ENTRAPPED ₂

35

MADELEINE WAS COMPLETELY OVER IT BY THE TIME THE WHEELS FELL OFF. The ride was made unpleasant by a variety of factors: Frank throwing up over the side multiple times, Ella muttering their rapid speed limit, and the fact that Madeleine's jaw would not stop rattling. By the time they stopped, she had a raging headache.

Her only comfort was Percy. Despite the fact that his face was green, he remained annoyingly optimistic. They held hands the whole way, heads pressed together. Eventually, when Madeleine gagged, Percy pressed her head to his chest. Listening to his heartbeat steadied her a little.

It was such a relief to know him. She had trusted him since waking up with him; but it had been a hesitant, unsure sort of trust. But she knew him. She really, really knew him. Percy Jackson. They had gone on so many quests together. They had been in that throne room when Luke had killed himself. They were a two-person team, impenetrable.

Madeleine missed her other friends―the ones that she could remember, anyway. The details were all hazy. Drew Tanaka, Lee Fletcher, Will Solace, Clarisse la Rue. She was trying to count off the living ones, because the dead ones just hurt.

But oh, gods―Drew. A few months before Madeleine had disappeared, Drew's older sister had died. Drew's older sister, who had been her best friend. Drew had been absolutely distraught. Madeleine had just... left her. It hadn't been by choice; but still, how could she ever expect Drew to forgive her? It left an empty pit in her stomach.

Madeleine wasn't really paying attention to where they were going. She dozed on and off, which was a feat in itself. She figured the ride might go faster if she was unconscious. It wasn't a pleasant nap, but it was at least something.

She was fully shaken into consciousness when Frank yelled, "Hazel! We're breaking up!"

Yes, they were. The chariot wheels were smoking. Hazel pulled on the reins, and Arion slowed to subsonic as they zipped through city streets. They definitely weren't in Seattle anymore, but Madeleine didn't recognize the area. It just looked like any city: skyscrapers, pedestrians. It was almost a relief not to know it.

They crossed a bridge, and the chariot started to rattle dangerously. At last Arion stopped at the top of a wooded hill. He snorted with satisfaction. The smoking chariot collapsed, spilling Percy, Madeleine, Frank, and Ella onto the wet, mossy ground.

"Well," Madeleine said, her face buried in the damp grass.

Percy groaned. Madeleine watched as he stumbled to his feet and began to unhitch Arion from the ruined chariot. Frank was staring up at the sky, holding his stomach. Ella fluttered around in dizzy circles, bonking into the trees and muttering, "Tree. Tree. Tree."

Only Hazel seemed happy. Grinning with pleasure, she slid off the horse's back. "That was fun!"

"Yeah." Frank audibly swallowed. "So much fun."

"Please don't throw up again," Madeleine told him. "If you throw up, I will throw up."

"Sounds like a plan."

Arion whinnied.

"He says he needs to eat," Percy translated. "No wonder. He probably burned about six million calories."

"Oh, really?" Madeleine asked. "I thought he wanted to join our throw-up pact." She sat up, the world tilting around her.

Hazel studied the ground at her feet and frowned. "I'm not sensing any gold around here... don't worry, Arion. I'll find you some. In the meantime, why don't you go graze? We'll meet you―"

The horse zipped off, leaving a trail of steam in his wake.

Hazel knit her eyebrows. "Do you think he'll come back?"