The Goddess Test Boxed Set: Goddess Interrupted\The Goddess Inheritance\The Goddess Legacy (66 page)

This wasn't something she could solve with a wave of her hand
or a few gentle words though, and for the first time in my life, I began to
understand that she wasn't the all-powerful mother I'd always thought she was.
She was human, or at least as close to human as a member of the council could
be. She made mistakes, too, and she didn't always have the answers.

“I can't,” I mumbled, and she motioned for me to join her. I
curled up in her lap without a second thought. Why couldn't things be simple
again?

They hadn't been simple for years though, not since I was
fourteen and my mother had been diagnosed. And while I'd had the illusion of
simplicity in the years before that, they'd never really been easy, had they?
She'd had to raise me knowing what was coming. The council had always loomed
over me, waiting until I was old enough to put me through a test no girl before
me had survived. My mother had known the risks. She'd known what the inevitable
looked like, yet she'd always been there and always loved me with everything she
had. Now it was my turn to do the same for Milo.

“You're a good girl, Kate,” she murmured, holding me close. “Do
what you have to do to protect your family.”

I hugged her back tightly. So Henry had told her, after all.
Did the entire council know now? Did it matter, as long as they weren't trying
to stop me? “I love you,” I said, clinging to her.

“I love you, too, sweetheart.” She rubbed my back in slow
circles. “Everything will be all right in the end. Evil never lasts forever, and
neither will this.”

Even though I knew she was right, even though she said the
exact words I'd needed to hear, she couldn't predict what would happen in the
meantime. No one could. And that was what I was really afraid of.

Later, in our bedroom, Henry and I didn't speak. We lost
ourselves in each other, a silent farewell that neither of us could bear to say.
If I hadn't been certain before, I was now; he was letting me go, and it would
only be a matter of time before I discovered the price we would both have to pay
for it.

As my time dwindled to less than half an hour before I was due
to surrender to Cronus, I still couldn't bring myself to say goodbye. I waited
until Henry's chest rose and fell in the steady rhythm of sleep, but he didn't
fool me. He was awake, and I gave us both one last moment of pretending and
slipped away in silence.

James was waiting for me in the hallway, leaning up against the
wall with a scowl on his face. “Going somewhere?”

“I—” I paused. “You can't stop me.”

“No doubt about that,” he said, taking my hand and leading me
toward the throne room. As badly as I wanted to pull away, I couldn't. Not when
this might be the last time I'd ever see him. “Are you sure about this?”

“If you were me, what would you do?”

“I would have left ages ago.”

At least he understood, but I didn't have time for this. If I
wasn't in Calliope's palace in twenty minutes, Cronus would kill millions more.
“If you're not trying to stop me, then what are you here for?”

“Everyone gets a goodbye except me?” he said, and I hugged him
around the middle.

“I'm sorry. I meant to tell you.”

“That's a lie, but thanks for the thought,” said James without
a hint of anger. “So what's the plan?”

I didn't speak. It wasn't any of his business, and if I told
him, I ran the risk of him trying to interfere and screw everything up. I
trusted James, but I'd trusted Ava, too. I'd trusted Calliope. Each time
something terrible happened, that trust bit me in the ass. If this plan had any
chance of succeeding, I had to keep my mouth shut.

James didn't press the issue until we reached the empty throne
room. Stopping in the center, he searched my face for something he obviously
couldn't find. “You can trust me,” he said. “I want to help.”

“The moment I tell you, you're going to do everything in your
power to stop me,” I said without anger or accusation. It was the truth, and we
both knew it.

“I swear I'll only help,” he said, tracing an
X
over his chest. “Cross my heart, word of honor,
stick a needle...” He grimaced. “Actually, no, not that last part. Doesn't even
rhyme properly.”

I punched him lightly in the arm. “And how do you plan on
helping? By running to Walter and telling him everything so he can stop me?”

James scoffed. “Is that what you think of me? You're sneaking
away to live in sin with a mass murderer, and
I'm
the bad guy here?”

Any small amount of amusement I'd managed in those few minutes
with him evaporated. “You know I don't have a choice.”

“You do have a choice,” he countered. “You've just made it
already, that's all.”

“What else would you have me do?”

He shrugged. “Couldn't say. I'd do the exact same thing.”

My anger deflated. “Then give me a hug goodbye and let me go. I
might be an infant compared to the rest of you, but that doesn't make me an
idiot.”

“Most of the time,” said James, and I punched him in the arm
again. Wordlessly he gathered me up and buried his face in my hair. “I was
supposed to be your first affair.”

A lump formed in my throat, and I hugged him back fiercely. “I
don't think it counts as an affair if the thought of Cronus makes me sick to my
stomach.”

“So there's still hope for me, after all.”

I half laughed, half sobbed. “You're an ass.”

“Runs in the family.” He let me go. “Be safe, Kate. I mean it.
If you die, Henry will—”

“—tear the entire world apart with his bare hands,” I said.
“Yeah, I know. Believe it or not, I really want me to stay alive, too.”

“Despite all evidence to the contrary.” He smiled faintly, and
I touched his elbow.

“Do me a favor. Find someone for you, okay? Not a fling or a
mortal to marry for fifty years before she dies, but someone to really settle
down with. You're, what, several thousand years old? Don't you think it's
time?”

His smile faltered for a split second. “I would've settled down
with you, but then you had to go and marry my uncle. You're a little
heartbreaker, you know.”

I rolled my eyes. “You're terrible. I mean it. You deserve
someone—someone who isn't already taken. Go out and find her. Or him. Just find
someone.
” I drew myself up to my full height.
“I'm going to be mad at you until you do.”

“It took Henry a thousand years to find you,” said James. “You
think you could really be mad at me for that long?”

“Henry doesn't get out much. You do.” I kissed his cheek. “I'm
serious. There has to be a minor goddess out there somewhere who's absolutely
head over heels for you.”

“Who I haven't already deflowered—
Ow.
” James rubbed his shoulder, where I'd punched him a third time.
“You're awfully violent today.”

“And you're awfully crass.”

He captured me in another hug. “Too bad you didn't have a
daughter.”

“If I had, I'd have told her to stay the hell away from
you.”

“Even as a newborn?”

“You can never start too early.”

Kissing the top of my head, he slid his hand into mine. “Fair
enough. Now what do you say to getting out of here?”

We were back to that again. I sighed. “I don't need your help,
James. I'm fine on my own. I've got it all figured out.”

“Do you now?” he said, eyebrow raised. “Then tell me—how do you
plan on getting off Olympus? By taking the stairs?”

I hesitated. “Can I?”

“This isn't a Led Zeppelin song, sweetheart. There are no
stairways to heaven.” He gestured to the sunset floor. “Walter has this place
locked down right now, which means there's only one way out of here, and that's
to have an Olympian escort you. Ready?”

I eyed him, searching for any sign that he was about to run off
to Walter. But time was slipping away, and I didn't have much of a choice. “If I
let you, do you swear you're just helping?”

“Everything short of the needle,” he said. How was it possible
he could make me smile even in the middle of the hardest thing I'd ever had to
do?

Because he was James, and because I could have loved him like
that if I didn't already love Henry. I did have Henry though, and I would never
cheat on him. James knew it, I knew it—the only person who didn't was Henry
himself.

Standing on my tiptoes, I kissed the corner of his mouth,
lingering for longer than was strictly necessary. “First affair, I promise,” I
whispered. “Now let's do this.”

James grinned. “Thought you'd never say so.”

We arrived smack-dab in the middle of the busiest intersection
I'd ever seen. Hundreds of people moved together in varying directions, streams
intersecting and merging like real traffic, and I squinted upward in hopes of
gaining my bearings. Pink and purple clouds decorated the sky, which was barely
visible through the thick forest of skyscrapers that surrounded us.

Standing still in the chaos wasn't an option though, and I
wound up sandwiched between two Japanese businessmen in black suits, both
carrying briefcases and chatting in a language I didn't know. However, like in
Africa and Greece, even though I didn't know the words, I understood them
anyway.

“...morning meeting with the executive from San Francisco?”

“Indeed, but wouldn't you say—”

“James!” I shouted, struggling against the flow of the crowd,
but it was useless. With less than ten minutes left before Cronus's deadline, I
couldn't find James anywhere.

The businessmen on either side of me gave me a dirty look, as
if they'd only now realized I was there, and they shifted until I was behind
them. Fine by me.

“James!” I shrieked again as I reached the sidewalk. Elbowing
my way through the crowd, I reached the glass face of a building and leaned
against it, directly underneath a neon sign advertising electronics. This was
insane. How could there possibly be this many people in one place at one
time?

“First time in Tokyo?” said an amused voice beside me. James
leaned casually against the wall, and he held a bowl of noodles with his right
hand while he maneuvered a pair of chopsticks with his left.

“Very funny. I'm leaving now.” I closed my eyes and started to
slip away, but James's hand on my shoulder stopped me.

“I will,” he said around a mouthful of noodles. “I'll find
someone as long as you promise me this isn't forever.”

I touched his hand. “I promise. I'll see you on the other side
of this war, James.”

“And maybe with a little luck, we'll both be alive.”

I kissed his cheek one last time and stepped back, giving
myself enough space to go. This wasn't the end. If I couldn't make sure of it,
then James would.

“Wait,” he said again, and with a wave of his hand, his noodles
vanished. “How do you intend on getting Milo back to Henry?”

I stared at him. What else was he going to come up with to get
me to take him with me? Regardless of how much of a manipulative jerk he'd
suddenly decided to be, however, he had a point. I'd taken for granted that
Cronus would let me bring Milo to Olympus myself, or that he would send him to
Olympus—but Cronus had no way of getting there, and once I landed on the island,
I was positive I would never be able to leave. At least not until this war was
over.

“You're infuriating,” I muttered, holding out my hand. With a
smug look, James took it. “I don't know how to bring you along.”

“You'll figure it out,” he said. “I trust you.”

“Trusting me has nothing to do with what I can and can't
do.”

“Do exactly the same thing you did when you took me to see Milo
and Cronus,” he said. “Don't even think about it.”

Easier said than done. The cacophony of noise around us made it
difficult to concentrate, but if I didn't, then there was no telling what Cronus
would do if he thought I'd backed out of our deal. So I had to. No waffling
allowed.

I focused on my body, becoming aware of every inch of it, and I
extended my reach to James as much as I could. It felt forced, as if I were
doing nothing more than imagining it, but James knew the stakes. If he was
willing to risk it, then I was willing to try.

The noise of Tokyo funneled around us, a wall of vibrations
that sounded like everything and nothing at all. The roar grew louder until
finally it overtook me completely, and then—

I was drowning.

Water filled my lungs as I struggled to do the human thing and
breathe. I tasted salt and flailed, my hand still clasping James's, but that
didn't help. He was as much of a rock as I was, and together we sank deeper and
deeper into the pitch-black ocean.

We were going to die. Or at least be trapped at the bottom of
the sea for the rest of eternity. Seaweed would wrap around our limbs, holding
us down until the ocean was ready to pull us farther into her depths. By the
time we managed to escape, time would be up, and Cronus would believe I'd
abandoned him completely. Millions more would be dead, and nothing I said or did
would convince Cronus to stop.

Nothing.

Chapter 12

Drowning

I opened my mouth to cry out for help, but I had no
more breath left in me. I couldn't see the surface. Everything blended together
in a nightmare of darkness, and terror seized me so completely that I couldn't
think.

This was it. This was the end.

I really should've let Ava teach me how to swim.

“Having trouble?” said a gruff voice beside me, as clear as if
we were talking on the surface. I twisted around and nearly fainted with
relief.

Phillip, Lord of the Oceans, floated beside us, looking as if
he were walking on dry land. I didn't care that he must have known what we were
doing or what I'd planned; I didn't care that if he knew, Walter must, too. As
long as I didn't spend the rest of eternity at the bottom of the sea, that would
all be worth it.

Help us,
I mouthed, gesturing to
the hand that held James's. The water was so dark that I couldn't see him
anymore.

“Of course,” said Phillip, and he looked in the direction that
must have been up. A strong current caught the three of us, carrying us toward
the surface with formidable speed. As soon as the blue sky became visible
through the water, the tide dragged us to the side, and I clawed my way toward
the surface. Just a few more inches.

“Your stop, I believe,” said Phillip. “Be safe.”

I nodded and mouthed my thanks. I could see James through the
water now, and he was grinning at his uncle and giving him a stupid wave.
Figured. We'd nearly drowned, and he was smiling.

Finally we broke the surface, and I coughed up an impossible
amount of seawater. Somehow my feet found the shifting sand, and I stood
shakily, my knees knocking together. But we were out of the ocean and still had
a few minutes left before Cronus expected me. That was the important part.

Something flashed at the edge of my vision, and I looked around
wildly, my heart pounding. For a split second, I thought I saw a dark-haired
figure looming on the cliffs, but I blinked, and it was gone.

Deep breaths. We were out of the ocean, and I had nothing to
panic about anymore. Unless an eternal Titan hell-bent on destroying everything
I loved counted.

Cool waves lapped at my shins, and James stood beside me,
shaking like a leaf. “All right,” he rasped. “I admit that—that asking you to do
that without practicing first was a—a mistake.”

“No shit,” I said in a voice that trembled as much as his did.
We stood a few yards from the shoreline of Cronus's island, and the palace
loomed above us, a giant shadow against the bright sky. “Are you okay?”

“I'll live,” he said wryly. “At least until we get inside.”

“How are we getting through the barrier?” I couldn't see it,
but I could feel it, thrumming in my bones like a force field. If Cronus
couldn't penetrate it—at least not enough to leave, even though his reach now
extended as far as Cairo—then how were we supposed to?

“We walk,” said James. “The barrier's meant to keep Cronus
trapped, not us. Walter even insisted we didn't modify it to include Calliope.
Until we realized she had you, of course.”

“You mean—” I faltered. I should've tried harder to escape.
Somehow I could've found a way. Phillip could've picked me up in the ocean and
brought me to safety, or—

I steeled myself against the barrage of possibilities that
flooded my mind. Playing what-if wouldn't change anything. I
had
tried to escape. I'd done everything I could. And
right now, all I could focus on was how to make sure things finally went my
way.

“I mean what?” said James, and I shook my head.

“Never mind. Let's go.”

With my hand still in his and the taste of salt on my tongue, I
dug my heels into the sand and pushed forward, trudging out of the ocean to meet
my fate.

Unnatural silence settled over the island. The cliffs
overlooking the shore stood tall and unyielding, but despite their imposing
height, James spent one of the few precious minutes we had left trying to find
the quickest way up.

“It's not going to work,” I said, annoyed. We were wasting too
much time. “Let's just go around.”

“That's miles out of our way,” said James.

“Then give me your arm and I'll get us there.”

He snorted. “You really think I'm going to put myself through
that again?”

“Do you really have a choice?” I wobbled across the beach, the
sand giving way with each step I took. “Walk or reappear, James. It doesn't
matter to me. I'm leaving in ten seconds with or without you.”

Muttering something under his breath that I didn't quite catch,
he hurried over to me. “If we wind up in the ocean again, I'm leaving.”

“You're the one who insisted I had to bring you along in the
first place,” I said. “Besides, stop pretending you didn't like that swim. I saw
you grinning.”

“Yeah, sheepishly. Phillip's never going to let me live that
one down.”

If they were both alive at the end of this war. Taking his
hand, I closed my eyes. “No water this time,” I promised.

The air around us changed, the warm ocean breeze replaced with
the stale scent of ancient rock. I sighed with relief. We were in the bedroom
Calliope had kept me in for nine months, and there wasn't a drop of water in
sight.

“Much better,” whispered James.

I reached for the door. It was locked. “Dammit,” I muttered,
but before I could complain or suggest another trip through nothingness, James
touched the handle, and I heard a faint click.

“Try again.”

This time the door opened without a hitch. I raised an eyebrow,
and he shrugged. “I've got a few tricks up my sleeve.”

Together we sneaked out into the abandoned hallway. It wasn't
nearly as decadent as the one outside the nursery, and I glanced around
uneasily. I had no idea how to get there from here.

Each end of the hallway looked identical. Left or right, it
didn't matter, but Ava had pulled me right when Henry had attacked the palace.
Good enough place to start.

“This way,” I said, creeping through the darkness, and James
followed a few steps behind me. Someone had fixed the damage Henry had done to
the castle, making the passageway clear.

“Are you sure?” he said dubiously.

“Aren't you supposed to always know where you're going?”

“Not in Titan territory. You're positive it isn't the other
way?”

I ignored him. They had to have some way to move from floor to
floor. I tried to mentally picture the parts of the palace I knew, but I
couldn't remember ever seeing a staircase.

“Kate,” said James with a hint of desperation in his voice. “I
think you're going in the wrong—”

A crash of metal against metal ripped through the air, and a
man screamed. In an instant, James yanked me back so we were both leaning flat
against the wall.

“What—” I started, but he pressed his palm against my mouth. A
cold giggle echoed down the hallway, and I turned my head enough to spot
Calliope exiting a room at the end of the corridor.

Humming to herself, she stepped through another doorway and
disappeared, quickly followed by a stooped figure that couldn't have been anyone
but Ava. Where was Cronus? And who was inside that room?

“Nicholas,” breathed James. “He's alive.”

My conscience pulled me toward Nicholas, but I'd come here for
one reason and one reason only. As much as it killed me to sneak past his cell,
if I wanted any real shot at saving my son, I had to.

“We'll come back for him,” I said, half a promise to myself and
half a promise to James. We wouldn't have the chance to come back for Nicholas
though, and we both knew it.

James led the way this time, and despite my hissed protests, he
opened the door that Calliope had disappeared through. I held my breath, certain
she'd be waiting for us on the other side, fully aware we were there, but
instead—

“Guess there really is a stairway to heaven, after all,” said
James with a grin, and if I wasn't already on edge, I would've laughed at his
stupid joke. We hurried up the stairs in silence. Two levels up, I nodded toward
the door, and he pushed it open wide enough for one of us to fit through.

“Me first,” I said. If Cronus was waiting on the other side, he
wouldn't attack me. James, on the other hand, hadn't exactly been invited.
Slipping through the door into the empty peacock-blue-and-gold hallway, I waited
the space of three heartbeats before I flagged him to follow. “Which one is
Milo's room?” I hadn't spent any time outside the nursery, but during my vision,
James had left.

“Fourth one down,” he said. “Kate, if anything goes wrong—”

“Hello there.”

Cronus's voice, frigid and void of compassion, slid down my
spine. I turned on my heel, automatically stepping in front of James to shield
him, but it was an empty gesture. If Cronus wanted to kill James, he wouldn't
need my permission.

“I told you I was coming,” I said icily, but it was nothing
compared to the way Cronus spoke. He could freeze the sun if he wanted to.

“Yes, but I do not recall consenting to a guest.”

“I can't very well head back to Olympus with Milo. James is
going to take him for me.”

“Is that so?” said Cronus, and James nodded. His eyes were too
bright and his jaw rigid, but he raised his chin and stared Cronus down.

Terror seized me. Cronus wouldn't hurt me no matter how
insolent I was, not as long as he thought I would be his. But James was
expendable—barely anything more to Cronus than the millions of people he had
already wiped out with a single thought.

“Yes,” said James. “Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to do
what I came here to do.”

“By all means.” A strange smile twisted across Cronus's
too-perfect lips, and he stepped aside with a flourish.

What was Cronus playing at? James moved forward, and I went
with him. If this was some kind of trap, if Cronus had known and was only
setting James up—

Cronus didn't try to stop me, though. James and I hurried
toward the nursery, and my heart pounded. Was Milo still here? Had Cronus done
something to him? James and I reached for the handle at the same time, but
before either of us touched the metal fixture, the door burst open.

Calliope.

At first her blue eyes rounded with shock, but after a beat,
she smirked. She looked like she was my mother and Sofia's age now, much more
appropriate for one of the original six, but that did nothing to distract me
from the fact that she cradled Milo in her arms.

“Kate,” she purred. “How good of you to join us. Here I was
thinking you were smart enough to stay away. Silly me.”

“Kate?” said a small voice behind her, and Ava appeared in the
doorway. “Oh, my god, Kate! Cronus said you were alive, but I didn't think—”

“Silence,” said Calliope. Ava immediately quieted, but her
cheeks flushed and her eyes danced with light. For the first time in nearly a
year, she looked alive. Calliope cleared her throat and turned to James with a
simpering smile. “Darling, it's been far too long.”

“I'm not your darling. Give me the baby,” said James, holding
out his arms.

“Why would I do something like that?” she said with a sniff.
“Callum is my son.”

I wanted to sink my nails into that pretty little face of hers
and claw her eyes out. “He's my son, not yours,” I snarled. “Cronus and I made a
deal. I'm here, and
Milo
leaves with James.”

“Oh?” Calliope peered over my shoulder. “Why wasn't I part of
this deal, Father?”

“It was not your deal to make,” said Cronus. “You will do as I
say and uphold my word.”

“What word is that?” said Calliope venomously, her grip
tightening around my son.

“The baby will be returned to Kate's family, and she will
remain here with me.”

Two red spots appeared on Calliope's cheeks, and she jolted
strangely, as if she were fighting against some kind of compulsion. “And if I
don't?”

“Then I will no longer have any use for you.”

She hissed. “After everything I've done for you, after
everything I've sacrificed—”

Fury rolled off of her in waves, and I had to force myself not
to step away. I was so close to Milo that all I had to do was reach out and
touch him. I couldn't leave him again.

“Is this your final decision?” said Cronus. “To part from our
allegiance for the sake of keeping a child that is not yours?”

“He should be mine.” Calliope moved back toward the nursery,
but Ava blocked her way, a magenta glow emanating from her body. “Don't make me
do this, Father.”

A glint of metal beside Milo caught my eye. Calliope pulled the
blanket back and, before any of us could react, she pressed the dagger Nicholas
had forged, the only weapon that could kill an immortal, against Milo's
throat.

“I will not let him go,” said Calliope, calmer now as fear
filled the air like poison. “You've given away something that wasn't yours to
give, Father.”

Behind me, Cronus sighed as if he were dealing with a petulant
child. Not a murderer who had no problem killing again. “I will not ask you a
second time. Turn over the child or face the wrath of the King of the
Titans.”

“Does the wrath of the Queen of the Gods mean nothing then?”
said Calliope. Paralyzed with fear, I couldn't take my eyes from my son. I
didn't care about a pissing match between them; all I wanted was for Calliope to
move that blade away from Milo's neck.