²Olden Crown, heroes of olympus

016.

OLDEN CROWN
━━ chapter sixteen

━━ TURNING GOLD SUCKED.

Piper wasn't sure how else to put it. One minute, she was about to try and corral her friends outside, wanting to deal with the potential of blowing up rather than dealing with a madman with a gold touch; and the next minute, she was gold, having the worst dream about an old guy with donkey ears chasing her around and shouting, You're it!

"Oh, God." Her teeth chattered as she shivered from the cold. "He turned me to gold!"

"Yeah," Elisa grumbled, her face set into a scowl. "That's what Midas does."

Jason tucked a warm blanket around Piper, but she still felt as cold as a Boread. "It's all okay now." He sent Elisa a pointed look.

Piper 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 asked, her teeth chattering.

"Present and un-gold-ified." The son of Hephaestus 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 and Delaney in the river to get you back completely. Tried to dry you off, but ... it's really, really cold."

Jason held his jaw and winced, like a bad memory came up. "Delaney kicked me ..."

"You dunked me in a cold ass river!" she snapped, sitting all moodily in the shadows. "What else was I going to do?"

The son of Zeus narrowed his eyes at her. "Did you play soccer or something, but it really hurts."

She rolled her eyes, shivering slightly. "No, I didn't."

Elisa sat forward, warming her hands with the fire. "You and Delaney got hypothermia. Gave you as much nectar as we could risk. And Hedge did some of his nature magic—"

"Sports medicine." The coach's face loomed over Piper. "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."

"Oh." Delaney shivered, glaring at the satyr. "That's reassuring."

"Hey, McKnight, you should be grateful!" Hedge whirled around to her. "Otherwise, I'll give you something to cry about!"

The daughter of Erebus rolled her eyes. "Whatever, old goat."

"I ain't old!"

"How did you guys beat Midas?" Piper asked Elisa and Jason.

They told the story, with Elisa putting the victory on Jason's shoulders. "He did all the fighting. I just scared Midas with mentions of Dionysus."

"But if Elisa hadn't scared Midas just long enough to let me get my wits, I would've been turned to gold, too," said Jason. "And she gave me the idea of lightning. She really was the one to get us out of that situation."

It sounded like Jason was trying to tell Elisa something Piper didn't understand. It was like Jason was trying to convince Elisa that she wasn't She wanted to ask, but Coach Hedge started before she could, "Kids are being modest. Elisa totally pinned Midas. Gave him a taste of his own medicine. You should've seen her. Her spear glinted like crazy, and Midas started bowing—"