“He was distracted. Enough for us to edge in closer.” He squeezed my hand. “I need you to fetch the girls from the nursery and do everything you can to divert his attention to the roof. If you do that, we might have a chance.”
A smile spread across my face. “You didn’t send them back to the Underworld?”
“Of course not. It was a brilliant idea.” He bent down to brush his lips against mine. “Now let’s go win this war.”
I kissed him back. “Together.”
“Together.”
* * *
I arrived alone in the peacock-and-gold hallway outside the nursery. Henry presumably appeared on the roof, but even though I strained my ears, I didn’t hear any signs that the tide of battle had shifted.
“It’s about damn time,” said Persephone as I opened the nursery door. The other girls milled behind her.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “We need to—”
“We know,” said Ingrid, tapping her temple. “Henry already filled us in.”
Right. “Then let’s go play chicken with a Titan.”
We raced to the roof, and I took the stairs two at a time, every bone in my body drawn to Henry as if we were magnets. As we burst through the doors, however, I skidded to a stop.
Ava and Calliope stood in the center, only inches apart. Ava glowed magenta, Calliope gold, and Cronus swirled behind them, a massive funnel of pure power. Henry wasn’t there.
Had he stayed in Olympus? No, I wasn’t that lucky. I glanced upward. The streaks of light were dimmer than before. The council was losing. But another appeared, brighter than the others, and the fog seemed to part to make way for it. Henry had joined the battle.
“Go!” I cried, and the girls hurtled forward, picking up their weapons as they reached them. They might not have been deadly, but wherever they connected with the fog, it shimmered, and a shower of sparks burst through the darkness.
“I will kill you.” Calliope’s voice seemed magnified, louder than thunder. “Once I’ve won, I will skin you alive and watch you bleed.”
Ava’s wind chime laughter filtered through the air. “You won’t ever win. You deserve worse than fading. You deserve to have your name erased from history, and I’m going to make sure that happens. You’re pathetic now, but just wait—once I’m done, you’ll be nothing.”
With everyone distracted, I skirted around the glowing goddesses, searching for the dagger. It wasn’t in Calliope’s hands, which meant it had to be around here somewhere. Maybe she was hiding it in a pocket, but with the way she and Ava were going at it, she would’ve taken a stab at her by now if she’d had it nearby.
Come on, come on, it had to be around here somewhere—
There. I spotted the glinting dagger lying on the ground near the edge of the roof, where I’d stood only minutes before. Swiping it off the ground, I turned toward Calliope. It was now or never.
I raced across the roof, holding the dagger like an ice pick. Calliope was so wrapped up in her argument with Ava that she didn’t see me coming, and I slammed into her. The golden glow disappeared as she crumpled underneath me, hitting the ground hard.
I pinned her in place with my knees. For one everlasting moment, we stared at each other, my grim satisfaction reflecting as horror in her eyes. I raised the dagger. This time, I wouldn’t hesitate.
“Father!” she screamed the instant I thrust the weapon toward her neck. Even as the word was still leaving her lips, a wisp of fog appeared, and time seemed to slow around us. The closer I got, the harder it was to move, and the dagger stopped completely half an inch from her throat. No matter how hard I tried, it wouldn’t budge.
“Nice try, Kate,” said Calliope with a sneer. “Pity that’s all you’re ever capable of.”
A gust of wind hit me, ripping the blade from my hand. With a shriek, I flew through the air and landed hard on my back, cracking the stone roof beneath me. The fog sliced through the wound in my chest, and I groaned.
“So this is how it ends,” said Calliope, and she scooped up the dagger. “I’d say something witty, but you’re just not worth it.”
I squeezed my eyes shut, and an enraged scream filled the air, mingling with the crash of the ocean until I could no longer tell one from the other. This was it. This was the end.
One second. Two seconds.
The pain never came.
A collective gasp echoed across the roof and through the sky, as if the entire world had drawn its breath at the same time. Finally I had to look. Calliope stood near me, but her hand was empty; the knife was gone.
And between us crouched Ava, the handle of the dagger buried directly above her heart.
Chapter 19
Light
Behind me, Nicholas cried out, and his grief rose above the wind. The pinpricks of light in the unnaturally black sky echoed his pain, and at last I understood.
“Ava?” As she sank to the ground, I crawled to her side. My hand hovered over the wound. It was deep—too deep not to be fatal, unless I got the dagger out before the fog could penetrate her heart. Could I without making it worse? Wasn’t much of a choice. If I didn’t, she would die for sure. I gripped the handle. “This is going to hurt.”
Slowly I pulled it out, and her screams shattered the clamor of battle. As soon as the blade was free from her chest, I pressed my hand against the wound, willing the blood to stop flowing. She couldn’t die. Not after all of this.
“I’m sorry,” she wheezed, her eyes rimmed with red. “I thought—I thought it was for the best, I thought—”
“You did nothing wrong.” Her face swam in front of me, and I blinked rapidly. “Thank you. I’m so sorry I ever doubted you.”
“You—forgive me?” she whispered.
“Of course.” I pressed my lips to her forehead. “I love you.”
A trickle of blood escaped the corner of her mouth. “Finish this,” she said, barely audible. For one horrible moment I thought she wanted me to kill her, but she wrapped her cold fingers over my fist, the one that held the dagger, and I understood.
I glanced over my shoulder. Calliope stared at Ava, and despite all her posturing, undeniable shock spread across her face. Why? Wasn’t this exactly what she’d meant to do?
No, this was an accident. She hadn’t been aiming for Ava. She’d been aiming for me. Either way, I couldn’t afford to give her the chance to build her defenses. Lashing out, I went for her ankle, and grim satisfaction filled me as the blade sliced through skin and bone.