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It took es to fall asleep, and when I did, I drea words I didn’t understand Dozens of questions swirled through my restless one through with this, knohat it ht mean? Had he done it purely to protect Milo? I’d had it handled, , but Henry couldn’t have possibly known she would either

He should’ve stayed behind He would’ve been much more useful as a weapon Cronus and Calliope didn’t know about He ht that tipped the balance away froiven that up to turn himself over to Calliope

I wanted to be mad I wanted to be furious, to rip the roo left It wouldn’t accoh, and the best I could do was exactly what Ja of soht Wasn’t pride the very thing that had nearly lost me Henry and my mother and immortality in the first place?

But the els either They could do whatever they damn well pleased, and if they could cheat, so could I Pride it was then, along with a side of wrath for good measure If there was a way out of this, I would find it

After a restless night and an even more fitful day, the sun set on Greece, and at last it was time As the council disappeared froer had a prayer of defeating, I closedfor me in the nursery, exactly where she’d said she would be Milo wasn’t in his crib, though Ava’s ar in the shadows rocking hi anxiously out the door, Ava pressed her lips together, oblivious that I aiting I glanced over her shoulder and followed her gaze to ain the hallway Through it I saw half a dozen s’s battle had begun

"Kate?" said Ava, turning so suddenly that I didn’t have tih me "Are you here?"

I didn’t bother to reply She wouldn’t be able to hear me, so it was useless

She stared into the eed "I’m sorry I know you don’t want to hear it, but it’s true I swear to you I didn’t knohat Calliope was planning"

This was it? Another round of apologies? I huffed and closed my eyes, ready to return to Oly to wasteyou want to do is trust me," echoed Ava as I slipped back to Oly"

I snapped back into the nursery, hungry with hope Glancing around as if she wasn’t sure I was there, Ava exited the room, and I followed on her heels She led me down the hallway and the narrow staircase I’d used the day before We stopped on the same level that held my prison, andHenry down here, could she?

Ava paused at a door Nicholas’s rooh the silence,with his screams I flinched, but Ava pushed the door open and stormed inside I hurried after her

"You swore you’d stop," she said, and it tookto me "I did what you told ain"

Calliope stood in thethe edge Discarded scraps ofweakly and others nothing more than lue This here he’dfire in the center of the room, so Nicholas sluods should’ve never been He was half-conscious, his face slashed and purple and his body a mess of cuts and bruises

"Your side of our deal hasn’t been finished yet," said Calliope "Kate is still alive"

Ava scowled "That has nothing to do with--"

"I don’t care" Calliope’s voice sliced through the air like a scythe "You will do what I say, or I will kill Nicholas That is all there is to it"

He groaned, his eyeballsunderneath his swollen lids, and Ava reached for him Calliope stepped between theht "You knohat happens if you touch him"

"I don’t care anymore" Ava darted around Calliope and knelt beside the chair "Nicholas? I’m here I’h his cracked lips and broken jaw, but it was unintelligible To ently took his hand When her skin touched his, a hissing sound filled the tiny prison, and Ava winced But it wasn’t until Nicholas grunted that she let go Where she’d touched him, her palm turned scarlet, as if she’d handled hot embers

"I will release him once I have won the war," said Calliope "No sooner"

Ava’s face twisted with barely contained rage, and she shifted her stance as if she were about to throttle her Calliope er appeared in her hand, and she held it delicately to Nicholas’s throat