ENTRAPPED ₂

81

MADELEINE WAS NOT FEELING VERY WELL.

She still didn't feel like herself. Though Bob had cured her, her entire body was trembling. Random twinges of pain arced down her spine, making her feel like she was being electrocuted. She wondered, vaguely, if perhaps this was the curse of Bianca di Angelo.

Knock it off, her brain told her.

Bob slung Percy over his shoulder like a bag of sports equipment while the skeleton kitten Small Bob curled up on Percy's back and purred. Bob lumbered along at a fast pace, even for a Titan, which made it almost impossible for Madeleine to keep up.

Her lungs rattled. Her skin had started to blister again. Her throat burned like she had just swallowed fire. She actually would have liked to at the moment, but they'd left the River Phlegethon behind. Her body was so sore and battered that she'd forgotten what it was like not to be in pain.

Annabeth seemed to be sympathizing with Madeleine's plight. After a while, the other girl wheezed, "How much longer?"

"Almost too long," Bob called back. "But maybe not."

How reassuring. Madeleine's momentary sympathy for the Titan was rapidly evaporating.

The landscape changed again. They were still going downhill, which should have made traveling easier; but the ground sloped at just the wrong angle―too steep to jog, too treacherous to let her guard down even for a moment. The surface was sometimes loose gravel, sometimes patches of slime. Madeleine kept tripping on random bristles and clusters of warts the size of watermelons. The third time she did this, skinning her knees in the process, Ethan pulled her to her feet and did not let go of her waist.

"I'm fine," she insisted; but her voice sounded shaky, even to her.

He gave her a very stoic look. "Madeleine, you didn't see the state you were in back there. It's a miracle you're even walking. If Percy gets carried, then I'm at least helping you walk."

His tone left no room for argument, but Madeleine hated feeling like the weak link. She was supposed to keep her friends together, keep them alive. Yet here she was, failing again.

The air got thicker and stank of sewage. Madeleine figured, by this point, they were walking down the length of Tartarus's large intestine. She was in too much pain to really be disturbed by this idea, so she just kept trotting along, Ethan's arm surprisingly steady around her waist. The darkness maybe wasn't quite as intense, but Madeleine could only see Bob because of the glint of his white hair and the point of his spear. She noticed he hadn't retracted the spearhead on his broom since the fight with the arai. That didn't reassure her.

Percy flopped around, causing the kitten to readjust his next in the small of his back. Occasionally Percy would groan and pain, and the lump in Madeleine's throat increased. She was supposed to protect him. She knew how reckless Percy could be. How could she have let this happen?

The darkness kept flickering, expelling odd shapes. Madeleine kept waiting for Luke to appear, his face as pale as his hair. She had to have been hallucinating back here. She was losing her mind. She was slowing them down. Ethan and Annabeth should just leave her. It would be easier. They would be able to protect Percy better without her dragging them down.

Her legs nearly gave out. Her vision was clouding at the edges. Ethan dragged her to her feet, and now she could feel him shaking a little.

"Hey," he murmured. "Hey, stay with me. It's okay. We're going to be fine. Stay with me, baby."

Madeleine heard him as if she was a million miles away, but obediently, she kept walking. She saw Annabeth cast a worried glance back at the pair of them, her dark eyebrows knit. Percy groaned and muttered something that Madeleine couldn't make out.