The Goddess Test (3 page)

I said nothing, glaring at Sofia as my face burned with anger and frustration. She stared back, not giving an inch, and finally I had to look away. She didn’t know how precious each minute was to me, and there was no way to make her understand, but she was right about my mother. If it would make her happy, I would do it.

“Fine.” I wiped my eyes with my sleeve. “But if something happens to her while I’m gone—”

“It won’t,” said Sofia, the warmth back in her voice. “I promise it won’t. She may not even notice you’re gone, and when you get back, you’ll have a story to tell, won’t you?”

If Ava had her way, I was sure I would.

My last hope was Ava forgetting to pick me up, but when I reluctantly dragged myself to the porch five minutes after seven, I saw a massive Range Rover parked in the driveway, making my car look like a toy in comparison. My mother had still been sleeping when I’d gone to check on her, and instead of letting me wake her up to say goodbye, Sofia shooed me away. By the time I left, I wasn’t a happy camper.

“Kate!” squealed Ava as I opened the passenger door, oblivious to my bad mood. “I’m so glad you’re coming. You’re not contagious, are you?”

With effort, I climbed in and fastened my seat belt. “I’m not sick.”

“Whew,” said Ava. “You’re so lucky your mother lets you skip.”

My hands tightened into fists, and I said nothing.
Lucky
wasn’t exactly the word for it.

“You’re going to love it tonight,” said Ava, not bothering to glance in the mirror as she backed out of the driveway. “Everyone’s coming, so you’ll have a ton of people to meet.”

“Is James coming?” I braced myself as Ava slammed on the gas, and the Range Rover lurched forward, taking my stomach with it.

For a split second, Ava looked so disgusted by the thought of James showing up that I almost took my question back, but the look was gone as soon as it’d come. “James isn’t invited.”

“Oh.” I let it drop. I hadn’t been expecting James to come anyhow—he and Ava didn’t exactly run in the same circles, after all. “Is Dylan?”

“Of course.” Her cheery voice sounded as fake as her nails, and when I looked at her through the dim light of the car, I saw a flash of something in her eyes. Anger, maybe, or jealousy.

“I’m not after him,” I said, in case she hadn’t gotten the message yet. “I meant it when I said I don’t date.”

“I know.” But the way she refused to look at me spoke volumes, and I sighed. I shouldn’t have cared, but in New York I’d seen plenty of boys taking advantage of their girlfriends while eyeing someone else in the background. It never ended well. No matter how much Ava might’ve hated me, she didn’t deserve that.

“Why are you with him anyway?”

For a moment, she looked startled. “Because he’s Dylan,” she said, as if it were obvious. “He’s cute, he’s smart and he’s captain of the football team. Why wouldn’t I want to be with him?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” I said. “Because he’s a pig who probably only dates you because you’re gorgeous and almost certainly a cheerleader?”

She sniffed. “I’m captain of the squad
and
captain of the swim team.”

“Exactly.”

Ava spun the wheel, and the tires squealed against the pavement as the car turned sharply. The image of a cow in the middle of the road flashed through my mind, and I squeezed my eyes shut and silently prayed.

“We’ve been together for ages,” said Ava. “I’m not going to dump him because some girl who thinks she’s better than us comes along and tells me I’m being stupid.”

“I don’t think I’m better than you,” I said tightly. “I just didn’t move here to make friends.”

She was silent as we drove through the darkness. At first I thought she wasn’t going to say anything, but when she did a minute later, her voice was so small I had to strain to hear her. “Daddy said your mom’s really sick.”

“Yeah, well, Daddy’s right.”

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I don’t know what I’d do without my mom.”

“Yeah,” I mumbled. “Me neither.”

This time when she turned the corner, I didn’t feel as if we were suddenly flying through the air. “Kate?”

“Mm?”

“I really love Dylan. Even if he’s only with me because I’m a cheerleader.”

“Maybe he’s not,” I said, leaning my head against the window. “Maybe he’s different.”

She sighed. “Maybe.”

Ava parked her gas-guzzling monster on the side of a dark road. Trees rose above us, and the moon cast shadows on the ground, but for the life of me I couldn’t figure out where we were. There wasn’t another car or house in sight.

“Where are we?” I said as she led me into the forest.

“The bonfire’s in the woods,” said Ava as she nimbly avoided the low-hanging branches. I wasn’t as lucky. “It’s not that far.”

Muttering a string of profanities under my breath, I followed her. This effectively destroyed my intentions of leaving early, and I’d be stuck here until Ava left, unless I caught a ride with one of my many suitors.

I made a face at the thought. I would have rather walked.

“It’s right on the other side of the hedge,” said Ava, and I stopped. The hedge?

“You mean the hedge around that huge property?”

“You know about it?” Ava turned to look at me.

“My mom told me.”

“Oh—well, it’s where we have our parties. Daddy knows the owner, and he’s totally cool with it.”

Something about the way she said it made my stomach twist into knots as I remembered the figure I thought I’d seen in the rearview mirror, but there wasn’t much I could do. Maybe she was telling the truth. She had no reason to lie to me, did she? Besides, as far as I knew, the only way past those hedges was the front gate, but we weren’t anywhere near the road anymore.

“How are we supposed to get in?”

She continued walking, and left with no choice, I followed. “There’s a stream up ahead. There’s an opening in the hedge we can climb through, and the party’s just on the other side.”

I paled, my nightmares of drowning coming back to me. “I don’t have to swim, do I?”

“No, why?” She must’ve caught something in my voice, because she stopped again to look at me.

“I can’t swim. I never learned how.” It was the truth, but I also didn’t want to tell her about my nightmares. It was bad
enough I had to relive them at night; if I told Ava, I was sure she would only use them as ammunition against me.

She laughed lightly, and I could’ve sworn her tone grew more cheerful. “Oh, don’t worry, no swimming required. There are rocks you can step on and stuff that makes it easy to get in.”

I could see the hedge now. My hands were sweaty and my breath was coming in short gasps, and I didn’t think it had anything to do with our brisk pace.

“It’s right up there.” Ava pointed to a spot about twenty feet ahead of us. The sound of rushing water floated in the night air toward us, and it took every bit of willpower I had to keep following her.

When we reached the stream, my mouth dropped open. It wasn’t a stream—it was a damn river. The current didn’t look very powerful, but it was strong enough to carry me away if I fell. And without much light to work with, it was almost impossible to see the stones Ava referred to. She’d been telling the truth about the opening in the hedge though: it was small, as if the river narrowed just enough for the hedge to form over it. We’d have to walk on rocks and duck to get underneath, but it was doable without actually going swimming.

“Follow me,” said Ava in a hushed voice. Holding her hands out for balance, she stepped into the river, searching until she found a wide stone. “Path’s here—are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” I muttered through gritted teeth. I was careful to place my feet exactly where she’d walked and hold my arms out like she did, but every step made me feel as if I were going to fall into the dark water below.

She ducked underneath the hedge, and I could no longer see where she was going. My stomach tightened as panic set in,
and I placed a shaking hand against the hedge and bent down, taking each step one at a time.

Miraculously, I arrived on the other side dry. The stones ended immediately, and I had to jump to reach solid land, but I’d done it—I was safe. I let out a sigh of relief. If Ava thought she was getting me through that hole again, she was out of her mind.

Looking up, the first thing I saw was Ava unzipping her skirt, her top already discarded. Underneath she wore a bikini, the colors muted in the dark.

“What’re you doing?”

She ignored me. Instead of pressing the issue, I took a moment to look around. We were in a wooded area, and had I not known any better, I’d have thought we were still on the other side of the hedge. It looked exactly the same.

“Sorry, Kate,” said Ava. She pulled a trash bag out of her pocket and placed her folded clothes inside.

“Sorry? Why are you sorry?”

“For leaving.” She tossed the bag over her shoulder and flashed me a wide smile. “Don’t take it personally. If Dylan didn’t like you so much, we might even be friends. But I’m sure you can understand why this has to happen.”

“Why what has to happen?”

“This.” She stepped into the water and shivered. Apparently it was as cold as it looked. “Consider this a warning, Kate. Don’t touch my boyfriend. Next time it’ll be much, much worse.”

And with that she dove headfirst into the river.

Two things happened at once: first, I realized what was going on. She was leaving me here, knowing full well I was afraid of the water. There was no bonfire—she’d done this on purpose.

The second thing happened when Ava hit the river. Instead of watching her swim away, I heard a sickening crack as she hit her head on a rock, and the next thing I knew, Ava floated limply as she was carried away by the current.

I winced. The water carried her nearly twenty feet as I watched, but Ava didn’t move. The blow must have knocked her senseless.

Good
.

No, not good, the moral part of my brain insisted. Not good at all. If she was really unconscious and not just dazed, then she would drown if the current didn’t push her onto the bank of the river.

I mentally groaned. Let her suffer—it wasn’t a very wide river. She’d come to her senses and find the edge eventually.

But that do-gooder voice in my head pointed out that if something happened to her, I’d be responsible. And even if she had tried to pull a cruel prank on me, I couldn’t bear the thought of something awful happening to another person in my life. I’d had enough tragedy for one lifetime.

My body moved before my mind was made up. I might not have been very good at swimming, but I could run. Kicking off my heels, I closed half the distance between us before I’d even realized what I was doing. The current was strong, but it wasn’t as fast as I’d first thought. I caught up to Ava quickly, skidding to a stop on the muddy bank, but then I had a whole different problem to deal with—the water.

Images from my nightmares flashed through my mind, but I pushed them aside. Ava was in the center of the river and facedown, which meant I didn’t have time to wait for her to come closer. There were only two options: let her drown or jump into the river after her. Not much of a choice.

Cringing, I entered the ice-cold water and splashed toward her, leaping sluggishly to keep up. My foot caught a rock and I fell in, drenching myself, and before I knew it, the current had me, too.

Panic rose up inside of me as soon as my head was submerged. But I was conscious, and even though I couldn’t swim, the water wasn’t deep. Unlike my nightmare, I managed to find my footing and push myself toward the surface. I struggled to reach Ava, and once I did, I grabbed her arm and yanked her toward me. My heart beat painfully fast, but I kept breathing as steadily as I could. I was going to kill Ava once she was awake, and if there was any justice in the world, she’d need stitches and permanently scar that pretty little face of hers.

I pulled Ava toward the shore and out of the freezing water, relieved to be on dry land. Even though she’d only been in for half a minute, her skin was beginning to turn blue, and I turned her on her side, hoping that would help if she’d swallowed any water.

“Ava?” I said, kneeling down next to her. My teeth chattered. “Ava—wake up.”

She was still. I leaned in closer, waiting for her to take a breath, but she didn’t. I swallowed the lump of dread in my throat. CPR. I could do that.

Roll her onto her back, palms against her diaphragm, one, two, three, four, five, six…

I looked at her and waited. Nothing.

“If this is some kind of joke…” I tried again. I wasn’t giving her mouth-to-mouth unless I absolutely had to.

It was then that I noticed the gash on her head. I don’t know how I’d missed it before—blood stained her hair scarlet, and I momentarily abandoned CPR to see how bad it was.

It wasn’t just a cut. My stomach twisted violently when I pulled her hair back to see the wound. Her skull wasn’t round on the top of her head—it was flat.

I shrieked and covered my mouth, seconds away from vomiting. Even in the dark, I could tell I wasn’t just looking at hair and blood. Her scalp was exposed and part of it flapped open, revealing a crushed skull and bits of—oh, God, I didn’t even want to think about it.

Quickly my fingers went to the side of her neck, searching in vain for a pulse. My breath was coming in rapid gasps now, and the world spun as I automatically resumed CPR. She couldn’t be. It wasn’t possible. It was a joke, just some sick joke where I was supposed to drag my sorry ass to the front gate and walk home. She wasn’t supposed to be—

“Help!” I yelled as loudly as I could as hot tears streamed down my face. “Somebody
help!
”

Sobbing, I thrust my hands against Ava’s abdomen. She couldn’t be dead. Two minutes ago, she’d been telling me off for…for what? It didn’t matter. I wiped my eyes with the back of my hand, taking a deep, shuddering breath. No. Not possible. This wasn’t happening.

“Help!” I cried, looking around wildly, hoping for some sign of life. But all I saw on either side of us were trees, and the only sound I heard was the flowing river. If anyone lived on the property, they could’ve been miles away.

I looked back at Ava, her face swimming as my eyes filled with tears again. What was I supposed to do?

My shoulders shook, and my body was useless. I stumbled backward, falling into a sitting position as I stared at Ava. Her eyes were wide open, unblinking and lifeless, and she was still as blood trickled from her head. It was useless.

I drew my knees to my chest, unable to tear my eyes away. What would happen now? Who would find us? I couldn’t leave her. I had to stay here until someone found us. Oh, God, my poor mother—what would everyone say? Would they think I
killed Ava? Hadn’t I, in a way? If I hadn’t agreed to go with her, then she would’ve never jumped headfirst into a river.

“May I help you?”

My heart skipped a beat. Standing beside me was a man—a boy? I couldn’t tell, as his face was partially obscured by the darkness. But what I could see of him made my breath hitch in my throat. His hair was dark, and the jacket he wore was long and black, flapping in the cold breeze.

I hadn’t imagined him after all.

“She’s—” I couldn’t finish.

He knelt next to Ava and examined her. He had to see the same things I saw—the bloody head, the too-still body, the angle of her neck. But instead of panicking, he looked up at me, and a jolt ran down my spine. His eyes were the color of moonlight.

I heard rustling a few feet away. Startled, I twisted around, only to see a black Great Dane approach us, tail wagging. The dog sat next to him, and he scratched the dog behind his ears.

“What’s your name?” he said evenly.

With trembling hands, I tucked my wet hair behind my ears. “K-Kate.”

“Hello, Kate.” There was a calming quality to his voice, almost melodic. “I’m Henry, and this is Cerberus.”

I could see his face clearly now that he was closer, and something about it looked off. He couldn’t have been more than a few years older than me, twenty-two at the most, but even that was pushing it. And he was too beautiful to be out in the middle of the woods like this. He should’ve been on magazine covers, not spending his time hidden away in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

But his eyes drew my attention. Even in the darkness, they shone brightly, and I had a hard time tearing myself away from his gaze.

“M-my friend,” I said, my voice trembling. “She’s—”

“She’s dead.”

He spoke with such a matter-of-fact tone that my stomach turned inside out. I threw up what little dinner I’d eaten, the horror of the evening hitting me so hard I felt as if the wind had been knocked out of me.

Finally, once I’d finished, I turned back into a sitting position and wiped my mouth. Henry had arranged Ava so she looked as if she were sleeping, and now he was staring at me like I was some strange animal he didn’t want to scare off. I looked away.

“So she is your friend?”

I coughed weakly, struggling to keep the sob bubbling up inside of me from bursting. Was she? Of course not. “Y-yes,” I managed to say. “Why?”

I heard the rustle of fabric and opened my eyes to see Henry placing his jacket over Ava, the way people covered dead bodies. “I didn’t realize friends treated each other the way she treated you.”

“She—it was a joke.”

“You didn’t think it was very funny.”

No, I hadn’t. But it didn’t matter anymore.

“You’re afraid of the water, yet you jumped in after her, even though she was going to leave you behind.”

I stared at him. How did he know that?

“Why?” he said, and I shrugged pathetically. What did he expect me to say?

“Because,” I said. “She—she didn’t deserve to…” She didn’t deserve to die.

Henry was quiet for a long moment, and he looked at Ava’s covered body. “What would you do to have her back?”

I struggled to understand what he was saying. “Back?”

“Back in the condition she was in before she jumped in the water. Alive.”

In my panic, I already knew my answer. What would I do to have Ava back? What would I do to stop death from tightening its chokehold over the remaining shreds of my life that it hadn’t already stolen? It had marked my mother and was waiting in the wings to take her from me, inching closer every day. She might’ve been ready to give up, but I would never stop fighting for her. And like hell I was going to let it claim another victim right in front of me, especially when it was my fault Ava was here in the first place. “Anything.”

“Anything?”

“Yes. Can you help her?” An irrational hope flared up inside of me. Maybe he was a doctor. Maybe he knew how to fix her.

“Kate…have you ever heard the story of Persephone?”

My mother loved Greek mythology, and she used to read the stories to me as a child. But what did that have to do with anything? “What? I—yes, a long time ago,” I said, bewildered. “Can you fix her? Is she—can you? Please?”

Henry stood. “Yes, if you promise me one thing.”

“Whatever you want.” I stood, too, daring to hope.

“Read the myth of Persephone again, and you will figure it out.” He took a step toward me and brushed his fingertips against my cheek. I jerked away, but my skin felt as if it were on fire where he’d touched me. He placed his hands in his pockets,
untroubled by my rejection. “The autumn equinox is in two weeks. Read it, and you’ll understand.”

He stepped back, and I stood there, confused. Turning to look at Ava, I said, “But what about—”

I glanced up, and he was gone. Stumbling forward, my feet numb, I looked around wildly. “Henry? What about—”

“Kate?”

My heart leaped into my throat. Ava. I fell to my knees next to her, too afraid to touch her, but her eyes were open and she wasn’t bleeding anymore and she was
alive
.

“Ava?” I gasped.

“What happened?” she said, struggling to sit up and wipe the blood from her eyes.

“You—you hit your head and…” I trailed off. And what?

Ava stumbled to her feet and swayed, but I reached out to steady her with trembling hands. “All right?” I said, dazed, and Ava nodded. I wrapped my arm around her bare waist to help keep her upright. Henry’s jacket was gone. “Let’s get you home.”

By the time I crawled into bed that night after scrubbing the blood out from underneath my fingernails, I’d almost convinced myself he wasn’t real. That seeing him today and from the car earlier that week—it’d all been my imagination. It was the only logical explanation. I’d hit my head when I jumped into the river, and in the car I’d been exhausted. Ava had been fine all along, and Henry…

Henry was just a dream.

That weekend the phone rang on the hour, nearly every hour before I unplugged it. My mother needed her rest, and
after what had happened, all I wanted to do was cut myself off from the world and keep her company. I didn’t know who it was, and I didn’t care.

The freezing river hadn’t done me any favors, and I slept most of the weekend away in the rocking chair beside my mother’s bed. It was a restless sleep, littered with the same nightmares I’d been having nearly every night since coming to Eden, but now there was a new one. It went exactly as the night had gone, with Ava diving into the river and hitting her head, and me jumping into the water to save her. But when I pulled her body out of the river, it wasn’t her face I saw, pale and lifeless as blood pooled on the ground. It was mine.

I had to wear a surgical mask around my mother. I felt feverish and achy, and there was a deep cough in my chest that I couldn’t shake, but someone had to take care of her. I poured medicine down my throat hoping it’d make me feel better, and by the time Monday rolled around, I felt well enough to brave school once more.

The moment I entered the cafeteria at lunchtime, James attached himself to my side, already holding his tray full of french fries. He babbled on happily about a new CD he’d picked up over the weekend and even offered to let me listen, but I shook my head. I wasn’t in the mood for music.

“Kate?” We’d taken our seats, and he had already drenched his fries in ketchup. “You’re really quiet today. Is your mom okay?”

I glanced up from my uneaten sandwich. “She’s hanging in there.”

“Then what’s wrong?” The look on his face made it clear he wasn’t going to let it go.

“Nothing. I was just sick all weekend, that’s all.”

“Oh, right.” He popped a fry into his mouth. “You missed Friday. I got your homework for you.”

“Thanks.” At least he wasn’t pressing the issue.

“Did you go to that party with Ava?”

I froze. Was it that obvious? Was there something in my expression that told him? No, it was only idle conversation.

“Kate?”

Terrific. Now he knew something was wrong. “I’m sorry,” I mumbled, slouching.

“Did something happen at the party?”

“There wasn’t any party.” No point in lying to him about that. He’d be able to ask around and find out anyhow, if he ever bothered to talk to other people. “It was just Ava and a stupid prank.”

“What sort of stupid prank?” The way his voice dropped and his eyes hardened should have set off alarm bells in my mind, but I was too busy trying to come up with some sort of feasible reply. How was I supposed to describe the impossibility that had happened beside the river? There was no way he’d believe me. I didn’t even believe me. And Ava—

I mentally smacked myself. The whole thing had been a prank, hadn’t it? Not only leaving me there, but her smashing her head against a rock, and Henry showing up and pretending to do…to do whatever it was that he’d done. He was probably someone’s older brother. Maybe even Ava’s.

But what about her skull? The way she’d stopped breathing? The angle of her neck? Could that really be faked?

“Speak of the devil,” said James, eyebrows raised as he looked over my shoulder. I didn’t need to turn around to know who it was.

“Kate!” squealed Ava, and she sat down beside me without
waiting for an invitation. I tensed, gripping my apple so hard I could feel the fruit bruise beneath the skin.

“Er, hi.” What was I supposed to say to her? “How—how was your weekend?”

She swung her legs underneath the table and set down her tray of food. Unlike James, she had a chicken sandwich and a pile of Tater Tots. There was no possible way she ate that every day for lunch and managed to stay so skinny.

“It was good. You know, rested and swam and stuff.” She took a bite of her sandwich and didn’t bother swallowing before continuing. “I tried calling you, but you never picked up. Did my dad give me the wrong number?”

I nearly choked. That had been Ava? “N-no, that was my house.” I looked at James, silently willing him to say something, but he seemed to be making a very real effort not to look at us. “I was sick, so I didn’t pick up.”

“You’re feeling better now though, right?”

I hesitated. “Yeah, I feel better.”

“Oh, that’s perfect then! I was hoping you’d come over this week sometime. We’ve got a swimming pool, and I was thinking maybe I could teach you how to swim.”

I gaped at her. After everything that had happened, she wanted me to go swimming with her? “I don’t—I don’t swim.” And after what had happened on Friday, I didn’t want to go anywhere near a body of water ever again. It seemed unusually cruel to keep dragging a stupid prank out like this, and I silently wished she would drop it already.

Ava pursed her lips, and it was clear that something in my voice or expression must’ve clued her in. “No hard feelings about what happened, right?” Maybe I was imagining it, but she
seemed almost nervous. “I mean…that’s sort of what I wanted to talk to you ab—”

“Ava,” I interrupted. “Why are you sitting with me?”

Her face fell, and she put down her sandwich. “I broke up with Dylan.”

“What? Why?” I glanced at James again, but he was now engrossed in making a fry fort. “I thought you said you loved him.”

“I do! I did.”

“Then why?”

“Because.” She glanced over her shoulder at the jock table. At least half a dozen pairs of eyes were watching us, and she lowered her voice to a whisper. “You saw me, right? I dove into the river and hit my head, and the next thing I know I’m on the ground with a throbbing headache.”

I forced a nonchalant shrug. “So you hit your head and I dragged you out before you drowned. No big deal.”

“Yes, it is.” Her voice dropped. “There was blood everywhere. My mother saw me when I got home, and she had a fit. I had to tell her it was yours.”

“But it wasn’t mine.”

Our eyes locked. Hers were red and shining with tears. “I know,” she whispered. “Kate, what happened to me?”

Across the table, James stilled, and I noticed he was no longer wearing his headphones. On top of telling Ava what had happened, now I’d have to explain it to him once she was gone. He wouldn’t believe me—no one in their right mind would.
I
wasn’t even sure I believed me, and I still wasn’t convinced it wasn’t all some elaborate hoax.

Ava watched me closely, waiting for me to speak, and I knew there was no way I could lie my way out of this. Even if they
did think I was crazy, the need to tell someone, to understand what had happened was overwhelming. I took a deep breath, kissed my sanity goodbye, and I told them everything.

Once I was done, Ava stared at me, her eyes shining. “Oh, Kate—you really jumped into the river to save me?”

I shrugged, and before I knew it, she wrapped her arms around me and buried her face in my neck. The hug lasted for nearly half a minute, things growing more awkward with each second that passed. Finally she let me go, although her hands were still on my shoulders.

“That’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever done for me. When I tried to tell Dylan…” She bit her lip. “He laughed at me and told me to stop making stuff up.”