by Aimee Carter
In the hours before the winter solstice, the council gathered, their thrones forming a circle that aligned with the black and white diamond ones for Henry and me. I was hesitant to take mine, since I’d had nothing to do with planning the battle and wasn’t going to participate, but Henry insisted.
Before the meeting began, Persephone perched on the arm of our mother’s chair as if she’d done it a thousand times before. She eyed me, and I fidgeted when I realized that my throne had probably belonged to her when she’d been queen. Perfect.
“Brothers and sisters, sons and daughters,” said Walter. He looked around the room gravely, taking time to examine each face, and he skipped Calliope’s empty throne as if it wasn’t there. “We have spent months anticipating this night, and finally it is here.”
Henry sat rigidly, his chin raised and his expression blank. The bags under his eyes were purple, as bad as my mother’s had been in her final year of life, and the lines in his face were deeper than they’d ever been before. Dread coursed through me, and I forced myself not to think of the possibility that he would collapse in battle and die anyway. I should’ve given him more time to sleep. I should’ve insisted on another room so I wouldn’t interrupt him. I should’ve done so many things I hadn’t, things Ingrid and Persephone would have thought of.
“Our enemy is strong, there is no denying that,” said Walter. “But we have beaten him once, and I am confident we will succeed again.”
The corner of Henry’s mouth twitched. Walter was lying. Even I knew that the chances of them succeeding without Calliope were low, and she was locked in a room deep inside the palace, uncooperative after all this time. Whatever she had done during the first war had been the lynchpin in securing their victory, and without her, every single one of them was planning for defeat. All I could hope for was that they wouldn’t push themselves past the point of no return.
“I would like to propose a toast,” said Walter, and beside him, Xander gestured. Wineglasses appeared in front of each of us, floating in midair. “To everyone here, with my deepest love and affection. Whatever happens tonight, know that I am proud of each of you. We are family, and none of you will be forgotten.”
Nausea washed over me, and it was all I could do to murmur along with the others and take a sip of wine. They were preparing to die after all. Maybe not all of them, but the possibility made me dizzy with dread. If even one of them didn’t come back…I couldn’t live with that sort of guilt.
No one said a word after that. They all sat in silence and watched the clock tick closer and closer to midnight, and I stared at the faces of everyone around me. My mother. Henry. Ava. James. They would all be risking their lives. Selfishly I wondered what would happen to me if none of them survived. Would I remain in the palace with no sure way to return to the surface, or would Cronus come after me to finish the job? If I was the only one left, I hoped he would.
Just before the clock struck midnight, Henry reached over to take my hand. His skin was warm, and unlike mine, his palm was dry. For a second, his grip tightened, and horror snaked through me. Was he saying goodbye?
“Please come back,” I whispered so only he could hear me. He nodded once, such a small gesture that I wondered if I’d imagined it, and he let go.
Henry stood, and so did the others. Across the circle, Ava held hands with Nicholas, and I looked away. I’d known the council for a year. They’d known each other since the dawn of humanity, and everything I was feeling was inconsequential compared to what they were going through.
As the clock chimed, Henry stepped into the center of the circle, and the others joined him. My mother gave me a sad smile, and I raised my hand in a silent goodbye.
When the twelfth chime rang, they were gone.
* * *
I sank against the arm of my throne, my face buried in my hands as great hiccupping sobs escaped me. Overwhelmed with helplessness, I pushed my mind toward the battle and struggled to see them. I had to know what was happening.
Someone touched my shoulder, and I jumped, nearly tripping off the platform. My vision was blurry, but I made out a blonde with her hands on her hips, and for one terrifying moment I thought it was Calliope. It would serve me right for her to kill me now while the others were away.
“It’ll be okay,” she said, and I let out an audible sigh of relief when I recognized Ava’s voice. I wiped my eyes on my sleeves, and slowly she came into focus.
“Ava?” My face grew hot when I realized she must have seen me break down like that. “What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be with the others?”
“Someone had to make sure you didn’t run after us again,” she said, and even though she was joking, her words sucker-punched me. “Besides, I’ve never been very good at fighting. I’m more of a make love, not war kind of person. Come here, you’re a mess. How did you manage this in thirty seconds?”
A handkerchief appeared out of nowhere, and I let her wipe my cheeks and nose. It was such a motherly thing to do that my eyes filled with tears all over again, and she rubbed my back comfortingly.
“Let’s sit, shall we?” She led me over to one of the cushioned pews, avoiding the thrones altogether. “Don’t worry so much. They’re all really good at what they do, and we’ve got a great plan. They’ll be back before you know it, I promise.”
Her reassurance was nice, but she had no way of knowing, and I couldn’t swallow false hope. “If anything happens, it’ll be my fault,” I said in between sniffs. “I’m the one who caused this.”
“Oh, Kate.” Ava hugged me. “Don’t tell me you really think that. Of course this isn’t your fault. The only person to blame is Calliope, and by the time we’re done with her, she’ll never do anything bad to anyone ever again.”
“They can’t defeat Cronus without her though,” I said. “What if he kills them? Walter, he said—”
“Daddy likes being dramatic,” said Ava, and as badly as I wanted to believe her, I couldn’t. “I’m not saying it’ll be easy, but none of them will let anything bad happen to the others. What kind of family would we be if we did?”
I didn’t have an answer for that. Bad things happened. No amount of love could fix that. If it could, my mother would have never suffered through cancer. I closed my eyes and made myself relax, hoping that for once my gift would cooperate and I could see what was going on. No matter what kind of pain I’d witness without being able to help, it would be infinitely better than sitting here waiting, I was sure of it.
“Are you trying to see them?” said Ava, breaking my concentration.
I opened my eyes and nodded. There was no point in lying about it.
“Don’t, sweetie,” she said, taking my hand and sandwiching it between hers. “You don’t want to see that.”
A lump formed in my throat. “I can’t—I can’t just sit here and wait,” I said, my voice breaking. “How can you be so calm when they could die?”
“I’m calm because I know what to expect,” she said. “Even if you could get your power to work, you’re so used to how mortals fight that you wouldn’t understand what’s going on anyway. Henry’s going to need you when he gets back, and you don’t want to drain yourself by watching.”
I stared down at the marble floor. No matter what Ingrid said, no matter how Henry acted toward me, the fact remained that Persephone was beside him in battle. And if something happened to one of his siblings, he wouldn’t come to me with his pain. “He’ll have Persephone.”
Ava snorted. “Oh, please. The moment she gets the chance, she’ll go running back to Adonis.”
“I’m not so sure about that.” I hesitated. “She kissed him.”
“What? Who?”
“Persephone,” I said. “She kissed Henry.”
“When?” said Ava in disbelief. “She hates him, why would she poss
ibly—”
“She was trying to prove to him that their relationship was all in his imagination.” I leaned my head against the pew. “It was the night we got back. They were alone together in this room with a bunch of windows, and he was sitting, and she climbed into his lap. They talked a little, and she kissed him. I didn’t want to see it,” I added, in case she thought I’d purposely spied on them. “I couldn’t control it. But I saw it, clear as day. It wasn’t just a peck either, and I know Henry enjoyed it.”
“Yeah, he probably did,” said Ava, and she must have realized how completely unhelpful that was, because she quickly added, “Have things been better between you? I mean, how often are you two knocking boots?”
I frowned. “What? You mean— Never. We haven’t—not at all, not since that one time. How can you even—” I stopped. Of course she would ask that sort of thing; she was Ava. “He—holds me at night, I guess, but we haven’t even so much as kissed.”
Ava’s jaw dropped open. “Are you serious? My god, Kate, why didn’t you come to me sooner?”
“I tried to tell you,” I said, bewildered. How had this suddenly become my fault? “What would you have done anyway? Forced him to want me? I don’t want it to happen that way, Ava.”
She rolled her eyes. “Honestly, you think I’d do that? That’s not what love’s about, Kate, but I could have given him a nudge in the right direction. Without using my powers,” she added when I glared at her. “Someday you’ll learn to trust me. Now, that hag won’t hang around forever, and what are you going to do when she’s out of the way?”
I didn’t like Persephone, but she was still my sister, and Ava’s attitude toward her grated at me. “Why do you hate each other?” I said. “I get that you liked Adonis, too, but don’t you have enough toys?”
“You’ve seen Adonis,” said Ava with a cheeky little smile. “Would you call him just another toy?”
“No, but—”
“Exactly. I saw him first, and she stole him from me, plain and simple. You can even ask Daddy.”
“I don’t want to ask Walter,” I said sharply. “Shouldn’t Adonis get a say in this?”
Ava stuck her lower lip out in a pout. “He wanted both of us. That’s why Persephone gave up her immortality, you know. She wanted to have him in the Underworld all to herself instead of having to share him with me.”
And all the while, Henry had had to watch as his wife fought Ava for the right to be with a mortal. Persephone had done the right thing, leaving him, but for Henry’s sake, I wished she’d left him before fooling around behind his back. Or in front of it.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do when she’s gone,” I said. “But as long as he wants me to stay, and as long as he’s working on making us better, I’m not going to abandon him like she did.”
“I know you won’t,” said Ava, leaning her head on my shoulder. “That’s part of the reason we chose you, you know.”
“Yeah, well, that’s about the only thing I have going for me. I’m useless.”
“You’ve been immortal for nine months. Give yourself some time before you decide we were wrong. We weren’t, by the way,” she added. “Just in case you decide to challenge that.”
I hesitated. I hadn’t told anyone else, not even my mother, but I needed to tell Ava. If she really could help, then she had to know everything. “I was going to leave him.”
Ava was silent, and when she finally spoke, she all but whispered. “I know. I’m glad you didn’t.”
I stared at her. “You know? How?”
“Henry told us,” she said. “Right after you said you would.”
I hid my face in my hands, forcing myself to breathe steadily. Of course everyone knew. None of them could keep a secret to save their lives. “No one tried to talk me out of it. Did you speak with Henry? Is that why—” I swallowed, my throat raw from my sobs. “That’s why he asked me to stay, isn’t it?”
“Of course not,” said Ava. “Kate, stop doing this to yourself. None of us said anything to Henry, and none of us talked to you about it because James insisted it was your choice.”
A knot formed in my throat, and I forced myself to speak around it. “That night, when Henry came back—I told him James and I weren’t together. And then he asked me to stay.”
“Really?” said Ava, brightening. “Well, that’s that, isn’t it?”
“What’s what?”
She sighed. “You’re adorable. Clueless, but adorable. Henry thought you wanted to be with James because you spent your summer with him. So he was giving you the chance to go.”
I’d known that, or at least I’d suspected it. That didn’t make it any easier to hear though. “But I don’t want to be with James.”
“And once he figured that out, he asked you to stay, because that’s what he really wants.” Ava gave me a cheeky little smile. “See? Sometimes it isn’t all doom and gloom.”
I sniffed, and the weight on my chest lifted. “You really think so?”
Ava pressed a noisy kiss to my cheek. “I know so.”
Waiting was torture. Over the next several hours, we talked about everything and nothing. When we lapsed into silence, I tried again and again to see what was going on, but it never worked. Every time the clock chimed, I wondered who would be missing when the council returned, if any of them returned at all. Ava kept reassuring me that no news was good news, but how long before she would concede that something must have gone wrong?
At quarter to seven, something prickled against the back of my neck. Ava and I leaned against each other, both half-asleep, and I kept waking myself up every few minutes to see if they’d returned. When I cracked open an eye, I saw a strange mist around us, and for a moment I thought I was dreaming.
And then I heard a giggle and the click of heels against marble, and my blood turned to ice.
“Good morning,” said Calliope as she rounded the corner to face us. “You two look cozy, don’t you?”
Without warning, the mist turned to fog and engulfed us.
Chapter Seventeen
Ash and Blood
I opened my mouth to scream, but nothing came out.
“Oh, stop it.” Calliope’s voice whispered through the fog, echoing all around me. “There’s no one here to help you anyway.”
I reached out for Ava, but she was gone. “What did you do with her?” I said, stumbling to my feet. My knees buckled, but I refused to give Calliope the satisfaction of seeing me fall.
“You’ll have her back soon enough,” she said as she appeared out of the fog in front of me. “I told you Cronus would free me. Don’t you love it when everything works out in the end?”
Malevolent heat spread through me, the same I’d felt while facing Calliope after the brothers had captured her. “What do you want?” I growled, clawing at my abdomen. What was she doing to me? There had to be a way to stop it.
“I already told you what I want,” she said. “I’m going to hurt you the same way you hurt me. I’m going to take what you love most from you, and you’ll be helpless to stop me.” She patted me on the cheek, and where her fingers touched me, my skin burned.
I slapped her hand away. “Where’s Henry? What have you done to him?”
“Nothing,” she said, her eyes widening innocently. “Don’t you trust me? Really, Kate, you must learn not to be so suspicious. You’ll give yourself wrinkles, and you wouldn’t want to spend an eternity looking like an old woman, would you?”
The fog rumbled, and Calliope winked at me. “That reminds me—I have someone who wants to meet you.”
A dark-haired man appeared beside her, but he wasn’t solid like she was. Instead the fog seemed to ripple through him, as if they were one and the same, and when he stepped forward, I saw his eyes were made o
f the same gray that surrounded us.
Cronus.
“Kate, my darling,” he murmured, his voice like quiet thunder. He brushed his fingertips against my cheek with a featherlight touch that reverberated throughout my entire body. “I have so looked forward to this moment.”
He looked like Henry. That was the worst part. He was older, but the shape of his face, the color of his hair that hung to his shoulders, even the way he moved—everything about him reminded me of Henry.
Was there a physical resemblance? Henry was the eldest of the brothers—had he been created to look like Cronus? Or was Cronus trying to look like him? Why would he do that?
“Cronus,” I said stiffly, clasping my shaking hands together. “What did you do with them?”
“They’re all quite safe, I assure you, my dear.” Cronus smiled, and all the heat left my body. “Did you like my gifts?”
“G-gifts?” I stammered. “What gifts?”
Cronus took my hands in his and drew mine apart with ease. He covered my empty palm, and when he pulled away, I was cupping a gold and blue flower that smelled like candy.
The looming fog seemed to close in around me, and all the air whooshed out of my lungs. It’d been Cronus all along. “But—why? You don’t even— I’m not—”
He leaned toward me, his lips brushing my cheek, and my mind went strangely blank, as if it, too, were full of fog. “I can give you everything you’ve ever wanted, my darling,” he murmured, and his words washed over me, warm and inviting as they burrowed so deeply inside my mind that I couldn’t shake them. “A home, a family, and I would love you so much more than he ever could. You would never be second-best for me. You could be my eternity.”
As he spoke, Calliope disappeared, leaving us together in the cocoon of fog. My eyes fell shut, and I swayed as my body screamed for me to get away from him. Some part of me didn’t want to though. He was telling the truth; of course he was. He would love me forever. And the way he said my name, the way he curled up inside of me…