by Aimee Carter
Persephone squinted. “Who is that?”
“Just let me do the talking,” I said, and once we drew close enough, I called out, “Hi, Ingrid.”
“Ingrid? You mean the first girl too stupid to figure out how to live?” said Persephone, and I elbowed her in the side.
“Kate!” Ingrid’s squeal echoed, making the rock wall at the edge of her afterlife obvious. “You really came! I thought you were just trying to be nice, but you’re really here!”
“Yeah, I’m really here.” As I knelt beside her to pet the tame fawn, Persephone’s forest melted into Ingrid’s meadow of candy flowers. “Unfortunately it’s not for catching up.”
Ingrid’s face fell, but before she could get too upset, Persephone spoke up behind me. “You wouldn’t happen to know how to handle a knife, would you?”
She tugged nervously on a lock of hair. “Why?”
“Because Cronus is about to destroy the world, and the council doesn’t have much of a chance against him,” I said. “They need help. The dead are the only people Calliope and Cronus can’t hurt, and they’ve got a whole room full of weapons that could take them down.” Or at least Calliope. If this didn’t work on Cronus...
It was worth a shot. It was our only shot.
“And you want me to help you?” said Ingrid.
“We want all of the girls to help us,” I said. “Persephone doesn’t know who they are, but we were hoping you might.”
Ingrid set the bunnies down and stood, brushing dirt off the white dress that must have been the height of casual fashion back in the 1920s. “As it happens, not only do I know who they are, but while Henry was trying to figure out who was behind the murders, he even let me meet them. It’s a bit of a walk, but I can take you there.”
At last, some luck. “We don’t have time to go on foot. The battle’s about to start,” I said. “I’ve got a faster way, though.”
With Ingrid’s help, we gathered up eight of the other ten girls. Two of them hadn’t been in the sections of the Underworld Henry had allotted for them, and we were running out of time. Eight would have to do for now.
I stood before them, shuffling my feet nervously. Because Ingrid lingered by my side, I saw the meadow in front of me, but every time one of the other girls edged closer, the background shifted into their afterlives instead. Forests, a white sand beach, an empty theme park—it was bizarre, but I forced myself to ignore it. As long as the other girls could see me and each other, that was all that mattered.
“I’m Kate,” I said. “Henry’s wife.”
The word felt strange on my tongue, but it got an immediate reaction from the girls. A whisper rippled through the group, and the ones in the back jostled for a better position.
“That’s impossible. You actually passed the tests?” said a girl with curly auburn hair. “Like, survived and everything?”
I held my tongue. Of course they thought it was crazy. Calliope had killed each and every one of them. After a while, even Henry had thought it’d be impossible for anyone to make it. “Barely,” I said. “I got lucky.”
“Can’t believe it was Calliope,” said the same girl. “The bitch stabbed me in the back and threw me in the river. I thought it was James.”
“Yeah, well, turns out you aren’t so smart, after all, Anna,” said a dark-haired girl on the other side of the group. The top of her head barely reached my chin.
The first girl—Anna—snorted. “Like you’re any better, Emmy, insisting Ava was behind it.”
“She’s slept with every other god,” said Emmy. “Don’t see why she wouldn’t go after Henry, too.”
“That’s enough,” said Persephone. “Let Kate speak.”
For the third time in an hour, I explained everything that was happening. No one interrupted me. “The battle’s about to start, and our numbers are dwindling,” I added at the end. “I wouldn’t ask this of any of you if we weren’t desperate, but we are. We need fighters.”
“I don’t know how to fight,” said Emmy, and the other girls murmured in agreement. Anna, however, cracked her knuckles and stepped forward. The background shifted into a garden that put Versailles to shame.
“A chance for a stab at Calliope? Count me in.”
One down, seven to go. “I can get us into the castle undetected,” I said. “Calliope and Cronus can’t hurt you.”
“Are you sure?” piped a voice from the back.
“Don’t be an idiot, Bethany,” said Anna. “Of course she’s sure.”
“I am,” I said quickly. “I swear, if you do this, you won’t be in danger.”
“It’s true,” said Persephone. “I faced off against Cronus and Calliope a year ago. They tried their best, but I’m still here. Not a scratch on me.”
Another murmur rippled through the group. “You’re sure the weapons will work, too?” said Emmy.
I hesitated. No, I wasn’t sure. Even if one of us managed to take out Calliope, I had no idea if this would work on Cronus. And what if they weren’t corporeal on the surface? What if they were ghosts, like I was in my visions?
“We have to try,” I said. “If nothing else, we need to distract them long enough to get Henry out of there. We need him on our side. The council is heavily outgunned, and if we don’t find a way to help, they will fall. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but eventually Cronus will get the best of them. Of us,” I added. “And Henry will die with them.”
Silence. I shifted my focus from one face to the next, searching for any sign that they would agree, but none of them met my eye. Before I could give convincing them one last shot, however, Bethany called from the back, “Count me in.”
“Me, too,” said Emmy, and one by one, the others also volunteered.
“Thank you,” I said. “I can’t tell you what this means to—”
Crash.
The earth around us trembled, and several of the girls shrieked. Ingrid clutched my arm, and we all looked up at the sky above us. Most souls had no idea where they were and thought their afterlife was the real thing, but Henry’s girls knew the difference. They knew that the sun’s warmth was an illusion, and beyond the fluffy clouds was the ceiling of an enormous cavern. And that was why they were the only ones who could help us.
The trembling subsided, but it didn’t matter. The battle raged above us, and we didn’t have any time to waste. “I need a whiteboard and a marker,” I said, and several of them stared at me blankly. “A blackboard and a piece of chalk then.”
Nine of them appeared around me. Illusion or not, being dead had its advantages.
I sketched the layout of Calliope’s castle as best I could, marking each important location—Nicholas’s cell, the nursery, Calliope’s room—as accurately as I could. In three minutes, we had a plan. Whether it worked or not, at least it would give the others a chance.
Getting them up to the surface would be tricky, but the gaping hole in the cavern where Cronus had escaped the first time was still there. He was trapped on the island, but I tested the exit twice. I could get in and out without any trouble.
“You first,” I said to Persephone. She looked at my offered hand like it was made of acid.
“How can I possibly be sure you know how to control it? You trampled my tulips.”
I rolled my eyes and grabbed her wrist. The Underworld dissolved, replaced by the stark white walls of my room in Calliope’s castle. “Happy now? Stay here.”
Persephone glared at me, but I disappeared before she could insult me further.
I took two girls at once, and within a minute, we all clustered together in the room. The girls fidgeted, and more than a few pairs of eyes widened in terror as a tidal wave crashed against the cliffs protecting the castle.
“Just stick to the plan,” I said. “And whatever you do, don’t forget that no one can hurt you. Not Calliope, not Cronus, no one.”
“Can they hurt you?” piped Emmy’s voice.
“If we do this, I’ll be fine,” I lied. No one could
promise anyone anything, but they needed to hear it, and it wasn’t my job to tell them the truth right now. “We don’t have any more time. Trust me. Trust yourselves.”
I pushed the door open and sneaked into the hallway, followed by several pairs of hesitant footsteps. I didn’t look back to make sure everyone was following us. They had come; the best I could hope for now was that their courage didn’t fail them.
The hallway between my room and Nicholas’s was suspiciously empty. Did Calliope believe that no one could break into the castle, or did she foolishly not care? I crept forward, prepared for any sort of traps she or Cronus might have set, but we made it to Nicholas’s room without interruption. The door, however, was locked. “I have to go in there and get the weapons myself,” I said, but Emmy elbowed her way through the group of girls.
“Let me.”
Pulling a pin from her hair, she knelt beside the doorknob. I listened for any sign someone was coming, but five seconds later, the lock clicked open.
“Piece of cake,” said Emmy with a grin, and I shot her a grateful smile. Pushing the door open, I burst into the room, fully expecting Calliope to be waiting for me. Instead Nicholas sat chained to the chair, surrounded by his workshop of weapons.
“Kate?” he said, squinting through two black eyes. Blood dripped down the side of his face from a nasty gash on his forehead. Calliope must’ve been here recently. “Persephone?”
“Hello to you, too, brother,” said Persephone. Behind her, the others poured into the workshop, their eyes widening at the sight of Nicholas and the array of weapons.
I knelt beside his chair and inspected the glowing chains. “I can’t touch them,” I said apologetically.
“I know,” he said. “Don’t worry about me. Go on and get Cronus.”
“I’m not leaving you behind. Emmy, can you undo this lock?”
Emmy separated from the others and joined me, Persephone hot on her heels. “That’s more complicated,” she said. “But I think I can do it.”
“Try.”
“She’ll get it,” said Persephone. “Go ahead without us. We’ll get Nicholas out of here.”
“Thanks,” I said, and Persephone waved off my gratitude.
“They’re my family, too. Now go.”
A clash of metal against metal shook the very air around us, and the other girls quieted. I took a deep breath. Time to be a leader. “You all know what you’re supposed to do,” I said with as much confidence as I could muster. “Grab a weapon infused with fog, and go give them hell.”
Anna let out a whoop and, clutching a mace, she streaked out of the room and up the narrow staircase that led to the rest of the castle. One by one, the other girls followed, clutching swords and staffs and other weapons I couldn’t identify. I waited by the door until their cries diminished. The chances of them succeeding were slim, but as long as their distraction gave me enough time to rescue Milo and Henry, then at least our efforts wouldn’t be wasted.
“Seems like they’re enjoying themselves,” said Nicholas heavily. He grinned. Several of his teeth were missing. “Get that lock undone. I want to join them.”
“Yeah, right,” I said, and I swiped a glowing knife with wicked hooked teeth from the remaining weapons. “You’re lucky to be alive.”
Persephone gave me a look. “He has a right to fight for his family, just like you do. Now stop dictating and go get your son.”
Biting back a response, I nodded, and a second later Milo’s nursery replaced the workshop around me. Thunder echoed through the air. The council had to be close.
“Milo,” I gasped, rushing toward the cradle. It was empty. Of course Henry wouldn’t let him out of his sight during the battle, but something inside me withered. I’d hoped to get Milo out of there and safe with Adonis before finding Henry, but that clearly wasn’t going to happen.
I turned to leave on foot, but instead I crashed face-first into a warm body and stumbled to the ground. My heart damn near stopped. Had Calliope expected this? Was she lying here in wait while Cronus distracted everyone else? I gripped the knife with hooked teeth, fully prepared to use it.
“Kate?”
Not Calliope. Ava. “Where is he?” I said, scrambling to my feet. She blocked my way out, her cheeks pale and her eyes round. Clearly she hadn’t expected me. Good. That meant Calliope likely didn’t either.
“Milo?” she said. “He’s with Henry.”
“And where exactly is that?”
Ava bit her lip. “I can’t tell you. Calliope will kill you.”
“Not if I get them away from her before she knows I’m there,” I said. “Unless you decide to tell her.”
“What? Of course I wouldn’t,” she said, stunned. “I’m on your side.”
“Then tell me where Henry and Milo are.”
She swallowed, her eyes red and shining with tears. “She’ll kill all of us. Me, you, Henry, Milo, Nicholas—”
“Persephone and Emmy are getting him out of there as we speak,” I said. “He’ll be fine.”
“Emmy? You mean Henry’s—”
“It’s a long story.”
Ava hesitated, and at last her expression hardened. “Come on. I’ll take you there.”
Alarm bells went off in the back of my mind. “Why should I trust you?”
“Because we were friends once,” she said. “And because I’d want someone to help me protect my son if our positions were reversed.”
Right. She’d mentioned her son before, and while I believed her, it seemed awfully convenient that she’d bring him up now. “You never told me about him.”
“Eternity’s a long time to cover between classes,” she said. “His name’s Eros—Eric now, I suppose. Are you coming?”
Searching the entire castle room by room would take too long, and for all I knew Henry and Milo were bunkered down in a place I’d never be able to find on my own. So before I gave myself time to consider it, I nodded.
We ran through the hallways, and I tried to ignore the rolling black clouds through the windows and the bone-shattering crash of water against rock. The council was getting closer. Maybe we’d have a chance, after all.
“Where are they?” I shouted over the roar, and Ava dashed up the staircase, pulling me along with her. The hooked knife nearly slipped from my grip, but I hugged it to my chest. I couldn’t lose it.
“On the roof with Calliope and Cronus,” said Ava.
My heart sank. Persephone was supposed to cover that area, but she was undoubtedly still with Nicholas. If none of the other girls had made it up there yet after clearing their sections of the castle, we would be on our own.
It didn’t matter. Milo and Henry were on that roof, and I would’ve gone up there as naked and mortal as the day I was born if it meant having a chance to save them.
I followed Ava without question. She could have been leading me straight to my death, but I desperately wanted to believe that the Ava I knew and loved was in there somewhere, willing to give her all and risk her life for the greater good. She wouldn’t have led me astray, and I had to believe that this Ava wouldn’t either.
The door to the roof appeared, and I took a breath. I would know soon enough, one way or the other.
Chapter 18
Bloodshed
We burst into the open air, the afternoon sky blacker than night. The cyclone that had been Cronus was gone, spread across the sky and struggling against pinpricks of light that looked like stars. The council. I ducked my head. If my mother saw me and got distracted—
That had to be a risk I was willing to take. My mother was strong. She wouldn’t let Cronus get the best of her. If I had any chance of getting through this, I couldn’t doubt her. I couldn’t doubt myself.
Calliope stood at the edge of the roof, her hair whipping in the wind and her head tilted upward toward the heart of the battle. Henry stood at her side, his arms shielding a bundle of white blankets from grains of sand that cut through the air like bullets. What was he doing, br
inging Milo up here?
I shoved aside my protests. Milo was immortal, and there was nowhere safer for him than with Henry. I couldn’t get distracted.
“Calliope,” I cried. My voice was nearly lost to the wind, but she faced me, her eyebrows raised in surprise.
“So you really are as stupid as I thought you were,” she said as she walked toward me, leaving Henry and Milo behind. “Come to die?”
“Not quite.” I gripped the hooked knife. It had to be as good as her dagger. “Let Henry and Milo go. This is between you and me.”
Calliope’s eyes widened innocently. “Henry’s free to leave whenever he wants. It’s not my fault he chose me over you.”
My blood boiled. “How does it feel to know that your reality is nothing more than a fantasy you’ve concocted and blackmailed your way into? Nobody loves you. Not your husband, not your children, not your brothers or your sisters—no one.”
The air around her crackled angrily. “Do you think I care? I win, Kate. I have everything you’ve ever wanted, and soon everyone else you love is going to be dead. You’re going to spend eternity alone, and no one’s going to be there to save you anymore.”
“It isn’t about winning.” I took a step toward her. “Even if you never let Henry go, somewhere inside him, he’s always going to love me—because he wants to, because we’re good together. Not because Ava forced him into it. And no matter how alone I am, I’ll always have the comfort of knowing that at least someone in the world loves me because they want to. But you—you’re nothing but a heinous, lonely, unloved bitch, and that’s all you’re ever going to be.”
Calliope screeched and barreled toward me. In the few seconds we had, Ava tried to push me behind her, but I sidestepped her and sprinted toward Calliope, clutching the hooked knife. I had one chance, and I was damn well going to take it.
We collided, immortal against immortal, and the force of it nearly sent me flying. Her nails scratched my face, her shrieks of rage rang in my ears, but her hands were empty. Mine weren’t.