Hedge took another bite of paper and burger. “Well, Kronos built a new palace there last summer. Big nasty place, was going to be the headquarters for his new kingdom and all. Weren’t any battles there, though. Kronos marched on Manhattan, tried to take Olympus. If I remember right, he left some other Titans in charge of his palace, but after Kronos got defeated in Manhattan, the whole palace just crumbled on its own. ”
“No,” Jason said.
Everyone looked at him.
“What do you mean, ‘No’?” Leo asked.
“That’s not what happened. I—” He tensed, looking toward the cave entrance. “Did you hear that?”
For a second, nothing. Then Piper heard it: howls piercing the night.
“WOLVES,” PIPER SAID. “THEY SOUND CLOSE. ”
Jason rose and summoned his sword. Leo and Coach Hedge got to their feet too. Piper tried, but black spots danced before her eyes.
“Stay there,” Jason told her. “We’ll protect you. ”
She gritted her teeth. She hated feeling helpless. She didn’t want anyone to protect her. First the stupid ankle. Now stupid hypothermia. She wanted to be on her feet, with her dagger in her hand.
Then, just outside the firelight at the entrance of the cave, she saw a pair of red eyes glowing in dark.
Okay, she thought. Maybe a little protection is fine.
More wolves edged into the firelight—black beasts bigger than Great Danes, with ice and snow caked on their fur. Their fangs gleamed, and their glowing red eyes looked disturbingly intelligent. The wolf in front was almost as tall as a horse, his mouth stained as if he’d just made a fresh kill.
Piper pulled her dagger out of its sheath.
Then Jason stepped forward and said something in Latin.
Piper didn’t think a dead language would have much effect on wild animals, but the alpha wolf curled his lip. The fur stood up along his spine. One of his lieutenants tried to advance, but the alpha wolf snapped at his ear. Then all of the wolves backed into the dark.
“Dude, I gotta study Latin. ” Leo’s hammer shook in his hand. “What’d you say, Jason?”
Hedge cursed. “Whatever it was, it wasn’t enough. Look. ”
The wolves were coming back, but the alpha wolf wasn’t with them. They didn’t attack. They waited—at least a dozen now, in a rough semicircle just outside the firelight, blocking the cave exit.
The coach hefted his club. “Here’s the plan. I’ll kill them all, and you guys escape. ”
“Coach, they’ll rip you apart,” Piper said.
“Nah, I’m good. ”
Then Piper saw the silhouette of a man coming through the storm, wading through the wolf pack.
“Stick together,” Jason said. “They respect a pack. And Hedge, no crazy stuff. We’re not leaving you or anyone else behind. ”
Piper got a lump in her throat. She was the weak link in their “pack” right now. No doubt the wolves could smell her fear. She might as well be wearing a sign that said free lunch.
The wolves parted, and the man stepped into the firelight. His hair was greasy and ragged, the color of fireplace soot, topped with a crown of what looked like finger bones. His robes were tattered fur—wolf, rabbit, raccoon, deer, and several others Piper couldn’t identify. The furs didn’t look cured, and from the smell, they weren’t very fresh. His frame was lithe and muscular, like a distance runner’s. But the most horrible thing was his face. His thin pale skin was pulled tight over his skull. His teeth were sharpened like fangs. His eyes glowed bright red like his wolves’—and they fixed on Jason with absolute hatred.
“Ecce,” he said, “filli Romani. ”
“Speak English, wolf man!” Hedge bellowed.
The wolf man snarled. “Tell your faun to mind his tongue, son of Rome. Or he’ll be my first snack. ”
Piper remembered that faun was the Roman name for satyr. Not exactly helpful information. Now, if she could remember who this wolf guy was in Greek mythology, and how to defeat him, that she could use.
The wolf man studied their little group. His nostrils twitched. “So it’s true,” he mused. “A child of Aphrodite. A son of Hephaestus. A faun. And a child of Rome, of Lord Jupiter, no less. All together, without killing each other. How interesting. ”
“You were told about us?” Jason asked. “By whom?”
The man snarled—perhaps a laugh, perhaps a challenge. “Oh, we’ve been patrolling for you all across the west, demigod, hoping we’d be the first to find you. The giant king will reward me well when he rises. I am Lycaon, king of the wolves. And my pack is hungry. ”
The wolves snarled in the darkness.
Out of the corner of her eye, Piper saw Leo put up his hammer and slip something else from his tool belt—a glass bottle full of clear liquid.
Piper racked her brain trying to place the wolf guy’s name. She knew she’d heard it before, but she couldn’t remember details.
Lycaon glared at Jason’s sword. He moved to each side as if looking for an opening, but Jason’s blade moved with him.
“Leave,” Jason ordered. “There’s no food for you here. ”
“Unless you want tofu burgers,” Leo offered.
Lycaon bared his fangs. Apparently he wasn’t a tofu fan.
“If I had my way,” Lycaon said with regret, “I’d kill you first, son of Jupiter. Your father made me what I am. I was the powerful mortal king of Arcadia, with fifty fine sons, and Zeus slew them all with his lightning bolts. ”