I didn’t speak. It wasn’t any of his business, and if I told him, I ran the risk of him trying to interfere and screw everything up. I trusted James, but I’d trusted Ava, too. I’d trusted Calliope. Each time something terrible happened, that trust bit me in the ass. If this plan had any chance of succeeding, I had to keep my mouth shut.
James didn’t press the issue until we reached the empty throne room. Stopping in the center, he searched my face for something he obviously couldn’t find. “You can trust me,” he said. “I want to help.”
“The moment I tell you, you’re going to do everything in your power to stop me,” I said without anger or accusation. It was the truth, and we both knew it.
“I swear I’ll only help,” he said, tracing an X over his chest. “Cross my heart, word of honor, stick a needle...” He grimaced. “Actually, no, not that last part. Doesn’t even rhyme properly.”
I punched him lightly in the arm. “And how do you plan on helping? By running to Walter and telling him everything so he can stop me?”
James scoffed. “Is that what you think of me? You’re sneaking away to live in sin with a mass murderer, and I’m the bad guy here?”
Any small amount of amusement I’d managed in those few minutes with him evaporated. “You know I don’t have a choice.”
“You do have a choice,” he countered. “You’ve just made it already, that’s all.”
“What else would you have me do?”
He shrugged. “Couldn’t say. I’d do the exact same thing.”
My anger deflated. “Then give me a hug goodbye and let me go. I might be an infant compared to the rest of you, but that doesn’t make me an idiot.”
“Most of the time,” said James, and I punched him in the arm again. Wordlessly he gathered me up and buried his face in my hair. “I was supposed to be your first affair.”
A lump formed in my throat, and I hugged him back fiercely. “I don’t think it counts as an affair if the thought of Cronus makes me sick to my stomach.”
“So there’s still hope for me, after all.”
I half laughed, half sobbed. “You’re an ass.”
“Runs in the family.” He let me go. “Be safe, Kate. I mean it. If you die, Henry will—”
“—tear the entire world apart with his bare hands,” I said. “Yeah, I know. Believe it or not, I really want me to stay alive, too.”
“Despite all evidence to the contrary.” He smiled faintly, and I touched his elbow.
“Do me a favor. Find someone for you, okay? Not a fling or a mortal to marry for fifty years before she dies, but someone to really settle down with. You’re, what, several thousand years old? Don’t you think it’s time?”
His smile faltered for a split second. “I would’ve settled down with you, but then you had to go and marry my uncle. You’re a little heartbreaker, you know.”
I rolled my eyes. “You’re terrible. I mean it. You deserve someone—someone who isn’t already taken. Go out and find her. Or him. Just find someone.” I drew myself up to my full height. “I’m going to be mad at you until you do.”
“It took Henry a thousand years to find you,” said James. “You think you could really be mad at me for that long?”
“Henry doesn’t get out much. You do.” I kissed his cheek. “I’m serious. There has to be a minor goddess out there somewhere who’s absolutely head over heels for you.”
“Who I haven’t already deflowered— Ow.” James rubbed his shoulder, where I’d punched him a third time. “You’re awfully violent today.”
“And you’re awfully crass.”
He captured me in another hug. “Too bad you didn’t have a daughter.”
“If I had, I’d have told her to stay the hell away from you.”
“Even as a newborn?”
“You can never start too early.”
Kissing the top of my head, he slid his hand into mine. “Fair enough. Now what do you say to getting out of here?”
We were back to that again. I sighed. “I don’t need your help, James. I’m fine on my own. I’ve got it all figured out.”
“Do you now?” he said, eyebrow raised. “Then tell me—how do you plan on getting off Olympus? By taking the stairs?”
I hesitated. “Can I?”
“This isn’t a Led Zeppelin song, sweetheart. There are no stairways to heaven.” He gestured to the sunset floor. “Walter has this place locked down right now, which means there’s only one way out of here, and that’s to have an Olympian escort you. Ready?”
I eyed him, searching for any sign that he was about to run off to Walter. But time was slipping away, and I didn’t have much of a choice. “If I let you, do you swear you’re just helping?”
“Everything short of the needle,” he said. How was it possible he could make me smile even in the middle of the hardest thing I’d ever had to do?
Because he was James, and because I could have loved him like that if I didn’t already love Henry. I did have Henry though, and I would never cheat on him. James knew it, I knew it—the only person who didn’t was Henry himself.
Standing on my tiptoes, I kissed the corner of his mouth, lingering for longer than was strictly necessary. “First affair, I promise,” I whispered. “Now let’s do this.”