The Goddess Test Boxed Set: Goddess Interrupted\The Goddess Inheritance\The Goddess Legacy (50 page)

“You do not have to take on the
duties of the Queen of the Underworld now if you feel you are not ready,”
said Henry. “You are my wife no matter what role you play in the work I
do.”

I didn't answer right away. I
couldn't control the one power I had so far; whatever other ones came along
with ruling the Underworld, there was no guarantee I would be able to
control those, either. “Do you think I can do it?”

“Yes,” said Henry unequivocally.
“You may not understand everything right away, but in time, I have no doubt
you will be the best partner I could ask for. You have a rare
gift—”

“Falling all over myself and
screwing up every choice I make?” I said wryly, and he pressed his finger to
my lips.

“Not every choice,” he teased,
and his expression grew somber. “I wish you could see yourself the way I see
you. You have the extraordinary ability to bring people together when they
want nothing more than to walk away and never come back. You see the
simplest solutions when we often see only the complications, and you have
hope in the most impossible of situations. But most of all, you understand
people. When you see someone, you do not see their actions. Despite how you
may feel about them, you see their motivations and have the compassion to
understand them. That is how I know you will be a great queen. Not even I
have that self-control.”

I wasn't so sure he was right
about all of that, but the sincerity in his voice stopped my objections
cold. It didn't matter whether or not his vision of me was biased; what
mattered was that he believed in me.

I traced an invisible pattern on
the hollow of his collarbone. The smartest thing to do would have been to
wait. Wait until the end of the war, until I could close my eyes and see
anyplace or anyone I wanted, wait until I fully understood what it was like
to live, let alone die; but as Henry watched me with those eyes the color of
moonlight, shining in the dim light floating above us, I knew my answer. I'd
put my life on hold while waiting for my mother to die; I wasn't going to
wait anymore. I couldn't dash Henry's hopes just because I wasn't
one-hundred-percent sure I could do this. Henry was, and that meant more to
me than I could ever express.

“Yes,” I said without a hint of
uncertainty. “I want to be your queen, whenever you're able to do the
ceremony. As soon as I return, if you'd like.”

Henry took my hands in his, and
a glowing yellow light appeared between them, ethereal and warm against my
skin. “I do not see a reason to wait.”

My eyes widened, but I didn't
give myself the chance to second-guess it. This was what I wanted. I'd
prepared for this since the moment Henry had found me at the river beside
Ava's dead body, and Henry was right. There was no reason to wait. “Neither
do I.”

He smiled, and that was all I
needed to know I was making the right choice. “As my wife, you have
consented to take up the responsibilities of Queen of the Underworld,” he
said, the same words he'd said exactly three months earlier. “You shall rule
fairly and without bias over the souls of those who have departed the world
above, and from autumnal equinox to spring of every year hence, you shall
devote yourself to the task of guiding those who are lost and protecting all
from harm beyond their eternal lives.”

I held my breath, knowing what
came next. “Do you, Kate Winters, accept the role of Queen of the
Underworld, and do you agree to uphold the responsibilities and expectations
of such?”

This time I didn't hesitate.
“Yes,” I whispered. “One-hundred-percent yes.”

The light between our hands
disappeared, and for a moment we were pitched into darkness. Before I could
so much as blink, however, every light in the room swelled to blinding
brightness—between our hands, floating above our bed, even the candles
flamed—and a great chime echoed through the bedroom. Through the palace.
Through the entire Underworld, as far as I knew.

“My queen,” said Henry, kissing
my knuckles. “I am honored.”

I blushed. “Is that it, then?” I
said. “I'm—I'm queen?”

“I am certain the council will
require a more formal ceremony, but you are my queen.” He cupped my chin and
pressed his lips to mine, chastely at first, but as the seconds passed, the
promise of more formed between us. “Now that you are awake, I must say that
it would be a shame to waste this beautiful night simply by
talking.”

“Are you suggesting we
celebrate?” I said, and my eyebrows rose playfully. I thought being queen
would feel different somehow, like something inside of me would have
fundamentally changed, but I felt the same. I was still me, and with Henry
beside me, that was all I needed to be.

“I am suggesting that this will
be our last night together for a while,” he murmured, “and I would like to
make the most of it.”

Wordlessly I kissed him, pouring
every bit of hope and happiness and love inside of me into it. The light
dimmed as he lowered me back onto the bed, and for the first time in a long
time, I was sure that everything would be all right.

* * *

When morning came, we
were both somber. After I spent twenty minutes struggling to fold and stuff
everything I thought I might need into my suitcase, Henry waved his hand and
somehow managed to pack my things for me in a matter of seconds. I pretended
not to be jealous, but inwardly I hoped that Ava knew how to do the same. If
she didn't, we would be spending half our time trying to close that sucker
and make everything fit, and we had much more important things to focus
on.

We met my mother, Walter, James
and Ava in the foyer of the guest wing shortly after. Henry and I walked
side by side, his arm around my shoulders, and I worried he wouldn't be
willing to let go. He'd barely spoken a word since I'd closed the zipper on
my suitcase, but every time our eyes met, he gave me a small, pained smile,
as if trying to prove he wasn't upset with me. It helped, but it didn't stop
the stab of guilt whenever I thought about the possibility that I might not
come home.

Ava looked like hell. Her eyes
were red and puffy, and for the first time since I'd met her, her hair
wasn't brushed. Her clothes were loose and the sort I wore to bed, not the
tight, revealing tops and skirts she usually wore. She stared at the ground
with her hands shoved in her pockets, and she didn't so much as blink when
her father moved past her to join me.

“Are you ready?” said Walter,
and I nodded. Henry dragged my suitcase behind him, and Walter set his hand
on Ava's shoulder. “My dear, would you be so kind?”

Ava finally raised her eyes from
the floor, and a moment later, my suitcase disappeared. “It's safe,” she
said when I opened my mouth to protest. “You'll have it when we get
there.”

“Where exactly are we going
anyway?” I said, and James handed me an envelope made of heavy parchment,
the sort people must have used a thousand years ago.

“Rhea moves around a lot,” he
said. “She's stayed in the same place for the past few years though, so you
might get lucky and find her before she moves on. I've written down
directions. If you get there and you can't find her, Ava knows how to
contact me.”

I glanced at Ava. Was she even
up for this? She shuffled her feet and refused to meet anyone's stare, and
she certainly didn't look like she was about to go on a whirlwind trip to
find a Titan. As much as I wanted to try to shake her out of it though, she
had every right to act this way. Nicholas was gone, and for all I knew, she
would never see him again.

James seemed to have the same
idea I did. He eyed Ava, his mouth hanging open like he was about to say
something, and then he paused. “Maybe I should come, too,” he said. “To make
sure you find her.”

“No,” said Walter. “The fewer
who participate in the planning, the less likely we are to win.”

I offered James a small smile.
“It's okay. If we need you, we'll get ahold of you, but I don't think it's a
good idea, either. You're obviously needed here.”

While I wasn't lying, my reasons
for wanting him to stay had nothing to do with whether or not Walter needed
him. James was the first person Persephone had been with behind Henry's
back, and even though Henry knew how much I loved him, I had no intention of
giving him a reason to question it. Unfortunately for now, James would only
become another obstacle, and Henry and I had had enough of those
lately.

Henry let go of me long enough
to let my mother embrace me, and I wished with everything I had that this
wasn't the last time I would see her. If Rhea was anything like Cronus,
there was no telling what could happen, and whether I wanted to or not, I
had to prepare myself for the worst.

“Take care of yourself,
sweetheart,” murmured my mother, and she brushed a lock of hair out of my
eyes. “I'm so proud of you.”

My face grew warm. “I love
you.”

“I love you, too,
sweetheart.”

She relinquished me to James,
who gave me an awkward hug and a reassuring pat on the shoulder. “Stay safe.
If you ever get lost, don't hesitate to have Ava contact me.”

“I won't.” I paused and leaned
in closer to him so only he could hear me. “I choose Henry. After I get
back, I'm staying with him all year. I'll still be your friend, but Henry's
my husband, and I love him. And I will always choose him.”

Something I didn't recognize
passed over James's face, and he nodded. “As long as it's your decision,
I'll respect it,” he said, and even though I suspected that would change the
moment he thought Henry wasn't being the sort of husband James believed he
should be, for now I didn't press the issue.

“Thank you,” I said, and James
kissed me lightly on the cheek, a silent goodbye to me and an eternity of
could-have-beens.

And then it was Henry's turn,
and he gathered me up, burying his nose in my hair. For a moment, his arms
were so firm around me that I thought he wouldn't let go, but eventually he
did. I took his hands.

“I'll be back as soon as I can,
I promise,” I said, even though I knew that was a vow I might not be able to
keep. “Just remember what we have to look forward to, all right?”

“Please do not go,” he said
quietly. “I will do whatever you ask of me, but I simply do not know what I
would do if something happened to you.”

“Nothing will happen to me.” I
rose on my tiptoes, and even though everyone was watching, I kissed him,
deepening it for a few seconds before I reluctantly dropped back onto my
heels. “I need to do this, and after it's done, I won't fight you on your
decision to stay out of the war. You have my word that I'll sit out,
too.”

He still looked unhappy, but at
least he nodded. Henry cupped the back of my neck and kissed me again, and I
closed my eyes, wishing I didn't have to go away at all. All the wishing in
the world wouldn't change the danger we were all in though, and I could
either hide away with Henry to protect me, or I could do something about it.
Just like I would always choose Henry, I'd already made that choice, as
well.

“Love you,” I whispered when he
broke away, and for a brief moment, his face crumpled, as if he were about
to cry. He quickly smoothed it out again, and the only sign of how he really
felt was the red rimming his eyes.

“I love you, too,” he said.
“Please come home.”

“I will.”

Giving him one last peck on the
cheek, I joined Ava at the other end of the foyer and waved, but only my
mother waved back. “Let's go,” I said to Ava, linking her arm in mine. She
wordlessly opened the door, and without looking back, we walked through the
garden of jewels toward the portal that would return us to Eden.

* * *

The journey up the
portal and through the rock was as jarring as it had been when James had
first led me down. I kept my eyes firmly shut and held on to Ava as tightly
as I dared, but no amount of pretending I was elsewhere would keep the
nausea at bay.

At last we stopped moving. I
opened my eyes. The foyer of Eden Manor surrounded us, and I let out a sigh
of relief. That wasn't something I wanted to do often, and avoiding the
portal alone might very well have convinced me to stay in the Underworld
with Henry.

Outside, it was the dead of
winter. Snow fell in thick clumps, clinging to the trees that lined the
pathway toward the gate, and I raised my face toward the sky, sticking my
tongue out in hopes of catching a flake.

“I've missed the snow,” I said.
“Why wasn't anyone's idea of the perfect afterlife full of snow? What's so
special about warm weather anyway?”

I'd meant it as a joke, but Ava
stopped cold, her grip on my elbow like a vise. “Wait.”

“What?” I said. “Ava, we have to
go.”

She shook her head. “No, not
yet, we should get Henry or James or—”