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"Your son?" Her arhtened around the baby, and a mockery of a smile curled across her lips "You s to h the door in a cloud of victory, leaving me empty and utterly alone

She wouldn’t take his life--thatwould it take before she got tired of obeying Cronus and killed the baby just to watch et to him I had to save hiht of hi black and beyond recognition--if , that kind of life was infinitely worse than the peace of death

Desperation clawed atme up from the inside out, and I slowly turned toward Cronus

His queen My life, my choices,"I’ll do anything"

He brushed his cold fingers against my tearstained cheek, and this ti?"

The words were like knives on ," I whispered "Save hi when his lips were only inches frohbirth as Cronus healed me It orth it Henry would understand, and somehow, someway, I would unite him with the baby

Dizzy with hope, I sat up and touched my flat stomach Somehow Cronus had returned nant, and theWhy not leave me with the ability to feed the baby? Because he kneouldn’t an to shake

"What--" I began, gripping the edge of the ht h ht, and around us the entire island quaked violently

"I will return, ether," said Cronus He pressed his cold lips to one, but I didn’t care

In the distance, a black cloud approached, sizzling with lightning Though Cronus hih the barrier the council had created as if it were nothing, and I spotted the silhouette of a man on top of it Hope swelled within ure was

Henry

Chapter 2

Blood and Stone