The Gatekeeper's Daughter (6 page)

Dionysus clapped a hand against
Than’s back. “No worries, Thanatos. My heart belongs to Ariadne.”

Nevertheless,
Than noticed the once over Dionysus gave Therese.

“She is tempting though.”

Than pulled back his fist, ready to launch it at Dionysus, but Hermes and Therese held him back.

Dionysus laughed again.

Hermes grew somber, running a hand through his curly black hair. “You’re like a little brother to me. I hate to do this.”

Roots shot up from the ground and curled themselves around
Than’s ankles, legs, and body as they’d done less than twenty-four hours ago when he and Therese had been taken to Mount Olympus.

“Touch my hand,” he said to Therese. “It’s time for you to take over.”

Her fingers trembled when she reached through the web of roots and put her hand in his. He hoped and prayed to all the gods that Therese could manage without him.

“Don’t worry,” she said bravely. “I’ve got this. And I’m coming with you.”

“No. I don’t want you to.”

“How can I not?”

“I don’t want you to see me suffer.”

“I have to be there for you. I can’t let you go through it alone.”

He didn’t want to tell her what he was really thinking: he was embarrassed by the thought of how he would behave. Would he cry and scream like a baby? He didn’t want her to see him like that.

“You need to concentrate on your duty.”

“My duty is first and foremost to you.”

She reached her pretty face in through the webbing and kissed him once more. She kissed him like a mortal saying goodbye, as though she didn’t really believe he’d be back.

Chapter Seven: The Maenads

Therese was instantly overwhelmed by the souls from all over the world calling to her. She disintegrated thousands of times and dispatched to all walks of life. Despite her initial disorientation, she resolved to regain focus, finding that if she used her instinct more than her mind, she could work more efficiently. She went with the natural flow of it, trying not to think, but to stay in the zone like a seasoned athlete, letting her body—bodies—do the work.

But one of her remained with
Than as they god traveled from Demeter’s winter cabin with Hermes and Dionysus to a pine forest on Mount Kithairon. She chewed ferociously at the inside of her lips as sweat beaded on her face. If only she had succeeded in the fifth challenge. She wished she could trade places with Than. Maybe she could.

As she followed the gods up the hill toward a large throng of dancers and music makers, she cried, “Wait!” Her voice echoed through the valley. She’d forgotten how powerful she was now that she, too, was a god.

The other gods stopped and turned. Even the music stopped in the distance.

“This isn’t fair!” She clenched her fists at them.
“Than had no choice but to take that oath. He was forced into it. It shouldn’t count.”

“You should have made your case at Mount Olympus,” Dionysus said. “It’s too late now.” He and the others turned to go on, up the hill.

“Can’t I take his place?”

They stopped to look back at her again.

“What are you talking about, Therese?” Than snapped.

“Didn’t Admetus once get his wife to take his place in the Underworld? Can’t we ask for a similar deal?”

“No!” Than practically burst from his webbing as he ripped and snarled at her like a caged animal. “Stop this! Are you mad?”

“I could look into it,” Hermes said.

“I won’t allow it!” Than growled. “Now stop, Therese, or I swear!”

“Swear what? It’s my fault! I should be the one to suffer the maenads.”

Dionysus turned to Than. “You lucky rogue.”

Than said between gritted teeth, “She won’t be taking my place.”

The god of wine grabbed Therese by the elbow too roughly for her comfort.

“What are you doing?” she asked as he pulled her closer to him. His mostly naked body unsettled her.

He looked deeply into her eyes, studying them. “You would lay at the hands of the maenads for him? Tell me the truth. Do you mean what you say?”

She glared at him.
“Absolutely.”

“Damn you, Dionysus!”
Than growled. “Let her go! I won’t let her do it!”

Dionysus ignored
Than’s shouts. “Has Cupid pierced your heart with one of his arrows?”

Therese shook her head. She thought of Pete.

“Can you teach me to win Ariadne’s heart?”

Therese flinched with surprise. “I don’t know.”

“What’s the secret to love?”

“Shouldn’t you ask Aphrodite?”

“I’m asking you.”

Therese combed her mind for the best answer, studying
Than’s pained expression as he struggled against the net of roots. “Sacrifice. You win someone’s love by making sacrifices.”

Dionysus pushed her away from him with disgust. “I don’t believe in making sacrifices. I believe in living life to the fullest every moment of the day!”

Therese stumbled, but caught herself before she fell. She stood tall and proud, remembering that she was a god, too. “That’s why you’re alone.”

He narrowed his eyes at her as though they were weapons.

“Let me take his place,” she said again.

“No.”

Before she could speak another word, he god traveled with Than to the throng of people up the mountain. She and Hermes followed close behind.

She fought against the one or two hundred women crowding around Dionysus and the cocoon of roots still encasing
Than. Their bodies writhed against her, their long hair thrashing across her face. She reached through the roots and took his hand, praying that she’d remain at his side for as long as she could.

The music roared to life through the lyres and flutes of at least a dozen satyrs, and the women around her flailed their arms in the air and jerked their bodies in a state of madness as the roots slowly fell away from
Than.

He turned to her with a hint of panic in his eyes. “It’s okay. Do your job.”

She was shoved aside as the women clamored toward Than, grabbing his limbs from all directions. Therese hoped he would expire quickly so he wouldn’t suffer long.

Wait. He had said, “Do your job.”
Now that she was the god of death, she could take his soul any time, couldn’t she? She reached into his body and pulled, but his soul would not come free. What the…?

“That only works with humans,” he said through gritted teeth. He turned up toward the clouds, opened his mouth, and cried out in pain as his left arm was ripped from his torso. His scream echoed across the valley, over the sounds of the music makers. Birds scattered from the treetops. Blood spilled from his body, and the severed flesh of his arm pit hung grotesquely. It was
his
body being torn apart, but it felt like
her
heart.

Panic gripped her. “No! How long do I have to wait before I can take you?” She wrenched her fingers around the feathery, ethereal mass that was his soul, ready to take him as soon as she could pull him free. Her tears poured down her face and into her mouth and mixed with his blood.

He couldn’t reply.

The maenads ripped his leg at the knee and he howled across the mountainside.

“Hermes! Help me preserve him!” she cried. She disintegrated into three more and collected Than’s bloody limbs, still warm and twitching in her hands, blood running down her arms.

A hand, an arm, the other leg—as soon as they were ripped from his torso, she bounded to retrieve them, sometimes fighting off a maenad wishing to eat the flesh. Hermes
helped, his face grim.

Then the maenads ripped off
Than’s head, and his soul came free. One of her found his precious head, closed her eyes, and cringed as she added it to the rest of her collection. She couldn’t look; she just couldn’t look. Another of her wrenched what was left of his torso free from the wild women and dispatched in multiples to Demeter’s cabin to find Demeter and Persephone waiting with Apollo.

“Apollo?”
She burst into tears, grateful to see the god of healing and traumatized by the fact that she was holding the bits of her true love. Her three fragmented selves lovingly lay Than’s parts on the altar without quite looking at them, and then she fell onto the floor, shuddering and sobbing, allowing the trauma and grief to consume her.

As she led his bewildered soul to Charon, she told him how sorry she was, realizing she, too, was in shock and unable to think clearly.

He seemed more confused than she. “Where are we going?”

“Tartarus.
You know that. Are you okay?”

“Who am I?”

Her heart cramped in one painful knot. “What? Than? Thanatos?”

He blinked his ethereal eyes. “Therese? What a nightmare.”

Tears of relief and regret rushed to her eyes, and in all two hundred thousand places she now journeyed with souls across the lands, she wept. She wept for Than, for what he’d endured. She wept for herself, wishing no one had to witness such an atrocious sight.  And she wept with relief for the great fact that he was free for a whole year. The worse was over, for a while, anyway. As soon as she could graduate from high school, they’d be together. And although they’d have to go through this every year, she wouldn’t think on that now.

“Therese?”
Than whispered. “You okay?”

He’d just been ripped to pieces and he was worried about her? “Yes, Baby. Everything’s going to be okay.”

And everything would be okay, wouldn’t it? As long as she could find her purpose.

When she and
Than stepped onto Charon’s raft, Ariadne and Asterion were stepping off to leave. They both gave her hateful looks. Her face went hot with embarrassment, but she didn’t lower her gaze. Instead, she went closer to them and said, “I’m sorry. What I did to you was wrong. I promise to spend eternity trying to find a way to make it up to you.”

Brother and sister looked at one another and then back at Therese with parted lips.

“I mean it,” Therese assured them. “I can sense you’re good, and I feel bad about wronging you. I will think of something, I promise.”

Asterion and Ariadne looked back at her skeptically as Charon carried them off to the land of the living.

Than took her hand and said, “I love you.” He bent his ethereal face down to hers and produced a barely perceptible kiss. She missed his body, his warm lips, but his soul would do for now.

Chapter Eight: Return Home

Therese disintegrated to lie beside Than’s body while it awaited its soul, but it was so cold and so morbidly still that it gave her the creeps. So she kept
Than’s soul company in Tartarus while she disintegrated into hundreds of thousands to escort the dead. They mostly visited with Tizzie and Meg, and occasionally Alecto, who was usually hunting, until, on the third day, Than felt his body beckoning to him. Overjoyed, Therese guided him back to his chambers where he lay on his bed. His body was instantly warm and glowing once again: the union was complete.

Than sat up, but before he could stand, Therese pressed him back down with her enthusiastic embrace, lying partly on top of him as she covered his face with kisses. Now that the warmth and vitality had returned, she clung to his body, caressed it,
moved her lips across his throat.

“I’m so glad you’re okay,” she murmured in between kisses.

“Sweet homecoming.”

She felt the transference of duty from her to him, and her hundreds of thousands of selves reintegrated into the one. It was nice to be one again.

They played in bed for many hours, caressing, petting, kissing, until Therese felt the familiar pull of responsibility.

“I have to go back,” she said.

“I know.”

“Can’t you come with me?”

“I’ll come by later, okay? First talk to your family.”

She’d been keeping a watchful eye over Clifford and Jewels, grateful to see her aunt and uncle taking such good care of them, but
looked forward to being with them. After one last kiss, she god traveled to her bedroom in the middle of the night, gave her pets hours of love, surprised to discover she could understand them perfectly. They didn’t communicate in words, but in ideas and emotions. Her Russian tortoise had missed her but had gotten to business by saying she had hoped for more lettuce and less carrots. She also hoped for more hibiscus petals and leaves, if possible. Clifford, her brown and white fox terrier, also had requests. His biggest demand was that she never, ever, leave him for so many days in a row again. He hadn’t stopped trembling since she had left. And Carol and Richard were nice, but they didn’t like going for long walks in the forest, nor did they remember to give him rawhide to chew on in the evenings. Plus, they wouldn’t sleep with him, and he preferred a warm body to snuggle against.