The Goddess Inheritance (17 page)

“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?”

“I’d still be alive,” I said. “And I’d find a way out of there eventually.”

“I admire your bravery, but James is right. You must find a solution to this martyr complex of yours.”

I gave him a halfhearted glare. “You weren’t complaining when my martyr complex gave you a second chance.”

“But the time has come to fight not just for the lives of those you love, but for your own, as well,” he said. “If only so you do not hurt those same people by leaving them the way you’re so afraid they will leave you.”

That wasn’t fair and he knew it. If someone had to die, I would much rather it was me than suffer that kind of loss. Henry, my mother, Milo—I couldn’t come out of that and still be me.

“I’ll do my best,” I said.

“Promise me.”

But I couldn’t, and neither could he. We would both do what we had to in order to protect each other, and no promise in the world could stop either of us.

By the time Olympus once again hovered over Greece and the council departed for another minutes-long battle against Cronus, I managed to disappear from one side of the throne room and reappear on the other. With the amount of concentration it took, I had no chance to worry about my mother and the rest of the council. And I was too frazzled to be annoyed that this must have been Henry’s plan all along.

“Why didn’t you teach me this sooner?” I said, pulling my hair into a ponytail. “This would have come in handy nine months ago, you know.” It didn’t take any physical exertion at all, but the amount of willpower it required made me dizzy every time I crossed the room. How did Henry travel through the entire Underworld like this?

“We did not have the opportunity,” he said. “Now try to go into the bedroom. I will meet you there.”

I gave him a look. “I told you, I don’t want to do that until—”

“Is that all you think about?” he said with a faint smile before disappearing, and I huffed. Completely unfair.

Closing my eyes, I focused on the air around me. In the throne room, it was still and warm, but not unbearable. Slowly, agonizingly so, I pieced together an image of the bedroom in my mind. The plain bed, the dresser, the closet, the white door, the sunset floor and the sky-blue ceiling exactly like the throne room. Gathering myself together, feeling every inch of my body from the tip of my nose to the bottom of my heels, I exhaled.

And then I opened my eyes.

“Very good,” said Henry, standing dangerously close to me. “You were faster that time. Less than thirty seconds.”

It was difficult to take a compliment from someone who could do it in the blink of an eye. “What if we appear in the same space?”

“That will not happen,” said Henry. “The laws of the universe won’t allow it.”

Oh. Well, that was good to know. I leaned up against the bedpost and stuck my hands in my pockets. “Once I have this down, could you teach me how to fight?”

“It takes centuries to learn how to fight the way that would make any difference in the battles,” he said. Damn. So James hadn’t been lying. “This—learning how to travel—is your best bet.”

“How can this help?” I said, and he shrugged.

“Any number of ways, really. Never underestimate the value of being able to go wherever you’d like with a single thought. That coupled with your visions...well, you could be a very formidable opponent indeed.”

“You’re just saying that to try to make me feel better.”

“Perhaps,” he allowed with a smile. “But it doesn’t make it any less true. Now, before you get the wrong idea of me, I will meet you back in the throne room.”

Once again, he disappeared, and I sighed. If I were still mortal, I was sure I’d have a raging headache by now. Closing my eyes, I repeated the process, this time trying to focus faster and shave a second or two off my time. I had to get better, and I only had so much time to learn how.

I reappeared in the throne room twenty-two seconds later and grinned. “Next time we play tag, I get to be it,” I said, and my eyes fluttered open.

Walter stood two inches in front of me, so close my nose was nearly pressed against his chest. “While it is admirable that you have found the time to play games during such a troubling period, I must ask that you take your seat now.”

I stumbled back a step and hit someone else. James. He set his hand on my shoulder to steady me. “We’re back,” he said.

“Hadn’t guessed,” I mumbled before shuffling over to my throne. Henry stood beside his, and he extended his hand. I took it. The rest of the council each stood by theirs as well, and I did a quick mental count. They all looked worn down—my mother’s skin was sickeningly pale, a painful reminder of her last few days back in Eden—but everyone had returned.

No one spoke. Their expressions ranged from deep sadness to inexplicable rage, and it took everything I had not to sink into a vision and make sure Milo was all right. “What happened?” I said shakily, too scared to wait for Walter to speak first.

“Cronus’s reach is extending. He sent out another tidal wave,” said Walter. “Alexandria is all but gone, and Cairo is half-drowned.”

“But—” I tried to picture a map of Egypt. It’d been forever since I’d seen one. “Cairo isn’t on the coast.”

“With the power of a Titan behind it, there was nothing to stop the wave from reaching so far inland,” said Phillip, and he took a great shuddering breath. “I am sorry. I have done everything I can to counter him, but—”

“There’s only so much you can do,” said Sofia gently, her eyes rimmed with red. “No one blames you, Phillip.”

From the way he bowed his head, it was obvious Phillip blamed himself. I shoved my shaking hands between my knees. Two cities this time, and everything in between.

“How many casualties?” I said.

“Millions,” said Walter. “Several times the amount of destruction in Athens.”

All the air left my lungs. Why hadn’t they taken Cronus’s deal? Maybe it’d only been worth a little more time to prepare, but that was still something. Cronus was escaping with or without their permission, and it wouldn’t be long before he devastated Europe and Africa. And then where would he hit? Asia? Australia? North and South America? How long would it take him to destroy everything?

At least Calliope attacked me for a reason. But Cronus—was he doing this just to hurt the council? To prove he was stronger and there was nothing they could do to stop him? They already knew that, even if Walter was too pigheaded to admit that he wasn’t the biggest, baddest bastard in the universe.

I opened my mouth to demand that Walter do something—anything, I didn’t care, so long as it stopped the attack. Henry took my hand though, stroking my knuckles with the pad of his thumb, and I fell silent. To Walter, I wasn’t anything more than an incompetent pest. Because of that, no matter what I said, no matter how much logic and reasoning I used, he wouldn’t listen to me. None of them except my mother, James and Henry would, and the council couldn’t afford to be any more divided than it already was.

“Kate, you may go,” said Walter, and I left the throne room without protest. I might have been young and inexperienced, but that didn’t make me an idiot. And if they wouldn’t fix it, then I would.

Shadows danced on the walls of Milo’s nursery as it materialized around me, and Cronus hovered over his cradle. He looked paler than usual, but his eyes swirled with fog, and a faint aura of power surrounded him.

“I’ve been waiting for you.” He set a hand on my lower back, and I recoiled.

“You’re a monster,” I snarled, reaching into the cradle for my son. “Do you realize how many people you’ve just—”

As always, my hand met empty air, but this time it was different. I squinted into the mess of blankets, and I froze. Milo wasn’t there.

“What did you do to him?” I said, and my voice broke. “Where the hell is my son?”

Cronus gestured behind me, and I spun around. Ava sat in a rocking chair that hadn’t been there the day before, and she cradled Milo.

“She has barely put him down since you last left,” said Cronus.

I hurried over to her, and Ava glanced up. For one horrible moment, I thought she could see me, but instead she looked right through me. “It won’t work,” she said to Cronus. “I don’t care how many times you try it. Kate isn’t here, and even if she was, you wouldn’t be able to see her.”

Still in denial then. For now, it didn’t matter; I watched Milo happily suck away on the tip of her pinkie, and my heart melted. Opening his eyes, he stared right at me, and I could have sworn he smiled around her finger.

“Hi, baby,” I whispered, kneeling beside Ava. The blade of her rocker sliced through my insubstantial thigh. “Look at you.”

His eyes were bright, his cheeks pink, and he waved his little hands at me with more enthusiasm than before. He looked like a healthy ten-day-old baby. Whatever Ava was giving him, it was working.

“Why does he look so much healthier?” I said to Cronus, and he repeated the question.

Ava, who must not have realized that he was once again speaking for me, shrugged. “Everyone knows that newborns need to be held, and not by a walking void of emotion either. A little love does them wonders.”

And right now, she was the only one who could give that to him. I bit the inside of my cheek and focused on Milo. He was so beautiful that it hurt to look at him, but I couldn’t tear myself away.

“Why did you attack those people?” I said to Cronus.

“For the same reason I attacked Athens,” he said. “To teach the council a lesson.”

“And what lesson was that supposed to be?” I snapped. “The more you hurt them, the less likely it is they’ll agree to your truce.”

“We both know that will not happen,” said Cronus, and in the rocker, Ava’s brow furrowed with confusion.

“Stop it,” she said, her grip on Milo tightening. “She isn’t here.”