WINGED ₁

70

THEY EMERGED IN CENTRAL PARK, A FEW PACES AWAY OF A POND. Immediately Percy, Ethan, and Madeleine all slid off of Mrs. O'Leary lest she collapse. The hellhound limped over to a cluster of boulders and began to sniff around them. Percy looked mildly alarmed, but Nico said, "It's okay. She just smells the way home."

Percy frowned. "Through the rocks?"

"The Underworld has two major entrances," Nico said. "You know the one in LA."

"Charon's ferry." Percy said, exchanging a dark look with Madeleine. 

Gods, she hadn't really thought about their Underworld trip in a while. It was her first real trauma in the demigod world, being dragged halfway to hell because of Luke Castellan. With everything else she had been through, she didn't think of it often; but she remembered everything: the glint of tears in Annabeth's eyes when she played with Cerebrus, Percy tucking Madeleine's hair behind her ears as she sobbed, Grover catching her and pulling with all of his strength. They had not even really known her, but they had risked their lives to save her. It was the first time she realized that she would die for them, too.

Nico nodded. "Most souls go that way, but there's a smaller path, harder to find. The Door of Orpheus."

"The dude with the harp," Percy guessed.

Ethan scowled. "You need to catch up on your mythology, Jackson."

"Dude with the lyre," Nico corrected, nodding at Ethan. "But yeah, him. He used his music to charm the earth and open a new path into the Underworld. He sang his way right into Hades's palace and almost got away with his wife's soul."

 The story had always seemed awfully tragic to Madeleine, especially after meeting Apollo and losing Zoe. Without Apollo, Madeleine would have walked straight down to Hades after Zoe had died, demanding her back. But deep down in her gut, she knew she would have been just like Orpheus. She would have turned back. She would have ached for that last glimpse of dark hair and high cheekbones. It would have killed her.

Thinking about that made her sad, especially because she had no guarantee she would ever see Apollo again. He had saved her life, and she would never be able to repay him. Her chest was heavy with a mix of love and grief.

"So this is the Door of Orpheus." Percy appraised the rocks. "How does it open?"

"We need music," Nico said. "How's your singing?"

Percy cringed. "Um, no."

Nico looked at Ethan. The older boy shook his head, giving Nico a hard glare with his eye. "Absolutely not."

"Can you just, like, tell it to open?" Percy asked Nico. "You're the son of Hades and all."

"It's not so easy," Nico said, shaking his head. "We need music."

Percy slowly started to smile. "I have a better idea," he decided, and then turned and called, "GROVER!"

⎯⎯ ୨ winged ୧ ⎯⎯

They waited for a long time. Madeleine wasn't sure if it would work, but she trusted Percy's instincts. 

Mrs. O'Leary curled up by the rocks and slept. Crickets chirped in the nearby woods, and owls hooted. The familiar hum of distant traffic cut through the night. Horse hooves clopped down a hidden path nearby, maybe the mounted police patrol that New York had. Madeleine was sure they'd be delighted to find the four demigods in a park at one in the morning.

Madeleine and Ethan wasted time by drawing playing tic-tac-toe on each other's skin, a habit they had both picked up from Madeleine's brothers. She won four out of five times, and by the time they were done, their skin was barely visible through all of the marker.