The Goddess Test Boxed Set: Goddess Interrupted\The Goddess Inheritance\The Goddess Legacy (58 page)

Movement near the doorway caught my eye. I looked up, expecting
James to come sneaking back into the room. Instead a girl walked in, carrying a
pile of blankets that obscured her face, but I would've recognized her
anywhere.

Ava.

She set the blankets down on a dresser shoved in the corner, a
new addition since Milo's arrival, and she jumped. “Wh-what are you doing
here?”

My mouth dropped open. She could see me? “What do you think I'm
doing here?”

Instead of answering me, she hurried toward us, her arms
outstretched. “If Calliope finds out you've been in here again, she'll be livid.
Give him to me.”

Without warning, she stepped right through me and took Milo
from Henry's arms. My insides turned to ice. She could see Henry, but she
couldn't see me.

And she was holding our son.

“Give him back,” I said, reaching for him, but of course my
hands went straight through them both.

Henry held on to the bottle, and devoid of his meal, Milo began
to wail. His cries were louder and healthier than they'd been the first few
days, but as reassuring as that should've been, they fueled every instinct I had
to help him.

“Henry.” I grabbed his hand. “Don't let her take him away. He's
still hungry.”

Finally Henry blinked and shook his head slowly, as if pulling
himself out of a daydream. “I am doing what has been asked of me,” he said to
Ava, ignoring me. “I am taking care of my son.”

“He is
not
your son,” hissed Ava,
cradling him to her chest and turning her back on Henry. Hot fury washed through
me, replacing my astonishment.

“You bitch,” I snarled, advancing on Ava. I didn't care that
she had no idea I was there. I'd tried to see things her way, but if she was
going to take Milo away from his father, if she was going to insist Calliope was
his real mother—

“Kate?” James's voice cut through my rage. “Don't move. Don't
say anything.”

“Not this time,” I said, but my footsteps faltered. Ava hunched
over Milo, as if she were shielding him with her body. From what? His own
father? “She stole Milo straight out of Henry's arms.”

“She's only trying to protect him,” said James.

“Protect him?” I exploded. “That's his father, and she's
stealing Milo—”

“She isn't stealing him.”

“Look at her! Henry, why aren't you—”

I whirled around to face him, but his expression was as blank
as ever. Like he was nothing more than a lifeless wax model. “Henry?” I said
uncertainly. “Henry, what's—”

James stepped between us, and he glared at him with such hatred
that I stopped in my tracks. “I'm sorry, Kate,” he said. “That's not Henry.”

Chapter 6

Rhea

Not Henry.

The words rattled around in my head like they were stuck in a
labyrinth and couldn't find the way out.

“Of course that's Henry,” I said. Who else would it be? He'd
touched me. He'd stayed with our son. He'd done everything Henry would have
done.

He hadn't kissed me, though. Some of the things he'd said
hadn't sounded right—they hadn't sounded like Henry. Something had felt
wrong
this entire time. I'd dismissed it as a
consequence of my vision, of him barely hanging on to this world in the first
place, but what if it wasn't?

Cold horror filled me. The only person capable of mimicking him
so completely—

Cronus.

Of course. Of
course.
I was an
idiot, and all this time he'd played me. He'd taken care of Milo. He'd fed him
when he wouldn't take a bottle from anyone else. He'd rocked him to sleep. He'd
stood with me for hours, watching Milo's chest rise and fall steadily.

“Come on,” said James gently, taking my trembling hands. “Let's
get out of here.”

“I can't.” I stared at the mockery that was Cronus in Henry's
form, and hot rage unlike anything I'd ever felt coursed through me. “I can't
leave Milo.”

“There's nothing you can do for him here,” said James. “Ava
will make sure nothing happens to him.”

Despite my bone-shaking fury, I knew Cronus wouldn't hurt him
either. Whatever reason he had for doing this, he'd been good to Milo so far,
and James was right. There was nothing I could do, not when I couldn't so much
as touch the baby.

“We'll go to the council about it as soon as we find Rhea,”
promised James. “But right now I need to talk to you, and we can't do it in
front of him.”

I glared at Cronus over James's shoulder. “He's not listening.
He's practically a zombie.”

“He's always listening.” He touched my shoulder. “Come on,
before he snaps back and makes things worse.”

In other words, before he could threaten me into silence or
inaction. After saying a silent goodbye to Milo, I closed my eyes and slid out
of the nursery, fighting through the quicksand to return us to our reality.

After the salty Mediterranean breeze, the stale air of the
plane smelled foreign. Beside me, James looked as pale as I felt, and hot tears
ran down my face. James silently offered me a napkin from his tray. When I
didn't accept, he dabbed my cheeks for me.

“I should have known,” I whispered.

“It isn't your fault,” said James. “Cronus could have fooled
any of us, and you needed hope that Henry was out there somewhere. It isn't
unreasonable. It's human.”

“I knew something was off. He kept saying strange things, he
wouldn't kiss me, and the way he could hold Milo when I couldn't touch him...” I
shook my head. “I should have
known.
”

“You do now, that's the important part,” said James. “I need to
know what you told him.”

A lump formed in my throat. “Everything.”

I'd told him about Rhea. I'd told him the council's plans to
fight. Everything they'd trusted me with, I'd blabbed directly to the enemy.
Once again, because of my stupidity, any advantage we'd had over Cronus was
gone.

James hugged me, and I stiffened. I didn't deserve his
sympathy. “It will be okay,” he said, an empty reassurance. Regardless of
whether or not there was something he could do, he couldn't guarantee everything
would turn out all right. He couldn't promise me that Henry would live or I
would ever hold Milo or that the council would recapture Cronus and make sure
Calliope never hurt anyone again. He couldn't make up for the countless lives
already lost because of me.

“I'm never going to see them again,” I whispered.

“Yes, you will. I'll make sure you do.”

I curled up in my seat and rested my head against his shoulder,
lost within myself. I could only take so much before I broke, and Calliope knew
it. Cronus knew it. Staying strong for my mother while she'd been dying had been
easy—it was staying strong for myself that had been impossible. Now I had no one
to stay strong for, not even Milo. Not even Henry.

James was staying strong for me, though. I owed it to him—and
to Henry and Milo and my mother and everyone—to try not to crumble. I swallowed,
and my dry throat protested. “Did he know you were there?”

He shook his head. “He can see you, but only because he expects
you and has already forged that connection with you. He'll know someone came
because you were talking to me, but unless he figures out who I was, he won't be
able to see me if we go back again.”

“How did you know it wasn't Henry?”

“I didn't,” said James, running his fingers through my hair.
“Not until I saw him. The only question is why?”

My chin trembled. “I did something really stupid.”

“How stupid?” said James, his hand stilling.

I pressed my lips together, fighting the urge to slip back into
the sunset nursery. “I promised Cronus I would stay with him and—and be his
queen if he didn't kill anyone. And if he gave me Milo.”

James exhaled. “Oh, Kate.”

“I'm sorry.” I tried to draw away from him, but his arm around
my shoulders tightened. “I'm so sorry, James. I had no idea. I thought— I didn't
know what I was thinking—”

“You were thinking you had a chance to do what you always do,”
said James with kindness I didn't deserve. “You were going to give yourself up
in order to save the people you love. It's a bit of a problem with you, you
know.”

I sniffed. “I just wanted to see Milo again.”

“I know,” he murmured, kissing the top of my head. “You have
nothing to apologize for.”

“But all of those people—Athens—”

“—would have happened no matter what you did. Cronus always
intended on causing as much destruction as possible. That has nothing to do with
you, Kate, I promise.” He paused. “In fact, your deal could work for us.”

“How?” I wiped my cheeks with my sleeve. “He knows we're going
to Rhea to ask for her help. He knows she can heal Henry, and the first chance
Cronus gets, he's going to kill him.”

“Probably,” said James. “We'll make sure he never has that
chance though, and in the meantime, we have a direct line to Cronus.”

“He won't listen to reason.”

“No, but he might listen to you. Especially if you can convince
him you're still on his side.”

A wave of nausea swept over me. “I was never on his side.”

“Doesn't matter when he doesn't know that,” said James. “He's
always willing to believe the worst in us. Use that against him. Say you want to
rejoin him, but Walter's holding you hostage. You want to be with Milo, so it
won't even really be a lie.”

Unless he could see the lie in a truth, like Henry could.
“He'll come after you,” I said. “He'll attack Olympus.”

James chuckled. “Last time Cronus tried, he wound up in the
hottest, deepest pit on earth. I doubt he'll give it another go.”

But no matter how hard he was trying to convince me that it
wasn't a big deal, I heard the worry in his voice. This was his entire family,
too. This was his home, and he was gambling it all on what? On the slim chance
Cronus might be willing to listen to me? If James was right and Cronus had heard
everything that had gone on in the nursery, then he would know I knew. And he
would know I was angry.

“What if it doesn't work?” I whispered, finding his hand and
lacing my fingers through his. A friendly touch. Nothing more, but I needed that
much, and so did he.

James rested his head against mine. “Then we'll just have to
figure something else out.”

Six hours and one connecting flight later, we touched down in
Zimbabwe. James hailed a cab on the curbside of the airport, and soon enough we
were on a remote road traveling to a place I couldn't pronounce no matter how
many times James tried to teach me.

“You'll get it eventually,” he said with a chuckle, but after a
moment he turned serious. “None of us have contacted Rhea in a very long time. I
have no idea how she'll react, and I can't make you any promises.”

“I don't need promises,” I said, but my insides churned. What
if I couldn't convince Rhea to help us? What if she wouldn't heal Henry?

I straightened in the back of the hot cab. No matter what it
took, no matter what I had to promise her, I would find a way to make this
happen. I would find a way to save Henry. If Rhea was really so unconcerned
about the rest of the world that she wasn't willing to step up and help us
fight...

She would. She had to.

The Zimbabwe landscape, for the most part, looked surprisingly
familiar. Drier and wilder, with scragglier underbrush, but closer to home than
I'd expected. I pressed my forehead against the cracked window of the cab. A few
people walked along the side of the road holding signs made out of battered
cardboard, but the cabdriver sped past before I could see what they said.

We stopped at the edge of a village that looked more like a
slum than a town. James held my hand tightly as we walked down the narrow way
between cobbled-together buildings, some of which leaned dangerously to one
side. Trash lined the makeshift streets, and a few children dressed in worn
clothes began to follow us.

“Don't we have anything we can give them?” I said. James paused
long enough to take off his backpack, and he pulled out several apples that I
was positive hadn't been in there before. He handed one to each child, but the
crowd continued to grow, and he frowned.

“Kate, I want to help as badly as you do, but we're on a
timetable.”

“We just wasted over a day flying when you could have dropped
us off much closer,” I said. “We have a few minutes for this.”

James continued to hand them out. “You know how to create.
Reach in and help me.”

“Actually, I don't,” I said, but I reached into the bag and
tried anyway. What was I supposed to do, just imagine it was there? I closed my
eyes and pictured a juicy yellow apple. And then—

Nothing. Perfect.

James chuckled. “You're the worst goddess I've ever met.”

“Calliope's the worst goddess you've ever met. I'm just the
most incompetent.” I scowled. “It'd help if anyone bothered to teach me how to
do things, you know.”

“Hey, I showed you how to think.” He grinned, and I shot him a
look. “In all seriousness, everyone's sort of busy right now, but I'll see what
I can do. Most of it takes decades to learn.”

We didn't have decades, not if I had any chance of helping in
the war. James handed out a few more apples, but the crowd continued to build.
Were they really so hungry that an apple was enough to stop what they were doing
and come running?

A child shouted in a language I didn't understand, but
instinctively I knew what he was saying to the boy he wrestled.
Mine.

“Whoa, hey, hold up,” called James, trying to wade through the
wide-eyed boys and girls to reach them. “No fighting, there's plenty more
where—”

“Calm down, my children,” murmured a voice that seemed to come
from everywhere and nowhere at once. Immediately the boys stilled, and James let
out a deep breath. He didn't need to say a word for me to know what was going
on. Rhea was here.

The crowd parted, and a girl who couldn't have been older than
thirteen walked barefoot down the path. Her eyes stood out against her dark
skin, and she wore a colorful scarf around her head. She moved with inhuman
grace, and though she blended into the crowd purely by her appearance, she
radiated warmth and comfort. Not power and pain like Cronus. As she passed, the
children reached out to touch her, as if that alone could cure illness or bring
them luck.

“Grandmother,” said James reverently, and as she approached us,
he knelt down. “I've missed you.”

Rhea touched his cheek. “Hermes,” she murmured. “I have been
waiting for you. It has been far too long.”

“I meant to come sooner, but...” James trailed off. There was
no excuse for not coming to see this girl. This Titan. “I'm sorry.”

“No need to apologize. You're here now. Stand,” she said, and
James did so, slipping his hand into hers. “Let us speak privately.”

They walked past me as if I weren't even there. James seemed to
be in a trance, and I hesitated. Should I follow?

“You, too, daughter of Demeter.” Rhea's words whispered through
the air, and my feet moved without me telling them to. In that moment I would
have followed her off the end of the world if she wanted me to.

“We don't go by those names anymore,” said James, and I trotted
to catch up to them as they rounded a corner. None of the children followed, but
every person we passed stared at us openly. Because of Rhea? Or because James
and I were strangers?

She led us to what amounted to a large blue shanty with a white
cross painted on the sign above. We entered, and James had to duck to avoid
hitting the top of the doorway. Inside, instead of the church I expected, was a
hospital.

Over two dozen men, women and children rested in cots and
makeshift beds shoved so close together that the doctors and nurses—or at least
I assumed they were doctors and nurses—had no room to slide between them.
Instead, each patient was faced with their head near the aisle and feet to the
wall. Several were coughing, and a few looked so frail and close to death that I
tried to memorize their faces. Would I see them in the Underworld? Would I even
have the chance to return if Henry didn't make it? What would happen to the dead
then?