ENTRAPPED ₂

84

MADELEINE HATED TO ADMIT IT, BUT SHE MISSED BOB.

She had gotten used to having the Titan on their side, lighting their way with his silver hair and his fearsome war broom. She realized, with an odd feeling, that she had begun to trust him and to like him.

Oh, curse Tartarus.

Now, instead of Bob, their only guide was an emaciated walking corpse with serious self-esteem issues. Madeleine supposed she should cut herself some slack. Switching from Bob to Akhyls would make anyone miss the Titan.

As they struggled across the dusty plain, the fog became so thick that Madeleine had to resist the urge to swat it away with her hands. The only reason she was able to follow Akhyls's path was because poisonous plants sprang up wherever she walked.

If they were still on the body of Tartarus, Madeleine figured they must be on the bottom of his foot―a rough, calloused expanse where only the most disgusting plant life grew.

Finally they arrived at the end of the big toe. At least that's what it looked like to Madeleine. The fog dissipated, and they found themselves on a peninsula that jutted out over a pitch-black void.

"Here we are." Akhyls turned and leered at them. Blood from her cheeks dripped on her dress. Her sickly eyes looked moist and swollen but somehow excited.

"Uh... great," Percy said. "Where is here?"

"The verge of final death," Akhyls said. "Where Night meets the void below Tartarus."

Annabeth inched forward and peered over the cliff. "I thought there was nothing below Tartarus."

"Oh, certainly there is..." Akhyls coughed. "Even Tartarus had to rise from somewhere. This is the edge of the earliest darkness, which was my mother. Below lies the realm of Chaos, my father. Here, you are closer to nothingness than any mortal has ever been. Can you not feel it?"

Madeleine knew what she meant. The void seemed to be pulling at her, leaching the breath from her lungs and the oxygen from her blood. She looked at Ethan and saw that his lips were tinged blue.

"We can't stay here," Percy said.

"No, indeed!" Akhyls said. "Don't you feel the Death Mist? Even now, you pass between. Look!"

White smoke gathered at Madeleine's feet. As it coiled up her legs, she realized the smoke wasn't surrounding her. It was coming from her. Her whole body was dissolving. She held up her hands and found they were fuzzy and indistinct. She couldn't even tell how many fingers she had―hopefully still ten.

Madeleine glanced at Ethan and her heart sank all the way to her feet. At the same time, Percy made a soft yelping sound.

Ethan looked dead.

His skin was sallow, his eye socket dark and sunken. His beautiful hair had dried into a skein of cobwebs. He looked like he'd been stuck in a cool, dark mausoleum for decades, slowly withering into a desiccated husk. When he turned to look at Madeleine, his features momentarily blurred into mist.

Madeleine felt like vomiting. This―her very worst fear―was standing right in front of her. After all she had gone through, after all the loss she had experienced, she had sworn she would never lose Ethan. They had been protecting each other since day one. She had followed him into Tartarus, for fuck's sake. He couldn't be dead, he couldn't. She needed him.

"Hey," Ethan said. His voice was even and remarkably alive. "It's okay. It's just the Death Mist. You looked the same way. So do they." He nodded toward Percy and Annabeth, and sure enough, they looked just as terrible as Madeleine's boyfriend.