“Don’t you see?” I stare at the book. “I was meant to find this. It’s why Phoebe came to this island and why I became her friend. It’s why she and Griffin got together and why she forced me to patch things up with him. It’s why I went into the secret archives with her. It’s why the book started glowing when I walked by.”

“It started glowing when I sat on your bed, too,” Troy argues. “Maybe it just likes people.”

“Troy, this is the chance I’ve been looking for!”

Why can’t he understand what an amazing opportunity this presents? Why can’t he see that the potential consequences don’t matter? But he can’t. Which is precisely why I didn’t want him to find out about the book in the first place.

“This is the chance I’ve been waiting for.” I swing the book away from his grasping hands. “With this I can go back to that moment and fix . . . everything.”

“It’s too dangerous.” He stops trying for the book, instead focusing his attention on me. Like he can make me understand his point. “Do you know what will happen when Olympus finds out? And they always find out.”

The problem is, I do understand his point. It just doesn’t matter.

“I don’t care.”

“You should.” He steps back, shaking his head at me. “You should care a lot. Time travel is one of the unbreakable laws. The gods will rain down punishment on you that will make one of Headmaster Petrolas’s detentions look like afternoon tea.”

And boy do I know from Headmaster Petrolas’s detentions.

Maybe, if it were anything but this, I would be too scared to follow through. As it is, I’m pretty scared. But I’m determined even more.

The potential gain far, far outweighs the risks.

“I don’t have a choice.”

“You always have a choice, Nicole.”

I meet his gaze full on, trying to make him understand my side. “Not one I can live with.”

For several long seconds, he just stares into my eyes, his green and gold trying to read any weakness in my determination. I even feel a tickle in my brain and I know he’s using psychospection to feel out my thoughts, too. He might find some fear and doubt in there, but he will also find a steel wall of firm resolution.

I know he senses that when he finally takes a deep breath and closes his eyes.

A lot of things in my life may come and go, but I can always count on Troy to be reliable, cautious, and—in the end—completely supportive and understanding.

“Fine,” he finally says. “What do we have to do?”

“We?” I laugh. “There’s no we in this game, Travatas. I’m doing this alone.”

“Not gonna happen.”

“Troy—”