“What word is that?” said Calliope venomously, her grip tightening around my son.
“The baby will be returned to Kate’s family, and she will remain here with me.”
Two red spots appeared on Calliope’s cheeks, and she jolted strangely, as if she were fighting against some kind of compulsion. “And if I don’t?”
“Then I will no longer have any use for you.”
She hissed. “After everything I’ve done for you, after everything I’ve sacrificed—”
Fury rolled off of her in waves, and I had to force myself not to step away. I was so close to Milo that all I had to do was reach out and touch him. I couldn’t leave him again.
“Is this your final decision?” said Cronus. “To part from our allegiance for the sake of keeping a child that is not yours?”
“He should be mine.” Calliope moved back toward the nursery, but Ava blocked her way, a magenta glow emanating from her body. “Don’t make me do this, Father.”
A glint of metal beside Milo caught my eye. Calliope pulled the blanket back and, before any of us could react, she pressed the dagger Nicholas had forged, the only weapon that could kill an immortal, against Milo’s throat.
“I will not let him go,” said Calliope, calmer now as fear filled the air like poison. “You’ve given away something that wasn’t yours to give, Father.”
Behind me, Cronus sighed as if he were dealing with a petulant child. Not a murderer who had no problem killing again. “I will not ask you a second time. Turn over the child or face the wrath of the King of the Titans.”
“Does the wrath of the Queen of the Gods mean nothing then?” said Calliope. Paralyzed with fear, I couldn’t take my eyes from my son. I didn’t care about a pissing match between them; all I wanted was for Calliope to move that blade away from Milo’s neck.
“Calliope, you don’t want to do that,” said Ava, inching closer. Calliope wheeled around, her teeth bared as she clutched Milo to her chest.
“Don’t you dare use your powers on me,” she growled. Lifting the handle of the dagger, she pressed the point against Milo’s chest. “What will it be, Father? Your deal or my allegiance?”
Milo let out a soft cry, and I lunged forward. But before I reached him, Cronus grabbed my shoulders and pulled me against his chest, and no matter how hard I struggled, he didn’t budge.
“I will not break my word to Kate,” said Cronus without emotion, and I elbowed him hard in the stomach. Nothing. “Do what you must, but make no mistake. Our allegiance hinges on that baby’s life.”
I thought I saw a flash of hurt on Calliope’s face, but it lasted only a fraction of a second. “So you’ve chosen Kate over me,” she said, practically spitting my name. “Then it hardly matters what I do, does it? Your allegiance will never be mine, and no longer will mine be yours.”
She raised the dagger, and a scream ripped through me and echoed through the palace. I couldn’t watch, but I couldn’t look away in the last seconds of Milo’s short life either. I couldn’t abandon him like that.
The world darkened around the edges, and for one beautiful moment I thought I was dying. My body went numb, my mind quieted into silence, and that second hung between us, frozen. I would live with this fear forever if it meant this moment never ended—if Calliope never moved the blade closer, if Milo never died, if we all stayed this way for eternity.
A flash of white light blinded me, and darkness that crackled with power engulfed us.
“Calliope,” boomed an all-too-familiar voice. “Put the weapon down and give me my son.”
Henry.
It shouldn’t have been possible for me to be any more afraid than I already was, but now, seeing Henry float down the hallway with that black cloud around him, a choke hold of terror grabbed on to me and refused to let go.
I was going to lose both of them.
This time Calliope didn’t try to hide her shock. Her mouth dropped open, but she also lowered the dagger. “Henry,” she said. “What an unexpected surprise. And here Father was telling me you were dead.”
She glared at Cronus, and his arms tightened around me until he was a millimeter away from crushing my bones into dust.
“You lied to me,” he whispered in my ear, and his malevolence thrummed in the air around us. “After everything I did for you, this is how you repay me. With deceit and mockery.”
I gulped. No more secrets now. The cards were on the table, and now all we could do was play.
“Give me my son,” repeated Henry. He was less than a foot away from me now, but he didn’t spare me a glance.
“And what do I get in this deal?” said Calliope, eyeing him hungrily.
“Me,” said Henry quietly. “Give me my son, swear on the River Styx that you will never harm him or allow harm to come to him in any way, shape or form, and you will have me.”
“Henry, no,” I gasped, and Cronus clamped his hand over my mouth. No, no, no. Henry was supposed to stay with Milo and keep him safe. I couldn’t, not the way he could. It had to be me. I had to be the one to stay. I tried to protest, whimpering and screaming and flailing against Cronus, but Henry ignored me completely.
“That will fulfill the terms of our bargain,” said Cronus, and I stopped cold. “The baby will be raised by his family, as Kate has demanded, and I will have her.”
No, that was not our deal. Not even close. Milo was supposed to be safe in Olympus with Henry and my mother and James, not down here with Calliope and Cronus. I couldn’t speak though, and no one was paying attention to me. Henry nodded once, and in that second, my heart shattered.