Jason, Kira, and Coach Hedge found a small cave.
Quickly, they had dumped all their stuff and started a fire to warm Piper and Leo when they woke up.
Jason tended Piper, and Kira stayed with Leo, despite the constant nagging from Jason about how she liked him.
Leo woke up first.
His teeth chattered, but Kira helped him get closer to the fire and wrapped him in blankets.
She offered him a small smile, but she felt horrible that she couldn't protect him.
He wrapped himself around her, maybe to get warmer, or maybe for emotional support.
Piper woke up next to them, but Kira continued to rub his back, trying to warm up Fire Boy.
"Oh, god." Her teeth chattered. "He turned me to gold!"
"You're okay now." Jason said.
"L-L-Leo?" Piper managed.
"Present and un-gold-ified." He said from beside Kira. Kira gave a thumbs up to Piper. She was unharmed except for a single sword cut on her arm from Lit that was covered and healed.
"I got the precious metal treatment too," he said. "But I came out of it faster. Dunno why. We had to dunk you in the river to get you back completely. Tried to dry you off, but ... it's really, really cold."
"You've got hypothermia," Jason said. "We risked as much nectar as we could. Coach Hedge did a little nature magic—"
"Sports medicine." The coach's ugly face loomed over Piper. "Kind of a hobby of mine. Your breath might smell like wild mushrooms and Gatorade for a few days, but it'll pass. You probably won't die. Probably."
"Thanks," Piper said weakly. "How did you beat Midas?"
Jason told the story, praising Kira probably more then he needed to.
The coach snorted. "Kid's being modest. You should've seen him. Hi-yah! Slice! Boom with the lightning! So was Willows! She just sliced that dude like he was paper!"
"Coach, you didn't even see it," Jason said. "You were outside eating the lawn."
But the satyr was just warming up. "Then I came in with my club, and we dominated that room. Afterward, I told him, 'Kid, I'm proud of you! If you could just work on your upper body strength—'"
"Coach," said Jason.
"Yeah?"
"Shut up, please."
"Sure." The coach sat down at the fire and started chewing his cudgel.
Jason put his hand on Piper's forehead and checked her temperature. "Leo, can you stoke the fire?"
"On it." Leo summoned a baseball-sized clump of flames and lobbed it into the campfire.
"Do I look that bad?" Piper shivered.
"Nah," Jason said.
"You're a terrible liar," she said. "Where are we?"
"Pikes Peak," Jason said. "Colorado."
"But that's, what—five hundred miles from Omaha?"
"Something like that," Jason agreed. "I harnessed the storm spirits to bring us this far. They didn't like it—went a little faster than I wanted, almost crashed us into the mountainside before I could get them back in the bag. I'm not going to be trying that again."
"Why are we here?"
Leo sniffed. "That's what I asked him."
Leo leaned onto Kira. "Thank you for not letting me stay as a golden statue," he whispered to her, a small smile on his lips.
"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 spit out some cudgel splinters. "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," Piper remembered. "Do you think they're around here?"
Jason rubbed his forearm as if the tattoos were bothering him. "I don't see how anyone could survive on the mountain right now. The storm's pretty bad. 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 some time to rest before we tried moving."
"We have to get you warm." Jason sat next to her and held out his arms a little awkwardly. "Uh, you mind if I ..."
"I suppose." She tried to sound nonchalant.
Kira snorted when Jason awkwardly wrapped his arms around her.
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—"
"Wheel of Fortune?" Piper asked.
"The thing is," he said, "my dad Hephaestus talked to me."
Leo told them about his dream.
"I don't understand. If demigods and gods have to work together to kill the giants, why would the gods stay silent? If they need us—" Piper said.
"Ha," said Coach Hedge. "The gods hate needing humans. They like to be needed by humans, but not the other way around. Things will have to get a whole lot worse before Zeus admits he made a mistake closing Olympus."
"Coach," Piper said, "that was almost an intelligent comment."
Hedge huffed. "What? I'm intelligent! I'm not surprised you cupcakes haven't heard of the Giant War. The gods don't like to talk about it. Bad PR to admit you needed mortals to help beat an enemy. That's just embarrassing."
"There's more, though," Jason said. "When I dreamed about Hera in her cage, she said Zeus was acting unusually paranoid. And Hera—she said she went to those ruins because a voice had been speaking in her head. What if someone's influencing the gods, like Medea influenced us?"
Leo set hamburger buns on the skillet to toast. "Yeah, Hephaestus said something similar, like Zeus was acting weirder than usual. But what bothered me was the stuff my dad didn't say. Like a couple of times he was talking about the demigods, and how he had so many kids and all. I don't know. He acted like getting the greatest demigods together was going to be almost impossible—like Hera was trying, but it was a really stupid thing to do, and there was some secret Hephaestus wasn't supposed to tell me."
Kira laughed dryly. "Ares had just told me I was wasting my powers when I dreamed of him." Leo looked back, concerned, but she shook her head. "He didn't tell me anything important."
"Chiron was the same way back at camp," he said. "He mentioned a sacred oath not to discuss—something. Coach, you know anything about that?"
"Nah. I'm just a satyr. They don't tell us the juicy stuff. Especially an old—" He stopped himself.
"An old guy like you?" Piper asked. "But you're not that old, are you?"
"Hundred and six," the coach muttered.
Leo coughed. "Say what?"
"Don't catch your panties on fire, Valdez. That's just fifty-three in human years. Still, yeah, I made some enemies on the Council of Cloven Elders. I've been a protector a longtime. But they started saying I was getting unpredictable. Too violent. Can you imagine?"
"Wow." Piper said. "That's hard to believe."
Coach scowled. "Yeah, then finally we get a good war going with the Titans, and do they put me on the front lines? No! They send me as far away as possible—the Canadian frontier, can you believe it? Then after the war, they put me out to pasture. The Wilderness School. Bah! Like I'm too old to be helpful just because I like playing offense. All those flower-pickers on the Council—talking about nature."
"I thought satyrs liked nature," Piper ventured.
"Shoot, I love nature," Hedge said. "Nature means big things killing and eating little things! And when you're a —you know—vertically challenged satyr like me, you get in good shape, you carry a big stick, and you don't take nothing from no one! That's nature." Hedge snorted indignantly. "Flower-pickers. Anyway, I hope you got something vegetarian cooking, Valdez. I don't do flesh."
"Yeah, Coach. Don't eat your cudgel. I got some tofu patties here. Piper's a vegetarian too. I'll throw them on in a second."
The smell of frying burgers filled the air. Leo put tofu patties on the skillet.
"Hey, Leo, do you feel any better?" Kira asked, joining him at the fire.
"Pfft! I'm always good!" He said strongly, but Kira just gave him a look. "Yeah, Ki, I'm good."
"You better be, Valdez, 'cause I need my Lava Girl out there," She said jokingly. Leo looked at her, amused.
"Lava Girl?" He asked, as if he didn't hear her right.
"Yeah, Lava Girl! 'Cause, y'know, fire and lava are basically the same thing," Kira said excitedly. Leo laughed, and Kira's heart swelled. She hadn't heard him laugh in a long time.
"That makes you Shark Boy," He said, flipping the burger.
"I'd make a perfect Shark Boy," Kira said blissfully, staring off into the distance before both of them broke into laughter.
It was good to joke around sometimes, even in the worst circumstances. Helped them remember they were still just kids.
Piper stopped shivering and settled against Jason's chest. Leo handed out the food, which Kira dug into with hesitation.
"We need to talk." Piper said. She sat up so she could face Jason. "I don't want to hide anything from you guys anymore."
The three demigods and satyr looked at her with their mouths full of burger.
"Three nights before the Grand Canyon trip," she said, "I had a dream vision—a giant, telling me my father had been taken hostage. He told me I had to cooperate, or my dad would be killed."
The flames crackled.
Finally Jason said, "Enceladus? You mentioned that name before."
Coach Hedge whistled. "Big giant. Breathes fire. Not somebody I'd want barbecuing my daddy goat."
Jason gave him a shut up look. "Piper, go on. What happened next?"
"I—I tried to reach my dad, but all I got was his personal assistant, and she told me not to worry."
"Jane?" Leo remembered. "Didn't Medea say something about controlling her?"
Piper nodded. "To get my dad back, I had to sabotage this quest. I didn't realize it would be the three of us. Then after we started the quest, Enceladus sent me another warning: He told me he wanted you two dead. He wants me to lead you to a mountain. I don't know exactly which one, but it's in the Bay Area—I could see the Golden Gate Bridge from the summit. I have to be there by noon on the solstice, tomorrow. An exchange."
"Oh, Gods, I'm so sorry," Kira said sympathetically.
Jason scooted next to her and put his arm around her again. "God, Piper. I'm so sorry."
Leo nodded. "No kidding. You've been carrying this around for a week? Piper, we could help you."
She glared at them. "Why don't you yell at me or something? I was ordered to kill you!"
"Aw, come on," Jason said. "You've saved us both on this quest. I'd put my life in your hands any day."
"Same," Leo said. "Can I have a hug too?"
"You don't get it!" Piper said. "I've probably just killed my dad, telling you this."
"I doubt it." Coach Hedge belched. He was eating his tofu burger folded inside the paper plate, chewing it all like a taco. "Giant hasn't gotten what he wants yet, so he still needs your dad for leverage. He'll wait until the deadline passes, see if you show up. He wants you to divert the quest to this mountain, right?"
Piper nodded uncertainly.
"So that means Hera is being kept somewhere else," Hedge reasoned. "And she has to be saved by the same day. So you have to choose—rescue your dad, or rescue Hera. If you go after Hera, then Enceladus takes care of your dad. Besides, Enceladus would never let you go even if you cooperated. You're obviously one of the eight in the Great Prophecy."
"So we have no choice," she said miserably. "We have to save Hera, or the giant king gets unleashed. That's our quest. The world depends on it. And Enceladus seems to have ways of watching me. He isn't stupid. He'll know if we change course and go the wrong way. He'll kill my dad."
"He's not going to kill your dad," Leo said. "We'll save him."
"We don't have time!" Piper cried. "Besides, it's a trap."
"Hey, Piper, we're not gonna let your dad rot. We got this," Kira said supportingly.
"We're your friends, beauty queen," Leo said. "We're not going to let your dad die. We just gotta figure out a plan."
Coach Hedge grumbled. "Would help if we knew where this mountain was. Maybe Aeolus can tell you that. The Bay Area has a bad reputation for demigods. Old home of the Titans, Mount Othrys, sits over Mount Tam, where Atlas holds up the sky. I hope that's not the mountain you saw."
"I don't think so. This was inland."
Jason frowned at the fire, like he was trying to remember something.
"Bad reputation...that doesn't seem right. The Bay Area..."
"You think you've been there?" Piper asked.
"I..." He looked like he was almost on the edge of a breakthrough. Then the anguish came back into his eyes. "I don't know. Hedge, what happened to Mount Othrys?"
Hedge took another bite of paper and burger. "Well, Kronos built a new palace there last summer. Big nasty place, was going to be the headquarters for his new kingdom and all. Weren't any battles there, though. Kronos marched on Manhattan, tried to take Olympus. If I remember right, he left some other Titans in charge of his palace, but after Kronos got defeated in Manhattan, the whole palace just crumbled on its own."
"No," Jason said.
Everyone looked at him.
"What do you mean, 'No'?" Leo asked.
"That's not what happened. I—" He tensed, looking toward the cave entrance. "Did you hear that?"
For a second, nothing. Then again: howls piercing the night.
"Wolves," Piper announced. "They sound close."
Jason rose and summoned his sword. Leo, Kira and Coach Hedge got to their feet too. Piper tried, but she faltered.
"Stay there," Jason told her. "We'll protect you."
Kira turned her ring into her trusty sword, leveling it.
A pair of red eyes appeared at the base of the cave, and Kira inched towards Leo, sending him a nervous look.
Breathing in deeply, she willed for her mind to clear, for her confidence to ooze into her veins and help her win the fight.
Maybe Ares was growing a liking to her, or maybe she did it all by herself, but her mind eased, and she was ready to defend her friends.
More wolves edged into the firelight—black beasts bigger than Great Danes, with ice and snow caked on their fur. Their fangs gleamed, and their glowing red eyes looked disturbingly intelligent. The wolf in front was almost as tall as a horse, his mouth stained as if he'd just made a fresh kill.
Jason stepped forward and said something in Latin.
The fur stood up along his spine. One of his lieutenants tried to advance, but the alpha wolf snapped at his ear. Then all of the wolves backed into the dark.
"Dude, I gotta study Latin." Leo's hammer shook in his hand. "What'd you say, Jason?"
Hedge cursed. "Whatever it was, it wasn't enough. Look."
The wolves were coming back, but the alpha wolf wasn't with them. They didn't attack. They waited—at least a dozen now, in a rough semicircle just outside the firelight, blocking the cave exit.
The coach hefted his club. "Here's the plan. I'll kill them all, and you guys escape."
"Coach, they'll rip you apart," Piper said.
"Nah, I'm good."
Kira saw the silhouette of a man coming through the storm, wading through the wolf pack.
"Stick together," Jason said. "They respect a pack. And Hedge, no crazy stuff. We're not leaving you or anyone else behind."
The wolves parted, and the man stepped into the firelight. His hair was greasy and ragged, topped with a crown of what looked like finger bones. His robes were tattered fur. The furs didn't look cured, and from the smell, they weren't very fresh. His frame was lithe and muscular, like a distance runner's. His thin pale skin was pulled tight over his skull. His teeth were sharpened like fangs. His eyes glowed bright red like his wolves'—and they fixed on Jason with absolute hatred.
"Ecce," he said, "filli Romani."
"Speak English, wolf man!" Hedge bellowed.
The wolf man snarled. "Tell your faun to mind his tongue, son of Rome. Or he'll be my first snack."
Kira gulped, but held her ground, eyes darting to look at the wolf pack.
The wolf man studied their little group. His nostrils twitched. "So it's true," he mused. "A child of Aphrodite. A child of Ares. A son of Hephaestus. A faun. And a child of Rome, of Lord Jupiter, no less. All together, without killing each other. How interesting."
"You were told about us?" Jason asked. "By whom?"
The man snarled—perhaps a laugh, perhaps a challenge. "Oh, we've been patrolling for you all across the west, demigod, hoping we'd be the first to find you. The giant king will reward me well when he rises. I am Lycaon, king of the wolves. And my pack is hungry."
The wolves snarled.
Leo put up his hammer and slip something else from his tool belt—a glass bottle full of clear liquid.
"Leave," Jason ordered. "There's no food for you here."
"Unless you want tofu burgers," Leo offered. Kira had to hold back her laugh. Not now, she thought, life or death situation!
Lycaon bared his fangs. Apparently he wasn't a tofu fan.
"If I had my way," Lycaon said with regret, "I'd kill you first, son of Jupiter. Your father made me what I am. I was the powerful mortal king of Arcadia, with fifty fine sons, and Zeus slew them all with his lightning bolts."
"Ha," Coach Hedge said. "For good reason!"
Jason glanced over his shoulder. "Coach, you know this clown?"
"I do," Piper answered. "Lycaon invited Zeus to dinner, but the king wasn't sure it was really Zeus. So to test his powers, Lycaon tried to feed him human flesh. Zeus got outraged—"
"And killed my sons!" Lycaon howled. The wolves behind him howled too. No matter how evil the man had become, and how messed up he had been to Zeus, Kira still felt compassion for the man who had lost his sons.
"So Zeus turned him into a wolf," Piper said. "They call...they call werewolves lycanthropes, named after him, the first werewolf."
"The king of wolves," Coach Hedge finished. "An immortal, smelly, vicious mutt."
Lycaon growled. "I will tear you apart, faun!"
"Oh, you want some goat, buddy? 'Cause I'll give you goat."
"Stop it," Jason said. "Lycaon, you said you wanted to kill me first, but...?"
"Sadly, Child of Rome, you are spoken for. Since this one"—he waggled his claws at Piper—"has failed to kill you, you are to be delivered alive to the Wolf House. One of my compatriots has asked for the honor of killing you herself."
"Who?" Jason said.
The wolf king snickered. "Oh, a great admirer of yours. Apparently, you made quite an impression on her. She will take care of you soon enough, and really I cannot complain. Spilling your blood at the Wolf House should mark my new territory quite well. Lupa will think twice about challenging my pack."
Piper struggled to her feet. "You're going to leave now," Piper said, "before we destroy you."
Kira's heart sunk to the bottom on her chest when she realized she'd have to fight the wolves. She didn't know if she could do it, she'd rather them tear her apart then to hurt the cute little wolves.
Lycaon's red eyes crinkled with humor. "A brave try, girl. I admire that. Perhaps I'll make your end quick. Only the son of Jupiter is needed alive. The rest of you, I'm afraid, are dinner."
Jason took a step forward. "You're not killing anyone, wolf man. Not without going through me."
Lycaon howled and extended his claws. Jason slashed at him, but his golden sword passed straight through as if the wolf king wasn't there. Kira looked back at Jason nervously. If his sword didn't work, her's wouldn't either.
Lycaon laughed. "Gold, bronze, steel—none of these are any good against my wolves, son of Jupiter."
"Silver!" Piper cried. "Aren't werewolves hurt by silver?"
"We don't have any silver!" Jason said.
Wolves leaped into the firelight. Hedge charged forward with an elated "Woot!"
But Leo struck first. He threw his glass bottle and it shattered on the ground, splattering liquid all over the wolves—the unmistakable smell of gasoline. He shot a burst of fire at the puddle, and a wall of flames erupted.
Wolves yelped and retreated. Several caught fire and had to run back into the snow. Even Lycaon looked uneasily at the barrier of flames now separating his wolves from the demigods.
Kira frowned at the injured wolves. They were probably under Lycaon's control, and she felt horrible for them. She wanted one as a pet.
"Aw, c'mon," Coach Hedge complained. "I can't hit them if they're way over there."
Every time a wolf came closer, Leo shot a new wave of fire from his hands, but each effort seemed to make him a little more tired, and the gasoline was already dying down. "I can't summon any more gas!" Leo warned. Then his face turned red. "Wow, that came out wrong. I mean the burning kind. Gonna take the tool belt a while to recharge. What you got, man?"
"Nothing," Jason said.
"Not even a weapon that works." Kira said sadly, feeling useless.
"Lightning?" Piper asked.
Jason concentrated, but nothing happened. "I think the snowstorm is interfering, or something."
"Unleash the venti!" Piper said.
"Then we'll have nothing to give Aeolus," Jason said. "We'll have come all this way for nothing."
Lycaon laughed. "I can smell your fear. A few more minutes of life, heroes. Pray to whatever gods you wish. Zeus did not grant me mercy, and you will have none from me."
The flames began to sputter out.
Jason cursed and dropped his sword. He crouched like he was ready to go hand-to-hand.
Kira got into a position like Jason's, ready to go down fighting.
Leo pulled his hammer out of his pack.
Piper raised her dagger.
Coach Hedge hefted his club, and he was the only one who looked excited about dying.
Then a ripping sound cut through the wind. A long arrow sprouted from the neck of the nearest wolf. The wolf writhed and fell, melting into a puddle of shadow.
Kira felt horrible for it, but she only watched it die with sad eyes.
Leo caught onto her sadness, and pushed her back, so she couldn't watch the rest of the pack get showered with arrows.
More wolves fell. The pack broke in confusion. An arrow flashed toward Lycaon, but the wolf king caught it in midair. Then he yelled in pain. When he dropped the arrow, it left a charred, smoking gash across his palm. Another arrow caught him in the shoulder, and the wolf king staggered.
"Curse them!" Lycaon yelled. He growled at his pack, and the wolves turned and ran. Lycaon fixed Jason with those glowing red eyes. "This isn't over, boy." And disappeared into the night.
Seconds later, there were more wolves baying, but the sound was different—less threatening, more like hunting dogs on the scent. A smaller white wolf burst into the cave, followed by two more.
Hedge said, "Kill it?"
"No!" Piper said. "Wait."
The wolves tilted their heads and studied the campers with huge golden eyes.
A heartbeat later, their masters appeared: a troop of hunters in white-and-gray winter camouflage, at least half a dozen. All of them carried bows, with quivers of glowing silver arrows on their backs.