The Goddess Test Boxed Set: Goddess Interrupted\The Goddess Inheritance\The Goddess Legacy (57 page)

“We need to go.” I slid my hand into the crook of James's elbow
and took a step back, ignoring the way my throat tightened. I wasn't going to
cry. Not over Walter, and especially not in front of him.

For the first time in our friendship, James kept his mouth
shut. Instead he nodded in Walter and my mother's direction. My parents'
direction, I realized. For the first time in my life, I had parents.

That should've made me giddy with excitement, or at least it
should have given me a glimmer of happiness during one of the worst times of my
life. Instead it made me nauseous.

“Goodbye, sweetheart,” my mother whispered. Before I could say
goodbye in return, golden light flashed from all directions, and bright spots of
color burst in front of me as the sunset floors vanished.

James and I appeared on a grassy hill, and I blinked. Sheep's
Meadow in Central Park, the exact spot I'd met with my mother every night I'd
spent in Eden. We were surrounded by people, but none of them so much as glanced
up at our appearance. Could they see us? Or had James done something to make
them think we'd been there the whole time?

“Why are we in New York?” I said. “Is Rhea here now?”

“Rhea? What would she be doing here?” said James, and he guided
me down the hill. “She's still in Africa.”

“Then why aren't
we
in Africa?” I
said, and James smirked. Clearly he was enjoying my ignorance.

“We're here because this was where Olympus happened to be.”

I hesitated. “I thought Mount Olympus was in Greece.”

“Mount Olympus is, but Olympus, the council's home, isn't in a
fixed spot. Well, no, it is,” he amended, gesturing to the sunset that stained
the New York sky. “It's caught eternally between day and dusk.”

Right. Hence the interior decorating. “So why can't we
just...appear there?”

“Because I miss traveling, and it happens to be what I'm good
at.” James took my elbow, his hand warm even through my sweater. “We're handling
things the old-fashioned way and catching the first flight to Zimbabwe. It'll
give us some time to map out our game plan, and I figured stretching your legs
would do you some good. Besides, only the six siblings can disappear and
reappear in another place. And you now, too, I suppose, once you learn how,” he
added. “I bet Walter would teach you once we get back.”

The mention of Walter turned my stomach. “Why can I do it,
too?”

James raised an eyebrow. “You're complaining?”

“Of course not.” I bit my lip. “It can't be because both of
my—my parents—” I could barely force the word out “—are part of the original
six. Then Nicholas and Dylan could, too. So why?”

“Because otherwise you're not going to be very good at
traveling through the Underworld, are you?” James untangled his arm from mine
and wrapped it around my shoulders instead. “I'm sorry, Kate. Walter should've
told you ages ago.”

A bitter taste filled my mouth. Sorry wasn't going to fix
anything. “Doesn't matter. I don't need him.”

“He is a bit of a womanizer,” agreed James. “Definitely not a
good role model for the baby. Thankfully Milo has Henry to look up to.”

For a moment I was silent. James didn't know whether or not
Henry would ever wake up again. We didn't even know if he'd still be alive by
the time we got back. “Your optimism continues to defy reality,” I mumbled.

“I was right about your mother,” he said, and I shook my
head.

“No, you weren't. She died. Her mortal form, anyway, and you
had no idea I was going to pass the tests. You didn't know if I'd ever see her
again.”

James waved off my objections. “Either way, this isn't
optimism. This is fact. Henry's going to make it.”

He was baiting me, the jerk, but no matter how badly I didn't
want to give him the satisfaction of knowing he had me hooked, I couldn't
resist. “Fine, I give. How can you possibly be so sure?”

Grinning, James leaned toward me, his lips brushing the shell
of my ear. “Because,” he whispered, “Rhea can heal him.”

Chapter 5

Underneath

“Did you know?”

I stood beside Milo's crib, gazing down at his sleeping form as
Henry stood across from me. He looked different—more distant somehow, as if he
was somewhere else, as well. He barely looked at me, and he stared unblinkingly
down at the baby.

“Did I know what?” he said after a long moment. Was he even
listening?

“Did you know that Rhea could heal you?” I said, keeping a
stranglehold on my temper. Everything that had happened wasn't Henry's fault, of
course, but still. Had he known this whole time? Was Walter aware? Was my
mother?

“I...suspected,” said Henry, and his eyes glazed over again.
Wherever he was, I sure as hell hoped it was more important than his own life.
“I did not want to give you false hope.”

“Bullshit,” I said. “You didn't want to give me any hope at
all.”

Several seconds passed, and finally his gaze met mine. “Are you
going to try?”

“Try what? You're her son, aren't you?” I said.

“In a manner of speaking.”

“Then why would she say no?”

“She does not like to bother herself with our affairs,” said
Henry.

“I'm sure she won't mind pulling herself away from whatever it
is she does in order to heal you,” I said. Why was he being so difficult?

Kate?

I froze at the sound of James's voice, but Henry didn't so much
as frown.

Kate, come back,
said James, the
words no more than a whisper.
It's important.

It was always important. I sighed inwardly and leaned over the
cradle to give Henry a kiss on the cheek. “I have to go. I'll be back soon.”

“Of course,” he said distractedly, once again staring down into
the crib. His gaze wasn't focused on Milo's face, though; it was as if he was
looking through him. What was going on?

The nursery faded, replaced by the interior of an airplane.
Despite the ample room first class provided, my arm ached from the way I leaned
against the window, and I winced. These were the only tickets we could get, and
James had insisted Henry would pay him back. During my first summer away, I had
been reluctant to spend Henry's money and forced James to fly coach. This time,
I didn't argue. I'd learned my lesson about spending twelve hours crammed
between a screaming baby and a snoring passenger who treated my shoulder like a
pillow.

“There you are,” said James. “Hungry?” He sat beside me, and on
the tray table in front of him sat two actual plates of cheeseburgers and fries.
Fancy. James hadn't bothered with one of them, undoubtedly meant for me, but on
the other he'd stacked the fries into a teetering structure.

“Depends,” I said, stretching my legs. “Did you pull me away
from Henry just to ask for my fries?”

“'Course not,” said James cheerfully, and he pulled a plastic
bottle of ketchup from his backpack. “If I wanted them, I'd steal them.
Ketchup?”

“You really brought a bottle of ketchup on the plane? How did
you get it through security?”

He grinned. “My secret.”

I moved my plate onto my tray table. Unlike coach, it came out
of my armrest, and on the back of the seat in front of me was a wide screen
playing a movie I didn't recognize. “You're crazy.”

“I prefer the term
resourceful.
” He
squirted a moat of ketchup around his French fry fortress. “Anyway, I woke you
up because you were mumbling something. What were you dreaming?”

I picked up one of my fries and popped it into my mouth. Not
half-bad for airplane food. Then again, the few meals I'd had on airplanes
before hadn't been served with white china and silverware. “I wasn't dreaming. I
was with Milo and Henry.”

James frowned. “How often is Henry there with you?”

“All the time. I asked him to stay, and he did.”

“Can you touch him?” said James, and I nodded. “What about
Milo?”

“He can. I can't.”

“Right.” His frown deepened. “What have you been telling
him?”

“What, I can't have a private conversation with my husband
without you butting in?”

James set his bottle aside and faced me. “Did you tell him
where we're going and what we're doing?”

“Of course,” I said. “Well, no, I mean, I told him what we're
doing and that we're going to Africa. I didn't mention Zimbabwe
specifically.”

“Good.” He brushed his fingers against mine, and I pulled away,
folding my hands together and setting them in my lap. Friends or not, he'd
intentionally hurt Henry all those years ago by having an affair with
Persephone. While Henry might've been willing to forgive, he undoubtedly hadn't
forgotten, and I wasn't about to give him any more of a reason to worry. “How
has he been treating you? Has he said anything strange? Done anything that
didn't seem quite right?”

“What is this, twenty questions?” I leaned back in my seat,
leaving my plate all but untouched. “It's none of your business.”

“Yes, it is. We've never had a situation like this before.
During the first war—obviously I wasn't alive back then, but Walter—”

“I don't want to hear it.” Not when it had anything to do with
Walter.

“You need to.” James's voice was surprisingly kind. “It doesn't
matter who Walter is to you, all right? Forget about him. He's not important
right now.”

“He's never been important.” As far as I was concerned, he
never would be.

“I wouldn't go that far,” said James with a wry smile. “He
is
King of the Gods and head of the council,
after all. We're all his children. You know that.”

“So what, are you saying I'm stupid for not figuring it out
sooner?” I said, and though James shook his head, I still felt like an idiot. He
was right. He and Ava
had
told me that every younger
member of the council was one of Walter's children.

“You're not stupid,” said James. “Not at all. Walter, he's the
stupid one for not stepping in to act like your father when Diana told us her
mortal body had cancer. Your mother wanted him to,” he added. “So don't be
pissed off at her for this, all right? She fought hard to get him to show up.
Phillip even volunteered to step up as your uncle, but in the end, Walter
decided going through that alone would give you a better chance of passing the
tests.”

“He's a bastard,” I whispered, half expecting a bolt of
lightning to tear through the sky and knock us out of the air.

“Most of the time,” agreed James. “He doesn't understand
emotions well, I guess. Wasn't a great father to any of us, except for maybe
Ava, and she was adopted. Can't blame him too much, though. He didn't exactly
have the greatest role model either.”

That didn't make up for abandoning me when he knew I'd needed
him, but it did help to know that I was part of the rule rather than the
exception. “Good to know I didn't miss out on anything,” I mumbled.

James snorted. “Hardly. He makes Henry look like a clingy,
doe-eyed schoolgirl.”

At least I knew Henry was a good father, and in the end, that
was what mattered—that Milo had a dad. My childhood was already over. His was
just beginning, and I wasn't about to let him go through the same thing I'd
endured. He would have a father, one who loved him, one he saw every day. I
would make sure of it.

“We need to talk about your visions now,” said James quietly.
“Will you let me go with you and see?”

“Go with me? It's not like I travel, you know. I'm still here
when I have them.”

“You can take someone with you if you want, though. Persephone
did it with me sometimes.”

“I'm sure she did,” I said, rolling my eyes.

He groaned. “Not like
that.
I
mean—you can slip into it now, right? You've gained control?”

After nine months of nothing else to do? “Yeah, I've got it
down.”

He set his hand over mine again, and this time I didn't pull
away. “I don't know how Persephone did it, exactly, but she described it to me
as swimming through nectar. Instead of breaking the connection so she was alone,
she took me with her.”

Right. Wasn't helping. “If you need me to get there, then how
did you manage to talk to me when I was there before?”

“That's different. I did that mentally.”
Like this.

His voice echoed in my head, louder than it'd ever been before,
and I jerked away from him. “What was that?”

“Shh,” hissed someone in the seats behind us.

James laughed quietly, but there was nothing funny about this.
“That was me, of course.”

“But how—” I stopped short and lowered my voice to a whisper.
“How did you do that?”

“It's easy. We can all speak mentally one on one. Not all at
once, of course, because that would get crowded and very, very loud, but if we
focus our thoughts on one person, we can do it.” He offered me his hand again.
“You try.”

I hesitated. “How?”

“Just think of something, and push that thought my way.”

I closed my eyes and concentrated on the feel of his skin
against mine. His hand was warm, his fingers impossibly smooth, and there was
something comforting about it. Familiar.

This is crazy.

“We're all a little crazy, when you think about it,” said
James, and my eyes flew open.

“It worked?”

“Congratulations, you've mastered the art of thinking. Now
let's take this connection one step further. Go into your vision and take me
with you.”

Apparently it was too much to hope for that he'd forget about
invading my privacy like that. “It isn't going to work. Why do you want to go
with me anyway?”

“Several reasons,” he said in a cagey way that meant he was
hiding something from me. Then again, I was fairly sure he always was.

“Like what?”

“So I can get a good idea of what the layout of Calliope's
fortress is like,” he said. “So I know where Calliope and Cronus spend their
time. So I can see where—”

He stopped, and I frowned. “So you can see where what?” I said,
and his expression turned distant.

“Did you ever meet Iris?” he said, and I shook my head. “She
was another one of Walter's messengers.”

“Was?”

He cleared his throat and stared at his fort of fries, but his
heart didn't seem to be in it anymore. “Calliope killed her the day Henry
rescued you.”

My mouth opened, but for a long moment, nothing came out. It
didn't matter that I hadn't known her; James's pain crept through me as surely
as if it were tangible. “I'm sorry,” I said at last. “I can't imagine what you
must be going through.”

“She was one of my best friends,” he said softly. “It's
different when you're immortal—you always take people for granted. I mean,
they'll be there in a century or two, right? No need to tell them how you feel,
because there'll always be another opportunity.”

I squeezed his hand. “I'm sure she knew, even if you never got
the chance.”

“Walter should've never sent her in the first place.” James
took a shuddering breath, and at last he looked at me. I pretended not to notice
the redness in his eyes. “I want to see where she died. But I also need to get
an idea of what's going on so the council can form a strategy. If we're going to
rescue Milo, we need to know where he is.”

“You'd really do that?” I said.

He gave me an odd look and smiled. “Of course. He's your
son.”

That was all I needed to hear. Tightening my grip on his
fingers, I closed my eyes and concentrated on his hand, all the while sliding
into my vision. He held me back though, as if we were moving through quicksand.
This was impossible. “I can't do it.”

You're almost there. Keep
going.

I pushed on. Milo's warmth lingered in front of me, waiting,
and I couldn't disappoint him.

Finally, as if emerging from an endless ocean of mud, we
surfaced together. I planted my feet firmly on the floor of the nursery, but
James stumbled, and it took him a moment to right himself.

“Whoa. Forgot about the aftershock.” He glanced around the
sunset nursery. Henry stood in the corner, feeding Milo with a bottle, and
James's eyes widened. “Pretend I'm not here.”

“What—” I began, but Henry turned toward me, a blank smile on
his face. Anxiety pooled in my stomach. Was he fading? Was that why he was
barely there anymore?

“Welcome back, Kate,” said Henry, his quiet voice somehow
reverberating through the nursery, as if he were speaking in a deep valley.
“Milo began to fuss.”

“Right,” I said, glancing at James. Wasn't Henry going to say
hi? “Sorry about leaving like that earlier. Something came up.”

Henry nodded once, his eyes unfocused. He barely seemed to
notice he was holding Milo. “Nothing terrible, I hope.”

I shook my head. “Just lunch.”

James moved toward Henry, one slow step at a time, until he was
barely half a foot away. Henry didn't so much as blink. How could he see me and
not know James was there?

Without saying a word, James slipped out of the nursery. Did he
expect me to follow him? Or was he memorizing the hallway Milo was in? With luck
he'd look out the window, too, else there was no way he'd know which level we
were on. Unless Calliope hadn't fixed the massive hole in the floor yet.

For the next several minutes, neither Henry nor I said
anything. Instead I moved to his side and watched Milo eat. It wouldn't be much
longer before I would be the one holding the bottle for him. We were almost to
Johannesburg, and from there it was a much shorter flight to Zimbabwe. As soon
as Henry was healed and Rhea was on our side, we would end this war.