Silence settled over the room once Cronus finished repeating me. Ava sank to the ground, hugging her knees to her chest, and I pressed my lips together. As hurt as I was, mine wasn’t the only life Calliope was trying to destroy.

“You have my understanding,” I said quietly. “Do the right thing, and one day you will have my forgiveness. But you won’t have anything if you don’t start acting like the Ava I know and stand up to Calliope.”

Ava was sobbing now, her entire body shaking. “I can’t. I can’t. She’ll kill him. Please, Kate. You’re my best friend. You’re the only one who understood before. Please try to understand now—Callum, he’s safe with her, she won’t hurt him—”

Something ugly uncoiled inside me, something vicious and dark where every terrible thought I’d ever had lay dormant, waiting to come out again. “She hurts Milo every second she keeps him from me and Henry, and you’re the one who let her take him in the first place. You didn’t raise a finger to stop her, and because of you, he’s here, and he will never be safe with her. Ever. If you can’t see that—if you’re so blind to your own actions that you can’t take responsibility for them—then as far as I’m concerned, we were never friends at all. And we never will be again.”

Her eyes flew open. Instead of the anguish I expected, they filled with magenta fire, as surely as Henry’s glinted with moonlight and Cronus’s swirled with fog. She unfolded her legs and stood, and a pale aura glowed around her.

“You’re a liar.” Her words echoed throughout the nursery, and Milo let out a startled cry. She ignored him and went toe to toe with Cronus, unaware I was less than a foot away. “Kate would never say those things to me, and your pitiful attempts to sever my loyalty won’t work. Even if Kate did say those awful things, she doesn’t really mean them. Calliope’s using her powers to make her hate me, isn’t she?”

Calliope didn’t have to cut the strings of our friendship. Ava was already fraying them beyond repair. But no matter how much I understood why she was doing this, no matter how much I wanted to forgive her, I’d never had such conflicting feelings for someone in my life. I constantly wavered between irresistible fury and the deep desire to understand, as if those two parts of me were at war with each other. And while I’d been on the island, close enough for Calliope to get to me whenever she wanted, forgiving Ava had never crossed my mind.

Maybe Calliope was behind this, after all. I took a deep breath. Acknowledging it didn’t make the tension in the pit of my stomach lessen, but I would force myself past Calliope’s influences if Ava did the right thing.

“Is that so?” said Cronus with eerie calm, pulling me back into the present. “What makes you so certain? You are already on our side. I have no reason to lie.”

“You have every reason to lie,” said Ava. “I’ve told Calliope, and now I’ll tell you. I am not your bitch. I’m here for my husband, and I’m here for Kate’s baby. I won’t let you or Calliope poison him.”

A shadow moved in the doorway, and Henry appeared. He was safe. Wordlessly he crossed the room and took my hand.

“You can tell me as many awful things as you want. I won’t believe you.” Ava’s voice trembled, but power radiated from her. “She’s my best friend, and I love her. Not that you would understand the first thing about love.”

She reached into Milo’s cradle and picked him up, and his cries grew louder. His arms flailed toward me, and I held my hand over his forehead. “It’s all right,” I whispered. “I’m here.”

As the words left my mouth, however, Ava stormed toward the door, and it was only Henry’s tight grip on my hand that kept me from going after her.

“Where are you taking him?” said Cronus without any hint of anger. If anything, he sounded amused.

Ava glared at him. “To give him a bath and a bottle. Someone needs to make sure he knows he’s loved, and you and Calliope sure as hell aren’t qualified.”

I stepped toward her, yanking on Henry’s hand in an attempt to get him to follow, but he stood firm. “Come, Kate,” he said, and the world around us began to fade. “There’s nothing more we can do.”

And though I said nothing while he brought me back to Olympus, I knew he was wrong. There was something more, and now I had no choice but to do it.

Chapter 10

Destruction

I wasn’t sure how long I lay there, staring at Henry in the middle of our bed. Long enough for my heart to ache the same way it did whenever I was gone from Milo for too long. Long enough to be certain that the council meeting was over by now, but my mother still hadn’t come to find me. Maybe she knew I didn’t want to be found.

“Why do you think she did it?” I said, breaking the silence between me and Henry.

“Ava?” he said, and I nodded. “Because she loves Nicholas, and because she was naive enough to trust that Calliope would keep her word.”

“But why did Calliope go after Ava to begin with?”

Henry leaned over and kissed me. “Calliope sees Ava as her greatest rival. Walter loves her more than anyone else on the council, and Calliope has always been jealous of the sway she’s had over him. Ava is powerful in her own right, as well. Calliope has control over a person’s loyalty, but Ava controls love. Not even Calliope can touch that.”

Realization dawned on me. “She wanted you. Calliope was going to capture you and force you to be her partner. That was her endgame—to lure you in and keep you like some kind of pet or something. Maybe that’s why she wanted Ava on her side.”