When she was five, Adela had rested her elbow on the stove by mistake whilst Linda was cooking and been burned on the back of her arm. She'd screamed, very, very loudly and Linda had dropped the pan of eggs on the floor in shock. Adela's dad had bundled her up in his arms as she screamed, and shushed her. She didn't remember exactly what he'd said, but it had been soothing. Her Dad was probably crying more than she was as he held her elbow under the cold tap and talked into the phone with his free hand. In ten minutes, she was in his car, on the way to the hospital. When she got home, after an hour of crying, under heavy pain medication, she vaguely remembered Linda ruffling her hair and handing her the finished tortilla. It was delicious, as usual, and she went to bed early, with her Dad singing her to sleep. The scar was shaped like a lopsided egg. She was pretty sure it was still visible, but not to her or anyone else since her gloves completely covered her arms, and she didn't take them off, ever. But she'd ended the night of the burnt elbow safe and warm, wrapped in three thick blankets. Most of all, she hadn't been alone.

She was alone now.

Hanging in a cage above a crackling fire, in a room resembling a cave. The bars of the cage weren't as hot as the stove, but they were getting there. And her dad wasn't there, either. The only other person was the gaunt man with weirdly sharp teeth, and a hungry look in his eyes, who'd shoved her in the cage and locked the door in the first place. Then, he'd turned on the flame under the cage.

She was being roasted alive.

The thought made her feel nauseous.

Adela threw her back against the bars again, but her hoodie steamed and she hissed, darting away. This wasn't working, it wasn't working, and there was nothing else she could do!

"Stop touching the bars. You'll ruin the recipe!" the man growled.

"Let me go, or I swear to the gods you'll regret it!" Adela responded.

The man shook his head as he chopped a carrot with a very large knife. "No can do. It'll ruin the quality of the roast. I hate it when they make me burn the fingers. Tastes too salty." The man grimaced.

Adela gagged. How could someone talk so casually about roasting another person?

"Oi, no gagging either!" The man wiped a sheen of sweat off his forehead. "Shame you're not a little older. There's not enough meat on those bones."

Adela had heard people say that to her, before. Her Abuela used to say it, back when she was still alive, and Adela hadn't hated the expression even then. She liked it even less when this ... she couldn't call him human ... was saying it because he actually wanted to eat her.

"You're sick. You're sick and disgusting. Let me go, godsdamnit!"

The man looked up at her, with very dead eyes. "Food doesn't talk. If you talk, I'm turning up the heat to an instant roast." With that, he climbed the ladder next to the heated cage he'd thrown her in, opened a tiny hatch at the top, and poured in a huge sack of salt. Adela tried to shield herself with her hands, but some still got in her eyes. Gods, her eyes!

"Huh. Too much salt. I can't ever get the salt right... still going to taste good, though." The man licked his lips, and Adela gagged again. If there weren't such small gaps between the bars, she'd impale him in the back of the brain with one of the daggers. She'd still slowly cook to death with nobody to put the flame underneath her out, but at least she'd avenge her own death.

She should have thought more. But she didn't want to touch him... even if he was going to kill her, she didn't exactly know that at the time. He looked like a mortal. She'd only realised what exactly was going on when she saw the cages, and the bite marks on his own skin. And the bloodstains on the walls. And the smell.

She only knew one story about a cannibal, and his name was Erysichthon. The first thing she'd asked the man was his name. She really, really hated when she was right.

"Oi! Quit squirming. You want to ruin the spread of the seasoning? I worked hard on that flavour combination. Took me six whole minutes." He gestured to the pot of something he was stirring with a giant spoon. It smelled foul.

"Damn, you're barely enough for a light snack. I should have grabbed your small friend too." As Erysichthon grumbled, spit flew from his mouth and into whatever horrible-smelling gunk filled the pot.

"She's not my friend!" Adela snarled.

Marion might seem nice enough, but so had Mason, the first time he'd sought her out. He'd sat at the bus stop next to her, smiled, and given her a warm bacon sandwich and a bag of fries. It had been the first hot meal she'd eaten in months. She's been so grateful she'd almost followed him without thinking, but then she'd taken in what he'd been saying about Kronos's ship, and she'd run off before he'd finished his sentence.

And Marion was a daughter of Apollo. That made her Mason's little sister. There was no way it could be a coincidence that she'd turned up in the labyrinth and just happened to be the one Adela woke up to. She'd been there to take Adela to the Princess Andromeda - she had to be. The whole thing about a quest was a terrible cover. Adela didn't know how Mason had found her so quickly, but she didn't want to stay and ask Marion the specifics.

So, no, Adela and Marion were not friends. With any luck, Marion had seen Erysichthon grab her and ran crying to her pathetic older brother about how Adela was most definitely dead and he needed to find another poor unsuspecting half-blood to torment. Then, maybe she could finally have a little peace and quiet.

She had to escape before that happened, though she was quickly realising that escaping wasn't going to be as simple as she thought.

"Katastréfo." She raised her hand and pointed at the bars.

Nothing happened.

"Keep quiet! I told you. Food doesn't talk!" Erysichthon banged the spoon on the bars, and Adela fell back, gasping as the bottom of the hot cage seared the back of her neck.

It wasn't working. Gods, why did it never work?! She was a daughter of Hekate! The literal goddess of magic. She was supposed to be able to do this! So why was she still so bad at it? Her mom hadn't told her that, either.

She tried again. "Katastréfo!" A hunk of rock fell on the ceiling, landing on Erysichthon's foot. He howled and hopped up and down like a toddler, which caused him to stumble back and spill whatever he was mixing onto the fire, putting it out. Adela nearly cried in relief.

"Look what you made me do! The broth's all gone." Erysichthon snatched a lighter from the table, and relit the fire, this time kicking more fuel into it. "Now I have to make it again. Do you know how hard it is to evenly chop carrots? Not as hard as it is to chop fingers, but still!"

Erysichthon stormed out, probably into some kind of side room to make the preparations for his next batch of disgusting broth.

Adela closed her eyes. If she just had Hemlock, or even Hellebore, she could get out of this in a pinch (she meant that quite literally). Especially in this heat, if she lowered the concentration enough, she could make the effects of the plants almost identical to Asphodel. Then she could make the bars toxic for Erysichthon to even touch. She'd still slowly cook to death, but at least she'd feel like she'd tried to do something.

There was the other way, too. Adela swallowed. She wasn't doing that. Even to Erysichthon. She wouldn't even do it to Mason.

Adela glanced around the cage. Could she escape without the hemlock? She could try, but... it hurt way too much to move her arms. Way too much. She only about managed to twitch a single shaky finger towards the cage bars.

"Katastréfo..." She wasn't even really trying with that one. Nothing happened, not even a spark. Gods, she was going to die in here, all alone. There was nothing she could do about it, and her Dad would never know what happened to her. She wondered if he'd be happy eventually. He could find someone. He was probably the best person she knew. He could have another kid, this time not with a crazy goddess. Mortal children came with a lot less problems. Or maybe the problem was just her. It didn't matter. She'd be in the underworld soon. If she'd been able to move, the thought would have made her shudder. She still had nightmares about that place, after everything. And she wouldn't be allowed to leave if she was really dead. She probably had a gold pass to the fields of punishment, too. Maybe some kind of specialised torture, like-

Adela's eyes snapped open at a noise. Something crashed through the hole she'd made in the ceiling with her spell, falling to the floor.

"Ow! Fucks sake, that's the second time I've fallen on the ground like that in two hours. Why do the fates hate me?"

MARION

Marion was not having a good time.

She wasn't sure exactly how whatever had grabbed Adela had booked it so fast, but when Mari crashed through the wall to try to follow she found herself in an empty room. A really ugly, cave-like empty room. So, Mari did the only thing she could do.

She followed her instincts.

She hoped they were actually working, because it really didn't feel like they were. They'd dragged her up a tunnel above the room, for crying out loud! She felt like an oversized mole. Also, the tunnel smelled really bad.

There were small cracks at the bottom of it, which made Mari very anxious about falling through as she crawled, but the plus side was that the cracks let her see what was going on. It wasn't very interesting. There was a kitchen of some kind, but it didn't look like any kitchen Mari had seen before. There were bloody chains hanging on the walls, and an empty stove in the middle of the room. It was still on, blue flames licking at the metal, which made Mari think that something had been boiling there very recently.

Naturally, she followed the direction of the only door in the weird-kitchen room. It led to an even uglier-looking cave, which could really use some lighting, but that wasn't Mari's main concern.

Mari's main concern was the fact that Adela was in the middle of the ugly-cave-room, hanging from a cage above a boiling fire. She'd already been injured, but she looked even worse. Weak, tired and completely out of it. It didn't take time for Mari to figure out why. There was a man to the right of the cage, stirring something foul-smelling in a huge pot (that must have been what made the tunnel smell so gross, ew), and occasionally poking the fire under Adela with a stick. He was cooking her alive. Mari's stomach rolled.

"Katastréfo," Adela whispered. Mari furrowed her eyebrows. That meant destroy. What was she... oh! She was a daughter of Hekate, right? That meant that she was trying to use magic to get out.

Something was wrong, though, because nothing happened. Maybe it was because she was experiencing heatstroke? Mari shifted, and slapped a hand to avoid cursing as the movement made a chunk of rock fall to the ground below her.

"Look what you made me do! The broth's all gone." Mari grit her teeth. How dare he act like this was Adela's fault. The disgusting creature was burning her alive! And the rock was because of her, not Adela. "Now I have to make it again. Do you know how hard it is to evenly chop carrots? Not as hard as it is to chop fingers, but still..."

Oh, this prick was disgusting. Mari needed to get Adela away from him, as soon as possible.

He stormed out, probably to stir more of his people-stew or whatever (Mari once again thanked the gods that she was vegan, although she still felt mildly nauseous), and left Adela alone. That was good. As Mari had been crawling, she'd seen how thick the walls between rooms were. Several metres, at least. She was pretty sure that short of actually shrieking at the top of her lungs or worse, he wouldn't hear a thing.

"Katastréfo." Adela whispered this one. She looked entirely defeated. Mari needed to get her out of there.

No time like the present. She kicked the already weak tunnel she was hiding in, and fell to the ground with it. A shot of pain went through her spine, and she winced, standing up with shaky legs.

"Ow!" She rubbed her back. "Fucks sake, that's the second time I've fallen on the ground like that in two hours. Why do the fates hate me?"

She made her way over to Adela, wincing at the heat. It was like being inside a giant hairdryer. In fact, that was probably an understatement. If it was this bad for Mari, how did Adela, literally roasting over the flames, feel?

Adela stared at her, eyes wide. "I'm hallucinating, aren't I?"

Mari shook her head. "No. How do I get you out of here?"

"You can't. I already tried. Nothing works." Adela stared up at the ceiling.

Well, that was sure helpful. Not. Mari huffed and grabbed two of the bars, to see if she could sever them with the mist.

"Gah! That's hot!" She yanked her hand away and shook it through the air to relieve the burning, but it didn't work. Adela glared at her. "Obviously. There's a fire under it, genius."

Even whilst suffering from probable heatstroke, Adela still managed to sound annoyed at her. Mari would be kind of impressed if it weren't, well, a life-or-death situation.

"Okay. Okay, we have, like, three minutes before that piss-stain comes back in here to cook you. Chopping carrots doesn't take that long."

"Chopping fingers does, apparently," Adela interrupted.

Mari clapped a hand over her mouth. Despite her efforts, a small giggle broke through. "No - hah - no, I shouldn't laugh, but-" Another laugh bubbled up her throat. "This is the most un-vegan thing to happen to me, in like, a year!"

Adela sighed. "Just a year?"

"Ever met this prick called Polyphemus?" Mari replied.

Adela went slightly green. "No, but I've heard of him."

Mari bit back a smile. It wasn't the time to be cracking jokes. She shrugged off her backpack and pulled out the pink silk sleeping bag. I'm sorry, Drew, she thought as she wrapped it around the bars of the cage. There would definitely be burn marks in the fabric, but hopefully it would still be fine to sleep in, and she could always pay Drew back in however many Drachmas it cost.

Then, she formed the mist into shards in the air, and sliced. The bars snapped in half in Mari's hands, and she gently set them on the floor.

Adela stared. "How are you doing that?" She asked.

"No time. I need to keep doing it." Mari cut away another set of bars as she talked. They were thin but sturdy, and there was barely enough room between them for Mari to stick her pinky finger. She'd have to get rid of at least... what, sixty of these things? She'd never made the mist into shards like this more than fifteen times at once, and that alone gave her a bloody nightmare of a headache. She could try and use one shard to cut several bars, but she also couldn't hold them all at the same time, and they'd fall on her all at once. Boiling hot metal bars was not the way she wanted to die. Plus, she'd be no help to Adela in this state.

"Okay, I can't get rid of all these bars without passing out, so..." She looked at the girl still lying in the cage. "New plan: There is no plan. Do you have a plan?"

"No," Adela spat. "Just leave. Go back to your brother."

Mari's heart sank. "Believe me, Will is going to be just fine without me, and I'm not leaving without you."

The first time Mari had met Will, she'd yelled at him, and he'd been trying to help. Truth was, she wasn't a very good sister, no matter how badly she wanted to be. She couldn't be nice long enough to get along with Will, and she probably wouldn't be able to if she died here. But what would he think if she left Adela alone in a helpless state to be eaten just because she was afraid? What would that make her? Nobody good, that was for sure.

"Can you put the fire out?" Adela asked.

Mari scanned the room. The blood-covered chains wouldn't be any help, the pot was completely empty from when he had kicked it over so she couldn't use that to put the fire out, and there was nothing else.

"I can try."

Adela nodded. Her face was clammy in the light of the fire, and it looked like she was struggling to keep her eyes open.

Since there was nothing useful in the room, Mari shuffled through her backpack. She had a few full water bottles, that was good, but not enough to fully put the fire out. Maybe if she could find a way to make it cover the fire completely, but she wasn't Percy, so to her water was only for drinking. And bathing. Gods, she would love a bath right about now.

Focus! Adela didn't have time for her to daydream about soap. She had her spare camp shirt, too. She was pretty sure if you smothered a fire with wet cloth, it went out, right? She'd gone to a mandatory 'life skills' day with her primary school years ago where they talked about this but she hadn't paid attention. She was obviously regretting that now. All she could do was hope she was right. She pulled the orange shirt out of her backpack and spread it on the floor, opening the first of her three water bottles. She could worry about refilling them later.

She poured two of the bottles over the shirt, setting the third one aside.

"Hurry up!" Adela hissed.

The fire, hot as it was, was a lot smaller than it had been before Erysichthon relit it, which made sense considering that the sticks Erysichthon had used were already half burned. It worked in Mari's favour, anyway. She pinched the sleeves of the shirt and inched around the fire, doing her best not to wince at the pain in her fingers as they got too close. However much it hurt, Adela definitely had it worse. Biting her lip, she covered the fire with the soaking orange shirt as best she could.

The fire made a hissing sound, and spluttered into glowing embers. Steam rose up around Mari and Adela. Mari coughed, but it wasn't smoke, so she didn't think it would be dangerous for Adela, in the cage. At least, she hoped not. She didn't think she could take one more thing today, or she might set something outside of the labyrinth on fire for real, and she wasn't in favour of destruction of property unless that property was ugly.

Mari twisted the lid off the final water bottle and poured it over the steaming embers, watching as the orange faded to dark gray.

"Is it out?" Adela's voice was scratchy. Mari popped her head over the base of the cage to look at her, still curled up in the centre.

"Yeah, it's out. What now?" Mari hoped Adela actually had a plan, but she wasn't that optimistic about it.

"Hide. When he gets back, I'm going to try and use my magic on him."

Mari felt like her stomach turned to stone at Adela's words. That wasn't going to work. Adela had tried that already, godsdamnit! "Are you sure?" Mari asked.

Adela glared at her. "You can hide or leave. Do you have a better idea?"

She hated to admit it, but Adela had a point there.

She froze at a clanking sound coming from the other room. Shit. Shit, he was coming back. He was coming back and Mari had no time to hide! She frantically searched the room and cringed at the empty 'marinade' pot. Seriously? It smelled terrible.

Mari clambered onto the table and pinched her nose, glancing at the lighter next to her. She snatched it up and shoved it into her back pocket. Then she stepped into the pot and tried not to gag. There was still a tiny bit of marinade in the bottom of the pot, which was a very suspicious orange colour. The entire pot also had the smell of unwashed feet. First Polyphemus, now this? Holy fuck. Why were all cannibals so awful at cooking? Other than the obvious.

"Why is the fire out again? What did you do?!" His voice boomed through the room.

Mari tensed and clamped a hand over her mouth and froze in place as he stomped past the pot she was crouched in, his footfalls causing it to shake. It should have sent the pot crashing to the ground, but her weight kept it in place. If he noticed the inconsistency, though...

Mari jabbed her free arm into her side to stop herself from shuddering.

"Stamatíste na kineítai o echthrós." Adela's voice rang across the room, shaky.

It wasn't working.

Mari didn't know why she'd hoped for anything different. It hadn't worked before, why would it work now? Yeah, it had been the only plan either of them could think of, but that didn't mean anything if it was still a shit plan.

"FOOD DOESN'T TALK!" There was a bang as something hit the table, causing it to shake. Mari bit down on her bottom lip to stop herself from yelping.

Footsteps rounded towards her.

Shit. Shit, fuck. He'd noticed the pot staying in place this time.

Mari tried to weigh her options. She could jump out and attack him. For all she knew, he could be undefeatable. If he couldn't be killed, all she'd do would make things worse...

"Stamatíste na kineítai o echthrós!" Adela's voice rang out again.

"Would you stop talking?!" His footsteps receded like his hairline as he rounded on Adela again, forgetting about the pot.

Mari didn't even have time to be relieved. She was too consumed by the way Adela's voice cracked. She appreciated the distraction, deliberate or not, but it didn't matter in the long run because for all she knew, she'd have to fight him off regardless. This wasn't working, and it didn't seem like Adela had the strength to try again for much longer. But she was a daughter of Hekate, for crying out loud! Magic was supposed to be their whole thing!

Was it the heatstroke, then? Mari didn't know if heatstroke effected magic, but it was more likely than Adela making things up in a life or death situation.

Mari hoped she was right as she raised her free hand in front of her face. She could cool down the mist around Adela. She was pretty sure she could. She'd done it before, after all. When Annabeth chucked her into the sea last summer, she'd heated the mist around her to stop the hypothermia. All she'd had to do was make the natural movement of the mist faster. She didn't quite remember why it worked like that. She was pretty sure it was something chemical. This was just the inverse of that.

She felt around for the mist around Adela, and slowed it down as best she could.

Mari closed her eyes. She could feel Adela through the mist. Her arms, her legs, even her head. It was a blurry approximation, but she wasn't seeing visually, it was like a new sense. Just like she had when Circe presented her with the first guinea pig and made her...

No.

"Stamatíste na kineítai o echthrós."

There was a yelp. Crouched in the pot, not daring to look over the side, Mari heard something fell to the floor.

"It's done..." Adela called. "You can come out."

Mari shakily clambered out of the pot.

The monster was sprawled out on the floor, his body contorted like a broken doll, unable to move. His leg was bent at an angle it definitely shouldn't be. Mari wondered what would happen if she kicked him. Would his leg bend even more? What if it snapped off? "That's creepy as fuck," Mari whispered.

"Get me out of here!" Adela's voice snapped Mari out of her thoughts. Adela was still sprawled out in the cage. With how cold Mari had made the air, she should have been shivering. The fact that she wasn't was definitely bad.

"Hey, you!" Mari kicked him in the back, and he groaned but thankfully didn't snap in two like a twiglet. "How do I get her out of the cage?"

His only answer was to spit at Mari.

"Eugh! Ew! Dude, what the fuck?! You disgusting... ugh!" Mari wiped her chin, but she didn't have anything to clean her hands with and she'd ruined her spare shirt in the fire so she wasn't using the one she was wearing. If she didn't already want to punch him for putting Adela in a fucking cage, she definitely wanted to punch him now. Provided that he didn't try and spit on her again.

"Will you let me eat if I tell you?" he whined.

"NO." Mari glared down at him. She hoped his head was itchy given that he couldn't move to scratch it.

"Yes! We'll let you eat!" Adela lied.

"Key's in my back pocket."

Gods he was stupid. Mari groaned, then kicked him over again, onto his stomach. She fished the key out of his pocket and kicked him again for good measure, before hurrying over to Adela and unlocking the cage.

"Which one of you am I eating?" He licked his lips as he stared at them. Mari felt queasy at the thoughts.

"Neither of us, idiot." Adela glared as Mari swung the cage door open and offered her hand.

"C'mon." Mari smiled at the girl. "Let's get out of here before the spell you cast wears off."

Adela didn't take her eyes off Mari as she climbed out, refusing her hand. "Fine, let's go. Whatever."

"Wait, no! You- you said I could eat! I don't want to go hungry!" the monster wailed.

"You think anybody would volunteer to be eaten willingly?!" Adela snarled at him. For a girl suffering from heatstroke, Adela sure was snippy.

"Please, please! I haven't had a proper meal in so long! I'm hungry!" The monster was still immobilised, but Mari didn't know how long Adela's spell would last. Hades, she hadn't believed Adela's spell would even work. She wasn't wasting this by staying for a chat. Sadly, it seemed like Adela had other ideas.

"How are you even alive? Demeter cursed you in Ancient times," she asked.

No, no. Mari wanted to grab Adela by the shoulders and shake. Never talk to monsters when you could be doing better things like escaping. That was common sense to any demigod. Adela would be so much better at this if she'd gone to camp. Chiron gave his lectures for a reason.

"Let's go, now. Come on!" Mari almost tugged on Adela's hand, but thought better of it. That was a great way to get tackled to the ground and ditched. And she still needed to find Clarisse, not be left alone with a mysteriously immortal cannibal.

He looked confused. "Demeter cursed me to be hungry forever. I wasn't done being hungry."

Adela frowned. Then she crouched in front of the monster. "Here's the deal, Erysichthon. I can keep you here forever, just like this. The hunger won't go away but you won't be able to do a thing about it. Does that sound painful to you?"

Erysichthon! Mari knew that name, he was the guy who cut down one of Demeter's favourite trees or something! Mari was pretty sure Demeter got Limos, the goddess of hunger, to fuck with him until he ate himself. She was honestly confused about how someone could eat themselves and still be alive (and how someone could eat themselves at all, because really, how did Erysichthon plan to digest his own digestive system?), but apparently he was literally too hungry to die.

There was a strange look in Adela's eyes as she spoke. They might have been shiny from the small torches that lit the walls, but Mari didn't think so. She didn't think that Adela had been crying, either. She looked vindictive. It made Mari squirm. She was very glad the look wasn't directed at her, because Hekate was a titan. That meant that she was powerful. And Adela was Hekate's daughter. If she wanted to kill Mari, she probably could. But Mari didn't just want to make sure that look wasn't directed at her, she didn't want to see it at all. Ever. She wasn't sure why, but it felt familiar somehow. Familiar in a way that made her stomach crawl.

"Adela, what are you-" Mari instantly cut off as Adela turned to her.

Adela focused her attention back on Erysichthon, who was violently shaking his head. Adela grinned. It made her look feral. "Good. Then I just need one thing from you. I need you to make an oath on the Styx that you will never, ever try to harm another living thing again, to eat or not. You can go after vegetables all you want."

Erysichthon glared at Adela. "Vegetables are gross. I need meat."

It made Mari shudder. People weren't meat. Why did so many of them have such a difficult time understanding that? It really wasn't a very hard concept to grasp.

"I don't care. You can swear the oath or I can leave you here, all alone, with no food at all. Forever." Adela snarled.

Ignore her, she's on your side. Remember that. Mari repeated the phrase in her head like she was trying to memorise it. She didn't know why Adela's behaviour bothered her so much, but it made her want to hide somewhere dark and quiet.

"I won't!"

"Forever." The strange light danced in Adela's eyes, and Mari closed her own.

"Okay! Okay, I, I swear on the river Styx that if you let me go, I will never attempt to harm a living person in any way. Happy now?"

Mari couldn't describe the smile that ripped its way across Adela's face as anything except horrific. "Ecstatic."

Then, Adela punched Erysichthon in the face. "I said I'd shut the spell off. I didn't say when. I was never powerful enough to make it permanent, idiot." She stood up, and kicked his face for good measure.

"Adela, c'mon. Let's go. Now."

Adela kicked Erysichthon's face again.

"Adela! Come on!"

She punched his gut.

"Adela!" Marion reached to touch her shoulder, but Adela whirled around, rage painted across her face. "He was going to eat me, Marion! Eat me! He would have eaten you too if he got the chance!"

Marion nodded. "Yeah, I know. But he can't hurt anybody now. You've made him harmless. Anything else you do is just you, wanting to hurt someone."

The rage on Adela's face faltered. Then it cracked in two.

"Right." Adela's shoulders slumped. "Right. Let's go, then."

She got up, glaring at Erysichthon with that same terrifying look and jerked her head towards the door. "He dragged me in this way. I think I can find the way out."

"Wait." Mari held up a hand. "Us? I thought you wanted to go it alone."

Adela clenched her jaw. "That," it looked like the words caused her actual physical pain, "was before you rescued me. I owe you now. So let's go."

Mari nodded. "Right. Yeah, okay."

She tried not to ignore the uneasy feeling in her stomach. It wasn't that she didn't want to travel with Adela anymore, but seeing that look on Adela's face, when she was threatening Erysichthon... Mari didn't know why, but something about it reminded her of Circe.