The Gatekeeper's House (8 page)

Than loved this about Therese. As badly
as she wanted her parents to live, she didn’t want it at the
expense of others, even trees and chipmunks.

“
Most trees haven’t
developed souls,” Than said.

“
I’d hate for my parents to
be stuck inside something that can’t move around.” She looked up at
the branches overhead.

He followed her eyes to the branches
above them and was struck by another idea. “We could wait until
something like a bird is about to die, and just as I’m taking the
soul of the bird out, we could put the soul of one of your parents
in. Then you could give immortality to the bird.”

Therese jumped up and down like a
kangaroo. “Let me run it by my parents!”

***

When Therese saw Stormy standing in his
stall chomping on a bit of hay, she rushed over to him and threw
her arms around his neck. Clifford nudged her leg, feeling a little
jealous, so she scooped him up in her arms.

“
Are you two ready to go on
some more missions with me?”

“
Can we start yesterday?”
Clifford barked, forever anxious for adventure.

“
Let’s go,” Stormy
brayed.

“
Not yet,” Therese said.
“But soon.”

From the stables, she went to Than’s
rooms to find Jewels and was relieved to find her tortoise safe in
her tank. Therese moved the tank, along with Clifford’s bed, to
Hecate’s chambers, not wishing to be separated from her pets
again.

But even more wonderful was the feeling
of having her parents perched in the bodies of two lovely cardinals
on each of her shoulders. She gave her parents a tour of the
Underworld and introduced them to everyone she knew. She told them
all about her life as the goddess of animal companions and even
took them on a couple of trips to save lost animals and bring
humans and animals closer together. Therese rode on Stormy’s back,
with Clifford in the saddle in front of her and her parents perched
on each of her shoulders. She didn’t stay out long, still somewhat
tired because of all that had transpired in the previous days, and
she wanted to make sure Stormy was fully recovered.

After spending a few more days together
in Hecate’s rooms, she and her parents agreed it would be best if
they returned to their home in Colorado to watch over Carol,
Richard, and Lynn. It had been feeling crowded in Hecate’s room
with Galin and Cubie, to boot. Plus, the Underworld wasn’t the most
ideal place for birds. Therese would visit every chance she could
get, and now that her parents were immortal, they could all three
communicate with one another through prayer.

Therese had never been
happier…sort of. No, she admitted. She
had
been happier. Just last year when
she was planning to marry Than, she’d been the happiest she’d ever
been. Even having her parents back couldn’t top that feeling of
euphoria. But once she’d come to actually live full time in the
Underworld and had begun to learn more about the ways of the gods
and goddesses, the feeling of euphoria had left her body like the
air of a deflating balloon.

She returned to her duties as goddess
of animal companions full time, having had neglected them for too
long, and poured herself into her work, saving lost pets and
bringing animals and humans together. As she speared the heart of a
little girl passing through an animal shelter and saw her take the
neglected puppy into her arms with profound love, Therese’s mind
wandered back to Than and how much she wished she could be with him
forever.

After one week of straight work,
Therese decided to take a break at Café Moulan in Paris, sure that
a coffee and Danish were just what she needed to lift up her
spirits. She presented herself in mortal form with her quiver and
bow invisible, so as not to disturb the patrons out on the sunlit
patio. As she passed one of the umbrellas at a corner table, she
recognized Aphrodite sitting alone with a glass of
juice.

Therese said hello silently, through
prayer, and Aphrodite beckoned her over.

“
I don’t want to disturb
you,” Therese said. “I can eat over there if you’d like to be
alone.” Therese gestured at an empty table across the
patio.

“
I never like to be alone,”
Aphrodite said, which was hard for Therese to understand, because
Therese often craved alone time, and it was becoming less and less
possible to have now that she was a god. “Please, sit down. I’ve
wanted to talk with you for some time, and this will give me that
chance.”

Therese took the chair across from
Aphrodite. The waiter immediately came up beside them to take down
Therese’s order, and once he left, Aphrodite leaned across the
table.

“
Tell me the truth. Why have
you postponed your wedding?”

Therese felt the blood rush to her
face. Except for Than, the goddess of love was the first to demand
an explanation.

As Therese struggled to come up with an
answer, Aphrodite asked, “You still love him. I can feel it. In
fact, your love for one another is as strong as any I’ve ever
known.”

Tears welled up in Therese’s eyes.
“Does he still love me, then?” she asked, as a desperate mortal
might a fortune teller.

“
Why would you doubt
it?”

“
Because I’ve hurt him.”
Therese leaned in closer and said. “I’ve told him I don’t want to
marry him. Ever.”

***

Hip had been working for the Holts for
nearly a week, and he still hadn’t found a way to maneuver the
mortal girl into his bed. He’d had plenty of fun with her in the
Dreamworld, but in the Upperworld, as they brushed and rode horses,
shoveled hay, and removed tack, Jen kept her distance. One
afternoon, after Pete and Bobby had gone to ride in the mountains
and Mrs. Holt had gone into the house to cook lunch, Hip had a rare
moment alone with Jen in the barn. She was putting the brushes away
when he came in from turning out the last of the horses. Her arms
stretched up to set the brushes up on a high shelf, and he stood
there, enjoying the curves of her profile. It was now or never, he
thought to himself as he crossed the barn and lifted her face to
his.

Just as he had done every night in her
dreams, he cupped her face in his hands and pressed his lips to
hers. The taste of her lips was exquisite—even better than he had
imagined. The feel of her warm breath against his made the hair on
the back of his neck tingle with pleasure. He expected her to close
her eyes and melt against him as she always did, but instead, she
bit his lip, stomped on his foot with her boot, and shoved him back
with both hands.

“
What do you think you’re
doing?” she asked.

He hardly knew what to say. “I,
I…”

“
Maybe other girls let you
get away with treating them like that, but I’m not like other
girls.” She made to leave the barn, but he grabbed her arm when she
passed him.

“
What did I do wrong?” he
asked, fighting the blush of humiliation that threatened to spread
into his cheeks. He’d been pushed away plenty of times by girls,
but this time, it actually hurt, and not just
physically.

“
Not one text or phone call
for a year, and then you expect you can just waltz up to me
and…”

“
But…”

She must have read the confusion and
disappointment on his face, because she seemed to soften as she
looked up at him and said, “You can’t expect to kiss a girl like
that before you’ve even taken her out to dinner.”

He let go of her arm, as both the blush
and relief swept over him. “So that’s how it works, hmm? I feed
you, and then I get to kiss you?”

To his profound relief, she smiled
back. “Something like that.”

“
What time should I pick you
up?”

“
I’m busy tonight,” she said
as the corners of his mouth drooped. “But I’m free tomorrow. I
suppose I can eat with you then.”

Before he could say another word, she
turned on her heels and left the barn.

All he could think to say as he spoke
beneath his breath was, “Wowza.”

***

Jen smiled as she left the barn, quite
pleased with herself. Let him suffer one night, she thought as she
entered the house. She didn’t have any plans, of course, but she
didn’t want to come across as easy. If he wanted to kiss her again,
she’d make him work for it.

She washed her hands at the kitchen
sink and helped her mom with the lunch preparations, all the while
unable to keep the smile from her face.

“
What are you so happy
about?” her mother asked.

“
Nothing.”

She’d been dreaming about him since he
took her to the movies a year ago. They’d had a nice time
together—at least she had thought so—and she’d even let him give
her a little kiss on the lips. He had wanted more, but she wasn’t
that kind of girl. When he never called her again, she thought he
didn’t like her.

But he came back, and now it seemed his
main reason for coming back was to see her.

“
Watch what you’re doing,”
her mother scolded when Jen dropped the spoon all the way down into
the gravy. “Now you’ll have to fish it out with
another.”

That night, Jen looked forward to
dreaming again of Hip. The dreams were always so real. In fact,
today, in the barn, she got the strange feeling that he’d been
dreaming of her, too, and that, somehow, he knew she’d been
dreaming of him.

She tripped on a stair in her high
school. Hip reached out his strong arms and caught her and kept her
from falling.

“
Hello, there,” he said with
a grin that wasn’t as easy as usual. “Watch your step.”

“
There was something I was
going to ask you,” she said. “But I can’t remember what it
was.”

“
Maybe you were going to ask
me to kiss you again, like I did today in the barn.”

Jen pinched her brows together. “Wait a
minute.”

“
You’ve never stopped me
before,” he said, moving his mouth closer to hers.

“
But I did stop you. I
stopped you today. But, wait a minute.” She fought to bring up the
memory. “I wasn’t dreaming then! So that means…”

“
It’s about time.” He
smirked.

Other students walked up and down the
stairs, distracting Jen and making it difficult for her to keep
track of what it was she was figuring out. “Can we go someplace
more private?”

Instantly, she found herself with him
in the barn.

“
I’m not just a figment,” he
said, taking her hand. “It’s really me. Try to remember this
tomorrow. Try to remember all the times we’ve already kissed, all
the nights we’ve spent together.”

“
Only dreams,” she
said.

“
Why are dreams any less
real?”

“
Are you saying you are
dreaming of me, too? Are we sharing this dream?”

“
Indeed we are. Ask me about
it tomorrow.”

“
How can I remember? What if
I don’t?”

He took the pink scarf she was wearing
around her neck. “I’ll bring this to you tomorrow. Maybe it will
help you to recall.”

Then, without further ado, he leaned in
and gave her the kiss he’d wanted to give her earlier that day, and
this time, since it was only a dream, she let him.

Chapter Seven:
Revelations

Aphrodite raised her eyebrows in
surprise. “Why ever not, Therese? After all you’ve been through
together? He’s going to suffer at the hands of the Maenads once a
year forever, and now you won’t marry him?”

Therese was silent as the waiter served
her coffee and a Danish. Then, when they were alone again, Therese
took a sip of the hot liquid and licked her lips as she tried to
think of the right words to explain her feelings. The early morning
sun offered her no suggestions.

Therese asked, “Are you happy,
Aphrodite?”

“
Me? Of course I’m happy.
Why would you ask me that?”

“
Because you’re married to
Hephaestus when you obviously have a thing for Ares,” Therese said
bluntly, feeling the blood rush to her cheeks. “I’m sorry. I
shouldn’t…”

“
No, don’t apologize,”
Aphrodite said, averting her eyes. “It’s true.”

“
So I’ve decided to be like
Athena and Hestia.”

“
Frigid?”

“
Well, not literally,”
Therese said. “I’m sorry, that wasn’t funny. What’s the progress
there, anyway? Are we any closer to freeing them and
Persephone?”

“
Last I heard, Zeus managed
to transform Hestia back to normal, but there was a powerful ward
around Athena and Persephone that no one, not even Zeus, can touch.
Even Ares is baffled by it.”

Therese took a bite of her
Danish.

“
Listen, to me, Therese,”
Aphrodite said gently. “Not everyone is called to love
romantically, and Athena and Hestia are two examples of persons who
are happiest without passionate entanglements. But you aren’t like
them. You are more like me. I can feel your passion emanating from
you. You can’t deny it.”