"Oh, wow," Leo said. "I didn't need to see that. "

"Terrible, isn't it?" Midas sighed. "A few years after the golden touch incident, I judged a music contest between Apollo, your father, I believe, my child, and Pan, and I declared Pan the winner. Apollo, sore loser, said I must have the ears of an ass, and voilà. This was my reward for being truthful. I tried to keep them a secret. Only my barber knew, but he couldn't help blabbing. " Midas pointed out another golden statue—a bald man in a toga, holding a pair of shears. "That's him. He won't be telling anyone's secrets again. "

The king smiled. Suddenly he didn't strike me as a harmless old man in a bathrobe. His eyes had a merry glow to them—the look of a madman who knew he was mad, accepted his madness, and enjoyed it. "Yes, gold has many uses. I think that must be why I was brought back, eh Lit? To bankroll our patron. "

Lit nodded. "That and my good sword arm. "

I glanced at my friends. Suddenly the air in the room seemed much colder.

"So you do have a patron," Jason said. "You work for the giants. "

King Midas waved his hand dismissively. "Well, I don't care for giants myself, of course. But even supernatural armies need to get paid. I do owe my patron a great debt. I tried to explain that to the last group that came through, but they were very unfriendly. Wouldn't cooperate at all. "

My fingers curled around my pendent. "The last group?"

"Hunters," Lit snarled. "Blasted girls from Artemis. "

Jason's eyes widened, and a spark of electricity—a literal spark—travel down his spine. I caught a whiff of electrical fire like he'd just melted some of the springs in the sofa.

Thalia, Jason's sister had been here.

"When?" he demanded. "What happened?"

Lit shrugged. "Few days ago? I didn't get to kill them, unfortunately. They were looking for some evil wolves, or something. Said they were following a trail, heading west. Missing demigod—I don't recall. "

Percy, I thought. Annabeth had asked the Hunters to go on his trail. Jason turning up now, the Hunters on the same track as us, Percy's disappearance. It had to be connected somehow. The Fates were cruel.

Midas scratched his donkey ears. "Very unpleasant young ladies, those Hunters," he recalled. "They absolutely refused to be turned into gold. Much of the security system outside I installed to keep that sort of thing from happening again, you know. I don't have time for those who aren't serious investors. "

Jason stood warily and glanced at us. We got the message.

"Well," Piper said, managing a smile. "It's been a great visit. Welcome back to life. Thanks for the gold bag. "

"Oh, but you can't leave!" Midas said. "I know you're not serious investors, but that's all right! I have to rebuild my collection. "

Lit was smiling cruelly. The king rose, and Leo and Piper and I moved away from him.

"Don't worry," the king assured them. "You don't have to be turned to gold. I give all my guests a choice—join my collection, or die at the hands of Lityerses. Really, it's good either way. "

Piper tried to use her charmspeak. "Your Majesty, you can't—"

Quicker than any old man should've been able to move, Midas lashed out and grabbed her wrist.

"No!" Jason and I yelled at the same time.

But a frost of gold spread over Piper, and in a heartbeat she was a glittering statue. Leo tried to summon fire, but he'd forgotten his power wasn't working. Midas touched his hand, and Leo transformed into solid metal.

I was so horrified, I couldn't move. Then, Midas reached forward, and the last thing I saw was a golden mist shimmering it's way up my hand.


The girl with the fuzzy hair looked like she wanted to run. Opposite her were two woman, one who was painfully familiar, and kept reminding me of the sea of monsters. Three guards were in the room. All of them kept their distance. The familiar one was armed with just a dagger. I sensed this was deep underground, and it could collapse on them any moment. Even though I didn't know this girl, I didn't want her to go die alone in a cave. Unfortunately, these girls looked like they could fight. Even though the familiar one had only a dagger, I suspected she could use it pretty well. And the dark girl was unarmed. She patted her jacket pocket, which made me curious to know what was inside. The taller woman stared at her intently, seeming to be reading her thoughts.

"Forget about escape. Of course, we'd respect you for trying. But we'd have to kill you."

"Thanks for the warning."

Hylla shrugged. "The least I can do. I believe you come in peace. I believe Reyna sent you."

Again. That name. Reyna.

"But you won't help?" The queen-like figure studied a necklace-oh Gods! It was Percy's camp half blood necklace.

"It's complicated," she said. "Amazons have always had a rocky relationship with other demigods — especially male demigods. We fought for King Priam in the Trojan War, but Achilles killed our queen, Penthesilea. Years before that, Hercules stole Queen Hippolyta's belt — this belt I'm wearing. It took us centuries to recover it. Long before that, at the very beginning of the Amazon nation, a hero named Bellerophon killed our first queen, Otrera."

"You mean the lady — "

" — who just left, yes. Otrera, our first queen, daughter of Ares."

"Mars?"

There again. The Roman names. So much was familiar about this vision, yet it was so foreign.

The queen made a sour face.

"No, definitely Ares. Otrera lived long before Rome, in a time when all demigods were Greek. Unfortunately, some of our warriors still prefer the old ways. Children of Ares... they are always the worst."

"The old ways. . ." The girl with fluffy hair looked confused. I could tell she never believed it, even when Percy came to her camp. She didn't look convinced.

"You mean the Amazons are a mix. . .Greek and Roman?"

The queen continued to examine the necklace — the clay beads, a wax tablet. She slipped Reyna's silver ring off the cord and put it on her own finger. "I suppose they don't teach you about that at Camp Jupiter. The gods have many aspects. Mars, Ares. Pluto, Hades. Being immortal, they tend to accumulate personalities. They are Greek, Roman, American — a combination of all the cultures they've influenced over the eons. Do you understand?"

"I — I'm not sure. Are all Amazons demigods?" The queen spread her hands. "We all have some immortal blood, but many of my warriors are descended from demigods. Some have been Amazons for countless generations. Others are children of minor gods. Kinzie, the one who brought you here, is the daughter of a nymph. Ah — here she is now."

The girl with the auburn hair approached the queen and bowed.

"The prisoners are safely locked away," Kinzie reported. "But..."

"Yes?" the queen asked. Kinzie swallowed like she had a bad taste in her mouth. "Otrera made sure fire followers are guarding the cells."


I woke up, shivering with a blanket around my shoulders.

"Oh, gods." My teeth chattered. "He turned me to gold!"

"I think you're good now. " Leo leaned over and threw a fuzzy blanket over my head, but I still felt as cold as a Boread. "Sorry." He grinned sheepishly.

"Why?" I asked.

"We, ah, sorta raided you supplies. We didn't know where else to look."

I shook my head. "It's fine."

I blinked, trying to figure out where we were. Next to me, a campfire blazed, turning the air sharp with smoke. Firelight flickered against rock walls. We 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.

"Piper, Jason, Leo? You guys okay?"

"Present and un-gold-ified." Leo was also wrapped in blankets. He didn't look great, but better than I felt. "I got the precious metal treatment too," he said. "But we came out of it faster. Dunno why. We had to dunk Piper in the river to get her back completely. Tried to dry you off, Pipes, 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 bent 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. "

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

Jason told her 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.

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?" I asked, surprised.

"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 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 guys some time to rest before we tried moving. "

He most certainly didn't need to convince me. The wind howling outside the cave scared me, and I couldn't stop shivering. Piper sniffed.

"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, but she failed. And she made herself look like an utter fool.

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. I pulled the blankets around me closer, but I could already feel my Apollo powers kick in.

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?" I 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 us about his dream. In the firelight, with the wind howling, the story was even creepier. I 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. I hoped one of those friends wasn't me.

I tried to concentrate on something good: All my friends around me, Leo next to me, graphically telling the story in the fast, nervous way that I loved.

"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," I deadpanned, "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. Well, apart from you Maxwell. You were on the front lines. Literally." Everyone looked at me. I shrugged it off. "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?"

I shuddered. I'd had a similar thought—that some force we couldn't see was manipulating things behind the scenes, helping the giants. Maybe the same force was keeping monsters and giants informed about their movements, and had even knocked their dragon out of the sky over Detroit. Perhaps 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 in his place uncomfortably. His ripped muscles were tensed.

"Chiron was the same way back at camp," I remembered. "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.

I coughed so hard Leo had to slap me on the back. "Say what?"

"Don't catch your panties on fire, Maxwell. 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. " I tried not to look at my friends. "That's hard to believe."


Hey guys! So I won't be uploading for a bit 'cause I'm going to Barcelona! Finally time to put some of my Google translated Spanish to use! All hail Leo. All hail. Hail.

Yours,

MilkandCheez

P.S- Find the hot.

coldcoldcoldcoldcoldcoldcoldcoldcoldcoldcoldcoldcoldcoldcoldcoldcoldcoldcoldcoldcoldcoldcoldcoldcoldcoldcoldcoldcoldcoldcoldcoldcoldcoldcoldcoldcoldcoldcoldcoldcoldcoldcoldcoldcoldleovaldezcoldcoldcoldcoldcoldcoldcoldcoldcoldcoldcoldcoldcoldcoldcoldcold.

Just something to think about.