I opened my eyes and nodded. There was no point in lying about it.

“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.