not at all, not since that one time. How can you even—” I stopped. Of course she would ask that sort of thing; she was Ava. “He—holds me at night, I guess, but we haven’t even so much as kissed.”

Ava’s jaw dropped open. “Are you serious? My god, Kate, why didn’t you come to me sooner?”

“I tried to tell you,” I said, bewildered. How had this suddenly become my fault? “What would you have done anyway? Forced him to want me? I don’t want it to happen that way, Ava.”

She rolled her eyes. “Honestly, you think I’d do that?

That’s not what love’s about, Kate, but I could have given him a nudge in the right direction. Without using my powers,” she added when I glared at her. “Someday you’ll learn to trust me. Now, that hag won’t hang around forever, and what are you going to do when she’s out of the way?” I didn’t like Persephone, but she was still my sister, and Ava’s attitude toward her grated at me. “Why do you hate each other?” I said. “I get that you liked Adonis, too, but don’t you have enough toys?”

“You’ve seen Adonis,” said Ava with a cheeky little smile.

“Would you call him just another toy?”

“No, but—”

“Exactly. I saw him f irst, and she stole him from me, plain and simple. You can even ask Daddy.”

“I don’t want to ask Walter,” I said sharply. “Shouldn’t Adonis get a say in this?”

Ava stuck her lower lip out in a pout. “He wanted both of us. That’s why Persephone gave up her immortality, you know. She wanted to have him in the Underworld all to herself instead of having to share him with me.” And all the while, Henry had had to watch as his wife fought Ava for the right to be with a mortal. Persephone had done the right thing, leaving him, but for Henry’s sake, I wished she’d left him before fooling around behind his back. Or in front of it.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do when she’s gone,” I said. “But as long as he wants me to stay, and as long as he’s working on making us better, I’m not going to abandon him like she did.”

“I know you won’t,” said Ava, leaning her head on my shoulder. “That’s part of the reason we chose you, you know.”

“Yeah, well, that’s about the only thing I have going for me. I’m useless.”

“You’ve been immortal for nine months. Give yourself some time before you decide we were wrong. We weren’t, by the way,” she added. “Just in case you decide to chal-lenge that.”

I hesitated. I hadn’t told anyone else, not even my mother, but I needed to tell Ava. If she really could help, then she had to know everything. “I was going to leave him.” Ava was silent, and when she f inally spoke, she all but whispered. “I know. I’m glad you didn’t.” I stared at her. “You know? How?”

“Henry told us,” she said. “Right after you said you would.”

I hid my face in my hands, forcing myself to breathe steadily. Of course everyone knew. None of them could keep a secret to save their lives. “No one tried to talk me out of it. Did you speak with Henry? Is that why—” I swallowed, my throat raw from my sobs. “That’s why he asked me to stay, isn’t it?”

“Of course not,” said Ava. “Kate, stop doing this to yourself. None of us said anything to Henry, and none of us talked to you about it because James insisted it was your choice.”

A knot formed in my throat, and I forced myself to speak around it. “That night, when Henry came back—I told him James and I weren’t together. And then he asked me to stay.”

“Really?” said Ava, brightening. “Well, that’s that, isn’t it?”

“What’s what?”

She sighed. “You’re adorable. Clueless, but adorable.

Henry thought you wanted to be with James because you spent your summer with him. So he was giving you the chance to go.”

I’d known that, or at least I’d suspected it. That didn’t make it any easier to hear though. “But I don’t want to be with James.”

“And once he f igured that out, he asked you to stay, because that’s what he really wants.” Ava gave me a cheeky little smile. “See? Sometimes it isn’t all doom and gloom.” I sniffed, and the weight on my chest lifted. “You really think so?”

Ava pressed a noisy kiss to my cheek. “I know so.” Waiting was torture. Over the next several hours, we talked about everything and nothing. When we lapsed into silence, I tried again and again to see what was going on, but it never worked. Every time the clock chimed, I wondered who would be missing when the council returned, if any of them returned at all. Ava kept reassuring me that no news was good news, but how long before she would concede that something must have gone wrong?

At quarter to seven, something prickled against the back of my neck. Ava and I leaned against each other, both half-asleep, and I kept waking myself up every few minutes to see if they’d returned. When I cracked open an eye, I saw a strange mist around us, and for a moment I thought I was dreaming.

And then I heard a giggle and the click of heels against marble, and my blood turned to ice.

“Good morning,” said Calliope as she rounded the corner to face us. “You two look cozy, don’t you?” Without warning, the mist turned to fog and engulfed us.