The Goddess Test (Goddess Test #1)(59)
Author: Aimee Carter

My heart managed to sink and soar at the same time. That meant it wasn’t over, that we could still do this, that I might still pass—

But then I remembered my mother’s last words, and I realized what she’d meant. It hadn’t been my time to go; it had been hers. Horror filled me, and I couldn’t help the rush of tears, too exhausted to hold them back. I struggled to sit up, but the pain in my chest was torture.

“Lie still,” said Walter sternly, putting a cup of warm liquid to my lips. I drank the sweet medicine, my eyes still streaming.

Everyone watched me, but I never looked away from Henry, too devastated to be embarrassed. “Henry?” I slurred as the medicine took effect. “Why…” I couldn’t get my question out. Fighting against the urge to close my eyes, I tried to wiggle my toes to keep myself awake, but even that hurt.

“Sleep,” he said. “I will be here when you awake.”

Having no choice, I let myself drift away, clinging to his words and the hope that he was telling the truth.

That night, I didn’t dream of my mother, and I knew I never would again. Nightmares filled the hours instead, images of water and knives and rivers of blood, and no matter how loudly I screamed, I couldn’t wake up. They were different from the ones before I’d moved to Eden Manor—those had been menacing somehow, a warning. These were memories.

After what felt like an eternity, I woke up. My eyes flew open, my body still aching and the tension in my muscles doing nothing to help it. I expected light, but for several seconds there was nothing but dark. As my eyes adjusted, I noticed Henry.

He’d pulled an armchair up next to the bed, and while the other three sides of the curtains were closed, there was enough space open on the fourth for me to see him. He was still holding my hand. “Good morning,” he said. There was a distance to his voice that I didn’t understand.

“Morning?” I mumbled, trying to move my head to look out the window, but the curtains were closed. Henry ran his hand over a candlestick on the nightstand, and the wick burst into flame. It wasn’t much light, but it was enough for me to see.

“Very early in the morning. It is still dark out.” He hesitated. “How are you?”

Good question. I considered it for a moment, surprised when I realized that the pain had lessened. But that wasn’t what he’d meant, and we both knew it. “She’s gone, isn’t she?”

“She asked to take your place, and I allowed it,” he said, his eyes trained on our joined hands. “It was the only way I could take you from the Underworld. A life for a life—even I cannot break the laws of the dead.”

His words hit me hard, and I licked my dry lips. “She gave up her life for me?”

“Yes,” he said, offering me a cup of water. I took it with shaking hands, spilling more than I got inside of me. Henry refilled it, and this time he held the cup to my lips for me. “You were dead, and I could not heal you. It was her last gift to you.”

I let out a soft sob as grief washed over me. She was gone, all because of my mistake. Because I’d let Calliope get too close. Because I’d trusted the wrong person. I felt like a piece of myself had disappeared, like I’d lost something vital I would never get back. I was empty and full of heartache at the same time, and everything felt wrong.

Several minutes passed before I could look at Henry again, let alone talk. When I did, my vision was blurred and my voice hoarse and forced. “What happened after the river?”

His grip on my hand tightened. “Ava was the one to find your body. She spent a very long time trying to save you, but despite her efforts, there was no hope.”

My throat closed. After all I’d done to her, Ava still tried to save me. “And Calliope?”

Henry’s expression hardened. “Nicholas apprehended her. She will be tried and punished for her actions, and I promise you that as long as I am in charge of hell, you will never have to see her again.”

I shivered, and Henry covered me with the blanket once more. I didn’t have it in me to tell him I wasn’t cold.

“She was the one to send those nightmares,” he said. “And the one to try to run you off the road. She saw the potential in you as we all did, and it is my guess that she feared the only way to stop you was to get to you before you were in Eden Manor.”

She’d almost succeeded, too. If I hadn’t been sure before, I was now certain that the only reason the car hadn’t crashed into the trees was because Henry had been there to protect us.

“What’s going to happen to her?”

“I do not yet know. She must have known she could not get away with it, as she did not try to run or deny her involvement, but—” He hesitated. “I suspect she thought she would be above punishment. In light of all that has happened, I thought it appropriate that you have a hand in deciding her fate.”

I started to ask why she thought she wouldn’t be punished, but part of me already knew. “She loves you so much that she couldn’t stand the thought of you being with anyone else. She thought she was the only person who could make you happy.”

“And instead she is the one who almost ruined the rest of my existence.” Henry bent down and kissed my knuckles. Another shiver ran through me, completely different from the first. “I am the one who failed, not you, and I will do what I must to spend the rest of our time together making it up to you.”

“You didn’t fail me.” I tried to turn on my side to face him, but movement brought only pain. “I’m the one who failed you.”

He must have known I meant the test, but he shook his head anyway. “You could never fail me. I should have seen the signs long before this and never allowed her anywhere near you, and for that, I am so very sorry.”

I was silent for a long moment, and at last I said in a small voice, “Are we okay? Not—not this, but the drink and—”

“Yes,” he said. “I apologize for the way I reacted that morning. I was not angry at you, I was angry—” He stopped, fury briefly contorting his face, but when I blinked, his expression was blank. “It was not your fault. It was a tainted drink, nothing more.”

“Even if I failed, I still love you, you know.” Several seconds passed, and when it was clear he wasn’t going to say anything in reply, I closed my eyes and sighed. My body screamed for sleep, and with my mind numb from the loss of my mother, I was sure that any attempt to resist would be lost.