I didn’t know what the right choice was anymore.

“Mom?” I whispered. “Why did you decide to have me if all I was going to be was Persephone’s replacement?”

She opened her eyes, and for several seconds she said nothing. Enough time passed that I feared she wouldn’t answer, but finally she kissed my forehead. “Do you really believe all you are to me is a replacement for your sister?”

I nodded. I didn’t want to believe it, but after everything that had happened, after being plagued by doubts for so long, I couldn’t help it.

My mother sighed. “If we’re going to talk, let’s at least get cleaned up a bit.”

She slid off the bed and disappeared into my closet, and I said nothing. I knew she loved me as much as I loved her, but what would have happened if I hadn’t passed the test? Would she have let go of my hand, too?

When she returned, she had a change of clothes with her, and I reluctantly got off the bed. Despite Ava cleaning them regularly, the jeans and sweater I wore were ruined, and as soon as I took them off, my mother vanished them.

“Now,” she said as I dressed in the pajamas she’d picked out for me. “Tell me what’s bothering you.”

I didn’t know how to begin. Everything had gone wrong from the day I’d arrived in the Underworld, and as often as the likes of Ava and my mother wanted to reassure me that Henry loved me, he didn’t, not really. He couldn’t. I wasn’t Persephone.

It was more than that though. So much more, and the only place to start was the beginning. “Every part of my life was planned,” I said thickly. “When I was born, how I was raised, what you taught me—it was all to pass the tests, wasn’t it?”

She nodded slowly, as if she wasn’t sure what was so wrong with that. “Of course, sweetheart. I wanted to give you the best chance of success you could have, especially after what happened to the others.”

I tugged on the hem of my pajama top. “You knew someone would try to kill me, and you let me go anyway.”

“I—” She furrowed her brow. Finally she seemed to get it. “Kate, honey, I would have never allowed it if I hadn’t been sure that every possible precaution was being taken. Before you, only a few of us oversaw the tests. With you, that all changed. I insisted, and so did Henry. He wanted to protect you. We all did. That was why one of us was always with you—that was why we all watched you go through the tests.”

My mother hadn’t been there in Eden Manor, but I’d talked to her every night in my dreams. I’d thought it was a gift from Henry, a chance to allow me to say goodbye to her, and maybe part of it was. But she’d pressed me to share everything, and I had—almost. It was the parts I hadn’t told her that had gotten me killed.

She settled behind me and brushed my hair in slow strokes, working her way gently through the tangles. “From the moment we drove into Eden, you were protected. James, Ava, Sofia, even Dylan and Irene—that was why they were there. Partially to guide you, but mostly to be sure nothing happened to you. We’d watched eleven other girls die because of us, and don’t think we were so callous that we didn’t care. We all did, especially Henry. From the moment the council ruled that I could have you—”

“The council ruled I could be born?”

“Yes,” she said, separating my hair into three sections before she began to braid it. “I’ve told you this before, love. Henry decided he wanted to give up, and I didn’t want him to, so instead of going out and finding another girl—”

“You decided to make one.” I swallowed hard, and tears stung my eyes. “That’s all you told me. You didn’t say that the only reason I existed was because you all sat around and debated it.” I stared up at the ceiling, trying in vain to contain the swell of anguish that filled me. “All I was ever supposed to be was Henry’s wife, and you knew—you knew he’s always going to be in love with Persephone. You knew he would never feel the same way about me, and you did it anyway.”

She wrapped her arms around me from behind. “Kate…”

I glared at my hands, refusing to hug her back. She could deny it or rationalize it all she wanted, but that wouldn’t change what had happened.

“Yes,” she finally said. “That was why you were born. All of us come into this world for a reason, whether it’s love or a purpose or even as an accident. You were no accident, and I have loved you from the moment I knew you would exist. Even if it hadn’t been then, you would have been born eventually. I’d wanted another child for a long time, and I put it off. Because I was ashamed, I made myself think I didn’t deserve another. I thought I didn’t deserve you.”

“Why?” I said, hiccupping. “What were you ashamed of? Persephone?”

“Partially,” said my mother. “I was ashamed of how little she cared for Henry’s well-being and how selfishly she had acted. I was never ashamed of her,” she added. “She is my daughter, just as you are, and nothing could ever make me love either of you any less.”

I sniffed. “But she was miserable with him. It isn’t her fault that he fell in love with her or that she fell in love with someone else. You can’t force two people together and make them live happily ever after. It doesn’t work that way.”

She shifted on the bed so she was beside me. “Is that how you feel? Like I forced you to be with Henry?”

I shook my head, then nodded, then shook my head again. “I don’t know,” I mumbled. “I didn’t have a choice to meet him though.”

“But you did have a choice whether or not to be with him,” she said gently. “He waited for you, but if you didn’t love him, if you didn’t want to do this, none of us would have forced you.”

“It feels like you did,” I whispered dejectedly. “Without this, I’m not anyone. I didn’t have time to—to figure out who I was, and now I don’t know how to do that and still be who you want me to be.”

She sighed and hugged me a little tighter. “The only person I want you to be is yourself. You aren’t Persephone’s replacement. You are my daughter, and I’m so proud of you. Nothing will ever change that. You are my light, and if I hadn’t thought you could be unbelievably happy with Henry, I would have never allowed this to happen.”

“It doesn’t matter how happy I am with him. That doesn’t change how he feels about Persephone.”

“No, it doesn’t,” she admitted, “but it will. Henry’s been stuck for a very long time, and the history we all have together—he won’t get over her immediately. But the thing you have to understand is that before now, he didn’t have a reason to try. Now he has you.”

I hiccupped again. “Do you really think I can match up to her?”

She nuzzled the top of my head. “If I’d had you all those years ago, when Henry was still unmarried, you would have been the one I’d have offered him, not Persephone.”

I gave her a bewildered look, and she chuckled.

“Oh, sweetheart. The idea of a woman choosing who she marries is brand-new. When it comes down to it, Persephone had thousands of years with him, but you know what? You’ll have now until forever, if that’s what you want.” She paused. “Is it?”

“I want it to be,” I said softly. “Really, really badly.”

“Then give yourself time to let it happen. Being with Henry doesn’t mean you have to give up who you are. Henry doesn’t define you, nor does the Underworld or immortality. You define you, and the more you act like yourself, the more Henry will love you, too. I guarantee it.”

I wanted to believe her, and as I closed my eyes again, I decided that for now, I would. Persephone had Adonis to return to, and she wouldn’t be here forever. Maybe seeing her would even be good for Henry; it could give him a chance to remember that she wasn’t the girl in his reflection who was happy to see him every September.

I could be that girl though. I wanted to be.

I didn’t say anything else as I curled against my mother. She continued to rub my back, and the tension seeped out of me as the minutes passed. She was still here, and a world where my mother was alive and healthy couldn’t possibly be that bad.