Goddess Interrupted (21 page)

“Don’t, sweetie,” she said, taking my hand and sandwiching it between hers. “You don’t want to see that.”

A lump formed in my throat. “I can’t—I can’t just sit here and wait,” I said, my voice breaking. “How can you be so calm when they could die?”

“I’m calm because I know what to expect,” she said. “Even if you could get your power to work, you’re so used to how mortals fight that you wouldn’t understand what’s going on anyway. Henry’s going to need you when he gets back, and you don’t want to drain yourself by watching.”

I stared down at the marble floor. No matter what Ingrid said, no matter how Henry acted toward me, the fact remained that Persephone was beside him in battle. And if something happened to one of his siblings, he wouldn’t come to me with his pain. “He’ll have Persephone.”

Ava snorted. “Oh, please. The moment she gets the chance, she’ll go running back to Adonis.”

“I’m not so sure about that.” I hesitated. “She kissed him.”

“What? Who?”

“Persephone,” I said. “She kissed Henry.”

“When?” said Ava in disbelief. “She hates him, why would she possibly—”

“She was trying to prove to him that their relationship was all in his imagination.” I leaned my head against the pew. “It was the night we got back. They were alone together in this room with a bunch of windows, and he was sitting, and she climbed into his lap. They talked a little, and she kissed him. I didn’t want to see it,” I added, in case she thought I’d purposely spied on them. “I couldn’t control it. But I saw it, clear as day. It wasn’t just a peck either, and I know Henry enjoyed it.”

“Yeah, he probably did,” said Ava, and she must have realized how completely unhelpful that was, because she quickly added, “Have things been better between you? I mean, how often are you two knocking boots?”

I frowned. “What? You mean— Never. We haven’t—not at all, not since that one time. How can you even—” I stopped. Of course she would ask that sort of thing; she was Ava. “He—holds me at night, I guess, but we haven’t even so much as kissed.”

Ava’s jaw dropped open. “Are you serious? My god, Kate, why didn’t you come to me sooner?”

“I tried to tell you,” I said, bewildered. How had this suddenly become my fault? “What would you have done anyway? Forced him to want me? I don’t want it to happen that way, Ava.”

She rolled her eyes. “Honestly, you think I’d do that? That’s not what love’s about, Kate, but I could have given him a nudge in the right direction. Without using my powers,” she added when I glared at her. “Someday you’ll learn to trust me. Now, that hag won’t hang around forever, and what are you going to do when she’s out of the way?”

I didn’t like Persephone, but she was still my sister, and Ava’s attitude toward her grated at me. “Why do you hate each other?” I said. “I get that you liked Adonis, too, but don’t you have enough toys?”

“You’ve seen Adonis,” said Ava with a cheeky little smile. “Would you call him just another toy?”

“No, but—”

“Exactly. I saw him first, and she stole him from me, plain and simple. You can even ask Daddy.”

“I don’t want to ask Walter,” I said sharply. “Shouldn’t Adonis get a say in this?”

Ava stuck her lower lip out in a pout. “He wanted both of us. That’s why Persephone gave up her immortality, you know. She wanted to have him in the Underworld all to herself instead of having to share him with me.”

And all the while, Henry had had to watch as his wife fought Ava for the right to be with a mortal. Persephone had done the right thing, leaving him, but for Henry’s sake, I wished she’d left him before fooling around behind his back. Or in front of it.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do when she’s gone,” I said. “But as long as he wants me to stay, and as long as he’s working on making us better, I’m not going to abandon him like she did.”

“I know you won’t,” said Ava, leaning her head on my shoulder. “That’s part of the reason we chose you, you know.”

“Yeah, well, that’s about the only thing I have going for me. I’m useless.”

“You’ve been immortal for nine months. Give yourself some time before you decide we were wrong. We weren’t, by the way,” she added. “Just in case you decide to challenge that.”

I hesitated. I hadn’t told anyone else, not even my mother, but I needed to tell Ava. If she really could help, then she had to know everything. “I was going to leave him.”

Ava was silent, and when she finally spoke, she all but whispered. “I know. I’m glad you didn’t.”

I stared at her. “You know? How?”

“Henry told us,” she said. “Right after you said you would.”

I hid my face in my hands, forcing myself to breathe steadily. Of course everyone knew. None of them could keep a secret to save their lives. “No one tried to talk me out of it. Did you speak with Henry? Is that why—” I swallowed, my throat raw from my sobs. “That’s why he asked me to stay, isn’t it?”

“Of course not,” said Ava. “Kate, stop doing this to yourself. None of us said anything to Henry, and none of us talked to you about it because James insisted it was your choice.”

A knot formed in my throat, and I forced myself to speak around it. “That night, when Henry came back—I told him James and I weren’t together. And then he asked me to stay.”

“Really?” said Ava, brightening. “Well, that’s that, isn’t it?”

“What’s what?”

She sighed. “You’re adorable. Clueless, but adorable. Henry thought you wanted to be with James because you spent your summer with him. So he was giving you the chance to go.”

I’d known that, or at least I’d suspected it. That didn’t make it any easier to hear though. “But I don’t want to be with James.”

“And once he figured that out, he asked you to stay, because that’s what he really wants.” Ava gave me a cheeky little smile. “See? Sometimes it isn’t all doom and gloom.”

I sniffed, and the weight on my chest lifted. “You really think so?”

Ava pressed a noisy kiss to my cheek. “I know so.”

Waiting was torture. Over the next several hours, we talked about everything and nothing. When we lapsed into silence, I tried again and again to see what was going on, but it never worked. Every time the clock chimed, I wondered who would be missing when the council returned, if any of them returned at all. Ava kept reassuring me that no news was good news, but how long before she would concede that something must have gone wrong?

At quarter to seven, something prickled against the back of my neck. Ava and I leaned against each other, both half-asleep, and I kept waking myself up every few minutes to see if they’d returned. When I cracked open an eye, I saw a strange mist around us, and for a moment I thought I was dreaming.

And then I heard a giggle and the click of heels against marble, and my blood turned to ice.

“Good morning,” said Calliope as she rounded the corner to face us. “You two look cozy, don’t you?”

Without warning, the mist turned to fog and engulfed us.

Chapter Seventeen
Ash and Blood

I opened my mouth to scream, but nothing came out.

“Oh, stop it.” Calliope’s voice whispered through the fog, echoing all around me. “There’s no one here to help you anyway.”

I reached out for Ava, but she was gone. “What did you do with her?” I said, stumbling to my feet. My knees buckled, but I refused to give Calliope the satisfaction of seeing me fall.

“You’ll have her back soon enough,” she said as she appeared out of the fog in front of me. “I told you Cronus would free me. Don’t you love it when everything works out in the end?”

Malevolent heat spread through me, the same I’d felt while facing Calliope after the brothers had captured her. “What do you want?” I growled, clawing at my abdomen. What was she doing to me? There had to be a way to stop it.

“I already told you what I want,” she said. “I’m going to hurt you the same way you hurt me. I’m going to take what you love most from you, and you’ll be helpless to stop me.” She patted me on the cheek, and where her fingers touched me, my skin burned.

I slapped her hand away. “Where’s Henry? What have you done to him?”

“Nothing,” she said, her eyes widening innocently. “Don’t you trust me? Really, Kate, you must learn not to be so suspicious. You’ll give yourself wrinkles, and you wouldn’t want to spend an eternity looking like an old woman, would you?”

The fog rumbled, and Calliope winked at me. “That reminds me—I have someone who wants to meet you.”

A dark-haired man appeared beside her, but he wasn’t solid like she was. Instead the fog seemed to ripple through him, as if they were one and the same, and when he stepped forward, I saw his eyes were made of the same gray that surrounded us.

Cronus.

“Kate, my darling,” he murmured, his voice like quiet thunder. He brushed his fingertips against my cheek with a featherlight touch that reverberated throughout my entire body. “I have so looked forward to this moment.”

He looked like Henry. That was the worst part. He was older, but the shape of his face, the color of his hair that hung to his shoulders, even the way he moved—everything about him reminded me of Henry.

Was there a physical resemblance? Henry was the eldest of the brothers—had he been created to look like Cronus? Or was Cronus trying to look like him? Why would he do that?

“Cronus,” I said stiffly, clasping my shaking hands together. “What did you do with them?”

“They’re all quite safe, I assure you, my dear.” Cronus smiled, and all the heat left my body. “Did you like my gifts?”

“G-gifts?” I stammered. “What gifts?”

Cronus took my hands in his and drew mine apart with ease. He covered my empty palm, and when he pulled away, I was cupping a gold and blue flower that smelled like candy.

The looming fog seemed to close in around me, and all the air whooshed out of my lungs. It’d been Cronus all along. “But—why? You don’t even— I’m not—”

He leaned toward me, his lips brushing my cheek, and my mind went strangely blank, as if it, too, were full of fog. “I can give you everything you’ve ever wanted, my darling,” he murmured, and his words washed over me, warm and inviting as they burrowed so deeply inside my mind that I couldn’t shake them. “A home, a family, and I would love you so much more than he ever could. You would never be second-best for me. You could be my eternity.”

As he spoke, Calliope disappeared, leaving us together in the cocoon of fog. My eyes fell shut, and I swayed as my body screamed for me to get away from him. Some part of me didn’t want to though. He was telling the truth; of course he was. He would love me forever. And the way he said my name, the way he curled up inside of me…

“Come with me, my dear,” he whispered. “Give me your hand, and I will take you far away from here. Someplace as exquisite as you are, where you can see the sky. Where you will never lack for love.”

I exhaled. It would be so simple. An eternity in the sun with someone who loved me—what more was there to life?

My hand was half an inch from his when a wave of power pushed me back into the pew. Cronus growled and spun around to face an enemy I couldn’t see, and I struggled to stand, but that same force held me down.

A silhouette stepped toward us, and another wave of pure power ripped through the throne room. “I’m only going to warn you once, Cronus,” said a voice, dark and dangerous. “Get the hell away from my wife.”

I gasped like I was surfacing after spending too long underwater, and the fog around me disappeared. Dazed, I doubled over, heat twisting inside of me as if I’d been punched in the gut. But it wasn’t Cronus and the strange power he’d had over me. It was Calliope, and this time whatever she’d done had worked.

“Henry,” I choked, and he knelt beside me. “I’m sorry— Cronus, I didn’t—I didn’t mean— And Calliope, she escaped—”

He gathered me up in his arms and gently set me back down on the pew. “Calm down. You did nothing wrong. How do you feel?”

I stared at him and those eyes that shined like moonlight, and for one terrifying second, I felt nothing. No love. No pain at the way Persephone consumed him. Just emptiness.

And then it crashed through me, throwing everything off balance for the space of several heartbeats. How had Cronus done that? How had he made me not love Henry, if only for a few moments?

I threw my arms around him and buried my face in his shoulder, hanging on for dear life. Once again, it was Calliope, not Cronus. That was her power—that was what Henry had been so scared of. They’d worked together so Cronus could take me from him. It was the only explanation.

“I love you,” I babbled, inhaling his scent. He smelled of ash and blood. “I love you so much. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean—”

“Everything’s all right now. You’re safe,” he said, rubbing my back like Ava had minutes before.

My stomach turned inside out. Oh, god. “Where’s Ava?”

Another cool hand touched the back of my neck. Mom. “Ava’s with Walter over there, sweetheart,” she said, nodding toward a dark blur several rows down. Ava’s shoulders shook, and Walter embraced her, whispering words I couldn’t hear. “Nicholas was captured.”

My head pounded, and it took everything I had not to be sick all over the marble floor. “Is everyone else…?”

“We’re alive,” said another voice. James.

Henry glanced up. “Did the trap hold?”

“Yes. It’s not perfect, but it’ll buy us some time. What’s going on?”

“Calliope escaped with Cronus,” said Henry.

James muttered a curse and sat down heavily beside me. I didn’t let go of Henry, but I did find James’s hand and squeezed it. He gripped mine in return. “What now?” he said to Henry.

“We wait. Are the others coming?”

“Ella’s injured,” said James. “Theo and Sofia are tending to her. Everyone else is all right.”

I buried my face in Henry’s shoulder and took several shaky breaths to calm myself. Cronus and Calliope were trapped. Henry and my mother and James were all right, and everything would be okay.

Except the part where Ava may have just lost her husband.

We waited for the others to arrive, and they did, one by one. Some of them were bloodied, and others walked away without a scratch. Persephone returned on Dylan’s arm looking no worse for the wear. But Ella—

She and Theo appeared together toward the edge of the circle. She was lying on the floor, trembling and the color of chalk as a pool of blood spread around her, and I went numb. Her left arm was gone. Theo’s hands were on either side of her head, and his brow furrowed as he stared into her eyes. Even when the others gathered around him, he didn’t look away. I pressed my face into Henry’s chest, unable to watch.

“Did Calliope hurt you?” said Henry quietly so only I could hear him, and I nodded. It wasn’t physical pain, but I understood now what he meant.

“It’s gone now,” I lied. The mental fog had disappeared with her and Cronus, but an ache remained where that fiery heat had slithered through me. “I’m okay.”

Henry fell silent, and I consoled myself with the fact that telling the truth wouldn’t make any difference. There was nothing he could do about it, not when Theo was busy with Ella, and I wouldn’t have had it any other way. It didn’t matter what Calliope had done to me. Whatever it was, I was alive and in one piece.

“The council will reconvene in five minutes,” said Walter. “Theo, take Ella to her room and tend to her there. I already know your decision.”

Theo didn’t acknowledge him, but in the blink of an eye, he and Ella were gone, leaving the marble floor stained scarlet. Dead silence filled the throne room until my mother rose, and with a wave of her hand, the blood vanished.

If only it was that simple. Maybe then I could pretend that we weren’t all plunging face-first into the beginning of a brutal war.

* * *

This time, Henry didn’t touch me.

As Walter stood to address what remained of the council, I left my hand on the armrest of my throne in case he wanted to take it, but his remained at his side. He’d barely looked at me since I’d confirmed that Calliope had done something to me, and I struggled not to blurt out the whole truth of it. There was nothing he could do to fix it anyway, and as long as I still loved Henry, it didn’t matter what else she did to me.

“We will continue to fight Cronus,” said Walter, and Henry averted his eyes from his brother. “It will not be easy, and after what happened today, I will not order any of you to help. If you do not feel ready or willing to risk yourselves for this cause, you may leave, and no one will think any less of you for it.”

I was certain that with how close-knit the council was, no one would back down. So when Dylan and Xander stood, I stared at them, shocked. They both acknowledged the council with a nod, and Dylan led the way out of the throne room. I knew he thought it was a losing battle, but I had never expected him or anyone else to abandon the rest of the council.

Neither had the others, it seemed. With Theo and Ella also missing, only ten of us remained, and I was sure Persephone had no intention of sticking around for the fight. If Henry insisted I couldn’t take part again, then the number dropped to eight.

“Very well,” said Walter. “The trap we have constructed will last us until the next winter solstice, and it is my intention between now and then that—”

“Brother,” said Henry. “If I may.”

“By all means,” said Walter, and Henry stood stiffly.

“Sisters and brothers,” he said, focusing on the pillars behind the pews instead of on the other members of the council. “I regret to say that I have decided to withdraw from the war, as well.”

My mouth fell open, and a murmur rippled through the remaining council members. Ava, who looked like a child curled up in her massive throne made of seashells, began to cry.

Walter shifted his weight, as if he were about to step forward, but at the last minute changed his mind. “We are counting on you,” he said slowly. “Together, with some time, we have a chance, but without you—”

“The Underworld is my realm, not the world above. I will seal it off and ensure that Cronus remains trapped until the winter solstice, but I have made my decision,” said Henry. “I ask that you all understand it was not made lightly.”

My mother stood, and she had the same look on her face that she’d worn when I’d decided to color my hair purple at eleven and get a tattoo when I was fourteen. Neither of those things had happened. “Henry, we are all frightened of the risks, but if you refuse to help us, we will lose. Surely you know that. The blood Cronus has already spilled—”

“It is a shame, and those of you who are injured have my deepest sympathies,” said Henry. “You of all people should understand why I am doing this, Diana. Kate is Calliope’s target, and you cannot deny that it is a miracle nothing happened to her today. I have already failed her twice, and I will not allow for a third time.”

I was on my feet before I realized what I was doing, the ache of my guilt and grief swiftly replaced by fury. “Don’t you dare use me as an excuse to abandon your family. Calliope will come after me whether you fight with them or not. I won’t stand by and let you do nothing just so everyone can blame me when the council loses.”

“No one would blame you, my dear,” said Walter. “Henry, without you, loss is inevitable. There is no one else capable of stopping Cronus, and if Calliope does not see the error of her ways within the year—”

“I am sorry,” said Henry. “I will not change my mind. You are not an excuse, Kate. If I step aside and seal the Underworld, no matter the outcome of the war, I will be able to keep you safe while continuing my duties and watching over the dead.”

“Why can’t you fight anyway?” I said. “Everyone’s going to die if you don’t.”

“Everyone may die if I do,” he said. “I will not risk your life. We have already seen the lengths Calliope will go to destroy you, and with Cronus’s interest in you, it is far too dangerous.”

Before I could sputter out a retort, Persephone stood. “What about the other Titans? If Henry—”

“What other Titans?” I said, my heart pounding.

Persephone gave me a look. “Would you let me finish? If Henry doesn’t want to help, then fine. There’s obviously nothing any of us can say to change his mind.” Her eyes flashed as she glared at Walter. “Father said no one would be judged for backing out. And before you throw a fit, Kate, we aren’t the only ones who can fight him. Not all of the other Titans were imprisoned. If we’re lucky, the ones who weren’t might be willing to help us.”