Someone sat down beside me, and the gentle hand on my back was unmistakably Ava’s. “Are you okay?” she said softly, and I straightened, keeping my eyes squeezed shut in an attempt to keep the light-headedness at bay.
“Yeah, I’m peachy,” I muttered. Her hand stilled, and I sighed. “I’m sorry, it’s just—”
“It’s just that you learned there’s a pretty good chance the world is going to end, and you need a moment to think,” said Ava, and I nodded. She seemed to be taking it better now, but she’d been with the council before I’d gotten there. She’d had more time to absorb it.
“What would have happened if things had been different?” I said. “If I hadn’t passed the test—”
“She still would’ve done it.”
I opened my eyes. James leaned against the wall, his hands shoved in his pockets and his hair a mess. It was a weight off my shoulders to hear him voicing the same thoughts I was trying to convince myself were true, and I gave him a small smile.
He didn’t smile back. “Calliope’s been planning this for a long time, and once she woke Cronus, nothing was going to stop her. She wants you dead. She wants us all dead. She stopped thinking rationally long before you were born, and no amount of blaming yourself is going to change that.” My heart sank. So that was it then—eventually I’d have to hand myself over to her regardless of how this turned out. If the council was right, if Calliope and Cronus really were unstoppable, if we were all going to die anyway—
I didn’t want to. Every f iber of my being fought against it, and I felt woozy all over again, knowing what she would do to me. But what if that was the only solution? What if that was the only way to convince Calliope to help subdue Cronus again? If she’d really fought with the others in the war against the Titans, then the part of her that cared enough to risk her own existence for humanity had to be in there somewhere. And no matter how upset and humili-ated she was, maybe having my head on a platter would be enough for her to change her mind.
Last resort, I thought. Only as a last resort.
If it did come to that and giving up my own life meant this nightmare could end—I wanted to be self ish and live, but I couldn’t stand back and watch everyone else be slaughtered because of me. I wasn’t sure which option was more self ish, but when it might have been within my power to end this, I wouldn’t ignore that, as badly as I wanted to forget it was even a possibility.
Either way, I had to f ind her f irst. “How do I get there?” I said. “To the place where Calliope and Cronus are. I know you don’t want me to go, but—”
“You’ll go even if I don’t tell you,” said James. “I don’t know where it is—honest. No one does. The elder gods can f ind it, but they made sure I couldn’t, and the location was kept secret from the others for obvious reasons. The only other person who knew where it was—” He stopped.
“Who?” I said. “Please, James, I don’t care what I have to do. I’ll wander through the whole Underworld if that’s what it takes.”
“I know you will,” he said with a tight smile. “That’s what I love about you. But, Kate, you have to understand—”
“What I understand is that if someone doesn’t try to stop them, Calliope and Cronus are going to rip the world apart, and everyone’s going to die,” I said. “I don’t care what I have to do. I’ll do it.”
James sighed. “The only other person who knows where the gate is—” He paused. “It’s Persephone.”
CHAPTER SIX
LAKE OFFIRE
Persephone. Of course. Out of all the gods who had ever existed and every person who had ever walked through the Underworld, it had to be her.
I rubbed my sweaty palms on my thighs and wished for the f irst time that I’d never heard of Eden. My life would have been destroyed, and my mother would be dead by now, but at least the lives of billions of people wouldn’t potentially rest on me swallowing my pride and f inding the one person I hoped I would never have to meet. The person my husband was still in love with.
My sister.
“Isn’t there someone else?” I said with a croak.
“Henry,” said James. “But he’s a little preoccupied right now.”
I gave him a look. “So what? I track down Persephone out of the millions of souls—”
“Billions,” said James. “Possibly over a hundred by now.
I haven’t been keeping track.”
“So I track down Persephone out of the billions of souls in the Underworld?” I said. “How long is that going to take?”
“As much time as it does. Finding a needle in a haystack is easy if you have enough time to look through it piece by piece.”
“But we don’t have that much time.”
James pushed himself off the wall and strode toward us.
“Then I guess it’s a good thing you have me.” I eyed him. “What do you mean?”
“He means he’s going with you,” said Ava. “So am I.” Despite her bravery, I heard the tremble in her voice.
“You don’t have to do this,” I said. “Either of you. I appreciate the offer, but you heard what the others said. The chances of getting out of this alive—”
“Will be much better if I come with you,” said James.
“Just me. We don’t have time to sit around and debate this.”