed Earthborn.
Her stomach churned with anticipation. She drew her sword. Piper her dagger. Jason grabbed an ice-covered plank off the pool floor, and Leo pulled out a hammer from his tool belt. One of the wolves padded forward. It was dragging a human-size statue by the leg. At the edge of the pool, the wolf opened its maw and dropped the statue for them to see—an ice sculpture of a girl, an archer with short spiky hair and a surprised look on her face.
Horror washed over Freya like cold run of water.
"Thalia!" Jason rushed forward, but was pulled back by Freya and the others when she noticed he ground around Thalia's statue was already webbed with ice. She feared if Jason touched her, he might freeze too.
"Who did this?" Jason yelled. His body crackled with electricity. "I'll kill you myself!"
Freya shared the sentiment. She was already angry about Percy. She didn't need to loose another friend. From somewhere behind the monsters, Freya heard a girl's laughter, clear and cold. She stepped out of the mist in her snowy white dress, a silver crown atop her long black hair. Khione, the snow goddess, regarded them with her bleak, brown eyes.
"Bon soir, mes amis," said Khione. She gave Leo a frosty smile. "Alas, son of Hephaestus, you say you need time? I'm afraid time is one tool you do not have. "
"What've you done?" Jason demanded.
"Oh, so many things," the snow goddess purred. "Your sister's not dead, if that's what you mean. She and her Hunters will make fine toys for our wolves. I thought we'd defrost them one at a time and hunt them down for amusement. Let them be the prey for once. "
The wolves snarled appreciatively.
"Yes, my dears. " Khione kept her eyes on Jason. "Your sister almost killed their king, you know. Lycaon's off in a cave somewhere, no doubt licking his wounds, but his minions have joined us to take revenge for their master. And soon Porphyrion will arise, and we shall rule the world. "
"Traitor!" Hera shouted. "You meddlesome, D-list goddess! You aren't worthy to pour my wine, much less rule the world. "
Khione sighed. "Tiresome as ever, Queen Hera. I've been wanting to shut you up for millennia. "
Khione waved her hand, and ice encased the prison, sealing in the spaces between the earthen tendrils.
"That's better," the snow goddess said. "Now, demigods, about your death—"
"It was you, wasn't it?" Snarled Freya. "You're the one who tricked Hera into coming here."
"You gave Zeus the idea of closing Olympus," Continued Jason, catching on.
The wolves snarled, and the storm spirits whinnied, ready to attack, but Khione held up her hand. "Patience, my loves. If they want to talk, what does it matter? The sun is setting, and time is on our side. Of course, Freya Jackson and Jason Grace. Like snow, my voice is quiet and gentle, and very cold. It's easy for me to whisper to the other gods, especially when I am only confirming their own deepest fears. I also whispered in Aeolus's ear that he should issue an order to kill demigods. It is a small service for Gaea, but I'm sure I will be well rewarded when her sons the giants come to power. "
Khione wrinkled her nose. "Messy business, killing you in my father's house, especially when he insists on meeting all visitors. I did try, you remember. It would've been lovely if he'd agreed to turn you to ice. But once he'd given you guarantee of safe passage, I couldn't openly disobey him. My father is an old fool. He lives in fear of Zeus and Aeolus, but he's still powerful. Soon enough, when my new masters have awakened, I will depose Boreas and take the throne of the North Wind, but not just yet. Besides, my father did have a point. Your quest was suicidal. I fully expected you to fail. "
"And to help us with that," Leo said, "you knocked our dragon out of the sky over Detroit. Those frozen wires in his head—that was your fault. You're gonna pay for that. "
"You're also the one who kept Enceladus informed about us," Piper added.
Freya hefted her sword. "We've been plagued by snowstorms the whole trip. It was you. "
"Yes, I feel so close to all of you now!" Khione said. "Once you made it past Omaha, I decided to asked Lycaon to track you down so Jason could die here, at the Wolf House. " Khione smiled at him. "You see, Jason, your blood spilled on this sacred ground will taint it for generations. Your demigod brethren will be outraged, especially when they find the bodies of these three from Camp Half-Blood. They'll believe the Greeks have conspired with giants. It will be ... delicious. "
Freya's blood ran cold.
Now it all made sense.
Even Hera's twisted and fucked up plan- it was coming together.
Your demigod brethren will be outraged,
But Khione wasn't talking about camp half- blood. She was talking about other demigods, demigods who were like Jason. Freya felt like the world was twisting, like none of it made sense. But she couldn't deny what was inevitable any longer. There had to be more demigods like Jason. And that had been the plan all along. If there were more Romans, then Hera was trying to unite them with the Greeks so that they could all face down Gaea together. In retaliation, the earth goddess was trying to split them apart so they'd be weaker. And if she managed to...If the Romans showed up and found Jason dead along with Piper, Leo and Freya...Camp Half-Blood would have to face down another enemy besides Gaea.
Piper and Leo didn't seem to understand what she was saying. But Freya turned to look at Jason at the same time he turned to look at her. The understanding passed between them like a crackle of electricity. She knew he was remembering. Knew he was realising why exactly everything was happening, and why Khione's plan was so deadly and efficient.
"You'll set demigods against demigods," he said.
"It's so easy!" said Khione. "As I told you, I only encourage what you would do anyway. "
"But why?" Piper spread her hands. "Khione, you'll tear the world apart. The giants will destroy everything. You don't want that. Call off your monsters. "
Khione hesitated, then laughed. "Your persuasive powers are improving, girl. But I am a goddess. You can't charm-speak me. We wind gods are creatures of chaos! I'll overthrow Aeolus and let the storms run free. If we destroy the mortal world, all the better! They never honored me, even in Greek times. Humans and their talk of global warming. Pah! I'll cool them down quickly enough. When we retake the ancient places, I will cover the Acropolis in snow. "
"The ancient places. " Leo's eyes widened. "That's what Enceladus meant about destroy the roots of the gods. He meant Greece. "
"You could join me, son of Hephaestus," Khione said. "I know you find me beautiful. It would be enough for my plan if these other three were to die. Reject that ridiculous destiny the Fates have given you. Live and be my champion, instead. Your skills would be quite useful. "
Freya marveled at the audacity. Piper was glaring it the snow goddess so hard Freya was afraid she'd jump forward and crush her skull. Leo looked a little stunned. He looked behind him as if the goddess were talking to someone else. Then laughed so hard, he doubled over. "Yeah, join you. Right. Until you get bored of me and turn me into a Leosicle? Lady, nobody messes with my dragon and gets away with it. I can't believe I thought you were hot. "
Khione's face turned red. "Hot? You dare insult me? I am cold, Leo Valdez. Very, very cold."
She shot a blast of wintry sleet at the demigods, but Leo held up his hand. A wall of fire roared to life in front of them, and the snow dissolved in a steamy cloud.
Leo grinned. "See, lady, that's what happens to snow in Texas. It—fucking—melts. "
Khione hissed. "Enough of this. Hera is failing. Porphyrion is rising. Kill the demigods. Let them be our king's first meal!"
Each of them hefted their weapons.
She turned to Leo, who was buzzing with adrenaline and grinned. "The goddess?"
"The goddess."
Then, the enemy charged. Leo and Freya went straight for Khione, knowing that their powers would be most useful against the snow goddess. Soon however, she realized that only one of them could really battle her. The closer they got, Khione's ice daggers flew towards them with more accuracy. Leo was able to blast them off with his fire, but Freya was becoming more sloppy. Water was made to extinguish fire, not ice. She was already sluggish from their earlier fight, and she was afraid that one wrong move from her and she'd accidentally kill Leo's fire instead of melting the enemy. Which then would lead to them being killed by Khione.
"Leo-" She gritted out, her face already sweating. "In don't think I can stay much longer."
Leo flashed her a grin, and she knew that was the ADHD talking. "Don't worry about it, water girl. I can take one flimsy snow goddess."
Khione gasped in fury. "I will obliterate you, Leo Valdez!"
Freya laughed. "You sure can try, ice cone,"
She heard Khione yell in rage, but Leo was already covering her, and she slipped away while he kept the goddess busy. As soon as she stepped away from Khione, the wolves came. They growled and whinnied, but it was like Leo's adrenaline and restless dementour had slipped to her. She felt- good. Tired, but good. As long as she didn't summon any water, she could fight just as well. As Freya slashed her sword, wolves fell, their white fur coloring the ground. She dared to take her eyes from their snapping jaws and look around for her friends.
Piper was surrounded by Earthborn, but she seemed to be holding her own. She was so impressive-looking as she fought, almost glowing with beauty, that the Earthborn stared at her in awe, forgetting that they were supposed to kill her. They'd lower their clubs and watch dumbfounded as she smiled and charged them. They'd smile back—until she sliced them apart with her dagger, and they melted into mounds of mud.
Jason was battling the wind spirits. He crashed through them with his miraculous piece of wood and tore them down. Then she noticed that he wasn't exactly running- he was atop a horse, except it was made of air. How Jason managed to control him, Freya had no idea. The horse ran fast and furious, charging so much electricity, the other spirits vaporized into harmless clouds of mist.
Freya couldn't stop herself from yelling, "Nice ride, Grace!"
A wolf pounced on her, but before it could tear her apart with its claws, she slammed the flat of her blade into his muzzle area. The beast whined and backed away, and she felt kind of bad. Then its hungry bothers and sisters came to eat her, and the feeling vanished.
"Thanks, Jackson!" She heard Jason yell.
Freya swung her sword, and wolves toppled to the ground.
Jason rode his horse, and spirits evaporated.
Piper slashed her knife, and earthborn disintegrated.
Leo was beating Khione so bad, the goddess started backing away. Her expression went from enraged to shocked to slightly panicked as Leo got closer. While fighting a goddess should've been suicide, Leo was the right man for the job. She kept summoning ice daggers to throw at him, blasts of winter air, tornadoes of snow. Leo burned through all of it. His whole body flickered with red tongues of flame like he'd been doused with gasoline. He advanced on the goddess, using two silver-tipped ball-peen hammers to smash any monsters that got in his way.
Freya realized that Leo was the only reason they were still alive. His fiery aura was heating up the whole courtyard, countering Khione's winter magic. Without him, they would've been frozen like the Hunters long ago. Wherever Leo went, ice melted off the stones. Even Thalia started to defrost a little when Leo stepped near her.
They were running out of enemies to fight. Wolves Freya had slashed lay in heaps, moaning and whining from their wounds. Earthborn littered the ground everywhere Piper had stepped, and Jason was just riding his horse to emaciate the last spirit. It turned to vapor as soon as he ran through it. Piper brought down the last Earthborn in a clean swipe of her knife, and Freya kicked her feet so hard in a wolves jaw, it crunched and dislocated.
Only Khione was left, and Leo was bearing down on her.
"You're too late," The goddess snarled. "He's awake! And don't think you've won anything here, demigods. Hera's plan will never work. You'll be at each other's throats before you can ever stop us. "
Leo set his hammers ablaze and threw them at the goddess, but she turned into snow—a white powdery image of herself. Leo's hammers slammed into the snow woman, breaking it into a steaming mound of mush.
Freya was breathing hard, but she turned to Jason and found his horse on rearing on his hind legs, arcing electricity across his hooves. Apparently he had heard her compliment from earlier.
Jason rolled his eyes. "A complete show off, this one."
Then Freya heard a cracking sound behind him. The melting ice on Hera's cage sloughed off in a curtain of slush, and the goddess called, "Oh, don't mind me! Just the queen of the heavens, dying over here!"
Jason dismounted, and then all four demigods jumped into the pool and ran to the spire.
Leo frowned. "Uh, Tía Callida, are you getting shorter?"
"No, you dolt! The earth is claiming me. Hurry!"
As much as Freya disliked Hera, what she saw inside the cage alarmed her. Not only was Hera sinking, the ground was rising around her like water in a tank. Liquid rock had already covered her shins. "The giant wakes!" Hera warned. "You only have seconds!"
"On it," Leo said. "Piper, I need your help. Talk to the cage. "
"What?" she said.
"Talk to it. Use everything you've got. Convince Gaea to sleep. Lull her into a daze. Just slow her down, try to get the tendrils to loosen while I—"
"Right!" Piper cleared her throat and said, "Hey, Gaea. Nice night, huh? Boy, I'm tired. How about you? Ready for some sleep?"
The more she talked, the more confident she sounded. Freya felt her own eyes getting heavy, and she had to force herself not to focus on her words. It seemed to have some effect on the cage. The mud was rising more slowly. The tendrils seemed to soften just a little—becoming more like tree root than rock. Leo pulled a circular saw out of his tool belt. How it fit in there, Freya had no idea. Then Leo looked at the cord and grunted in frustration. "I don't have anywhere to plug it in!"
Jason's spirit horse jumped into the pit and whinnied.
"Really Tempest?" Jason asked.
Tempest dipped his head and trotted over to Leo. Leo looked dubious, but he held up the plug, and a breeze whisked it into the horse's flank. Lighting sparked, connecting with the prongs of the plug, and the circular saw whirred to life.
"Sweet!" Leo grinned. "Your horse comes with AC outlets!"
"Never thought I'd hear those words out loud," Muttered Freya.
Their good mood didn't last long. On the other side of the pool, the giant's spire crumbled with a sound like a tree snapping in half. Its outer sheath of tendrils exploded from the top down, raining stone and wood shards as the giant shook himself free and climbed out of the earth.
Freya hadn't thought anything could be scarier than Enceladus.
She was wrong.
Porphyrion was even taller, and even more ripped. He didn't radiate heat, or show any signs of breathing fire, but there was something more terrible about him—a kind of strength, even magnetism, as if the giant were so huge and dense he had his own gravitational field.
Like Enceladus, the giant king was humanoid from the waist up, clad in bronze armor, and from the waist down he had scaly dragon's legs; but his skin was the color of lima beans. His hair was green as summer leaves, braided in long locks and decorated with weapons—daggers, axes, and full-size swords, some of them bent and bloody—maybe trophies taken from demigods eons before. When the giant opened his eyes, they were blank white, like polished marble. He took a deep breath.
"Alive!" he bellowed. "Praise to Gaea!"
Freya wasn't sure weather the whimpering sound came from her or from Jason. They were done for. Sure, she'd fought Titans, but at least with them there was a guarantee they could crumble. With giants, they needed the help of a god. She had a suspicion Zeus wouldn't help them now.
"Leo," Jason said.
"Huh?" Leo's mouth was wide open. Even Piper seemed dazed.
"You guys keep working," Jason said. "Get Hera free!"
"And what are you two going to do?" Asked Piper. Her face fell slack. "You can't seriously-"
"Battle a giant?" Interrupted Freya. "Sure we can." But even to herself, her voice sounded bleak.
"We've got no choice." Said Jason. He looked in no shape to fight, and neither did she, but they had no other alternative. "Ready for round two?" He asked her.
"Ready."
"Excellent!" the giant roared as they approached. He fixed his eyes on Jason and Freya. "Ah! Appetizers! Which ones are you? Hera? Ares? Maybe Hermes?"
Freya blinked. "I don't think a giant has ever insulted me so thoroughly."
"You're insulted!" Hera barked from her cage. "I've just gotten compared to a mortal!"
"Shhh," Piper said. "You're breaking my concentration."
"We're demigods," Jason finally said. "Son of Jupiter, Daughter of Poseidon."
Those white eyes bored into her. Behind them, Leo's circular saw whirred, and Piper talked to the cage in soothing tones, trying to keep the fear out of her voice.
Porphyrion threw back his head and laughed. "Outstanding!" He looked up at the cloudy night sky. "So, Zeus ,Poseidon, you sacrifice your children to me? The gesture is appreciated, but it will not save you. "
The sky didn't even rumble. The sea didn't slosh. They were on their own.
"We have to keep him talking," Whispered Freya.
Jason nodded and dropped his makeshift club. His hands were covered in splinters, but that didn't matter now. They needed to buy time for Leo and Piper. It was time to act a lot more confident then they felt.
"If you knew who I was," Jason yelled up at the giant, "you'd be worried about me, not my father. I hope you enjoyed your two and a half minutes of rebirth, giant, because I'm going to send you right back to Tartarus. "
The giant's eyes narrowed. He planted one foot outside the pool and crouched to get a better look at his opponent. "So ... we'll start by boasting, will we? Just like old times! Very well, demigod. I am Porphryion, king of the giants, son of Gaea. In olden times, I rose from Tatarus, the abyss of my father, to challenge the gods. To start the war, I stole Zeus's queen. " He grinned at the goddess's cage. "Hello, Hera. "
"My husband destroyed you once, monster!" Hera said. "He'll do it again!"
"But he didn't, my dear! Zeus wasn't powerful enough to kill me. He had to rely on a puny demigod to help, and even then, we almost won. This time, we will complete what we started. Gaea is waking. She has provisioned us with many fine servants. Our armies will shake the earth—and we will destroy you at the roots. "
"You wouldn't dare," Hera said, but she was weakening. Freya could hear it in her voice. Piper kept whispering to the cage, and Leo kept sawing, but the earth was still rising inside Hera's prison, covering her up to her waist.
"Oh, yes," the giant said. "The Titans sought to attack your new home in New York. Bold, but ineffective. "His eyes turned to Freya. "They ran into you and your little army. Gaea is wiser and more patient. And we, her greatest children, are much, much stronger than Kronos. We know how to kill Olympians once and for all. They must be dug up completely like rotten trees—their eldest roots torn out and burned. "
The giant frowned at Piper and Leo, as if he'd just noticed them working at the cage. Freya stepped forward and yelled to get back Porphyrion's attention.
"You said a demigod killed you," she shouted. "How, if we're so puny?"
"Ha! You think I would explain it to you? I was created to be Zeus's replacement, born to destroy the lord of the sky. I shall take his throne. I shall take his wife—or, if she will not have me, I will let the earth consume her life force. What you see before you, child, is only my weakened form. I will grow stronger by the hour, until I am invincible. But I am already quite capable of smashing you to a grease spot!"
He rose to his full height and held out his hand. A twenty-foot spear shot from the earth. He grasped it, then stomped the ground with his dragon's feet. The ruins shook. All around the courtyard, monsters started to regather—storm spirits, wolves, and Earthborn, all answering the giant king's call.
"Great," Leo muttered. "We needed more enemies. "
"Hurry," Hera said.
"I know!" Leo snapped.
"Go to sleep, cage," Piper said. "Nice, sleepy cage. Yes, I'm talking to a bunch of earthen tendrils. This isn't weird at all. "
We're all going to die, Freya thought bitterly.
Porphyrion raked his spear across the top of the ruins, destroying a chimney and spraying wood and stone across the courtyard. "So, demigods! I have finished my boasting. Now it's your turn. What were you saying about destroying me?"
Freya and Jason shared a look. The plan flashed before their eyes and she knew with certainty that it was all leading up to this moment. This was why the prophecy had claimed them quest leaders. Why it had brought them here. If they wanted this giant down, they'd have to work together.
She looked at the ring of monsters, waiting impatiently for their master's order to tear them to shreds. Leo's circular saw kept whirring, and Piper kept talking, but it seemed hopeless. Hera's cage was almost completely filled with earth.
Jason summoned the winds, rising a few feet off the ground. "I'm a child of Rome, consul to demigods, praetor of the First Legion."
Freya had no idea what he was talking about, but she was glad Jason sounded confident enough. He held out his arms, showing the tattoo of the eagle and SPQR, and to her surprise the giant seemed to recognize it.
For a moment, Porphyrion actually looked uneasy.
Freya inched around, circling him. "I fought in the battle of Manhattan and destroyed a whole army of Kronos's monsters."
The giant's gaze flickered to her, but Jason spoke again. "I slew the Trojan sea monster," he continued. "I toppled the black throne of Kronos, and ravaged the Titan Krios with my own hands."
"I fought the Titan Oceanus at my father's palace and slaughtered him at the gates. And now, we're going to slaughter you." Freya said with as much fervor as she could.
"Well damn," Muttered Leo. "Leave some red meat for us too."
But now the giant was distracted, darting his eyes between the two of them. The split moment his eyes moved away from her and onto Jason, she grunted and a mass of water barreled into the giant. She knew she shouldn't- that she was exhausting herself by using so much power, but Jason would never be able to get a hit in if the giant wasn't distracted.
Porphyrion bellowed in rage and turned to her, ready to smash her, but Jason had seen his opening, and attacked. The idea of fighting a forty-foot-tall immortal bare handed was so ridiculous, even the giant seemed surprised. Half flying, half leaping, Jason landed on the giant's scaly reptilian knee and climbed up the giant's arm before Porphyrion even realized what had happened.
"You dare?" the giant bellowed. Freya wasn't sure which one of them he was talking to. Since she couldn't fly, she ran and dove her sword in to his large foot. At the same time, Jason grabbed a weapon from the giants hair, and stuck it in his ear.
Porphyrion roared in pain, lightning streaked out of the sky and blasted the sword, throwing Jason free. He rolled when he hit the ground. Freya backed away, breathing hard and shallow. She looked at the giant. His hair was on fire, and the side of his face was blackened from lightning. The sword had splintered in his ear. Golden ichor ran down his jaw. The other weapons were sparking and smoldering in his braids. Porphyrion almost fell. The circle of monsters let out a collective growl and moved forward—wolves and ogres fixing their eyes on Jason and her.
"No!" Porphyrion yelled. He regained his balance and glared at the demigod. "I will kill them myself. "
The giant raised his spear and it began to glow. "You want to play with lighting, children? Very well. You forget, daughter of Poseidon, that water and lighting don't mix. And you, boy! I am the bane of Zeus. I was created to destroy your father, which means I know exactly what will kill you. "
Well. They'd made it this far. Now they were going to die.
She gazed at Jason, who looked fierce facing down the giant. But as soon as his eyes met hers, they softened almost impeccably. One of those urges to kiss him hit her hard, and since they were about to die, she thought; so what if I did? She'd rather die with him then alone. Freya gave him a weak smile and Jason grabbed her hand. It felt warm, and enveloped hers completely.
Then-
"Got it!" Leo yelled.
"Sleep!" Piper said, so forcefully, the nearest wolves fell to the ground and began snoring.
The stone and wood cage crumbled. Leo had sawed through the base of the thickest tendril and apparently cut off the cage's connection to Gaea. The tendrils turned to dust. The mud around Hera disintegrated. The goddess grew in size, glowing with power.
"Yes!" the goddess said. She threw off her black robes to reveal a white gown, her arms bedecked with golden jewelry. Her face was both terrible and beautiful, and a golden crown glowed in her long black hair. "Now I shall have my revenge!"
The giant Porphyrion backed away. He said nothing, but he gave Jason and Freya one last look of hatred. His message was clear: Another time. Then he slammed his spear against the earth, and the giant disappeared into the ground like he'd dropped down a chute. Around the courtyard, monsters began to panic and retreat, but there was no escape for them.
Hera glowed brighter. She shouted, "Cover your eyes, my heroes!"
Freya did, and when she opened them, every monster had been obliterated.
And then she noticed Jason on the ground, limp and lifeless. She hadn't even felt his hand slip from hers.