WINGED ₁

12

MADELEINE'S CAMP SCHEDULE WAS THE SAME AS IT HAD BEEN LAST YEAR, except Volleyball, her favorite, had been replaced with Border Patrol.

That was how she found herself sitting on the hill, tossing her knives up in air and catching them.

"Don't impale yourself."

Madeleine turned. Standing there was Drew Tanaka. 

She grinned at Madeleine and came and sat by her. "Hey, Hermes girl."

"Word gets around," Madeleine noted. "I was wondering where my patrol partner was."

"Lucky you, your patrol partner is me." Drew sat down next to Madeleine on the hill and unsheathed a silver axe with pink at the edge and a heart carved into the back of the blade. 

"Fancy," Madeleine commented. "I'm almost jealous."

Drew grinned at her, twirling her axe. "Your knives are gifts from your dad, right? My axe is a gift from mine."

Madeleine thought about that. "Your mom is Aphrodite."

"Right," Drew said.

"So your axe is a gift from your mortal dad."

"Right," Drew said again. "Pretty violent guy. Super into weapons, but oh, he loved me. I can see why Mom loved him. She likes Ares, right? Violent guys. Who knew goddesses could have a type?" She must've seen the look on Madeleine's face, because she laughed. "Oh, he's dead. Past tense, loved, you see." 

Madeleine wasn't sure how to respond to that, but she felt suddenly closer to Drew. Maybe people were scared off by death, but Madeleine had never been afraid of it. She had faced it last summer in the Underworld, and it hadn't fazed her.

The dead weren't scary. They were just sad.

"Do you resonate?" Drew asked, setting her axe in the grass between them. "You got really quiet. Dead dad syndrome too, Madeleine Aetos?"

Madeleine put her own knives down. "My dad is Hermes. He can't die."

Drew laughed. "Ever heard of the word gay?"

"Gay as in happy?" Madeleine joked.

Drew rolled her eyes. "Gay as in queer."

"Are you implying that Hermes is gay?"

"I'm implying that if you take a close look, most Greek gods are pretty fluid with their sexuality." Drew smiled lopsidedly at Madeleine. "Do you know your mortal parent?"

Madeleine smiled, but she could taste the bitterness on her mouth. "No."

"I see, I see. A walking tragedy." When Madeleine looked at her, Drew just smiled. "Oh, I've heard about you. You're pretty infamous around here. You have to be, to be friends with Percy."

"And I haven't heard about you," Madeleine noted. "So why do you bother me all the time, and how did you stop Tantalus from skinning me alive last night?"

"She asks!" Drew exclaimed. "How delightful. Oh, I like when pretty girls are upfront." Drew smiled teasingly, as if she knew something Madeleine didn't. "It's this thing called charmspeak. Very rare gift. Only Silena and I have it. And I thought, well, I can't very well let my new best friend be murdered yet, can I?"

"Your new best friend," Madeleine repeated. "I don't even know you."

"Well, who else is going to be your best friend?" Drew asked. "Percy and Annabeth are busy making moon eyes at each other, Grover Underwood is off probably getting killed as we speak, as much as you seem to like the Stolls, face it, they're annoying, and very close to each other. You are infinitely a third wheel, Madeleine Aetos. But luckily for you, so am I."