ENTRAPPED ₂

80

FOR ONE EXCITING MINUTE, MADELEINE FELT LIKE SHE AND PERCY WERE WINNING. Their weapons cut through the arai as though they were made of powdered sugar. One panicked and ran face-first into a tree. Another screeched and tried to fly away, but Percy sliced off her wings and sent her spiraling into the chasm.

Each time Madeleine killed a demon, she felt a heavier sense of dread as another curse settled on her. Some were harsh and painful: a stabbing in the cut, a burning sensation across the back of her neck. Some were subtle: a chill in the blood, an uncontrollable tic in her right eye. She wondered, briefly, who that one was from.

Madeleine knew she had killed a lot of things―monsters, demigods, Titans, giants. But she had never really thought about it from their point of view. Now all their pain and anger and bitterness poured over her, sapping her strength.

The arai just kept coming. For every two Madeleine and Percy cut down, twelve more seemed to appear.

Her arms grew tired. Her body ached, and her vision blurred. She and Percy tried to inch their way toward their significant others, but Annabeth was just out of reach, and Ethan was curled up so tightly that Madeleine wasn't sure it was safe to touch him.

As Percy and Madeleine blundered toward them anyway, a demon pounced. Madeleine just barely managed to dodge, but it sank its teeth into Percy's thigh. Percy roared and sliced the demon to dust, but immediately fell to his knees.

"No," Madeleine said. Her voice cracked. She could take all of this, but she needed Percy. She couldn't fight alone. She needed him on her side. He was always at her side. She needed him to stay on his feet, to be okay, to help her do what they did best: survive.

Percy didn't seem to hear her. He doubled over, shuddering and retching.

You have chosen, said the voice of the arai, the curse of Phineas... an excellent painful death.

Percy opened his mouth and retched violently. Madeleine remembered: back in Oregon, when Apollo had taken her away to kill a giant, Percy had bargained with the seer Phineas to find the place where Thanatos was being held. As Hazel and Frank had watched, the two of them had drank gorgon's blood. Phineas had died a miserable death, and Percy had lived.

Now, it was coming back to bite him.

Something in Madeleine broke. She felt like there was shattered glass inside of her. She was bleeding from a dozen places. Her mouth felt seared, her lungs tight. Her hands were shaking so badly, she could hardly hold her knives.

She didn't give a damn. She stumbled forward and sliced, and stabbed, and emitted a sound somewhere between screaming and sobbing. Her head ached. Her body stumbled. She wondered if this was how gods felt when confined to mortal bodies: heavy and leaden, unfamiliar with themselves.

Madeleine was going to die. She was going to die a failure. Just like Luke.

She was not sure when the curse hit her, but she remembered falling to the ground, feeling like her spine was bending, like she was being crushed by a million pounds. It felt like she was back under the sky, holding the weight, except this time, Percy wasn't there to help her. Percy was a very long ways away.

The curse of Atlas, the arai hissed gleefully. You took his daughter and helped trick him under his punishment. Now, he repays you.

Madeleine wanted to protest that she hadn't taken anything from Atlas, but her body was leaden and painful. Her knives had been knocked out of her hands. Her vision was a single crimson blur. She could not think of a single good thing. Zoe was dead and that was all her fault, and Ethan and Percy and Annabeth were about to die and that was all her fault, too. She was supposed to protect them. She couldn't even do that right.