You'll Learn to Love Me (Leo Valdez x OC)

Chapter 10: Fears and Laylana's Past

It wasn't long before Piper woke up, shivering, her teeth chattering. "Oh, god. He turned me to gold!"

"You're okay now." Jason leaned over and adjusted the blanket around her, but her face still showed how cold she was. She blinked, trying to figure out where they were.

"L-L-Leo?" Piper managed. "L-Lana?"

"Present and un-gold-ified." Leo was also wrapped in blankets, Laylana tucked under one of his arms. "I got the precious metal treatment too, but I came out of it faster. Dunno why."

"I had to dunk you completely in the river. I'm sorry, I couldn't help it." Laylana muttered. She sounded cold as well.

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

"Sports medicine." Gleeson hovered around 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."

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

Jason and Laylana told her the story again as they had with Leo.

Gleeson snorted. "Kid's being modest. You should've seen them. Hi-yah! Slice! Boom with the lightning!"

"Coach, you didn't even see it," Jason said. "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—'"

"Gleeson." Laylana looked exhausted as she called to him.

"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, can you stoke the fire?"

"On it." Leo summoned a baseball-sized clump of flames and lobbed it into the campfire, noting the flinch from Laylana as he did that.

"Do I look that bad?" Piper shivered.

"Nah," Jason said.

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

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

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

"Something like that," Jason agreed.

"Jason's dumbass harnessed the storm spirits to bring us this far. Almost crashed us into the mountainside before he could get them back in the bag. We are absolutely not doing that again." Laylana explained.

"No, I agree." Jason nodded.

"Why are we here?" Piper asked

Jason gazed into the storm. "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?"