Dammit. Of course the one choice I’d made on my own was the one thing that could screw up Persephone’s plan.
I inched toward the exit. If I could f ind it before Calliope saw me, then I’d slip out and wait for Persephone to join me. Ingrid would hide me if I explained what was going on, and then the three of us could strategize. If Persephone could come inside the cavern, then so could Ingrid, and maybe Calliope wouldn’t be able to hurt her, either. They could distract her while I freed the others, and—
A hiss of energy made my hair stand on end, and the boulder I’d hidden behind exploded. I instinctively covered my head and ducked as the shattered rock f lew through the air, but the pieces glanced off me, leaving my body unharmed.
Dead silence f illed the cavern.
Everything inside of me screamed run. I clawed at the rock, and had I still been mortal, I would have scraped my f ingertips down to the bone. But I couldn’t f ind the way out.
Calliope’s wicked laughter reverberated through the cavern, and I stopped struggling. It was pointless. She’d seen me, and there was no escaping now.
“That didn’t take long,” she said in a singsong voice.
“You really can’t do anything right, can you, Kate? You can’t even rush in to save your precious Henry the way you wanted to.”
I clenched my jaw and didn’t say a word. That was exactly what Calliope wanted—to piss me off. I wouldn’t give her the satisfaction.
“Hera—” said Persephone, but Calliope raised a hand to silence her. Persephone glared at me. I didn’t blame her.
“This certainly changes things, doesn’t it?” said Calliope cheerfully. She beckoned for me to come closer. When I didn’t move, she gestured, and an irresistible force pulled me toward her. No amount of digging my heels into the ground made any difference.
I was only a few feet from her when she lifted that surge of power, and thrown off balance, I collapsed onto the f loor. Her foot connected with my stomach, and all the air left my lungs.
“That’s for being such an idiot,” she said. “You’re pa-thetic, you know. Not even a worthy opponent. It’s like picking the wings off a f ly and watching it writhe around.”
“I wouldn’t know,” I wheezed. “I’m not a sadistic bitch like you.”
She kicked me again, and this time her foot connected with my chin. It stung, and my head whipped back; if I’d been mortal, I was sure it would have broken my neck. But she couldn’t win that easily anymore.
“Stop it,” said Persephone. “All she did was pass a stupid test. I know you love Hades, but there are better men out there. Trust me.”
“Trust you?” Calliope rounded on Persephone. “Why would I possibly trust you? You destroyed him. You took his love and shoved it back in his face, like Walter did to me. You couldn’t possibly understand what that feels like, you heinous—”
“Don’t,” I said, struggling to my feet. “She wanted to be happy. There’s no crime in that.”
“There is when you shatter someone else in the process,” said Calliope with a snarl. “Besides, it’s not about that, not anymore. Henry made his choice when he backed up your punishment. Do you really think I would have kidnapped him if I’d thought I still had a chance?”
“So you’re going to kill him because I decided you had to face the consequences for what you did?” I said. “Are you serious?”
Calliope grabbed a f istful of my hair and yanked my head back. “I’m serious when I say that you’re not getting out of here alive. If Persephone won’t tell me how to open the gate, then I’ll get Henry to do it instead.” Across the cavern, in the mouth of the cave where the others lay unconscious, Henry’s body jerked upward. His chains rattled and separated from the others, dragging along the ground as he f loated toward us. A knot formed in my throat at the sight of his bloodied body, even worse than it’d been in my last vision, but he was alive. As long as Calliope didn’t know how to open the gate, then she wouldn’t kill either of us. She couldn’t. Henry wouldn’t open it if I were dead.
“Wake up,” she growled, and Henry opened his eyes.
My heart skipped a beat, and for a long moment, we stared at each other. His eyes were the same bizarre shade of moonlight, but the spark was gone. I searched for any sign that he was in there, any indication that he could f ight, but it was as if he didn’t even see me. He’d given up.
“Henry?” I whispered, and he blinked. “Henry, please—
look at me.”
He was already looking at me, but he didn’t see me, and I didn’t know how to ask for that. He wasn’t there. Whatever Calliope and Cronus had done to him, he’d retreated so far into himself that the rest of the world didn’t exist.
Calliope grabbed the loose end of his fog-infused chains and whipped it across his face. I gasped and struggled against her, but she held on to me with inhuman strength.
A bright red pattern blossomed across Henry’s cheek, and at last he shook his head and came to. He touched his face and winced, and I exhaled. He was in there after all.
Instead of looking at me, however, his gaze focused on something behind me, and his jaw went slack. “Persephone?”
I would have rather been sliced open by Cronus than experience the gut-wrenching pain that came with hearing her name before mine.
“Look who decided to join us,” said Calliope, tugging on my hair. Henry tore his gaze away from Persephone to focus on me, and the look on his face made my stomach turn. “Seems someone doesn’t have a brain in her head, but that’s no surprise, is it? You sure know how to pick them.