ENTRAPPED ₂

57

HERE WAS THE UGLY TRUTH: MADELEINE AETOS HAD BEEN IN LOVE WITH ETHAN NAKAMURA AS SOON AS SHE HAD LAID EYES ON HIM.

She remembered him that first night in the Hermes Cabin, all of his muscles coiled away from her like she might lunge at him. He had had both eyes then, dark enough to be black in the night. She thought he had looked very grown up then. Looking back on it, he looked younger than he really had been.

It wasn't the kind of love that made you want to write stories. Madeleine had loved Ethan Nakamura the way she loved her knives or the way she loved Luke at the end, when he fought Atlas to keep Zoe alive and then ended up dead. That was a good ending, but it wasn't a pretty fantasy.

Madeleine loved Ethan like he had a gun.

When Annabeth found Madeleine in her cabin, knees scrunched to her chest, choking out the word fuck over and over and over again, she didn't say anything. She closed the door gently behind her, blocking out the rest of the demigods on the ship, and sat gently on the edge of Madeleine's bed.

For many years, Madeleine had been the one comforting Annabeth. She couldn't count the amount of times Annabeth had ended up at her kitchen table in tears because of another horrible thing Luke had done. It had become routine until the day he died. Luke Castellan had always driven a wedge in their relationship, and Madeleine didn't think that damage would ever become undone.

Annabeth had the good grace to not look at Madeleine while she gathered herself, sniffling. She tried to tie her hair back in a braid, but her hands were shaking so badly that Annabeth did it. Annabeth was excellent at braiding hair. She and Madeleine had braided Ethan's once, which had made him squirm.

"He's awake," Annabeth said quietly. "He's okay."

Madeleine wasn't worried about that. That hadn't ever been the problem, and Annabeth knew it.

Ethan might have been awake, but he wasn't okay. Neither was Madeleine.

In a sharp way, Madeleine envied the new demigods: Piper, Leo, Hazel, Frank. They had all been through horrible things, but not in the same way Madeleine and the others had. It was indescribable, the separated Roman barrier, the longing for a home. Madeleine wasn't sure she would ever be able to go to sleep again without waking up afraid to be somewhere else, with no memories except a sharp mouth.

"Did Ethan always know he would find me?" Madeleine asked. Her voice was barely a whisper, like she was afraid of the answer. She was.

Annabeth gave her a very sad, sober look. "He knew you were gone before I knew it, Mads. I've known Ethan as long as you, but I've never seen him act the way he did when you were gone."

"How did he act?" Madeleine asked. Her voice caught, like she was going to start crying again.

Annabeth's eyes shifted away from Madeleine's face, to look out of the small circular window.

"Desperate," she said. "He was desperate."

Here was why Madeleine and Ethan could not knit themselves back together the same way Percy and Annabeth had: they were not heroes. Here was why they could not love each other with the same ease Leo and Jason did: they were not easy.

They were desperate.

⎯⎯ ୨ entrapped ୧ ⎯⎯

They gathered on the deck, the nine of them. The others had wanted Ethan to stay in his cot and rest, but Ethan had sworn at them. He was in a rotten mood, the kind of mood that made him curl in on himself rather than lash out on others. Madeleine hated it. She would have preferred he swear at Jason and Leo a hundred times than look so alone.