𝗪𝗔𝗜𝗧 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗠𝗘 ━━ l. valdez

xxxvi ━━ who's afraid of little old me? (you should be)

01. chapter thirty-six

━━━━━━━━ ( 💫 ) ━━━━━━━━

I HELPED LEO UP OFF OF THE FROZEN ground, the both of us soaked with melted snow and mud. he let his grip on my arm linger a few moments too long before jason came running up to us, piper at his side.

"you guys all right?" they both looked fine except for being speckled with snow and mud.

"yeah." i wiped snow from my tights.

leo shivered. "guess we owe that ranger lady a new helicopter."

piper pointed south. "fighting's over there." then she frowned. "no... it's all around us."

she was right. the sounds of combat rang across the valley. the snow and mist made it hard to tell for sure, but there seemed to be a circle of fighting all around the wolf house.

behind us loomed jack london's dream home—a massive ruin of red and gray stones and rough-hewn timber beams. i could imagine how it had looked before it burned down—a combination log cabin and castle, like a billionaire lumberjack might build. but in the mist and sleet, the place had a lonely, haunted feel. i could totally believe the ruins were cursed.

"jason!" a girl's voice called.

thalia appeared from the fog, her parka caked with snow. her bow was in her hand, and her quiver was almost empty. she ran toward us, but made it only a few steps before a six-armed ogre—one of the earthborn—burst out of the storm behind her, a raised club in each hand.

"look out!" i yelled. we rushed to help, but thalia had it under control. she launched herself into a flip, notching an arrow as she pivoted like a gymnast and landed in a kneeling position. the ogre got a silver arrow right between the eyes and melted into a pile of clay.

thalia stood and retrieved her arrow, but the point had snapped off. "that was my last one." she kicked the pile of clay resentfully. "stupid ogre."

"nice shot, though," leo said.

thalia ignored him as usual. she hugged jason and nodded to piper and i. "just in time. my hunters are holding a perimeter around the mansion, but we'll be overrun any minute."

"by earthborn?" jason asked.

"and wolves—lycaon's minions." thalia blew a fleck of ice off her nose. "also storm spirits—"

"but we gave them to aeolus!" piper protested.

"who tried to kill us," i reminded her.

"maybe he's helping gaea again," leo suggested.

"i don't know," thalia said. "but the monsters keep re-forming almost as fast as we can kill them. we took the wolf house with no problem: surprised the guards and sent them straight to tartarus. but then this freak snowstorm blew in. wave after wave of monsters started attacking. now we're surrounded. i don't know who or what is leading the assault, but i think they planned this. it was a trap to kill anyone who tried to rescue hera."

"where is she?" jason asked.

"inside," thalia said. "we tried to free her, but we can't figure out how to break the cage. it's only a few minutes until the sun goes down. hera thinks that's the moment when porphyrion will be reborn. plus, most monsters are stronger at night. if we don't free hera soon—"

she didn't need to finish the thought. the four of us followed her into the ruined mansion.

jason stepped over the threshold and immediately collapsed.