She waved her hand, and James and Ava began to descend. I heard a groan from the mouth of the cave, but before I could see who it was, my body moved involuntarily toward the gate and the menacing fog that swirled around it. Henry moved as well, his feet dragging along the ground.

“Please, don’t,” I gasped as everything inside of me drained away, leaving me with nothing but the overwhelming instinct to survive. I clawed at the chains around my neck, but they burned my hands, and it was no use. Whether I died at Calliope’s hand or Henry released Cronus and he ripped me apart for her, I didn’t stand a chance if Henry wasn’t going to fight. And he was opening the gate—he couldn’t. He couldn’t.

“By the time you’ve opened it, the others will be awake enough to leave,” said Calliope. “Unless you want me to change my mind and put them to sleep again, I would get started if I were you.”

With his mouth set in a thin line, Henry picked up a piece of fog-infused stone nearby. At first I didn’t realize what he was doing, but when he pressed a sharp corner against his palm and dragged it down, I covered my mouth, horrified.

Scarlet blood pooled in his hand, and he pressed it against the first bar of the gate, whispering something I couldn’t hear.

“Henry.” I was a sobbing mess now, but I didn’t care. He was going to get everyone killed. “Don’t do this. Please. I’ll do anything.”

He didn’t so much as flinch. As Henry pulled his hand away, the bar groaned, and the stone split through the middle of the mark his blood made. Calliope hovered, wearing a giddy grin, and as her excitement grew, her grip on the chain around my neck loosened. Wild hope filled me as I slipped my fingers between my neck and the links. Nothing I said could stop Henry, but if I could slip away—

“The next one!” cried Calliope.

Henry closed his eyes and pressed his hand against the second bar. As it too crumbled, I frantically worked myself loose from the chain while Calliope was too preoccupied to notice. Her entire body seemed to tremble with excitement, and the fog spilled out from between the opened portion of the gate, all but obscuring Henry. I could still see Calliope’s silhouette, but barely. Unlike the fog in the chains, this didn’t sting; like the desert, it felt like feathers against my skin.

Finally my head slipped out of the noose, and I was free. All I had to do was find the exit. If Henry continued to go this slowly, I’d have time to help free the others, and maybe they could talk some sense into him.

But my feet were glued to the ground. Not by some outside force, but because I couldn’t leave Henry. If he stopped, Cronus would destroy him. He would destroy all of us. And I couldn’t stand by and let that happen.

It was the hardest decision I’d ever made, but I stayed.

There were ten bars in all. With each one Henry opened, Calliope lost more of her composure until she dropped the chain completely. Jumping up and down, she clapped her hands and emitted a high-pitched squeal. My insides twisted into knots. This was it.

Time seemed to stop, the fog muffling everything. And in that moment, as the world grew silent, the sound of whispers snaked toward me from the direction of the cave. My heart pounded. The others were awake.

As a seventh crack echoed through the cavern, Calliope laughed gleefully, and in the fog, someone grabbed my wrist. I struggled to break their grip, but the cold metal of a wedding ring brushed against my skin, and I stilled. Henry. What was he trying to do? Had he changed his mind? He only had three bars left to go, and it would be a matter of seconds before Calliope realized he wasn’t doing what she wanted anymore. Cronus surrounded us, and all it would take was—well, I wasn’t entirely sure what, but he would kill every last one of us if Henry reneged.

And then he pressed a painfully hot chain into my hand.

Calliope’s silhouette stopped moving. “Keep going,” she demanded. “I can count just as well as you.”

“And if I don’t?” said Henry, an edge to his voice that hadn’t been there before.

“Look around you,” said Calliope. “Use that brain of yours, Henry. What do you think will happen? Cronus will crush you. He will slowly grind your bones into dust and paint the walls with your blood. He will do the same to your wife, your sisters and your brothers, and once he’s finished, he will do the same to the ones who had the sense not to come. On second thought, it’d be much more entertaining if we kept you alive to watch the whole thing, wouldn’t it? I was planning on making Walter watch, and I’m sure he’d enjoy the company.”

“They’re your family, too,” I said, the chain burning my hands, but I refused to let go. If I couldn’t see her, then she couldn’t see me. She couldn’t see what Henry had done. Cronus was everywhere though, and if he was paying attention—

“No, they’re not,” she spat. “Not anymore. The council has ruled for long enough, and they made a mockery of themselves and all I stand for. They tossed me aside as if I were nothing. Do you have any idea what that feels like? Of course you don’t, Kate. You won. You have everything you want.”

Not everything. I didn’t have Henry, and I wasn’t sure I ever would. But I bit my tongue. The last thing she needed was a reason to blow me to bits.

Her silhouette came into view as Calliope rounded on Henry. “You and Walter will suffer the pain you put me through for all of these eons, and I promise to enjoy every moment of it.”

I couldn’t see what she did to him, but Henry screamed, an ugly, twisted sound that swallowed me whole until everything ceased to exist except my burning need to stop it. I moved toward her without thinking. The chain was fire in my hands, and I swung it as hard as I could. A sickening crack filled the cavern as it connected with the back of Calliope’s head, and the links wrapped around her neck, burning her pretty face.

I expected her to scream or shout or fight back somehow, and I wasn’t going to hand it over to her that easily. I swung at her again and again, crazy with the need to make sure she never had another chance to hurt Henry or anyone else I loved, but finally someone caught my arm.

“Enough,” said Henry. “Look.”

My heart pounded as I inched forward, squinting through the fog. I clutched the chain, prepared to hit her again if she jumped out at me. Instead my foot hit something warm and solid.

Calliope.

Henry wrapped his arm around me and grabbed Calliope’s ankle. I stared at her limp body, torn between horror and satisfaction as blood dripped from a gash in her cheek.

“Leave,” he called out, his voice booming despite his injuries. A hissing sound echoed through the cavern, and the air grew so hot I felt as if I were being boiled alive. Tiny knives pricked me, burrowing underneath my skin and turning to molten lava.

I cried out, unable to handle the monstrous pain coursing through my body. My knees gave way, but Henry was there to catch me, and his chains clattered to the ground. He said nothing as he pulled me against him and buried my face in his chest. The next thing I knew, the stabs were gone, and cool air engulfed me.

“It’s all right,” said Henry in the soothing tone I’d wanted to hear so badly since stepping foot in the Underworld. Even though he must have been hurting, too, he ran his fingers through my hair comfortingly. “You’re safe.”

The agony of the fog seeping into my body hadn’t left me, but as I stood there trembling, it didn’t get any worse. I cracked open an eye, and when I saw the red wall, my stomach lurched. Who had Cronus killed? James? Ava? Or had he killed Calliope for failing him?

As my vision focused, I realized we weren’t in the cavern anymore. We stood in the entranceway of the palace, the one with the mirrors and scarlet walls, and Calliope lay on the carpet, blood seeping from the wound in the back of her head.