The Goddess Test Boxed Set: Goddess Interrupted\The Goddess Inheritance\The Goddess Legacy (37 page)

I hadn't signed up for this. I
didn't want to face my sister and all of the painful truths that came along
with her. Even with the cancer, I'd been happy in New York with my mother,
when I hadn't known I'd been her second child, a replacement for the
daughter who hadn't been perfect. Now, all her hopes and expectations
weighed heavily on my shoulders, and my resolve cracked.

I didn't want to be married out
of duty or an arrangement. I loved Henry. Maybe it wasn't the sort of
endless, eternal love poets wrote about and musicians sang about, but he
made me stronger, made me happy, and knowing he was in my life—he'd saved
me, in more ways than one. And when he was with me, everything felt right.
It felt real. And eventually we could get there if he would give me a
chance. Instead he wanted to keep me at arm's length, and all the while I
suffered, knowing I wasn't good enough for him to love me back. Knowing I
wasn't Persephone.

It wasn't such a good thing when
I thought about it that way.

Someone cleared their throat
behind Ava, and I looked up, recognizing James's blurry face through my
tears.

“Is everything okay?” he said,
sounding like he didn't want to be here. I didn't blame him. I didn't want
to be here, either.

I shook my head and sniffed,
wiping my face with the sleeve of my sweater. “Sorry. I just— I can't, not
if she's going to be like that. It's bad enough already, needing her and
asking for her help. I can't take her acting like this, too.”

“You're no prize yourself,” said
Persephone from behind James, and I stiffened. Ava placed herself between
us, and I could've sworn I heard her hiss.

James held out his arms, as if
he expected them to hurl themselves at one another and rip each other's hair
out. “Enough, both of you. All three of you. None of us wants to do this,
but it doesn't matter what we want, because if we don't, Cronus and Calliope
will win.”

I stared at the wildflowers at
my feet. I'd accidentally crushed one with the heel of my shoe, and I
gingerly lifted my leg, as if being gentle now could bring it back to life.
It wasn't until disappointment shot through me that I realized I was looking
for one of Henry's flowers. So he could be with me everywhere else, but not
here. Not with Persephone.

Persephone batted James's hand
aside before moving closer. “I'm sorry,” she said, her voice echoing through
the meadow. “Not for what I said, but for what you're going through. James
explained it.”

Of course he had. My chest
tightened as another wave of sobs advanced, and I clenched my jaw in an
attempt to keep it at bay. “It's fine. You didn't mean for it to
happen.”

Ava stepped beside me and took
my hand, and that was all I needed to feel even more like an idiot than I
already did. Cronus could kill us all, and here I was breaking down over
something no one could help.

“I'm sure Mother didn't mean to
make you feel that way, either,” said Persephone. “Everything she did,
arranging my marriage to Hades, it was all for me and my best interests. It
wasn't her fault when it didn't work out.”

No, it wasn't, but it seemed
crass to agree with her aloud.

James was right though. Fighting
like this and letting jealousy get in the way wasn't going to fix anything.
It didn't matter how I felt about Persephone, or even how she felt about me.
What mattered was doing something about Cronus and rescuing the
others.

It took every ounce of willpower
I had to swallow my pride. “Please, we need your help,” I said. “I know you
haven't had anything to do with this for a long time, but Mom and Henry
and—and Walter and everyone, all the rest of the original six, Cronus and
Calliope kidnapped them. She's trying to figure out how to open the gate
that's keeping Cronus inside, and—”

“And what?” said Persephone, and
I got some small amount of satisfaction from seeing her face drain of all
color. Removed from the council or not, at least she still seemed to care
about them. “How could I possibly help?”

“You know where the gate is,”
said James.

Persephone reached behind her,
and Adonis was there in an instant, as if he'd appeared out of thin air.
“You want me to take you there?” she said incredulously. “There's a reason
you can't find it, James. There's a reason no one but Hades and I knew where
it was. I wasn't even supposed to know—he only told me in case anything
happened to him.”

“Something
has
happened to him,” I
said. “And if we don't get there before Cronus decides keeping them around
isn't worth it, he could kill them or worse.”

Persephone shook her head, and
Adonis wrapped his arms around her again, burying his face in her hair. “You
came all this way to ask me if I could take you on a suicide mission?” she
said. “You can't face Cronus. He'll kill you.”

I exchanged a look with James,
and he gave me a small nod. “We've already faced him,” I said. “I think—I
think he'll leave us alone, at least until we get there.”

“Until we get there?” said
Persephone, a hint of panic in her voice. “What do you mean, until we get
there?”

“He's awake enough to slip a
portion of himself out, and he can attack from inside Tartarus,” said James.
“He attacked the palace before Kate was crowned, and that was when the
brothers went after him.”

“He came after us on our way
here,” I added. “But I made a deal with him, and I don't think he'll attack
us.”

Her eyes narrowed, but at least
she didn't ask what kind of deal. “You mean you came here knowing that a
damn Titan with a score to settle could easily follow you, and those weren't
the first words out of your mouth? You led him straight to us?”

“He hasn't attacked us since
Kate made her deal with him,” said James. “You're safe.”

Persephone slipped out of
Adonis's arms and started to pace. “You did this on purpose, didn't you? If
I come with you, he might destroy me. If I don't, he knows where I am now,
and he knows I'm the only one other than Henry who knows how to find
Tartarus, so he might decide to get rid of me anyway.”

“Why would Cronus do that?” I
snapped, my irritation returning full force. This was too important for her
to act like she was the only person in the universe. “He wants to open the
gate, and Calliope has no idea how. He doesn't stand a chance unless we get
there. As long as you're with us, you're safe.”

Persephone scowled, and she
looked up at Adonis, who hadn't said a word. He nodded encouragingly, and
her frown deepened. “You swear he has no reason to come after
us?”

“Kate's telling the truth,” said
James. “If Cronus didn't want us there, he would have killed us a long time
ago.”

Persephone seemed to consider
this, and finally she stalked back toward the cottage. “Fine,” she called,
and Adonis trotted after her. “But I swear to you, if anything happens to me
or Adonis, I'll—”

What she would do, we didn't get
the chance to find out. She slammed the front door shut, inches from
Adonis's nose, but he didn't protest. No wonder Persephone loved it here
with him so much. He put up with her.

“So what, does she expect us to
go after her?” said Ava hotly. “Because if that's the case, then we can find
it on our own. I am not groveling to anyone, especially not her.”

“She said she'd come,” said
James. “Patience.”

Sure enough, a few minutes later
Persephone stormed back out of the cottage. She paused long enough to give
Adonis a deep kiss, and I turned away to give them some privacy. I wanted
badly to be able to kiss Henry like that someday, or better yet, to have him
kiss me like that and to know he meant it. But the closer we got to Cronus,
the slimmer the chances of that ever happening became.

“Let's go,” said Persephone, and
she trudged through the meadow, slinging a canvas satchel over her shoulder.
“It's a long walk, but I know a shortcut.”

James gestured for her to lead
the way, and the three of us followed. Ava trailed in a huff, still sulking
about the whole thing, and I offered her my hand. None of us said a word,
and with luck, it would stay that way until we reached the gate.

* * *

We'd been walking less than
fifteen minutes when the bickering began.

It started off innocently
enough. James, who seemed strangely withdrawn, but determined to be polite,
asked Persephone about how she and Adonis were doing, and for a moment
Persephone actually smiled.

“We're good,” she said. “Really
good. You'd think as long as it's been, it would get monotonous, but I guess
that's the beauty of this place. Everything's so
happy,
and we haven't gotten bored of
each other yet.”

Ava snorted. “That's a miracle,”
she muttered under her breath. I gave her hand a warning squeeze.

“If you have something to say,
just say it,” said Persephone. “We all know you're jealous because Adonis
chose me over you, but—”

Ava let out a strangled laugh.
“He chose you over me? Is that a joke?” She shook her head in disbelief.
“Daddy
made
me let you have him.”

I sighed. It was like what had
happened at Eden Manor all over again, except this time Ava had gone after
Persephone's boyfriend instead of Ella's brother. The result would be the
same though; hours upon hours of fighting and the cold shoulder, and I would
be stuck in the middle. At least this time James was here to
help.

They argued about that for
another hour or so, and eventually I let go of Ava's hand and tucked myself
into James's embrace instead. He couldn't block out their rants and
name-calling, but the weight of his arm over my shoulders helped remind me
that there was something more important going on right now than which
goddess Adonis had loved more.

“Is this why you thought Ava
shouldn't come?” I said softly, and James nodded.

“You should've seen it when
Persephone came to the council to ask for permission to become mortal for
him,” he whispered. “It was a bloodbath. Ava refused to give Persephone her
consent even though the rest of us had agreed, so eventually Walter
overruled her. He'd never done that before, and he hasn't done it
since.”

Even Calliope, as much as she
hated me, had agreed to granting me immortality. I pressed my ear against
his shoulder to drown out the two of them. It worked marginally, but Ava's
shrill voice dragged me back into the mess.

“What do you think, James?” she
said snidely. “Who's a better lover, me or Persephone?”

My eyes widened, and I stepped
away from James, letting his arm fall to his side. He turned scarlet and
shoved his hands in his pockets, and then—

Pain exploded in my head, and I
cried out, stumbling to my knees. The forest fell away, and I plunged into
blackness.

Despite my panic, I knew what to
expect. I was still conscious, and when I opened my eyes, I was no longer in
Persephone's Eden. Instead I was back in Cronus's cavern, and Calliope stood
in front of me, once again staring right through me.

“I will kill her,” she snarled.
“I will rip her body into little pieces and force you to watch.”

Startled, I whirled around to
see who she was talking to, and when I saw a pair of eyes the color of
moonlight staring back at me, my blood ran cold.

Henry was awake.

Chapter Nine
Ties That Bind

A cut ran down his cheek, dripping blood onto the collar of his black shirt, but at least Henry was alive. Behind him, my mother and Sofia were chained to Walter and Phillip, the four of them unconscious. I gingerly stepped around Henry, worried he might be able to feel me. His hands were chained behind his back. He struggled against them, but the metal links were infused with fog.

“You have one more chance,” said Calliope, and she closed the distance between them. To his credit, he didn't back away. “Tell me how to open it, or the next time you see Kate, she'll be in pieces.”

Henry tugged at the chains again, but his blank expression didn't change. Calliope sneered and abruptly spun toward the fog that swirled around the gate.

“I want you to find her and kill her,” she said in a high, grating voice. There was no mistaking the command in her words. The cavern rumbled with vicious laughter, and Calliope's fervor wavered. Apparently Cronus didn't like being ordered around.

I glanced at Henry and saw a ghost of a smile on his lips. Did he know I was there, or did he, too, know how futile it was for Calliope to boss around a Titan?

“I
said
go out and find her,” she snarled, but Cronus made no move to leave. The fog threaded through the bars of the gate, and I wondered why they were there anyway when he could still get out. Maybe not all of him, but he'd already proven that the fog was enough to do more damage than the council could handle.

With a huff, she turned and faced Henry again, and even I managed to crack a smile. She looked like a spoiled toddler who hadn't gotten her way no matter how many tantrums she'd thrown.

“I'll do it myself, then,” she said with a sniff, and Henry's smile vanished. “They're on their way right now, and once she gets here, I'll make sure you're awake to see what I do to her. You won't want to miss it.”

With a wave of her hand, she sent Henry flying back toward the mouth of the cave where the others were chained. He hit the wall hard, sending a shower of rocks into his lap, and his head slumped forward.

I dashed toward him and tried in vain to move his hair aside so I could see if his eyes were still open, but I was a ghost. Calliope wouldn't kill him. She couldn't. She wanted him alive to watch me die, and she wouldn't deny herself the pleasure of seeing him in pain like that. Of seeing me in pain.

The cavern turned to black once more, and when I came to, three pairs of eyes peered down at me. Ava and James were used to it, but even Persephone didn't look startled. Maybe they'd explained it to her while I was out.

“What did you see?” said Ava eagerly.

I pushed myself onto my elbows and rubbed my throbbing head. “Calliope's trying to get Henry to tell her how to open the gate. He isn't,” I added when Ava's eyes widened. “He didn't say a word. She got frustrated and knocked him out again.”

“Good,” said Persephone. “He won't tell her. He knows better than to risk it.”

“They're all there,” I said. “All unconscious. Calliope ordered Cronus to go after me, but he refused.”

Persephone eyed me dubiously, but James and Ava didn't question it. “Is that all?” said James. “Did you see anything else?”

“They know we're coming,” I said grimly.

None of them looked all that happy about it, but no one said anything. It was no surprise Calliope knew, not when Cronus had hunted us down, and for now it didn't matter. They weren't coming after us anymore. We'd lost the element of surprise, but at least we had time to figure out a plan before we got there.

James offered me his hand, and I took it, hauling myself to my feet. The forest seemed to spin around me, and I sagged against James while regaining my balance. “It'd be nice if I could control it,” I muttered. “That'd make this a lot easier.”

“You can,” said Persephone. She leaned against a tree trunk casually, as if people passed out around her all the time. “Since you were mortal before all of this, it'll probably take you a lot longer to get the hang of it, but you'll get it eventually.”

I bit back my retort. No use giving her any reason to march right back to Adonis. “If you know how to do it, then why don't you tell me so we can use it to our advantage?” I said through a clenched jaw.

Persephone inspected her nails. “I'll think about it.”

James sighed. “Persephone, please.”

The two of them exchanged a weighty look, and I scowled. If Persephone knew how to control that kind of power, then the only reason she had not to share it was selfishness. I had her abilities now, the ones she'd given up along with her family, her mother and everything she loved, all for an attractive guy. I knew why she didn't like me, but that didn't give her the right to jeopardize our safety.

Eventually Persephone pushed herself off the tree and started forward, leaving the three of us to catch up. “Fine,” she called in a singsong voice that grated on my nerves. “I'll teach her when Ava admits I'm prettier than she is.”

Ava's mouth dropped open, and she stormed after her. “You little—”

James offered me his arm, and I shook my head. Disappointment flickered across his face, but he didn't press the issue, and instead he walked beside me, close enough to reach out if I needed him. It was nice, his protectiveness, but I kept my eyes on the ground for the rest of the day. He'd slept with Persephone, too, and no vision was going to make me forget it.

Even without trying, Persephone tainted every facet of my life and every person I loved. Like a younger sister whose only things were hand-me-downs, everything I had reeked of her, and nothing was ever going to make the smell go away.

* * *

There was one upside to being with Persephone: our surroundings didn't change, which meant I didn't have to endure watching anyone else be tortured. So when I saw the flashing lights of a colorful carnival in the distance, for a moment I thought I'd lost her, but she was still there, skipping a few yards ahead of me.

A huge Ferris wheel towered above us, and the smell of popcorn wafted through the air, past the fence and over to the dip in the field where we made camp. No matter how many times Persephone insisted she was tired and needed a break, I was positive she'd chosen this spot because of the bright lights and hint of the future she'd never had the chance to see. It hadn't been her Eden before, and that was the only explanation for why it would be here now. More than anyone down here, she would know how to manipulate her afterlife to see that sort of thing.

James and I collected wood this time, leaving Ava and Persephone to continue to argue. It would have been easier to let him create kindling for the fire, but I needed to get away from them, and apparently he did, too. I found another colorful flower nestled in a grove, and I smiled faintly as I inhaled its cotton-candy scent and placed it in my pocket. Henry was still alive, and no matter how angry Calliope got, she wasn't going to kill him.

After collecting an armful of sticks, I lingered near the banner that hung above the entranceway of the carnival, debating whether or not to go inside. As much as I didn't want to admit it, I'd never been to a real carnival before either, and I was itching to see what it was like.

“I'm sorry,” said James behind me, and I jerked in surprise. A few of the sticks I'd gathered fell to the ground, and as I picked them up, James knelt beside me to help.

“I've got it,” I snapped. James stood and stepped away, but he didn't leave. Instead he waited until I'd collected the rest, and when I straightened and headed toward another promising patch of tall grass, he followed.

“I should have told you about me and Persephone,” he said. “If I'd had any idea how you felt about her, I would have, and I'm sorry.”

“Is this the point where you tell me that it meant nothing?” I said waspishly.

He paused, as if he were choosing his words carefully. “No, it isn't. While it was happening, it did mean something.”

I clutched the sticks so tightly that a few of them snapped. “You really need to learn when it's better to lie instead of tell the truth.”

“Don't see why,” he said. “Then you'd be mad I wasn't honest.”

He was right, of course, but that didn't make me feel any better. “So what happened?” I said. “What is so appealing about that selfish cow that she had half of the council wrapped around her little finger?”

We walked across the field, neither of us saying a word as the tinny sound of carnival music floated through the breeze. Ava and Persephone's shrieks of outrage and indignation faded into the background until I could almost pretend it was only the three of us: me, James and the giant elephant that followed us.

“We were friends before she married Henry,” he said at last, after several minutes passed. “She and I were the youngest members of the council at the time, and we got along well. We were close enough in age that neither one of us had been through the rites of passage the rest of them had experienced, and…” He shrugged. “It was easy, that was all.”

I spotted what looked like a broken tree branch, and I knelt down to pick up the pieces. He joined me, his eyes focused on the ground.

“When her marriage to Henry started to fall apart, I was there for her,” he said. “I spent a lot of time in the Underworld guiding the dead to the right place, and when she needed a shoulder to cry on, she came to me.” He hesitated. “When Henry offered to let her leave for six months of the year, she jumped at the chance, and we started to spend time together above, as well. One thing turned into another…” He trailed off, and he didn't need to finish.

“How long did it last?” I said as nausea filled the pit of my stomach. James had been the first person to cheat with her. He was closer to Henry than any other member of the council, and he must've known what it would do to him, but he'd done it anyway. He'd let Persephone use him like that. He'd done more than let her hurt Henry; he'd helped.

“A few hundred years,” he said, and he must have seen the look on my face, because he added hastily, “On and off, and only during the spring and summer. Eventually she met Adonis, and that whole mess happened, and I was left in the dust.”

“Poor you,” I muttered.

He smiled faintly. I found the last stick in the immediate area, and together we stood. “No, not poor me,” he said. “We were always better as friends anyway. Besides, it made working with Henry awkward.”

It was one thing to sneak around behind Henry's back, but it was another to have a relationship with his wife when he was fully aware of it. “He knew, and he didn't try to kill you?”

“Of course not,” said James, chuckling. I didn't see what was so funny about it. “Everything's an open secret with us, Kate. You'll see eventually.”

I wasn't so sure I wanted to anymore, if I managed to make it out of this alive, but it wouldn't matter anyway. I decided right then and there that if I stayed, if Henry still wanted me here after this mess was cleaned up, I would never cheat on him, not even during the summer. And especially not with James.

Yet I'd spent my entire six months away with James, hadn't I? What had for me been a break from the mayhem with a friend could have easily been construed as a romantic vacation by Henry. If he really hadn't checked in on me the entire time I'd been in Greece with James—

Oh, god.

The things Henry must have imagined—my mind reeled, and every emotion I'd started to develop for James vanished. “You knew what Greece would look like to him, and you didn't warn me?”

James winced. “It didn't matter. You and I both knew it wasn't anything more than friends, and if that was what Henry wanted to assume—”

“Of course it was what he'd assume!” Without thinking, I hurled one of the sticks at James. It glanced harmlessly off his chest, but for once I didn't care about hurting him. He was a god. He'd get over it, and it was nothing compared to the horror and guilt and shame churning inside me. “You did that on purpose, didn't you? What is it, James? Do you want him to be alone? Do you want him to fade? Do you want to rule the Underworld after all?”

“I didn't do it on purpose,” he said, bending to pick up the stick I'd thrown. “And I don't want to hurt Henry, but more than that, I don't want anyone to hurt you, either. You have a choice. A
choice,
Kate, that no one else is pointing out to you because they don't see what Henry's doing to you. He's hurting you, and there's no guarantee it's ever going to get better.”

His words were a slap in the face, and I choked on my reply. He was saying everything I didn't want to hear. Everything I was trying so desperately to ignore.

“It will get better,” I said shakily, fury rising up inside of me until I could taste it. “As soon as he understands that I have no interest in
ever
being with you, I'm sure he'll come around.”

To my immense satisfaction, James winced. “Believe what you want, but your deal with Henry is clear. He has you for six months, no more. You can do whatever you want during the summer, and he has no say in it.”