ENTRAPPED ₂

15

LEO WAS EYEING THALIA THE SAME WAY HE HAD EYED KHIONE. Ethan was very much heterosexual, but he knew enough queer people to figure that Leo was struggling with the gay version of comphet.

"My gods!" Thalia exclaimed. She rushed forward and hugged Jason. "She told me you were dead!" She gripped his face, her eyes darting around as if trying to memorize it. "Thank Artemis, it is you. That little scar on your lip―you tried to eat a stapler when you were two!"

Leo laughed. "Seriously?" His eyes had slid back to Jason. He looked sad and wanting, which Ethan found he liked better than his pining face.

Gleeson nodded with approval. "Staplers―excellent source of iron."

"W-wait," Jason stammered. "Who told you I was dead? What happened?"

At the cave entrance, one of the white wolves barked. Thalia looked back at the wolf and nodded, but she kept her hands on Jason's face, as if he might vanish. "My wolf is telling me I don't have much time, and she's right. But we have to talk. Let's sit."

Piper, the overachiever, collapsed. Ethan caught her by the shoulders and stood her back up, but he kept a firm grip on her, because he didn't really want to see her brains spill out all over the cave floor.

Thalia rushed over. "What's wrong with her? Ah―never mind. I see. Hypothermia. Ankle." She frowned at Gleeson. "Don't you know nature healing?"

Gleeson scoffed. "Why do you think she looks this good? Can't you smell the Gatorade?"

Thalia looked at Leo accusingly, which Ethan took great satisfaction in. Finally, someone else who wasn't a fucking amnesiac or novice.

"You and the satyr," Thalia ordered Leo, "take the girl to my friend at the entrance. Phoebe's an excellent healer."

"It's cold out there!" Gleeson argued. "I'll freeze my horns off."

"Pity that," Ethan said dryly.

Gleeson glared at him. "Why doesn't he have to go, too?"

Thalia's eyes flashed with irritation. She glanced at Ethan, then looked back at the satyr. "We have a common interest."

"Come on, Hedge," Leo said. "These three need time to talk."

"Humph. Fine," the satyr muttered. "Didn't even get to brain anybody."

"I could drop Piper," Ethan offered.

Gleeson snorted with disdain. He took Piper from Ethan and lifted her into his arms, then began to carry her toward the entrance. Leo turned to follow.

Jason called, "Actually, man, could you, um, stick around?"

Leo turned back. Something softened between them. Leo's shoulders relaxed, and he grinned. "Sticking around is my specialty."

Thalia didn't look very happy about it, but the four of them sat at the fire. For a few minutes, nobody spoke. Ethan was thinking about how much his shoulder throbbed, the wolf blood on his knife, Jason and Leo's inability to communicate well, and how Thalia had been close with Madeleine in a way that Ethan never had.

Leo took a few pieces of copper wire out of his pockets and twisted them together. "So... the Hunters of Artemis," he said. "This whole 'not dating' thing―is that like always, or more of a seasonal thing, or what?"

Thalia stared at him. Ethan rolled his eyes. "Don't mind him. He's trying to get over the fact that he has a crush on your brother."

Jason and Leo both went red. Jason quickly changed the subject. "Thalia, what happened to our family? Who told you I was dead?"