Her eyes flew open. Instead of the anguish I expected, they filled with magenta fire, as surely as Henry’s glinted with moonlight and Cronus’s swirled with fog. She unfolded her legs and stood, and a pale aura glowed around her.

“You’re a liar.” Her words echoed throughout the nursery, and Milo let out a startled cry. She ignored him and went toe to toe with Cronus, unaware I was less than a foot away. “Kate would never say those things to me, and your pitiful attempts to sever my loyalty won’t work. Even if Kate did say those awful things, she doesn’t really mean them. Calliope’s using her powers to make her hate me, isn’t she?”

Calliope didn’t have to cut the strings of our friendship. Ava was already fraying them beyond repair. But no matter how much I understood why she was doing this, no matter how much I wanted to forgive her, I’d never had such conflicting feelings for someone in my life. I constantly wavered between irresistible fury and the deep desire to understand, as if those two parts of me were at war with each other. And while I’d been on the island, close enough for Calliope to get to me whenever she wanted, forgiving Ava had never crossed my mind.

Maybe Calliope was behind this, after all. I took a deep breath. Acknowledging it didn’t make the tension in the pit of my stomach lessen, but I would force myself past Calliope’s influences if Ava did the right thing.

“Is that so?” said Cronus with eerie calm, pulling me back into the present. “What makes you so certain? You are already on our side. I have no reason to lie.”

“You have every reason to lie,” said Ava. “I’ve told Calliope, and now I’ll tell you. I am not your bitch. I’m here for my husband, and I’m here for Kate’s baby. I won’t let you or Calliope poison him.”

A shadow moved in the doorway, and Henry appeared. He was safe. Wordlessly he crossed the room and took my hand.

“You can tell me as many awful things as you want. I won’t believe you.” Ava’s voice trembled, but power radiated from her. “She’s my best friend, and I love her. Not that you would understand the first thing about love.”

She reached into Milo’s cradle and picked him up, and his cries grew louder. His arms flailed toward me, and I held my hand over his forehead. “It’s all right,” I whispered. “I’m here.”

As the words left my mouth, however, Ava stormed toward the door, and it was only Henry’s tight grip on my hand that kept me from going after her.

“Where are you taking him?” said Cronus without any hint of anger. If anything, he sounded amused.

Ava glared at him. “To give him a bath and a bottle. Someone needs to make sure he knows he’s loved, and you and Calliope sure as hell aren’t qualified.”

I stepped toward her, yanking on Henry’s hand in an attempt to get him to follow, but he stood firm. “Come, Kate,” he said, and the world around us began to fade. “There’s nothing more we can do.”

And though I said nothing while he brought me back to Olympus, I knew he was wrong. There was something more, and now I had no choice but to do it.

Chapter 10

Destruction

I wasn’t sure how long I lay there, staring at Henry in the middle of our bed. Long enough for my heart to ache the same way it did whenever I was gone from Milo for too long. Long enough to be certain that the council meeting was over by now, but my mother still hadn’t come to find me. Maybe she knew I didn’t want to be found.

“Why do you think she did it?” I said, breaking the silence between me and Henry.

“Ava?” he said, and I nodded. “Because she loves Nicholas, and because she was naive enough to trust that Calliope would keep her word.”

“But why did Calliope go after Ava to begin with?”

Henry leaned over and kissed me. “Calliope sees Ava as her greatest rival. Walter loves her more than anyone else on the council, and Calliope has always been jealous of the sway she’s had over him. Ava is powerful in her own right, as well. Calliope has control over a person’s loyalty, but Ava controls love. Not even Calliope can touch that.”

Realization dawned on me. “She wanted you. Calliope was going to capture you and force you to be her partner. That was her endgame—to lure you in and keep you like some kind of pet or something. Maybe that’s why she wanted Ava on her side.”

Henry said nothing. I waited for him to speak, but his gaze grew distant, and eventually it became obvious he wasn’t going to respond.

I hesitated. Another topic then. “Do you think Ava’s right and Calliope’s using her abilities to make me hate Ava?”

“I don’t know. The only person who can answer that is you.”

But I didn’t have an answer. I didn’t even know the right questions to ask. My anger wasn’t irrational, but I’d never been so furious and frustrated with anyone in my entire life. Not even Calliope after she’d tried to kill me. If I could forgive her, then why couldn’t I forgive Ava?

Because Calliope had only taken my life. Ava had ripped the most important thing in the world away from me.

“It still doesn’t make sense,” I said. “If she’s using Ava’s powers somehow, then why haven’t we heard about it? Why hasn’t Cronus told me?”

“I don’t know.” His hand slid down my side to rest on my waist. “There’s nothing we can do about it right now except prepare ourselves for the possibility that Calliope still has an ace hidden up her sleeve.”

Miserable as I was, I snorted into his shoulder. “Hearing you use poker metaphors is bizarre.”

“I’m much better at it than you might think,” he said.

“I believe it.”

He kissed me again and ran a finger above the waistband of my jeans, leaving searing heat wherever he touched me. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what he wanted, and I kissed him back, but set my hand over his. He sighed.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “It’s just—last time we did this, Calliope used it against us. And I can’t go through that again.”

Instead of protesting, Henry drew me in closer, shifting his body so it rested against mine. “Is this your way of offering me more incentive? Win the war, and you’ll sleep with me again?”

I rolled my eyes. “Please. If that’s what I was trying to do, I’d be way more obvious about it. Winning the war’s a little vague, after all. I’d go for something more solid.”

“For example?” he murmured.

“I’d say something like...I’ll sleep with you after you teach me how to disappear and reappear.”

He peered down at me, and for the first time in ages, I thought I saw a real smile on his face. “Is that a promise? Because with that kind of motivation, I’m certain we could have it down by next sunset.”

“You’re ridiculous,” I said. “But if you’re offering...”

He immediately sat up and smoothed his shirt. “There must be somewhere in this place we can practice without getting scolded.”

I started to suggest returning to the Underworld, but we were as trapped here as I’d been on the island. If we left Olympus for any reason, it would only be a matter of time before Calliope and Cronus discovered Henry was alive. We’d gotten lucky in Africa and Greece, and we couldn’t afford to risk it a second time.

“Do you think we’ll ever see him again?” I said, and Henry’s smile faded.

“Milo?” he said, and I nodded. “Yes. We’ll see him anytime you want.”

“You know what I mean.”

He drew me toward him again, his arms tightening around me. I’d been an idiot to ever think he didn’t love me just because he didn’t say it. He told me a hundred times a day without having to utter a word. “I promised you we would find a way to get him back, and we will. Whatever it takes.”

“Except you dying,” I said firmly, wrapping my fingers around the hem of his black shirt. “I mean it.”

Henry kissed my forehead. “So you are allowed to offer yourself to Cronus for all eternity to get Milo out of there, but I am not allowed to offer my life to do the same?”