As Chronos steps back to a normal distance, I stare straight ahead.

“Good luck,” he says with a cryptic twist to his lips, “and timespeed.”

I nod, unable to speak.

Then, in a soft flash of blue light, Chronos is gone and I am alone in the temple, alone with my thoughts, with the chance to undo the past literally within my grasp.

10

When I walk out of the temple, everyone starts talking at once.

“Did it work?”

“What did he look like?”

“Did you get the coin?”

“What happened?”

“Are you okay?”

The last question is from Troy. I give him disapproving look—of course I’m okay—and then pull the coin from my pocket. I hold it up, the golden metal shining in the setting sun.

“I got it,” I say, and everyone falls quiet.

This quest just got more real than anyone ever imagined. With this little piece of gold—okay, not so little: it has to weigh at least a few ounces—the idea of time travel has gone from a distant dream to near reality.

Trust me, I feel the weight of it settle on my shoulders.

“Now what?” Phoebe finally asks.

“Now,” I say with a shrug, “I wait. Chronos said I have to call Persephone at the same time of day I want to go back to.”

Griffin rolls one shoulder. “I don’t remember the exact time,” he says. “Just that it was early afternoon.”

“I do.” I’ve read the official transcripts enough times that I have the entire thing memorized. All three hundred and forty-eight pages. “Two seventeen.”

“It’s almost seven now,” Stella offers.

I nod. “I have to wait until tomorrow.”

We stand in a nervous circle, silent on the steps of the pantheon temple. My mind races. When it gets to be too much, I break the silence.

“No point hanging out here,” I say. “There’s nothing to do until tomorrow.”

“Yeah, we have an early run,” Phoebe says, wrapping her hand around Griffin’s arm.

“I have a reading list a mile long,” Stella says. “Oxford has high expectations for incoming students.”

“So we’ll meet back here tomorrow at . . . ?” Phoebe asks. “Two?”

I shake my head. “Quarter ’til. I want to be sure to have enough time.”

Everyone agrees to reassemble tomorrow and then disperses, leaving me and Troy standing on the steps. He moves to face me on the next step down.

He repeats his earlier question. “Are you okay?”

“Stop asking me that,” I answer immediately. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

He tilts his head down and looks up at me from under a scowl. “Seriously?”

“Seriously,” I say, ignoring his chiding look. “I’m fine.”

He watches me, like he’s deciding whether to argue with me or not. In the end, he asks, “Want to grab something to eat? I hear the dining hall has lasagna today.”