Gradually, she started to feel warmer. She stopped shivering and settled against Jason’s chest. Leo handed out the food. Piper 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.
“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. ”
She couldn’t meet h
er 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, Piper. I’m so sorry. ”
Leo nodded. “No kidding. You’ve been carrying this around for a week? Piper, 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!” 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,” 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. ”
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. She was just a stupid child of Aphrodite. How could she 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. 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?”