“I’m sure Mother didn’t mean to make you feel that way, either,” said Persephone. “Everything she did, arranging my marriage to Hades, it was all for me and my best interests.

It wasn’t her fault when it didn’t work out.” No, it wasn’t, but it seemed crass to agree with her aloud.

James was right though. Fighting like this and letting jealousy get in the way wasn’t going to f ix anything. It didn’t matter how I felt about Persephone, or even how she felt about me. What mattered was doing something about Cronus and rescuing the others.

It took every ounce of willpower I had to swallow my pride. “Please, we need your help,” I said. “I know you haven’t had anything to do with this for a long time, but Mom and Henry and—and Walter and everyone, all the rest of the original six, Cronus and Calliope kidnapped them. She’s trying to f igure out how to open the gate that’s keeping Cronus inside, and—”

“And what?” said Persephone, and I got some small amount of satisfaction from seeing her face drain of all color. Removed from the council or not, at least she still seemed to care about them. “How could I possibly help?”

“You know where the gate is,” said James.

Persephone reached behind her, and Adonis was there in an instant, as if he’d appeared out of thin air. “You want me to take you there?” she said incredulously. “There’s a reason you can’t f ind it, James. There’s a reason no one but Hades and I knew where it was. I wasn’t even supposed to know—he only told me in case anything happened to him.”

“Something has happened to him,” I said. “And if we don’t get there before Cronus decides keeping them around isn’t worth it, he could kill them or worse.” Persephone shook her head, and Adonis wrapped his arms around her again, burying his face in her hair. “You came all this way to ask me if I could take you on a suicide mission?” she said. “You can’t face Cronus. He’ll kill you.” I exchanged a look with James, and he gave me a small nod. “We’ve already faced him,” I said. “I think—I think he’ll leave us alone, at least until we get there.”

“Until we get there?” said Persephone, a hint of panic in her voice. “What do you mean, until we get there?”

“He’s awake enough to slip a portion of himself out, and he can attack from inside Tartarus,” said James. “He attacked the palace before Kate was crowned, and that was when the brothers went after him.”

“He came after us on our way here,” I added. “But I made a deal with him, and I don’t think he’ll attack us.” Her eyes narrowed, but at least she didn’t ask what kind of deal. “You mean you came here knowing that a damn Titan with a score to settle could easily follow you, and those weren’t the f irst words out of your mouth? You led him straight to us?”

“He hasn’t attacked us since Kate made her deal with him,” said James. “You’re safe.”

Persephone slipped out of Adonis’s arms and started to pace. “You did this on purpose, didn’t you? If I come with you, he might destroy me. If I don’t, he knows where I am now, and he knows I’m the only one other than Henry who knows how to f ind Tartarus, so he might decide to get rid of me anyway.”

“Why would Cronus do that?” I snapped, my irritation returning full force. This was too important for her to act like she was the only person in the universe. “He wants to open the gate, and Calliope has no idea how. He doesn’t stand a chance unless we get there. As long as you’re with us, you’re safe.”

Persephone scowled, and she looked up at Adonis, who hadn’t said a word. He nodded encouragingly, and her frown deepened. “You swear he has no reason to come after us?”

“Kate’s telling the truth,” said James. “If Cronus didn’t want us there, he would have killed us a long time ago.” Persephone seemed to consider this, and f inally she stalked back toward the cottage. “Fine,” she called, and Adonis trotted after her. “But I swear to you, if anything happens to me or Adonis, I’ll—”

What she would do, we didn’t get the chance to f ind out.

She slammed the front door shut, inches from Adonis’s nose, but he didn’t protest. No wonder Persephone loved it here with him so much. He put up with her.

“So what, does she expect us to go after her?” said Ava hotly. “Because if that’s the case, then we can f ind it on our own. I am not groveling to anyone, especially not her.”

“She said she’d come,” said James. “Patience.” Sure enough, a few minutes later Persephone stormed back out of the cottage. She paused long enough to give Adonis a deep kiss, and I turned away to give them some privacy. I wanted badly to be able to kiss Henry like that someday, or better yet, to have him kiss me like that and to know he meant it. But the closer we got to Cronus, the slimmer the chances of that ever happening became.

“Let’s go,” said Persephone, and she trudged through the meadow, slinging a canvas satchel over her shoulder. “It’s a long walk, but I know a shortcut.”

James gestured for her to lead the way, and the three of us followed. Ava trailed in a huff, still sulking about the whole thing, and I offered her my hand. None of us said a word, and with luck, it would stay that way until we reached the gate.