WINGED ₁

32

MADELEINE DIDN'T HAVE THE HEART TO TELL ANY OF HER FRIENDS ABOUT HER NIGHTMARE. Percy, Thalia, and Grover didn't need to know what kind of torture Annabeth was enduring, and Madeleine's other friends had more important things to worry about. The only person that really knew about it was Ethan, and he hadn't asked, so she hadn't told.

She, however, hadn't gotten off so easily. As she was dressing for the day, Connor approached her. "I didn't know Nakamura could be nice."

Madeleine looked at him as she pulled her hair back into pigtails. "What do you mean?"

Connor gave her a once over. "You woke me up last night when you were, you know. Sobbing and screaming. I was going to get up and see if you were alright but then I saw Ethan." Connor paused. "For a minute, I thought he was suffocating you."

Madeleine tried to smile, but her mouth felt sore. "If he suffocated me, who would be his sparring buddy?" She took her knives from under her pillow and ran her thumb along the blade, testing its sharpness. 

Connor leaned against her bed. "Are you alright?"

Madeleine swallowed, twirled her knives in her hand. She could lie, but she knew Connor would see right through her. She had learned a long time ago that you couldn't lie to a liar.

So all she said was, "I don't know."

Connor didn't ask. He just nodded once and left her there, to stare at the empty space he had filled.

⎯⎯ ୨ winged ୧ ⎯⎯

Of all the people that Madeleine thought would approach her at the shooting range, it wasn't Drew.

Madeleine was practicing her targets, and she had been for the better part of an hour. She swore that she wouldn't stop until she got a bullseye with her knives, because she figured Luke wouldn't let her get close enough to slit his throat.

"Mads, you're going to fall over," Drew called. She had just entered the area, her black hair done in two braids and her eyes glittery with pink makeup. 

Madeleine was suddenly rather conscious that she was covered in sweat and not wearing any makeup, but Drew didn't seem to care. She walked up to Madeleine and took the knives from her weary hands.

"Hey," Madeleine said halfheartedly, but there was no real fight in her tone.

"Stop punishing yourself and let me give you my gift," Drew told her. She pulled Madeleine over to the empty observers' benches and dragged her down into a sitting position. 

"Okay," Drew said, once Madeleine had chugged half of her water bottle and swiped the hair from her face. "Before you tell me that oh, I shouldn't have and I'm too good of a friend, I know, so save it. And since Annabeth was kidnapped, I figure you're going to go off with Percy and play the hero again, and since I'm not really into that, I figure the least I can do is get you a sentimental gift to remember me by when you're bleeding out."

"I appreciate the faith you have in me," Madeleine said sarcastically.

Drew just gave her a bright smile and held out her hand. Gleaming on her finger was a thin silver ring with a pink heart on it. "Do you like it?"

Madeleine blinked. "Yeah, sure."

"Me, too." Drew said. She took the ring off and tossed it up in the air. When she caught it, it was an axe―a pink axe with a silver blade and a heart engraved into it.

"Woah," Madeleine said. "Is that... your ring?"

"Sure is." Drew grinned, her lip gloss gleaming in the sun. She tossed the axe up carelessly and caught her little pink ring. "It pays off having a lot of exes. They all love me still. This really pretty Hecate girl I had a one-night stand with owed me a favor, because I set her up with her girlfriend, soooo."