The Goddess Test (Goddess Test #1)(15)
Author: Aimee Carter

“I will give you until midnight,” he said, joining Walter on the front path. “But I am afraid I cannot wait any longer. Don’t be so quick to dismiss my offer, Kate. This is the only time I will make it.”

Instead of answering, I slammed the door shut, trying to ignore how violently my hands were shaking.

James came by the next morning, and he was nice enough to bring me a bagel. I picked at it as we drove to the hospital, my appetite nonexistent. Luckily he didn’t make me talk.

As I sat by my mother’s bedside, holding her hand, a traitorous thought crept into my mind. If Henry had saved Ava—if it really hadn’t been my imagination or some horrible prank—could he save my mother, too?

I pushed the idea away. I couldn’t afford to think like that, not when I had to prepare myself for the end that was coming. Besides, what Henry had done was impossible. A fluke, or a trick of the light, or some horrible joke that Ava still hadn’t confessed to—whatever it was, my mother was on death’s door, and no magic trick was going to save her. She’d held on years longer than she should have, and I knew I should’ve been grateful for the time I’d had with her, but watching her slip away as the hours passed made it impossible.

It wasn’t until that evening as we walked slowly through the hospital parking lot that I finally told James what had happened that morning. He was silent as I finished the story, his hands stuffed in the pockets of his black jacket.

“You mean they just showed up like that, no warning or anything?”

I nodded, too empty to think much about it anymore. “They weren’t rude about it, I guess, but it was just—weird.”

He opened the car door for me, and I lowered myself into the passenger seat. It wasn’t until he sat down in the driver’s seat that he spoke. “You can’t go, Kate.”

“I wasn’t planning on it. She’d never leave me if I were like this.”

“Good,” he said.

We drove through the parking lot, and in front of us, the sun was setting. I blocked my eyes as I tried to find the courage to voice what I’d wanted to say all day. “What if he can save my mother?”

He scowled. “What else would he demand from you in order to do it?”

“Whatever it was, it’d be worth it,” I said quietly. “If it meant she’d be alive.”

James reached across the seat to set his hand over mine. “I know it would be, but sometimes all we can do is say goodbye.”

My face grew hot and my vision blurry, and I turned away from him to stare blankly out the window. “What do you think will happen when I don’t show up? Do you think he’ll hurt Ava? That was our deal—I did what he wanted, and he’d save her.”

“He won’t hurt her,” said James, though out of the corner of my eye I saw his grip on the steering wheel tighten. “Not if he’s any kind of human being.”

I wiped my eyes with the sleeve of my sweater. “I’m not so sure he is.”

When I got home, there were six messages on my machine. The first was from the school, calling to find out where I was, and the next five were all from Ava, her tone growing more and more worried with each message.

Even though I was exhausted, I called Ava back. It was good to hear her voice, despite her being as annoyingly cheerful and talkative as ever. She blabbered on enough for the both of us, and she didn’t seem to mind that I barely said a word. Even though James seemed sure nothing would happen to her, I couldn’t shake the worry that something might. Even though I’d only known her for a few weeks, after the incident by the river, I felt responsible for her. I couldn’t do anything to help my mother, but if something happened to Ava because of me—I couldn’t bear it.

“Ava?” I said as we were about to hang up.

“Yeah?” She sounded distracted.

“Do me a favor and take care of yourself tonight, okay? Don’t do anything stupid like climb a ladder or pet a lion.”

She laughed. “Yeah, whatever. I’ll call you in the morning. Say hi to your mom for me.”

After hanging up, I couldn’t sleep. Instead I watched my clock tick over from 11:59 to 12:00, and a sick sense of dread filled me. What if something happened to Ava? What was I supposed to do then? It’d be my fault. Against all odds, she had become my friend, and I was supposed to protect her from that sort of stuff, not deliberately antagonize the man who apparently thought she owed him her life. Or thought I owed him mine.

I didn’t want to think about Henry. I didn’t want to think about how he’d brought her back that night at the river, and I didn’t want to think about his offer. I tried to picture my mother’s face, but the only image I could come up with was the one of her lying in the hospital bed and dying.

I rolled over and buried my face in my pillow. There wasn’t anything I could do now, and feeling this helpless was gutwrenching. But I’d already made my decision, and I was going to stick to it. If I had it my way, I would never see Henry again.

Half past seven I awoke to loud banging on the door. I groaned, having only fallen asleep shortly after four, but I couldn’t ignore it. Throwing open the door, the string of curses on the tip of my tongue disappeared. It was James, looking like he hadn’t slept since the day before. I opened the door, running my fingers through my mess of mousy brown hair.

“James? What’s going on?”

“It’s Ava.”

I froze.

“She’s dead.”

CHAPTER 6

EDEN MANOR

The rumor around town was that she’d had a brain aneurysm, but I knew better. As James drove past the school on our way to the hospital, I saw the entire student body huddled together in the parking lot, hugging each other and sobbing. I couldn’t look away. “Turn around.”

“What?”

“I said turn around, James. Please.”

“And go where?”

I stared out the window, unable to tear my eyes from their faces. Even the kids who’d hated Ava were crying. I breathed in shallowly, struggling not to do the same.

It was my fault. Ava was seventeen years old. She’d had her whole life ahead of her, and now she was dead because of me. If he was going to take somebody, why hadn’t he taken me? I was the one who’d stupidly brushed his warning aside, not her.

I squeezed my eyes shut once we passed the school, the image of the crowd mourning together burned into the back of my eyelids. Was this how it was going to be my whole life? Everyone I knew dying? Would James be next, or would it mercifully be me?