James hugged me, and I stiffened. I didn’t deserve his sympathy. “It will be okay,” he said, an empty reassurance. Regardless of whether or not there was something he could do, he couldn’t guarantee everything would turn out all right. He couldn’t promise me that Henry would live or I would ever hold Milo or that the council would recapture Cronus and make sure Calliope never hurt anyone again. He couldn’t make up for the countless lives already lost because of me.
“I’m never going to see them again,” I whispered.
“Yes, you will. I’ll make sure you do.”
I curled up in my seat and rested my head against his shoulder, lost within myself. I could only take so much before I broke, and Calliope knew it. Cronus knew it. Staying strong for my mother while she’d been dying had been easy—it was staying strong for myself that had been impossible. Now I had no one to stay strong for, not even Milo. Not even Henry.
James was staying strong for me, though. I owed it to him—and to Henry and Milo and my mother and everyone—to try not to crumble. I swallowed, and my dry throat protested. “Did he know you were there?”
He shook his head. “He can see you, but only because he expects you and has already forged that connection with you. He’ll know someone came because you were talking to me, but unless he figures out who I was, he won’t be able to see me if we go back again.”
“How did you know it wasn’t Henry?”
“I didn’t,” said James, running his fingers through my hair. “Not until I saw him. The only question is why?”
My chin trembled. “I did something really stupid.”
“How stupid?” said James, his hand stilling.
I pressed my lips together, fighting the urge to slip back into the sunset nursery. “I promised Cronus I would stay with him and—and be his queen if he didn’t kill anyone. And if he gave me Milo.”
James exhaled. “Oh, Kate.”
“I’m sorry.” I tried to draw away from him, but his arm around my shoulders tightened. “I’m so sorry, James. I had no idea. I thought— I didn’t know what I was thinking—”
“You were thinking you had a chance to do what you always do,” said James with kindness I didn’t deserve. “You were going to give yourself up in order to save the people you love. It’s a bit of a problem with you, you know.”
I sniffed. “I just wanted to see Milo again.”
“I know,” he murmured, kissing the top of my head. “You have nothing to apologize for.”
“But all of those people—Athens—”
“—would have happened no matter what you did. Cronus always intended on causing as much destruction as possible. That has nothing to do with you, Kate, I promise.” He paused. “In fact, your deal could work for us.”
“How?” I wiped my cheeks with my sleeve. “He knows we’re going to Rhea to ask for her help. He knows she can heal Henry, and the first chance Cronus gets, he’s going to kill him.”
“Probably,” said James. “We’ll make sure he never has that chance though, and in the meantime, we have a direct line to Cronus.”
“He won’t listen to reason.”
“No, but he might listen to you. Especially if you can convince him you’re still on his side.”
A wave of nausea swept over me. “I was never on his side.”
“Doesn’t matter when he doesn’t know that,” said James. “He’s always willing to believe the worst in us. Use that against him. Say you want to rejoin him, but Walter’s holding you hostage. You want to be with Milo, so it won’t even really be a lie.”
Unless he could see the lie in a truth, like Henry could. “He’ll come after you,” I said. “He’ll attack Olympus.”
James chuckled. “Last time Cronus tried, he wound up in the hottest, deepest pit on earth. I doubt he’ll give it another go.”
But no matter how hard he was trying to convince me that it wasn’t a big deal, I heard the worry in his voice. This was his entire family, too. This was his home, and he was gambling it all on what? On the slim chance Cronus might be willing to listen to me? If James was right and Cronus had heard everything that had gone on in the nursery, then he would know I knew. And he would know I was angry.
“What if it doesn’t work?” I whispered, finding his hand and lacing my fingers through his. A friendly touch. Nothing more, but I needed that much, and so did he.
James rested his head against mine. “Then we’ll just have to figure something else out.”
Six hours and one connecting flight later, we touched down in Zimbabwe. James hailed a cab on the curbside of the airport, and soon enough we were on a remote road traveling to a place I couldn’t pronounce no matter how many times James tried to teach me.
“You’ll get it eventually,” he said with a chuckle, but after a moment he turned serious. “None of us have contacted Rhea in a very long time. I have no idea how she’ll react, and I can’t make you any promises.”
“I don’t need promises,” I said, but my insides churned. What if I couldn’t convince Rhea to help us? What if she wouldn’t heal Henry?
I straightened in the back of the hot cab. No matter what it took, no matter what I had to promise her, I would find a way to make this happen. I would find a way to save Henry. If Rhea was really so unconcerned about the rest of the world that she wasn’t willing to step up and help us fight...