ENTRAPPED ₂

101

NICO DI ANGELO'S NEXT JUMP, BLESS HIS TWISTED LITTLE HEART, LEFT THEM DANGLING ACROSS THE TOP OF A HANDFUL OF TEMPLE COLUMNS. Nico passed out as soon as they arrived. Luckily, he was harnessed, and the Athena Parthenos lay relatively safely across the columns like they were a bed. Ethan and Reyna, however, were not so lucky

Ethan clung to Nike, letting loose a slew of curses. Reyna was still clinging to Ethan's wrist, and she released a strangled sound as Ethan gripped her wrist. Ah, yes. Her ribs were broken, he recalled.

Well, it seemed it was up to Ethan to fix this, since he was the most conscious and least injured of his little crew. There was a column only about a foot above Ethan's head. He could reach it and climb up if not for Reyna.

"Okay, look," Ethan said, trying to keep the shake out of his voice. "I'm going to need you to climb me and get up on top of the temple."

"My ribs are broken, I think," was Reyna's reply.

"That's fantastic," Ethan told her. "Can you climb or no?"

Reyna reached up and gripped Ethan's shoulder, and immediately, her whole face went white. Her grip broke, and she would have fallen twenty feet to the temple floor if Ethan hadn't still been gripping her wrist.

Ethan cursed again. "Okay, Plan B. I've got some ambrosia in my pocket for easy access. Grab it and eat it. I would grab it for you, but if I let go of you, then you fall and splatter on the concrete, and if I let go of the statue, then we both fall and die and splatter on the concrete."

"Uh-huh," Reyna agreed, her voice tight with pain. Trembling, she reached up and grabbed for Ethan's pocket. After a few awkward, painful seconds, she produced his little plastic baggie of ambrosia. She ripped it open with her teeth and ate half of the square, then exhaled softly. Color began to return to her face.

"Excellent," Ethan said. His grip on Nike was straining. Reyna was not light. "Now, will you please get up there?"

Reyna obliged. She climbed Ethan's body, nearly kicking him in the face at one point, and deposited herself atop the crumbling temple. She pulled Ethan up and they both sat there, breathing hard. Ethan could tell from the way she was breathing that she was still in a lot of pain.

"Finish your ambrosia," Ethan told her. He slung his backpack off, being very careful not to fall, and began to rummage through it. "I'll check out your ribs."

Reyna nodded. She nibbled on her ambrosia and looked around. Ethan figured their surroundings could wait if Reyna didn't see anything immediately alarming. It also helped that they were twenty-five feet in the air, so it wasn't likely anymore earthen shells could get them from up here.

Reyna's ribs were badly bruised despite the ambrosia, and Ethan actually felt a little bad for making her do all that physical exertion, but it wasn't like they had had much of a choice. He wrapped her ribs tightly, and she winced but did not move away, which was just as well.

When Ethan was done, he took his turn to look around. A public square rested maybe ten feet away from the temple, a lawn with beds of blooming marigolds scattered throughout the grass. A stone's throw away from that, a white marble fountain gurgled quietly, interrupting the quiet night. A nearby sidewalk cafe stood dark and silent, a sign on the front advertising something in what Ethan thought was Spanish. A few empty delivery vans were parked along the edges of the square, but there was no traffic. Ethan wagered, by the position of the moon in the sky, that it was about two in the morning.

"Are we in Spain?" he asked Reyna.

She frowned at the cafe's sign. "I think we're in Portugal. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that's Portuguese. I speak Spanish, so I can understand most of it, but there are subtle differences."