by Aimee Carter
My eyes locked on Henry. He had to understand it was all an act. “No,” I said. “I haven’t changed my mind.”
“Good girl,” murmured Cronus, and Henry straightened, his hands balled into fists as if he were seconds away from decking Cronus.
“I’m going to find Calliope,” said Henry. “You stay here.”
My eyes widened, but despite my silent protest, Henry leaned across the cradle to kiss my cheek. At least he understood.
As he left the room, Cronus ran his hands down my back before returning to my shoulders. “When you and I are together, you will never know tears,” he murmured. “You will never know pain. You will only know joy and happiness. Everyone will bow to you. Everyone will know that you, Kate Winters, are my queen. And they will all love and fear you for it.”
I didn’t want to be feared. I didn’t want anyone to bow to me, but Cronus would never understand what it meant to be happy without absolute power. He would never understand why I would always love Henry and never love him. But at least Henry wasn’t here to hear this.
“What are you doing?”
Cronus’s hands stilled. I tried to turn, but he blocked my way. Not that it mattered. I would’ve known that voice anywhere.
Ava set a load of blankets down on the dresser and moved toward us, her eyes focused on Cronus. She couldn’t see me. “Who are you talking to?”
“The baby,” said Cronus smoothly. “Someone must ensure his education.”
“No, you weren’t,” said Ava, advancing on him. Her hands trembled. She was as afraid of Cronus as everyone else. “You said Kate’s name.”
“So I spoke of his mother.” Cronus straightened and dropped his hands. Apparently he’d realized that massaging an invisible person’s shoulders didn’t do much to support his argument. “What of it?”
Ava eyed him. “Kate’s here, isn’t she?”
“Perhaps,” he allowed. “Perhaps not.”
My stomach twisted into knots. She was so close that I could reach out and touch her if I wanted to.
“I want to talk to her,” said Ava. “I know you two communicate. I know you can hear her and she can hear you, and—and I want you to tell her something.”
How could she possibly know that? Cronus hadn’t mentioned it to her, else she wouldn’t have sounded so determined to be right. Who else knew? The council, but none of them had been in contact with Ava. Unless there was another traitor.
No, impossible. I trusted the council with my life. Except for Dylan, but he wouldn’t have done anything to risk losing a battle, especially feed information to the enemy. Unless it was all a ruse and he really was reporting to Cronus, after all.
I bit my lip. I couldn’t think like that, not unless I had proof. With how much he seemed to hate me, it was easy to suspect Dylan of being a snake, but that kind of thinking and suspicion would tear us apart. The last thing the council needed was someone else backing down. Dylan and I might not have liked each other much, or at all, but that didn’t mean we couldn’t work together toward a common goal. As long as he wasn’t doing what he’d accused me of and telling his girlfriend secrets behind the council’s back.
“If you would like to speak to her, then speak,” said Cronus, and the false note of warmth he used with me evaporated. “She is perfectly capable of hearing you.”
Ava took another tentative step forward, focusing somewhere over my right shoulder. “Kate—Kate, I’m so sorry. I swear I didn’t know what Calliope was doing. I would’ve never risked your baby’s life if I had.”
I shifted protectively in front of Milo’s crib. Fat lot of good that would do, but it made me feel better, at least. “It’s too late for apologies,” I said, and to my surprise, Cronus opened his mouth and spoke those same words, exactly as I’d said them.
Ava’s expression grew stricken. “Please. I’ll do anything.”
“Come back to Olympus,” I said, and once again Cronus repeated me. “Leave Calliope.”
“I can’t,” she said. “You don’t understand—she has Nicholas, and if I don’t cooperate, she’s going to kill him like she killed Iris and Henry.”
The moment she said those words, a cold silence settled over the room, and she blinked several times.
“I’m so sorry,” she said, and I could hear the sob bubbling up inside her. “I’m so, so sorry, Kate. I can’t tell you...”
“Then don’t,” I said. “If you’re really sorry, then do something to prove it. I don’t care what. But stop acting like a helpless victim and stand up for what you believe in before you have nothing left at all.”
Tears flowed down her cheeks, and she didn’t try to stop them. “I just want things to be okay again. Please, Kate—you have to understand. You would’ve done the same thing for Henry, wouldn’t you?”
“Yes,” I said softly. “But I would have hated myself every moment for it, and the instant I realized you were pregnant, I would’ve fought Calliope to the death to protect you. I would’ve never let her destroy you like she’s trying to destroy me.”
Silence settled over the room once Cronus finished repeating me. Ava sank to the ground, hugging her knees to her chest, and I pressed my lips together. As hurt as I was, mine wasn’t the only life Calliope was trying to destroy.
“You have my understanding,” I said quietly. “Do the right thing, and one day you will have my forgiveness. But you won’t have anything if you don’t start acting like the Ava I know and stand up to Calliope.”
Ava was sobbing now, her entire body shaking. “I can’t. I can’t. She’ll kill him. Please, Kate. You’re my best friend. You’re the only one who understood before. Please try to understand now—Callum, he’s safe with her, she won’t hurt him—”
Something ugly uncoiled inside me, something vicious and dark where every terrible thought I’d ever had lay dormant, waiting to come out again. “She hurts Milo every second she keeps him from me and Henry, and you’re the one who let her take him in the first place. You didn’t raise a finger to stop her, and because of you, he’s here, and he will never be safe with her. Ever. If you can’t see that—if you’re so blind to your own actions that you can’t take responsibility for them—then as far as I’m concerned, we were never friends at all. And we never will be again.”
Her eyes flew open. Instead of the anguish I expected, they filled with magenta fire, as surely as Henry’s glinted with moonlight and Cronus’s swirled with fog. She unfolded her legs and stood, and a pale aura glowed around her.
“You’re a liar.” Her words echoed throughout the nursery, and Milo let out a startled cry. She ignored him and went toe to toe with Cronus, unaware I was less than a foot away. “Kate would never say those things to me, and your pitiful attempts to sever my loyalty won’t work. Even if Kate did say those awful things, she doesn’t really mean them. Calliope’s using her powers to make her hate me, isn’t she?”
Calliope didn’t have to cut the strings of our friendship. Ava was already fraying them beyond repair. But no matter how much I understood why she was doing this, no matter how much I wanted to forgive her, I’d never had such conflicting feelings for someone in my life. I constantly wavered between irresistible fury and the deep desire to understand, as if those two parts of me were at war with each other. And while I’d been on the island, close enough for Calliope to get to me whenever she wanted, forgiving Ava had never crossed my mind.
Maybe Calliope was behind this, after all. I took a deep breath. Acknowledging it didn
’t make the tension in the pit of my stomach lessen, but I would force myself past Calliope’s influences if Ava did the right thing.
“Is that so?” said Cronus with eerie calm, pulling me back into the present. “What makes you so certain? You are already on our side. I have no reason to lie.”
“You have every reason to lie,” said Ava. “I’ve told Calliope, and now I’ll tell you. I am not your bitch. I’m here for my husband, and I’m here for Kate’s baby. I won’t let you or Calliope poison him.”
A shadow moved in the doorway, and Henry appeared. He was safe. Wordlessly he crossed the room and took my hand.
“You can tell me as many awful things as you want. I won’t believe you.” Ava’s voice trembled, but power radiated from her. “She’s my best friend, and I love her. Not that you would understand the first thing about love.”
She reached into Milo’s cradle and picked him up, and his cries grew louder. His arms flailed toward me, and I held my hand over his forehead. “It’s all right,” I whispered. “I’m here.”
As the words left my mouth, however, Ava stormed toward the door, and it was only Henry’s tight grip on my hand that kept me from going after her.
“Where are you taking him?” said Cronus without any hint of anger. If anything, he sounded amused.
Ava glared at him. “To give him a bath and a bottle. Someone needs to make sure he knows he’s loved, and you and Calliope sure as hell aren’t qualified.”
I stepped toward her, yanking on Henry’s hand in an attempt to get him to follow, but he stood firm. “Come, Kate,” he said, and the world around us began to fade. “There’s nothing more we can do.”
And though I said nothing while he brought me back to Olympus, I knew he was wrong. There was something more, and now I had no choice but to do it.
Chapter 10
Destruction
I wasn’t sure how long I lay there, staring at Henry in the middle of our bed. Long enough for my heart to ache the same way it did whenever I was gone from Milo for too long. Long enough to be certain that the council meeting was over by now, but my mother still hadn’t come to find me. Maybe she knew I didn’t want to be found.
“Why do you think she did it?” I said, breaking the silence between me and Henry.
“Ava?” he said, and I nodded. “Because she loves Nicholas, and because she was naive enough to trust that Calliope would keep her word.”
“But why did Calliope go after Ava to begin with?”
Henry leaned over and kissed me. “Calliope sees Ava as her greatest rival. Walter loves her more than anyone else on the council, and Calliope has always been jealous of the sway she’s had over him. Ava is powerful in her own right, as well. Calliope has control over a person’s loyalty, but Ava controls love. Not even Calliope can touch that.”
Realization dawned on me. “She wanted you. Calliope was going to capture you and force you to be her partner. That was her endgame—to lure you in and keep you like some kind of pet or something. Maybe that’s why she wanted Ava on her side.”
Henry said nothing. I waited for him to speak, but his gaze grew distant, and eventually it became obvious he wasn’t going to respond.
I hesitated. Another topic then. “Do you think Ava’s right and Calliope’s using her abilities to make me hate Ava?”
“I don’t know. The only person who can answer that is you.”
But I didn’t have an answer. I didn’t even know the right questions to ask. My anger wasn’t irrational, but I’d never been so furious and frustrated with anyone in my entire life. Not even Calliope after she’d tried to kill me. If I could forgive her, then why couldn’t I forgive Ava?
Because Calliope had only taken my life. Ava had ripped the most important thing in the world away from me.
“It still doesn’t make sense,” I said. “If she’s using Ava’s powers somehow, then why haven’t we heard about it? Why hasn’t Cronus told me?”
“I don’t know.” His hand slid down my side to rest on my waist. “There’s nothing we can do about it right now except prepare ourselves for the possibility that Calliope still has an ace hidden up her sleeve.”
Miserable as I was, I snorted into his shoulder. “Hearing you use poker metaphors is bizarre.”
“I’m much better at it than you might think,” he said.
“I believe it.”
He kissed me again and ran a finger above the waistband of my jeans, leaving searing heat wherever he touched me. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what he wanted, and I kissed him back, but set my hand over his. He sighed.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “It’s just—last time we did this, Calliope used it against us. And I can’t go through that again.”
Instead of protesting, Henry drew me in closer, shifting his body so it rested against mine. “Is this your way of offering me more incentive? Win the war, and you’ll sleep with me again?”
I rolled my eyes. “Please. If that’s what I was trying to do, I’d be way more obvious about it. Winning the war’s a little vague, after all. I’d go for something more solid.”
“For example?” he murmured.
“I’d say something like...I’ll sleep with you after you teach me how to disappear and reappear.”
He peered down at me, and for the first time in ages, I thought I saw a real smile on his face. “Is that a promise? Because with that kind of motivation, I’m certain we could have it down by next sunset.”
“You’re ridiculous,” I said. “But if you’re offering...”
He immediately sat up and smoothed his shirt. “There must be somewhere in this place we can practice without getting scolded.”
I started to suggest returning to the Underworld, but we were as trapped here as I’d been on the island. If we left Olympus for any reason, it would only be a matter of time before Calliope and Cronus discovered Henry was alive. We’d gotten lucky in Africa and Greece, and we couldn’t afford to risk it a second time.
“Do you think we’ll ever see him again?” I said, and Henry’s smile faded.
“Milo?” he said, and I nodded. “Yes. We’ll see him anytime you want.”
“You know what I mean.”
He drew me toward him again, his arms tightening around me. I’d been an idiot to ever think he didn’t love me just because he didn’t say it. He told me a hundred times a day without having to utter a word. “I promised you we would find a way to get him back, and we will. Whatever it takes.”
“Except you dying,” I said firmly, wrapping my fingers around the hem of his black shirt. “I mean it.”
Henry kissed my forehead. “So you are allowed to offer yourself to Cronus for all eternity to get Milo out of there, but I am not allowed to offer my life to do the same?”
“I’d still be alive,” I said. “And I’d find a way out of there eventually.”
“I admire your bravery, but James is right. You must find a solution to this martyr complex of yours.”
I gave him a halfhearted glare. “You weren’t complaining when my martyr complex gave you a second chance.”
“But the time has come to fight not just for the lives of those you love, but for your own, as well,” he said. “If only so you do not hurt those same people by leaving them the way you’re so afraid they will leave you.”
That wasn’t fair and he knew it. If someone had to die, I would much rather it was me than suffer that kind of loss. Henry, my mother, Milo—I couldn’t come
out of that and still be me.
“I’ll do my best,” I said.
“Promise me.”
But I couldn’t, and neither could he. We would both do what we had to in order to protect each other, and no promise in the world could stop either of us.
By the time Olympus once again hovered over Greece and the council departed for another minutes-long battle against Cronus, I managed to disappear from one side of the throne room and reappear on the other. With the amount of concentration it took, I had no chance to worry about my mother and the rest of the council. And I was too frazzled to be annoyed that this must have been Henry’s plan all along.
“Why didn’t you teach me this sooner?” I said, pulling my hair into a ponytail. “This would have come in handy nine months ago, you know.” It didn’t take any physical exertion at all, but the amount of willpower it required made me dizzy every time I crossed the room. How did Henry travel through the entire Underworld like this?
“We did not have the opportunity,” he said. “Now try to go into the bedroom. I will meet you there.”
I gave him a look. “I told you, I don’t want to do that until—”
“Is that all you think about?” he said with a faint smile before disappearing, and I huffed. Completely unfair.
Closing my eyes, I focused on the air around me. In the throne room, it was still and warm, but not unbearable. Slowly, agonizingly so, I pieced together an image of the bedroom in my mind. The plain bed, the dresser, the closet, the white door, the sunset floor and the sky-blue ceiling exactly like the throne room. Gathering myself together, feeling every inch of my body from the tip of my nose to the bottom of my heels, I exhaled.
And then I opened my eyes.
“Very good,” said Henry, standing dangerously close to me. “You were faster that time. Less than thirty seconds.”
It was difficult to take a compliment from someone who could do it in the blink of an eye. “What if we appear in the same space?”