BRIAR WOKE UP cold and shivering.

She'd had the worst dream about an old guy with donkey ears chasing her around and shouting, You're it!

And of golden skin and feeling invincible as she walked into battle, killing everything in her way. But that dream felt like one she'd had before, and it'd unnerved more than the stupid donkey ears.

"Oh my fucking god." Briar's teeth chattered. She curled into herself and nearly cried.

"You're okay now." Jason leaned over and tucked 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?" Briar managed.

"Present and un-gold-ified." Leo was also wrapped in blankets. He didn't look great, but better than Briar felt. "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 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," Briar 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 Briar'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.

Briar looked down at her body. Her skin was tinged blue, not gold, like the dream. "Where's the jacket?" She asked, wanting to feel Reyna's presence around her.

"The jacket?" Jason frowned, and then he realized. "Oh. In Leo's pack. It's still wet—"

"Give me the fucking jacket, Jason," Briar snapped, taking off the blankets around her shoulders.

Him and Leo looked at each other before Leo shrugged and took out the jacket. Leo held it over the fire before giving it to her. Briar breathed in the scent, but Reyna's scent was gone from the water. Stupid golden skin. She put the jacket on anyway, and piled the blankets on herself. "Thanks," she muttered, and she would've meant it more had she not been so grumpy. "Where are we, anyway?"

"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 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," Briar remembered. "Do you think they're around here?"

Jason rubbed his forearm as if the tattoos were bothering him. Briar's weren't bothering her. "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.

"We have to get you warm." Jason sat next to her and held out his arms a little awkwardly. "Uh, you mind if I . . ."

"Yes," Briar said. "I have a girlfriend. And you have a Leo."

Jason's ears turned red. Leo probably would've had he not been cold.

"I have no clue what your status is, Jay," Briar crossed her arms defiantly. "But, gods, I know that men aren't my thing. I mean, did you see how Lantern was flexing his muscles for me? God forbid guys take a hint."

"Briar," Jason started. "Come here or I'll take your jacket away."

"You wouldn't dare."

He raised an eyebrow at her.

She rolled her eyes, but she let his arms wrap around her. They scooted closer to the fire. Coach Hedge chewed on his club and spit splinters into the fire.

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?" Briar 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. Briar 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: the jacket around her, the warmth slowly spreading into her body, but she was terrified. "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," Briar said, grimacing internally at her stupidity, "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?"

Briar 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. Briar could feel the tension in his arms.

"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?" Briar 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." Briar coughed, looking down at her lap. "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 fau — satyrs liked nature," Briar 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. I'll throw them on in a second."

The smell of frying burgers filled the air. It smelled so good. Briar could die happy just like this.

She let out a small sigh. Lying by the fire, surrounded by her friends, Briar's conscience felt like a hot bullet slowing working its way toward her heart. All the guilt she'd been holding in for the last couple days, since the giant Enceladus had first sent her a dream, was about to kill her.

Her friends wanted to help her. Jason even said he'd walk into a trap to save Reyna. And Briar had shut them out.

For all she knew, she'd already doomed Reyna when she attacked Medea.

She choked back a sob. Maybe she'd done the right thing in Chicago by saving her friends, but she'd only delayed her problem. She wanted Reyna, even if she'd already doomed her. She needed to betray her friends if she wanted Reyna.

She tried to imagine what Reyna would say. I understand? That you had no memories and you cared about two people who were there than someone you couldn't remember? There was no way.

Because as much as Briar remembered stuff about Reyna, she didn't know all of it. She didn't have all of the memories of her girlfriend that she wished she had. And it sucked. It really did.

Leo put tofu patties on the skillet. The wind kept raging.

But Briar had made a promise to help on this quest. Her friends were counting on her. They'd saved her when Midas had turned her to gold. They'd brought her back to life. She couldn't repay them with lies.

Gradually, she started to feel warmer. She stopped shivering and rested her head on her knees. Leo handed out the food. Briar didn't want to move, talk, or do anything to disrupt the moment. But she had to.

"We need to talk." She 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 burger. Too late to change her mind now.

"Before I woke up on the Grand Canyon trip," she said, "I had a dream vision — a giant, telling me my girlfriend had been taken hostage. He told me I had to cooperate, or she 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. "Bri, go on. What happened next?"

"I — I kept seeing her everywhere. Reality, dreams . . . she's tied to a stake, close to a purple campfire. She was taken, I'm sure of it."

"By Medea?" Leo asked. "You said something about that."

Briar nodded. "To get Reyna 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."

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 scooted next to her and put his arm around her again. "God, Bri. I'm so sorry."

Leo nodded. "No kidding. You've been carrying this around for a few days? Briar, 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!" Briar said. "I've probably just killed Rey, 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 girlfriend 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?"

Briar 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 girlfriend, or rescue Hera. If you go after Hera, then Enceladus takes care of your girlfriend. Besides, Enceladus would never let you go even if you cooperated. You're obviously one of the eight in the Great Prophecy."

One of the eight. 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. She was just a stupid child of Aphrodite. How could she be worth deceiving and killing?

But a part of her knew that she was important. Those dreams — those thoughts — about gold tinted skin showed that she was important, once. And she might still be important.

"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 girl."

"He's not going to kill Reyna," Leo said. "We'll save her."

"We don't have time!" Briar cried. "Besides, it's a trap."

"We're your friends, Briar Rose," Leo said. "We're not going to let your girlfriend 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."

Briar tried to remember the vista in her dreams. "I don't think so. This was inland. And it definitely wasn't Mount Othrys. And there's no way that the Bay Area has a bad reputation."

She looked over at Jason. He made eye contact with her.

"You think we've been there?" she asked. "Everything was familiar to me. The mountains, the Golden Gate Bridge, everything. I just didn't have a name."

"I . . ." Jason shook his head. "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," Briar and Jason said at the same time.

Leo and Coach Hedge looked at them.

"What do you mean, 'No'?" Leo asked.

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

For a second, nothing. Then Briar heard it: howls piercing the night.