ENTRAPPED ₂

118

THE NEXT DAY, EVERYONE TURNED TO ETHAN FOR ANSWERS. He hated it. He just wanted to grieve in peace.

He knew, in his bones, that Madeleine Aetos was dead. He didn't even have to see the comet that was Octavian, though he did. As soon as the sky exploded, Ethan felt a dread like he had never felt before. He would have rather been back in his father's basement. He would rather have lost anyone else. But all he could do was watch from the ground, Drew on one side and Madeleine's little brother on the other, as she died to save the rest of them.

Stupid, silly, lovely Madeleine Aetos. Ethan didn't know why he had encouraged her to take the fall. Maybe because he knew she had to, that she would never be the same if she didn't. But he had no idea how she planned to survive. There were too many missing pieces.

Ethan was trying to be hospitable, even though all he wanted was to crawl into the Nemesis Cabin and die. He owed explanations to some―like Drew, and Lee. The others, too―Percy and Annabeth were going to be devastated.

But he hated it. He hated everything. The grief kept slamming into him in pieces, threatening to pull him under if he didn't fight with everything he had. It was worse than her disappearance, because at least Ethan had figured she was alive then. Now he knew for certain she was dead. He might never see her again, and all he had was a letter.

But he couldn't read that. Not now. Now, he had things to do.

After the explosion, Piper and Jason―free-falling and unconscious―were plucked out of the sky by giant eagles and brought to safety, but Leo and Madeleine did not reappear, just as Ethan knew they wouldn't. The entire Hephaestus and Hermes Cabins scoured the valley, along with many of Madeleine's friends like Drew, Lee, Castor, Pollux, Clarisse. All they found were bits and pieces of the Argo II's broken hull, but no sign of Festus or his two riders.

All the monsters had been destroyed or scattered. Greek and Roman casualties were heavy, but not nearly as bad as they might have been.

Overnight, the satyrs and nymphs disappeared into the woods for a convocation of the Cloven Elders. In the morning, Grover reappeared to announce that they could not sense the Earth Mother's presence. Nature was more or less back to normal. Apparently, Madeleine, Jason, Piper, and Leo's plan worked. Gaea had been separated from her source of power, charmed to sleep, and then atomized in the combined explosion of Leo's fire, Octavian's manmade comet, and Madeleine's own essence.

An immortal could never die, but now Gaea would be like her husband, Ouranos. The earth would continue to function as normal, just as the sky did, but Gaea was now so dispersed and powerless that she could never again form a consciousness. It was the same way Luke had gotten rid of Kronos. If Ethan thought too hard about the parallels between Luke and Madeleine, he wanted to throw up.

When Grover finished his announcement, he trotted down to Percy and Annabeth. They hadn't really been the same since the explosion. Ethan hadn't spoken to them, but he had been watching from afar. He knew they blamed themselves, but Ethan thought that he was the one to blame. He wouldn't be surprised if all of his friends if they hated his guts. 

Madeleine had always been twice the person that Ethan was, and he had let her kill herself. He had never deserved that girl.

Grover ducked his head, and Percy and Annabeth both embraced him. Ethan had to look away when Percy started crying. It was too painful to watch.

The victory celebration at camp was muted, due to grief―not just for Leo and Madeleine, but also for the many others who had died in battle. Shrouded demigods, both Greek and Roman, were burned at the campfire, and Chiron asked Nico to oversee the burial rites.