My mouth and Persephone’s dropped open simultaneously. “You’re leaving me here?” I cried.
“You’re making me babysit?” said Persephone in an equally horrified voice.
My mother focused on me first. “Kate, darling, I know you want to help, but you will help the most by remaining safe so I do not have to worry about your well-being.”
“But—” I started, and though she held up her hand, I kept going. “Mom, please. You can’t keep coddling me like this.”
“You know you do not have the ability to fight in a way that will be helpful to the rest of us,” said my mother bluntly.
“That’s not my fault,” I said. “You’re the one who promised to train me. I could’ve learned.”
“Not in less than two months. We were all stretched to our limits already, and even if we had, you aren’t one of the original six. You simply are not powerful enough to help change the course of battle fighting head-on like that.” She touched my cheek. “Please, allow us our greatest chance of success. Remain safe.”
I dug my nails into the palms of my hands. “You can’t make me stay here.”
“I know, but I trust you to make the right decision. Milo needs a mother, and he can’t have that if you’re gone. When the time comes, he’s going to need you. And you’re going to need him.”
“So you want me to just hide my head in the sand until it’s over?” I said thickly. “How can you say that? You’re the one who showed me how to be a fighter in the first place.”
She gathered me up, and I melted into her embrace. “Sometimes fighting means surviving in the face of insurmountable odds. That’s what I need you to do. Be the survivor I know you are.”
I hiccupped into her shoulder, and my fingers tightened around her sleeve. “Please stay with me.”
“If I could, I would. There’s nowhere else I’d rather be than here with the two of you.”
Holding her arm out for Persephone, she waited, and finally my sister accepted the hug. “First time you come to see me in hundreds of years, and you want me to babysit,” she muttered, and my mother kissed her forehead.
“I’m sorry, darling. I’ll make sure to visit more often.”
That wasn’t a promise she could keep if she were dead, and Persephone flinched right along with me. Was this the last time we’d be together like this?
It couldn’t be. I wouldn’t let it. There had to be something.
“I’ll promise to stay here with Persephone if you promise not to risk your life,” I said. It wasn’t much, but until I could come up with a solid plan, it would have to do.
“Oh, Kate.” My mother kissed my hair. “You might as well ask me not to go at all. I haven’t let Cronus get the best of me yet, and I don’t intend on starting now, that I swear to you. Have a little faith.”
Easy for her to say. She was the one running off to fight. “I love you,” I mumbled. How many more times would we say these endless goodbyes before it really would be the last time?
“I love you, too. Remember Milo.” She pulled away and looked me straight in the eye. “Can you do that for me?”
I nodded, a heavy numbness settling over me as she turned to say goodbye to Persephone. Instead of embraces and tears, they bent their heads together and began to whisper. “Let me go with you,” said Persephone. “Cronus and Calliope can’t hurt me, and I could be useful.”
My mother shook her head. “I need you here with Kate, to make sure she doesn’t do anything stupid.”
Persephone rolled her eyes. “Of course she’s going to do something stupid. She’s Kate.”
“I’m counting on you not to let that happen.”
After one quick squeeze of her hand and my mother’s admonishment to be good, their goodbyes were over. Persephone’s eyes were dry. How could this be so damn easy for her?
James touched my shoulder, and I spun around to hug him. “If you die, I will be so pissed at you,” I said.
“Then let’s hope that doesn’t happen. If you wander into battle, I’m going to be so pissed at you,” said James.
“Then let’s hope that doesn’t happen,” I mimicked. “Do you need a lift to Olympus?”
He snorted. “Nice try. Your mother’s got it covered.” Hesitating, he pressed his lips to the corner of my mouth. An almost-kiss full of questions I couldn’t answer and promises neither of us could keep. “Don’t forget—I get to be your first affair, and I’m holding you to that.”
“You’d better,” I said, and with that, he let me go for one last hug with my mother. The knot in my throat grew unbearable, but I refused to cry. I didn’t want the last moments we had to be full of blubbering sobs.
Neither she nor James said anything. They smiled, no trace of fear or anxiety on either of their ageless faces, and James offered my mother his arm. She took it wordlessly, and together they faded until there was nothing left but the breeze.
“Come on, let’s get you some tea before you fall over,” said Persephone. She took my elbow, and I didn’t argue. If Cronus slaughtered everyone I loved, Persephone would be the only family I had left. Not exactly a satisfying consolation prize, but I didn’t want to give her any reason to hate me.
As much as I wanted to reassure myself that it wouldn’t come to it being just the two of us, I couldn’t. It wasn’t up to me, and I couldn’t change the outcome of the battle through sheer willpower and thought alone. I could do something to help though, if I could only think of something that would be worth the risk.