I gritted my teeth. “You’re going after my home.”

“Your home is in the Underworld, and I assure you I have no intention of removing you from my path the way I will with the rest of the council. You will have eternity to remain there with the billions of souls who will die at my hand. Perhaps if you behave, I will allow you to join me on the surface for a time. Much like the arrangement you currently have with your very much alive husband.”

Cold horror settled over me. “Why are you doing this? I came to you. I was going to hold up my end of the bargain. I didn’t know—”

“You didn’t know what?” said Cronus with that dangerous neutrality that was infinitely more frightening than anger. “That your dear Henry was alive?”

“I didn’t know he followed me,” I said. “I didn’t know he had a plan. I’m sorry.”

Cronus tilted his head. “No, you are not. You are sorry you have lost that which you thought you could keep hidden. You are sorry you were not the one who was allowed to sacrifice yourself for your loved ones. You are sorry you will be forced to remain alive after I have torn apart everyone you have ever cared about. You are sorry that you have lost your son. But you are not sorry you lied.”

An invisible weight rested on my chest. “You’re right,” I said shakily. “I’m not sorry about lying. But I am sorry all of those people are going to die. And if you hadn’t pushed it to this point, I would’ve been sorry for hurting you, too.”

Cronus touched my cheek with the ghost of affection. “I thought you were different, Kate Winters. I thought you understood.”

“I do. More than you’ve ever understood me.” A lump formed in my throat, but no tears came. Begging and pleading wouldn’t do me any good, but there had to be a way to fix this somehow. To make him understand. “You don’t deserve this kind of pain, but then again, neither do I. Neither does the council. And neither do the billions of lives you’re going to destroy. The only difference between us and humans is death. Even now, with you here, there is no difference. Can you imagine it? An ending? A moment when you cease to exist? And the people who love you, what they would go through—”

“Enough,” he said. I searched his face for some flicker of emotion, but I found none. “I have made my decision. I will not show you mercy when you have shown me none. The war will continue, and I will not surrender or agree to a truce. I have tried to extend the hand of peace to the council, and they spit in my face. I confided in the one person I believed understood me, and you turned out to be the greatest liar of them all. We have nothing more to discuss.”

Before I could protest, Cronus disappeared, and my hands touched nothing but air. He was gone, along with any hope I had of preserving my family.

I stared blankly into the empty space. As soon as Cronus escaped on the solstice, this would cease to be a war. It would be a bloodbath.

There had to be something I wasn’t seeing, something I could do to get him to change his mind. But what could I give him now that he didn’t trust me? What words could I possibly say to fix this?

A soft gurgle caught my attention, and I turned in time to see Henry wander into the nursery with Milo in his arms. He’d certainly taken his time getting up here. Had he detoured? He must have. I silently prayed it wasn’t to see Calliope.

“Here we go,” said Henry gently. “You’re safe here.”

He walked past me so slowly that he seemed to be moving through molasses. No wonder he’d taken so long. A turtle could have outpaced him. Upon spotting me, Milo waved his arms, and I managed a tearful grin.

“Hi, baby. Having fun with your daddy?”

He gurgled, and Henry smiled. “I wish I could stay here, too, but I will be back before the moon disappears from your window. In the meantime, I am sure your aunt Ava will be here soon to keep you company.”

With a wave of his hand, the cradle moved a few inches, presumably into a position where Milo could see the moon. A sob caught in my throat.

Henry pressed his lips to the baby’s forehead for a long moment before straightening. “Be good,” he murmured, and he looked straight at me. “Your mother and I love you.”

I froze. Did he know? Was it a coincidence? Another trick of Cronus’s?

And I love you. Though his lips hadn’t moved, his voice whispered through my mind, and I held my breath. Just like Milo, he knew I was there. Ava hadn’t lied; she hadn’t taken that love away from him.

I know what you’re doing. I pushed the words toward him, and he turned away to stare into Milo’s cradle. And I hope you can fight what Ava’s making you feel, because once this is over, I’m never letting you go again.

It might’ve been my imagination, but I could’ve sworn he smiled.

This will end, and we will be together again. My thoughts were firm and unyielding now. Just stay with me. Don’t let Calliope convince you that you’re someone you’re not, and everything will be okay. I’ll make sure of it.

Without so much as a glance my way, Henry walked toward the nursery door. But as he moved by me, his hand passed through mine, and this time I knew it was no accident. So will I.

* * *

When I returned to Olympus, the council was waiting for me. Everyone looked exhausted and well past their breaking points, with dark smudges under their eyes and pale skin that seemed to stretch too tightly over their faces.

“Kate,” said Walter. Even he looked spent. “Do you have news?”

Now they wanted to hear what I had to say? I bit back a sharp reply. They’d gone through enough that evening without having to deal with my inflated sense of injustice, as well. “Calliope really is torturing Nicholas to keep Ava in line. She has a room full of weapons I think he made—some of them look like test weapons before she finally settled on the dagger, and enough of them are infused with Cronus’s powers that if we can get close enough, maybe there’s a chance we could use them and—”

Walter raised a weary hand, and for once I fell silent. “If we are fortunate enough to get that far past Cronus’s defenses, it means we will have already won.” The note of inevitability he’d always used whenever he spoke of winning the war had disappeared.

“What happened during the battle today?” I said, and half a dozen of them looked away.

“Cronus was more...focused than usual,” said my mother. “We were lucky no one was injured.”

“He’s fighting harder because of me,” I said, and across the circle, Dylan scoffed.

“Always because of you, isn’t it? Couldn’t possibly be because he’s getting stronger the closer we get to the winter solstice, could it?”

“Maybe,” I allowed. “But I don’t think it’s a coincidence this happened the day after he found out I’ve been lying to him about Henry.”

Dylan scowled, but he didn’t say anything else.

“How is Henry?” said Sofia. “Did you see him?”

I nodded. What would they do if they knew Calliope had somehow convinced Henry to fight for her? Would they treat him like the enemy, too? He might still love me, but love wasn’t enough to convince the council that he wouldn’t fight against them if Calliope ordered him to.

“He’s fighting her,” I said. A half truth at best and a full-out lie at worst. “There’s only so much he can do without giving himself away, but he’s still in there.”

“Good,” said Sofia, settling back in her throne. “She doesn’t know him like she knows the rest of us. Gives her less of a chance to exploit his weaknesses and use them against him.”

That was exactly what she was doing, though. She knew his weaknesses—she knew he would do anything to protect me and Milo. Maybe she’d even asked Ava not to take his love for me away from him so he would remember why he was doing this. Or maybe she’d done it just so he could feel that heartbreak when he kissed her and remembered who he was really supposed to love.