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 f igured 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
A SH & 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 buck-led, 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.
“I already told you what I want,” she said. “I’m going to hurt you the same way you hurt me. I’m going to take what you love most from you, and you’ll be helpless to stop me.” She patted me on the cheek, and where her f ingers touched me, my skin burned.
I slapped her hand away. “Where’s Henry? What have you done to him?”
“Nothing,” she said, her eyes widening innocently.
“Don’t you trust me? Really, Kate, you must learn not to be so suspicious. You’ll give yourself wrinkles, and you wouldn’t want to spend an eternity looking like an old woman, would you?”
The fog rumbled, and Calliope winked at me. “That reminds me—I have someone who wants to meet you.” A dark-haired man appeared beside her, but he wasn’t solid like she was. Instead the fog seemed to ripple through him, as if they were one and the same, and when he stepped forward, I saw his eyes were made of the same gray that surrounded us.
Cronus.
“Kate, my darling,” he murmured, his voice like quiet thunder. He brushed his f ingertips against my cheek with a featherlight touch that reverberated throughout my entire body. “I have so looked forward to this moment.” He looked like Henry. That was the worst part. He was older, but the shape of his face, the color of his hair that hung to his shoulders, even the way he moved—everything about him reminded me of Henry.
Was there a physical resemblance? Henry was the eldest of the brothers—had he been created to look like Cronus?
Or was Cronus trying to look like him? Why would he do that?
“Cronus,” I said stiff ly, clasping my shaking hands together. “What did you do with them?”
“They’re all quite safe, I assure you, my dear.” Cronus smiled, and all the heat left my body. “Did you like my gifts?”
“G-gifts?” I stammered. “What gifts?”
Cronus took my hands in his and drew mine apart with ease. He covered my empty palm, and when he pulled away, I was cupping a gold and blue f lower that smelled like candy.
The looming fog seemed to close in around me, and all the air whooshed out of my lungs. It’d been Cronus all along. “But—why? You don’t even— I’m not—” He leaned toward me, his lips brushing my cheek, and my mind went strangely blank, as if it, too, were full of fog.
“I can give you everything you’ve ever wanted, my darling,” he murmured, and his words washed over me, warm and inviting as they burrowed so deeply inside my mind that I couldn’t shake them. “A home, a family, and I would love you so much more than he ever could. You would never be second-best for me. You could be my eternity.” As he spoke, Calliope disappeared, leaving us together in the cocoon of fog. My eyes fell shut, and I swayed as my body screamed for me to get away from him. Some part of me didn’t want to though. He was telling the truth; of course he was. He would love me forever. And the way he said my name, the way he curled up inside of me…
“Come with me, my dear,” he whispered. “Give me your hand, and I will take you far away from here. Someplace as exquisite as you are, where you can see the sky. Where you will never lack for love.”