The Gatekeeper's Secret: Gatekeeper's Saga, Book Five (The Gatekeeper's Saga) (28 page)

“We won’t know until they’re born.” Therese sank back down on the bed.

“I’m sorry,” Jen said, realizing she was asking too many hard questions. “I didn’t mean…”

“No. It’s okay.”

Jen sat beside Therese and put an arm around her friend. She felt warm, like a mortal. In fact, sometimes Jen wondered if all that had happened with Therese and Hip hadn’t been one long, weird dream.

They sat there quietly for a few minutes. Then Therese broke the silence and asked, “Does this mean you’ve forgiven me for what happened with Pete?”

Jen cocked her head to one side. Had she forgiven Therese? “Sort of. It’s been hard. I still can’t believe he’s gone. I mean, is he gone?”

“Yes and no,”
came Therese’s cryptic reply.

“Whatever that means.”

“Can I ride with you to the funeral?”

Jen noticed tears in Therese’s eyes.
“Of course.”

***

A few days after Pete’s funeral, Therese was out on a mission on
Stormy’s back helping a lost litter of kittens when she heard Than calling to her.

Come back as soon as you can
.

Has something happened? Is it an emergency?
Therese replied. It wasn’t yet time for his visit from the Maenads—that was in early August.

No, no.
Nothing like that. Just something my father wants to tell us. It has to do with the twins.

As soon as Therese had helped the kittens to find their mother and home, Therese returned to the Underworld. She found
Than pacing before the hearth.

“Ready?” he asked when she entered.

“I guess so. What’s this about?” she asked as he took her hand and they god travelled to his father’s rooms.

Once in
Hades’s sitting room, Than whispered, “Apparently there is a prophecy about our twins.”

Therese’s stomach did a flip flop—or maybe it was the two growing babies. Hera had told her it was a girl and a boy, and she
and Than had agreed they would be called Hermes and Hestia, after the gods who had saved their lives. Hera had also explained that demigods tended to grow more quickly in the womb than regular mortal babies, and they were more rambunctious. She had warned Therese that she would feel quite a bit of movement, and Hera hadn’t been wrong. Therese clutched the swelling pooch that was now her abdomen and took a seat beside Than.

Hades lifted his head from the book he’d been reading. “Good. You’re here.”

“So what did Pete mean when he said to tell you that these are
the
twins?” Than asked.

Therese had no idea what
Than was talking about.

“Pete said what?”

Than caught her up on what had happened. “I was waiting until the right moment to tell you,” he explained.

Hades crossed one leg over the other and leaned on an elbow while he picked at his beard. “Long ago, before I met your mother, I was walking along a field of asphodel in the
Upperworld wearing my helm of invisibility while praying to Aphrodite to help me find a bride. I was lonesome, and at that time, I found my work and my lot to be loathsome.”

Therese glanced at
Than to see him listening intently to his father. She sucked in her lips, full of anxiety as she protectively cupped her abdomen. No matter what, she would protect her babies. It didn’t matter what the prophecy was. Apollo once told her that only the Fates knew the certain future. Everyone else had visions that could change.

“The Fates made a deal with me,” Hades continued.

Therese’s heart sank. “The Fates?”

“Yes,” Hades said. “You see, at that time, they lived on Mount Olympus, but their lives were more loathsome than mine. They begged me for both protection and a diversion. So I set them up here under my protection and built them their little casino to keep them occupied.”

“I never knew they lived anywhere else,” Than said.

“This was such a long time before you were born,” Hades explained. Then he continued. “In exchange for this favor, the Fates told me to choose my bride wisely, and they pointed me in the direction of Persephone, who
was one day wandering among the same asphodel. The Fates promised me that one day, when the minds of men had come to forget the gods and to lose their love for one another, the seed of my seed, a set of twins—one boy and one girl—would go into the world of men and restore faith in both the gods and in one another.”

Therese’s eyebrows shot up. “Do you mean to say…?”

She looked at Than, whose mouth hung open in half-smile and half-shock, speechless.

“If Pete is right,” Hades said. “If your twins are
the
twins—and believe me, I always thought Hypnos would be the first to marry and have children, so I didn’t see this coming—then one day they will make us very proud. They will become beacons of hope for all of humanity.”

“But how?”
Therese asked.

“That is for the Fates to know and for us to find out,” Hades replied.

Therese turned to Than, whose smile stretched from ear to ear. Tears welled in his eyes. She wanted to kiss him. Never before this moment had she ever been happier.

***THE END****************

Please enjoy the first chapter of the final book in
The Gatekeeper’s Saga
,
The Gatekeeper’s Promise
(#6):

Chapter One: A Short Honeymoon

The shifting hues of the Aurora Borealis danced above Therese from where she lay with Than on a blanket on the frosty summit of Mount Thor—home of the world’s greatest vertical drop. For their honeymoon,
Than had brought her to Baffin Island in Northern Canada near the North Pole. The light show lasted several minutes until Helios appeared, bright and early at two in the morning. His golden cup would remain visible for a good twenty hours, which was precisely the reason Than had brought Therese to this spot.

She kissed the side of his face. “Spectacular,” she whispered.

“I thought you’d like it.” He pulled her more closely into him as the rays from Helios enveloped them in the sunrise. “It’s the brightest place on Earth, next to Mount Olympus.”

And the opposite of the Underworld in every way.
Why did he still think she didn’t love the house of Hades? Not wanting to hurt his feelings, she thanked him again and snuggled closer to him.

He yawned lazily. She rarely saw him so peaceful-looking.

They’d ridden polar bears, sang with narwhals, swam with baby penguins, and sunbathed with walruses. Than had thought of everything she’d like. Therese felt like the luckiest person in the world.

Now it was cuddle time beneath the fantastic northern lights, which were fading in Helios’s beams.

A movement near her ribs made her flinch. The babies were waking up.

“He’s up high today,” she said of the boy twin inside her.

“How do you know it’s Hermes and not Hestia?”

“I sense them. It’s amazing.” She lifted his hand toward her swollen belly. “See if you can feel them. Maybe you can sense them, too.”

He laid his large hand, with its thick, long fingers, up against her skin and waited. His eyes suddenly widened with surprise.

“Hestia! I can’t explain how I know it’s her!” His face beamed.

And he’d never looked sexier.

“Pretty amazing, huh?”
She winked.

“She put her hand up to mine,” he said, astounded.

“They aren’t like regular mortal babies, are they,” she said without inflection. “They’re so advanced.”

“They
are
demigods.”

“I can’t wait to hold them in my arms.”

He frowned.

“What?” she asked, but she already knew the answer. He feared that once she gave birth, his presence would put their lives in mortal danger. She bit her lip, wishing she hadn’t said anything about holding them. She was just so anxious to lay eyes on the precious babies growing inside of her, that she forgot
Than’s fear. “I’m sorry. Let’s not think about that now.”

“We should have a plan, just in case.” The muscle near his jaw flexed.

She sat up and leaned over him. “We’ll ask Hip to switch with you, just until the twins become adults—eighteen years tops. That’s nothing to him, right?”

“It’s a lot to ask.”

“You could offer to give him breaks every day.”

Than
gave her a half smile. “But I’d still never see the twins awake.”

“You could hold them in your arms as they slept.”

“Maybe he’d do it—switch with me.”

“I think he would. He loves you so much. So stop worrying, okay?” She leaned down and kissed him.

She could sense in the way he kissed her back that he was worried. Hermes and Hestia may never have the chance to get to know their father.

“A-hem,”
came an unexpected voice nearby.

The newlyweds turned their heads to find Dionysus, in nothing but a loin cloth, standing over them.

“Sorry to interrupt,” he said. “But the Maenads are waiting.”

***

Than was surprised to find that Dionysus had led them to Crete, near the palace ruins of Knossos.

“What’s going on?” Therese asked.

“The Maenads have grown fond of the Minotaur and his labyrinth,” Dionysus said.

Ariadne appeared with a scowl. “How many times must I ask you to call him by his Greek name?”

Dionysus turned to see his estranged wife glaring at him.
“My apologies. Old habits.”

“Make new ones,” Ariadne said. Then she took Therese by the hands and asked, “How are you holding up?”

Therese glanced at Than and then gave Ariadne a frightened smile. She was trying to be brave for him, as always, but he knew this was harder on her than it was on him.

Asterion
emerged from the labyrinth followed by three Maenads and two Curetes.

“What,
Curetes, too?” Than asked of the dancing men and their crashing cymbals.

“They heard the Maenads and came down from the mountain,” Dionysus said.

“Are they going to…” Therese didn’t finish her question.

“They were just leaving,”
Asterion replied. “Go on, men. Now’s not a good time.”

The
Curetes skipped away in a rush of clangs and hops.

“I don’t like this,” Ariadne said to Dionysus. “I told you I didn’t want this here.”

“But Asterion’s never been happier,” the god of the vine objected. “You said so yourself.”

“The company has been good for him, but my nerves can’t handle what the Maenads are about to do.”

Dionysus wrapped his arms around her waist. “But if we’re to be together…”

“It doesn’t matter,” Than said. “Let’s just get it over with.
The sooner the better.”

***

Jen stopped outside the master bedroom door, her heart aching at the sound of her mother’s sobs. She couldn’t take the sorrow anymore. Jen had to tell her.

She tapped on the door and went in.

“Mom?”

Her mother lay on her bed hugging her pillow to her face. Her whole body shook, but she stopped as soon as she heard Jen come in.

“Oh, hi there, sweet baby girl.
Don’t mind me.” She wiped her swollen eyes with the bed sheet. “I’m such a mess.”

“That’s alright, Mom.” Jen sat on the edge of the bed with one leg curled under her.
“Maybe if you just got out more. It’s too bad Mr. Stern hasn’t come around in a while.”

More tears poured from Mrs. Holt’s eyes. “I just haven’t been in any kind of shape for company lately.”

“You haven’t come out to help with the horses for three days.”

“I’m not feeling well, baby doll.”

“Remember when Dumbo died?”

“’Course I do.” She wiped her face with the sheet. “Why do you ask?”

“You made Therese come help with the horses the very next day.”

“I wouldn’t say I
made
her.”

Jen picked at the bed covers. “You pressured her enough.”

“Now, listen here, baby girl.” Her mother’s face turned red. “You can’t compare the loss of Dumbo to your brother. And I
was
out there the very next day. We all were. I’m just not well right now.”

“Mom, I’m just saying…” What
was
she trying to say? Everything seemed to be coming out all wrong. “Never mind. There’s something I want to tell you. Now don’t freak out.”

Her mother sat up on the bed, alarmed.
“Oh, no. What?”

“It’s not bad. It’s good. Just promise not to freak out.”

“How can I promise that if I don’t know what it is?”