by Aimee Carter
Dylan rose with what he must’ve intended to be indignation, but he looked more like an old man rising from an armchair that was too short for his legs. “We’re giving up?”
“We are saving our energy and strategizing,” corrected Walter. “We have exhausted our means as they are, with Cronus using the shields on the island against us. Now we must plan a different approach.” He nodded to me. “Kate, I would like you to join us.”
“Me?” I said, stunned, and my mother patted my hand. “I don’t know the first thing about planning a war.”
“But you have spent the most time in Cronus’s presence since his escape, and we can no longer ignore the validity of your claims,” he said. “You will collect what information you can during the day, and the council will gather each evening to receive it. Unless anyone has any other ideas,” he said, looking squarely at Dylan.
Dylan shrugged and said nothing.
“Very well. Council dismissed,” said Walter, and with enormous effort that showed in every step he took, he headed toward a corridor I’d never been down.
The other members of the council filtered out of the throne room until only James, my mother and I remained. Despite looking half a second away from passing out, James crossed the circle toward us, wearing an exhausted smile.
“Seems you finally got your in,” he said, slinging his arm around my shoulders. “Now’s your chance to prove yourself.”
“That’s the problem,” I said. “I don’t know how.”
My mother stroked my knuckles with her thumb. “You’ll figure it out. Keep your eyes and ears open, and you’ll come up with something.”
As comforting as her reassurance should’ve been, she was forgetting one thing. Cronus could see me, and now that he didn’t trust me, I didn’t stand a chance in hell at getting any more information out of him.
* * *
Every day for the last three weeks of October, I dove into my visions with the hope of finding even the smallest of clues that could help with the council’s defense. My efforts were mostly wasted, though. Calliope spent most of her time alone, staring at a holographic image of the island, and whatever strategizing she and Cronus did was a mystery to me. They were rarely in the same room together, and whenever Cronus did appear somewhere near Calliope, she was quick to find an excuse to leave.
At first I thought she was angry, with the short way she spoke to him. The more I saw them together, however, the more I noticed other things. The way her posture slipped when he was near. The way her voice and focus wavered. She wasn’t angry. She was terrified of him.
I didn’t blame her. Without anyone to curb his ambition and determination, Cronus grew more powerful every day until not even his human form seemed able to hold it. He crackled around the edges, and everywhere he stepped, he left black footprints in his wake. Though he saw me, he never acknowledged me. I preferred it that way.
I reported back to the council every evening until finally Dylan said exactly what I’d feared. “He’s growing more powerful than we ever expected. Our barriers won’t hold until the solstice.”
No one in the council questioned him. They all knew we were running out of time, and without more information, they were stumbling around blind. They’d guessed the routes Cronus would take to New York, the ways he might hammer destruction onto the city that had raised me. They had a plan for each.
They were woefully outnumbered though, and nothing Ella and Theo said to the minor gods they chased across the world brought reinforcements. James often joined them, helping them find the ones hiding from Walter’s wrath, leaving me alone with my mother and a handful of gods stretched to the limit. I kept to myself, and soon my visions weren’t just spy missions. They were another way to avoid the council, as well.
No matter how often I saw Henry in Calliope’s palace, he never again revealed he knew I was there. The more time that passed, the more I doubted that moment in the nursery; and the more time Henry spent with Calliope, the more he seemed to sink into her spell. Any hint of his defiance was gone. He did whatever she said, but Milo was always with him, and I clung to that with everything I had. He was in there somewhere, and though it would be a battle for him to break free when the time came, he stood a chance.
In the beginning of November, as Henry rocked Milo to sleep for an afternoon nap, Calliope hurried into the nursery. “Something’s wrong with Cronus.”
Instead of putting Milo in the cradle, Henry gathered him up and followed Calliope. I hurried after them, and through the windows I saw a storm brewing over the island. Black clouds swirled amid the warm ocean air, blotting out the blue sky, and thunder rolled across the sea, a warning of the danger to come.
Calliope ran up the steps and through a weathered door that opened onto the roof. Henry held Milo close against the strong winds, but despite Milo’s cries, he didn’t go back inside.
The moment I spotted Cronus in the middle of the roof, I understood. This storm wasn’t natural. His form could no longer hold him, and Cronus was now nothing more than a glowing orb of power.
Crackling with more lightning than anything natural could ever produce, Cronus’s opaque fog swirled in the eye of the storm, with a black funnel expanding upward into the sky. A warning. A message. A command.
Come and fight.
I instinctively reached for Henry. Instead of mirroring the fear Calliope wore so openly, his mouth was set in a grim line, and determination furrowed his brow. Whatever was coming, he was ready for it.
“Go,” he said, and he turned to look me straight in the eye. I love you. Warn the others it has begun.
I opened and shut my mouth twice. What about you and Milo?
I’ll make sure he’s safe. Just go.
Through the howling wind, I reached for him, my fingertips half an inch from his cheek. I love you, too. Don’t forget who you are.
Despite the swirling black mass of death not twenty feet away, Henry managed a smile. I should say the same to you. Be brave and do what you must.
My eyes burned in the wind, but as I faded from the rooftop, I couldn’t tear my gaze away from him. Please don’t do anything stupid.
Before he could answer, the brewing storm melted away, replaced by my bedroom in Olympus.
I ran down the hallway, momentarily forgetting my ability to be wherever I had to be whenever I needed to be there. I needed to run. I needed to scream, but I had no voice left for anything other than the words I’d been dreading.
Bursting into the throne room, I dashed into the center of the circle, ignoring the silence of broken conversation. Whatever the council had been discussing, it didn’t matter now.
“It’s Cronus,” I said breathlessly. “He’s escaping. There’s a storm around the island and—”
“We already know,” said Dylan, and I shook my head. He didn’t understand.
“The final battle—it’s begun.”
Chapter 16
The Last Hour
Walter had to shout four times and crack a bolt of lightning before the council came to order. Everyone was on their feet, including my mother, and the energy in the room jolted between nervous and aggressive.
“We have been preparing for this moment for a year,” said Walter once the din faded. “We may no longer have the allies we relied upon, but we have each other, and together we are strong.”
No one said a word. Even Dylan couldn’t muster up a battle cry. This would either be the d
ay they finally sent Cronus back to Tartarus, or it would be the day the council fell. By this time tomorrow, I would either have a family or I’d be alone, subject to Cronus’s whims and darkest pleasures.
I would’ve rather slit my throat with that damn dagger myself.
“We are prepared. We are together. And we will fight until we win or are no more,” continued Walter. “Take an hour to do whatever you must, and we will meet back here then.”
One by one, the council filtered out, some in pairs, others by themselves. At a loss, I stayed put. What was I supposed to do? It’d been hard enough watching them all go off to war the last winter solstice, but this time...
This time, it’d be the greatest battle the world had seen since the first Titan war, and my entire family would be front and center.
“I want to fight,” I said once the room had emptied of everyone except my mother and James. “You said I could.”
“Oh, honey.” She pulled me from my seat and into a hug. “You have fought, in ways the rest of us couldn’t. Fighting doesn’t always mean going to battle with a sword and a shield. You’ve done more than enough, and now is the time for you to stay safe. For Milo’s sake.”
“Milo’s exactly the reason I need to fight. I know I’m not strong enough to give you any real support, but maybe I could distract Cronus or Calliope or—or something. Anything.”
Her arms tightened around me, and she buried her face in the crook of my neck, her cheek warm against my skin. I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to memorize this moment. She had to come back. And if she didn’t—
No, I couldn’t think like that. They’d survived the battles so far, and they’d survive this one, too. My mother would not die today. No one would.
“Come,” she murmured. “We haven’t got much time, and there’s something I’d like to do before then. James?”
James stepped up and touched our shoulders. “This won’t be fun,” he said, and before I could ask where we were going, the room exploded with light as we fell to earth.
My eyes watered. Going from Olympus to the surface wasn’t anything new. Why James had felt the need to warn me, I didn’t know. Until—
Until the blue sky disappeared, replaced by rock.
I would’ve thrown up if I could have. Even with my mother at my side, the oppressive layers of the earth pressed down on me, making my heart flutter with panic as we sped downward. I tried to force my eyes to close, but they were glued open with terror, and the best I could do was hug my mother tightly and hope like hell it would be over soon.
At last we landed in the rock cavern outside Henry’s obsidian palace. My knees knocked together, and all the blood rushed from my head, making the walls spin.
“You bastard.” I punched James in the arm as hard as I could. Not like it’d hurt him. “Why do you keep doing that to me?”
He grinned. “Because the look on your face is priceless. Honestly, Kate, what do you think I’m going to do? Leave you in the rock?”
I shuddered. “You wouldn’t.”
“I couldn’t,” he corrected. “Once you learn how to use the portals, you won’t be able to either.”
I opened my mouth to retort, but the murmur of low voices caught my attention, and I turned toward the palace. In the shadows, a crowd had formed, swarming the garden and the river on the other side of the cavern. “What’s that? Who are they?”
“The dead,” said James. “The lost souls, the ones who need guidance. No one’s here to help, so they’re stuck until you and Henry return.”
I stared. There had to be thousands of them. I’d expected some, knowing that Henry wasn’t down here to help, but not this.
Of course there were so many, though. With the numbers Cronus had slaughtered, I should’ve been surprised there weren’t more. “We need to help them.”
“Not right now, sweetheart,” said my mother, rubbing my back. “They have eternity. We have somewhere to be.”
“And where’s that?” I said.
“We’re going to visit your sister,” she said, and all of my indignation melted away. She’d gone ages without seeing Persephone before facing her the year before. Another visit so soon could only mean one thing: she was saying her goodbyes.
“Mom,” I choked out, my voice cracking. “You can’t leave me. You promised.”
“Whoever said anything about leaving you, sweetheart?” she said, brushing my hair from my eyes. We both knew the truth, though. No matter how many pep talks Walter gave, no matter how often she reassured me that she wasn’t going anywhere, she knew it was a possibility. And this time there would be no miraculous return.
I clutched her hand. “We could stay down here while the others fight. They won’t miss you. And we can come up with another way to help them.”
She gave me a sad smile. “Honey, you know the council needs everyone they can get right now. I have a responsibility to them, and I can’t walk away.”
“What about your responsibility to me?” My cheeks grew warm as my eyes burned with tears. “You promised you’d never leave me again.”
“I’m not. I’m fighting for what I believe in,” she said. “I’ve no intentions of dying today, Kate.”
“But you could.”
“Yes, I could,” she allowed. “As Walter said, Cronus is a formidable enemy, and there’s little we can do to combat him directly. However, you must remember we have thousands upon thousands of years of experience behind us, and we will put every last second of that to good use. I will do everything in my considerable power to make sure I come back to you. To make sure we all do.”
She could promise me the moon, but she was choosing to forget one very important fact: Cronus wasn’t beatable. Considerable power or not, there was nothing in the council’s arsenal that could take him on and win. Together they had a chance, but without Henry, without Calliope, they might as well have surrendered. They’d have a longer life expectancy that way.
There had to be something. The dagger—the weapons scattered around Nicholas’s torture chamber—those were advantages that could be ours, but how?
“Now come,” murmured my mother. “Take us to see your sister.”
I would have delayed if I thought it might work, but if my mother did die today, I couldn’t live with the guilt of denying her last request to see her other daughter. And Persephone deserved the chance to say goodbye, too.
I held my free hand out for James, and he took it without a word. For all the wisecracks that came from that big mouth of his, he knew when to keep it shut, too. If he didn’t make it either...
No. No one would die today. Not my mother, not James, not Henry, no one.
After one last look at the dead surrounding the palace, I closed my eyes. A warm breeze tickled my neck, and when I opened them, we were standing in the middle of a field full of flowers. Not ten feet away stood a cottage covered in vines, and even though we were in the Underworld, the sun—or at least Persephone’s version of the sun—shone brightly down on us.
“Hey!” cried Persephone, and I turned in time to see her blond curls bouncing in the wind. “Get out of there!”
“What—” I started, and then I looked down. We were standing right in the middle of my sister’s tulips. Oops.
My mother chuckled and took a step away from me, and I moved with her, refusing to leave her side. “I’m sorry, darling. Kate’s rather new to this particular method of transportation.”
Persephone stormed t
oward us, her feet automatically avoiding the patches of flowers as if she knew exactly where every blossom was. After spending a thousand years in this field, she probably did. “That’s no excuse for trampling my tulips,” she grumbled.
“I’m sorry.” Despite the reason we were here, the look on her face made me smirk. Persephone wasn’t my favorite person, not by a long shot, and having the chance to stick it to her was a small victory during an otherwise awful day. “Next time I’ll try to aim for the path.”
“You’d better.” She knelt down next to the flower bed and touched the crushed tulips. “Why are you here? I go centuries without having to deal with guests, and now you decide to visit me twice in a year? Are you really that desperate for marital advice?”
I blinked. “What? No, of course not—”
“If he’s going through one of his spats, just leave him alone and don’t bother him until it’s over,” said Persephone. “He’ll come to you then.”
“That’s not why we’re here,” said my mother, and she knelt beside my sister and touched the tulips. They glowed golden in the sunlight, and slowly they straightened back into perfect condition. “There. All fixed.”
“I didn’t need your help,” muttered Persephone, sitting back on her heels. “What I need is for you people not to step on my flowers in the first place.”
I opened my mouth to tell her exactly where she could shove her flowers, but James beat me to it. “For the love of whatever you hold holy, Persephone, would you please shut up for two seconds and let us talk?”
The three of us stared at him, and he squared his shoulders, clearly doing his best to look respectful and godly. But with his mop of blond hair and ears that stuck out like a caricature, he looked about as godly as Mickey Mouse.
“Fine. What’s going on?” said Persephone, and though the edge remained in her voice, her expression softened.