The Goddess Test Boxed Set: Goddess Interrupted\The Goddess Inheritance\The Goddess Legacy (53 page)

“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.