ENTRAPPED ₂

38

WHEN BIANCA DI ANGELO HAD DIED, EVERYONE ROTATING IN HER ORBIT HAD CHANGED. There weren't many people left for her―her mother had been dead for decades, and her father was rotting in the Underworld, bitter and alone. But here were the people that her death had affected.

Thalia Grace, who had thus far been able to prevent death by jumping in front of the knife. This time, she was out of luck.

Grover Underwood, who always managed to save his friends. The one person he couldn't protect was a fourteen-year-old girl with freckles and soft eyes. He had never been the same.

Percy Jackson, who had promised to protect Bianca. He had taken it as a personal failure. From that moment on, the lives of those around him were always balancing on his shoulders.

Zoe Nightshade, who had just wanted to protect Bianca. Zoe had gone on that quest knowing she would die. She had been selfless until the very end. But someone had to die in the desert, and it wasn't going to be anyone else. Zoe knew that, but it still devastated her.

Nico di Angelo, stuck at Camp Half-Blood, playing card games with Connor Stoll. He felt it when she died. He was truly an orphan then. His sister had abandoned him willingly. Not once, but twice.

Madeleine Aetos. She remembered that night very vividly, but here was the most important thing: when she had sat in that junkyard, looking around at all of them, it occurred to her. She would not have changed it. If she were able to play god, it would always have been Bianca in that machine. Not Grover, who had pulled Madeleine back from the brink of Tartarus when they had barely known each other's names. Not Thalia, who was fierce and angry and a crutch to Madeleine. Not Percy, Madeleine's dearest friend, who struggled with a power balance and saved her life over and over again. Not Zoe, who Madeleine had been falling in love with. Her first love. Her forever favorite.

If Madeleine were to do it all over, it would be Bianca every time. That was the reality she faced in that junkyard. Zoe looked at her, face streaked with tears, and she knew. Percy knew. Thalia knew. They all fucking knew.

If they were to do it over, it would be the same exact way. Bianca, the lamb. Bianca, raised for slaughter. Bianca, dead before her feet even hit the ground. Bianca, the side of her face charred. Bianca, her skin dark with electrical burns.

It was always going to be her. There was no changing it.

Madeleine had been living with that reality ever since. She made sacrifices based on her best interests. To protect Castor, she killed a demigod. To protect Zoe, she had nearly let the world crush her. To protect Percy and Ethan and Annabeth, she had watched her brother kill himself. She had encouraged him to do it.

Madeleine had been this way since Bianca di Angelo died under a mound of rubble. She was always going to be this way. That was fate. That was the way things went.

So when Percy was abducted by one of the gorgons, Madeleine didn't have to think about it. The mortals meant nothing to her. There was so much blood on her hands, it wouldn't matter.

She had grown fond of Hazel and Frank, but if their lives were weighed with Percy's, there would never be a contest. Madeleine would kill them without blinking.

Percy, Percy, Percy.

Madeleine had tunnel vision. Her shoes sprouted wings, and she was twenty feet in the air before she even realized what had happened.

Below her, the train wheels squealed and metal crashed. Glass shattered. People screamed.

Madeleine ignored all of it. Her mind shut down.

Just above her, carrying Percy in its claws, was the gryphon. It was just as Madeleine remembered. It had the body of a panther, sleek and black and feline. Its wings and head were that of an eagle. Its eyes glowed blood-red.