“Then what did you come all this way for?” said Persephone. “For all intents and purposes, you’re useless, and you’re smart enough to know that, so why did you come? The only thing you’ll be good for in there is dying—” She stopped, and her eyes widened a fraction of an inch.

“You’re going to offer Calliope a trade, aren’t you?” James gave me an accusing look, and Ava’s mouth dropped open in disbelief. My cheeks burned, but I refused to look away. “No,” I said with as much conviction as I could muster, but Persephone shook her head anyway.

“You’re an idiot. An absolute idiot. I don’t care what kind of deals you made with Cronus or how badly Calliope wants you dead. All bets are off the moment you go in there.”

“If you’re dead, Henry will fade, too,” said Ava. “You’re the only reason he’s still alive, and he won’t be able to live with the guilt of you dying for him.”

“You have to understand—if Henry fades, we won’t stand a chance against Cronus,” added James. “Even if I did take his place, I’m not one of the six. I don’t have the power to keep Cronus contained while he’s awake, not like Henry does. We can’t risk that.”

My eyes prickled with hot tears. I blinked to keep them from spilling over, but it was useless. I wiped my cheeks and glared at the three of them, anger and frustration boiling inside of me. “So that’s it? I stay out here and wait? What happens if you all die? What am I supposed to do then?”

“That won’t happen,” said Persephone with a sniff.

“There’s only one way to deal with Calliope, and that’s to give her what she wants. Since we can’t hand you over, we’ll have to offer her the next best thing.”

“And what’s that?” I said bitterly. “Convince Henry to love her and make her his queen instead of me?” Persephone huffed. “Hardly. I’m going to open the gate.” And before any of us had the chance to stop her, she winked and disappeared through the wall.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

INGR ID

Ava fell to her knees beside the bushes, groping along the wall for the crack that had engulfed Persephone. The forest around us melted away, replaced by a meadow full of f lowers, but I was too panicked to investigate.

“She didn’t mean that, did she?” I said as James let out a string of curses I’d never thought I’d hear come out of his mouth.

“She’s crazy,” said Ava. “Sometimes she makes Calliope look sane. We were all glad to be rid of her when she decided to take Adonis and run.”

James hovered over Ava and ran his hands over the spot where Persephone had disappeared. “No, you were glad to be rid of her. Henry practically tried to hang himself.

Here.” His hand slipped through the rock, and Ava fell back on her heels with a sigh of relief.

“Please,” I begged. “Let me come with you. I’ll hide while you do the talking, but I can’t wait out here knowing that every single person that matters to me could be dying in there.”

“And I can’t let you walk through that wall knowing that you’ll never walk out,” said James. “I’m sorry. I know how much it means to you, and we’ll do everything in our power to set them free. But we can’t risk your life, not when it means Henry’s, as well. Please don’t make this any more diff icult for us than it already is.”

I gaped at him; he might as well have slapped me in the face. It had been my idea to come in the f irst place. The three of them wouldn’t even be there if I hadn’t insisted on going. I was the one who’d managed to get Cronus off our backs, yet I was the problem?

“I’m sorry for being so damn diff icult,” I spat. “I’m sorry for not being powerful enough to be anything but a burden, but how would you feel if you’d come all this way to be told you were useless and couldn’t help?”

“Like shit,” he said without batting an eye. “But if our positions were switched, I would understand that it was the right thing to do no matter how hard it was for me to accept.”

Tears stung my eyes, and I blinked rapidly. This wasn’t fair. I had every right to do what I could to help. I didn’t want to die, but living in a world where the council had been wiped out and Cronus ruled—

“We can do it,” said Ava. Her eyes were red. “James and Persephone and I. We can do it as long as we don’t have to worry about you, too. Please, Kate. Henry loves you. Give him something to come home to.”

Every last bit of willpower I had crumbled, and I wiped my cheeks with my dirty sleeves. “Promise me you’ll come back out.”

Neither one of them spoke. James leaned in to me, and for the f irst time in days, I didn’t move away. He pressed his lips to my cheek, and he didn’t have to say it for me to know what it was.

Goodbye.

I watched them disappear into the wall, Ava f irst and James second to make sure I didn’t follow, and once they were gone, I collapsed onto the moss beneath me. A sob escaped from my throat as the weight of helplessness and grief crushed me, leaving me with nothing.

Persephone would open the gate, and the moment it was done, Cronus would kill them all. And there was nothing I could do to stop it.

I didn’t know how long I sat there with my face buried in my hands as sob after sob ripped out of me. My chest ached, and my entire body trembled, but as badly as I wanted to follow them, I couldn’t. No matter what happened, Calliope would still win. She would kill me the instant I walked through the wall, or Persephone would release Cronus, and then Calliope would kill me.