XLIV

Piper crosses the freezing deck past Jason’s ice-bound body, fixing on the figurehead and resolving to use her power differently. Remembering Hazel’s insight, she reframes charmspeak as guiding desires, not issuing commands. She taunts Khione about Sonoma and being a “D-list goddess,” provoking insecurity while flattering Zethes and Cal.

Piper steers the Boreads into curiosity and rivalry, convincing them to set aside the wind bomb and watch Khione be humiliated. At the prow, she treats Festus as a living friend, speaking to his will to protect Leo and the crew. Initially nothing happens, and Khione orders Piper’s death.

As the Boreads advance, Festus stirs under Piper’s hand and awakens. Piper tackles Khione aside; Festus’s blast vaporizes Zethes and Cal, leaving Zethes’s sword clattering to the deck. The wind bomb begins hissing and cracking nearby as Khione reappears in a swirl of frost to finish Piper.

Khione freezes Piper’s arm and dagger, declaring Aphrodite’s child powerless. Piper draws on love—for Festus, Jason, her trapped friends, and missing Leo—to melt the ice and drive Katoptris into Khione. The snow goddess explodes into a blizzard, dispersed.

With alarms ringing and Festus fully active, Piper lunges for the wind bomb. As the sphere shatters and the winds erupt, her fingers close around it, seizing the device at the critical moment.