For a moment his brother looked utterly perplexed, his brow furrowing in the face of her sass, but the expression was gone as soon as it had come. He wouldn’t soon forget what she’d said, Henry was sure of it. But while it could cause problems later on down the road, for now Henry was immensely pleased and proud of her.
Focusing on his brother, he pushed a thought toward him. Let it go.
Walter’s frown deepened, but he glanced into the darkness of the cave and gave him the barest of nods. Without another word, he disappeared, and Kate looked around as if she expected Walter to pop out of the bushes.
“Do you think he went after the twins?” she said. James shook his head, slipping his arm into hers as he glanced back into the cave. Henry glowered at him.
“They’re fine, at least for now.”
Henry watched as they disappeared through the trees, and as soon as he could no longer see her dark hair, he closed his eyes. These six months were hers to do with as she willed; he had no say in it, and he had to respect that no matter how much seeing her walk off with James wounded him.
In less than half a year’s time, she would be his again, and he would make sure to remind her why she had married him in the first place. Until then, the thorn that James had shoved into his heart would only dig deeper, but as he’d done for the past several thousand years, he would withstand it.
For Kate. For their life together. And because he had no other choice.
Kate
By the time we reached the edge of the forest, it was nearly dark. The city of Athens glowed in the distance, and I yawned, struggling to stay awake as James led the way. My body craved sleep, and just the promise of a warm bed was enough to make my knees buckle.
“Where do you think they’re going now?” I said as we meandered toward the road that would lead us back to the city.
“If they’re smart, as far away from Greece as possible,” said James.
“Do you really think Walter and the others are going to hunt them down again?”
He shrugged. “Eventually. I think you bought them a few hundred more years though. Maybe a thousand, if they’re lucky.”
“We.” At James N rithugh. Ma217;s confused expression, I added, “We bought them a few hundred more years. Maybe a thousand, if they’re lucky. You did distract Ella, you know.”
He grinned and wrapped his arm around my shoulders. “You have a point. We make a good team.”
I made a face and shrugged him off. Good team or not, there was one problem we hadn’t solved yet. “I’m still mad at you, you know. This whole thing was your fault. Ava would’ve never found the twins if you hadn’t led her straight to them.”
“Oh.” James turned pink. “I thought we’d have time to get away. I didn’t realize Walter would sic Ella and her dogs on us. I mean, the council’s come close to tracking them down before—they just usually don’t put so much effort into it.”
“That’s not an excuse for putting them in danger like that.”
He sighed. “No, it’s not, and I’m sorry about that. I really am. It worked out all right though, didn’t it?”
“Barely.” I hesitated. “Why did you do it anyway?”
He scratched his head sheepishly. “Because I knew you idolized the council, that you thought we were these—superheroes or something, and I wanted you to see that it wasn’t true. We’ve got our dark side, too, and you had to see that before you decided to spend eternity with Henry.”
For a long moment, I said nothing. I should’ve known the council was capable of something like this, and maybe deep down I did. I’d never realized Henry had it in him as well though.
“I’m not sure I can do this,” I said softly. “I thought—I thought when all of this started that the council members were the good guys, you know? The ones who protected mortals. The ones who made the right decisions. And now—”
“And now you realize we’re not all we’re cracked up to be,” said James, and I nodded. “That’s not a bad thing, you know, the fact that we make mistakes or let our pride get in the way. It keeps us from being infallible.”
“But at others’ expense.” That was the part I wasn’t crazy about.
“Sometimes. But Lux is one of us—he’s not a council member, but he is the son of Zeus. And he has just as many flaws as the rest of us.”
“Loving his brother enough to do anything to protect him isn’t one of them though.”
“No, it isn’t.” James shook his head. “I won’t lie to you and say every decision we make is the right one, because it isn’t. Usually the ones we all make together aren’t so bad, but the individual ones—those are sort of a crapshoot. Sometimes we’re right, sometimes we’re wrong, and sometimes it takes several thousand years before we fix them. And in the twins’ case, it’s especially bad, because the only thing keeping Walter from reversing his decision is his pride. But it’ll work itself out eventually, and in the meantime, look at it this way—now that you’re on board, you can show us the error of our ways.”
“If the only thing I do during council m Singyou caeeting is point out how wrong everyone is, no one’s going to listen to me.”
“True, but that doesn’t mean you can’t save those moments for the things you think are really important,” said James. “You’ll have my support. Henry’s, too. I can’t speak for the rest of them, but you won’t be alone. Most of the time, anyway.” He grinned. “Try to undo one of my rulings, however, and it might get a little tense.”
I managed a smile in return. “I’ll do my best. You seem to have pretty good judgment though.”
“I do, don’t I?” He bumped his hip against mine—which, given how tall he was, was sort of like he was nudging my liver instead. “You know, after everything I did, I think I deserve that kiss.”
I rolled my eyes. “Not in a million years.”
“What about a million and one?”
“I might be willing to give you a peck on the cheek, if you don’t screw up too badly between now and then.”
He pouted. “You’re terrible to me, you know.”
“You like it.” And no matter how romantic and beautiful Greece was, I wasn’t going to break my vows to Henry, even if they technically didn’t apply for the next six months. I loved him no matter which season it was. “Do you think Ava’s going to undo the curse?”