AS A DEMIGOD, BLAIRE SULLIVAN was no stranger to violence or fighting. She'd always been unfortunately acquainted with the desperate swinging of swords, the clashing of armor, and the burn of loss and fear deep within her being. Since she was a girl, a mere child, terror, and fighting were all she knew. So, the tremble of her hands beneath the weight of her new sword was all too familiar.

Jason was calling for Hedge, beckoning the goat toward him with a shakey voice. But, the Satyr proved himself useless once again when he didn't come charging into the room like he claimed he would. Blaire hoped the lasers had gotten him.

Midas chuckled. "No goat to the rescue? Sad. But don't worry, my children. It's really not painful. Lit can tell you."

Jason and Blaire looked at each other. No way they'd let this lunatic man turn them to gold. It was worth trying to fight.

"We chose combat," Jason told them, "You said we could choose to fight Lit instead."

Midas looked mildly disappointed, but he shrugged. "I said you could die fighting Lit. But of course, if you wish."

The king backed away from the teenagers and Lit raised his sword with a devious chuckle. "I'm going to enjoy this," Lit said. "I am the reaper of men."

Blaire raised her own weapon higher, glowering at the aforementioned boy, "And I'm the cursed kin of magic. So let's dance."

  Jason stood beside her, his weapon in hand, this time it was a javelin. He was tilting his head at the boy, teasingly raising his eyebrows. "Come on, Cornhusker. Two against one."

   "Oh, gold weapons," The king greedily chimed in from where he stood off to the side. "Very nice!"

  Then, his son charged.

  Lit was fast, he immediately slashed at Blaire, but she caught his sword with the blade of her own, bringing it to a halt midair allowing Jason to jab at the boy with his javelin, but he narrowly dodged the hit. They repeated this for several seconds, all the while sidestepping Lit's attempts to skewer them with great precision.

  Lit may have been quick. But Jason and Blaire were quicker. It's the only advantage they'd earned from growing up as child warriors. Their moves were sharp and fast, careful and countered.

  Jason's style seemed to differ greatly from both Blaire's and Lit's though. He analyzed the reaper's strategy, which was all offense, no defense. So, he sliced at his unguarded areas. While Blaire matched Lit's style, slicing and blocking his moving sword with little to no effort.

  Together, they were both offense and defense, fighting alongside each other like they'd been doing it their whole lives.

  "What is that style?" Lit growled at Jason, whose windswept blonde hair fell over his icy blue eyes. "You don't fight like a Greek."

"Legion training," Jason admitted, a sly tilt to his voice. "Roman."

Roman? What the—

"Roman?" Lit struck again, and Jason deflected his blade, Blaire slashed again, and this time she got his side, drawing blood. He groaned, obviously pained. "What is Roman?"

"News flash," Jason huffed, "While you were dead, Rome defeated Greece. Created the greatest empire of all time."

"Impossible," Lit scoffed. "Never even heard of them."

While he was distracted with Jason, Blaire kicked his chest harshly, sending him toppling backward into Midas' throne.

"Oh dear, " Midas worried, slowly creeping closer. "Lit?"

"I'm fine," Lit growled, though he obviously wasn't. He seemed winded from the impact of Blaire's hit, and the side of his nightshirt was stained by his own blood.

"Better help your baby boy up," Blaire said, pouting at the injured boy as she spoke. "Looks like he's hurt."

  Lit managed a shakey, "Dad, no!"

  But it was too late, Midas put his hand on his son's shoulder, and suddenly a very angry-looking gold statue was sitting on Midas's throne.

   "Curses!" Midas wailed. "That was a naughty trick, demigod. I'll get you for that." He patted Lit's golden shoulder. "Don't worry, son. I'll get you down to the river right after I collect my prizes."

Blaire rolled her eyes. Bold of this old guy with donkey ears to assume he could collect his prizes still after what he'd seen them do to his son.

He charged, and the demigods leaped in different directions. He went after Jason, who kicked a coffee table at his knees, causing him to fall flat on his face. He wouldn't stay down for long though, this only added fuel to the enraged fire burning within him.

Suddenly, the air pressure dropped and Blaire's ears began popping. Apparently, Midas felt it too, because he began grabbing at his furry ears and cursing. Jason though, stood pridefully, so she assumed he was somehow behind it.

"Ow! What are you doing?" Midas demanded. "My power is supreme here!"

Thunder rumbled above. Outside, the sky turned black.

"You know another good use for gold?" Jason questioned, he locked eyes with Blaire for a second, and she got the memo.

Midas raised his eyebrows, suddenly excited. "Yes?"

"It's an excellent conductor of electricity."

At that, Blaire ducked, suspecting it was wise for whatever he was about to do. And she was right.

Jason raised his javelin, and the ceiling exploded. A
lightning bolt ripped through the roof like it was an eggshell, connected with the tip of Jason's spear, and sent out arcs of energy that blasted the sofas to shreds. Chunks of ceiling plaster crashed down. The chandelier groaned and snapped off its chain, and Midas screamed as it pinned him to the floor. The glass immediately turned into gold.

Blaire, who was crouched behind a gold statue, was unharmed. However, when the rumbling stopped, freezing rain poured into the building. Midas cursed in Ancient Greek, thoroughly pinned under his chandelier. The rain soaked everything, turning the gold chandelier back to glass. Piper and Leo were slowly changing too, along with the other statues in the room. And Blaire was now drenched, from head to toe, her hair hung limply in dark heaps around her stormy eyes.

Then the front door burst open, and Coach Hedge charged in, club at the ready. His mouth was covered with dirt, snow, and grass.

"What'd I miss?" Coach Hedge asked.

"What didn't you miss?" Blaire corrected, standing abruptly.

"Where were you?" Jason demanded. His face was even paler than normal. "I was screaming for help."

Hedge belched, seemingly unaffected by their words. "Getting a snack. Sorry. Who needs killing?"

"No one, now!" Jason said. "Blaire grab Leo. I'll get Piper."

She grunted, preparing to protest, but she figured it probably wasn't appropriate at the moment. So, she reluctantly marched over to Leo, who was slowly but surely returning to flesh, and wrapped an arm around his waist, disgusted.

  "Don't leave me like this!" Midas wailed, obviously terrified.

  All around him, the statues of his victims were turning to flesh—his daughter, his barber, and a whole lot of angry-looking guys with swords.

  Jason grabbed Piper's golden bag and his own supplies. Then, he threw a rug over Lit's statue, hoping to keep him golden for as long as possible.

  "Let's get out of here," Jason told Hedge. "I think these guys will want some quality time with Midas."

   THE GROUP SETTLED inside a cave quite a ways away fron the small town of Omaha in hopes of escaping the harsh winds chilling their joints. However, the cave did little to provide them with any sort of warmth. For, the breeze somehow seeped through the stone walls. A fire dwindled in the center of the small group, who were sporadically placed around the cave's interior.

Blaire stared into the flames, unphased by the bright glow of the embers. She heard Hedge and Jason fretting over an unconscious Piper, who they had to dunk in a lake due to the slow pace at which she was reverting back to flesh. And she heard the howl of the wind outside, thrashing bare tree branches and disrupting the tall heaps of bright snow. Then, came the unsteady voice of a freshly conscious Leo Valdez, who still still lying beside her, huddled beneath quite a few blankets.

  "Where are we?" He asked groggily, rubbing sleep from his brown eyes. His curls were tousled terribly, and his cheeks were flushed from the cold. He looked like an absolute dork. "And what happened?"

Blaire turned to face him with a sigh, silently saying goodbye to her peace. There was no such thing as peace when Leo Valdez was around— and awake.

"A cave somewhere," Blaire informed him with a shrug. The fuzzy material of the blanket she was using brushed against her nose and she scrunched it up slightly, fighting back a sneeze. Leo smiled at that, telling himself the way his cheeks heated up was from the fire in front of them. "And you got turned into a gold statue by Midas. We had to rescue you."

Leo furrowed his eyebrows. "And you weren't turned to gold by Midas?"

  "No," Blaire told him simply, "But I beat his son's ass. Then Jason made the ceiling explode."

  "What?" He said, pulling his knees to his chest in an attempt to preserve some of his body warmth.

  She just turned back to the fire, staring wistfully at the flames. Leo watched her with a small smile, admiring the way she looked beneath the blanket, her face lit up by the flames. Her hair was slightly crimped from the way it had dried after she was doused in rainwater, it fell in front of her face like a dark curtain. In this lightning, from this angle, Blaire looked like what she truly was. A teenage girl. Not a child warrior. Or a cursed being.

   Piper must have awoken, Blaire came to this conclusion because her voice rang over the crackling of flames.

  "Oh, god," Piper yelped, "He turned me to gold!"

  "You're okay now," Jason promised, leaning over her to swaddle her in yet another blanket. Though, she had hypothermia, so Blaire figured that would do little to lessen the chill she felt.

  "L—L—Leo?" Piper managed through chattering teeth. Then, "B—B—Blaire?"

  "We're both over here!" Leo called, raising his hand from his herd of blankets to alert Piper. "Present and ungoldified. I got the precious metal treatment too. 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 told her. "We risked as much nectar as we could. Coach Hedge did a little nature magic—"

  "Sports medicine," The coach corrected him. He was looming over Piper, staring down at 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 offered weakly. "How'd you beat Midas?"

   Jason told the story, putting most of it down to luck. Leo listened intently, desperate to fill in the gaps Blaire left when she'd told him what happened.

  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, his cheeks flushed from the praise. "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—"

  All of them laughed, besides Jason. And Blaire. She never laughed.

  "Coach," said Jason.

  "Yeah?"

  "Shut up, please."

  Okay, that was a lie. Maybe she did laugh sometimes.

  "Sure." The coach sat down at the fire and started chewing his cudgel.

  "Leo, can you stoke the fire?" Jason asked the boy, his hand pressed to Piper's head, checking her body temperature.

The boy lobbed a baseball-sized orb of fire into the dying flames, and a great hue of colors erupted, dancing off the cave walls, reflecting off his high blushing cheekbones and mingling with the soft brown of his eyes.

"Where are we?" Piper asked Jason.

"Pikes Peak," Jason said. "Colorado."

Blaire had been conscious on their venture over, but she hadn't cared enough to ask Jason where they were headed or why in the world they were headed there. Obviously, he knew what he was doing. That was a lot more than what Blaire could say about the whereabouts of her own mentality. So, she let him take the lead, reluctantly trusting his motives.

"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, and almost crashed us into the mountainside before I could get them back in the bag. I'm not going to be trying that again."

The mention of the near-traumatic experience made Blaire shiver. She was incredibly Jason had forfeited the idea before any more ruin could come out of it.

"Why are we here?"

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 some time to rest before we tried moving."

Clearly, Jason knew nothing about the hunters. They could easily withstand any environment. Even the harsh climate of the mountain. It was very possible that they were near. But she didn't feel the need to voice her thoughts.

  Soon, Blaire found it acceptable to zone out, for she didn't think it was very crucial towards the trajectory of the quest to focus on Jason and Piper's random flirting sessions. She didn't necessarily mean to focus on anything in specific, but somehow, her eyes strayed and landed upon Leo. He had whipped out an iron skillet and was now frying patties on it, moving expertise about.

The daughter of Hecate rolled her eyes. She didn't really know why she was rolling her eyes. But it felt right.

Behind Leo, Piper and Jason were huddled together in a tight embrace. This pulled another eye roll from deep within her.

"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—"

Blaire furrowed her brows, cocking her head. "Wheel of fortune?"

When he looked up from his burgers, his expression was deadly serious, ruling out every possibility of him joking.

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

Leo told them about his dream. In the firelight, with the wind howling, the story was even creepier. Blaire 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 not to feel bitter. Though his dad spoke to him in a cryptic series of complaints, his dad still spoke to him. Yet Blaire's mother hadn't even attempted to reach out.

Blaire was the subject of a terrible prophecy concerning her parentage, one she knew scarily little about, yet Hecate had been radio silent. It had been sixteen years without maternal support for Blaire, she didn't know why she thought it would change because of some stupid quest.

While her quest mates had dreams correlating to the quest, she dreamt of things that had no significance. She dreamt of her dead best friends. Typical Blaire.

Piper spoke, her voice wavering. "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."

"Woah," Blaire huffed out a bitter chuckle, "that was like... almost coherent."

Hedge huffed. "What? I'm wise! 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?"

It made sense. All of it. Leo's dragon, who was in perfect condition falling, every monster seemingly aware of their whereabouts. Perhaps a greater force was at play, maybe the sleeping dirt woman who taunted Blaire with another loss.

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."

  "Chiron was the same way back at camp," he said. "He mentioned a sacred oath not to discuss—something. Coach, Blaire, do either of you know anything about that?"

  They must have known about Blaire's experience with the previous war. Or perhaps they pieced together the plethora of context clues regarding her persona, concluding that she'd somehow lost a battle her side won.

  Blaire shifted uncomfortably beneath the eyes trained upon her, awkwardly attempting to muster up words. "Um...when the original great prophecy was still a threat, almost everyone involved vowed upon the river Styx not to speak about it to like, anyone. Maybe it's something like that. I don't know..."

  They nodded, pondering upon her answer, and then they turned to Coach, as if Blaire's explanation wasn't grand enough.

  "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 finished for him. "But you're not that old, are you?"

  "Hundred and six," the coach muttered.

  Blaire spluttered. And 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 longtime. But they started saying I was getting unpredictable. Too violent. Can you imagine?"

  "Actually, I can imagine," Blaire admitted. Piper laughed, keeping her head down so as to not meet the others eyes.

  "I can't," Piper said, trying to keep in the Satyr's good graces. "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 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. Piper's a vegetarian too. I'll throw them on in a second."

  Blaire was not thinking of tofu patties. Or nature. She was thinking of misfortune. She was thinking of how unfair she'd been treated, how unjust life had been to her. No matter how desperate her prayers were, she couldn't seem to find solace in the serenity of a life free of cruelty. Her desperate pleas to the higher forces went unheard, and reality continued to hurtle sadness at the girl.

It wasn't fair. None of it was fair.

Sure, it was odd to elapse into such a train of thought surrounded by others who were trying to stay positive, occupied by upbeat conversations. But, she couldn't help it. The drum of a thousand pounds of grief pounded on the base of her skull. It reminded her of why she shouldn't have accepted this quest. Sure, it was mandatory, she really didn't have a choice. But it just wasn't fair.

The gods had never done anything to help her. They killed her father. They let Sunny die. They watched as she cried, cursing at any deity that might have been listening. They did nothing.

They found entertainment in the way she pleaded for fairness, in the way her youthful hands trembled along with her voice. As the life in her eyes dwindled, elated grins pulled on their mouths, they were charmed by the prospect of terror taunting the girl. She cried, begged whoever was devious enough to listen to take her instead, and they snarled in glee.

The least they could do— the least her mother could do— was watch over her. She could make sure Blaire was safe. But she wouldn't.

Suddenly, Piper spoke, drawing the attention of the others. Blaire was torn from the vengeful vortex of thoughts she'd fallen deep into, and she shook her head, dismissing those thoughts for the times being.

"We need to talk. I don't wanna hide anything from you guys anymore."

They all looked to Piper, mouths full of burger (minus Blaire, her meal sat untouched.)

"Three nights before the Grand Canyon trip," she confessed, "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."

Besides the flames crackling, the cave was silent.

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 four of us. Then after we started the quest, Enceladus sent me another warning: He told me he wanted you three 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."

  Blaire wanted to be angry. Really, she did. Instead, all she felt was sadness. Not for Piper though, but instead for the reflection of her own trembling six-year-old self that she saw in the iris of Piper's eyes. The six year old who would've done anything to save her father, even if that meant luring her innocent friends into a death trap.

  While a part of her was angry that Piper was willing to let them go along for this long, a larger more reasonable part resonated with her.

  Though Blaire knew, Piper was better than her. She would've let her friends walk into the trap. She would've let them die if it meant seeing her dad one more time. But Piper didn't.

  "God, Piper. I'm so sorry," Jason breathed finally, scooting closer toward her.

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

   Piper glared at them. Then at Blaire, who was sitting silently. "Aren't you guys gonna yell at me? Aren't you gonna yell at me, Blaire?"

  She should have. She really should have.

  "Aw, come on," Jason protested. "You've saved us both on this quest. I'd put my life in your hands any day."

  "Same," Leo agreed. "Can I have a hug too?

  "You don't get it!" Piper yelled, the rise of volume in her voice startling the others. "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, silently requesting he continue.

  "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."

  "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 assured her. "We'll save him."

  She wished there had been someone there to say that to her.

  "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. 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 scrunched up her face in thought. "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?" Blaire interrogated, her voice sounding foreign to her ears.

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

  At first, Blaire didn't hear it. Unless the aforementioned it was the rustle of the bare tree branches. Then, a series of sharp howls broke through the night, sending goosebumps down her spine.

LYNN SPEAKS :)
SOOO, the blaire internal angst.

^^this was me writing it btw. this went from a bad ass blairejason bffism chap to a blaire wishing death upon herself chap. no one has made this dramatic of a change yet. no one has made, in my generation, this extreme of a switch. Like yeah. what that bitch said! Anyways, unedited and unproofread because Im a lazy fucker ❤️ Enjoy oomfs!