And for a fraction of a second, his gaze met mine, and I saw my Henry underneath the distant god in front of me. His moonlight eyes sparkled, the corners of his lips twitched upward into the faintest of smiles and he seemed to glow with warmth from the inside out. He was looking at me like he had back in Eden, like I was the only person in the world, and in that moment, I would’ve torn apart heaven and hell to make sure I never lost him.
But then he disappeared back into himself, behind the mask he wore to protect the side of him that Persephone had ripped to shreds, and reality crashed down around me.
It wasn’t a real choice, was it? Everything I’d done since moving to Eden had been leading up to this moment.
Henry hadn’t married me out of love, and I’d known that from the beginning. He’d married me because I had passed the tests no one else had passed, and because the council had granted me immortality. I was the only girl who had lived long enough to become his queen. What if he stayed like this for the rest of eternity? What if all I ever was to him was a friend and a partner? The way he’d been in Eden, how he’d talked to me until the small hours of the morning, how he’d seen me in a way no one else had, how he’d risked his own existence to save mine—what if I never saw that side of him again?
Then again, what if this was the proof he needed that I wasn’t going to leave him? What if this was the f inal push to show him that it was safe to fall in love with me completely?
I swallowed. I’d already made my decision the moment I’d married him. I loved him, and walking away and letting him fade wasn’t an option, no matter what it cost me.
I could do this. I had to do this. For Henry’s sake—for my mother’s sake. For my sake. Because in the end, without Henry, I didn’t know who I was anymore, and every night during my summer in Greece, I’d gone to sleep dreaming about what it would be like to spend the rest of my existence loving him and being loved in return. As long as I gave him a chance, this could be everything I hoped it would be. Henry was worth the risk.
As I opened my mouth to say yes, a crash shattered the silence, and the tall windows exploded, sending shards of glass hurtling straight toward us.
CHAPTER FOUR
THE TITA NS
As glass f lew through the air, I covered my head instinctively, but the jagged edges glanced off my skin as if I were made of Kevlar.
Right. Immortal. I kept forgetting that part.
“What the—” I twisted around to survey the damage, but before I could get a good look, Henry pushed me behind him. I fell to the ground amidst the shards of glass, and while I scrambled to my feet, Henry and his brothers advanced toward the broken windows.
Ava appeared beside me and took my elbow. “Come on,” she said in a trembling voice as her face turned ashen. “We have to get out of here.”
“Why?” I said, but a sick sense of dread f illed me as I stumbled along beside her. The others parted to let us through, each poised as if ready to strike. No matter how reluctant they were to talk about her, I knew this had to do with Calliope and the fresh scar running down Henry’s chest.
Ava didn’t answer me. She all but dragged me along the aisle, my heels skidding against the f loor as I tried to regain my balance, but it wasn’t working.
I fell a second time, pulling Ava down with me. We landed in a heap, but she wasted no time hauling me to my feet again. As we scrambled forward, another crash echoed through the hall, and a shimmering fog seeped into the palace. The same fog from my vision.
In the past few hours, it seemed to have grown stronger.
It crackled with strange tendrils of light, and for a moment, the fog hovered in front of Henry, as if recognizing him.
Henry held up his hands again, exactly as he’d done in my vision, and the other members of the council formed a semicircle behind him and his brothers.
My heart hammered against my rib cage, and beside me, Ava froze. This was the thing that had nearly killed Henry, and now it was attacking all of us. The instinct to protect rose up inside of me as it drew closer to Henry and my mother and everyone I loved, but what could I possibly do to help stop it?
Without warning, it sliced through the air faster than the members of the council could control it, but it wasn’t aimed at Henry or Walter or Phillip.
It went directly for me and Ava.
I didn’t have time to think. Shoving Ava behind the nearest pillar, I darted after her, but not fast enough.
Unbelievable pain whipped my knee like lightning, shooting through my body until it surrounded me, puls-ing with each beat of my heart. I cried out, and it was all I could do to stay standing.
“Ava,” I gasped, leaning against the pillar as shouts from the council echoed through the hall. “Get out of here.” She stared at me uncomprehendingly. Gritting my teeth against the pain, I took her arm and forced myself forward, half limping, half hopping toward the exit. A trail of blood smeared across the f loor behind me, but the fog didn’t try to strike again.
Someone shouted behind me, and I thought I heard Henry call my name, but everything sounded far away as my heart thudded. I was going to die. We were all going to die. Somehow, someway, that thing could kill gods, and this time there wouldn’t be an afterlife. Not for immortals.
I wasn’t ready to go. Not yet. Not ever.
An eternity later, we f inally reached the doors, and I shoved Ava through. Dizzy with terror and agony, I grabbed the handle to keep myself upright and watched the battle raging on the opposite end of the hall.
Twelve members of my new family fought it, with Henry and James blocking the aisle from a force I couldn’t see. I could feel it though, deep within my bones and every nerve in my body. Whatever it was, it seemed to shake the very foundation of the Underworld.
Blood dripped down James’s exposed arm as he struggled to hold off the monster with his uninjured hand. Henry stood beside him, an unmovable force, and I couldn’t tear myself away.
“Brothers!” cried Henry. “On my count!” The three brothers moved in toward the fog, and the others moved in behind them in a triangular formation, immeasurable power radiating from each of them. Dylan and the redheaded Irene took the lead, but they didn’t have a chance to attack.
In the blink of an eye, Henry and his brothers f lew upward and out the window, taking the fog with them.
After the explosion of battle, the silence rang in my ears, and I f inally let myself slump to the f loor. Most of the remaining members of the council milled together near the thrones, but James and my mother hurried toward us.