ENTRAPPED ₂

20

THE SUN WAS GOING DOWN AS LEO FLEW NORTH OVER A BRIDGE. Piper sat in the copilot's seat, tugging nervously at her braids as she watched Leo play pilot. Jason knelt between the two seats, giving Leo directions. Ethan stood back a few steps, his knuckles gripped white around whatever he could find.

After this quest, he was never flying again.

"Going okay?" Piper asked, glancing at Leo. Her voice betrayed her nerves, which Ethan didn't like. She had been confident on the dragon, even when the dragon had fallen through the sky twice.

"Aces," Leo said, like a liar. "So what's the Wolf House?"

Ethan would have called him out on dodging the subject, but he was feeling too many things. He could still feel Apollo's magic around his teeth, like probing the sun with your tongue. His shoulder throbbed. His body was wired, coiled tight for battle.

He missed Madeleine, too, but he always missed Madeleine. She was a part of him, flesh and bone, more real than his face.

"An abandoned mansion in the Sonoma Valley," Jason said. "A demigod built it―Jack London."

"He an actor?" Leo asked.

"Writer," Piper said. "Adventure stuff, right? Call of the Wild? White Fang?"

"Yeah," Jason agreed. "He was a son of Mercury―I mean, Hermes. He was an adventurer, traveled the world. He was even a hobo for a while. Then he made a fortune writing. He bought a big ranch in the country and decided to build this huge mansion―the Wolf House."

"Named that 'cause he wrote about wolves?" Leo guessed.

"Partially," Jason said. "But the site, and the reason he wrote about wolves―he was dropping hints about his personal experience. There's a lot of holes in his life story―how he was born, who his dad was, why he wandered around so much―stuff you can only explain if you know he was a demigod."

The bay slipped behind them, and the helicopter continued north. Ahead of them, yellow hills rolled out as far as Ethan could see.

"So Jack London went to Camp Half-Blood?" Leo guessed.

"No," Jason said. "No, he didn't."

"The other one," Ethan said. His voice was hoarse from being so quiet, and they all jolted when he spoke. "He went to the other camp."

Leo's eyes darted between Ethan and Jason. "You guys are freaking me out with the mysterious talk. Jason, are you remembering your past or not?"

"Pieces," Jason said. "Only pieces. None of it good. The Wolf House is on sacred ground. It's where London started his journey as a child―where he found out he was a demigod. That's why he returned there. He thought he could live there, claim that land, but it wasn't meant for him. The Wolf House was cursed. It burned in a fire a week before he and his wife were supposed to move in. A few years later, London died, and his ashes were buried on the site."

"So," Piper said, "how do you know all this?"

A shadow crossed Jason's face, the shape of an eagle. "I started my journey there, too. It's a powerful place for demigods, a dangerous place. If Gaea can claim it, use its power to entomb Hera on the solstice and raise Porphyrion―that might be enough to awaken the earth goddess fully."

Ethan's fingers twitched. He moved closer to Leo and gripped the back of his seat. "I'll never tell you this again, but fly recklessly, Valdez. If the world ends before I can see my girlfriend, it's not going to be pretty."

Leo's grin was wild. "You got it." He glanced at Jason and Piper. "Thirty minutes out. If you want to get some rest, now's a good time."

⎯⎯ ୨ entrapped ୧ ⎯⎯