"She'll be back," Nicholas said.
"I know," Callum agreed. "But not today. Not with the Guardians still here. She's not stupid enough to attack while they're present."
Nicholas absorbed this. Thalia was wounded and her forces were decimated. But she was not dead. Not captured. Not neutralized.
Just delayed.
"How's Lilith?" Callum asked quietly.
Nicholas felt something crack in the numbness. "The same. Unconscious. Stabilized but not improving."
"And the curse?"
"Victoria says we have hours before it breaks through Selene's containment and finishes what it started."
Callum was quiet for a moment. "I'm sorry, Nicholas. For all of this."
"Don't," Nicholas said, his voice harder than he intended. "Don't apologize for things that aren't your fault."
"Then who do I blame?" Callum asked. "The Moon Goddess who cursed you? Thalia who attacked us? The prophecy that demands Lilith's death? There's too much blame to go around and nowhere useful to put it."
