ENTRAPPED ₂

46

HERE WAS HOW MADELEINE AND ETHAN HAD BEEN ABLE TO LOVE EACH OTHER PROPERLY: THEY KNEW HOW TO SURVIVE. It was just what they did.

For years after Zoe's death, Madeleine and Ethan had refused to touch each other. They had never had sex, had barely kissed. They spilled secrets but forbid themselves from holding hands.

It was only after Luke was buried six feet in the ground that the wall finally came down. They had both been so scared of losing each other. Madeleine wasn't in the business of losing another lover, and she had fallen for Ethan scarily hard. Ethan wasn't capable of being a whole person without Madeleine, but he would never admit how much he needed her until she was safe. Needing someone was a vulnerability, and Ethan refused to let anyone exploit those.

They were demigods. They would never be safe. Madeleine was always jumping in front of the gun. Running away was knit into Ethan's bones.

But they had been learning. They had been learning how to love. There was no guidebook, no text, no lessons. One day, Ethan had torn Annabeth away from Percy. Minutes later, Percy and Madeleine had been thrown into the sky, likely dead.

Ethan had disappeared after Madeleine disappeared. This was how it always went, until suddenly he was clinging to her like a lifeline.

Madeleine would never be able to pinpoint the exact moment that they realized they needed each other, but it was far before Luke's death.

Here was the problem: Ethan always had the worse end of the deal. His father, murdered by his own hand. His mother, scraping out his eye. He was hostile, and cold, and he always lost.

Nothing changed now. Because, first and foremost, Madeleine and Ethan knew how to survive. That was how they loved each other.

Madeleine had three people to learn. Ethan had a hundred Romans.

That was the way he lost.

⎯⎯ ୨ entrapped ୧ ⎯⎯

Madeleine was a little blind. She shoved through the crowds, all of her breath stuck between her stomach and her throat. She wasn't sure she would have been able to keep walking if it hadn't been for Percy. He dragged her along, his eyes anxious and searching, pinned to the rope ladder lowering from the ship. Madeleine could feel how hard his heart was beating through the veins in his hand.

Entire families had gathered to see the newcomers. There were couples with babies, toddlers clinging to their parents' legs, elderly folks in a combination of Roman robes and modern clothes. Soldiers watched warily as the crowd parted around Annabeth.

Madeleine averted her eyes from Annabeth. Percy did not, and one of them had to keep their heads. Madeleine could physically feel the heat radiating from his body. The water molecules in the air seemed to vibrate, superheating.

Three strangers. Madeleine had three strangers, and then she had Annabeth Chase. Right now, that was the wall.

Jason Grace, Piper McLean, and Leo Valdez all had something familiar about them. Madeleine recognized Jason by the way his room was assorted. He was lean and intimidating, his muscles taut; but she could see the softer, sadder boy underneath the hard exterior. He carried his grief the same way Thalia did.

Leo hovered close to Jason, their knuckles occasionally brushing. He looked exactly like the person in Hazel's old photographs, thin and wiry and excitable. His eyes darted. His fingers fidgeted. His curly hair was a mess. Madeleine saw every single movement in him as a replica of the way Ethan had been a few years ago. He was always looking for a way out, a place to run. He was waiting to disappear.