Chapter 24

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Chapter 24

Stuck in a cave

PIPER 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!

"Oh, god." Piper's teeth chattered. "He turned me to gold!"

"Yup," Vivian says. Vivian touched Piper and all the water was of her and she was dry, but cold. Shivering in the cold winter wind.

"You're okay now." Jason leaned over and tucked a warm blanket around her, but she still felt as cold as ice.

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?" Piper managed.

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

"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."

"I tried to use my healing water. It didn't get rid of the hyperthermia, but your once broken ankle is now fully healed.

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

Jason told her the story and how Vivian came up with the idea. And how Vivian beat Lit.

"Remind me to never get on your bad side." Leo laughed.

The coach snorted. "They're being modest. You should've seen them. Hi-yah! Slice! Boom with the lightning! Then Bam! Vivian with the storm!"

"Coach, you didn't even see it," Jason said. "You were outside eating the lawn."

But the satyr was just getting started. "Then I came in with my club, and we dominated that room. Afterward, I told him, 'Kids, I'm proud of you! If you could just work on your upper body strength—'"

"Coach," said Vivian.

"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, Vivian, could you stoke the fire?"

"On it Superman!" Vivian and Leo created a fireball the size of a tennis ball and threw it in the campfire.

"Do I look that bad?" Piper shivered.

"Nah," Jason said.

"You're a terrible liar," she said. "Where are we?"

"Pikes Peak," Vivian said. "Colorado."

"But that's, what—five hundred miles from Omaha?" Piper asked.

"Something like that," Vivian agreed. "Jason and I harnessed the storm spirits to bring us this far. They didn't like it—went a little faster than we wanted, almost crashed us into the mountainside before we could get them back in the bag. I'm not going to be trying that again."

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