Her lower lip trembled, and I scraped my nails against my throne. I’d had to risk my life, my family, everything to earn a spot on the council, to prove I was worthy of ruling over the Underworld with Henry. Yet they were allowed to hurt as many people as they wanted so long as it meant they got their way. I was sick of it.
“Please,” she begged, her hands shaking as she stepped toward me, but the golden light wouldn’t hold her, and she was forced to return to the center. “Kate, I love you— Calliope made me— Please understand, I never wanted any of this—”
“There comes a point in your life when you have to make a choice,” I said. “You can keep going down the easy path no matter where it takes you, everyone else be damned, or you can fight for what you believe in.”
“I am fighting!” she exploded. “I’m doing this for Nicholas and Milo and Henry and all of you—don’t you get that? Do you think I wanted to walk away from my family like this? I have a son, too, Kate. I know what it’s like to love someone as much as you love Milo. Do you think if I had any other choice—”
“Enough.” Walter’s voice, low and anything but neutral now, echoed through the throne room. “You have said your piece, daughter, and now you must allow the council to—”
“Screw the council.” Ava didn’t so much as look at her father, and if she’d been more than an illusion, I had no doubt the room would have crackled with power. As it was, no one dared to speak. Even Walter looked as if she’d slapped him across the face.
“I want you to listen to me, Katherine Winters,” she said. “Everything I have done, every word, every look, every betrayal, has been to help our family. Doing the right thing doesn’t always mean acting like a saint. Sometimes it means getting your hands dirty and doing the thing you hate most so other people might have an easier time of it. So other people might not die.”
“If that’s your excuse, then how do you justify dragging Milo into it?” I snapped.
“He was never supposed to be part of it. He was never supposed to exist.”
“But he does. He’s here, and now Calliope has Henry, too. All because of you.”
The council remained silent, and not even my mother reacted. So I’d been right. They all knew exactly what he’d planned to do, and none of them had stopped him.
Ava took a deep breath. “I’m sorry,” she said in a measured voice, and it was such a change from seconds before that it took me a moment to understand she was sincere. Something ugly surfaced inside me. I didn’t want her to apologize. I wanted her to fight. “None of this should’ve happened. No matter what stupid mistakes I’ve made...I’m sorry for those, Kate. I’m sorry to all of you for leaving you. I never wanted to, but like I said, I didn’t have a choice—”
“Ava.” Walter’s voice reverberated through the throne room.
“You’ve done enough, Daddy. It’s my turn to talk now,” she said with inhuman quietness. “I’m sorry for everything. I love you all, and I did what I thought I had to do. But Henry’s here to protect the baby now, and I can’t do anything more to help Nicholas.”
Around the circle, several council members glanced at Nicholas’s empty copper throne. “You are willing to abandon him, knowing it may mean his death?” said Walter.
“I’m more of a danger to him if I stay and give Calliope the chance to use him to keep controlling me,” said Ava. “He wants me to go, and the only way I can help save him is to return to Olympus. Cronus has decided he’s going to escape the island on the winter solstice, and given what he’s shown himself to be capable of, I believe him. I want to help.”
In that moment, she didn’t sound like the Ava I knew—the selfish, simpering goddess of love who couldn’t prioritize what others needed before what she wanted. She sounded old. Haunted. Like the other members of the council did when they were so deep into planning that they let their masks slip. It was one more reminder of who and what they were—ancient. Powerful. Wiser than I could ever imagine, but shortsighted and close-minded, as well. Cut off from the real world, from the humanity they struggled to defend. Stubborn and as passionate about protecting their own interests as they were about doing their jobs.
That was Ava. Stubborn and passionate, and now lost to me as completely as our father was.
“I am sorry, daughter,” said Walter, but he didn’t sound very sorry at all. “We cannot pretend to know Calliope’s intentions, and we must act cautiously. It is possible that Nicholas remains alive only because Calliope believes he is the key to controlling you. If you abandon her, there is no telling what she might do to him.”
A murmur rose from the other members of the council, but no one objected. I didn’t blame them. As much as it pained me to admit it, Walter was right.
“You will remain with Calliope until given further instructions,” said Walter. “You will carry on as normal, with no sabotage or acts of ill will toward her. She must believe that your intentions are pure.”
“But you haven’t even discussed it!” cried Ava, and Walter raised his hand, cutting her off.
“There is no need. Two of our own are now at the mercy of Calliope and Cronus, and we cannot upset the balance until we are ready for a fight. We will heed Cronus’s deadline, though we already expected it. Any further information you acquire will be useful to us, but do not give it at risk of the prisoners.”