Catching Lightning | Jason Grace

xvii

☀️☀️☀️

Aurora was already shivering when she woke up. It felt worse than Boreas's palace.

"T-that ass hat got me, didn't he?" Aurora rubbed her arms in an attempt to warm herself up. It didn't work.

"It's alright," Jason leaned over and tucked a warm blanket around her, "you're back now."

Aurora grabbed the blanket and quickly turned herself into a happily not-gold burrito. She looked around, trying to figure out where they were. A campfire blazed, turning the air sharp with smoke. Her bow sat next to her feet, she reached out with a shaky hand and turned it back into a necklace. She grimaced, the cold only made her injured arm feel worse.

They were in a shallow cave, but it didn't offer much protection. Outside, the wind howled. Snow blew sideways. It could've been day or night but Aurora couldn't tell.

"L-L-Leo and P-Piper?" She managed to ask as her teeth chattered.

"Present and un-gold-ified." Leo was also wrapped in blankets. He didn't look great but definitely better than Aurora felt. "Got the precious metal treatment too," he said. "But Piper and I came out of it faster. Dunno why. Maybe because he didn't like you. We had to dunk you in the river to get you back completely. Tried to dry you off, but... it's really, really, cold."

"Yeah," Aurora shivered. "I noticed."

"You've got hypothermia," Jason said. "We risked as much nectar as we could. Coach Hedge did a little nature magic-"

"Oh, gods. What was it this time?"

"Sports medicine." The coach's head loomed over her. "Your breath might smell like mushrooms and Gatorade for a few days, but it'll pass. You probably won't die. Problably."

"C-cool," Aurora muttered sarcastically.

"Now will you tell us how you beat Midas?" Piper asked.

Jason told them the story, putting most of it to luck.

The coach snorted. "Kid's being modest. You should've seen him. Hi-ya! Boom with the lightning!"

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

Aurora giggled.

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," Jason said.

"Yeah?"

"Shut up, please."

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

Jason put his hand to Aurora'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 bad?" Piper asked.

"Nah," Jason said.

"You're a terrible liar."

"Well, I think you look b-beautiful," Aurora said.

"Thank you, Rory. So do you."

Aurora raised her shaky hands to make a heart and Piper blew her a kiss in return.

"Where are we?"

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

"But that's, what- five hundred miles from Omaha?"