The Goddess Test Boxed Set: Goddess Interrupted\The Goddess Inheritance\The Goddess Legacy (27 page)

Chapter
One
Return to Eden

When I was a kid, each
fall my teachers had the class write and present one of those horrible “What
I Did Last Summer” essays, complete with pictures and funny anecdotes
designed to make a classroom full of bored students pay
attention.

Each year I sat and listened as
my classmates in my New York City preparatory school talked about how they'd
spent the summers in the Hamptons or in Florida or in Europe with their rich
parents, or au pairs, or as we grew older, boyfriends and girlfriends. By
the time we reached high school, I heard the same glitzy stories over and
over again: escapades in Paris with supermodels, all-night parties on the
beaches in the Bahamas with rock stars—every student vied for attention with
exploits that got wilder every year.

But my story was always the
same. My mother worked as a florist, and because most of her income went to
paying for that school, we never left New York City. On her days off we
spent our afternoons in Central Park soaking up the sun. After she got sick,
my summers were spent in the hospital with her, holding her hair back as the
chemo attacked her system or flipping through the television channels
looking for something to watch.

It wasn't the Hamptons. It
wasn't Florida. It wasn't Europe. But they were my summers.

The one after my first six
months with Henry, however, blew every single summer my classmates ever had
out of the water.

“I can't believe you'd never
swum with dolphins before,” said James as I drove down a rough dirt road
that didn't see much use. We were back in the upper peninsula of Michigan
and surrounded by trees taller than most buildings. The closer we got to
Eden Manor, the wider my grin spread.

“It's not like we had a ton of
them in the Hudson River,” I said, nudging the accelerator. We were so far
from civilization that there weren't any posted speed limits, and the last
time I'd been down this road, my mother had been too ill for me to risk
taking advantage of it. But now, after the council had granted me
immortality, the only thing I risked was my old beat-up car. So far, I liked
the perks. “I'm more impressed with the volcano erupting.”

“No idea why it did that,” said
James. “It's been dormant for longer than some of us have been alive. Might
have to ask Henry about that when we get back.”

“What would he have to do with a
volcano?” I said, and my heart skipped a beat. We were so close now that I
could almost feel him, and I drummed my fingers nervously against the
steering wheel.

“Volcanoes run through Henry's
domain. If an old one's going off like that, then something's up.” James bit
off a piece of jerky and offered me the rest. I wrinkled my nose. “Suit
yourself. You realize you're going to have to tell him about everything we
did, right?”

I glanced at him. “I hadn't
planned on otherwise. Why? What's wrong with that?”

James shrugged. “Nothing. I
figured he wouldn't be too thrilled with the idea of you spending six months
in Greece with some handsome blond stranger, that's all.”

I laughed so hard I nearly drove
off the side of the road. “And who was this handsome blond stranger? I don't
remember him.”

“Exactly what you should say to
Henry, and we'll both be in the clear,” said James cheerfully.

It was a joke, of course. James
was my best friend, and we had spent the whole summer together touring
ancient ruins, vast cities and breathtaking islands in one of the most
beautiful places on earth. Maybe one of the most romantic, too, but James
was James, and I was married to Henry.

Married. I still wasn't used to
it. I'd kept my black diamond wedding ring on a chain around my neck, too
afraid of losing it to wear it properly, and now that we were only a mile or
so away from Eden, it was time to put it back on. I'd struggled to pass the
seven tests the council of gods had given me to see if I was worthy of
immortality and becoming Queen of the Underworld, and because I'd won—only
barely—Henry and I were now technically husband and wife.

With the silence between us for
the past six months, however, it didn't feel like it. I hadn't admitted it
to James, but I'd spent the summer glancing around in hopes of seeing Henry
in the crowd, there even when he wasn't supposed to be. But no matter how
hard I'd looked, I hadn't seen any sign of him. Granted, half a year was
practically a blink of an eye for someone who had existed since before the
birth of humanity. But surely a sign that he missed me wasn't too much to
ask for.

During my winter with him
though, I'd had to fight for every small step forward. Every look, every
touch, every kiss—what if six months apart brought us back to square one?
He'd spent a thousand years mourning his first wife, Persephone, and he'd
only known me for one. Our wedding hadn't been the perfect ending to a
wonderful love story. It'd been the beginning of eternity, and nothing about
our new life together was going to be easy. For either of us. Especially
considering that on top of adjusting to marriage, I'd have to learn how to
be Queen of the Underworld, as well.

And no matter how many years I'd
spent caring for my dying mother, I had a sinking feeling none of it would
help when it came to ruling over the dead.

I pushed my worries from my mind
as the black wrought-iron gate of Eden Manor came into view. New York,
school, my mother's illness—that was my past. My mortal life. This was my
future. No matter what had or hadn't happened during the summer, I would
have the chance to be with Henry now, and I wasn't going to waste a
moment.

“Home sweet home,” I said as I
drove through the gate. I could do this. Henry would be waiting for me, and
he'd be thrilled to see me. My mother would be there, too, and I wouldn't
have to go another six months without seeing her again. After nearly losing
her, spending the summer without my mother had been torture, but she'd
insisted—this first summer was my own, and she and Henry wouldn't be
involved. But I was back now, and everything would be okay.

James craned his neck to look at
the brightly colored trees that lined the road. “All right?” he said to
me.

“I should be asking you that,” I
said, eyeing the way he drummed his fingers on the armrest nervously. He
stilled, and after a moment I added before I could stop myself, “He'll be
happy to see me, right?”

James blinked and said coolly,
“Who? Henry? Couldn't say. I'm not him.”

That was the last answer I'd
expected, but of course he wasn't going to be cheerful about it. James would
have been the one to replace Henry as the ruler of the Underworld if I'd
failed, and even though it hadn't come up on our trip, James was undoubtedly
sore about it.

“Could you at least try to
pretend to be happy for me?” I said. “You can't spend your entire existence
mad about that.”

“I'm not mad. I'm worried,” he
said. “You don't have to do this if you don't want to, you know. No one
would blame you.”

“Do what? Not go back to Eden?”
I'd already passed the tests. I'd told Henry I'd be back. We were married,
for crying out loud.

“Everyone's acting like you're
the be-all and end-all for Henry,” said James. “It isn't fair to put you
under that kind of pressure.”

Good lord, he really was talking
about not going back. “Listen, James, I know you liked Greece—so did I—but
if you think you can talk me into not going back—”

“I'm not trying to talk you into
anything,” said James with surprising firmness. “I'm trying to make sure no
one else does. This is your life. No one's going to take your mother away
from you now if you decide you don't want to do this after all.”

“That's not—that's not why I'm
going back at all,” I sputtered.

“Then why are you, Kate? Give me
one good reason, and I'll drop it.”

“I can give you a
dozen.”

“I only want one.”

I sniffed. It wasn't any of his
business. I'd nearly died in my attempts to save Henry from fading; I wasn't
going to walk away from him because of the possibility that I might not like
the Underworld. “I don't know how you do things, but I love Henry, and I'm
not going to leave him just because you don't think he's good for
me.”

“Fair enough,” said James. “But
what are you going to do if Henry doesn't love you?”

I slammed on the brakes and
forced the car into Park so violently that the head of the stick shift
snapped off. The car was a piece of shit anyway. “That's impossible. He said
he loves me, and I trust him not to lie to me. Unlike someone else I
know.”

I glared at him, but his
expression didn't change. With a huff, I climbed out of the car, cursing as
the seat belt caught on my jeans. After my few failed attempts to untangle
myself, James reached over and gently undid it for me.

“Don't be mad,” he said.
“Please. After what happened to Persephone—I want to make sure you don't
have to go through the same thing, all right? That's all.”

I wasn't an idiot. I knew part
of Henry would always be in love with Persephone. After all, he'd lost the
will to continue after she'd given up her immortality to die and spend
eternity with a mortal, and he wouldn't have felt that way if his entire
existence hadn't revolved around her. But I could give him the one thing she
never had—requited love.

“If you really are happy and you
two love each other equally, then great,” said James. “Good luck to you
both. But if you don't—if you wake up one day and realize you're forcing
yourself to love him because you think it's the right thing to do, not
because he makes you happier than you've ever been—then I want to make sure
you know you have a choice. And if you ever want to leave, all you have to
do is say the word, and I'll go with you.”

I stormed toward the front doors
of the manor, yanking hard. “Great, so if I ever decide that Henry's life
isn't worth it, I'll be sure to let you know. Help me with these, will
you?”

James didn't say a word as he
joined me and opened the heavy doors as if they were made of feathers. I
slipped inside and forced a smile, expecting to see Henry waiting for me in
the magnificent entrance hall made of mirrors and marble. But the foyer was
empty.

“Where is everyone?” I said, my
smile fading.

“Waiting for you, I suspect.”
James stepped in after me, and the door slammed behind us, echoing through
the hall. “You didn't think we were going to stay here, did you?”

“I didn't know there was
anywhere else to stay.”

He draped his arm over my
shoulders, but when I shrugged it off, he shoved his hands in his pockets
instead. “Of course there's someplace else. Follow me.”

James led me to the center of
the foyer, where a crystal circle shimmered with a rainbow of colors in the
center of the white marble floor. When I tried to continue to the other side
of the hall, he grabbed my hand and stopped me.

“This is our stop,” he said,
looking down.

I stared at the crystal beneath
my feet, and finally I saw it. A strange, shimmering aura seemed to emanate
from where we stood, and I jumped out of the circle. “What
is
that?”

“Henry didn't tell you?” said
James, and I shook my head. “It's a portal between the surface and the
Underworld. Totally safe, I promise. They're like shortcuts so we don't have
to take the long way around.”

“The long way
around?”

“If you know where to look, you
can find an opening into the Underworld and travel through various caves and
that kind of thing,” he said. “Dark, gloomy, time-consuming, and trouble if
you're skittish about having millions of pounds of rock pressing down on
you.”

“There's nothing underneath the
surface except lava and dirt,” I said, ignoring the thought of being buried
alive. “Every eight-year-old knows that.”

“We're gods. We're excellent at
covering our tracks,” said James with a boyish grin, and this time, when he
offered me his hand, I took it and stepped back into the circle.

“What else are you good at?” I
grumbled. “Turning water into wine?”

“That's Xander's specialty,” he
said. “I'm surprised he hasn't turned the Dead Sea into one big keg party by
now. Must be too salty for him. As for me, I can find anything or anyone or
anyplace you want. Didn't you notice we never got lost in
Greece?”

“Except that one
time.”

“We weren't actually lost then,
either,” he pointed out.

“Still.” I gave him a look, and
he turned pink. “I just thought you knew the area well.”

“I did, thousands of years ago.
They've made some modifications since then. Close your eyes.”