“Please,” spat Calliope, a mockery of my desperation. “Always please, as if that’s enough. You know it isn’t, Kate. Why bother?”
It didn’t matter if nothing I ever did was enough; I had to try. I couldn’t live with myself if I surrendered and let her have everything that mattered to me. “You love him. If you kill him, you’ll never have him. You’ll lose.”
She scoffed, but a hint of doubt flashed across her face. “I’ll be the queen of the world. I’ll never lose again.”
“Being queen won’t make you happy.” I studied the way she held Henry. He could break her grip if she lowered the knife. All we needed was that split second, and I could distract her long enough for Henry to take the baby and disappear. “You’ll still be alone. You’ll still be miserable.”
Calliope’s eyes narrowed. “Whatever it is you think you’re doing, it won’t work. I don’t need him anymore.”
“Then what do you want?”
“I already have exactly what I want.” Behind her, Cronus loomed, somehow taller than he had been moments before. The power radiating from Henry was gone now. “First I’m going to kill Henry, and then I’m going to kill your mother and every single member of the council. Once I’m done, when the world kneels at my feet, I will hold your son, and he will call me mother and you a traitor. And together, we will watch you die.”
Henry roared and struggled against her, coming to life at last, but whatever chained him held strong. She pressed the blade to his throat. This wasn’t about winning anymore—she knew she had me, and I knew this was the end. Now it was about causing me as much pain as possible.
The joke was on her, though. Without Henry, without my mother, without my son, I would welcome death.
Focus. This couldn’t be it. There had to be something I could do—some magical combination of words I could say to get her to lower that dagger. Anything.
Behind me, Milo’s cries grew louder, and I groped around until I touched his hand. This was it. These were the only few moments I would have with him. Despite the dagger to Henry’s throat, I would have given anything to make them last forever.
“Then kill me,” I blurted. “Right now, in front of Henry, in front of the baby—just do it. Because I promise if you hurt either of them, I will make sure you spend eternity burning in Tartarus.”
Calliope tilted her head, and I held my breath. She had to agree. Anything to get her to lower that knife, to give Henry that split-second advantage—anything.
But before she could say a word, Cronus exhaled, and fog crept across the floor of the nursery. “No.” The word was barely a whisper, but it burrowed inside me, refusing to be ignored. “You will not harm Kate, my daughter. If she dies, so will you.”
Behind the flush of her excitement, Calliope paled. “You can either keep Kate or her spawn alive. Not both. Choose.”
“I have already told you what you will do,” said Cronus. “You will obey me, or you will be the one to die. That is your choice to make, not mine.”
Clenching her jaw, she dug the blade deeper into Henry’s skin, and he winced. Forget me. His voice echoed through my mind as clearly as if he’d spoken. Do whatever you must to escape before it’s too late.
“No,” I whispered, and Henry narrowed his eyes. He could glare at me all he wanted. I wasn’t leaving, not without him. Not without the baby.
Though she was still pale, Calliope’s lips twisted into a smirk. “How cute. You can try all you want, but she isn’t getting out of here ali—” She stopped. “What’s that?”
Cronus’s expression went blank, and I twisted around, searching for whatever it was that had caught her attention. What was what?
Calliope’s gaze unfocused, and her smirk faltered. “Father, do something,” she hissed, and at last I heard it.
The distant rumble of thunder, growing louder with each passing second.
The crack of lightning that lit up the sky beyond the indigo curtains in the hallway.
A burst of wind so strong that it howled through the corridors.
And a dozen war cries blending together, forming a fearsome harmony.
The council had arrived.
Calliope’s face went from pale to ashen, and her grip on Henry slipped. I didn’t think. In that moment, I memorized the feel of my son’s tiny hand in mine, and I let go.
As fast as I could, I hurtled toward Henry and Calliope, knocking him out of the way. Grabbing her fist, I smashed her knuckles against the wall to make her let go of the dagger. She wasn’t human though, and just like me, she couldn’t feel pain. No matter how much force I used, it was pointless.
But I had to buy Henry enough time to grab Milo and leave. Together we struggled, goddess against goddess, and I let out an enraged cry. Something inside me took over, something primal. As Calliope fought, so did I, with everything I had.
“Cronus!” shrieked Calliope, but he vanished into an eerie fog. His true form. With a dozen screaming gods surrounding the castle, no matter how powerful he was, he had no choice but to fight. He wouldn’t be any help to her now.
Calliope must have realized the same thing, because with a surge of power, she shoved me, and we toppled to the ground. She twisted my neck, and I scratched her face, attempting to gouge out her eyes, but neither of us could hurt the other.
“You bitch,” she snarled. “You conniving, useless bitch.”
“Can’t kill me.” I worked my fingers around the handle of the dagger and struggled to pull it from her grip. “I die, you die, remember?”
“Father won’t touch a hair on my head.”
“Are you willing to bet your entire existence on that?”
She screeched and wrenched the dagger from me. I had no chance against her immense strength, and I watched in horror as my grip slipped and the tip of the infused blade plunged into my arm.
White-hot pain ripped through me, burning everything in its path, infinitely worse than the brush of fog against my leg during my botched coronation ceremony nearly a year before. This was inside me, fusing together with my very being, choking it until only a few pitiful gasps remained.
I was dying. Two more seconds, and I’d be—
A black blur slammed into her. As the weight of Calliope’s body disappeared, the choke hold vanished. Agony burned inside me, leaving me breathless, and fire replaced the ice of the blade as I bled freely. What was happening?