The Goddess Inheritance
The Goddess Inheritance
Aimee Carter
Love or life. Henry or their child. The end of her family or the end of the world.Kate must choose.During nine months of captivity, Kate Winters has survived a jealous goddess, a vengeful Titan and a pregnancy she never asked for. Now the Queen of the Gods wants her unborn child, and Kate can't stop her–until Cronus offers a deal.In exchange for her loyalty and devotion, the King of the Titans will spare humanity and let Kate keep her child. Yet even if Kate agrees, he'll destroy Henry, her mother and the rest of council. And if she refuses, Cronus will tear the world apart until every last god and mortal is dead.With the fate of everyone she loves resting on her shoulders, Kate must do the impossible: find a way to defeat the most powerful being in existence, even if it costs her everything.Even if it costs her eternity.
Love or life.
Henry or their child.
The end of her family or The end of the world.
KATE MUST CHOOSE.
During nine months of captivity, Kate Winters has survived a jealous goddess, a vengeful Titan and a pregnancy she never asked for. Now the Queen of the Gods wants her unborn child, and Kate can’t stop her—until Cronus offers a deal.
In exchange for her loyalty and devotion, the King of the Titans will spare humanity and let Kate keep her child. Yet even if Kate agrees, he’ll destroy Henry, her mother and the rest of council. And if she refuses, Cronus will tear the world apart until every last god and mortal is dead.
With the fate of everyone she loves resting on her shoulders, Kate must do the impossible: find a way to defeat the most powerful being in existence, even if it costs her everything.
Even if it costs her eternity.
“It seems the games are about to begin.”
“What games?” I knew the answer before I’d asked the question though. My dream, my vision—it was the autumnal equinox, and finally Henry knew I was missing.
A sharp pain shot from my back to my abdomen, and I gasped. Cronus was at my side in an instant, exactly the way Henry would’ve been if he were here. I turned away.
“Calliope has decided it will happen today,” he murmured, and his voice would have been comforting if it hadn’t come from him.
“Decided what would happen today?” I struggled to stand and make it to the bathroom, but my legs gave out. Cronus’s cool hands were there to steady me, but as soon as I was back on the bed, I jerked away from him.
“That your child would be born.”
* * *
Select Praise for Aimée Carter’s The Goddess Test series
“The narrative is well executed, and Kate is a heroine better equipped than most to confront and cope with the inexplicable.”
—Publishers Weekly on The Goddess Test
“The Goddess Test puts a fresh twist on the YA paranormal genre by infusing it with back-to-the-basics Greek mythology.”
—Renee C. Fountain, New York Journal of Books
“Carter’s writing is a delight to read—succinct, clean, descriptive. Goddess Interrupted is definitely a page-turner, one full of suspense, heartbreak, confusion, frustration and yes, romance.”
—YA Reads
The
Goddess
Inheritance
Aimée Carter
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
To Sarah Reck, whose patience and insight are true superpowers.
Contents
Prologue (#u862c6605-a660-55a4-aa6f-87360886f808)
Chapter 1 (#udfa1bd53-1ece-551e-95ee-646366a0d941)
Chapter 2 (#u86648a41-dafb-5298-b3c1-14e58dba1ce8)
Chapter 3 (#u91c22796-502c-5c02-bb48-d39f88afcd7e)
Chapter 4 (#u94b3405f-4ea1-5c00-91fa-93598c2024ce)
Chapter 5 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 6 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 7 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 8 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 9 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 10 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 11 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 12 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 13 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 14 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 15 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 16 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 17 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 18 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 19 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 20 (#litres_trial_promo)
Guide of Gods (#litres_trial_promo)
Excerpt (#litres_trial_promo)
Acknowledgments (#litres_trial_promo)
Goddess Interrupted Excerpt (#litres_trial_promo)
Prologue
Throughout his eternal life, Walter had witnessed countless summers, but never one as endless as this.
He sat behind his glass desk, his head bowed as he read the petition before him, signed by nearly all of the minor gods and goddesses scattered throughout the world. Each vowed to stand aside and allow Cronus supremacy so long as it meant there would be no war. None of them seemed to understand that they were already in the middle of one.
Why would they? He and the remaining members of the council had done their jobs in shielding the world from Cronus’s destruction, but they would not last much longer. When Cronus finally broke free from his island prison in the Aegean Sea, the petition would be what it was: a meaningless piece of parchment full of names of those who would be the first to die.
“Daddy?”
He exhaled and straightened, prepared to scold whoever dared to disturb him, but he stopped short. His daughter stood in the doorway, her hair golden as the perpetual sunset poured in through the windows behind Walter. She was the one person he would not turn away.
He set the petition aside. “Ava, my darling. I was not expecting you until morning. Is there news?”
The light gave her skin the illusion of color, but her eyes were dull and her face drawn. Watching her deteriorate since the winter solstice had been the most difficult thing Walter had ever done, but he had no choice. It was for the greater good, and for now the greater good trumped all, even his daughter’s health.
“Iris is dead,” she said, and Walter stilled. A great sorrow he had not felt in centuries filled him, and the perpetual sunlight seemed to darken.
“How?” he said, struggling to keep his voice steady. He had known sending his messenger to try to broker a ceasefire with Cronus was dangerous, as had Iris. It was war, and there would be casualties. But she had been willing to take that risk, and he had not imagined Cronus would go to such lengths against an ambassador.
“Nicholas finished the weapon an hour ago,” she said. “Calliope wanted to test it.”
Walter pressed his lips together. He hadn’t thought it possible, but his son’s skills were greater than even he had estimated. “Is there a body?”
“Calliope tossed her into the ocean,” said Ava. “I brought her back for a proper wake.”
Swallowing tightly, he forced himself to nod. “Very well. Thank you, my dear. I know how much of a risk that was for you. And because of that, I must insist you do no such thing in the future.”
Ava hesitated, but after all their planning, after all their gambles, he knew she could not deny him now. Finally she nodded. “I’m sorry.”
Walter opened his arms, and Ava crossed the room to curl up in his lap. He enveloped her, a shell of the daughter he knew, and buried his nose in her hair. “I am the one who is sorry, my darling, but we will do what we must to win. Is there any news of Kate?”
“Calliope says it will happen tomorrow.”
At last, something was going right. “Then our wait is over.”
“Doesn’t matter,” she mumbled into his shoulder. “It’s been too long. She lost hope ages ago.”
Nine months. That was how long Walter had been locked in a game of strategy and deception with the most powerful being on Earth. From the winter solstice to the autumnal equinox, he carried the weight of the world on his shoulders while hiding his burden from the remaining members of the council. With Henry’s defection, they were all aware that their chances of winning against Cronus had gone from slim to none at all. Ava was their last hope of bringing Henry to their side.
“And you, my darling?” He brushed a lock of hair out of her eyes. Not even the weariness of the past year could diminish her beauty.
When Ava didn’t answer right away, she confirmed his suspicions. He had seen her wilt before him, but never had she willingly shown her despair. She knew the stakes. She knew why they could not fail.
“I’m going to tell him.”
At first he thought he had misheard her, but as she pulled away, her blue eyes steely, he knew he had not. “You know you mustn’t,” he said with both the gentle admonishment of a father and the command of a king. “We have worked too long to risk everything now.”
“I thought it was just Kate.” Her face became blotchy as it did when she was about to cry, and something tugged inside him. The paternal desire to stop her from hurting. But what could he do when his actions were wholly necessary to prevent pain even worse than what he was causing her? “I would’ve never agreed if I’d known she was pregnant. You know that.”
“Yes, I know.” He ran his fingers through her hair to soothe her, but she let out a choking sob. “I am sorry.”
She pulled away from him and stumbled to her feet. “The moment Kate gives birth, Calliope’s going to kill her—you know that. And you’re going to let it happen anyway.”
“Perhaps not,” he countered. “You yourself have said that Cronus has taken a liking to her. Perhaps that will be enough.”
“Perhaps?” said Ava, half-wild with frustration. “You’re risking everything on a maybe, Daddy. You don’t know for sure what’s going to happen, and that poor baby—”
“We must do everything we can to ensure we win this war, no matter what we each must sacrifice.” No matter how many had to die. “Now is not the time for holding back.”
“It’s not the time for unnecessary risks and careless mistakes either.” She stormed toward the door. “I’m telling Henry everything.”
“Ava.”
His voice reverberated through the walls of the palace, shaking the very foundation of Olympus. Any trace of paternal affection was gone. It was the command of a king.
Ava stopped short. She had no choice, not after eons of obedience, and Walter felt a pang of guilt at speaking to her in such a way after all he had put her through. It was necessary, though. The fate of the world depended on it.
“You will not tell,” he said. “Not until Kate gives birth.”
“What’s the difference between telling him now and telling him tomorrow?” said Ava shakily, but she held her ground. From anyone else, talking back would have only angered Walter, but he was simply glad to see she had some fight left.
“He will not stop until he has Kate back,” said Walter. “But when he does, he will return to the Underworld and protect her with all his might, and he will continue not to involve himself in our war.”
Her eyes widened. “Wait—you’re using the baby as bait?”
“I will do what I must to bring Henry into the war,” said Walter. “One life is not worth losing it all.”
Ava stared at him as if she didn’t recognize him. Though Walter rarely experienced fear, it coursed uncomfortably through him, like sludge in his veins instead of immortal blood. “It’s a baby,” she said. “You can’t just— It’s a child.”
“If Henry does not participate in the war, then millions of children will die,” said Walter. She had to understand; this was not a matter of obedience and pride. “I realize how difficult it is for you, my darling—”
“You do?” The venom in her voice made him fall short. He had never heard her speak to anyone that way before, least of all him, her father. Her protector. Her king. “It’s my fault Kate’s there in the first place. That baby might die because of me.”
“I will do everything I can to ensure that does not happen,” said Walter. “Once this is over—”
“You think this is ever going to be over?” hissed Ava. “When the council finds out we’re risking Henry’s child to get him involved, who are they going to blame, Daddy? Me or you?”
“I will inform the council of my role,” said Walter.
“The only role the council’s going to see is the one I played, and I’m going to fix it before that baby dies and I really do lose everyone I love.”
Walter drew himself up to his full height. He may have looked like an old man, but next to the Titans, he was the most powerful being in the world, and he never let anyone forget it. Even his daughter. “I forbid it.”
Ava laughed, but it was not the laugh of someone who found any joy in life; instead it was full of self-loathing and hopelessness. “Too late.”
Before Walter could say a word, a heart-wrenching scream full of agony ripped from deep within the earth and rang throughout Olympus.
“He knows,” said Ava, and without another word, she slipped through the door and closed it behind her.
Chapter 1
Birth
Henry.
I bolted upright in the darkness. My forehead was damp with sweat as the dream faded, but his scream enveloped me, imprinting itself on my memory.
Another vision, one of dozens I’d had since leaving the Underworld an eternity ago. This time, however, I wasn’t watching Henry go about his life as ruler of the dead as he waited for me to return. I wasn’t standing by helplessly as Ava gave Henry false updates about where in Africa we were supposedly searching for Rhea.
Finally Henry knew what had really happened, and in the minutes before dawn broke through the night, I clung to the hope that it wasn’t too late.
“A nightmare, my dear?”
I shivered, and the candles scattered throughout my prison lit up. Cronus sat beside my bed, in the same chair he’d occupied every night since late December, when I’d woken up with a pounding headache and memories I wished were nightmares.
This wasn’t a nightmare, though. Cronus was here, working side by side with the Queen of the Gods, who would stop at nothing to hurt me as much as she possibly could.
The baby stirred inside me, undoubtedly unhappy about its rude awakening. I didn’t dare speculate over whether it was a boy or a girl. If Calliope had her way, I might never know, and that heartache was already more than I could take. I set a hand on my swollen belly, so big that the simplest movements were difficult now, and mentally tried to soothe it. “You didn’t hear that?” I said hoarsely.
“My son? Of course,” said Cronus, reaching for my stomach. I slapped his hand away, and he chuckled. “It seems the games are about to begin.”
“What games?” I knew the answer before I’d asked the question, though. My dream, my vision—it was the autumnal equinox, and finally Henry knew I was missing.
A sharp pain shot from my back to my abdomen, and I gasped. Cronus was at my side in an instant, exactly the way Henry would’ve been if he were here. I turned away.
“Calliope has decided it will happen today,” he murmured, and his voice would have been comforting if it hadn’t come from him.
“Decided what would happen today?” I struggled to stand and make it to the bathroom, but my legs gave out. Cronus’s cool hands were there to steady me, but as soon as I was back on the bed, I jerked away from him.
“That your child would be born.”
All the air left my lungs, and this time it had nothing to do with physical pain. He was bluffing. They were trying to scare me into labor before Henry rescued me, or—or something.
But as I leaned back, my hand found a wet spot on the mattress, and my damp nightgown clung to the back of my thighs. My water had broken sometime in the night. It was really happening.
Nine months of waiting. Nine months of fear. Nine months of time being the only thing standing between Calliope and the baby I was carrying, and now it was over.
I wasn’t ready to be a mother. Never in a million years had I imagined having kids before I turned thirty, let alone twenty. But Calliope hadn’t given me a choice, and with each day that passed, the sick dread inside me grew thicker until it nearly choked me. Calliope would take the baby from me, and there was nothing I could do about it. In a matter of hours, I would lose my child—Henry’s child—to someone who wanted nothing more than to see me suffer.
But now he knew. Now there was a chance, if only I could hold on a little longer until Henry came.
Cronus must have seen the look on my face, because he chuckled and fluffed a pillow for me. “Do not worry, my dear. Calliope cannot kill you unless I allow her, and I assure you I would never hurt you.”
It wasn’t me I was worried about. “You’re not going to hurt me, but you’re going to let Calliope do it,” I spat. “You’re going to let her take the baby the moment it’s born, and I’m never going to see it again.”
Cronus stared at me blankly. These were the moments I remembered that in spite of his human form, he was anything but. He didn’t understand why I loved the baby so much. Or, when I’d given Calliope too much attitude and she’d hit me in the mouth, why I’d instinctively covered my belly. He didn’t get how badly the thought of being separated from the baby hurt me before I’d even met him or her.
Then again, Cronus was also the monster who’d tried to destroy his own children, so I suspected empathy was too much to hope for.
“If you would like to keep the child, all you need to do is say the word,” he said, as if it were that simple. Maybe to him it was. “I will ensure that Calliope does not get in the way. In return, all I ask is that you rule by my side.”
It wasn’t the first time he’d made that offer, and it wasn’t the first time that, for a single moment, I entertained the possibility. As the baby’s birth loomed, saying no grew more and more difficult.
Cronus had made no secret of the fact that he wanted me as his queen while he ruled over the entire world, destroying everyone who dared to get in his way. I had no idea why—the small bit of compassion I’d shown him in the Underworld, maybe, or because I hadn’t fought him in the first war—but it didn’t matter. I would be safe from the destruction, and so would the baby. Henry, however, would be the first person Cronus ripped apart, and the entire world would follow.
As much as I loved this baby, as much as I would have done anything to keep it safe, I couldn’t stand by Cronus’s side as he wiped out humanity. I couldn’t do nothing as he killed every last person I loved, and if I agreed, he would keep me alive until the end of all things. I wouldn’t have the choice to die like Persephone had, and I couldn’t live with that guilt no matter how happy and safe my baby was.
But time was running out. The game had changed now that the council knew I was gone, and if I could keep Cronus guessing long enough not to hurt anyone, then maybe that would give the council a chance to find Rhea. So I lied.
“Promise not to kill anyone, and I’ll think about it.”
He grinned, showing off a full set of pearly teeth. Cronus had the smile of an airbrushed movie star, and it only made him more unnerving. “Is that so? Very well. Agree and I will leave humanity alone. My quarrels are not with them, and one must have subjects when one rules.”
“I said anyone,” I countered. “Not just humanity. You can’t kill the council either.”
Cronus eyed me, and I held my breath, hoping against hope I was worth this to him. I had to buy the council more time. “Surely you understand why my children must be contained, but I would be willing to...consider it, depending on the nature of our relationship. On how much you are willing to give.” He ran his fingers through my hair, and I suppressed a shudder. “You and I, together for all eternity. Imagine, my dear, the beauty we would create. And of course your child will know your love, and you will never have to say goodbye.”
I closed my eyes and pictured the moment I finally got to hold him or her. The baby would have dark hair, I was sure of it, and light eyes like me and Henry. Pink cheeks, ten fingers, ten toes, and I would love it instantly. I already did.
“You would be a mother,” he murmured, his voice like a siren’s call. “Forever there to love it, to nurture it, to raise it in your image. And I would be a father.”
The spell he had over me shattered, and my eyes flew open. “You are not this baby’s father,” I said as another wave of pain washed over me. This was too fast. Contractions were supposed to come on slow and last for hours—my mother had been in labor for over a day when I was born.
Cronus leaned in until his lips were an inch from mine. I wrinkled my nose even though his breath smelled like a cool autumn breeze. “No, I am not. I am so much more.”
The door burst open, and Calliope stormed inside. She had aged progressively over the past nine months until the angles on her face had become sharper, and she’d grown several inches to tower over me. As Cronus looked like Henry, with his long dark hair and gray eyes that crackled with lightning and fog, Calliope now looked like my mother. Like an older blond version of me. And I hated her even more for it.
“What’s going on?” she said, and I managed a faint smirk. Apparently she’d overheard something she didn’t like.
“Nothing for you to worry yourself about,” said Cronus as he straightened, though his eyes didn’t leave mine.
“Cronus was making me an interesting offer,” I said, sounding braver than I felt. “Turns out he isn’t going to feed me to the fish like you want.”
Her lips twisted into a snarl, but before she could say a word, Ava hurried past her carrying a large basket full of blankets and other things I couldn’t make out in the candlelight. “I’m sorry,” she said, her face flushed.
“It’s about time,” snapped Calliope, and she focused on me again. “I’d be careful if I were you, Kate. I have a new toy, and I’ve been itching to try it out on you.”
“What new toy?” I said through gritted teeth.
Calliope glided to the side of my bed. “Haven’t I told you? Nicholas generously donated his time and expertise to forge a weapon that will let me kill a god. His timing couldn’t be better.”
My blood ran cold. Nicholas, Ava’s husband, had been kidnapped on the winter solstice during battle. Up until now, no one had said a word to me about him.
“That’s impossible,” I blurted. Nothing but Cronus could kill an immortal.
“Is it?” said Calliope with a wicked smile. “Are you willing to bet your sweet little darling’s life on that?”
My heart dropped. She was going to kill my baby? “Ava?” I said, my tongue heavy in my mouth.
Biting her lip, Ava set her basket down at the foot of the bed. “I’m sorry.”
The room spun around me. This was just another game. Calliope was trying to scare me by using the people I loved most against me, and this time my supposed best friend was playing along.
What if it wasn’t a game, though? Calliope had sworn she would take away the thing I loved the most, and at the time I thought she’d meant Henry and the rest of my family. But she’d meant the baby. She was about to get everything she wanted from me—there was no reason for her to lie. And the way Ava couldn’t so much as look at me...
My throat swelled until I could barely breathe. “Get out.”
Ava blinked. “But someone needs to be with you—”
“I’d rather have Calliope here than you, you traitorous bitch,” I spat. “Get out.”
Her eyes watered, and to my satisfaction, she fled, leaving me alone with Cronus and Calliope. Ava deserved this. She’d known what this would mean, that Calliope had every intention of slaughtering my baby. And if Calliope really had forced Nicholas to forge a weapon—if Ava had distracted the council for the past nine months to give him enough time—
I didn’t care how much danger Nicholas was in. He was Calliope’s son, and no matter how terrible a person she was, I couldn’t imagine her killing her own child. But she was going to kill my baby without a second thought, and Ava had known the entire time.
Even if our positions had been reversed, even if Henry was the one Calliope held hostage, I would have never, ever done this to Ava. I would have never betrayed her and allowed Calliope to kill her child.
“That wasn’t very nice,” said Calliope in a singsong voice, and my stomach churned. She couldn’t kill the baby. I wouldn’t let her.
“I need to pee,” I said, pushing myself up.
Calliope made a vague gesture and busied herself with unpacking the basket. Cronus offered me his hand, but I brushed it off.
“I think I can make it to the bathroom on my own,” I said.
Crossing the room hadn’t been easy since August, and my body strained with each step I took, but I made it. My prison wasn’t exactly plush, although it wasn’t a concrete cell with a thin mattress and grungy toilet either. It was a simple bedroom with a bathroom attached, and it was several stories up, making a window escape impossible. I might’ve been immortal, but I didn’t have a clue whether or not the baby was. And if Calliope really did have a weapon that could kill a god, it didn’t matter anyway.
I’d tried to get away several times when I’d still been mobile enough to have a chance, but between Cronus, Calliope and Ava, someone had always been there to stop me. I’d made it as far as the beach once, but I couldn’t swim and they knew it. The council may have intended this island to be Cronus’s prison, but it was mine now, too.
Closing the door behind me, I eased down onto the edge of the bathtub and cradled my head in my hands. Frustration rose inside me, threatening to spill out in a great sob, but I swallowed it. I needed a moment, and crying would only make Calliope come in after me.
“Henry.” I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to picture him. “Please. Help us.”
At last I sank into my vision. After nearly a year in this hellhole, I’d learned how to control them, but I still struggled to make it far enough to see him. Three golden walls formed around me, and the fourth became a long pane of windows much like the room in Henry’s palace. But instead of black rock, I saw endless blue sky through the glass, and sunlight poured in, illuminating everything.
“You did this.” The sound of Henry’s voice caught my attention, and I turned. He had Walter by the lapels, and his eyes burned with anger and power I’d never seen before.
“It had to be done,” said Walter unsteadily. Even he looked afraid. “We need you, brother, and if this is what it takes to get you to see that—”
Henry threw Walter against the wall so hard that it fractured, leaving a web of cracks behind. “I will see you pay for this if it is the last thing I do,” he growled.
“Enough.” My mother’s voice rang out, and both brothers turned toward her. She looked pale, and she folded her hands in front of her the way she did when she was trying to keep herself under control. “We will rescue Kate. There is still time, and the more we waste—”
“We cannot risk our efforts for the life of one,” said Walter.
“Then I will,” snarled Henry.
Walter shook his head. “It is far too dangerous for you to go alone.”
“He won’t be alone,” said my mother. “And if you value your hold over the council—”
The muscles in my back and belly contracted, and the pain pulled me from my vision. Back in the bathroom, I let out a soft sob. My mother was wrong—we were out of time. The baby was coming no matter how hard I tried to wait. Calliope would kill it, and there was no one here to stop her. Whether or not anyone came, there was no way out of this. Even if Henry and my mother did attack the island, there was no guarantee they would break through Cronus’s defenses, and by then it would be too late anyway.
The baby nudged me from the inside, and I forced myself to pull it together. I had to do this. I couldn’t break down. The baby’s life depended on it.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, gently pressing against the spot where it had kicked me. “I love you, okay? I’m not going to stop fighting until you’re safe, I promise.”
Someone rapped on the door, and I jumped. “Don’t think you’re going to give birth in the bathtub,” said Calliope. “You’re not having that baby until I say you are.”
“Just a minute,” I called, and I stood long enough to turn on the faucet and drown out my whispers in case she was eavesdropping. It wouldn’t do much good, but the illusion of privacy would have to be enough for now.
Easing back down onto the edge of the bathtub, I rubbed my belly. “Your dad’s really great, and you’ll get to see him soon, okay? He’s not going to let Calliope do this to you either, and he’s way more powerful than me. The whole family is. Today is probably going to be scary, and it’ll hurt—well, it’ll hurt me, I won’t let them hurt you—but in the end, it’ll be okay. I promise.”
It wasn’t an empty promise. Even if I had to die in the process, Calliope would not touch my baby. No matter what it took, I would make sure of it.
* * *
Labor progressed so quickly that I barely made it out of the bathroom. Calliope gave me nothing to help, no medication or words of encouragement, and though Cronus remained by my side, he said nothing as my contractions grew closer and closer together. They had to know the others were coming. There was no other reason to force the baby out like this, and I couldn’t imagine Calliope giving up the chance to make me hurt as long as possible, not unless it was dire.
I refused to scream. Even in the final moments of labor, as the baby ripped through my body, I clenched my jaw and pushed through the pain. Since I’d become immortal, the only thing that had hurt me was Cronus, and apparently giving birth was another exception. My body was doing this to itself, and immortality wasn’t going to stop it.
The moment the baby left me, I felt as if my heart had been ripped from my chest and now rested in Calliope’s arms. She straightened, and a lump formed in my throat as I saw the wrinkled, bloody infant she held. “It’s a boy,” she said, and she smiled. “Perfect.”
Somehow, despite the words I’d whispered to him, the hours I’d spent feeling him kick, and the months I’d carried him, he had never felt completely real. But now—
That was my son.
That was my son, and Calliope was going to kill him.
She didn’t need any tools to cut the cord or finish the rest of the messy birth; in the blink of an eye, everything was clean, and the baby was wrapped in a white blanket. As if she’d done it a thousand times before, she cradled him and stood, leaving me alone on the bed.
“Wait,” I said in a choked voice. I was exhausted and drenched in sweat, and despite the pain, I struggled to get up. “You can’t—please, I’ll do anything, just don’t hurt my son.”
His wails, so tiny and helpless, filled the room, and my heart crumbled. Every bone in my body demanded that I stand, that I go to him and save him from the pain that awaited him, but I couldn’t move. The harder I struggled, the more I froze, and the more my body ached.
Calliope looked at me, her eyes bright and full of malice. She was enjoying this. She was reveling in my pain. “That’s not for you to decide, dear Kate.”
At the edge of my vision, I saw Cronus shift. “You will not hurt the child,” he said, his voice low and full of thunder. “That is not a request.”
Her eyes narrowed. She was going to challenge him. Use my son to prove her dominance—that she was the one in control. But she wasn’t, and she knew it. And for the first time since I’d heard of the King of the Titans, I was grateful for him.
“Fine,” she said in an annoyed voice, as if she were only letting him win because she wanted to. We both knew the truth. “I won’t kill him.”
Relief swept through me like a drug, and I released the breath I’d been holding. Because of Cronus, he would live. “Please, can I—can I hold my son?”
“Your son?” Her arms tightened around the baby, and a mockery of a smile curled across her lips. “You must be mistaken. The only child in this room belongs to me.”
Without another word, she walked through the door in a cloud of victory, leaving me empty and utterly alone.
She wouldn’t take his life—that meant there was still time. But how long would it take before she got tired of obeying Cronus and killed the baby just to watch me bleed?
I had to get to him. I had to save him. Even if Calliope didn’t touch a hair on his head, the thought of him being raised by that monster, twisted into something black and beyond recognition—if my time in the Underworld had taught me anything, that kind of life was infinitely worse than the peace of death.
Desperation clawed at me, tearing me up from the inside out, and I slowly turned toward Cronus.
His queen. My life, my choices, my freedom for my son’s.
“Please,” I said, hiccupping. “I’ll do anything.”
He brushed his cold fingers against my tearstained cheek, and this time I didn’t move away. “Anything?”
The words were like knives on my tongue, but I said them anyway. “Anything,” I whispered. “Save him and—and I’m yours.”
Cronus leaned toward me, stopping when his lips were only inches from mine. “As you wish, my queen.”
Fire spread through my body, burning heat replacing the aches of giving birth as Cronus healed me. It was worth it. Henry would understand, and somehow, someway, I would unite him with the baby.
Dizzy with hope, I sat up and touched my flat stomach. Somehow Cronus had returned my body to the way it had been before I’d become pregnant, and the missing swell of my belly and chest was disorienting. Why not leave me with the ability to feed the baby? Because he knew it wouldn’t matter? But before I could say a word, the world began to shake.
“What—” I began, gripping the edge of the mattress, but something in the corner caught my attention. The sky through my window was bathed in an unnatural golden light, and around us the entire island quaked violently.
“I will return, my dear, and then we shall be together,” said Cronus. He pressed his cold lips to my cheek, and in an instant he was gone, but I didn’t care.
In the distance, a black cloud approached, sizzling with lightning. Though Cronus himself couldn’t escape the island, it passed through the barrier the council had created as if it were nothing, and I spotted the silhouette of a man on top of it. Hope swelled within me, and I didn’t have to see his face to know who the dark figure was.
Henry.
Chapter 2
Blood and Stone
For nine months, I’d dreamed of this moment. In my visions I’d watched Henry go about his day-to-day duties, oblivious to what was happening as he waited for me to come home, and I’d wished with every fiber of my being for him to realize something was wrong and come storming through the doors of my prison. I’d wanted it so badly that I’d ached with the need to leave the island, to leave Calliope and Cronus and all of my greatest fears behind.
Now I might finally have the chance, and I couldn’t go. No matter what was waiting out there for me—Henry, my mother, a family, a war to win—I couldn’t leave my son.
Henry flew toward the palace, and I searched the skies behind him for the other members of the council. Nothing but that unnatural gold. My chest tightened. He couldn’t be alone. He wasn’t that careless. He didn’t have the power to hold off Cronus in the Underworld, let alone outside his realm.
Where was my mother? Even if the others had no interest in helping me, surely she would have come to protect Henry. Had he insisted she not, that it was too dangerous?
When he was close enough for me to see the rage on his face, it hit me. He was alone.
We were alone.
I expected him to turn the outside wall to rubble, but instead he flew over my room toward another part of the castle, as if he didn’t know I was there. Maybe he didn’t. Maybe Calliope was trying to lure him away and—
The weapon.
Oh, god.
“Henry!” I screamed. “Henry!”
“Kate,” said a voice from the hallway. “Kate, it’s me.”
I hurried to the door, crouching down beside it to peer through the keyhole. “Henry? Is that—”
A blue eye with long lashes stared back at me, and my heart sank. Ava.
“Move away from the door,” she whispered, glancing over her shoulder. What was she so afraid of? Henry storming down the hall and blasting her to pieces? If only I were so lucky.
“Why should I trust you?” I said. “You knew Calliope was going to kill my son, and you did everything you could to make that happen.”
She blinked rapidly, and her eyes turned red and watery. Once upon a time I’d thought Ava had been one of the few who looked pretty when she cried, but now all I could see was the ugliness underneath.
For months I’d learned about the antics of the Greek gods, the history that was the foundation of their mythology. Not all of it was right—so much of it had been twisted and corrupted throughout history as mortals passed the stories down. And because of that, I’d wanted to believe that the gods were basically good. That they really were looking out for humankind, that their lives hadn’t been full of mischief and betrayal and selfishness.
Regardless of what Calliope and Cronus had done, Ava could’ve proven me right. A single word to the council, and this could’ve been over months ago. Instead she’d turned all of those hopes to dust.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “You’re my best friend, Kate. Please—I never meant for any of this to happen. I didn’t know.”
“You knew enough.”
She checked over her shoulder again. “Once this is over, you can rip me to shreds as much as you want. But right now I have to get you out of here.”
I scoffed. Now Ava wanted to rescue me, after Calliope had exactly what she wanted? “Like hell I’m going anywhere with you.”
“I can take you to your son.”
My heart pounded. In an instant, my disgust turned to desperation, and it took everything I had not to claw the door open with my fingernails. “You know where he is?”
Ava nodded. “And if you let me, I can help both of you get out of here.”
That was all I needed to hear. Forget the past nine months. Forget her betrayal. Forget the very real possibility that this was just another trap to make sure Henry couldn’t find me. If there was a chance she was telling the truth, if there was a chance I could save my son, I didn’t care.
I stepped back, and a breeze filled the room. The lock clicked, and the door swung open, revealing Ava. Now that it was light outside, I could see her properly. Her blond hair hung in limp curls, and the shadows made the dark circles underneath her eyes look hideous. I’d never seen her like this before, not even the night I’d met Henry by the river in Eden—the same night she’d taken a swan dive into the raging waters and crushed her skull against a rock.
Would I have saved her if I’d known less than a year and a half later, she would steal me away from everyone I love? That she would stand by Calliope as she manipulated me into a pregnancy only so she could hurt me as badly as humanly possible?
Would I have saved her if I’d known Ava had been fully aware of Calliope’s plan to kill my son the whole time?
I didn’t know. I didn’t care. If Ava helped save him, if she helped us escape, the past nine months wouldn’t matter anymore. I would never forget, but in time I might forgive.
I hurried out the door. Ava offered me her arm, but I pulled away. The thought of touching her made my stomach lurch. “Don’t bother. Cronus healed me. Which way?”
Ava wilted and dropped her hand, and a pang of guilt ran through me before I pushed it aside. She didn’t deserve my sympathy. We moved at an agonizingly slow pace, all but tiptoeing down the slate-paved corridor. Was I right? Was she just hiding me away so Henry couldn’t find me?
Didn’t matter. I had to try.
Crack.
The walls around us shook, and Ava flung herself at me, covering my body with hers as the ceiling came crashing down around us. The back of my head slammed against the wall, but even though I expected pain, it never came. I was immortal now. Even if the entire world buried us, we would never die.
“Are you all right?” said Ava, gasping. The air had turned to thick dust, and as I sucked in a breath, the grit choked me.
“Need to keep going,” I said, coughing. Henry wouldn’t ask any questions—the moment he got his hands on me, he would take me back down to the Underworld. We had to find the baby before Henry found me.
I climbed over the rubble, groping my way through the dust as sharp edges tried to cut my impermeable skin. My foot caught on a rock I couldn’t see, and I stumbled, throwing my arms out to catch my fall. But instead a pair of strong hands caught me, and I looked up.
Dark hair, handsome face, broad shoulders. Henry.
I blinked rapidly, my eyes tearing up to flush out the dust, and his face swam into focus.
No, not Henry.
Cronus.
“Come, my dear,” he murmured, pulling me to my feet. His palms were hot coals against my skin, and bile rose in my throat. Where was Henry? Why wasn’t Cronus trying to stop him?
Because he didn’t need to. One god versus the King of the Titans—there was no question. And with Calliope’s weapon, it wouldn’t be a fair fight between siblings either. Henry wouldn’t know what was coming, and then—
I clenched my fists. I had to find the baby before Henry found me, and I had to find Henry before it was too late. No other option was acceptable.
“I want to see my son,” I said, jerking my arm away from Cronus and struggling to keep my voice steady. To my left, a gaping hole in the stone wall opened up to a golden sky and the sound of waves crashing against the shore. “Take me to him.”
“All in good time.” He led me through the wrecked corridor, and the rubble swept aside to make a path for us. For him. Ava trailed after us, dragging her feet and scattering the pebbles as if she were trying to make as much noise as possible. A warning to Calliope that we were coming? A signal to Henry to tell him where we were?
Suddenly the air changed as the dust vanished, and the salt-tinged wind blowing off the sea gave way to the thin wails of a newborn. I blinked. It’d been a long time since I’d slipped into a vision without meaning to.
I was surrounded by walls painted to resemble a sunset, and the room was empty except for a white cradle in the center. A lump formed in my throat, and I peered over the edge, barely daring to hope.
There, wrapped in a knit blanket, was my son.
His sobs paused, and he cracked open his eyes as if he were staring directly at me. But that was impossible—he couldn’t see me. No one could see me in my visions. I was an observer. Less than a ghost; I was nothing.
The lure of his blue eyes was irresistible, and I reached out to touch him. For a split second I imagined the warmth of his smooth skin and tiny fingers, and a smile crept onto my face.
“Hi,” I whispered. “You’re such a handsome little man.”
He stared up into the space I occupied, and I could hardly breathe. He was perfection.
“Milo.” The name left my mouth before I could think about it, but once it was out, it seemed to wrap around the baby, becoming as much a part of him as his dark hair or how much I loved him.
Yes. Milo.
An enraged cry broke the spell between us, and Milo’s sobs returned, even louder than before. I tried to touch him again, to offer whatever small measure of comfort I could if he really could sense I was there, but my hand passed through him. His screams only grew shriller.
“Calliope!”
I froze. Henry.
Torn between leaving Milo or finding Henry, I lingered near the cradle. As much as it killed me to leave the baby, I had to know where Henry was. If he was outside the nursery—if he knew about Milo and was going to save him—
Please, please, please let him know.
I dashed through the open door and into a part of the palace I’d never seen before. The walls were a rich gold, not stone like the ones inside my prison, and the indigo rug matched the silk curtains that hung every ten feet on the outside wall. The hallway stretched nearly the entire length of the palace, and Calliope stood in the middle, only a few feet away from Henry.
He’d saved me from the clutches of death on the banks of the river in Eden. He’d fought for all our lives as Calliope choked me with chains in Tartarus. He was Lord of the Underworld, King of the Dead, and one of the most powerful gods in history.
But never had I seen him look so terrible in his power. It rolled off of him in black waves, shaking the very foundation of the palace, and even though I wasn’t really there, for the first time in my life I was genuinely afraid of him.
Satisfaction mingled with that fear though, and disdain ripped through me as I approached Calliope. Henry would end her. Whatever this weapon was she claimed to have, it couldn’t possibly match up to the pure rage that surrounded him, fueling his power. Only a Titan could kill a god, and Calliope was exactly like me: immortal. Nothing more.
A blast shook the walls, and panic shot through me. Milo. Henry had no idea he was here, that Calliope stood between him and his son. He might not even know he existed. And if he brought down the entire castle—
All it would take was a single thought, and our son would die.
I dashed into the nursery, but before I could spot Milo’s face over the edge of the cradle, the sunset walls disappeared.
It took me several seconds to regain my bearings. Cronus held my arm, his hands still fire against my skin, and Ava lingered on my other side. We stood in a gold-and-indigo corridor, but it was empty.
Was it over? Had we missed it?
No, impossible. My visions were always in the present. I couldn’t go into the past or see the future. Henry and Calliope were somewhere nearby. They had to be. Above us, below—
“Kate, my dear.” Cronus’s voice cut through me like a dagger made of ice. “Are you mine?”
Never. Not in a million years, not if we were the last two beings in the universe. Not if the only other choice I had was to live out eternity buried under boulders.
But only moments stood between now and the entire castle ripping apart at the seams, and I had to save Milo. If that meant making a promise I couldn’t keep, then I would deal with the consequences later. “Give me my son, and I’m yours.”
My feet left the ground as Cronus floated us upward, leaving Ava behind. Together we passed through the ceiling as if it weren’t even there, rising into the hallway above us, and I held my breath.
We stood only a few feet behind Calliope, and beyond her, surrounded by dark power—
Henry.
He and I stared at each other across the hallway, and my knees nearly buckled with relief. At last, someone who loved me.
He took an involuntary step toward me, but even though it was the first time I’d seen him since the winter solstice, my body pulled me in the direction of Milo’s room. Only a few feet away, two doors behind Calliope, and I’d be able to hold my son. I’d have a chance at saving us all.
Cronus gripped my arm, his fingers a cuff of flesh and bone, and no amount of subtle tugging and twisting loosened them. I was as trapped as I’d been in my prison, but this time both pieces of my heart dangled in front of me, taunting me. Begging me to do something.
I was powerless.
In my mind, hours passed, but in reality it took Calliope only seconds to realize what was going on. She turned and grinned, her eyes sparkling with malice, and something slid from the loose sleeve of her gown into her hand. A dagger.
The blade glowed with the same essence that had infused the chains she’d wrapped around my neck, the same opaque power that had threaded through the rock she’d used to knock me unconscious the day she’d kidnapped me. She hadn’t been lying, after all. Somehow, even though Cronus stood beside me whole and solid, she’d managed to separate a piece of him from the rest. And now she had the power to kill every last one of us until she was free to rule the universe at Cronus’s side.
“Perfect timing,” she said, her voice as girly as ever, but regality saturated each syllable.
“Kate?” Henry’s voice broke, and the waves of dark power around him faltered. No, no, no, he couldn’t stop now. She’d attack the first chance he gave her.
I took a step back. Forget subtlety. Like hell I was letting Cronus keep me from my family. “Don’t let them follow me,” I said to Henry, and without warning, I wrenched my arm from Cronus as hard as I could, pulling against his thumb. The weakest part of his grip—if he had any weak spots at all.
Maybe I managed to take him by surprise, or maybe he was simply amused and wanted to see what I would do, but Cronus didn’t fight me. He let go, and before anyone could say a word, I tore down the hallway and into the nursery.
Milo lay in the cradle, crying softly, and I ached to finally touch him. How was it possible that minutes before, we’d been connected? How had I ever allowed my body to let him go?
“It’s all right,” I whispered, reaching for him. He calmed, and this time when his blue eyes met mine, I knew he saw me. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”
The moment my fingers brushed his downy cheek, someone cleared their throat behind me, and I turned. Calliope stood framed in the doorway, and she held the dagger to Henry’s throat.
All of the air escaped my lungs. This was it. He was going to die. I was going to lose my husband, my baby, my entire family to a crazy goddess who didn’t care who she hurt, so long as she got her way. So long as she got to torture me.
“Don’t hurt him—you can’t, please,” I whispered, clutching the edge of the cradle. Henry’s eyes were open, and he stared at me—no, not at me. Beyond me. He stared at Milo. It was a small comfort, knowing that he would die with the knowledge he had a son. That at least he would have this moment.
“Please,” spat Calliope, a mockery of my desperation. “Always please, as if that’s enough. You know it isn’t, Kate. Why bother?”
It didn’t matter if nothing I ever did was enough; I had to try. I couldn’t live with myself if I surrendered and let her have everything that mattered to me. “You love him. If you kill him, you’ll never have him. You’ll lose.”
She scoffed, but a hint of doubt flashed across her face. “I’ll be the queen of the world. I’ll never lose again.”
“Being queen won’t make you happy.” I studied the way she held Henry. He could break her grip if she lowered the knife. All we needed was that split second, and I could distract her long enough for Henry to take the baby and disappear. “You’ll still be alone. You’ll still be miserable.”
Calliope’s eyes narrowed. “Whatever it is you think you’re doing, it won’t work. I don’t need him anymore.”
“Then what do you want?”
“I already have exactly what I want.” Behind her, Cronus loomed, somehow taller than he had been moments before. The power radiating from Henry was gone now. “First I’m going to kill Henry, and then I’m going to kill your mother and every single member of the council. Once I’m done, when the world kneels at my feet, I will hold your son, and he will call me mother and you a traitor. And together, we will watch you die.”
Henry roared and struggled against her, coming to life at last, but whatever chained him held strong. She pressed the blade to his throat. This wasn’t about winning anymore—she knew she had me, and I knew this was the end. Now it was about causing me as much pain as possible.
The joke was on her, though. Without Henry, without my mother, without my son, I would welcome death.
Focus. This couldn’t be it. There had to be something I could do—some magical combination of words I could say to get her to lower that dagger. Anything.
Behind me, Milo’s cries grew louder, and I groped around until I touched his hand. This was it. These were the only few moments I would have with him. Despite the dagger to Henry’s throat, I would have given anything to make them last forever.
“Then kill me,” I blurted. “Right now, in front of Henry, in front of the baby—just do it. Because I promise if you hurt either of them, I will make sure you spend eternity burning in Tartarus.”
Calliope tilted her head, and I held my breath. She had to agree. Anything to get her to lower that knife, to give Henry that split-second advantage—anything.
But before she could say a word, Cronus exhaled, and fog crept across the floor of the nursery. “No.” The word was barely a whisper, but it burrowed inside me, refusing to be ignored. “You will not harm Kate, my daughter. If she dies, so will you.”
Behind the flush of her excitement, Calliope paled. “You can either keep Kate or her spawn alive. Not both. Choose.”
“I have already told you what you will do,” said Cronus. “You will obey me, or you will be the one to die. That is your choice to make, not mine.”
Clenching her jaw, she dug the blade deeper into Henry’s skin, and he winced. Forget me. His voice echoed through my mind as clearly as if he’d spoken. Do whatever you must to escape before it’s too late.
“No,” I whispered, and Henry narrowed his eyes. He could glare at me all he wanted. I wasn’t leaving, not without him. Not without the baby.
Though she was still pale, Calliope’s lips twisted into a smirk. “How cute. You can try all you want, but she isn’t getting out of here ali—” She stopped. “What’s that?”
Cronus’s expression went blank, and I twisted around, searching for whatever it was that had caught her attention. What was what?
Calliope’s gaze unfocused, and her smirk faltered. “Father, do something,” she hissed, and at last I heard it.
The distant rumble of thunder, growing louder with each passing second.
The crack of lightning that lit up the sky beyond the indigo curtains in the hallway.
A burst of wind so strong that it howled through the corridors.
And a dozen war cries blending together, forming a fearsome harmony.
The council had arrived.
Calliope’s face went from pale to ashen, and her grip on Henry slipped. I didn’t think. In that moment, I memorized the feel of my son’s tiny hand in mine, and I let go.
As fast as I could, I hurtled toward Henry and Calliope, knocking him out of the way. Grabbing her fist, I smashed her knuckles against the wall to make her let go of the dagger. She wasn’t human though, and just like me, she couldn’t feel pain. No matter how much force I used, it was pointless.
But I had to buy Henry enough time to grab Milo and leave. Together we struggled, goddess against goddess, and I let out an enraged cry. Something inside me took over, something primal. As Calliope fought, so did I, with everything I had.
“Cronus!” shrieked Calliope, but he vanished into an eerie fog. His true form. With a dozen screaming gods surrounding the castle, no matter how powerful he was, he had no choice but to fight. He wouldn’t be any help to her now.
Calliope must have realized the same thing, because with a surge of power, she shoved me, and we toppled to the ground. She twisted my neck, and I scratched her face, attempting to gouge out her eyes, but neither of us could hurt the other.
“You bitch,” she snarled. “You conniving, useless bitch.”
“Can’t kill me.” I worked my fingers around the handle of the dagger and struggled to pull it from her grip. “I die, you die, remember?”
“Father won’t touch a hair on my head.”
“Are you willing to bet your entire existence on that?”
She screeched and wrenched the dagger from me. I had no chance against her immense strength, and I watched in horror as my grip slipped and the tip of the infused blade plunged into my arm.
White-hot pain ripped through me, burning everything in its path, infinitely worse than the brush of fog against my leg during my botched coronation ceremony nearly a year before. This was inside me, fusing together with my very being, choking it until only a few pitiful gasps remained.
I was dying. Two more seconds, and I’d be—
A black blur slammed into her. As the weight of Calliope’s body disappeared, the choke hold vanished. Agony burned inside me, leaving me breathless, and fire replaced the ice of the blade as I bled freely. What was happening?
I opened my eyes, half expecting to see wherever gods went when they died, but instead all I saw was Calliope’s maniacal grin as she lay on the floor beside me.
No, that wasn’t all. Henry hovered above her, pressed oddly against her body at an angle I didn’t understand. His eyes widened, his mouth dropped open, and his hands clutched something against his ribs.
“I win,” whispered Calliope. And as she pulled the bloody dagger from Henry’s chest, I finally understood.
Chapter 3
The Darkest Hour
For four years, I’d stayed by my mother’s bedside and watched her fade away. Her once strong and healthy body had withered into a poor imitation of the woman I remembered, and not an hour had passed without me imagining what it would be like the day death claimed her.
I’d lived in constant fear of waking up and finding her gone, a shell where my mother had once been. I would watch the clock flip over to midnight and wonder if that was the date I would mourn each year for the rest of my life.
I knew what it was like to lose. I knew what it was like to fight the inevitable.
But none of that had prepared me for watching Henry die.
Blood spurted from the wound in his chest. He fell to his knees, one hand clutching his rib cage, the other reaching for me. I’d never seen such real terror in his eyes. Gods weren’t supposed to die. Not unless they wanted to.
I reached for him with my good arm as the life drained from him. Was the blade strong enough to kill me, too? Once it was over, would we be together on the other side, wherever that might lead?
Was there even another side for the Lord of the Dead?
The moment our fingers met, my body lurched. It was a familiar feeling—much more jolting than I’d ever experienced before, but the instant it happened, I knew. We were going home.
One second, I was only feet away from Milo as he cried. The next I lay in a heap with Henry, and silence surrounded us. We weren’t in Calliope’s palace anymore. We weren’t even on the island. But we weren’t in the Underworld either, or at least any part of it I’d ever seen.
Instead we were in the middle of a massive room devoid of anything but a sky-blue ceiling and sunset floor. The golden walls seemed to stretch out forever, and with the sun in the middle of the ceiling as if it were a real sky, everything glittered with light. It should’ve taken my breath away.
But Milo was gone. Wherever we were, I knew instinctively he wouldn’t be joining us, and unspeakable pain spread like acid inside me. I would have gladly been stabbed a thousand times over rather than feel this for even a moment.
There was nothing I could do, though. My mother was on the island with him, along with James and the rest of the council, and that would have to be enough. The only person I had a prayer of helping now had me pinned to the sunset floor.
“Henry.” Even though the last thing I wanted to do was hurt him, I had no choice but to roll him gently off me. Blood soaked through his shirt, and I pressed my hands against his chest in an attempt to stop the flow, but it was useless. After everything we’d gone through together, after everything he’d done to protect me, I couldn’t do a damn thing to save him. It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t fair.
“Kate?” His voice was thick and hoarse, as if he were ill, but he wasn’t. He was dying. “Are you—are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” I lied, and my voice broke. “Don’t sit up. You’re losing too much blood.” How much did gods have in them? The same as mortals? How much could they live without?
“I didn’t know,” he whispered. “I thought— Ava said—”
“It’s not your fault.” I shakily brushed my mouth against his. He tasted like rain. “None of this is your fault. I should’ve never trusted her. I should’ve never left you. I’m sorry.”
He kissed me back weakly. “Was that—was that baby...”
A lump formed in my throat. “Yeah. He’s your son.” I managed a watery smile. At least Henry knew. “I named him Milo. We can call him something different if you’d like.”
“No.” He coughed, and a few droplets of blood stained his lips. “It’s perfect. So are you.”
I leaned against his chest, putting as much weight on the wound as possible. I refused to say goodbye like this. Not to Henry, not to our life together, none of it. I wasn’t ready, and Milo deserved to have a father. I hadn’t had one growing up, and like hell would I let him experience that same emptiness and uncertainty. He deserved more than that. He deserved to have a family.
My arm bled freely, and within moments the room began to spin. Henry’s moonlit eyes remained open, and he smiled. “Never thought I’d have a son.” His voice trembled. “Never thought I’d have you.”
I gritted my teeth against the dizziness, my body growing weaker by the second. “You’re going to have me for a hell of a lot longer than this.” My vision blurred, and I struggled to look around us. Where was everyone? Why couldn’t they feel the life drain from Henry the way I could?
Because it wasn’t his life I felt draining away. It was mine.
“Kate? Henry?”
My mother’s voice washed over me, and I let out an exhausted sob. “Mom?”
She knelt beside me, radiating warmth and the scent of apples and freesia. “Let go, sweetheart,” she murmured. “I’ve got you.”
I couldn’t force my hands from Henry, though. He was cold now, his eyes wide and unblinking, and his chest was still. Gods didn’t need to breathe, but Henry always had. His heart had always beaten, but now I saw no hint of a pulse.
He was dead.
I didn’t remember the others appearing. One moment my mother held me against her chest, her hand wrapped around my bleeding arm as I screamed and cried and disappeared into myself. The next, Walter hovered over us, and Theo knelt beside Henry’s body, his lips moving at a furious pace.
“Get her out of here,” said Walter, his booming voice distant as I cowered in a dark corner in the recesses of my mind. Gentle hands lifted me, and I thought I heard James’s voice murmuring words of comfort I didn’t understand, but outwardly I thrashed and shrieked. I couldn’t leave Henry. If I left him, I would never see him again, and then he really would be gone.
He couldn’t be, though. He just couldn’t be.
Another pair of hands joined us, but I was so completely submerged into myself that I might as well have closed my eyes and disappeared in the dark. In here, nothing could touch me. In here, Henry was everywhere. In here, it was winter again, and we curled up together underneath the down comforter in the Underworld as the hours passed by. His chest was warm under my palm, and his heart beat against my fingers, steady and eternal. In here, no one died.
A whimper caught my attention, and I opened my eyes again. The golden room was gone, replaced by the sunset nursery in Calliope’s palace, and my heart sank. There, lying in the cradle, was Milo. My mother hadn’t saved him, after all.
I stood beside him, pretending I could touch him and rock him to sleep. Pretending that it wasn’t just a matter of time before the Titan fire in my veins consumed me and Milo would be orphaned. I had never known my father, but I treasured the time I’d spent with my mother. Milo would never have that either. The only time we would have together were those few seconds before Calliope had killed his father, and he would never remember them.
No, we had now. Even if he didn’t know I was with him, I could be there. I would be. Settling in beside his cradle, I watched him unblinkingly, soaking in every second.
And I waited for the inevitable to come.
* * *
Kate.
James’s voice floated toward me and wound its way through what was left of my heart. I blinked. How long had it been? Minutes? Hours? Days? No, Calliope might have been a monster, but she wouldn’t have left Milo alone for that long. He slept soundly in the cradle, his little chest rising and falling. I took comfort in each breath.
Come back, Kate.
His words were a whisper against my ear, but I stayed put. There was nothing left for me in reality. My mother had lived for eons before I’d been born; she could do without me once more. She would have to.
The air grew thick with annoyance. Kate, I swear, if you don’t come back, I will tell Henry you kissed me. And that you said I have a nice ass.
“Henry?” My eyes flew open—my real eyes this time. As it had each time before, the wrench of leaving Milo took my breath away, and fuzzy shapes floated in front of me until I managed to focus.
A sky-blue ceiling and undoubtedly a sunset floor. But unlike the room bathed in golden light, this was different. Smaller, muted, and darker somehow.
Frantically I looked around the room for any sign of Henry, but he wasn’t there. James’s sick idea of a joke then, to pull me away from the only thing that gave me any small measure of comfort now.
“How are you feeling?” My mother hovered beside my bed, applying a compress of something that smelled like honey and tangerines to my arm. Noticing my stare, she smoothed my hair back and offered me a small smile that didn’t meet her eyes. “A compress to stop the pain. You’ll have to wear a sling, but it won’t spread anywhere else for now.”
I shook my head. “Take it off.”
“What?” Her brow knitted. “Sweetheart, this is saving your life—”
“I don’t want it.” I sat up, and my body screamed in protest as I ripped the compress from my arm. It didn’t matter. Henry was dead, and I would never hold my son again. I didn’t want anyone to save my life.
My mother set her hand against my good shoulder, and firmly but gently, she guided me back onto the bed. I didn’t have the strength to fight her. “Too bad. I’m your mother, and whether you like it or not, I’m not going to let you die on my watch.”
I sniffed, staring at the cloudless ceiling. “I can’t do this, Mama.” I hadn’t called her that since the second grade, when the most popular girl in my New York City private school had overheard and proceeded to tease me for the next four years.
“Can’t do what?” She laid the compress on my arm again, and though it hurt like hell, the pain didn’t spread.
“I had a baby,” I whispered. Did she even know she was a grandmother? Did she know about Calliope’s plot? Or did she think I’d run off with Ava for nine months and forgotten about her?
She hesitated, not meeting my eyes. “I know. I’m so sorry, Kate.”
That was it. Simple acknowledgment. No offer to find him. No promise to take him from Calliope the first chance she got. I swallowed thickly, half an inch away from hysteria. “His name’s Milo. Henry—Henry liked that name.”
“I’m sure he still does.” James’s voice filtered through the haze around me.
“Still does?” My voice cracked, and though my mother held me down, I raised my head. James leaned against the open doorway, his blond hair tousled and his cheeks flushed, as if he’d run a marathon. Or maybe it was because I hadn’t seen him in the sunlight for so long.
“He’s in another room. Theo’s tending to him,” he said. Theo, the member of the council with the ability to heal wounds caused by Titans. Or if not heal, at least make them less painful.
Was it possible? The way Henry’s eyes had stared unseeingly, the lack of heartbeat, of any effort at all to keep his body going—it couldn’t be. “Is Henry alive?”
The moment between my question and James’s answer lasted for an eternity. All at once I needed to hear it, yet I didn’t want to know. I could have clung to the delicious hope James gave me for the rest of my endless life. Henry could always be in the next room over, alive and waiting for me.
“Yes,” he said, and I let out a soft sob. My mother touched my cheek, but I looked past her, focusing on my best friend.
“Can I see him? I need to see him.” Forget lying still. I struggled to sit up again, but for a second time, my mother held me down, more insistent than before.
“You can see him as soon as you’re well enough,” she said, but she glanced at James, and they exchanged a look I didn’t understand.
“What?” My neck strained with the effort of keeping my head upright, but I couldn’t look away. “What’s going on?”
James faltered, and that delicate balloon of hope inside me burst. “He’s unconscious, and there’s a chance he might never wake up.”
I gripped the sheets with my good hand. He wasn’t dead, but he wasn’t alive either. Caught between, like my mother had been during the time I’d spent at Eden Manor when the council had tested me. Except Henry was immortal, and he would have no release.
I didn’t know what was worse—death or this.
“Theo stopped the spread, but Henry was stabbed in the chest,” said James. He approached the bed and took my hand, grasping it gently. My fingers twitched. “We don’t know how bad the damage is. Or if Henry will ever recover enough to wake up.”
“Is—is there a cure? A way to fix him?”
“There’s nothing we can do,” said James, and on my other side, my mother dabbed the corners of her eyes with a tissue. “We just have to wait.”
My throat constricted. There had to be a way. There always was. If Henry could bring me back from the dead, then I could find a way to do the same for him. “What about Cronus? Couldn’t he do something?”
Dead silence. Seconds ticked by, and without warning, my mother and James started talking at once.
“I can’t possibly allow—”
“Even if he could, do you really think—”
They both stopped and stared at each other, and finally my mother went first.
“You are not going back there, sweetheart,” she said. “It’s a miracle Henry got you out in the first place, and he risked everything for you. He wouldn’t want you to walk back into that. You know he wouldn’t.”
If it was just me, then my mother would have been right. However, it wasn’t just about me anymore. It was about Milo, too. I might’ve been powerless to rescue our son, but if Henry could save me, then he could save him, as well. And if there was a way I could help Henry—if there was a way I could give Milo the father he deserved, then I had to try.
“Can Cronus help Henry?” I said again in as steady a voice as I could muster.
James leaned in closer, clasping my hand in his. “Yes,” he admitted. “He could. But even if you did go back to Cronus, he wouldn’t undo the damage he’s already done to Henry. You know he wouldn’t.”
“Right,” I whispered. James was wrong, though. If Cronus had enough incentive, he might. And I wasn’t going to give up just because they insisted there was no point in trying. Even if it meant marching straight up to Cronus and giving him everything, I would really do it if it meant Henry might live.
* * *
While bedridden, I planned.
Every word I’d say, every argument I’d use, everything I’d offer Cronus to make him save Henry. Layer after layer of blueprints that would give Henry his life back and our son a father. Whatever it took.
I spent my hours with Milo, watching him sleep, watching as Ava changed him, watching as Calliope attempted to coax him to eat from a bottle. To my immense satisfaction, he refused.
“You must eat,” said Calliope sternly as she offered yet another warm bottle to my son. He turned his head away, his face scrunched up and bright red from crying, and she narrowed her eyes. “Callum, you must.”
Callum after herself, undoubtedly. He was Milo, not Callum, and no matter how long he stayed with that bitch, he would never be hers.
However, as the hours turned into one day, then two, my worry surpassed my hatred for Calliope. Milo wasn’t eating. He fussed in his sleep, and when he was awake, his eyes constantly leaked with tears. He was miserable.
I didn’t know what to do. Was there anything at all, other than storming the palace and demanding Calliope give him back to me? It wouldn’t work anyway. I could have the entire council backing me up, but without Henry, it would be nothing more than an exercise in defeat. Cronus would keep me, Calliope would hide my son away, and he would only grow weaker.
“Come on, Milo,” I whispered as I leaned over his crib. For the umpteenth time, I tried to touch him, but once again my fingers passed through his cheek. “I’m sorry I’m not here. If I had any choice...” My voice caught in my throat. “I know Calliope’s horrible, but you need to eat. You need to be healthy and strong for when I finally get to be with you again.”
At last he opened his blue eyes, and in that moment, I swore he saw me.
“There you are.” I gave him a watery smile. “You’re beautiful, you know. You put Adonis to shame.”
His whimpers quieted, and he lifted his arms, as if he were reaching for me. I tried to touch him again, but it still didn’t work. I’d never stop trying, though.
“Think you could do that for me?” I murmured. “Just eat a little bit. You can be as unhappy as you want. I don’t blame you. It won’t last forever though, I promise.” It couldn’t. I wouldn’t let it.
“He has your eyes.”
My heart damn near stopped. Slowly I turned, and despite the dim light, I could see every feature of his face. “Henry?”
He smiled grimly and opened his arms. I didn’t think. I went to him, burying my face in his chest and inhaling, but he smelled like nothing. He wasn’t here either. I could touch him, though. I could feel his silk shirt and the heat radiating from his body.
How?
“I’ve missed you,” he murmured, brushing his lips against my cheek. When I tried to turn my head to kiss him properly, he pulled away, just out of reach. Rejection and doubt washed over me. Was he angry I’d gotten caught? That I couldn’t save him? Did he know about my plans to give myself up to Cronus in exchange for his life?
When I followed his gaze, however, I relaxed. Milo.
I tucked myself underneath his arm, and together we approached the cradle. When the baby saw us, he reached for us. For me. And a piece of my heart melted.
Henry reached for him in return, and before I could warn him that it wouldn’t work, his fingers made contact with Milo’s. Not lingering in the unoccupied space beside him or hovering a millimeter above his skin and pretending.
He was really touching our son.
“Hello, little man,” said Henry solemnly. “I heard you have not been eating.”
Producing a bottle seemingly out of nowhere, Henry let go of me and picked Milo up. I stood back, stunned, as Henry offered him the milk. Several seconds passed, and at last Milo began to eat.
“How—” A wave of dizziness washed over me. This couldn’t be happening, not unless he was dead or—or something I didn’t understand. “How is this possible?”
Sometimes we misjudge what is possible and what is not.
Henry’s voice rang in my head, clear as anything, and I waited for him to say those words again. To insist that just because I didn’t know how it worked didn’t stop it from happening.
Instead he smiled, and Milo ate greedily. “Because it is. What more of an explanation do you need?”
I wanted to know everything. I wanted to know how to save him, how to put our family back together, how to stop Cronus and Calliope from taking over the world. But at that moment, I only needed to hear one thing. “Will you stay with him?”
In his arms, Milo gurgled, and I tried to touch him once more. Nothing. “Of course,” said Henry, and he pressed his lips to my forehead. “Always.”
I opened my eyes, more content and relaxed than I’d been since the winter solstice. Despite the bright blue sky above me, this place—whatever it was, wherever it was—was quiet. My mother hadn’t left me alone since I’d returned from Calliope’s castle, but glancing around, I noticed her empty chair.
Finally, the chance I’d been waiting for.
Swinging my legs out of bed, I tested the sunset floor. It was warmer than I expected, and while my arm burned, my mother had been right; nothing else hurt. Whatever was in that compress had stopped the agony of the dagger wound from spreading.
While I’d been unconscious, someone—hopefully my mother and not James—had dressed me in a white silk nightgown, so smooth it might as well have been water against my skin. I took a few tentative steps, and once I was sure I wasn’t going to collapse, I headed for the door. I had no idea where I was, but I wanted to see Henry. I had to make sure he wasn’t dead. That my vision hadn’t been his last goodbye to me. To our son.
No. He’d promised to stay with Milo, and he would. Gods didn’t turn into corporeal ghosts when they died, or at least I thought they didn’t. Had a god as powerful as Henry ever died before?
I opened the bedroom door to reveal a corridor on the other side, with the same blue ceiling and sunset floor. The colors underneath my feet changed as I walked, and I had to tear my eyes away to check the various doors that stood some twenty feet apart through the hallway.
Empty bedroom after empty bedroom. Some were plain, like mine, but others were decorated—one with light blue accents and white silk that matched my nightgown, and another with deep greens and bright flowers growing everywhere. It looked exactly like the sort of bedroom my mother might have if she’d—
Wait.
I pushed the door open wider. It wasn’t just a bedroom; it was a suite, with several other doors decorating the walls, far more than space allowed with the other rooms surrounding it. I inched forward toward the nightstand, where a picture stood.
No, not a picture—a reflection, like the one Henry had had of Persephone in Eden Manor, one that captured a moment, not a still photograph. With a trembling hand, I picked up the wooden frame and stared at it. My mother and I stared back.
We were laughing in the middle of Central Park. I didn’t need to see the cupcakes or the mess that remained of our picnic to know what it was.
It was the reflection Henry had given me our first and only Christmas together.
“Kate?”
The frame slipped from my hand, and the glass shattered as it hit the ground. I swore and bent to pick it up. “Mom, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean—”
“It’s all right,” she said, kneeling beside me, and she waved my hand away. “What are you doing out of bed?”
I stood as the glass repaired itself under her guidance. How long would it take me to learn how to control my powers that way? I’d tried to figure out what I was capable of while Calliope had held me captive, but without someone to teach me, the best I’d managed was controlling my visions. “I want to see Henry.”
“Fair enough.” My mother straightened and set the newly repaired frame back on her nightstand. And it was her nightstand; I was sure about that now. This was her suite. This was her home.
This was Olympus.
“Do you mind taking a side trip with me before we go see him?” said my mother, wrapping her arm around my shoulders.
“What? Why?” I blurted. “I want to see Henry, Mom. He was in my vision, and he held Milo and got him to eat and everything.”
Her brow furrowed, but instead of telling me I was crazy or that it was my imagination, she said gently, “We can talk about it later, sweetheart. Walter’s called an emergency council meeting, and I was just on my way to fetch you.”
To fetch me? What could I possibly help the council with? I’d only been immortal for a year and a half. That was nothing compared to the rest of the council, some of whom were older than the dawn of humanity. Like my mother. Like Henry. Like each of the original six siblings—five now that Calliope had abandoned them. Four now that Henry was lost in a world between the living and the dead. “What happened?”
My mother hesitated, and taking my good arm, she guided me to the door. “I don’t want to worry you, but...”
“But what?” My insides seized. Had the worst happened? Were Henry or Milo dead? “Mom—but what?”
Her eyes flickered shut. “It’s Cronus,” she said, her voice cracking. “He’s declared war.”
Chapter 4
The Council Divided
Only half the council showed.
Irene, my tutor during my time in Eden, wept while Sofia, my mother’s home care nurse and another of the original six, tried to comfort her. On the opposite side of the circle, Walter and Phillip, Henry’s brothers, sat with their heads bent together, and they spoke quietly. James and Dylan, Ava’s boyfriend from Eden High, remained silent on their respective thrones.
No one else showed.
“Where is everyone?” I whispered to my mother, though in the endless room, my voice carried.
“Some have chosen not to join us. We will not begrudge them that.” She sat down and gestured for me to take a seat beside her, in the throne made of white diamond straight from the Underworld. Persephone’s.
I hesitated. I’d sat there a few times in Henry’s palace, but I’d assumed it was there because it was his realm. Was it simply a place for me to sit, or did this mean I was a member of the council now? Despite the honor, the thought of having that kind of responsibility—that kind of control over the lives of others made me sick to my stomach. But if they trusted me enough to make me one of them, then I would do everything I could to help.
“We’re waiting for you, dear,” said my mother, and I forced myself to snap out of it. Perching on the edge of the chair, I cradled my arm to my chest and waited. I knew why Nicholas wasn’t there, of course, since Calliope was holding him hostage. Ava was helping her—to save Nicholas, I realized, but that didn’t make it easier to stomach her betrayal. And Henry...
They all had excuses for not being there, and after Ella had lost her arm the day Cronus escaped from the Underworld, I didn’t blame her for not wanting to be part of it either. But what about Theo? What about Xander? The council without Calliope had argued and been at odds, but no one had flat-out abandoned their position.
Walter stood and cleared his throat. He looked older somehow, despite his agelessness. His shoulders slumped underneath the burden of everything that had happened, and beside him, Phillip, usually so gruff and impermeable, didn’t look much better. “Brother and sisters, sons and daughters...”
Daughters? Only Irene was his daughter. Sofia and my mother were his sisters. Unless he meant me, too.
No. It was a slip of the tongue, nothing more. Because if he did mean me, too, then why hadn’t anyone ever—
“It saddens me greatly to report that Athens has fallen.”
All my questions about my father flew out of my head. Athens had fallen? Irene sobbed, and Sofia hugged her, rubbing her back and murmuring words of comfort I couldn’t make out. Bewildered, I looked from them to Walter. How could Athens fall? This wasn’t ancient Greece—what did that even mean?
“How?” said my mother. “Why? We have no army there. No soldiers to threaten Cronus’s hold over the Aegean Sea. Why would he attack unprovoked?”
It wasn’t unprovoked, though. Cronus had promised no one would die as long as I stayed by his side, and now I’d abandoned him. My hands began to tremble, and I shoved them between my knees. Across the circle, Walter’s eyes met mine. He knew.
“We cannot pretend to understand how Cronus thinks,” he said, and a rush of guilt-laced gratitude overwhelmed me. He wasn’t going to tell.
“As for how he attacked,” said Phillip, rising to stand beside his brother, “he used my domain. It was a calculated attack with Athens pinpointed specifically—no other area was touched. However, the damage he did...”
Irene cried even harder, and Phillip raised his voice so we could all hear him.
“The tidal wave washed nearly everything away.”
My body went cold, and the golden room spun around me until I couldn’t stand it any longer. “Did—did anyone die?” I whispered.
Walter said nothing for a moment, and I thought I saw a spark of compassion pass over his face. “Yes. Nearly a million people lost their lives.”
Something twisted inside me, sharp and unforgiving, and if I could have thrown up, I would have. Nearly a million people were dead because of me, because I’d lied to Cronus. I’d known there would be consequences, yet I’d done it anyway.
No, I hadn’t known it would be anything like this. This wasn’t war between two equal opponents; this was a massacre of people who didn’t even know that gods and Titans were real.
“A purely symbolic attack then,” said Dylan, his brow furrowed. A three-dimensional map of Greece appeared in the center of the circle, complete with mountains, islands and seas, all to scale and colored exactly like they would be if this were an aerial shot. For all I knew, it was.
The map zoomed toward Athens until the damage was visible. During my first summer away from Henry, James and I had visited Greece, and we’d spent weeks in the city. My memories of paved streets, kind people and the modern nestled alongside the ancient might as well have been a dream.
Nothing was left. Debris and mud replaced what had once been a vibrant city, now washed out to sea. Tears slid down my face, and I wasn’t the only one crying. Beside me, my mother slipped her hand into mine, and even James’s eyes grew red.
Athens was really gone.
“Look,” said Irene suddenly, her voice thick. “Closer.”
The map zoomed in, and I averted my eyes. I couldn’t see the bodies, if there were any left to begin with. I couldn’t see the faces of those who were dead because of me.
“The Parthenon,” said Irene. “He left it standing.”
I cracked open an eye. The temple of Athena—of Irene—remained standing, untouched except for the ravages of time and history.
“A message?” said James, leaning forward.
“I cannot say,” said Walter gravely. “Perhaps he has a small amount of respect for all we have done for the world.”
“Or maybe it means he’ll keep us alive if we don’t stand in his way,” said Irene, dabbing her eyes with a handkerchief.
“We must not fall victim to the belief that removing ourselves from this war will prevent it from happening,” said Walter with surprising gentleness. “He intends on killing us—all of us—for keeping him locked in Tartarus. Humanity is nothing to him, but he will not hesitate to wipe them out as well, knowing our existence is now linked to theirs. We have no choice but to fight until it is over.”
“One way or the other,” whispered Irene.
Walter nodded. “One way or the other.”
“Isn’t there something we can do?” The words were out before I could stop them, and each council member focused on me. “Cronus must want something.”
“You know what he wants,” said Walter, and my cheeks burned. Yes. He wanted me.
“We all know what he wants,” cut in Dylan. “Death. Destruction. Mayhem. War. To rule the world once more. Usually I’d approve, but not when we’re the targets.”
“So what do we plan to do about it?” said James. “Let him get away with this?”
“I have already called a meeting among my subjects,” said Phillip. “They know not to bow to his will no matter the cost.”
“Cronus has more power than all of us combined,” said Irene, a determined edge in her voice now. “We cannot fight back as we are and expect to achieve any measure of success.”
“What about the other gods?” said James. “They could help.”
“They have nearly all signed a petition insisting they will not,” said Walter. “Besides, they could all join us and put everything they have into this war, but it would still not be sufficient. They are not powerful enough to make up for the loss of Henry and Calliope.”
I gritted my teeth. Henry wasn’t dead yet. “I could talk to Cronus,” I said. “He—he was nice to me. He might listen.”
“No,” said my mother. “Even if you did have that sort of hold over him, he will stop at nothing until he has what he wants. He has waited and planned for eons. You will not change his mind no matter how fond of you he might be.”
Across the circle, James focused on me. I ignored the question in his stare and concentrated on the floating image between us instead. “It could work,” I said.
“That is a risk we cannot take,” said Walter. “Calliope has already proven she will kill you if given the opportunity, and Cronus may not be willing to protect you any longer. No, we must focus our efforts on coming up with a way to even our odds despite our missing members.”
Frustration, hot and unyielding, rose inside me. Of course they would invite me to join them only to dismiss every idea I had. What else did I expect? “What about Rhea?” I said. It felt like years since I’d decided to leave the Underworld to ask for her help. She was the only one who could match Cronus in power, and if anyone could win this war, it was her. “What did she say?”
Silence. Walter and Phillip exchanged an uneasy look, and finally James piped up. “No one’s tried to find her.”
“What? Why not?”
“We did not know you were not—” started Walter, but my mother cut in.
“Most of us did not know Kate was not searching for her,” she corrected, fire in her eyes. Walter’s lips thinned underneath her stare.
“Yes. Most of us did not know you were not already searching for her.”
Right. That moment between Henry and Walter in the office. Henry had hinted Walter may have known what was going on. “And that entire time, you didn’t stop to think it might be a good idea to send someone else instead?” I said.
Walter cleared his throat. “Our efforts were focused on trying to stop the impending war, not escalate it.”
“Oh, yeah? How did that turn out?” I said, and my mother squeezed my hand, a silent command to stop talking.
This was my fault though, every last bit of it. I’d won immortality and stolen Henry from Calliope, or at least that was how she saw it. My stupid mistake had forced Henry to release Cronus from Tartarus in the first place. Now, because I’d left Cronus, nearly a million people were dead, and more would undoubtedly follow.
No, I wasn’t going to shut up.
“While the rest of you flounder and try to figure out what to do, I’m going to find her,” I said. “And I’m going to get her to help us.”
I expected an argument, but instead the council was silent. “It’s our greatest chance at obtaining a powerful ally,” said Sofia after a long moment. “We can’t hope to sway Calliope back to our side, and without a balance of power, more cities will crumble, and more people will die. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m willing to try anything that might bring us peace.”
Walter sighed wearily. “Very well. If you are able to convince Rhea to assist us in containing Cronus, then you will do us a great service, Kate.”
And possibly prevent millions—maybe even billions—of people from dying. Yeah. No question. “I’ll do it.”
“I’ll go with her,” said James. Our eyes met again, and this time I didn’t look away. “Like it or not, I’m the only one who can find her, so don’t argue.”
“I wasn’t going to,” I said. “I trust you.” If there was one person I knew wouldn’t betray me, it was James. He had nothing in this fight except his own survival, and his ability to find anyone meant we wouldn’t waste time searching for Rhea. He would know exactly where she was.
“We must all trust each other now,” said Walter. “Those who are here and those who are not.” He focused on Ava’s empty seashell throne for a moment before turning his gaze to me. “We all have made mistakes. We all have a burden to bear. But unless we are united, we will fall, and we must find forgiveness and understanding within ourselves. Pure evil does not exist. Even Cronus has his reasons for doing what he does, and the better we understand each other, the better chance we have at finding a solution before our foundation crumbles.”
I averted my eyes. Once upon a time, when I’d first faced the council, I’d forgiven Calliope for killing me. I’d been able to see past her crimes and examine the reasons underneath, and in a way, I’d been able to understand her. But if Walter was really asking me to do the same with Ava...
It wasn’t my life she’d threatened. It was Milo’s, and some things were unforgivable. But despite my anger, I wanted to forgive her—I wanted to sympathize with her. I wanted her to be on our side again. And I could understand why she’d done it, even if I didn’t want to admit it to myself. Calliope was blackmailing her, using Nicholas’s life to ensure Ava’s cooperation. The day she and I had left the Underworld, the signs had been obvious, and if I’d taken a moment to think about it, I would have known something was up. Ava’s strength was in how she loved others. I’d known Calliope had taken Nicholas and she’d spoken to Ava alone, and I should’ve realized that Ava would do whatever it took to protect him. I should have done something to help her before she’d had to betray me.
That was over with now, though. She’d made her mistakes, and I’d made mine. I would do whatever I could to fix them, and I could only hope she would do the same, as well.
“We will all do our best,” said my mother, and she squeezed my hand again, her gaze focused on me. I gave her a slight nod. I would try.
“Then it is settled,” said Walter, and somewhere deep inside the palace, thunder rumbled. “Kate and James will attempt to ally the council with Rhea.”
“And we will prepare for war,” said Dylan with a gleam in his eye.
“No,” said Walter. “We have prepared enough. Now we fight.”
* * *
I spent the next three days by Henry’s side as I regained my strength. He was in an undecorated room a few doors down from mine, and while my mother tended to both of us, I lay curled up beside him. I’d nearly lost him—still might if I couldn’t convince Cronus to undo the damage he’d done—and I wasn’t leaving him again until I absolutely had to.
The wind howled endlessly, and somewhere in the distance, the seas crashed against the rest of the world. Despite the sunny blue skies above me and the sunset below, thunder raged at all hours of the day and night, and even if I’d wanted to, I wouldn’t have been able to sleep.
I split my time evenly between my present and my visions with Milo. Henry didn’t break his promise; each time I arrived, he was there, sometimes holding Milo, sometimes keeping watch at his cradle as he slept. We stood side by side for hours and simply watched him, and Milo gazed at us in return. Somehow, someway, he knew I was there, I was sure of it now. I envied Henry his ability to hold him, but at least he would have a chance to know our son. If the worst happened, Milo would have these moments with him.
“You’re going to come back to me, aren’t you?” I said on the evening my mother had finally decided I’d healed enough to travel. James and I would set out to find Rhea in the morning, and in all likelihood, this would be the last night I’d have with Henry and Milo for a while.
“What do you mean?” said Henry. “I am here now.”
“I mean here for real,” I said. “Are you going to wake up? I know Cronus hurt you, but—you’re here, and maybe if you tried really hard...”
Henry kissed my forehead, his palm pressed against the nape of my neck. “I will always be here for you, my dear. Nothing will change that.”
I took a deep breath, refusing to cry in front of Milo. Even if he was sleeping and would never find out, I would know. “Please wake up,” I whispered. “We need you. Not—not like this. We need you. We can’t defeat Cronus without you.”
“You cannot defeat Cronus with me. Not without Calliope,” he pointed out.
“We’re trying. He killed an entire city full of people. Athens is gone, and he’s going to kill again and again until he gets what he wants.”
“And what do you think that is?” said Henry, and I faltered. I couldn’t tell him about the deal I’d made with Cronus. It was too complicated, and if he slipped away, I wouldn’t be able to live with the guilt of knowing that was one of the last things I’d said to him.
“I don’t know,” I lied. “The council thinks he wants to kill them for keeping him imprisoned in Tartarus.”
“Perhaps.” He ran his fingers through my hair, his touch so gentle that it felt like a warm summer breeze. “All I want is you.”
I shivered. Milo’s lips parted in his sleep, and he made an adorable suckling motion. “All I want is to be a family. A real, live family, together and safe from all of this.”
“We will be,” he promised. “I will make sure of it.”
I leaned against him and wrapped my arm around his waist, his silk shirt tickling the inside of my wrist. How long would it be before we got to spend time together like this again? “James and I are leaving to find Rhea tomorrow morning.”
Henry’s fingers stilled in my hair, and for a moment he said nothing. “What is so important that you have to put yourself in such a dangerous position?”
“The same reason as before,” I said. “If we can convince her to fight on our side, we might have a chance at winning.”
“But Cronus is ravaging the world. If you leave Olympus, you will not be safe.”
“I don’t care anymore,” I said with as much conviction as I could muster. “Besides, he’s mostly trapped on the island with Calliope. He’s powerful enough to cause natural disasters that kill millions, but Africa isn’t close enough to Greece to be a problem.”
“Are you sure about that?”
I hesitated. “No.”
He turned from Milo to hug me tightly, almost possessively, and he buried his nose in my hair. “Please do not go. Rhea will not fight for anyone, much less against her own husband. It is not worth the risk.”
“I have to try. You know I do.”
“Even though it might kill you?”
“I’m not planning on letting that happen, but—yes. Even though it might kill me.”
His expression clouded over. “Very well,” he murmured. “All I ask is that you remember what happened the last time you left the safety of the council.”
I scowled. “I get it. Something bad might happen if I leave Olympus. Cronus might catch me, Calliope might kill me or the sky might fall and land on top of me. But I can’t stand by and watch millions of people die because of me, all right?”
“Humanity is nothing compared to you,” he said, touching my cheek, and I stepped back.
“Even if that were true—and you know it isn’t—Milo deserves a happy life, and that means making sure there’s still a world for him to live in. I have to do this, Henry. I’m sorry. I love you and Milo more than anything, and if I had any choice in the matter—”
“You do,” said Henry. “You have as much choice as you are willing to give yourself.”
I huffed. “Fine. I’ve made my choice. I’m going to fight.”
“You should not be fighting in the first place,” he said. “You are too delicate, too—”
“Too what? Too young? Too inexperienced? I don’t need to be ancient to be worth something, and I’m doing this whether you like it or not.” I glared at him, but he averted his eyes. Several seconds ticked by, and at last I said in a softer voice, “I get why you don’t want to fight, Henry. I do. But that was before all of this happened. That was before Milo was born. If you won’t fight for me, then will you at least fight for him?”
Henry was quiet for a long moment, and not even the rise and fall of Milo’s chest comforted me. This was impossible. Half-dead or not, Henry was as stubborn as ever. After caring for the baby all this time, he knew Milo even better than I did, and that was the part I didn’t understand. How could anyone look at that face and not want to rip the world apart to get him back? How could Henry not need to protect his own son and give him the future he deserved?
“We will discuss it once you have made contact with Rhea,” he finally said. “I will not promise anything, but if there is a way I can help, I will. As it stands, I am rather stuck.”
That was as much of a concession as I was going to get. I stood on my tiptoes to try to kiss him, but like he had every other time during our visits with Milo, he turned his head so I only captured the corner of his mouth. “Thank you,” I said, refusing to let his distance faze me. Maybe he was Sleeping Beauty, and a kiss would wake him up and take him away from his son. If only it were that easy.
“You are welcome.” He reached into the crib and picked up the baby. “We will be here waiting when you return.”
“You’d better be.” I held my hand above Milo’s forehead, as close as I could get without going through him. “I love you both so damn much. You know that, right?”
Milo waved his arms, as if reaching for me, and Henry kissed his hand. “We do,” he said. “And we cannot wait to be with you again.”
I poked him in the ribs. “You can count on it.”
“Kate?”
I opened my eyes. James leaned toward me, his nose inches from mine.
“There you are,” he said with a hint of relief. “You were smiling.”
I straightened and adjusted the sling wrapped around my burning arm. It was easier to ignore the pain as it became the norm, but when I focused on it, it made me wince. “I didn’t realize that was a crime.”
“It’s not.” James offered me his hand, and I took it. “I just thought you weren’t coming back. I’ve been calling your name for ages.”
My cheeks grew warm. I didn’t know how I acted during these visions—no one had bothered to explain it to me, and I was too embarrassed to ask. Could James hear everything? “Then why didn’t you break in like you did last time?” I muttered.
“What, you mean when I was trying to drag you back from total oblivion?” he said. “I am sorry about that, you know. It’s rude. But if I hadn’t, you’d still be in there, convinced Henry was dead. So all in all, I figure it was worth it.”
I scowled at him, but he was right. “How did you do that anyway?”
He tapped his nose. “My secret. Maybe if you’re good, I’ll explain it later. Are we leaving? I packed a bag for both of us. Actually, your mother packed yours. I figured Henry might smite me if I went through your underwear.”
“I thought Walter was the one who did the smiting,” I said with a faint smile.
James’s eyebrows shot up. “Did you or did you not see the black cloud of doom when Henry broke onto Cronus’s island?”
My smile vanished. “Of course.”
“And you still think he doesn’t have it in him?”
I frowned. James didn’t have to rub my nose in the fact that I didn’t know what my own husband was capable of. Or what I was capable of, for that matter.
“Come on,” said James, gentler this time, and he took my good arm. “Let’s go say goodbye.”
My mother wasn’t the only one waiting for us. Walter stood at her side, and his smooth expression didn’t betray whatever it was he was thinking. My stomach twisted. I’d avoided him since the council meeting, unable to forget how he’d addressed me—as his daughter.
It seemed impossible. It had to be. If I was the daughter of Zeus, I’d know it. But the more I thought about it, the less I could deny it. James and Ava had mentioned that only his children joined the council; and if I was a member, then the answer was obvious.
But regardless of the evidence, part of me wanted to stay in denial. I’d lived my whole life thinking my father had left my mother early on, that he may have not even known I’d existed. It was easier than facing the possibility that he’d known and just didn’t care. And if Walter was my father, then there was no question that he’d not only known I’d existed, but he’d been acutely aware of everything my mother and I had gone through, as well. And he’d never cared enough to help.
As I walked toward him and my mother, resentment made my blood boil. He said nothing as my mother embraced me, and I buried my nose in her hair, inhaling deeply. It didn’t matter who Walter was to me. I had my mother, and she was the only parent I’d ever need.
“Where are the others?” I said. Not that I expected them to care that I was leaving, but I figured they’d at least want to give James a decent send-off.
“Attempting to corral Cronus fully back onto the island,” said my mother grimly. “We will be joining them once you leave.”
Fear swept through me. I had never thought of her as a soldier—she’d fought hard against the cancer that had eventually taken her mortal life, of course. But this wasn’t cancer. This was war, and the thought of my mother fighting alongside the likes of Dylan and Irene and Walter made my head spin. She was the gentlest person I knew.
No one could afford to sit this one out, though. If I knew how to fight like they did, I’d be on the front lines, too, using every bit of power I had inside me to get my son back. As it stood, the only way I had to help was this. And that was why no one, not even Henry, would ever talk me out of it.
“Kate,” said Walter, and my mother let me go. “You understand that Rhea is equally as strong as Cronus, do you not?”
I eyed him. We looked nothing like each other, but when the gods could and did change forms, that didn’t mean much. “Yeah, I know. Isn’t that the whole point?”
“Yes,” said Walter, giving my mother a look I didn’t understand. “That also means if you press her to do something she is not willing to do, or if you upset her in any way, she has the potential to be equally as devastating to our cause.”
“So you want me to suck up to her?” I said. “We’re in the middle of a war.”
“Yes, I am aware,” said Walter dryly. “I am merely asking that you show her the respect she deserves. She is our mother. Your grandmother twice over—”
“Excuse me?” I blurted. My mother squeezed my elbow, but I shook her off. It was one thing for me to at least have the choice to pretend to be blissfully unaware of his role in my life, but for him to force this on me now...something inside me snapped. “If you’re finally going to admit that you’re my father—”
“Now is not the time, Kate,” said my mother.
“It’s never the right time,” I said sharply. “It’s a simple yes or no, Walter. Are you my father?”
He raised his chin and looked down at me. “Yes. I never thought there was a question.”
As if it was no big deal. As if the years I’d spent taking care of my mother on my own didn’t matter. I’d cried myself to sleep countless nights, terrified I’d wake up and be alone in the world, and all this time, not only had my father known about me, but he had known exactly where we were and what we were going through.
“Then I guess it’s a good thing I never thought I needed a father,” I said. “Now, if you don’t mind, I’ve got a Titan to find.”
“Kate,” said my mother, reaching for me, but I yanked my arm away. Her lips parted in surprise, and guilt gripped my heart, more painful than anything Cronus could possibly do to me. But I stood my ground.
“We need to go.” I slid my hand into the crook of James’s elbow and took a step back, ignoring the way my throat tightened. I wasn’t going to cry. Not over Walter, and especially not in front of him.
For the first time in our friendship, James kept his mouth shut. Instead he nodded in Walter and my mother’s direction. My parents’ direction, I realized. For the first time in my life, I had parents.
That should’ve made me giddy with excitement, or at least it should have given me a glimmer of happiness during one of the worst times of my life. Instead it made me nauseous.
“Goodbye, sweetheart,” my mother whispered. Before I could say goodbye in return, golden light flashed from all directions, and bright spots of color burst in front of me as the sunset floors vanished.
James and I appeared on a grassy hill, and I blinked. Sheep’s Meadow in Central Park, the exact spot I’d met with my mother every night I’d spent in Eden. We were surrounded by people, but none of them so much as glanced up at our appearance. Could they see us? Or had James done something to make them think we’d been there the whole time?
“Why are we in New York?” I said. “Is Rhea here now?”
Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.
Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».
Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию (https://www.litres.ru/aimee-carter/the-goddess-inheritance/) на ЛитРес.
Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.
Aimee Carter
Love or life. Henry or their child. The end of her family or the end of the world.Kate must choose.During nine months of captivity, Kate Winters has survived a jealous goddess, a vengeful Titan and a pregnancy she never asked for. Now the Queen of the Gods wants her unborn child, and Kate can't stop her–until Cronus offers a deal.In exchange for her loyalty and devotion, the King of the Titans will spare humanity and let Kate keep her child. Yet even if Kate agrees, he'll destroy Henry, her mother and the rest of council. And if she refuses, Cronus will tear the world apart until every last god and mortal is dead.With the fate of everyone she loves resting on her shoulders, Kate must do the impossible: find a way to defeat the most powerful being in existence, even if it costs her everything.Even if it costs her eternity.
Love or life.
Henry or their child.
The end of her family or The end of the world.
KATE MUST CHOOSE.
During nine months of captivity, Kate Winters has survived a jealous goddess, a vengeful Titan and a pregnancy she never asked for. Now the Queen of the Gods wants her unborn child, and Kate can’t stop her—until Cronus offers a deal.
In exchange for her loyalty and devotion, the King of the Titans will spare humanity and let Kate keep her child. Yet even if Kate agrees, he’ll destroy Henry, her mother and the rest of council. And if she refuses, Cronus will tear the world apart until every last god and mortal is dead.
With the fate of everyone she loves resting on her shoulders, Kate must do the impossible: find a way to defeat the most powerful being in existence, even if it costs her everything.
Even if it costs her eternity.
“It seems the games are about to begin.”
“What games?” I knew the answer before I’d asked the question though. My dream, my vision—it was the autumnal equinox, and finally Henry knew I was missing.
A sharp pain shot from my back to my abdomen, and I gasped. Cronus was at my side in an instant, exactly the way Henry would’ve been if he were here. I turned away.
“Calliope has decided it will happen today,” he murmured, and his voice would have been comforting if it hadn’t come from him.
“Decided what would happen today?” I struggled to stand and make it to the bathroom, but my legs gave out. Cronus’s cool hands were there to steady me, but as soon as I was back on the bed, I jerked away from him.
“That your child would be born.”
* * *
Select Praise for Aimée Carter’s The Goddess Test series
“The narrative is well executed, and Kate is a heroine better equipped than most to confront and cope with the inexplicable.”
—Publishers Weekly on The Goddess Test
“The Goddess Test puts a fresh twist on the YA paranormal genre by infusing it with back-to-the-basics Greek mythology.”
—Renee C. Fountain, New York Journal of Books
“Carter’s writing is a delight to read—succinct, clean, descriptive. Goddess Interrupted is definitely a page-turner, one full of suspense, heartbreak, confusion, frustration and yes, romance.”
—YA Reads
The
Goddess
Inheritance
Aimée Carter
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
To Sarah Reck, whose patience and insight are true superpowers.
Contents
Prologue (#u862c6605-a660-55a4-aa6f-87360886f808)
Chapter 1 (#udfa1bd53-1ece-551e-95ee-646366a0d941)
Chapter 2 (#u86648a41-dafb-5298-b3c1-14e58dba1ce8)
Chapter 3 (#u91c22796-502c-5c02-bb48-d39f88afcd7e)
Chapter 4 (#u94b3405f-4ea1-5c00-91fa-93598c2024ce)
Chapter 5 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 6 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 7 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 8 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 9 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 10 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 11 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 12 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 13 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 14 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 15 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 16 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 17 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 18 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 19 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 20 (#litres_trial_promo)
Guide of Gods (#litres_trial_promo)
Excerpt (#litres_trial_promo)
Acknowledgments (#litres_trial_promo)
Goddess Interrupted Excerpt (#litres_trial_promo)
Prologue
Throughout his eternal life, Walter had witnessed countless summers, but never one as endless as this.
He sat behind his glass desk, his head bowed as he read the petition before him, signed by nearly all of the minor gods and goddesses scattered throughout the world. Each vowed to stand aside and allow Cronus supremacy so long as it meant there would be no war. None of them seemed to understand that they were already in the middle of one.
Why would they? He and the remaining members of the council had done their jobs in shielding the world from Cronus’s destruction, but they would not last much longer. When Cronus finally broke free from his island prison in the Aegean Sea, the petition would be what it was: a meaningless piece of parchment full of names of those who would be the first to die.
“Daddy?”
He exhaled and straightened, prepared to scold whoever dared to disturb him, but he stopped short. His daughter stood in the doorway, her hair golden as the perpetual sunset poured in through the windows behind Walter. She was the one person he would not turn away.
He set the petition aside. “Ava, my darling. I was not expecting you until morning. Is there news?”
The light gave her skin the illusion of color, but her eyes were dull and her face drawn. Watching her deteriorate since the winter solstice had been the most difficult thing Walter had ever done, but he had no choice. It was for the greater good, and for now the greater good trumped all, even his daughter’s health.
“Iris is dead,” she said, and Walter stilled. A great sorrow he had not felt in centuries filled him, and the perpetual sunlight seemed to darken.
“How?” he said, struggling to keep his voice steady. He had known sending his messenger to try to broker a ceasefire with Cronus was dangerous, as had Iris. It was war, and there would be casualties. But she had been willing to take that risk, and he had not imagined Cronus would go to such lengths against an ambassador.
“Nicholas finished the weapon an hour ago,” she said. “Calliope wanted to test it.”
Walter pressed his lips together. He hadn’t thought it possible, but his son’s skills were greater than even he had estimated. “Is there a body?”
“Calliope tossed her into the ocean,” said Ava. “I brought her back for a proper wake.”
Swallowing tightly, he forced himself to nod. “Very well. Thank you, my dear. I know how much of a risk that was for you. And because of that, I must insist you do no such thing in the future.”
Ava hesitated, but after all their planning, after all their gambles, he knew she could not deny him now. Finally she nodded. “I’m sorry.”
Walter opened his arms, and Ava crossed the room to curl up in his lap. He enveloped her, a shell of the daughter he knew, and buried his nose in her hair. “I am the one who is sorry, my darling, but we will do what we must to win. Is there any news of Kate?”
“Calliope says it will happen tomorrow.”
At last, something was going right. “Then our wait is over.”
“Doesn’t matter,” she mumbled into his shoulder. “It’s been too long. She lost hope ages ago.”
Nine months. That was how long Walter had been locked in a game of strategy and deception with the most powerful being on Earth. From the winter solstice to the autumnal equinox, he carried the weight of the world on his shoulders while hiding his burden from the remaining members of the council. With Henry’s defection, they were all aware that their chances of winning against Cronus had gone from slim to none at all. Ava was their last hope of bringing Henry to their side.
“And you, my darling?” He brushed a lock of hair out of her eyes. Not even the weariness of the past year could diminish her beauty.
When Ava didn’t answer right away, she confirmed his suspicions. He had seen her wilt before him, but never had she willingly shown her despair. She knew the stakes. She knew why they could not fail.
“I’m going to tell him.”
At first he thought he had misheard her, but as she pulled away, her blue eyes steely, he knew he had not. “You know you mustn’t,” he said with both the gentle admonishment of a father and the command of a king. “We have worked too long to risk everything now.”
“I thought it was just Kate.” Her face became blotchy as it did when she was about to cry, and something tugged inside him. The paternal desire to stop her from hurting. But what could he do when his actions were wholly necessary to prevent pain even worse than what he was causing her? “I would’ve never agreed if I’d known she was pregnant. You know that.”
“Yes, I know.” He ran his fingers through her hair to soothe her, but she let out a choking sob. “I am sorry.”
She pulled away from him and stumbled to her feet. “The moment Kate gives birth, Calliope’s going to kill her—you know that. And you’re going to let it happen anyway.”
“Perhaps not,” he countered. “You yourself have said that Cronus has taken a liking to her. Perhaps that will be enough.”
“Perhaps?” said Ava, half-wild with frustration. “You’re risking everything on a maybe, Daddy. You don’t know for sure what’s going to happen, and that poor baby—”
“We must do everything we can to ensure we win this war, no matter what we each must sacrifice.” No matter how many had to die. “Now is not the time for holding back.”
“It’s not the time for unnecessary risks and careless mistakes either.” She stormed toward the door. “I’m telling Henry everything.”
“Ava.”
His voice reverberated through the walls of the palace, shaking the very foundation of Olympus. Any trace of paternal affection was gone. It was the command of a king.
Ava stopped short. She had no choice, not after eons of obedience, and Walter felt a pang of guilt at speaking to her in such a way after all he had put her through. It was necessary, though. The fate of the world depended on it.
“You will not tell,” he said. “Not until Kate gives birth.”
“What’s the difference between telling him now and telling him tomorrow?” said Ava shakily, but she held her ground. From anyone else, talking back would have only angered Walter, but he was simply glad to see she had some fight left.
“He will not stop until he has Kate back,” said Walter. “But when he does, he will return to the Underworld and protect her with all his might, and he will continue not to involve himself in our war.”
Her eyes widened. “Wait—you’re using the baby as bait?”
“I will do what I must to bring Henry into the war,” said Walter. “One life is not worth losing it all.”
Ava stared at him as if she didn’t recognize him. Though Walter rarely experienced fear, it coursed uncomfortably through him, like sludge in his veins instead of immortal blood. “It’s a baby,” she said. “You can’t just— It’s a child.”
“If Henry does not participate in the war, then millions of children will die,” said Walter. She had to understand; this was not a matter of obedience and pride. “I realize how difficult it is for you, my darling—”
“You do?” The venom in her voice made him fall short. He had never heard her speak to anyone that way before, least of all him, her father. Her protector. Her king. “It’s my fault Kate’s there in the first place. That baby might die because of me.”
“I will do everything I can to ensure that does not happen,” said Walter. “Once this is over—”
“You think this is ever going to be over?” hissed Ava. “When the council finds out we’re risking Henry’s child to get him involved, who are they going to blame, Daddy? Me or you?”
“I will inform the council of my role,” said Walter.
“The only role the council’s going to see is the one I played, and I’m going to fix it before that baby dies and I really do lose everyone I love.”
Walter drew himself up to his full height. He may have looked like an old man, but next to the Titans, he was the most powerful being in the world, and he never let anyone forget it. Even his daughter. “I forbid it.”
Ava laughed, but it was not the laugh of someone who found any joy in life; instead it was full of self-loathing and hopelessness. “Too late.”
Before Walter could say a word, a heart-wrenching scream full of agony ripped from deep within the earth and rang throughout Olympus.
“He knows,” said Ava, and without another word, she slipped through the door and closed it behind her.
Chapter 1
Birth
Henry.
I bolted upright in the darkness. My forehead was damp with sweat as the dream faded, but his scream enveloped me, imprinting itself on my memory.
Another vision, one of dozens I’d had since leaving the Underworld an eternity ago. This time, however, I wasn’t watching Henry go about his life as ruler of the dead as he waited for me to return. I wasn’t standing by helplessly as Ava gave Henry false updates about where in Africa we were supposedly searching for Rhea.
Finally Henry knew what had really happened, and in the minutes before dawn broke through the night, I clung to the hope that it wasn’t too late.
“A nightmare, my dear?”
I shivered, and the candles scattered throughout my prison lit up. Cronus sat beside my bed, in the same chair he’d occupied every night since late December, when I’d woken up with a pounding headache and memories I wished were nightmares.
This wasn’t a nightmare, though. Cronus was here, working side by side with the Queen of the Gods, who would stop at nothing to hurt me as much as she possibly could.
The baby stirred inside me, undoubtedly unhappy about its rude awakening. I didn’t dare speculate over whether it was a boy or a girl. If Calliope had her way, I might never know, and that heartache was already more than I could take. I set a hand on my swollen belly, so big that the simplest movements were difficult now, and mentally tried to soothe it. “You didn’t hear that?” I said hoarsely.
“My son? Of course,” said Cronus, reaching for my stomach. I slapped his hand away, and he chuckled. “It seems the games are about to begin.”
“What games?” I knew the answer before I’d asked the question, though. My dream, my vision—it was the autumnal equinox, and finally Henry knew I was missing.
A sharp pain shot from my back to my abdomen, and I gasped. Cronus was at my side in an instant, exactly the way Henry would’ve been if he were here. I turned away.
“Calliope has decided it will happen today,” he murmured, and his voice would have been comforting if it hadn’t come from him.
“Decided what would happen today?” I struggled to stand and make it to the bathroom, but my legs gave out. Cronus’s cool hands were there to steady me, but as soon as I was back on the bed, I jerked away from him.
“That your child would be born.”
All the air left my lungs, and this time it had nothing to do with physical pain. He was bluffing. They were trying to scare me into labor before Henry rescued me, or—or something.
But as I leaned back, my hand found a wet spot on the mattress, and my damp nightgown clung to the back of my thighs. My water had broken sometime in the night. It was really happening.
Nine months of waiting. Nine months of fear. Nine months of time being the only thing standing between Calliope and the baby I was carrying, and now it was over.
I wasn’t ready to be a mother. Never in a million years had I imagined having kids before I turned thirty, let alone twenty. But Calliope hadn’t given me a choice, and with each day that passed, the sick dread inside me grew thicker until it nearly choked me. Calliope would take the baby from me, and there was nothing I could do about it. In a matter of hours, I would lose my child—Henry’s child—to someone who wanted nothing more than to see me suffer.
But now he knew. Now there was a chance, if only I could hold on a little longer until Henry came.
Cronus must have seen the look on my face, because he chuckled and fluffed a pillow for me. “Do not worry, my dear. Calliope cannot kill you unless I allow her, and I assure you I would never hurt you.”
It wasn’t me I was worried about. “You’re not going to hurt me, but you’re going to let Calliope do it,” I spat. “You’re going to let her take the baby the moment it’s born, and I’m never going to see it again.”
Cronus stared at me blankly. These were the moments I remembered that in spite of his human form, he was anything but. He didn’t understand why I loved the baby so much. Or, when I’d given Calliope too much attitude and she’d hit me in the mouth, why I’d instinctively covered my belly. He didn’t get how badly the thought of being separated from the baby hurt me before I’d even met him or her.
Then again, Cronus was also the monster who’d tried to destroy his own children, so I suspected empathy was too much to hope for.
“If you would like to keep the child, all you need to do is say the word,” he said, as if it were that simple. Maybe to him it was. “I will ensure that Calliope does not get in the way. In return, all I ask is that you rule by my side.”
It wasn’t the first time he’d made that offer, and it wasn’t the first time that, for a single moment, I entertained the possibility. As the baby’s birth loomed, saying no grew more and more difficult.
Cronus had made no secret of the fact that he wanted me as his queen while he ruled over the entire world, destroying everyone who dared to get in his way. I had no idea why—the small bit of compassion I’d shown him in the Underworld, maybe, or because I hadn’t fought him in the first war—but it didn’t matter. I would be safe from the destruction, and so would the baby. Henry, however, would be the first person Cronus ripped apart, and the entire world would follow.
As much as I loved this baby, as much as I would have done anything to keep it safe, I couldn’t stand by Cronus’s side as he wiped out humanity. I couldn’t do nothing as he killed every last person I loved, and if I agreed, he would keep me alive until the end of all things. I wouldn’t have the choice to die like Persephone had, and I couldn’t live with that guilt no matter how happy and safe my baby was.
But time was running out. The game had changed now that the council knew I was gone, and if I could keep Cronus guessing long enough not to hurt anyone, then maybe that would give the council a chance to find Rhea. So I lied.
“Promise not to kill anyone, and I’ll think about it.”
He grinned, showing off a full set of pearly teeth. Cronus had the smile of an airbrushed movie star, and it only made him more unnerving. “Is that so? Very well. Agree and I will leave humanity alone. My quarrels are not with them, and one must have subjects when one rules.”
“I said anyone,” I countered. “Not just humanity. You can’t kill the council either.”
Cronus eyed me, and I held my breath, hoping against hope I was worth this to him. I had to buy the council more time. “Surely you understand why my children must be contained, but I would be willing to...consider it, depending on the nature of our relationship. On how much you are willing to give.” He ran his fingers through my hair, and I suppressed a shudder. “You and I, together for all eternity. Imagine, my dear, the beauty we would create. And of course your child will know your love, and you will never have to say goodbye.”
I closed my eyes and pictured the moment I finally got to hold him or her. The baby would have dark hair, I was sure of it, and light eyes like me and Henry. Pink cheeks, ten fingers, ten toes, and I would love it instantly. I already did.
“You would be a mother,” he murmured, his voice like a siren’s call. “Forever there to love it, to nurture it, to raise it in your image. And I would be a father.”
The spell he had over me shattered, and my eyes flew open. “You are not this baby’s father,” I said as another wave of pain washed over me. This was too fast. Contractions were supposed to come on slow and last for hours—my mother had been in labor for over a day when I was born.
Cronus leaned in until his lips were an inch from mine. I wrinkled my nose even though his breath smelled like a cool autumn breeze. “No, I am not. I am so much more.”
The door burst open, and Calliope stormed inside. She had aged progressively over the past nine months until the angles on her face had become sharper, and she’d grown several inches to tower over me. As Cronus looked like Henry, with his long dark hair and gray eyes that crackled with lightning and fog, Calliope now looked like my mother. Like an older blond version of me. And I hated her even more for it.
“What’s going on?” she said, and I managed a faint smirk. Apparently she’d overheard something she didn’t like.
“Nothing for you to worry yourself about,” said Cronus as he straightened, though his eyes didn’t leave mine.
“Cronus was making me an interesting offer,” I said, sounding braver than I felt. “Turns out he isn’t going to feed me to the fish like you want.”
Her lips twisted into a snarl, but before she could say a word, Ava hurried past her carrying a large basket full of blankets and other things I couldn’t make out in the candlelight. “I’m sorry,” she said, her face flushed.
“It’s about time,” snapped Calliope, and she focused on me again. “I’d be careful if I were you, Kate. I have a new toy, and I’ve been itching to try it out on you.”
“What new toy?” I said through gritted teeth.
Calliope glided to the side of my bed. “Haven’t I told you? Nicholas generously donated his time and expertise to forge a weapon that will let me kill a god. His timing couldn’t be better.”
My blood ran cold. Nicholas, Ava’s husband, had been kidnapped on the winter solstice during battle. Up until now, no one had said a word to me about him.
“That’s impossible,” I blurted. Nothing but Cronus could kill an immortal.
“Is it?” said Calliope with a wicked smile. “Are you willing to bet your sweet little darling’s life on that?”
My heart dropped. She was going to kill my baby? “Ava?” I said, my tongue heavy in my mouth.
Biting her lip, Ava set her basket down at the foot of the bed. “I’m sorry.”
The room spun around me. This was just another game. Calliope was trying to scare me by using the people I loved most against me, and this time my supposed best friend was playing along.
What if it wasn’t a game, though? Calliope had sworn she would take away the thing I loved the most, and at the time I thought she’d meant Henry and the rest of my family. But she’d meant the baby. She was about to get everything she wanted from me—there was no reason for her to lie. And the way Ava couldn’t so much as look at me...
My throat swelled until I could barely breathe. “Get out.”
Ava blinked. “But someone needs to be with you—”
“I’d rather have Calliope here than you, you traitorous bitch,” I spat. “Get out.”
Her eyes watered, and to my satisfaction, she fled, leaving me alone with Cronus and Calliope. Ava deserved this. She’d known what this would mean, that Calliope had every intention of slaughtering my baby. And if Calliope really had forced Nicholas to forge a weapon—if Ava had distracted the council for the past nine months to give him enough time—
I didn’t care how much danger Nicholas was in. He was Calliope’s son, and no matter how terrible a person she was, I couldn’t imagine her killing her own child. But she was going to kill my baby without a second thought, and Ava had known the entire time.
Even if our positions had been reversed, even if Henry was the one Calliope held hostage, I would have never, ever done this to Ava. I would have never betrayed her and allowed Calliope to kill her child.
“That wasn’t very nice,” said Calliope in a singsong voice, and my stomach churned. She couldn’t kill the baby. I wouldn’t let her.
“I need to pee,” I said, pushing myself up.
Calliope made a vague gesture and busied herself with unpacking the basket. Cronus offered me his hand, but I brushed it off.
“I think I can make it to the bathroom on my own,” I said.
Crossing the room hadn’t been easy since August, and my body strained with each step I took, but I made it. My prison wasn’t exactly plush, although it wasn’t a concrete cell with a thin mattress and grungy toilet either. It was a simple bedroom with a bathroom attached, and it was several stories up, making a window escape impossible. I might’ve been immortal, but I didn’t have a clue whether or not the baby was. And if Calliope really did have a weapon that could kill a god, it didn’t matter anyway.
I’d tried to get away several times when I’d still been mobile enough to have a chance, but between Cronus, Calliope and Ava, someone had always been there to stop me. I’d made it as far as the beach once, but I couldn’t swim and they knew it. The council may have intended this island to be Cronus’s prison, but it was mine now, too.
Closing the door behind me, I eased down onto the edge of the bathtub and cradled my head in my hands. Frustration rose inside me, threatening to spill out in a great sob, but I swallowed it. I needed a moment, and crying would only make Calliope come in after me.
“Henry.” I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to picture him. “Please. Help us.”
At last I sank into my vision. After nearly a year in this hellhole, I’d learned how to control them, but I still struggled to make it far enough to see him. Three golden walls formed around me, and the fourth became a long pane of windows much like the room in Henry’s palace. But instead of black rock, I saw endless blue sky through the glass, and sunlight poured in, illuminating everything.
“You did this.” The sound of Henry’s voice caught my attention, and I turned. He had Walter by the lapels, and his eyes burned with anger and power I’d never seen before.
“It had to be done,” said Walter unsteadily. Even he looked afraid. “We need you, brother, and if this is what it takes to get you to see that—”
Henry threw Walter against the wall so hard that it fractured, leaving a web of cracks behind. “I will see you pay for this if it is the last thing I do,” he growled.
“Enough.” My mother’s voice rang out, and both brothers turned toward her. She looked pale, and she folded her hands in front of her the way she did when she was trying to keep herself under control. “We will rescue Kate. There is still time, and the more we waste—”
“We cannot risk our efforts for the life of one,” said Walter.
“Then I will,” snarled Henry.
Walter shook his head. “It is far too dangerous for you to go alone.”
“He won’t be alone,” said my mother. “And if you value your hold over the council—”
The muscles in my back and belly contracted, and the pain pulled me from my vision. Back in the bathroom, I let out a soft sob. My mother was wrong—we were out of time. The baby was coming no matter how hard I tried to wait. Calliope would kill it, and there was no one here to stop her. Whether or not anyone came, there was no way out of this. Even if Henry and my mother did attack the island, there was no guarantee they would break through Cronus’s defenses, and by then it would be too late anyway.
The baby nudged me from the inside, and I forced myself to pull it together. I had to do this. I couldn’t break down. The baby’s life depended on it.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, gently pressing against the spot where it had kicked me. “I love you, okay? I’m not going to stop fighting until you’re safe, I promise.”
Someone rapped on the door, and I jumped. “Don’t think you’re going to give birth in the bathtub,” said Calliope. “You’re not having that baby until I say you are.”
“Just a minute,” I called, and I stood long enough to turn on the faucet and drown out my whispers in case she was eavesdropping. It wouldn’t do much good, but the illusion of privacy would have to be enough for now.
Easing back down onto the edge of the bathtub, I rubbed my belly. “Your dad’s really great, and you’ll get to see him soon, okay? He’s not going to let Calliope do this to you either, and he’s way more powerful than me. The whole family is. Today is probably going to be scary, and it’ll hurt—well, it’ll hurt me, I won’t let them hurt you—but in the end, it’ll be okay. I promise.”
It wasn’t an empty promise. Even if I had to die in the process, Calliope would not touch my baby. No matter what it took, I would make sure of it.
* * *
Labor progressed so quickly that I barely made it out of the bathroom. Calliope gave me nothing to help, no medication or words of encouragement, and though Cronus remained by my side, he said nothing as my contractions grew closer and closer together. They had to know the others were coming. There was no other reason to force the baby out like this, and I couldn’t imagine Calliope giving up the chance to make me hurt as long as possible, not unless it was dire.
I refused to scream. Even in the final moments of labor, as the baby ripped through my body, I clenched my jaw and pushed through the pain. Since I’d become immortal, the only thing that had hurt me was Cronus, and apparently giving birth was another exception. My body was doing this to itself, and immortality wasn’t going to stop it.
The moment the baby left me, I felt as if my heart had been ripped from my chest and now rested in Calliope’s arms. She straightened, and a lump formed in my throat as I saw the wrinkled, bloody infant she held. “It’s a boy,” she said, and she smiled. “Perfect.”
Somehow, despite the words I’d whispered to him, the hours I’d spent feeling him kick, and the months I’d carried him, he had never felt completely real. But now—
That was my son.
That was my son, and Calliope was going to kill him.
She didn’t need any tools to cut the cord or finish the rest of the messy birth; in the blink of an eye, everything was clean, and the baby was wrapped in a white blanket. As if she’d done it a thousand times before, she cradled him and stood, leaving me alone on the bed.
“Wait,” I said in a choked voice. I was exhausted and drenched in sweat, and despite the pain, I struggled to get up. “You can’t—please, I’ll do anything, just don’t hurt my son.”
His wails, so tiny and helpless, filled the room, and my heart crumbled. Every bone in my body demanded that I stand, that I go to him and save him from the pain that awaited him, but I couldn’t move. The harder I struggled, the more I froze, and the more my body ached.
Calliope looked at me, her eyes bright and full of malice. She was enjoying this. She was reveling in my pain. “That’s not for you to decide, dear Kate.”
At the edge of my vision, I saw Cronus shift. “You will not hurt the child,” he said, his voice low and full of thunder. “That is not a request.”
Her eyes narrowed. She was going to challenge him. Use my son to prove her dominance—that she was the one in control. But she wasn’t, and she knew it. And for the first time since I’d heard of the King of the Titans, I was grateful for him.
“Fine,” she said in an annoyed voice, as if she were only letting him win because she wanted to. We both knew the truth. “I won’t kill him.”
Relief swept through me like a drug, and I released the breath I’d been holding. Because of Cronus, he would live. “Please, can I—can I hold my son?”
“Your son?” Her arms tightened around the baby, and a mockery of a smile curled across her lips. “You must be mistaken. The only child in this room belongs to me.”
Without another word, she walked through the door in a cloud of victory, leaving me empty and utterly alone.
She wouldn’t take his life—that meant there was still time. But how long would it take before she got tired of obeying Cronus and killed the baby just to watch me bleed?
I had to get to him. I had to save him. Even if Calliope didn’t touch a hair on his head, the thought of him being raised by that monster, twisted into something black and beyond recognition—if my time in the Underworld had taught me anything, that kind of life was infinitely worse than the peace of death.
Desperation clawed at me, tearing me up from the inside out, and I slowly turned toward Cronus.
His queen. My life, my choices, my freedom for my son’s.
“Please,” I said, hiccupping. “I’ll do anything.”
He brushed his cold fingers against my tearstained cheek, and this time I didn’t move away. “Anything?”
The words were like knives on my tongue, but I said them anyway. “Anything,” I whispered. “Save him and—and I’m yours.”
Cronus leaned toward me, stopping when his lips were only inches from mine. “As you wish, my queen.”
Fire spread through my body, burning heat replacing the aches of giving birth as Cronus healed me. It was worth it. Henry would understand, and somehow, someway, I would unite him with the baby.
Dizzy with hope, I sat up and touched my flat stomach. Somehow Cronus had returned my body to the way it had been before I’d become pregnant, and the missing swell of my belly and chest was disorienting. Why not leave me with the ability to feed the baby? Because he knew it wouldn’t matter? But before I could say a word, the world began to shake.
“What—” I began, gripping the edge of the mattress, but something in the corner caught my attention. The sky through my window was bathed in an unnatural golden light, and around us the entire island quaked violently.
“I will return, my dear, and then we shall be together,” said Cronus. He pressed his cold lips to my cheek, and in an instant he was gone, but I didn’t care.
In the distance, a black cloud approached, sizzling with lightning. Though Cronus himself couldn’t escape the island, it passed through the barrier the council had created as if it were nothing, and I spotted the silhouette of a man on top of it. Hope swelled within me, and I didn’t have to see his face to know who the dark figure was.
Henry.
Chapter 2
Blood and Stone
For nine months, I’d dreamed of this moment. In my visions I’d watched Henry go about his day-to-day duties, oblivious to what was happening as he waited for me to come home, and I’d wished with every fiber of my being for him to realize something was wrong and come storming through the doors of my prison. I’d wanted it so badly that I’d ached with the need to leave the island, to leave Calliope and Cronus and all of my greatest fears behind.
Now I might finally have the chance, and I couldn’t go. No matter what was waiting out there for me—Henry, my mother, a family, a war to win—I couldn’t leave my son.
Henry flew toward the palace, and I searched the skies behind him for the other members of the council. Nothing but that unnatural gold. My chest tightened. He couldn’t be alone. He wasn’t that careless. He didn’t have the power to hold off Cronus in the Underworld, let alone outside his realm.
Where was my mother? Even if the others had no interest in helping me, surely she would have come to protect Henry. Had he insisted she not, that it was too dangerous?
When he was close enough for me to see the rage on his face, it hit me. He was alone.
We were alone.
I expected him to turn the outside wall to rubble, but instead he flew over my room toward another part of the castle, as if he didn’t know I was there. Maybe he didn’t. Maybe Calliope was trying to lure him away and—
The weapon.
Oh, god.
“Henry!” I screamed. “Henry!”
“Kate,” said a voice from the hallway. “Kate, it’s me.”
I hurried to the door, crouching down beside it to peer through the keyhole. “Henry? Is that—”
A blue eye with long lashes stared back at me, and my heart sank. Ava.
“Move away from the door,” she whispered, glancing over her shoulder. What was she so afraid of? Henry storming down the hall and blasting her to pieces? If only I were so lucky.
“Why should I trust you?” I said. “You knew Calliope was going to kill my son, and you did everything you could to make that happen.”
She blinked rapidly, and her eyes turned red and watery. Once upon a time I’d thought Ava had been one of the few who looked pretty when she cried, but now all I could see was the ugliness underneath.
For months I’d learned about the antics of the Greek gods, the history that was the foundation of their mythology. Not all of it was right—so much of it had been twisted and corrupted throughout history as mortals passed the stories down. And because of that, I’d wanted to believe that the gods were basically good. That they really were looking out for humankind, that their lives hadn’t been full of mischief and betrayal and selfishness.
Regardless of what Calliope and Cronus had done, Ava could’ve proven me right. A single word to the council, and this could’ve been over months ago. Instead she’d turned all of those hopes to dust.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “You’re my best friend, Kate. Please—I never meant for any of this to happen. I didn’t know.”
“You knew enough.”
She checked over her shoulder again. “Once this is over, you can rip me to shreds as much as you want. But right now I have to get you out of here.”
I scoffed. Now Ava wanted to rescue me, after Calliope had exactly what she wanted? “Like hell I’m going anywhere with you.”
“I can take you to your son.”
My heart pounded. In an instant, my disgust turned to desperation, and it took everything I had not to claw the door open with my fingernails. “You know where he is?”
Ava nodded. “And if you let me, I can help both of you get out of here.”
That was all I needed to hear. Forget the past nine months. Forget her betrayal. Forget the very real possibility that this was just another trap to make sure Henry couldn’t find me. If there was a chance she was telling the truth, if there was a chance I could save my son, I didn’t care.
I stepped back, and a breeze filled the room. The lock clicked, and the door swung open, revealing Ava. Now that it was light outside, I could see her properly. Her blond hair hung in limp curls, and the shadows made the dark circles underneath her eyes look hideous. I’d never seen her like this before, not even the night I’d met Henry by the river in Eden—the same night she’d taken a swan dive into the raging waters and crushed her skull against a rock.
Would I have saved her if I’d known less than a year and a half later, she would steal me away from everyone I love? That she would stand by Calliope as she manipulated me into a pregnancy only so she could hurt me as badly as humanly possible?
Would I have saved her if I’d known Ava had been fully aware of Calliope’s plan to kill my son the whole time?
I didn’t know. I didn’t care. If Ava helped save him, if she helped us escape, the past nine months wouldn’t matter anymore. I would never forget, but in time I might forgive.
I hurried out the door. Ava offered me her arm, but I pulled away. The thought of touching her made my stomach lurch. “Don’t bother. Cronus healed me. Which way?”
Ava wilted and dropped her hand, and a pang of guilt ran through me before I pushed it aside. She didn’t deserve my sympathy. We moved at an agonizingly slow pace, all but tiptoeing down the slate-paved corridor. Was I right? Was she just hiding me away so Henry couldn’t find me?
Didn’t matter. I had to try.
Crack.
The walls around us shook, and Ava flung herself at me, covering my body with hers as the ceiling came crashing down around us. The back of my head slammed against the wall, but even though I expected pain, it never came. I was immortal now. Even if the entire world buried us, we would never die.
“Are you all right?” said Ava, gasping. The air had turned to thick dust, and as I sucked in a breath, the grit choked me.
“Need to keep going,” I said, coughing. Henry wouldn’t ask any questions—the moment he got his hands on me, he would take me back down to the Underworld. We had to find the baby before Henry found me.
I climbed over the rubble, groping my way through the dust as sharp edges tried to cut my impermeable skin. My foot caught on a rock I couldn’t see, and I stumbled, throwing my arms out to catch my fall. But instead a pair of strong hands caught me, and I looked up.
Dark hair, handsome face, broad shoulders. Henry.
I blinked rapidly, my eyes tearing up to flush out the dust, and his face swam into focus.
No, not Henry.
Cronus.
“Come, my dear,” he murmured, pulling me to my feet. His palms were hot coals against my skin, and bile rose in my throat. Where was Henry? Why wasn’t Cronus trying to stop him?
Because he didn’t need to. One god versus the King of the Titans—there was no question. And with Calliope’s weapon, it wouldn’t be a fair fight between siblings either. Henry wouldn’t know what was coming, and then—
I clenched my fists. I had to find the baby before Henry found me, and I had to find Henry before it was too late. No other option was acceptable.
“I want to see my son,” I said, jerking my arm away from Cronus and struggling to keep my voice steady. To my left, a gaping hole in the stone wall opened up to a golden sky and the sound of waves crashing against the shore. “Take me to him.”
“All in good time.” He led me through the wrecked corridor, and the rubble swept aside to make a path for us. For him. Ava trailed after us, dragging her feet and scattering the pebbles as if she were trying to make as much noise as possible. A warning to Calliope that we were coming? A signal to Henry to tell him where we were?
Suddenly the air changed as the dust vanished, and the salt-tinged wind blowing off the sea gave way to the thin wails of a newborn. I blinked. It’d been a long time since I’d slipped into a vision without meaning to.
I was surrounded by walls painted to resemble a sunset, and the room was empty except for a white cradle in the center. A lump formed in my throat, and I peered over the edge, barely daring to hope.
There, wrapped in a knit blanket, was my son.
His sobs paused, and he cracked open his eyes as if he were staring directly at me. But that was impossible—he couldn’t see me. No one could see me in my visions. I was an observer. Less than a ghost; I was nothing.
The lure of his blue eyes was irresistible, and I reached out to touch him. For a split second I imagined the warmth of his smooth skin and tiny fingers, and a smile crept onto my face.
“Hi,” I whispered. “You’re such a handsome little man.”
He stared up into the space I occupied, and I could hardly breathe. He was perfection.
“Milo.” The name left my mouth before I could think about it, but once it was out, it seemed to wrap around the baby, becoming as much a part of him as his dark hair or how much I loved him.
Yes. Milo.
An enraged cry broke the spell between us, and Milo’s sobs returned, even louder than before. I tried to touch him again, to offer whatever small measure of comfort I could if he really could sense I was there, but my hand passed through him. His screams only grew shriller.
“Calliope!”
I froze. Henry.
Torn between leaving Milo or finding Henry, I lingered near the cradle. As much as it killed me to leave the baby, I had to know where Henry was. If he was outside the nursery—if he knew about Milo and was going to save him—
Please, please, please let him know.
I dashed through the open door and into a part of the palace I’d never seen before. The walls were a rich gold, not stone like the ones inside my prison, and the indigo rug matched the silk curtains that hung every ten feet on the outside wall. The hallway stretched nearly the entire length of the palace, and Calliope stood in the middle, only a few feet away from Henry.
He’d saved me from the clutches of death on the banks of the river in Eden. He’d fought for all our lives as Calliope choked me with chains in Tartarus. He was Lord of the Underworld, King of the Dead, and one of the most powerful gods in history.
But never had I seen him look so terrible in his power. It rolled off of him in black waves, shaking the very foundation of the palace, and even though I wasn’t really there, for the first time in my life I was genuinely afraid of him.
Satisfaction mingled with that fear though, and disdain ripped through me as I approached Calliope. Henry would end her. Whatever this weapon was she claimed to have, it couldn’t possibly match up to the pure rage that surrounded him, fueling his power. Only a Titan could kill a god, and Calliope was exactly like me: immortal. Nothing more.
A blast shook the walls, and panic shot through me. Milo. Henry had no idea he was here, that Calliope stood between him and his son. He might not even know he existed. And if he brought down the entire castle—
All it would take was a single thought, and our son would die.
I dashed into the nursery, but before I could spot Milo’s face over the edge of the cradle, the sunset walls disappeared.
It took me several seconds to regain my bearings. Cronus held my arm, his hands still fire against my skin, and Ava lingered on my other side. We stood in a gold-and-indigo corridor, but it was empty.
Was it over? Had we missed it?
No, impossible. My visions were always in the present. I couldn’t go into the past or see the future. Henry and Calliope were somewhere nearby. They had to be. Above us, below—
“Kate, my dear.” Cronus’s voice cut through me like a dagger made of ice. “Are you mine?”
Never. Not in a million years, not if we were the last two beings in the universe. Not if the only other choice I had was to live out eternity buried under boulders.
But only moments stood between now and the entire castle ripping apart at the seams, and I had to save Milo. If that meant making a promise I couldn’t keep, then I would deal with the consequences later. “Give me my son, and I’m yours.”
My feet left the ground as Cronus floated us upward, leaving Ava behind. Together we passed through the ceiling as if it weren’t even there, rising into the hallway above us, and I held my breath.
We stood only a few feet behind Calliope, and beyond her, surrounded by dark power—
Henry.
He and I stared at each other across the hallway, and my knees nearly buckled with relief. At last, someone who loved me.
He took an involuntary step toward me, but even though it was the first time I’d seen him since the winter solstice, my body pulled me in the direction of Milo’s room. Only a few feet away, two doors behind Calliope, and I’d be able to hold my son. I’d have a chance at saving us all.
Cronus gripped my arm, his fingers a cuff of flesh and bone, and no amount of subtle tugging and twisting loosened them. I was as trapped as I’d been in my prison, but this time both pieces of my heart dangled in front of me, taunting me. Begging me to do something.
I was powerless.
In my mind, hours passed, but in reality it took Calliope only seconds to realize what was going on. She turned and grinned, her eyes sparkling with malice, and something slid from the loose sleeve of her gown into her hand. A dagger.
The blade glowed with the same essence that had infused the chains she’d wrapped around my neck, the same opaque power that had threaded through the rock she’d used to knock me unconscious the day she’d kidnapped me. She hadn’t been lying, after all. Somehow, even though Cronus stood beside me whole and solid, she’d managed to separate a piece of him from the rest. And now she had the power to kill every last one of us until she was free to rule the universe at Cronus’s side.
“Perfect timing,” she said, her voice as girly as ever, but regality saturated each syllable.
“Kate?” Henry’s voice broke, and the waves of dark power around him faltered. No, no, no, he couldn’t stop now. She’d attack the first chance he gave her.
I took a step back. Forget subtlety. Like hell I was letting Cronus keep me from my family. “Don’t let them follow me,” I said to Henry, and without warning, I wrenched my arm from Cronus as hard as I could, pulling against his thumb. The weakest part of his grip—if he had any weak spots at all.
Maybe I managed to take him by surprise, or maybe he was simply amused and wanted to see what I would do, but Cronus didn’t fight me. He let go, and before anyone could say a word, I tore down the hallway and into the nursery.
Milo lay in the cradle, crying softly, and I ached to finally touch him. How was it possible that minutes before, we’d been connected? How had I ever allowed my body to let him go?
“It’s all right,” I whispered, reaching for him. He calmed, and this time when his blue eyes met mine, I knew he saw me. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”
The moment my fingers brushed his downy cheek, someone cleared their throat behind me, and I turned. Calliope stood framed in the doorway, and she held the dagger to Henry’s throat.
All of the air escaped my lungs. This was it. He was going to die. I was going to lose my husband, my baby, my entire family to a crazy goddess who didn’t care who she hurt, so long as she got her way. So long as she got to torture me.
“Don’t hurt him—you can’t, please,” I whispered, clutching the edge of the cradle. Henry’s eyes were open, and he stared at me—no, not at me. Beyond me. He stared at Milo. It was a small comfort, knowing that he would die with the knowledge he had a son. That at least he would have this moment.
“Please,” spat Calliope, a mockery of my desperation. “Always please, as if that’s enough. You know it isn’t, Kate. Why bother?”
It didn’t matter if nothing I ever did was enough; I had to try. I couldn’t live with myself if I surrendered and let her have everything that mattered to me. “You love him. If you kill him, you’ll never have him. You’ll lose.”
She scoffed, but a hint of doubt flashed across her face. “I’ll be the queen of the world. I’ll never lose again.”
“Being queen won’t make you happy.” I studied the way she held Henry. He could break her grip if she lowered the knife. All we needed was that split second, and I could distract her long enough for Henry to take the baby and disappear. “You’ll still be alone. You’ll still be miserable.”
Calliope’s eyes narrowed. “Whatever it is you think you’re doing, it won’t work. I don’t need him anymore.”
“Then what do you want?”
“I already have exactly what I want.” Behind her, Cronus loomed, somehow taller than he had been moments before. The power radiating from Henry was gone now. “First I’m going to kill Henry, and then I’m going to kill your mother and every single member of the council. Once I’m done, when the world kneels at my feet, I will hold your son, and he will call me mother and you a traitor. And together, we will watch you die.”
Henry roared and struggled against her, coming to life at last, but whatever chained him held strong. She pressed the blade to his throat. This wasn’t about winning anymore—she knew she had me, and I knew this was the end. Now it was about causing me as much pain as possible.
The joke was on her, though. Without Henry, without my mother, without my son, I would welcome death.
Focus. This couldn’t be it. There had to be something I could do—some magical combination of words I could say to get her to lower that dagger. Anything.
Behind me, Milo’s cries grew louder, and I groped around until I touched his hand. This was it. These were the only few moments I would have with him. Despite the dagger to Henry’s throat, I would have given anything to make them last forever.
“Then kill me,” I blurted. “Right now, in front of Henry, in front of the baby—just do it. Because I promise if you hurt either of them, I will make sure you spend eternity burning in Tartarus.”
Calliope tilted her head, and I held my breath. She had to agree. Anything to get her to lower that knife, to give Henry that split-second advantage—anything.
But before she could say a word, Cronus exhaled, and fog crept across the floor of the nursery. “No.” The word was barely a whisper, but it burrowed inside me, refusing to be ignored. “You will not harm Kate, my daughter. If she dies, so will you.”
Behind the flush of her excitement, Calliope paled. “You can either keep Kate or her spawn alive. Not both. Choose.”
“I have already told you what you will do,” said Cronus. “You will obey me, or you will be the one to die. That is your choice to make, not mine.”
Clenching her jaw, she dug the blade deeper into Henry’s skin, and he winced. Forget me. His voice echoed through my mind as clearly as if he’d spoken. Do whatever you must to escape before it’s too late.
“No,” I whispered, and Henry narrowed his eyes. He could glare at me all he wanted. I wasn’t leaving, not without him. Not without the baby.
Though she was still pale, Calliope’s lips twisted into a smirk. “How cute. You can try all you want, but she isn’t getting out of here ali—” She stopped. “What’s that?”
Cronus’s expression went blank, and I twisted around, searching for whatever it was that had caught her attention. What was what?
Calliope’s gaze unfocused, and her smirk faltered. “Father, do something,” she hissed, and at last I heard it.
The distant rumble of thunder, growing louder with each passing second.
The crack of lightning that lit up the sky beyond the indigo curtains in the hallway.
A burst of wind so strong that it howled through the corridors.
And a dozen war cries blending together, forming a fearsome harmony.
The council had arrived.
Calliope’s face went from pale to ashen, and her grip on Henry slipped. I didn’t think. In that moment, I memorized the feel of my son’s tiny hand in mine, and I let go.
As fast as I could, I hurtled toward Henry and Calliope, knocking him out of the way. Grabbing her fist, I smashed her knuckles against the wall to make her let go of the dagger. She wasn’t human though, and just like me, she couldn’t feel pain. No matter how much force I used, it was pointless.
But I had to buy Henry enough time to grab Milo and leave. Together we struggled, goddess against goddess, and I let out an enraged cry. Something inside me took over, something primal. As Calliope fought, so did I, with everything I had.
“Cronus!” shrieked Calliope, but he vanished into an eerie fog. His true form. With a dozen screaming gods surrounding the castle, no matter how powerful he was, he had no choice but to fight. He wouldn’t be any help to her now.
Calliope must have realized the same thing, because with a surge of power, she shoved me, and we toppled to the ground. She twisted my neck, and I scratched her face, attempting to gouge out her eyes, but neither of us could hurt the other.
“You bitch,” she snarled. “You conniving, useless bitch.”
“Can’t kill me.” I worked my fingers around the handle of the dagger and struggled to pull it from her grip. “I die, you die, remember?”
“Father won’t touch a hair on my head.”
“Are you willing to bet your entire existence on that?”
She screeched and wrenched the dagger from me. I had no chance against her immense strength, and I watched in horror as my grip slipped and the tip of the infused blade plunged into my arm.
White-hot pain ripped through me, burning everything in its path, infinitely worse than the brush of fog against my leg during my botched coronation ceremony nearly a year before. This was inside me, fusing together with my very being, choking it until only a few pitiful gasps remained.
I was dying. Two more seconds, and I’d be—
A black blur slammed into her. As the weight of Calliope’s body disappeared, the choke hold vanished. Agony burned inside me, leaving me breathless, and fire replaced the ice of the blade as I bled freely. What was happening?
I opened my eyes, half expecting to see wherever gods went when they died, but instead all I saw was Calliope’s maniacal grin as she lay on the floor beside me.
No, that wasn’t all. Henry hovered above her, pressed oddly against her body at an angle I didn’t understand. His eyes widened, his mouth dropped open, and his hands clutched something against his ribs.
“I win,” whispered Calliope. And as she pulled the bloody dagger from Henry’s chest, I finally understood.
Chapter 3
The Darkest Hour
For four years, I’d stayed by my mother’s bedside and watched her fade away. Her once strong and healthy body had withered into a poor imitation of the woman I remembered, and not an hour had passed without me imagining what it would be like the day death claimed her.
I’d lived in constant fear of waking up and finding her gone, a shell where my mother had once been. I would watch the clock flip over to midnight and wonder if that was the date I would mourn each year for the rest of my life.
I knew what it was like to lose. I knew what it was like to fight the inevitable.
But none of that had prepared me for watching Henry die.
Blood spurted from the wound in his chest. He fell to his knees, one hand clutching his rib cage, the other reaching for me. I’d never seen such real terror in his eyes. Gods weren’t supposed to die. Not unless they wanted to.
I reached for him with my good arm as the life drained from him. Was the blade strong enough to kill me, too? Once it was over, would we be together on the other side, wherever that might lead?
Was there even another side for the Lord of the Dead?
The moment our fingers met, my body lurched. It was a familiar feeling—much more jolting than I’d ever experienced before, but the instant it happened, I knew. We were going home.
One second, I was only feet away from Milo as he cried. The next I lay in a heap with Henry, and silence surrounded us. We weren’t in Calliope’s palace anymore. We weren’t even on the island. But we weren’t in the Underworld either, or at least any part of it I’d ever seen.
Instead we were in the middle of a massive room devoid of anything but a sky-blue ceiling and sunset floor. The golden walls seemed to stretch out forever, and with the sun in the middle of the ceiling as if it were a real sky, everything glittered with light. It should’ve taken my breath away.
But Milo was gone. Wherever we were, I knew instinctively he wouldn’t be joining us, and unspeakable pain spread like acid inside me. I would have gladly been stabbed a thousand times over rather than feel this for even a moment.
There was nothing I could do, though. My mother was on the island with him, along with James and the rest of the council, and that would have to be enough. The only person I had a prayer of helping now had me pinned to the sunset floor.
“Henry.” Even though the last thing I wanted to do was hurt him, I had no choice but to roll him gently off me. Blood soaked through his shirt, and I pressed my hands against his chest in an attempt to stop the flow, but it was useless. After everything we’d gone through together, after everything he’d done to protect me, I couldn’t do a damn thing to save him. It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t fair.
“Kate?” His voice was thick and hoarse, as if he were ill, but he wasn’t. He was dying. “Are you—are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” I lied, and my voice broke. “Don’t sit up. You’re losing too much blood.” How much did gods have in them? The same as mortals? How much could they live without?
“I didn’t know,” he whispered. “I thought— Ava said—”
“It’s not your fault.” I shakily brushed my mouth against his. He tasted like rain. “None of this is your fault. I should’ve never trusted her. I should’ve never left you. I’m sorry.”
He kissed me back weakly. “Was that—was that baby...”
A lump formed in my throat. “Yeah. He’s your son.” I managed a watery smile. At least Henry knew. “I named him Milo. We can call him something different if you’d like.”
“No.” He coughed, and a few droplets of blood stained his lips. “It’s perfect. So are you.”
I leaned against his chest, putting as much weight on the wound as possible. I refused to say goodbye like this. Not to Henry, not to our life together, none of it. I wasn’t ready, and Milo deserved to have a father. I hadn’t had one growing up, and like hell would I let him experience that same emptiness and uncertainty. He deserved more than that. He deserved to have a family.
My arm bled freely, and within moments the room began to spin. Henry’s moonlit eyes remained open, and he smiled. “Never thought I’d have a son.” His voice trembled. “Never thought I’d have you.”
I gritted my teeth against the dizziness, my body growing weaker by the second. “You’re going to have me for a hell of a lot longer than this.” My vision blurred, and I struggled to look around us. Where was everyone? Why couldn’t they feel the life drain from Henry the way I could?
Because it wasn’t his life I felt draining away. It was mine.
“Kate? Henry?”
My mother’s voice washed over me, and I let out an exhausted sob. “Mom?”
She knelt beside me, radiating warmth and the scent of apples and freesia. “Let go, sweetheart,” she murmured. “I’ve got you.”
I couldn’t force my hands from Henry, though. He was cold now, his eyes wide and unblinking, and his chest was still. Gods didn’t need to breathe, but Henry always had. His heart had always beaten, but now I saw no hint of a pulse.
He was dead.
I didn’t remember the others appearing. One moment my mother held me against her chest, her hand wrapped around my bleeding arm as I screamed and cried and disappeared into myself. The next, Walter hovered over us, and Theo knelt beside Henry’s body, his lips moving at a furious pace.
“Get her out of here,” said Walter, his booming voice distant as I cowered in a dark corner in the recesses of my mind. Gentle hands lifted me, and I thought I heard James’s voice murmuring words of comfort I didn’t understand, but outwardly I thrashed and shrieked. I couldn’t leave Henry. If I left him, I would never see him again, and then he really would be gone.
He couldn’t be, though. He just couldn’t be.
Another pair of hands joined us, but I was so completely submerged into myself that I might as well have closed my eyes and disappeared in the dark. In here, nothing could touch me. In here, Henry was everywhere. In here, it was winter again, and we curled up together underneath the down comforter in the Underworld as the hours passed by. His chest was warm under my palm, and his heart beat against my fingers, steady and eternal. In here, no one died.
A whimper caught my attention, and I opened my eyes again. The golden room was gone, replaced by the sunset nursery in Calliope’s palace, and my heart sank. There, lying in the cradle, was Milo. My mother hadn’t saved him, after all.
I stood beside him, pretending I could touch him and rock him to sleep. Pretending that it wasn’t just a matter of time before the Titan fire in my veins consumed me and Milo would be orphaned. I had never known my father, but I treasured the time I’d spent with my mother. Milo would never have that either. The only time we would have together were those few seconds before Calliope had killed his father, and he would never remember them.
No, we had now. Even if he didn’t know I was with him, I could be there. I would be. Settling in beside his cradle, I watched him unblinkingly, soaking in every second.
And I waited for the inevitable to come.
* * *
Kate.
James’s voice floated toward me and wound its way through what was left of my heart. I blinked. How long had it been? Minutes? Hours? Days? No, Calliope might have been a monster, but she wouldn’t have left Milo alone for that long. He slept soundly in the cradle, his little chest rising and falling. I took comfort in each breath.
Come back, Kate.
His words were a whisper against my ear, but I stayed put. There was nothing left for me in reality. My mother had lived for eons before I’d been born; she could do without me once more. She would have to.
The air grew thick with annoyance. Kate, I swear, if you don’t come back, I will tell Henry you kissed me. And that you said I have a nice ass.
“Henry?” My eyes flew open—my real eyes this time. As it had each time before, the wrench of leaving Milo took my breath away, and fuzzy shapes floated in front of me until I managed to focus.
A sky-blue ceiling and undoubtedly a sunset floor. But unlike the room bathed in golden light, this was different. Smaller, muted, and darker somehow.
Frantically I looked around the room for any sign of Henry, but he wasn’t there. James’s sick idea of a joke then, to pull me away from the only thing that gave me any small measure of comfort now.
“How are you feeling?” My mother hovered beside my bed, applying a compress of something that smelled like honey and tangerines to my arm. Noticing my stare, she smoothed my hair back and offered me a small smile that didn’t meet her eyes. “A compress to stop the pain. You’ll have to wear a sling, but it won’t spread anywhere else for now.”
I shook my head. “Take it off.”
“What?” Her brow knitted. “Sweetheart, this is saving your life—”
“I don’t want it.” I sat up, and my body screamed in protest as I ripped the compress from my arm. It didn’t matter. Henry was dead, and I would never hold my son again. I didn’t want anyone to save my life.
My mother set her hand against my good shoulder, and firmly but gently, she guided me back onto the bed. I didn’t have the strength to fight her. “Too bad. I’m your mother, and whether you like it or not, I’m not going to let you die on my watch.”
I sniffed, staring at the cloudless ceiling. “I can’t do this, Mama.” I hadn’t called her that since the second grade, when the most popular girl in my New York City private school had overheard and proceeded to tease me for the next four years.
“Can’t do what?” She laid the compress on my arm again, and though it hurt like hell, the pain didn’t spread.
“I had a baby,” I whispered. Did she even know she was a grandmother? Did she know about Calliope’s plot? Or did she think I’d run off with Ava for nine months and forgotten about her?
She hesitated, not meeting my eyes. “I know. I’m so sorry, Kate.”
That was it. Simple acknowledgment. No offer to find him. No promise to take him from Calliope the first chance she got. I swallowed thickly, half an inch away from hysteria. “His name’s Milo. Henry—Henry liked that name.”
“I’m sure he still does.” James’s voice filtered through the haze around me.
“Still does?” My voice cracked, and though my mother held me down, I raised my head. James leaned against the open doorway, his blond hair tousled and his cheeks flushed, as if he’d run a marathon. Or maybe it was because I hadn’t seen him in the sunlight for so long.
“He’s in another room. Theo’s tending to him,” he said. Theo, the member of the council with the ability to heal wounds caused by Titans. Or if not heal, at least make them less painful.
Was it possible? The way Henry’s eyes had stared unseeingly, the lack of heartbeat, of any effort at all to keep his body going—it couldn’t be. “Is Henry alive?”
The moment between my question and James’s answer lasted for an eternity. All at once I needed to hear it, yet I didn’t want to know. I could have clung to the delicious hope James gave me for the rest of my endless life. Henry could always be in the next room over, alive and waiting for me.
“Yes,” he said, and I let out a soft sob. My mother touched my cheek, but I looked past her, focusing on my best friend.
“Can I see him? I need to see him.” Forget lying still. I struggled to sit up again, but for a second time, my mother held me down, more insistent than before.
“You can see him as soon as you’re well enough,” she said, but she glanced at James, and they exchanged a look I didn’t understand.
“What?” My neck strained with the effort of keeping my head upright, but I couldn’t look away. “What’s going on?”
James faltered, and that delicate balloon of hope inside me burst. “He’s unconscious, and there’s a chance he might never wake up.”
I gripped the sheets with my good hand. He wasn’t dead, but he wasn’t alive either. Caught between, like my mother had been during the time I’d spent at Eden Manor when the council had tested me. Except Henry was immortal, and he would have no release.
I didn’t know what was worse—death or this.
“Theo stopped the spread, but Henry was stabbed in the chest,” said James. He approached the bed and took my hand, grasping it gently. My fingers twitched. “We don’t know how bad the damage is. Or if Henry will ever recover enough to wake up.”
“Is—is there a cure? A way to fix him?”
“There’s nothing we can do,” said James, and on my other side, my mother dabbed the corners of her eyes with a tissue. “We just have to wait.”
My throat constricted. There had to be a way. There always was. If Henry could bring me back from the dead, then I could find a way to do the same for him. “What about Cronus? Couldn’t he do something?”
Dead silence. Seconds ticked by, and without warning, my mother and James started talking at once.
“I can’t possibly allow—”
“Even if he could, do you really think—”
They both stopped and stared at each other, and finally my mother went first.
“You are not going back there, sweetheart,” she said. “It’s a miracle Henry got you out in the first place, and he risked everything for you. He wouldn’t want you to walk back into that. You know he wouldn’t.”
If it was just me, then my mother would have been right. However, it wasn’t just about me anymore. It was about Milo, too. I might’ve been powerless to rescue our son, but if Henry could save me, then he could save him, as well. And if there was a way I could help Henry—if there was a way I could give Milo the father he deserved, then I had to try.
“Can Cronus help Henry?” I said again in as steady a voice as I could muster.
James leaned in closer, clasping my hand in his. “Yes,” he admitted. “He could. But even if you did go back to Cronus, he wouldn’t undo the damage he’s already done to Henry. You know he wouldn’t.”
“Right,” I whispered. James was wrong, though. If Cronus had enough incentive, he might. And I wasn’t going to give up just because they insisted there was no point in trying. Even if it meant marching straight up to Cronus and giving him everything, I would really do it if it meant Henry might live.
* * *
While bedridden, I planned.
Every word I’d say, every argument I’d use, everything I’d offer Cronus to make him save Henry. Layer after layer of blueprints that would give Henry his life back and our son a father. Whatever it took.
I spent my hours with Milo, watching him sleep, watching as Ava changed him, watching as Calliope attempted to coax him to eat from a bottle. To my immense satisfaction, he refused.
“You must eat,” said Calliope sternly as she offered yet another warm bottle to my son. He turned his head away, his face scrunched up and bright red from crying, and she narrowed her eyes. “Callum, you must.”
Callum after herself, undoubtedly. He was Milo, not Callum, and no matter how long he stayed with that bitch, he would never be hers.
However, as the hours turned into one day, then two, my worry surpassed my hatred for Calliope. Milo wasn’t eating. He fussed in his sleep, and when he was awake, his eyes constantly leaked with tears. He was miserable.
I didn’t know what to do. Was there anything at all, other than storming the palace and demanding Calliope give him back to me? It wouldn’t work anyway. I could have the entire council backing me up, but without Henry, it would be nothing more than an exercise in defeat. Cronus would keep me, Calliope would hide my son away, and he would only grow weaker.
“Come on, Milo,” I whispered as I leaned over his crib. For the umpteenth time, I tried to touch him, but once again my fingers passed through his cheek. “I’m sorry I’m not here. If I had any choice...” My voice caught in my throat. “I know Calliope’s horrible, but you need to eat. You need to be healthy and strong for when I finally get to be with you again.”
At last he opened his blue eyes, and in that moment, I swore he saw me.
“There you are.” I gave him a watery smile. “You’re beautiful, you know. You put Adonis to shame.”
His whimpers quieted, and he lifted his arms, as if he were reaching for me. I tried to touch him again, but it still didn’t work. I’d never stop trying, though.
“Think you could do that for me?” I murmured. “Just eat a little bit. You can be as unhappy as you want. I don’t blame you. It won’t last forever though, I promise.” It couldn’t. I wouldn’t let it.
“He has your eyes.”
My heart damn near stopped. Slowly I turned, and despite the dim light, I could see every feature of his face. “Henry?”
He smiled grimly and opened his arms. I didn’t think. I went to him, burying my face in his chest and inhaling, but he smelled like nothing. He wasn’t here either. I could touch him, though. I could feel his silk shirt and the heat radiating from his body.
How?
“I’ve missed you,” he murmured, brushing his lips against my cheek. When I tried to turn my head to kiss him properly, he pulled away, just out of reach. Rejection and doubt washed over me. Was he angry I’d gotten caught? That I couldn’t save him? Did he know about my plans to give myself up to Cronus in exchange for his life?
When I followed his gaze, however, I relaxed. Milo.
I tucked myself underneath his arm, and together we approached the cradle. When the baby saw us, he reached for us. For me. And a piece of my heart melted.
Henry reached for him in return, and before I could warn him that it wouldn’t work, his fingers made contact with Milo’s. Not lingering in the unoccupied space beside him or hovering a millimeter above his skin and pretending.
He was really touching our son.
“Hello, little man,” said Henry solemnly. “I heard you have not been eating.”
Producing a bottle seemingly out of nowhere, Henry let go of me and picked Milo up. I stood back, stunned, as Henry offered him the milk. Several seconds passed, and at last Milo began to eat.
“How—” A wave of dizziness washed over me. This couldn’t be happening, not unless he was dead or—or something I didn’t understand. “How is this possible?”
Sometimes we misjudge what is possible and what is not.
Henry’s voice rang in my head, clear as anything, and I waited for him to say those words again. To insist that just because I didn’t know how it worked didn’t stop it from happening.
Instead he smiled, and Milo ate greedily. “Because it is. What more of an explanation do you need?”
I wanted to know everything. I wanted to know how to save him, how to put our family back together, how to stop Cronus and Calliope from taking over the world. But at that moment, I only needed to hear one thing. “Will you stay with him?”
In his arms, Milo gurgled, and I tried to touch him once more. Nothing. “Of course,” said Henry, and he pressed his lips to my forehead. “Always.”
I opened my eyes, more content and relaxed than I’d been since the winter solstice. Despite the bright blue sky above me, this place—whatever it was, wherever it was—was quiet. My mother hadn’t left me alone since I’d returned from Calliope’s castle, but glancing around, I noticed her empty chair.
Finally, the chance I’d been waiting for.
Swinging my legs out of bed, I tested the sunset floor. It was warmer than I expected, and while my arm burned, my mother had been right; nothing else hurt. Whatever was in that compress had stopped the agony of the dagger wound from spreading.
While I’d been unconscious, someone—hopefully my mother and not James—had dressed me in a white silk nightgown, so smooth it might as well have been water against my skin. I took a few tentative steps, and once I was sure I wasn’t going to collapse, I headed for the door. I had no idea where I was, but I wanted to see Henry. I had to make sure he wasn’t dead. That my vision hadn’t been his last goodbye to me. To our son.
No. He’d promised to stay with Milo, and he would. Gods didn’t turn into corporeal ghosts when they died, or at least I thought they didn’t. Had a god as powerful as Henry ever died before?
I opened the bedroom door to reveal a corridor on the other side, with the same blue ceiling and sunset floor. The colors underneath my feet changed as I walked, and I had to tear my eyes away to check the various doors that stood some twenty feet apart through the hallway.
Empty bedroom after empty bedroom. Some were plain, like mine, but others were decorated—one with light blue accents and white silk that matched my nightgown, and another with deep greens and bright flowers growing everywhere. It looked exactly like the sort of bedroom my mother might have if she’d—
Wait.
I pushed the door open wider. It wasn’t just a bedroom; it was a suite, with several other doors decorating the walls, far more than space allowed with the other rooms surrounding it. I inched forward toward the nightstand, where a picture stood.
No, not a picture—a reflection, like the one Henry had had of Persephone in Eden Manor, one that captured a moment, not a still photograph. With a trembling hand, I picked up the wooden frame and stared at it. My mother and I stared back.
We were laughing in the middle of Central Park. I didn’t need to see the cupcakes or the mess that remained of our picnic to know what it was.
It was the reflection Henry had given me our first and only Christmas together.
“Kate?”
The frame slipped from my hand, and the glass shattered as it hit the ground. I swore and bent to pick it up. “Mom, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean—”
“It’s all right,” she said, kneeling beside me, and she waved my hand away. “What are you doing out of bed?”
I stood as the glass repaired itself under her guidance. How long would it take me to learn how to control my powers that way? I’d tried to figure out what I was capable of while Calliope had held me captive, but without someone to teach me, the best I’d managed was controlling my visions. “I want to see Henry.”
“Fair enough.” My mother straightened and set the newly repaired frame back on her nightstand. And it was her nightstand; I was sure about that now. This was her suite. This was her home.
This was Olympus.
“Do you mind taking a side trip with me before we go see him?” said my mother, wrapping her arm around my shoulders.
“What? Why?” I blurted. “I want to see Henry, Mom. He was in my vision, and he held Milo and got him to eat and everything.”
Her brow furrowed, but instead of telling me I was crazy or that it was my imagination, she said gently, “We can talk about it later, sweetheart. Walter’s called an emergency council meeting, and I was just on my way to fetch you.”
To fetch me? What could I possibly help the council with? I’d only been immortal for a year and a half. That was nothing compared to the rest of the council, some of whom were older than the dawn of humanity. Like my mother. Like Henry. Like each of the original six siblings—five now that Calliope had abandoned them. Four now that Henry was lost in a world between the living and the dead. “What happened?”
My mother hesitated, and taking my good arm, she guided me to the door. “I don’t want to worry you, but...”
“But what?” My insides seized. Had the worst happened? Were Henry or Milo dead? “Mom—but what?”
Her eyes flickered shut. “It’s Cronus,” she said, her voice cracking. “He’s declared war.”
Chapter 4
The Council Divided
Only half the council showed.
Irene, my tutor during my time in Eden, wept while Sofia, my mother’s home care nurse and another of the original six, tried to comfort her. On the opposite side of the circle, Walter and Phillip, Henry’s brothers, sat with their heads bent together, and they spoke quietly. James and Dylan, Ava’s boyfriend from Eden High, remained silent on their respective thrones.
No one else showed.
“Where is everyone?” I whispered to my mother, though in the endless room, my voice carried.
“Some have chosen not to join us. We will not begrudge them that.” She sat down and gestured for me to take a seat beside her, in the throne made of white diamond straight from the Underworld. Persephone’s.
I hesitated. I’d sat there a few times in Henry’s palace, but I’d assumed it was there because it was his realm. Was it simply a place for me to sit, or did this mean I was a member of the council now? Despite the honor, the thought of having that kind of responsibility—that kind of control over the lives of others made me sick to my stomach. But if they trusted me enough to make me one of them, then I would do everything I could to help.
“We’re waiting for you, dear,” said my mother, and I forced myself to snap out of it. Perching on the edge of the chair, I cradled my arm to my chest and waited. I knew why Nicholas wasn’t there, of course, since Calliope was holding him hostage. Ava was helping her—to save Nicholas, I realized, but that didn’t make it easier to stomach her betrayal. And Henry...
They all had excuses for not being there, and after Ella had lost her arm the day Cronus escaped from the Underworld, I didn’t blame her for not wanting to be part of it either. But what about Theo? What about Xander? The council without Calliope had argued and been at odds, but no one had flat-out abandoned their position.
Walter stood and cleared his throat. He looked older somehow, despite his agelessness. His shoulders slumped underneath the burden of everything that had happened, and beside him, Phillip, usually so gruff and impermeable, didn’t look much better. “Brother and sisters, sons and daughters...”
Daughters? Only Irene was his daughter. Sofia and my mother were his sisters. Unless he meant me, too.
No. It was a slip of the tongue, nothing more. Because if he did mean me, too, then why hadn’t anyone ever—
“It saddens me greatly to report that Athens has fallen.”
All my questions about my father flew out of my head. Athens had fallen? Irene sobbed, and Sofia hugged her, rubbing her back and murmuring words of comfort I couldn’t make out. Bewildered, I looked from them to Walter. How could Athens fall? This wasn’t ancient Greece—what did that even mean?
“How?” said my mother. “Why? We have no army there. No soldiers to threaten Cronus’s hold over the Aegean Sea. Why would he attack unprovoked?”
It wasn’t unprovoked, though. Cronus had promised no one would die as long as I stayed by his side, and now I’d abandoned him. My hands began to tremble, and I shoved them between my knees. Across the circle, Walter’s eyes met mine. He knew.
“We cannot pretend to understand how Cronus thinks,” he said, and a rush of guilt-laced gratitude overwhelmed me. He wasn’t going to tell.
“As for how he attacked,” said Phillip, rising to stand beside his brother, “he used my domain. It was a calculated attack with Athens pinpointed specifically—no other area was touched. However, the damage he did...”
Irene cried even harder, and Phillip raised his voice so we could all hear him.
“The tidal wave washed nearly everything away.”
My body went cold, and the golden room spun around me until I couldn’t stand it any longer. “Did—did anyone die?” I whispered.
Walter said nothing for a moment, and I thought I saw a spark of compassion pass over his face. “Yes. Nearly a million people lost their lives.”
Something twisted inside me, sharp and unforgiving, and if I could have thrown up, I would have. Nearly a million people were dead because of me, because I’d lied to Cronus. I’d known there would be consequences, yet I’d done it anyway.
No, I hadn’t known it would be anything like this. This wasn’t war between two equal opponents; this was a massacre of people who didn’t even know that gods and Titans were real.
“A purely symbolic attack then,” said Dylan, his brow furrowed. A three-dimensional map of Greece appeared in the center of the circle, complete with mountains, islands and seas, all to scale and colored exactly like they would be if this were an aerial shot. For all I knew, it was.
The map zoomed toward Athens until the damage was visible. During my first summer away from Henry, James and I had visited Greece, and we’d spent weeks in the city. My memories of paved streets, kind people and the modern nestled alongside the ancient might as well have been a dream.
Nothing was left. Debris and mud replaced what had once been a vibrant city, now washed out to sea. Tears slid down my face, and I wasn’t the only one crying. Beside me, my mother slipped her hand into mine, and even James’s eyes grew red.
Athens was really gone.
“Look,” said Irene suddenly, her voice thick. “Closer.”
The map zoomed in, and I averted my eyes. I couldn’t see the bodies, if there were any left to begin with. I couldn’t see the faces of those who were dead because of me.
“The Parthenon,” said Irene. “He left it standing.”
I cracked open an eye. The temple of Athena—of Irene—remained standing, untouched except for the ravages of time and history.
“A message?” said James, leaning forward.
“I cannot say,” said Walter gravely. “Perhaps he has a small amount of respect for all we have done for the world.”
“Or maybe it means he’ll keep us alive if we don’t stand in his way,” said Irene, dabbing her eyes with a handkerchief.
“We must not fall victim to the belief that removing ourselves from this war will prevent it from happening,” said Walter with surprising gentleness. “He intends on killing us—all of us—for keeping him locked in Tartarus. Humanity is nothing to him, but he will not hesitate to wipe them out as well, knowing our existence is now linked to theirs. We have no choice but to fight until it is over.”
“One way or the other,” whispered Irene.
Walter nodded. “One way or the other.”
“Isn’t there something we can do?” The words were out before I could stop them, and each council member focused on me. “Cronus must want something.”
“You know what he wants,” said Walter, and my cheeks burned. Yes. He wanted me.
“We all know what he wants,” cut in Dylan. “Death. Destruction. Mayhem. War. To rule the world once more. Usually I’d approve, but not when we’re the targets.”
“So what do we plan to do about it?” said James. “Let him get away with this?”
“I have already called a meeting among my subjects,” said Phillip. “They know not to bow to his will no matter the cost.”
“Cronus has more power than all of us combined,” said Irene, a determined edge in her voice now. “We cannot fight back as we are and expect to achieve any measure of success.”
“What about the other gods?” said James. “They could help.”
“They have nearly all signed a petition insisting they will not,” said Walter. “Besides, they could all join us and put everything they have into this war, but it would still not be sufficient. They are not powerful enough to make up for the loss of Henry and Calliope.”
I gritted my teeth. Henry wasn’t dead yet. “I could talk to Cronus,” I said. “He—he was nice to me. He might listen.”
“No,” said my mother. “Even if you did have that sort of hold over him, he will stop at nothing until he has what he wants. He has waited and planned for eons. You will not change his mind no matter how fond of you he might be.”
Across the circle, James focused on me. I ignored the question in his stare and concentrated on the floating image between us instead. “It could work,” I said.
“That is a risk we cannot take,” said Walter. “Calliope has already proven she will kill you if given the opportunity, and Cronus may not be willing to protect you any longer. No, we must focus our efforts on coming up with a way to even our odds despite our missing members.”
Frustration, hot and unyielding, rose inside me. Of course they would invite me to join them only to dismiss every idea I had. What else did I expect? “What about Rhea?” I said. It felt like years since I’d decided to leave the Underworld to ask for her help. She was the only one who could match Cronus in power, and if anyone could win this war, it was her. “What did she say?”
Silence. Walter and Phillip exchanged an uneasy look, and finally James piped up. “No one’s tried to find her.”
“What? Why not?”
“We did not know you were not—” started Walter, but my mother cut in.
“Most of us did not know Kate was not searching for her,” she corrected, fire in her eyes. Walter’s lips thinned underneath her stare.
“Yes. Most of us did not know you were not already searching for her.”
Right. That moment between Henry and Walter in the office. Henry had hinted Walter may have known what was going on. “And that entire time, you didn’t stop to think it might be a good idea to send someone else instead?” I said.
Walter cleared his throat. “Our efforts were focused on trying to stop the impending war, not escalate it.”
“Oh, yeah? How did that turn out?” I said, and my mother squeezed my hand, a silent command to stop talking.
This was my fault though, every last bit of it. I’d won immortality and stolen Henry from Calliope, or at least that was how she saw it. My stupid mistake had forced Henry to release Cronus from Tartarus in the first place. Now, because I’d left Cronus, nearly a million people were dead, and more would undoubtedly follow.
No, I wasn’t going to shut up.
“While the rest of you flounder and try to figure out what to do, I’m going to find her,” I said. “And I’m going to get her to help us.”
I expected an argument, but instead the council was silent. “It’s our greatest chance at obtaining a powerful ally,” said Sofia after a long moment. “We can’t hope to sway Calliope back to our side, and without a balance of power, more cities will crumble, and more people will die. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m willing to try anything that might bring us peace.”
Walter sighed wearily. “Very well. If you are able to convince Rhea to assist us in containing Cronus, then you will do us a great service, Kate.”
And possibly prevent millions—maybe even billions—of people from dying. Yeah. No question. “I’ll do it.”
“I’ll go with her,” said James. Our eyes met again, and this time I didn’t look away. “Like it or not, I’m the only one who can find her, so don’t argue.”
“I wasn’t going to,” I said. “I trust you.” If there was one person I knew wouldn’t betray me, it was James. He had nothing in this fight except his own survival, and his ability to find anyone meant we wouldn’t waste time searching for Rhea. He would know exactly where she was.
“We must all trust each other now,” said Walter. “Those who are here and those who are not.” He focused on Ava’s empty seashell throne for a moment before turning his gaze to me. “We all have made mistakes. We all have a burden to bear. But unless we are united, we will fall, and we must find forgiveness and understanding within ourselves. Pure evil does not exist. Even Cronus has his reasons for doing what he does, and the better we understand each other, the better chance we have at finding a solution before our foundation crumbles.”
I averted my eyes. Once upon a time, when I’d first faced the council, I’d forgiven Calliope for killing me. I’d been able to see past her crimes and examine the reasons underneath, and in a way, I’d been able to understand her. But if Walter was really asking me to do the same with Ava...
It wasn’t my life she’d threatened. It was Milo’s, and some things were unforgivable. But despite my anger, I wanted to forgive her—I wanted to sympathize with her. I wanted her to be on our side again. And I could understand why she’d done it, even if I didn’t want to admit it to myself. Calliope was blackmailing her, using Nicholas’s life to ensure Ava’s cooperation. The day she and I had left the Underworld, the signs had been obvious, and if I’d taken a moment to think about it, I would have known something was up. Ava’s strength was in how she loved others. I’d known Calliope had taken Nicholas and she’d spoken to Ava alone, and I should’ve realized that Ava would do whatever it took to protect him. I should have done something to help her before she’d had to betray me.
That was over with now, though. She’d made her mistakes, and I’d made mine. I would do whatever I could to fix them, and I could only hope she would do the same, as well.
“We will all do our best,” said my mother, and she squeezed my hand again, her gaze focused on me. I gave her a slight nod. I would try.
“Then it is settled,” said Walter, and somewhere deep inside the palace, thunder rumbled. “Kate and James will attempt to ally the council with Rhea.”
“And we will prepare for war,” said Dylan with a gleam in his eye.
“No,” said Walter. “We have prepared enough. Now we fight.”
* * *
I spent the next three days by Henry’s side as I regained my strength. He was in an undecorated room a few doors down from mine, and while my mother tended to both of us, I lay curled up beside him. I’d nearly lost him—still might if I couldn’t convince Cronus to undo the damage he’d done—and I wasn’t leaving him again until I absolutely had to.
The wind howled endlessly, and somewhere in the distance, the seas crashed against the rest of the world. Despite the sunny blue skies above me and the sunset below, thunder raged at all hours of the day and night, and even if I’d wanted to, I wouldn’t have been able to sleep.
I split my time evenly between my present and my visions with Milo. Henry didn’t break his promise; each time I arrived, he was there, sometimes holding Milo, sometimes keeping watch at his cradle as he slept. We stood side by side for hours and simply watched him, and Milo gazed at us in return. Somehow, someway, he knew I was there, I was sure of it now. I envied Henry his ability to hold him, but at least he would have a chance to know our son. If the worst happened, Milo would have these moments with him.
“You’re going to come back to me, aren’t you?” I said on the evening my mother had finally decided I’d healed enough to travel. James and I would set out to find Rhea in the morning, and in all likelihood, this would be the last night I’d have with Henry and Milo for a while.
“What do you mean?” said Henry. “I am here now.”
“I mean here for real,” I said. “Are you going to wake up? I know Cronus hurt you, but—you’re here, and maybe if you tried really hard...”
Henry kissed my forehead, his palm pressed against the nape of my neck. “I will always be here for you, my dear. Nothing will change that.”
I took a deep breath, refusing to cry in front of Milo. Even if he was sleeping and would never find out, I would know. “Please wake up,” I whispered. “We need you. Not—not like this. We need you. We can’t defeat Cronus without you.”
“You cannot defeat Cronus with me. Not without Calliope,” he pointed out.
“We’re trying. He killed an entire city full of people. Athens is gone, and he’s going to kill again and again until he gets what he wants.”
“And what do you think that is?” said Henry, and I faltered. I couldn’t tell him about the deal I’d made with Cronus. It was too complicated, and if he slipped away, I wouldn’t be able to live with the guilt of knowing that was one of the last things I’d said to him.
“I don’t know,” I lied. “The council thinks he wants to kill them for keeping him imprisoned in Tartarus.”
“Perhaps.” He ran his fingers through my hair, his touch so gentle that it felt like a warm summer breeze. “All I want is you.”
I shivered. Milo’s lips parted in his sleep, and he made an adorable suckling motion. “All I want is to be a family. A real, live family, together and safe from all of this.”
“We will be,” he promised. “I will make sure of it.”
I leaned against him and wrapped my arm around his waist, his silk shirt tickling the inside of my wrist. How long would it be before we got to spend time together like this again? “James and I are leaving to find Rhea tomorrow morning.”
Henry’s fingers stilled in my hair, and for a moment he said nothing. “What is so important that you have to put yourself in such a dangerous position?”
“The same reason as before,” I said. “If we can convince her to fight on our side, we might have a chance at winning.”
“But Cronus is ravaging the world. If you leave Olympus, you will not be safe.”
“I don’t care anymore,” I said with as much conviction as I could muster. “Besides, he’s mostly trapped on the island with Calliope. He’s powerful enough to cause natural disasters that kill millions, but Africa isn’t close enough to Greece to be a problem.”
“Are you sure about that?”
I hesitated. “No.”
He turned from Milo to hug me tightly, almost possessively, and he buried his nose in my hair. “Please do not go. Rhea will not fight for anyone, much less against her own husband. It is not worth the risk.”
“I have to try. You know I do.”
“Even though it might kill you?”
“I’m not planning on letting that happen, but—yes. Even though it might kill me.”
His expression clouded over. “Very well,” he murmured. “All I ask is that you remember what happened the last time you left the safety of the council.”
I scowled. “I get it. Something bad might happen if I leave Olympus. Cronus might catch me, Calliope might kill me or the sky might fall and land on top of me. But I can’t stand by and watch millions of people die because of me, all right?”
“Humanity is nothing compared to you,” he said, touching my cheek, and I stepped back.
“Even if that were true—and you know it isn’t—Milo deserves a happy life, and that means making sure there’s still a world for him to live in. I have to do this, Henry. I’m sorry. I love you and Milo more than anything, and if I had any choice in the matter—”
“You do,” said Henry. “You have as much choice as you are willing to give yourself.”
I huffed. “Fine. I’ve made my choice. I’m going to fight.”
“You should not be fighting in the first place,” he said. “You are too delicate, too—”
“Too what? Too young? Too inexperienced? I don’t need to be ancient to be worth something, and I’m doing this whether you like it or not.” I glared at him, but he averted his eyes. Several seconds ticked by, and at last I said in a softer voice, “I get why you don’t want to fight, Henry. I do. But that was before all of this happened. That was before Milo was born. If you won’t fight for me, then will you at least fight for him?”
Henry was quiet for a long moment, and not even the rise and fall of Milo’s chest comforted me. This was impossible. Half-dead or not, Henry was as stubborn as ever. After caring for the baby all this time, he knew Milo even better than I did, and that was the part I didn’t understand. How could anyone look at that face and not want to rip the world apart to get him back? How could Henry not need to protect his own son and give him the future he deserved?
“We will discuss it once you have made contact with Rhea,” he finally said. “I will not promise anything, but if there is a way I can help, I will. As it stands, I am rather stuck.”
That was as much of a concession as I was going to get. I stood on my tiptoes to try to kiss him, but like he had every other time during our visits with Milo, he turned his head so I only captured the corner of his mouth. “Thank you,” I said, refusing to let his distance faze me. Maybe he was Sleeping Beauty, and a kiss would wake him up and take him away from his son. If only it were that easy.
“You are welcome.” He reached into the crib and picked up the baby. “We will be here waiting when you return.”
“You’d better be.” I held my hand above Milo’s forehead, as close as I could get without going through him. “I love you both so damn much. You know that, right?”
Milo waved his arms, as if reaching for me, and Henry kissed his hand. “We do,” he said. “And we cannot wait to be with you again.”
I poked him in the ribs. “You can count on it.”
“Kate?”
I opened my eyes. James leaned toward me, his nose inches from mine.
“There you are,” he said with a hint of relief. “You were smiling.”
I straightened and adjusted the sling wrapped around my burning arm. It was easier to ignore the pain as it became the norm, but when I focused on it, it made me wince. “I didn’t realize that was a crime.”
“It’s not.” James offered me his hand, and I took it. “I just thought you weren’t coming back. I’ve been calling your name for ages.”
My cheeks grew warm. I didn’t know how I acted during these visions—no one had bothered to explain it to me, and I was too embarrassed to ask. Could James hear everything? “Then why didn’t you break in like you did last time?” I muttered.
“What, you mean when I was trying to drag you back from total oblivion?” he said. “I am sorry about that, you know. It’s rude. But if I hadn’t, you’d still be in there, convinced Henry was dead. So all in all, I figure it was worth it.”
I scowled at him, but he was right. “How did you do that anyway?”
He tapped his nose. “My secret. Maybe if you’re good, I’ll explain it later. Are we leaving? I packed a bag for both of us. Actually, your mother packed yours. I figured Henry might smite me if I went through your underwear.”
“I thought Walter was the one who did the smiting,” I said with a faint smile.
James’s eyebrows shot up. “Did you or did you not see the black cloud of doom when Henry broke onto Cronus’s island?”
My smile vanished. “Of course.”
“And you still think he doesn’t have it in him?”
I frowned. James didn’t have to rub my nose in the fact that I didn’t know what my own husband was capable of. Or what I was capable of, for that matter.
“Come on,” said James, gentler this time, and he took my good arm. “Let’s go say goodbye.”
My mother wasn’t the only one waiting for us. Walter stood at her side, and his smooth expression didn’t betray whatever it was he was thinking. My stomach twisted. I’d avoided him since the council meeting, unable to forget how he’d addressed me—as his daughter.
It seemed impossible. It had to be. If I was the daughter of Zeus, I’d know it. But the more I thought about it, the less I could deny it. James and Ava had mentioned that only his children joined the council; and if I was a member, then the answer was obvious.
But regardless of the evidence, part of me wanted to stay in denial. I’d lived my whole life thinking my father had left my mother early on, that he may have not even known I’d existed. It was easier than facing the possibility that he’d known and just didn’t care. And if Walter was my father, then there was no question that he’d not only known I’d existed, but he’d been acutely aware of everything my mother and I had gone through, as well. And he’d never cared enough to help.
As I walked toward him and my mother, resentment made my blood boil. He said nothing as my mother embraced me, and I buried my nose in her hair, inhaling deeply. It didn’t matter who Walter was to me. I had my mother, and she was the only parent I’d ever need.
“Where are the others?” I said. Not that I expected them to care that I was leaving, but I figured they’d at least want to give James a decent send-off.
“Attempting to corral Cronus fully back onto the island,” said my mother grimly. “We will be joining them once you leave.”
Fear swept through me. I had never thought of her as a soldier—she’d fought hard against the cancer that had eventually taken her mortal life, of course. But this wasn’t cancer. This was war, and the thought of my mother fighting alongside the likes of Dylan and Irene and Walter made my head spin. She was the gentlest person I knew.
No one could afford to sit this one out, though. If I knew how to fight like they did, I’d be on the front lines, too, using every bit of power I had inside me to get my son back. As it stood, the only way I had to help was this. And that was why no one, not even Henry, would ever talk me out of it.
“Kate,” said Walter, and my mother let me go. “You understand that Rhea is equally as strong as Cronus, do you not?”
I eyed him. We looked nothing like each other, but when the gods could and did change forms, that didn’t mean much. “Yeah, I know. Isn’t that the whole point?”
“Yes,” said Walter, giving my mother a look I didn’t understand. “That also means if you press her to do something she is not willing to do, or if you upset her in any way, she has the potential to be equally as devastating to our cause.”
“So you want me to suck up to her?” I said. “We’re in the middle of a war.”
“Yes, I am aware,” said Walter dryly. “I am merely asking that you show her the respect she deserves. She is our mother. Your grandmother twice over—”
“Excuse me?” I blurted. My mother squeezed my elbow, but I shook her off. It was one thing for me to at least have the choice to pretend to be blissfully unaware of his role in my life, but for him to force this on me now...something inside me snapped. “If you’re finally going to admit that you’re my father—”
“Now is not the time, Kate,” said my mother.
“It’s never the right time,” I said sharply. “It’s a simple yes or no, Walter. Are you my father?”
He raised his chin and looked down at me. “Yes. I never thought there was a question.”
As if it was no big deal. As if the years I’d spent taking care of my mother on my own didn’t matter. I’d cried myself to sleep countless nights, terrified I’d wake up and be alone in the world, and all this time, not only had my father known about me, but he had known exactly where we were and what we were going through.
“Then I guess it’s a good thing I never thought I needed a father,” I said. “Now, if you don’t mind, I’ve got a Titan to find.”
“Kate,” said my mother, reaching for me, but I yanked my arm away. Her lips parted in surprise, and guilt gripped my heart, more painful than anything Cronus could possibly do to me. But I stood my ground.
“We need to go.” I slid my hand into the crook of James’s elbow and took a step back, ignoring the way my throat tightened. I wasn’t going to cry. Not over Walter, and especially not in front of him.
For the first time in our friendship, James kept his mouth shut. Instead he nodded in Walter and my mother’s direction. My parents’ direction, I realized. For the first time in my life, I had parents.
That should’ve made me giddy with excitement, or at least it should have given me a glimmer of happiness during one of the worst times of my life. Instead it made me nauseous.
“Goodbye, sweetheart,” my mother whispered. Before I could say goodbye in return, golden light flashed from all directions, and bright spots of color burst in front of me as the sunset floors vanished.
James and I appeared on a grassy hill, and I blinked. Sheep’s Meadow in Central Park, the exact spot I’d met with my mother every night I’d spent in Eden. We were surrounded by people, but none of them so much as glanced up at our appearance. Could they see us? Or had James done something to make them think we’d been there the whole time?
“Why are we in New York?” I said. “Is Rhea here now?”
Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.
Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».
Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию (https://www.litres.ru/aimee-carter/the-goddess-inheritance/) на ЛитРес.
Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.
Aimee Carter
Тип: электронная книга
Жанр: Детская проза
Язык: на английском языке
Издательство: HarperCollins
Дата публикации: 16.04.2024
Отзывы: Пока нет Добавить отзыв
О книге: Love or life. Henry or their child. The end of her family or the end of the world.Kate must choose.During nine months of captivity, Kate Winters has survived a jealous goddess, a vengeful Titan and a pregnancy she never asked for. Now the Queen of the Gods wants her unborn child, and Kate can′t stop her–until Cronus offers a deal.In exchange for her loyalty and devotion, the King of the Titans will spare humanity and let Kate keep her child. Yet even if Kate agrees, he′ll destroy Henry, her mother and the rest of council. And if she refuses, Cronus will tear the world apart until every last god and mortal is dead.With the fate of everyone she loves resting on her shoulders, Kate must do the impossible: find a way to defeat the most powerful being in existence, even if it costs her everything.Even if it costs her eternity.