◤                       ◥

CHARLIE WAS EVEN MORE COLD, AND IT WAS NOT APPRECIATED. Despite how much ambrosia she was fed, her abdomen was still on fire. And not the 'oh no, I ate too much and now I'm going to explode' type either. Which was rather unfortunate, because no one agreed to putting her 'out of her misery' when asked, so she was running low on options.

Next to her, a campfire blazed, turning the air sharp with smoke. Firelight flickered against rock walls. They were in a shallow cave, but it didn't offer much protection. Outside, the wind howled. Snow blew sideways. It might've been day or night, the storm made it hard to tell.

''Charlie, we don't know what to tell you,'' Jason shook his head. ''We risked as much nectar as we could. Coach Hedge did a little nature magic—''

''Sports medicine.'' The Coach's face loomed over her. ''You remember it. An old hobby of mine. Your breath might smell like wild mushrooms and Gatorade for a few days, but it'll pass. You won't die. Probably.''

''Thanks, Coach, that's really inspiring.'' She turned to Jason again, longing for a distraction. ''How did you defeat Midas anyway, did the dagger help at all?''

Jason told her the story, putting most of it down to her idea and luck.

The Coach snorted. ''Kid's being modest. You should've seen him. Hi-yah! Slice! Boom, with the lightning!''

''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 stared chewing his cudgel.

Charlie sneezed. ''Leo, can you add some more flames?''

''On it,'' Leo summoned a baseball-sized clump of flames and lobbed it into the campfire.

''Where've we stopped?''

''Pikes Peak,'' Jason said. ''Colorado.''

''Oh. Why?''

Jason gazed into the storm as if watching for something. ''That glittery wind trial 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 spat out some cudgel splinters. ''Aeolus's floating palace should be anchored above us, right at the peak. This is one of his favourite spots to dock.''

''Maybe that was it.'' Jason knot 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 Charlie some time to rest before we continued.''

Charlie tapped the side of her fist to her chest from where she laid down staring at the ceiling, twice, before extending her arm to the sky and holding up a peace sign. ''Appreciate it.''

She sneezed again and Leo sighed as if he was the one dying. He extended his arms out from his corner of the cave, (Jason and Piper had one, Coach was perched by the entrance and Charlie had been in the middle of the back wall, where the fire was). ''I suppose I have some warmth to spare.''

''You really gonna make the person with broken ribs come to you, huh?''

''You seemed to be able to move just fine when I was handing you that burger.''

Charlie sighed, gently rolling onto her side, where she proceeded to then place one hand in front of her and drag her limp body after it, in a very melodramatic army crawl. Truthfully, the ambrosia and nectar had heeled her enough to stand and walk a few steps, but she wanted to prove a point.

Leo's hands dropped when he saw what she was doing, realising it would take her a minute to even reach him. He watched, not at all caring, even when she added in a few extra winces and a groan or two, for good measure. Leo had been the one to check her injury when they got back and she was knocked out and despite his lack of medical training, he knew it was healing nicely and a lot more rapidly than someone without the ambrosia. She'd only be injured for another day or two, at best.

''Agh!'' She dramatically collapsed on top of him, head hitting his chest as she took a few deep breaths. ''What a painful workout, man. If only the word was full of selfless people!''

''I'd like to remind you of the fact that your raccoon owns multiple stolen possessions because of you. Very selfless.''

''It's for a good cause,'' Charlie grumbled, shifting so they were laying side by side again. ''Me.''

Leo chuckled, moving the blanket over her and doing his best to tuck her in, finding himself a lot more used to the idea of cuddling the second time round.

Charlie sighed next to him, a fulfilled one this time. She looked over her shoulder at Jason and Piper. ''I claim this one. He's warm. You two are gonna have to freeze to death, because I am not sharing.''

''So long as we're all cuddled up for story time... something I've been meaning to tell you,'' Leo said once the scattered laughter had died down. ''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 assumed Leo was kidding, but his expression was deadly serious.

''The thing is,'' he said, ''My dad Hephaestus talked to me.''

''Favouritism.''

Leo told them about his dream. In the firelight, with the wind howling, the story was even creepier. Charlie could imagine the static-filled voice of the god warning about giants who were the sons of Tartarus, and about Leo losing some friends along the way.

She tried to concentrate on something good, Raccoon Leo's paws needing into the flesh of her thigh as he got comfy, the warmth spreading into her body, but she was terrified.

Piper shook her head. ''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—''

''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 in closing Olympus.''

''Coach,'' Piper said with a small, half-smirk. ''That was almost an intelligent comment.''

Hedge huffed. ''What? I'm intelligent! I'm not surprised you cupcakes haven't heard of the Great War.'' Leo could feel Charlie unconsciously shuffle further into him, and his arms wound around her tighter. ''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?''

Piper shuddered. She's had a similar thought — that some force they couldn't see was manipulating things behind the scenes, helping the giants. Maybe the same force was keeping Enceladus informed about their movements, and had even knocked their dragon out of the sky over Detroit. Perhaps Leo's sleeping Dirt Woman, or another servant of hers...

Leo continued, ''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 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.''

''Chiron was the same way back at camp,'' Jason 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. Only thing I was informed of was a few years ago, they babbled on about Charlie as if I needed extra information to help me. Suppose it's cause I'm 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 long time. But they started saying I was getting unpredictable. Too violent. Can you imagine?''

''Wow,'' Piper tried not to look at her friends, afraid that she'd burst out in laughter if she did. ''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. Gah!''

Charlie wished Selena had been put on the Canadian frontier.

''I thought satyrs love nature,'' Leo said, wanting to change the topic as Charlie recoiled even further. He figured it would be a lighter topic.

''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.''

''We need to talk—''

''We have been?''

''—Charlie, I mean, look, there's something I need to tell you. I don't want to hide anything from you guys anymore.'' Everyone turned to her, and Piper figured there was no going back now. ''Three nights before the Grand Canyon trip, I had a dream vision, too — 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. Breaths fire. Not somebody I'd want barbecuing my daddy goat.''

Jason gave him a look to shut up. ''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 realise it would be the three of us. Then, after we started the quest, Enceladus sent me another warning. He told me he wanted you Jason and Leo 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.''

She couldn't meet her friends eyes. She waited for them to yell at her, or turn their backs, or kick her out into the snowstorm.

Instead, Jason wrapped his arm around her shoulders, bringing her to his chest. ''God, Piper, I'm so sorry.''

Leo nodded. ''No kidding. You've been carrying this around for a week? Piper, we could help you?''

''Ditto.''

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 all on this quest. I'd put my life in your hands any day.''

''Same,'' Leo said.

Charlie nodded along. ''You really think I'd risk my life for you if I thought otherwise?''

''You don't get it!'' Piper said. ''I've probably just killed my dad, telling you this.''

''I doubt it,'' Coach Hedge belched. ''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 uncertaintly.

''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 seven in the Great Prophecy.''

One of the seven. Charlie had only ever played side characters in any type of prophecy — she could only hope that this time she'd be good enough to be relevant. Her friends couldn't fight whatever this was alone. She wouldn't let them.

''So we have no choice,'' Piper said miserably and Charlie snapped back into the conversation. ''We have to save Hera, or the giant king gets unleashed. That's out 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's not going to kill your dad,'' Leo said. ''We'll save him.''

''Totally.'' Charlie craned her neck, looking over her shoulder as she threw a smile at Piper. Raccoon Leo squeaked, standing at attention as he nodded, suddenly coming back into consciousness, and he quickly crawled towards Piper, settling on her head as he leant down to kiss the side of her cheek. She giggled, oddly charmed and yet disgusted.

''We don't have time,'' Piper said, reaching a hand up to pet the raccoon's head. He patted hers in return. ''Besides, it's a trap.''

''We're your friends Beauty Queen,'' Leo said, ''We're not gonna let your dad die. We just have to 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.''

Piper tried to remember the vista in her dreams. ''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. They 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 palace there last summer. Big nasty place, was going to be the headquarters of his new kingdom and all. Weren't any battled 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?'' Charlie rose an eyebrow.

''That's not what happened. I—'' He tensed, looking towards the cave entrance. ''Did you hear that?''

For a second, nothing. Then they heard it. Howls piercing through the night air.

''Wolves,'' Charlie said, ''They sound close.'' Leo tried not to protest when her elbow dug into his chest, figuring she was just trying to stand up. But after a few minutes of her struggling, her pushed her off him. She yelled, reaching across to wack him until she spotted the hand he was holding out to her. ''Fucking Hero complex,'' she grumbled, grabbing his hand rather harshly as she stumbled to a standing position.

Jason rose with his sword, Piper alongside him, although the raccoon on her head looked more threatening than her; her cheeks were still stained with tears and her dagger had some of her tofu on it from where she had been poking at her food.

Charlie settled for just one of her daggers, her other arm occupied by hanging around Leo's shoulders, his arm around her waist and other hand holding a large hammer.

''Stay here,'' Jason said, glancing back at Leo and Charlie. ''We'll protect you.''

''Why? Leo's a perfectly good fighter.'' Charlie spoke through gritted teeth. She hated feeling hopeless. She didn't need anyone protecting her.

Then, just outside the firelight at the entrance of the cave, she saw a pair of red eyes glowing in the dark.

More wolves edges into the firelight — black beasts bigger than Great Danes, with ice and snow caked in their fut. Their fangs gleamed, and their glowing 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.

Charlie didn't have the focus to try and translate it, too occupied with the large teeth — how on earth did Little Red Riding Hood belief that that was her grandma? The dead language seemed to have some affect on the animals, however, as the alpha wolf curled his lip. The fur stood up along its spine. One of his lieutenants tried to advance, but the alpha wolf snapped at his ear. Then all the wolves backed into the dark.

''Dude, I really gotta take up 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.''

There was a 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.''

Charlie was doing just fine. Despite the lump in her throat telling her that she was the weak link in their pack right now, she knew that the wolves couldn't smell her fear. Because she wasn't feeling any.

The wolves parted, and the man stepped into the firelight. His hair was greasy and ragged, the colour of fireplace soot, topped with a crown of what looked like finger bones. His robes were tattered fur — wolf, rabbit, deer, a few others and... raccoon. Leo squeaked and pulled Piper's braid over his eyes.

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. But the most horrible thing was his face. 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 their eyes fixed on Jason in absolute hatred.

''Ecce,'' he said. ''Filli Romani.''

''Speak English, wolf man!'' Hedge bellowed.

''Yeah, wolf man!'' Charlie echoed, sticking her tongue out.

It might not have been the time or the place, but Hedge experienced a moment of sorrow then. For a split second, he was taken back to the feisty girl he had picked up and was forced to sling over his shoulder to get to camp. She had never parted from his side after that. It had made him tear up, back then, hearing the young girl called Mr. D 'Cupcake' and then watching her run towards him, giggling as she evaded the