ENTRAPPED ₂

1

AS SOON AS ETHAN NAKAMURA SAW JASON GRACE, HE WANTED TO BASH HIS FACE IN.

It wasn't personal. Really, it was strictly business. Ethan was absolutely fine and he had never been more stable in his life. It wasn't as if his girlfriend had disappeared from the face of the earth and the only vague fucking warning he was getting was about a boy with one shoe.

Which, unfortunately for him, happened to be the blonde at his feet. He was rather unimpressive. His clothes were spotted with burn holes, he was smoking, and he looked like he'd just rolled out of an oven. How he was still alive, Ethan didn't really care.

Standing next to him defensively stood two other kids about Ethan's age, maybe a little younger. One was a pretty girl with multicolored eyes that swirled and choppy dark hair. Native American, Ethan wagered. The other was a Hispanic boy with curly hair and slightly pointed ears.

Ethan hated all of them. He grabbed the blonde by the shirt and heaved him up, then slammed him into the glass doors. They groaned unsympathetically. Ethan could see cracks snaking through them, glass threatening to break.

"Where the fuck," Ethan hissed, "is she?"

The blonde boy squirmed against Ethan, but his grip was like steel. He had the nerve to look confused. "Who?"

Ethan slammed him against the glass again. He had a knife at the boy's throat. Oh, how badly he wanted to cut him open.

"Ethan," a voice behind him warned. Annabeth had caught up to them. She stood just behind Ethan, frowning, arms crossed. Her curly hair was growing out dark, making a blonde ombre at her shoulders.

Ethan huffed out a frustrated breath. He let the blonde boy drop. He skittered against the glass and scrambled away from Ethan. The girl helped him up. They all gazed at Ethan and Annabeth warily.

Good. Ethan liked that. If they were hiding something about Madeleine from him, he wanted them to be scared. He could do worse than threaten.

"Where are they?" Annabeth demanded, looking at the trio.

"Where's who?" the blonde asked.

Annabeth's frown deepened. She turned to the Hispanic boy and the girl. "What about Gleeson? Where is your protector, Gleeson Hedge?"

The Hispanic boy cleared his throat. "He got taken by some... tornado things."

"Venti," the blonde said. "Storm spirits."

"The fuck did you know that?" Ethan asked. His fingers itched for his other knife. "And why are you using the Roman term?"

The boy just gazed at him. Annabeth stepped forward. "We call them anemoi thuelai. That's the Greek term. Who are you, and what happened?"

The blonde explained, stuttering every time Ethan looked at him. He kept averting his eyes from Annabeth's piercing gaze. If it weren't for her, actually, Ethan would have already gutted the three of them and moved on.

About halfway through the blonde's story, Butch joined them, arms crossed. Ethan had no fuzzy feelings for Butch; but he didn't dislike him, either. He was a good ally, helpful when he needed to be. Ethan hated flying though, especially without Madeleine.

When the blonde finished his story, Annabeth shook her head. "No, no, no! She told me they would be here. She told me if I came here, I'd find the answer."

"Annabeth," Butch grunted. "Check it out." He pointed at the blonde's feet.

Yes, he was missing a shoe. Ethan knew. He had seen it. He didn't give a single fuck where his shoe was, or about Hera's ominous warnings. He wanted to tear her apart piece by golden fucking piece.

"The guy with one shoe," said Butch. "He's the answer."

"No, Butch," Annabeth insisted. "He can't be. I was tricked." She glared at the sky. "What do you want from me?" she screamed. "What have you done with them?"

The skywalk shuddered. As angry as Ethan was, he was not going to just sit here and wait for Annabeth and himself to fall to their deaths. He didn't care about the three kids, but he cared about Annabeth Chase. They were in this together, or not at all.

Ethan brushed her shoulder with his. "Come on. We'll talk about this at camp. The others... they'll want to know what we found."

Annabeth nodded. She brushed an angry tear from her cheek, gave the blonde and his friends one last glare, and stormed toward the chariot.

Ethan pointed at them with his knife. "If you know something and you're not telling us," he said, "I swear to all of the gods that I will fucking kill you."

He didn't wait for their response. He joined Annabeth in the chariot. She was staring straight ahead, blinking furiously. It didn't help. Tears streaked her face.

Ethan did not offer any words of hope. If he had, they would be empty. He knew that she did not need empty promises right now.

Ethan only knew this: Percy Jackson and Madeleine Aetos were missing.

Their only hope was this: the gods were not rioting. Ethan was sure that the gods would be upset if they knew their two golden demigods had died, and nothing had changed. In fact, the gods weren't around at all.

The idea of all of it made Ethan so angry that he couldn't breathe.

"and i elongated my lift home / yeah, i let him go the long way 'round / i smelt your scent on the seatbelt / and kept my shortcuts to myself."

cornerstone by arctic monkeys