Persephone tugged on a blond curl, and when she let it go, it sprang back into a perfect spiral. She’d probably never had a bad hair day in her life. “Our whole relationship was my fault for being too young and scared. I wasn’t ready for marriage, and I knew that before I married him. The right thing would’ve been to put it off for a hundred years and get to know him f irst. If I’d done that, there’s no telling what might have happened. But I didn’t wait, and we both paid the price.”
“Henry more than you,” I mumbled.
“Henry more than me,” she agreed. “I’ve had to carry around that guilt for my entire afterlife. Ever since I left him, I’ve hoped someone would come along and give him another chance. Someone like you,” she said, poking my arm. I shied away from her touch, and she dropped her hand into her lap. “Just because it didn’t work out between us doesn’t mean I don’t love him. Not the way he wants me to, but I still care about what happens to him. I’m glad he found you. I’m glad Mother decided to try again for a daughter she could f inally be proud of.” In that moment, some of my animosity toward Persephone melted, and I tentatively reached out to her. As hard as it was for me to bear the pressure of living up to my mother’s expectations, I’d never considered how diff icult it had been for Persephone to go against them in the f irst place. “She’s proud of you. She said so herself. And—she knows you deserved a chance to be happy. I know that, too,” I added. “I just wish Henry could look at me the way he looks at you.”
Persephone wrapped her f ingers around mine. “You should be glad he doesn’t. When he looks at me, he hurts.
But when he sees you…” She smiled faintly. “He has hope.
I’m not surprised you don’t notice it. It took me a while to read him, too. I spent thousands of years with him though, and I know that look. I saw it the day we got married. You don’t forget the f irst time someone looks at you like that.” I bit my lip. I wanted to believe her. Badly. She did know Henry; she gained nothing by lying to me, and if there was any chance she was being honest, I had to take it. “How do I do this? How do I get him to love me?”
“Just be you.” Persephone patted my hand and stood. “It won’t take him long to see what he has. I’m going to go.”
“All right.” I pushed my hair behind my ears. “I’ll probably see you before I leave.”
“You won’t.” She smiled brief ly, and in that moment, she looked so much like our mother that I did a double take.
“I’m leaving as soon as the meeting’s over. I’ve stayed here long enough, and as fun as it’s been battling Cronus, I miss Adonis. I’ll be back if they need me,” she added. “Until then, I’m going home.”
“Oh.” Relief washed over me, followed immediately by guilt. As terrible as things had been in the beginning and as much as I wanted to hate her for what she’d done with Henry, she was trying. And she was still my sister. “Thank you. For everything.”
“Anytime.” She set her hand on the door, but before she opened it, she hesitated. “You can come visit me, if you want. I’d like that. I’ve never had a real sister before, and it’d be nice to get to know you. As much as I love Adonis, sometimes he can be a little…monotonous.” I managed a small smile. Somehow that didn’t surprise me. “I’d like that, too. I’m sorry I barged in on you and disrupted your afterlife like that.”
“I’m not.” She winked and disappeared back into the throne room.
The door swung shut, muff ling the council’s bickering once more. I still wasn’t sure how I felt about Persephone, but at least now we would have the chance to get to know each other on our own terms. If I survived.
An hour later, I’d strewn half my closet across the bed, and Pogo was buried underneath a pile of sweaters. I didn’t know where Ava and I would be going, so I had to prepare for any possibility. Where did a Titan stay without being noticed anyway? Up on a mountain somewhere? Antarctica?
The Sahara desert? Either way, the possibilities were endless and not very promising, which meant I had to be ready for anything.
“Think you can put up with missing me for another few months?” I said as Pogo dug himself out. My clothes would smell like puppy now, but I didn’t care. It would be a nice reminder of him when I was lonely.
He let out a soft yip, and I grinned in spite of myself.
“He will miss you,” said a voice behind me. Startled, I dropped the boots I was stuff ing into the only suitcase I could f ind.
I’d expected him to stay away, but there he was, his shoulders squared and his eyes stormy.
Henry.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
ROCK ED
My mouth went dry, and I picked up the boots and tossed them on the bed. I’d been so convinced that he wouldn’t want anything else to do with me that I hadn’t bothered to think about what to say. I had no real reason to apologize, except for maybe calling him out in front of everyone, but that was the only part I regretted.
“I’m sorry about the mess, I was just—”
“Packing. Yes, I see that.” He waved a hand, and my already overstuffed suitcase seemed to empty. When I opened my mouth to protest, I saw that he hadn’t made anything vanish; the suitcase had only gotten deeper. “Is this a bad time?”
The last thing I wanted was to f ight with him, but I couldn’t very well leave the Underworld before f inishing this one way or the other. “I have a few minutes,” I said, folding a pair of jeans. “What was all of the arguing about?” The corner of Henry’s mouth twitched with annoyance.