chapter eighteen

─── good time for a family gathering

          𝔓iper woke up with a start, scaring me half to death in the process.

"Gods above!" 

"He turned me to gold!" Piper screeched in response as I pressed a hand to my heart. "Oh god."

"You're alright." I placated, but I'm not sure whether that was for me or for her. I leant closer, tucking a warm blanket around her. The storm continued on outside.

"Leo?" Piper stammered out.

"Present and moveable." Leo waved his hand, looking far paler than I think I'd ever seen him and we'd been in some dire conditions together. "I came out faster, not sure why. Had to dunk you in the river to get you back completely but it's cold."

"You've got hypothermia." I explained to Piper. "We risked as much nectar as we could. Coach Hedge did some nature magic."

"Sports medicine!" Coach Hedge interjected as I shot Piper a look, shaking my head. It had been a little grim, even if I did say so myself.

"Thanks." Piper nodded. "How did you beat the king?"

I told her most of it, leaving out the Roman bit considering that was all still a bit odd. Having no memories sucked.

"Kid's being modest. You should have seen her. Hi-yah! Slice! Boom with lightning!" The coach grinned.

"You didn't even see it." I pointed out. "You were outside eating the lawn."

But the satyr kept going as I sank further down against the rock that I was laying back against. I let him ramble for a few minutes before sighing.

"Coach."

"Yeah?" He grinned.

"Please, stop it." I shook my head. I checked her temperature, before turning back to Leo, checking his temperature as well. "Are you alright to stoke the fire?"

"Do you think I'm that weak?" Leo chuckled, before stoking the fire as we all sat back down.

"How bad do I look?" Piper muttered, glancing at me as I nodded. "Oh, that bad."

"Could be better, for sure. You sort of look like you've been hit by a bus."

"Thanks." I grinned in response. "Where are we?"

"Pikes Peak, Colorado. About five hundred miles from Omaha." I explained. "I used the storm spirits to get us here. They didn't like it, went a little faster than I wanted and almost crashed us into the mountain but I got them back into the bag. Learnt from that."

It had not been fun in the slightest and involved a lot of screaming from me and Coach Hedge as we tried to work out how to harness storm spirits. No easy feat.

"Why are we here?" Piper question as Leo sniffed, ruffling his curls.

"That's what I asked her." I turned back to the storm, watching the snow fall outside of the cave as I pulled the coat tighter around me.

"That vapour trail. It was still in the sky, but faded and I followed it until I couldn't see it anymore." I explained. "I'm not sure, this just felt like the right place to stop."

"Course it is." Coach Hedge nodded. "Because Aeolus' floating palace should be anchored above us, right at the peak. It's one of his favourite place to dock."

"Maybe that was it." My eyebrows furrowed, but I didn't think that was the only reason. Not in my gut at least. "I don't know."

"The Hunters were heading west." Piper mentioned softly. "Do you think they're around here?"

My tattoo ached and I scratched at it absentmindedly. 

"I don't see how anyone could survive on this mountain right now." I explained. "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."

The wind howled outside of the cave, and Piper continued to shiver. I shrugged my windbreaker off, wrapping it around her shoulders.

"We have to get you warm." I explained, before wrapping an arm around her as well, smiling softly as she scooted closer. We got ever closer to the fire as Leo placed a frying pan down, pulling burger patties out for all of us. He began to cook.

"On the way to Omaha, I had this dream. It was kind of hard to understand and there was static, and the Wheel of Fortune." Piper and I shot each other confused look, "The thing is, my dad spoke to each other. He told me that the giants were the sons of Tartarus and that I would lose friends. Typical, positive father-son bonding. Oh, and demigods and gods have to work together to defeat giants."

"I don't understand. Demigods and gods have to work together, so why are the gods silent?" I rubbed my temple, rolling my shoulders out. "If they need us-"

Coach Hedge snorted.

"The gods despise needing mortals, they want to be needed by mortals. Lord Zeus will let things get far worse before admitting that he might have made a mistake." He explained. "After the Giant War, they hate talking about it but it's why they need mortals."

"When I dreamed about Hera in her cage, she said that her husband was acting unusually paranoid." I nodded along to Coach Hedge's thoughts. "I guess that would have something to do with it."

"Yes, my dad said something similar." Leo ran a hand through his hair. "But what bothers me was the things he didn't say, what I could read between the lines. He was talking about demigods and how he had so many kids but he acted like getting the Nine together was almost impossible, like Hera was stupid to try and there was something he couldn't tell me."

I winced, tensing as I thought of the things about the Romans. Hera and Lupa's words were making more and more sense, not to mention Octavian. He had said that spilling blood on the altar was an Ancient Rome tradition. Everything was becoming more plausible.

"There was a sacred oath not to discuss something." I scratched the brand on my arm. "Did you not know, Coach?"

"No, 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 questioned. "You're not that old, are you?"

"Hundred and six." The coach muttered.

"Say what?" Leo choked.

"Don't catch your pants on fire, Valdez. That's fifty-three in human years. 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?"

The three of us shared a look. 

"Then, finally, we get a good war going with the Titans and do I get put on the front lines? No!" Coach Hedge shook his head. "They sent me as far away as possible - the Canadian frontier. Then after the war, I got put out to pasture. The Wilderness School. Like I'm too old to be helpful just because I like playing offence. All those flower-pickers on the Council, talking about nature."

"I thought satyrs liked nature." Piper spoke what all of us thought as Leo shuffled closer.

"I love nature." Hedge nodded. "Nature means big things killing and eating little things and when you're a vertically challenged satyr, you get in good shape, you carry a big stick and you don't take nothing from no one! That's nature." 

The burgers in the pan sizzled.

"There better be vegetarian food in that pan, Valdez."

"Coach, don't worry. Piper's a vegetarian too. They're almost done!" Leo explained, as I chuckled. Despite it all, it was slightly funny. 

Gradually, the fire started to feel warmer. Piper stopped shivering, handing me back my coat as I pulled it on, patting the pockets to make sure that everything was still there. Leo handed out the food, all of us chowing down.

"We need to talk." Leo and I froze, before twisting to look at Piper, who's hands were clutched in her fist. "I don't want to hide anything from you guys anymore. Three nights before the Grand Canyon Trip I had a dream, a vision—a giant, telling me my father had been taken hostage. He told me I had to cooperate, or my dad would be killed." 

Well, I didn't know what to say to that.

"Shit." Leo muttered as I nodded. "I'm so sorry, Piper."

"I don't want sympathy." Piper shook her head. "I should have told you earlier. That's my fault."

"You mentioned the giant before." I pointed out. "Enceladus?"

"Big giant. Breathes fire." Coach Hedge whistled.

"What happened next?" I cut Coach Hedge off before he could continue and freak Piper out any further.

"I tried to reach my dad but all I got was his personal assistant and she told me not to worry. The princess was controlling her and to get my dad back, I had to sabotage this quest. I didn't realise it would be the three of us." Piper hurried to explain, speaking so quickly I thought she would trip over her own words. "Then Enceladus sent me another warning, that he wanted you two dead and he wants me to lead you to a mountain in the Bay Area by noon tomorrow, on the solstice for an exchange." 

Piper took a deep breath. She didn't look up, or attempt to meet our eyes. I sighed, before wrapping an arm around her.

"I'm really sorry that you've been going through this alone, Piper." I squeezed her gently.

"You've been carrying this around for a week? Piper, we could help you."

"Why aren't you two yelling? I was ordered to kill you!" She looked between the both of us as I shrugged.

"You've saved us both on this quest." I smiled, guilt weighing me down. I hadn't told either of them about Octavian, or Reyna. I'd kept that a secret, maybe I should tell them? "I'd put my life in your hands any day."

Leo came bundling over, wrapping an arm around us both.

"It's alright."

"You don't get it. I've probably just killed my dad." Piper whispered, as Leo squeezed the both of us tighter.

"I doubt it." Coach Hedge shook his head, eating his vegetarian burger like a taco with his paper plate. "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."

"Classic hostage situations." I nodded along. "He wants the quest diverted. It means we can rule off Hera being in the same place. She has to be somewhere else so the choice will be save your dad or save Hera."

"Enceladus would never let you go even if you cooperated. It means that the three of you are in that Great Prophecy." Coach Hedge pointed out. "That's why they want you dead or kept in one place."

"So we have no choice." Piper slumped, as Leo and I tried to comfort her. "We have to save Hera or the giant king gets unleashes. That's our quest, the world depends on it and Enceladus will know if we go the wrong way and he'll kill my dad."

"He's not going to kill your dad." Leo brushed it off, all of us sitting together. "We'll save him."

"We don't have time!" Piper cried. "It's a trap."

"Love a trap." I muttered as Piper and Leo watched me cautiously. "You know what your walking into. Just got to form a good plan."

"Would help if we knew where this mountain was." Coach Hedge pointed out. "Aeolus could tell you that. The Bay Area has a bad reputation for demigods, old home of the Titans and all. Mount Tam, where Atlas holds up the sky."

There was a pang in my memory and I winced. I knew that name, but I didn't know how. God, amnesia was terrible.

"Bay Area. Bad reputation...?" I shook my head. "That's not right."

"You've been there?" Piper turned towards me. I sat up, rubbing my head. It was almost there, on the tip of my tongue but I just couldn't work it out.

"Stupid amnesia." I growled, rubbing my head. "What happened to it?"

"Titan Lord of Time built a new palace there last summer. Big, nasty place, was going to be the Western Seaboard's Head Quarters. He marched on Manhattan, tried to take it over. He left some other Titans in charge of his palace, but after the Lord of Time was defeated, the palace crumbled on its own."

"No." I could remember something. There were flashes of a palace, of black marble, blood and golden ichor spilling across the floor, lightning crackling and Octavian, Octavian was there too. He was reaching for me.

"What do you mean, no?" Leo shook his head. 

"That's not what happened." Why wasn't the memory coming back? What did the blood and ichor on the floor mean? "I-"

I stopped, looking towards the cave entrance as I shifted onto the balls of my feet. There was something out there, something moving in the snow. On four paws, that at least I could tell.

"Did you hear that?" For a second, there was nothing, then howls filled the air. "Wolves. They sound close."

I summoned my sword, as Leo and Coach Hedge got to their feet too. Piper tried to, gritting her teeth.

"Stay down." I warned her. "We'll protect you. Rest."

Wolves edged into the firelight, red eyes glowing in the darkness, ice and snow caked to their fur. Their fangs gleamed, snapping towards us as my lips curled and I snarled in response. The largest was the same size as a wolf, mouth stained like he'd just made a fresh kill.

"Leave." I was sure that this was Latin, and I would tell you how I knew it but I couldn't. "Leave and no one has to be harmed. If you do not, I shall have to kill all of you."

The main wolf curled his lips, snarling at me as the other wolves tried to advance closer. They were snapped back as I gritted my teeth.

"I gotta study Latin." Leo pulled a hammer free, holding it in his hands. "What'd you say, Cress?"

"Whatever it was, it wasn't enough." Coach Hedge pointed out. The wolves were coming back but they didn't attack. Instead, they waited, blocking the cave exit. "Here's the plan. I'll kill them all, you guys escape."

There was a silhouette of man through the storm, wading through the wolf pack.

"Stick together. They respect a pack." I commanded. "Nothing stupid."

I motioned for them to draw together, putting Piper behind the three of us as the man stepped into the firelight. He had greasy hair and his robes were patched together furs, though it stank of rot. His face was pulled tight over his skull, teeth sharpened into fangs and eyes glowing red.

I narrowed my eyes as he opened his mouth.

"Ecce, filia romae." He grinned, though hatred filled his eyes.

"Speak English!" Hedge bellowed.

"Tell your faun to mind his tongue, daughter of Rome." He observed all of us. "So, it is true. A child of Aphrodite, a son of Hephaestus, a Faun and a child of Rome. Of Lord Jupiter, no less. All together without killing each other. Interesting."

"Who told you about us?" 

"We've been patrolling, hoping to find you. The Giant King will reward me well when he rises." The wolf man snarled, a sort of laughter. "I am Lycaon, king of wolves. My pack is hungry."

"Good for them." I nodded. "Leave now, there is no food for you here."

I followed his form with my sword, as he huffed.

"Unless you want tofu burgers." All the wolves bared their fangs, obviously not impressed with the idea of vegetarian food.

"If I had my way, I would gut you, daughter of Jupiter." He howled. "Your father made me what I am. I had fifty fine sons, and Jupiter slew them all with high lightning bolts!"

"My father is the god of justice, I am sure he had a good reason." I grinned.

"Lycaon invited Zeus to dinner and fed him human flesh." Coach Hedge explained. "Zeus killed his sons and turned him to a wolf."

"Lycanthropes, the first werewolf." Piper nodded her head. "I know this story now."

"A mutt." Coach Hedge laughed as Lycaon growled.

"I will tear you apart!"

"Enough!" I snapped.

"You, Child of Rome, are spoken for." Lycaon pointed at me. "Since the other girl has failed to kill you, you are to be delivered alive to the wolf House. One of my compatriots had asked for the honour of killing you herself."

"Brilliant." I grinned. Sounded fun if you asked me.

"Apparently you made quite the impression of her." I rolled my eyes as Lycaon snarled. "Spilling your blood at the Wolf House will mark my new territory quite well. Lupa shall think twice of challenging me."

"Lupa's going to eat you alive." I shrugged.

"I only need you alive. The rest of you, I'm afraid, are dinner." Lycaon scowled.

"You're not killing anyone." I shook my head, rolling my eyes. This was all stupid. Why did enemies feel the need to monologue. I slashed through him, my eyebrows furrowing as I realised that the gold wasn't going to hurt him. "Shit."

"Silver!" Piper cursed. "We need silver."

"We don't have silver." Leo reminded them as the wolves came rushing forward. He launched a vile of gasoline towards them, before setting them alight. The wolves yelped and retreated, covering themselves in snow as Lycaon looked uneasily.

"I can't hit them if they're over there." Coach Hedge cursed as Leo kept shooting fire at them.

"I can't summon anymore accelerant." Leo called. "Your turn, Cress. You got anything?

"Nope. Not a weapon that works either." I pulled a face. This was going well. Now, we were going to be eaten by wolves. 

"Lightning?" Piper suggested but I shook my head. I didn't have the power and I was still far too in pain around my shoulders to continue. "Venti?"

"We can't unleash them, need to give them to Aeolus." Leo brushed sweat from his forehead. "We'll have done all this for nothing."

"I can smell your fear." Lycaon laughed and snarled at us. "A few more minutes of life, heroes. Pray to your gods for I will show you no mercy."

The flames started to sputter out, and I pushed my pain down, ready to call lightning to us if I really had to. I tried thinking back to my memories of the wolves training me, but all I knew was that this required hand to hand fighting. I dropped the sword, crouching down as I got ready to go.

Then a ripping sound cut through the wind, the shaft of a silver arrow sprouting from the neck of the nearest wolf. I paused, blinking a few times as more arrows began to fly into the pack. The pack broke in confusion, as an arrow flashed towards Lycaon. The wolf king caught it in mid-air, before dropping it and howling in pain.

It left a charred, smoking gash across his palm as another arrow caught him in the shoulder.

"Curse them!" Lycaon yelled, growling towards hi pack as the wolves turned and ran. I stood up, rolling out my shoulder as Lycaon fixed his eyes on me. "This isn't over, girl."

He disappeared into the storm as another sound joined the howling. It was like a hunting dog, less like a wolf. A smaller, white wolf burst into the cave, followed by two more.

"Kill it?" Hedge asked?

"No." Piper snapped back. "Wait."

The wolves tilted their heads, studying us all. A moment later, their owners appeared. It was a troop of hunters in white and grey winter camouflage, easily a dozen or so. Their faces were covered with hoods and mask, quivers of glowing arrows on their back. One, a little taller than the rest, snatched the arrow up that had wounded Lycaon's hand.

"So close." She spat in annoyance. "Phoebe, stay with me. Watch the entrance. The rest of you, follow Lycaon. We can't lose him now. I'll catch up with you."

The rest of the Hunters agreed, disappearing after Lycaon's pack.

"We've been following that demon's trail for over a week. Is everyone alright? No one got bit?" That voice was familiar, I knew it. I was sure that I knew it. I watched the girl carefully, waiting for her to turn back towards me. She spoke like I did, formed words the same and the accent was so similar.

"You're her." Piper nudged my back. "You're Thalia."

The Hunter tensed, pulling down her hood. She was so different to me.

Unlike my blonde hair, that was pulled back into a long braid, hers was short and black. A silver circlet lay across her brow but her eyes were bright blue, like mine. She was the girl in the photograph, the one who had been with Luke and Annabeth.

"Do I know you?" Thalia's eyebrows furrowed.

"This might be a shock, but-" Piper stopped as I tilted my head.

"Thalia." She turned to me. "I'm Cressida. I'm your sister."

∘☽༓☾∘

Hiya,

So, Thalia's here, I just love the trio because they're so much fun and they all live to make each other stressed, which I respect. the image of Coach Hedge and Cress screaming as they tried to get the venti to behave does also make me laugh.

Let me know what you think,

Love Li xx