Mia woke up cold and shivering. She was in someone's arms, but they had a scent that made her want to stay there forever.

She'd had the worst dream about an old guy with donkey ears, and he turned her, Leo, and Piper to gold, but Jason had fight the old guy's son.

"Oh, god." Her teeth chattered. "He turned me to gold!"

"You're okay now," Jason said, as he tossed a warm blanket around her, but she still felt as cold as a Boread.

She blinked, trying to figure out where they were. 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 too dark to tell.

"L-L-Leo?" Mia managed.

"Present and un-goldified." Leo was the one who she was sitting on, and he also wrapped in blankets. Mia wanted to kiss him in relief. "I got the precious metal treatment too. But I came out of it faster. Dunno why. We had to dunk you and Piper 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, as he grabbed Piper's hand, who was also awake. "We risked as much nectar as we could. Coach Hedge did a little nature magic—"

"Sports medicine." The coach's ugly face loomed over her. "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."

"How can I kiss you if you smell like Gatorade?!" Leo said as Mia glared at him.

"Leo, shut up."

Piper said weakly. "How did you beat Midas?"

Jason told them the story, putting most of it down to 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 started chewing his cudgel.

Leo put his hand on Mia's forehead and checked her temperature. Jason looked at him, "Leo, can you stoke the fire?"

"On it." Leo summoned a baseball-sized clump of flames and lobbed it into the campfire. Nearly killed Mia.

"Leo, watch it with the fire!" Mia said. Leo grinned.

"Do I look that bad?" Mia shivered.

"Nah," Leo said.

"You're a terrible liar," she said, as she turned to Jason. "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."

Jason gazed into the storm as if watching for something. "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 spits 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," Mia remembered. "Do you think they're around here? I haven't talked to most of them in a long time-"

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."

He didn't need to convince her. The wind howling outside the cave scared her, and she couldn't stop shivering. Mia watched as Jason looked over at Piper.

"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.

He put his arms around her and held her. They scooted closer to the fire. Coach Hedge chewed on his club and spit splinters into the fire. Leo kissed Mia's head and got up.

Leo broke out some cooking supplies and started frying burger patties on an iron skillet.

"So, guys, long as you're cuddled up for storytime … 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?" Mia assumed Leo was kidding, but when he looked up from his burgers, his expression was deadly serious.

"The thing is," he said, "―my dad Hephaestus talked to me."

Leo told them about his dream. In the firelight, with the wind howling, the story was even creepier. Mia 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.

Mia puts a hand to her forehead, and Piper looks at Mia, "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 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 as Medea influenced us?"

Mia shuddered. She'd 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 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."

Jason shifted.

"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?"

Coach Hedge looked at the fire, "Hundred and six," Mia muttered for him.

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 for 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. "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 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."

Mia placed her hands together, "And... my mom talked to me too."

Everyone looked at Mia. "Really?" Jason asked, "What did she say?"

Mia began to blush, and she looked down, "I have my own Prophecy."

"Well, that's your luck, babe," Leo said.

"Don't call me babe." Mia said, "And it's not like that. I have to go with the Seven.. and-"

Mia paused, and Piper seemed to get it. The boys were clueless.

"What?" Leo asked.

"It's a LOVE prophecy, Valdez." Mia said, "It's not like, "oh someone is going to die" type of prophecy, it's, "someone is going to die because of your lover's choice" prophecy."

Leo seemed upset, "Lover?"

"It's the son of the god of blacksmith." Mia whispered, "Son of Hephetusus. That means Leo."

Leo's head perked up, "You love me?"

Mia was blushing so badly, "Keep your eyes on the food, Valdez."

Leo handed out the food and grinned at Mia's face. Their eyes locked. Piper broke the tension.

"We need to talk." Piper sat up so she could face Jason. "I don't want to hide anything from you guys anymore."

They looked at her with their mouths full of burgers.

"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."

Piper wouldn't meet her friends' eyes. She was probably waiting for them to yell at her, or turn their backs, or kick her out into the snowstorm.

Instead, 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."

"Your pretty stupid if you thought we wouldn't," Mia added.

Piper 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. "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," Mia 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. She'd talked about this before with Jason and Leo, and she supposed it must be true, but she still had trouble believing it. She didn't feel that important. Piper and Mia were just a stupid child of Aphrodite. Mia has fought in battles before, but how could Piper be worth deceiving and killing?

"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."

"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. The 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. 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 Piper heard it: howls piercing the night.

"Wolves," Mia said. "They sound close."

Jason rose and summoned his sword. Leo and Coach Hedge got to their feet too. Mia and Piper tried, but black spots danced before their eyes.

"Stay there," Jason told her. "We'll protect you."

Mia gritted her teeth. She hated feeling helpless. She didn't want anyone to protect her. She can't even believe she has stupid hypothermia. She wanted to be on her feet, with a sword in her hand.

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

Mia wanted to get up and attack it, but her headache even worse than before.

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.

Mia made an arrow appear in her hand. Then Jason stepped forward and said something in Latin.

Mia didn't think a dead language would have much effect on wild animals, but the alpha wolf curled his lip. 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. "Shit. 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."

"We're not leaving you, dad." Mia said, "You're stupid to even suggest that."

Then Mia 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."

Mia got a lump in her throat. She was the weak link in their ―pack right now. No doubt the wolves could smell her fear. She might as well be wearing a sign that said free lunch.

The wolves parted, and the man stepped into the firelight. His hair was greasy and ragged, the color of fireplace soot, topped with a crown of what looked like finger bones.

His robes were tattered fur—wolf, rabbit, raccoon, deer, and several others Mia couldn't identify. The furs didn't look cured, and from the smell, they weren't very fresh. His frame was lithe and muscular, like distance runners. 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 they fixed on Jason with absolute hatred.

"Ecce," he said, "fill Romani."

"Speak English, wolfman!" Hedge bellowed.

The wolfman snarled. "Tell your faun to mind his tongue, son of Rome. Or he'll be my first snack."

Mia remembered that faun was the Roman name for exactly helpful information. Now, if she could remember who this wolf guy was in Greek mythology, and how to defeat him, that she could use.

The wolfman studied their little group. His nostrils twitched. "So it's true," he mused. "Children of Aphrodite. A son of Hephaestus. A faun. And a child of Rome, of Lord Jupiter, no less. Altogether, 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 in the darkness.

Out of the corner of her eye, Mia saw Leo put up his hammer and slip something else from his tool belt—a glass bottle full of clear liquid.

Mia racked her brain trying to place the wolf guy's name. She knew she'd heard it before, but she couldn't remember the details.

Lycaon glared at Jason's sword. He moved to each side as if looking for an opening, but Jason's blade moved with him.

"Leave," Jason ordered. "There's no food for you here."

"Unless you want tofu burgers," Leo offered.

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," Mia 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.

"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 a 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."

Mia's heart tried to jump out of her chest. She didn't understand everything Lycaon had said, but a woman who wanted to kill Jason? Medea, she thought. Somehow, she must've survived the explosion.

Piper struggled to her feet. Mia was sure that spots were dancing before her eyes again. The cave seemed to spin.

"You're going to leave now," Piper said, "―before we destroy you."

Mia could hear Piper trying to put power into the words, but she was too weak. Shivering in her blankets, pale and sweaty and barely able to hold a knife, she couldn't have looked very threatening.

Lycaon's red eyes were 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, is dinner."

At that moment, Piper knew she was going to die. But at least she'd die on her feet, fighting next to Jason.

Jason took a step forward. "You're not killing anyone, wolfman. 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.

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?"

Mia summoned silver arrows and aimed her arrow at the wolves. She probably looked pretty pathetic, sitting down and aiming arrows.

"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. Mia aimed three arrows and hit three wolves at the same time.

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.

"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, or Mia would aim an arrow at them, 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?"

"My bracelet isn't working." Mia gasped, "Damnit!"

"Nothing," Jason said. "Not even a weapon that works."

"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. Leo pulled his hammer out of his pack. Piper raised her dagger—not much, but it was all she had. Coach Hedge hefted his club, and he was the only one who looked excited about dying. An arrow finally appeared in Mia's hand. She aimed it at the nearest wolf-

Then a ripping sound cut through the wind—like a piece of torn cardboard. A long stick sprouted from the neck of the nearest wolf—the shaft of a silver arrow. The wolf writhed and fell, melting into a puddle of shadow. But it wasn't Mia who aimed it-

More 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."

The wolf king disappeared into the night. Seconds later, Mia heard 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. Mia stood up and shook her head. Don't mind the pain, and run after the wolves.

Mia ran after the wolves, shaking her head every once in a while. She hit seven with one shot. Behind her were the hunters.

"We've got this, Mia!" Ava, one of the nicest hunters, screamed. Mia nodded and waved.

"After this quest, we totally need to go out on a girl's night!" Mia shouted after her. Mia walked to her friends, only to see one of her old friends.

"You're that girl," Piper guessed. "You're Thalia."

Mia watched the girl tensed. Thalia pulled down her parka hood. Her hair was spiky black, with a silver tiara across her brow. Her face had a super-healthy glow to it as if she were a little more than human, and her eyes were a brilliant blue. She was the girl from Jason's photograph.

"Do I know you?" Thalia asked.

Piper took a breath. "This might be a shock, but—"

"Thalia." Jason stepped forward, his voice trembling. "I'm Jason, your brother."