James stilled, and Ava dropped her coconut. “You did what? ” she screeched. “Are you crazy? Do you have any idea what that means? When you don’t release him, he’s going to kill you. You do know that, right?”
I nodded numbly. “So I guess that means we have a limited amount of time to come up with another plan.” Ava let out a string of curses and stood, pacing around the pool. “We can’t let him out. Even if he kills all of us, it’ll be better than what he’ll do the minute he gets out into the world. You know that, Kate.”
“Of course I know that,” I snapped. “But what else was I supposed to do? He was going to kill all three of us, and everyone else is too busy being scared to come after us if something went wrong.”
“You should’ve done something else. Anything else.” Ava’s face turned red, and she balled up her hands into f ists.
I’d never seen her so angry before. “You don’t understand—
we can’t let him out. We can’t.”
“Then we won’t,” said James. He gestured for Ava to sit back down, and she stood there for a moment, as if daring him to make her, but f inally her shoulders slumped and she gave in. “You did good, Kate. You bought us time.” At least James understood. “I’m sorry,” I said to Ava as I tugged up my sleeves. “I didn’t know what else to do.”
“It’s all right,” she mumbled, and she picked up her coconut again to take a half hearted sip. “It’s not like we had a better plan.”
“We do have a better plan,” said James. “Find Persephone and f igure it out from there. If anyone can help, it’s her.” Ava made a face, apparently as happy with the thought of the fate of the universe resting in Persephone’s hands as I was. “At least we don’t have to worry about Cronus until we get there, I guess.”
“Exactly. And we don’t know how to open the gate either, so it doesn’t matter what Kate promised him to get him off our backs. We’ll f igure a way out of this.” James offered us a smile, and she returned it, but I looked at my hands.
Cronus was growing stronger by the minute, and no one, not even Henry or Walter, could possibly win against that kind of impossible power. If he stuck to our deal and let the others go, then unless I wanted to see him slaughter everyone I loved, I would have no choice but to open the gate.
All I had to do in the meantime was convince Persephone to tell me how.
Hours after we left the oasis, I found a second f lower, bubblegum spotted with blue, waiting for me on a fallen tree as I sat down to rest. At f irst the log was empty, but when I lowered myself down, my f ingertips brushed the silky petals.
It couldn’t possibly be a coincidence, but who would be leaving me presents? Henry? I clung to that hope, but he was unconscious. The chances of it being him were slim.
And then my eyes fell on James, and I scowled.
“What?” he said as he leaned against a tree. I held up the blossom, and he arched his eyebrows. “Colorful. Where’d you get it?”
“It was sitting here waiting for me,” I said, but he shrugged indifferently. It wasn’t from him after all. For all he cared, we could’ve been talking about a dead leaf.
Henry, then. I warmed at the thought. He must’ve been able to see me in the cavern after all, or maybe he’d f igured out what we were doing. Maybe he was trying to tell me that he was glad we were coming to rescue him. Only because he didn’t know what I planned on doing though.
We pushed on, constantly checking over our shoulders for any sign of Cronus. Every time we stopped, I found a new blossom waiting for me, and I tucked it reverently in my pocket with the rainbow of others, nestled against the jeweled f lower. Eventually our breaks became less and less frequent, and while I missed the f lowers, my body stopped becoming tired, and it was easier to continue.
I don’t know how long we walked. It felt like forever, although it couldn’t have been more than a week. My leg hurt every time I took a step, but eventually the pain faded into the background, giving me time to absorb the beauty and horror of the Underworld.
“Is this really the quickest way there?” I said as another nightmare faded. This time, it had been a child being burned alive as a mother watched, chained to the ground as she screamed, helpless to do anything.
“’Fraid so,” said James as we trudged up a steep dirt road. “Pity this all didn’t happen after your coronation. You could’ve had us there in seconds.”
“Thanks,” I muttered, grabbing a fallen branch to use as a walking stick. “Like I needed another reminder.”
“You’re the one who asked,” said James, and after that, I refused to talk to him for the rest of the day.
Now that the danger of Cronus attacking had all but dissipated, I spent most of my time trying to work out how best to convince Persephone not only to help us, but to tell me how to open the gate without Ava and James f inding out. I didn’t want it to be an option, but it was, and I couldn’t ignore it. And the way he caressed my cheek in the desert—if Cronus really was willing to help me in exchange for me releasing him, then maybe he could help take down Calliope. And then the other siblings could recapture him.
It was shaky at best, but so was everything else about this plan, and at least this was better than nothing.
The closer we got to Persephone, the tighter the knot in my chest grew. I ran through dozens of ways to convince her to come, arguments to make her see how important this was, but there was no guarantee that anything I said would be enough. Through trying to persuade her, I also ran the risk of pushing her away.
Between the worry and stress of everything that was happening, I grew quieter, listening to James and Ava talk instead of joining in. When they weren’t talking about my deal with Cronus, most of their conversation centered on what the others were doing and whether or not Dylan had convinced them that it was a waste of time. Ava was certain he wouldn’t; James wasn’t so sure, and their squabbling grew more and more heated until I didn’t know if I could take any more of it.
Finally, when it seemed we would never stop walking and they would never stop f ighting, James held up his hand, and Ava fell silent. I froze, and James peered through the trees that surrounded us.
“What is it?” said Ava in a hushed voice. James beckoned for us to join him, and I crept forward, tiptoeing around the roots. He stood at the edge of a clearing full of wildf lowers, and when I glanced around him, I noticed a small cottage with a plume of smoke trickling from the chimney. Made of wood instead of brick, it was covered with vines of f lowers, almost making it look as if it rose up out of the ground.