Read The Goddess Inheritance Online
Authors: Aimée Carter
Calliope should’ve won, and the grin on Ingrid’s face felt like salt in the gaping hole where her heart had once been. First she’d lost her husband, and when she thought she’d found someone who could understand her plight and give her the love she so badly desired, that someone—Henry—had never given her a chance. Because of it, she’d lost everything. Her freedom, her dignity, every ounce of respect she’d fought to gain through the millennia, but most of all, she’d lost Henry.
They’d been together, two of the original six, since before the beginning of humanity. For eons she’d watched him, shrouded in mystery and loneliness no one could break, at least until Persephone had come along. And after what she’d done to him—
If anyone deserved to be punished, it was Persephone. All Calliope had ever wanted was for Henry to be happy, and one day he would understand that the only way he would ever be was when they were finally together. No matter how long it took, she would make him see. And in the end, Kate would pay for robbing them of precious time from their future.
“Calliope?” said Ingrid, and Calliope tried to shake the thoughts from her head. The words escaped into the recesses of her mind, but her anger and bitterness remained.
“Kate,” said Calliope, spitting out the name as if it were poisonous. “Her name’s Kate. She’s Diana’s daughter.”
Ingrid’s eyes widened. “And Persephone’s sister?”
Calliope nodded, and behind Ingrid, a strange fog formed in the distance. It seemed to beckon toward her, but she resisted the urge to cut loose from Ingrid and follow it. As long as she was serving her sentence spending time with each girl she’d killed, she couldn’t leave without alerting Henry. If she deliberately disobeyed the council’s orders, she would be permanently banished and her spot on the council filled by someone else.
She knew exactly who that someone else would be, and she swore to herself that as long as she was still a goddess, Kate would never get anywhere near her throne.
Calliope eyed the fog. “Have you ever been through there?”
“Through where?” said Ingrid. “The trees? Sometimes, but I prefer the meadow. Did you know the flower petals taste like candy? You should try them.”
“I don’t eat candy,” said Calliope, still distracted by the fog. She hadn’t seen anything else like it while in the Underworld, and it must mean something. Maybe it was Henry’s way of telling her she could move on to the next girl. Perhaps he understood how awful Ingrid was after all.
“How can you not eat candy?” said Ingrid. “Everyone eats candy.”
“I’m not everyone,” said Calliope. “Stay here.”
“So you can walk away?” said Ingrid. “I don’t think so. You need me to forgive you before you leave, or have you forgotten already?”
Calliope gritted her teeth. Of course she hadn’t forgotten, but as far as she was concerned, Ingrid was never going to forgive her. Even if she did, Calliope doubted every girl she’d killed would, as per Kate’s ruling, which meant she would likely be stuck in the Underworld for eternity. That was longer than Calliope was prepared to wait. “Unless you want me to attach your feet to the ground, you will stay,” she snapped.
“You can do that?”
Calliope didn’t bother answering. Instead she headed toward the fog and away from Ingrid, who at least had the decency not to follow her. The farther from Ingrid she got, the dimmer the meadow became, until Calliope was surrounded by rock—the real face of the Underworld now that there wasn’t a dead soul around to influence its appearance.
Now that she was closer, she could see that the fog wasn’t really fog after all. Instead it seemed to shimmer in the air, a thousand tendrils of light reaching for her. Calliope reached back, and the moment her fingers touched the strange glow, she understood why it had called to her. At last, after decades of waiting, he was awake.
Calliope smiled, and a rush of power so ancient it didn’t have a name spread through her. With Ingrid nothing more than a distant memory, she stepped forward, and the anger she’d harbored for so long finally found its purpose.
“Hello, Father.”
ISBN: 9781460306482
Copyright © 2013 by Aimée Carter
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