“I don’t know. The only person who can answer that is you.”
But I didn’t have an answer. I didn’t even know the right questions to ask. My anger wasn’t irrational, but I’d never been so furious and frustrated with anyone in my entire life. Not even Calliope after she’d tried to kill me. If I could forgive her, then why couldn’t I forgive Ava?
Because Calliope had only taken my life. Ava had ripped the most important thing in the world away from me.
“It still doesn’t make sense,” I said. “If she’s using Ava’s powers somehow, then why haven’t we heard about it? Why hasn’t Cronus told me?”
“I don’t know.” His hand slid down my side to rest on my waist. “There’s nothing we can do about it right now except prepare ourselves for the possibility that Calliope still has an ace hidden up her sleeve.”
Miserable as I was, I snorted into his shoulder. “Hearing you use poker metaphors is bizarre.”
“I’m much better at it than you might think,” he said.
“I believe it.”
He kissed me again and ran a finger above the waistband of my jeans, leaving searing heat wherever he touched me. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what he wanted, and I kissed him back, but set my hand over his. He sighed.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “It’s just—last time we did this, Calliope used it against us. And I can’t go through that again.”
Instead of protesting, Henry drew me in closer, shifting his body so it rested against mine. “Is this your way of offering me more incentive? Win the war, and you’ll sleep with me again?”
I rolled my eyes. “Please. If that’s what I was trying to do, I’d be way more obvious about it. Winning the war’s a little vague, after all. I’d go for something more solid.”
“For example?” he murmured.
“I’d say something like...I’ll sleep with you after you teach me how to disappear and reappear.”
He peered down at me, and for the first time in ages, I thought I saw a real smile on his face. “Is that a promise? Because with that kind of motivation, I’m certain we could have it down by next sunset.”
“You’re ridiculous,” I said. “But if you’re offering...”
He immediately sat up and smoothed his shirt. “There must be somewhere in this place we can practice without getting scolded.”
I started to suggest returning to the Underworld, but we were as trapped here as I’d been on the island. If we left Olympus for any reason, it would only be a matter of time before Calliope and Cronus discovered Henry was alive. We’d gotten lucky in Africa and Greece, and we couldn’t afford to risk it a second time.
“Do you think we’ll ever see him again?” I said, and Henry’s smile faded.
“Milo?” he said, and I nodded. “Yes. We’ll see him anytime you want.”
“You know what I mean.”
He drew me toward him again, his arms tightening around me. I’d been an idiot to ever think he didn’t love me just because he didn’t say it. He told me a hundred times a day without having to utter a word. “I promised you we would find a way to get him back, and we will. Whatever it takes.”
“Except you dying,” I said firmly, wrapping my fingers around the hem of his black shirt. “I mean it.”
Henry kissed my forehead. “So you are allowed to offer yourself to Cronus for all eternity to get Milo out of there, but I am not allowed to offer my life to do the same?”
“I’d still be alive,” I said. “And I’d find a way out of there eventually.”
“I admire your bravery, but James is right. You must find a solution to this martyr complex of yours.”
I gave him a halfhearted glare. “You weren’t complaining when my martyr complex gave you a second chance.”
“But the time has come to fight not just for the lives of those you love, but for your own, as well,” he said. “If only so you do not hurt those same people by leaving them the way you’re so afraid they will leave you.”
That wasn’t fair and he knew it. If someone had to die, I would much rather it was me than suffer that kind of loss. Henry, my mother, Milo—I couldn’t come out of that and still be me.
“I’ll do my best,” I said.
“Promise me.”
But I couldn’t, and neither could he. We would both do what we had to in order to protect each other, and no promise in the world could stop either of us.
By the time Olympus once again hovered over Greece and the council departed for another minutes-long battle against Cronus, I managed to disappear from one side of the throne room and reappear on the other. With the amount of concentration it took, I had no chance to worry about my mother and the rest of the council. And I was too frazzled to be annoyed that this must have been Henry’s plan all along.
“Why didn’t you teach me this sooner?” I said, pulling my hair into a ponytail. “This would have come in handy nine months ago, you know.” It didn’t take any physical exertion at all, but the amount of willpower it required made me dizzy every time I crossed the room. How did Henry travel through the entire Underworld like this?
“We did not have the opportunity,” he said. “Now try to go into the bedroom. I will meet you there.”
I gave him a look. “I told you, I don’t want to do that until—”
“Is that all you think about?” he said with a faint smile before disappearing, and I huffed. Completely unfair.
Closing my eyes, I focused on the air around me. In the throne room, it was still and warm, but not unbearable. Slowly, agonizingly so, I pieced together an image of the bedroom in my mind. The plain bed, the dresser, the closet, the white door, the sunset floor and the sky-blue ceiling exactly like the throne room. Gathering myself together, feeling every inch of my body from the tip of my nose to the bottom of my heels, I exhaled.
And then I opened my eyes.
“Very good,” said Henry, standing dangerously close to me. “You were faster that time. Less than thirty seconds.”
It was difficult to take a compliment from someone who could do it in the blink of an eye. “What if we appear in the same space?”
“That will not happen,” said Henry. “The laws of the universe won’t allow it.”
Oh. Well, that was good to know. I leaned up against the bedpost and stuck my hands in my pockets. “Once I have this down, could you teach me how to fight?”