“I’ll probably go up for a few days every once in a while,” I said, brushing off the twinge of jealousy inside of me at his mention of Persephone. He simply didn’t want to put me in the same situation. I could understand that, and if we were going to have any chance at making this work, I had to. Persephone had been a huge part of his life, and in some ways, she still was. I could either f ight it or accept it, and right then, I would’ve done anything to stop feeling so damn miserable all the time. Including swallow my pride and forgive my sister for what she’d done to Henry, and forgive Henry for still loving her. “But while the surface has the sun, I would much rather be down here with you.” He rested his forehead against mine. “I would be honored.”
We stood like that for a long moment. I noticed the silver scar from Cronus’s f irst attack peeking out from underneath Henry’s collar, and I traced it. He would be safe in the Underworld, and I wouldn’t have to worry about his safety anymore. Everyone else’s, yes, but not Henry’s.
“In the council meeting…” He paused and brushed his thumb against my bottom lip. “You said I have not given you a kiss good-night since you arrived. I know it is not yet noon, but would now be an acceptable time to remedy that?”
I grinned so hard that the muscles in my cheeks strained.
It had been a long time since I’d smiled like that. I’d missed it. “Now would be perfect.”
When his lips touched mine, desire f looded through me, intertwining with delicious triumph. Calliope hadn’t won.
No matter what she did to me or how many Titans she sent to kill me, she would never take Henry away from me.
I wrapped my arms around his neck and let my body mold to the contours of his. There was no substitute for the warmth that f illed me, no amount of holding me at night to make up for the lack of this between us. It was perfect.
Henry, with all of his imperfections, and me with mine—
together, we were just right.
He eased me onto the mattress and brushed my piles of clothing aside to make room for both of us. At the foot of the bed, Pogo let out an annoyed squeak and jumped onto the f loor. I would give him a nice, long belly rub later, because right now, short of Cronus appearing in the bedroom, nothing was going to pull me away from Henry.
When he toyed with the hem of my sweater, I tugged it off and tossed it amidst the other clothing. He splayed his hand over my bare stomach and broke away from me, watching me with a baff led look in his eyes.
“What is it?” I said, catching my breath. “Is everything all right?”
It took him a moment to respond. “Are you sure you wish to do this?”
Every doubt I’d had came rushing back, but after a moment of dizzying panic, I remembered what Persephone had told me about her and Henry’s wedding night. This would be the f irst time we’d done this without the inf luence of an aphrodisiac, and if he thought there was a chance I could react like Persephone had, then his hesitation made perfect sense. I forced myself to breathe steadily. “I’m positive.” Henry seemed to accept this, but when he leaned in to kiss me again, another awful possibility popped into my mind, and I turned my head at the last moment so he caught my cheek instead. “Why? Do you not want to? We don’t have to if you’d rather not, it’s all right. I can wait. I want to wait if you do.”
“I promise you that I want to do this more than anything else in the world,” he said, pressing his lips to the corner of my mouth. “I have wanted to since you f irst returned, but I thought giving you time would be prudent.”
“And here I was, thinking you would’ve rather slept in a pool of lava than with me,” I joked, but it wasn’t entirely false. I gave him a quick kiss in return. “We need to work on this whole talking to each other thing. We’d get a lot more done if we did.”
“Yes, we would,” he said before capturing my lips once more. I deftly unbuttoned his shirt, and when it fell open, I pulled away again.
“You’re not going to get angry again and throw things when it’s over, will you?” I said, and Henry gave me a look that sent a jolt of electricity down my spine. The look Persephone had mentioned. The look I knew I could never forget now that I’d seen it.
“Would you please hush and let me kiss you?” Laughing, I pulled him back toward me. “I’m all yours.” He shrugged his shirt off and ran his hands down my sides, and everything else seemed to melt away. He was the only thing I could see, the only thing I could feel, and I wouldn’t have had it any other way. For the f irst time since I’d arrived in the Underworld, I was home.
Henry and I spent the rest of the day and night in bed together, talking and laughing and knocking boots, as Ava had so delicately called it. In between we slept curled together, with my head on his chest and his arm around me, the same position we’d slept in during my time in Eden Manor. It was familiar and comforting, and with so much uncertainty lying ahead of us, I needed that badly.
In the middle of the night, I woke up to feel him hovering over me, watching me. Caught between sleeping and consciousness, I ran my hand down his chest, dipping my f inger into his navel. “Is everything all right?”
“Perfect.” A glowing ball of light appeared near the top of the canopy bed. “I was simply thinking about the future.”
“What about it?” I said. “If you’re going to try to talk me into not going after Rhea, you can forget it—”