Eye of Hecate

Piper

I wake up cold and shivering.

I had the worst dream about an old guy with donkey ears chasing me around and shouting, "You're it!"

"Oh, god." My teeth chatter. "He turned me to gold!"

"You're okay now." Jason leans over and tucks a warm blanket around me, but I still feel as cold as a Boread.

I blink, trying to figure out where we are. Next to me, a campfire blazes, turning the air sharp as smoke. Firelight flickers against rock walls. We're in a shallow cave, but it doesn't offer much protection. Outside, the wind howls. Snow blows sideways. It might be day or night. The storm makes it too dark to tell.

"L-L-Leo?" I manage.

"Present and un-gold-ified." Leo is also wrapped in blankets. He doesn't look great, but better than I feel. He has Ozzy tucked under his arm. She looks unconscious. "I got the precious metal treatment too," he says. "But I came out of it faster. Dunno why. We had to dunk you in the river to get you back completely. Tried to dry you off, but...it's really, really cold."

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

"Sports medicine." The coach's ugly face looms over me. "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."

"What happened to her?" I nod my head toward Ozzy. "Did she get golded too?"

"Nah." Jason shakes his head. "Ozzy was actually...kind of badass. She fought Lit with me. But she blew a hole in the ceiling to let in rain and my lightning, and she said she was drawing from her own magic reserves. I don't know what that means but she warned me she'd pass out."

Leo worriedly pulls the blankets higher around her shoulders. As if she can sense his worry, her pale blue eyes flutter open weakly. She looks around in confusion, shivering.

"How'd we get here?" She asks quietly.

"First, how exactly did you guys beat Midas?" I ask.

Jason and Ozzy tell me the story, putting most of it down to luck.

The coach snorts. "They're being modest. You should've seen them. Hi-yah! Slice! Boom with the lightning!"

"Dude, you didn't even see it," Ozzy says.

"You were outside eating the lawn." Jason agrees.

But the satyr is just warming up. "Then I came in with my club, and we dominated that room. Afterward, I told them, 'Kids, I'm proud of you! If you could just work on your upper body strength-"

"Coach," says Jason.

"Yeah?"

"Shut up, please."

"Sure." The coach sits down at the fire and starts chewing his cudgel.

Jason puts his hand on my forehead and checks my temperature. "Leo, can you stoke the fire?"

"On it." Leo summons a baseball-sized clump of flames and lobs it into the campfire.

"Do I look that bad?" I shiver.

"Nah," Jason says.

"You're a terrible liar." I reply.

Ozzy snuggless deeper under Leo's arm, much to his apparent delight. "Guys, torch lady came to see me again."

Ozzy tells us everything she saw in her dream while she was unconscious.