“How far is the gate to Tartarus?” said James.
“I don’t know for sure,” said Persephone. “A few days away, at least.”
“We need to get moving.” James offered me his hand, and I took it long enough to let him help me up. As much as I wanted to stay angry with him, I could deal with it when we got back to the palace. If we got back to the palace.
“The others are setting a trap for him on an island,” I said. “They’re f ighting about it.”
“But they’re still going to try?” said James, and I nodded.
“Good. At least that’s something.”
We packed up camp, and as soon as we were on our way toward the spot where the sky had fallen, Persephone fell into step beside me. “Were you able to control it?” I shook my head. “I didn’t have time to try.” She made a disapproving sound in the back of her throat, but to her credit, she didn’t push it. “You’re def initely doing it subconsciously,” she said. “I had to work at it in the beginning, too, but you’re seeing what you want to see when you want to see it. You found out where the crash came from, anyhow.”
I didn’t answer. No matter what I saw, it wouldn’t change what was happening. The best it could do was give us fair warning, and even that wasn’t important—we already knew what we were up against. The only thing we could do, like Irene and Dylan and the others, was try our best and hope to hell it worked.
We walked for days, but it felt like weeks. If I’d still been mortal, my body would have been so sore that I wouldn’t have been able to move, let alone keep up with James and Persephone’s brisk pace, but I managed. Every few hours, another crash would echo through the Underworld, growing louder each time and spurring me on.
“It’s the thinnest spot in the ceiling of the Underworld,” said Persephone as we trudged through the endless forest.
“Hades opened it when they initially captured Cronus, and it was how they got him into his prison in the f irst place.
Hades should’ve reinforced it when he had the chance.” I bit my lip to keep from snapping at her. This wasn’t Henry’s fault. He’d had no reason to suspect that a member of his family would betray the others and awaken Cronus, and if Calliope couldn’t open the gate by herself, then he’d probably thought that was all the security he needed. It was, before Calliope had gone insane.
For the most part, we walked in silence. Even Ava and Persephone quit bickering, and when we had to stop, it was for no more than a few minutes at a time. I didn’t need to sleep anymore, but by the time the crashes were barely a mile away, all I wanted to do was curl up, close my eyes and never wake up again. That was exactly what would happen if Calliope got her way, plus a little blood and lots of pain.
Nearly every time we stopped, there was a f lower waiting for me, and before anyone else could see it, I slipped it into my pocket with the others. They seemed to shrink as we went along, making room for the new ones, and each gave me hope that everything would be okay. Henry and my mother were hanging on. They would survive, and once we got there, we wouldn’t be alone in our f ight to subdue Calliope and Cronus.
One afternoon, in the middle of the forest, Persephone held up her hand, and the four of us stopped. “It’s this way,” she said, pointing to her left. “It’s close.” She stepped around a few trees until she reached a thick cluster of bushes. Crouching down, she pushed them aside, revealing a sheet of black rock behind it. The cavern wall.
My heart pounded.
“This is the edge,” she said, running her hand tenderly over the stone. “There should be a crack around here somewhere— Oh!”
Her hand disappeared into the seemingly solid rock, but when she pulled it back out, it was intact. “It’s here,” she said. “It’s wide enough for us to squeeze through if we go one at a time.”
“How far does it go?” said Ava nervously.
“I don’t know,” said Persephone. “I’ve never been through it.” She straightened and brushed the dirt off her dress. “Well, are we going?”
Ava linked my arm in hers, and James glanced at us.
“Kate, you’re staying here,” he said.
I snorted. “Yeah, right.”
He reached out to place his hand on my shoulder, but I jerked away from his touch. “I’m serious,” he said. “Calliope will try to kill you the minute she sees you, and you’ll be a liability.”
I turned to Ava for support, but she stared intently at the ground, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth. “You, too?” I said, and I slipped my arm from hers. “So what, you both think you’re going to waltz in there and save the day, but if I come with you—”
“If you come, you’ll die no matter what happens to us,” said James. “You know that.”
“I made a deal with Cronus—”
“Do you really think he’ll uphold his end of it?” said Ava.
“James is right. Calliope wants you dead, and as long as she can focus on that, she’ll be distracted. Once you’re gone, she’ll get on with her plan, and then there’s no telling what could happen.”
“You have no experience,” said James. “No abilities you can control. If you go in there, the best thing that could happen is Calliope killing you quickly.”
“I didn’t come all this way to sit tight while you get yourselves slaughtered,” I said, clenching my f ists.