KC – I certainly hope that people will continue to pick up this book. I tell anyone that is interested in paranormal romances about it, and always talk about it to people that enjoy a quick Grecian story. And thank you! I intend to keep writing this unless it just completely falls off my radar. I have an awful habit of losing gusto for something and then picking it up again months later. Hopefully that won't happen with this one.
Huntress3419 – Thank you! After reading the second book, when Henry says that Kate had his heart from the very beginning, I decided to really hit on that. It was only a sentence, but it made me smile. Yay for cute little love stories! :3
FrillyWilly – I'm glad that he's turning out to be an actual Henry. I was worried that I was straying too far from the Henry we know and love. Thanks for the review! (:
The Goddess Test Series belongs to Aimee Carter.
4: New Deal
James was absolutely livid. He knew the deal I had offered. He knew it word for word, yet he still continued to berate me for taking Ava's "life." I bit back a sharp answer more than once, knowing that just getting angry and yelling at him was futile. If anything, it would just fuel his fire, and he'd be even angrier.
"You two need to stop playing political games with her! She is not a pawn to be pushed around. I figured that you would've known better than this, Henry." He shot at me, his eyes narrowing in on mine. He was still dressed like a student at Eden's high school, as was Ava. Ava had said that wearing pants was refreshing, but she was really starting to miss the dresses that she usually wore around the manor.
"Enough, James," Ava said sharply, coming to my defense. My plan was to just let James tire out. I had shared it with Ava, but she adamant that I put him in his place. In her own words, I was the ruler of the Underworld, and all James did was deliver messages. I knew she didn't really mean that – she loved James in her own way, as he did to her. But it was twisted and not at all what a human would think of when it came to the word: love. "Henry doesn't need to hear you parade about. Besides that, why would you accuse him of political games, when we all know that Kate's rejection and failure to uphold her end of the deal works in your favor?"
I flinched at the word of Kate's rejection. She had rejected me. She had looked me directly in the eyes and asked me, told me, to leave. It should have been over, and yet I couldn't let go. All of this time, all I'd asked for was to be left alone so I could fade. Now, when the time had finally come down to the last seconds, I was holding on tighter than ever. I couldn't begin to understand why I had the sudden change of heart, why, all of a sudden, I just wouldn't turn my back on her.
James flinched at Ava's words. I honestly wasn't very sure of where he stood. It could very easily be that James did want me to fail. It was easily possible that he wanted the position I held. But I wasn't so sure that he would use Kate to get his way, or that he would look at me like that, like just the thought of me being gone would upset the balance. I figured that only James really knew whether or not he was begging me to fail, or if he was hoping, just as much as the rest of the council did, that Kate would survive.
My nephew shook his head, sending a glare to the two of us before turning on his heel and departing. It only took a few seconds, and then I heard the front doors to the manor slam closed. They shook, the sound reverberating throughout the manor and coating the ballroom walls. Ava sat back in her chair and bit her lip.
"I do feel bad about it, Henry," Ava said quietly. "I knew it needed to be done, but that doesn't mean I don't feel bad. And…." Her voice trailed off, her face pensive as she stared at the wall away from me.
"And what?" I questioned, impatient to hear the rest of what she had to say.
She looked at me, forcing a smile upon her face, and said, "Kate really does care. I don't think I've seen anyone care so much without a push from me." She laughed sadly, wiping underneath her bottom lashes with a finger. "She told me to stay safe. She told me not to pet any lions." She gave another quiet, half-hearted laugh and stood up. She brushed her hair out with her fingers, keeping her face away from mine. "Well, I better go and make sure that I look nice and dead. I don't think it'll take her all that long to get here."
# # #
I knew it the minute she stepped on the manor's grounds. Ava had done the majority of the welcoming work, with the help of Sofia. Sofia was fond of smaller gestures of warmth and welcoming, but Ava was determined to make it obvious – the last time I'd seen her, she'd said she was going down to the heavy gates at the front of the property. She planned to leave them open so Kate could get in without having to take the back way, by the river.
"She's arrived," Ella's voice was sort of monotonous as she stepped into the ballroom without a greeting. I knew she was still a little sore over the fact that she and Theo had been separated for the time being. The two of them were twins, but they acted like they were much closer than that. Their bond was so tight that I doubted that even Calliope would be able to break it. "Sofia is leading her to one of the sitting rooms right now. I suggest you go there and meet her, Henry. She doesn't look as pleased to be here as some of the others."
I just barely managed to keep myself from flying to the door. I just barely managed to keep myself from popping into existence right in front of her. What kind of magic had Kate worked on me? I was Hades, I was supposed to fall to no one. Yet one human girl with beautiful hair and even more beautiful eyes held me like I was her pet. Instead of standing up and heading straight to the sitting room where Sofia had led Kate, I just blinked at Ella.
"Now, Henry." She said tiredly, motioning for me to stand up and move. "There's no point in you just sitting around. We all may be immortal, but that human girl in there is getting older by the second." I managed to keep my face blank as I stood up from my chair, running a hand nervously through my hair. I couldn't remember the last time I had been nervous. I hadn't even been nervous when I'd brought the first girl to the gods for a challenge – Ingrid had been in tune with nature, just like Persephone, and she was blindly loving, unlike my first wife. The other girls could not hold a candle to the nerves that jumbled inside me as I headed towards Kate.
Theo was already standing outside of Kate's room, hidden in shadow. Sofia met me in the hall, thrusting a tray of food into my hands. She gave me a serious look, her words whispering through my mind. She's a bundle of nerves, Henry. Offer her something to eat. I nodded without replying, my fingers gripping the edges of the tray as I stepped into the doorway of the room.
There she was, Katherine Winters, with her dark hair spilling over her shoulders. Her hands twisted on themselves, set her lap, as she stared around the room. Her skin was slightly pale, like it had been the night when Ava had hurt herself at the river. She was nervous. Just like me.
Her eyes met mine briefly. From across the room, I could see her eyes dart away, I could hear her swallow. The word came out of me like a sigh, but I managed to twist it into an easygoing tone last minute. "Kate." Her eyes darted to me again, and I stepped inside the room, putting the tray down in front of her. Humans were prone to going into shock. Food would help with that.
Kate stuttered on my name. My skin rose with goose bumps as she did, and I was thankful of the jacket I wore, hiding me from her eyes. I waited for her to say something to me. She said she needed to talk, and so I just tilted my head, marveling at the fact that when the sun hit her eyes just right, they lit up, and when her hair caught the sunlight through the windows, it seemed to come to life – glowing, not like the hideous snakes on Medusa's head. I wondered if she was shaking, or if it was just my imagination. Sofia was usually right when it came to taking care of others. I sat forward a little bit, drawing the tea cups and the pot closer to me. I poured the dark brew into one of the china cups Sofia had given me, pushing it gently towards her while I poured myself one, so she wouldn't feel awkward.
"I'm sorry," She said, her voice rasping in her throat. "For not listening to you yesterday, I mean. I wasn't thinking, and I didn't think you were serious. My mom's really sick and I just – please. I'm here. I'll stay. I'll do whatever you want. Just bring Ava back." Her words were jumbled, not at all smooth or rehearsed. I had a feeling that she tried to fit in whatever she had been planning to say to me into it, but it still didn't make sense. She asked for Ava, but after she had asked for her mother. The goddess of love had been correct – Kate was smart, and she had a weakness: her mortal dying mother.
It couldn't be a good thing that she was stumbling over her words like that. I motioned for her to pick up the tea I had placed in front of her. If I couldn't keep her safe and comfortable right now, how was I going to make sure that she survived six months, to the end of the tests? Kate, obviously bothered by my silence, thought that I was unconvinced. In truth, I was. She started explaining to me why I should bring Ava back – her young age, which was just an illusion. Ava was millennia older than Kate was.
And then Kate did the unthinkable. She blamed herself. I set my cup down on the edge of the coffee table. How could she blame herself for Ava's death? Two weeks ago, Ava would have died if Kate had not risked her own life to save her, if she had not promised to me six months out of the year. Kate had no reason to hold any blame. It was Ava's fault for being insensitive and insipid. It was my fault for drawing the life out of her. It was, in no possible way, Katherine Winters's fault. I tried to explain it to her, and she brought up another defense – that Ava didn't deserve death. Most people that died did not deserve their death. Death was not a thing that was handed out on saint behavior or bad mistakes. It was a time thing. Everything had its time, like an expiration date.
Kate's eyes watered with tears, and I swallowed to keep from moving to her side. It would probably freak her out. She was nervous, she was frustrated, she was upset. And this time, it did deserve blame. It was all on me. Kate said the words that broke my heart. She was terrified of this place, of me. Kate gave another speech, how Ava was her friend now, how she would do anything, how she would not just let her friend die. Her hands were so tight on the tea cup that I wondered if she could break the fine china. I would place a bet on everyone in this house before her. Out of all of us, she was the weakest one on the property. The only one who was mortal.
I stared into my half-drunk tea, wondering if the answer would come to me in the soft, champagne-colored bubbles. I still couldn't get over Kate's selflessness. In all my years governing the dead and almost-dead, I had never seen anyone act with such despair and complete misunderstanding. Kate didn't get that death was final, that I could only hold back death, because it would eventually come. In all my power, I couldn't stop death from taking another victim. And I couldn't, for the life of me, understand why she didn't see that.
"Kate, I do not invite just anyone into my home. Do you understand why I offered this to you?" I asked. It was obvious that we would not agree on the fate of Ava. Kate was soft and loving, I was unchanging. She shook her head, her eyes locked on mine. I was almost sure that she was squirming in her chair under my gaze. Just the thought of it made my heart pump a little faster. "Because even though she had abandoned you, instead of feeling spiteful or allowing her to die, you did everything within your power – including face one of your greatest fears – to save her."
She was still clueless. So misunderstanding. She believed everyone would do what she had done. I had almost never seen anybody do what she had done. Why couldn't she understand that? The human race wasn't perfect, wasn't completely loving, wasn't selfless.
I decided that this was the last moment that I could stand to face Kate like this. I would offer her a chance one last time, and I would change the pawns in the deal. It would not be Ava's life returned to her empty body, but instead, I would prevent her mother's death. I explained to her the new terms. I could not heal her mother, but I could keep her from dying. I could not make her brand new again, but I could make sure, when her time did run out, that she would have a peaceful death instead of a painful one.
Kate was going to be lost without Diana. But hopefully, she would pass the tests, and then she would realize that her sickly mother was really one of the strongest women this earth had ever seen. Hopefully, Kate would not face returning to a fabricated little town, completely alone.
She accepted my new terms. We had made an agreement. A new deal. I actually felt good about that. I wanted her to stay with me all winter. She intrigued me. She was unique, different, and wonderful. The beauty hidden inside of her was a shining beacon of golden light, something that I had never, in all of my years, seen before.
"Then it is done." The words felt strong coming from me. I could handle this. I could keep Kate alive, and manage to make sure that she and Diana would be able to speak in her dreams. Diana would be pleased – my sister had been waiting for this time, when her daughter would live in the comfort of the manor, for nearly eighteen years. Now the time had come, and her mortal body was stuck inside a hospital. But she would get her chance to impart her last words of wisdom to her daughter before leaving her mortal body behind. I would make sure of it. "You will be my guest this winter. Sofia will escort you to your room, and nothing will be asked of you until tomorrow."
Kate nodded, her eyes still swimming with tears. She had managed to stay strong all throughout our discussion until we had reached the topic of Diana. Then, she had broken down.
To my surprise, Kate still didn't know where she was. She had no idea that this was the beginning of the Underworld. One step into my red crystalline portal in the front hall, and she would be standing before the castle of the Underworld, my true home. I stood up as I explained the names this place held, offering her my hand. She didn't take it, and I managed to hide this discomfort and the slight hurt deep down inside me. She would live with me, yet she wouldn't trust me.
"This is the gate between the living and the dead," I explained. "You are still living. The others on the grounds died a very long time ago." It was just a white lie. The others on the grounds had never lived, but she couldn't be privy to that information, yet. It would ruin the tests.
She gave a visible shiver at that. Humans had such a strange way of approaching death – some of them were hopelessly interested in it, while others feared it with every fiber of their being. I figured that it would be safe to say that Kate feared it; she worried about when it would take her mother, and when it would leave her alone in the world. "And you?" She asked, her voice reasonably strong and smooth.
"Me?" I tried not to smile. How could she have not noticed, yet? She had read the myth of me and my first wife on repeat for the last two weeks, and yet she could not identify who I was? "I rule the dead. I am not one of them."
Before Kate could say anything else, Sofia appeared in the doorway to the room. She glanced at the uneaten food on the tray and the cups on either side of it – mine nearly empty, Kate's nearly full. She motioned for Kate to follow her. The twelfth girl stepped towards Sofia without another look back at me.
I stood there, though, watching her leave down the hallway. I had managed to strike a deal with her. I had been given another six months. This could very well be the beginning of the end. Or it was the beginning of a whole new thing. I couldn't be sure which was true yet, and I honestly couldn't say which one I yearned for.
# # #
"Congratulations, Henry." Walter said easily. He and Phillip had met me in the library, where I usually retired at the end of the day. I could see Ava beyond them, sitting on the window seat that overlooked the tangling of tree limbs. "You've succeeded in getting her to the manor. We cannot wait past tomorrow. We will have to get started right away with the tests."
I nodded, because I had expected this. I knew all about the tests. They were the seven deadly sins. Interestingly enough, we required that, to earn immortality, one would have to be free of the sins. The gods, on the other hand, were prone to holding the sins close to themselves. Ava was the goddess of love, and to her, that included lust. Walter was full of pride. Calliope had enough wrath in her to destroy a small village, which we'd had to dissuade her from doing in the past. But Kate was expected to be perfect.
The tests were also at random. At least, sometimes. I knew Irene already had hers planned, as was expected with her. But some of the others remained unsure of how they were going to test Kate. I figured that they would just choose a significant time in Kate's six months here to explain why she did or didn't pass the test.
That is, if she survived long enough to reach the tests.
"That is not all, Henry." Walter smiled at me, and I bit back the urge to sigh and look away. Walter had taken his spot as king of the gods without a second glance. He held onto that position with white-knuckled fingers, and he never failed to point out that he was the one who controlled the highest realm. He would not appreciate any ignorance of him on my part, and I decided long ago that it was easier to just let Walter bask in all of his self-proclaimed glory than to fight him. "We've decided to move the ball up. Considering the fact that some of the girls didn't even manage to make it through their balls, we figured that it would be the best way to have the council be introduced to your next competitor. Secretly, of course."
"You've decided to change the date of the ball and you've just decided to tell me?"
"Don't be so offended, Henry. It was just another one of those things that you can't particularly have a say in. You know this is how these things go. We can't have you weighing in when it affects your future." I closed my eyes momentarily, letting out a heavy sigh. Sometimes, I wished that I could really let Walter have it without starting some sort of war, because that's how he would see it.
Phillip, sensing the tension in the room, stood up abruptly. "Henry," He said, drawing Walter's attention as well as mine. "I need to have a word with you," He said, standing up from his seat. He gave a courtesy nod to Walter and walked towards me. I followed him out of the library. The moment the door closed behind me, he clapped me on the shoulder. "Don't let him bother you so much, Hades. You know how he is. Besides that, you get to see all these beautiful girls while he's stuck with Calliope watching his every move."
I knew he was just trying to lighten the mood, but that was a job that was more fitting for Ava. As if she knew that her presence was needed, Ava appeared. Or maybe she had decided that being holed up in a room with Walter for so long was affecting her sanity. I shook my head to clear the angry thoughts directed at my brother. All he had done to me was point out, yet again, that he was the head of the council. While I spent all of my time underground, he and the others roamed the earth. I was set apart from the rest of them, and no matter how hard to prove that I was unaffected by it, Walter did his best to tease me. I think what really bothered me was that he did it so nonchalantly, as if he wasn't doing his best to get under my skin.
Ava looped her arm around mine and put a hand on Phillip's cheek. "Thank you, Phillip. I do believe that Henry was about to go off on Walter. I like to think it's because Walter is extremely jealous of the ravishingly hot woman that is spending the next six months of her life with Henry." I could feel a barely-there warm flush start to crawl up my neck. When was the last time that I had blushed?
Phillip coughed, clearing his throat. "I've got to go check on the horses in the stables. I'll see you later, Henry, Ava," He nodded to each one of us in turn before turning and walking towards the doors that led outside.
Ava giggled to herself and pulled me down the hallway. "Ava," I chastised, "You know that you can't just roam the place with Kate here. Not until she's ready to see you as a ghost."
She rolled her eyes at me. "Please. She's locked up in her room, as I imagine she'll stay, until she's forced to come out tomorrow." Ava replied. As we neared my bedroom, Ava glanced at me. "Really, though, you need to learn to reign in that anger of yours. I know you like to be all protective and stuff, but she's not yours… yet." With that, she let go of my arm and skipped off, heading down the hallway, adding a sway to her steps. Within seconds, she was around the corner.
# # #
Sofia and Ava had teamed up while I had been sleeping. For now, Ava was working her magic behind the scenes, and she'd decided to use soft, loving Sofia. They came to my room early in the morning and told me that Kate had woken. Ella and Calliope, her two dressing maids for the next six months, had gotten her dressed and were leading her down to breakfast. They suggested that I, who ate sporadically, joined her. They seemed to think that my presence would be a comfort to her. I imagined that it would just stress her, considering the fact that she'd told me last night that I terrified her.
Still, I did as they said, dressing in one of my dark shirts – they were all almost the same, there was no reason for any sort of fashion here, something Ava greatly disagreed with – and headed towards the dining room. I could hear their voices all the way down the hall.
"Why?" It was clearly Kate's voice. I had no idea what she was questioning, but I found myself walking a little faster. I didn't need them answering her questions. If anything, they would just confuse her or scare her. The information regarding her six months here, as well as her tests and the past girls, would be told to her by me and no one else. I would have to make that clear to them the next time that I saw them.
"Let me see Henry." I took a deep breath at the sound of that. She actually wanted to see me? Perhaps Ava and Sofia had been right this morning. Maybe Kate did want to see me. Maybe I did not scare her as I did initially. I pushed open the door just as Kate started to move, her chair pushed back from the table and her skirt clenched in her fists, her voice rising. "Let me talk to him!"
"I'm here." I said. In the silence of the room, my voice echoed over the smooth stones. Ella and Calliope stood a little straighter, their eyes on me as I stepped into the room. Kate nearly tripped over her large skirt, surely Ella's doing, and I used my inhuman speed to appear at her side, ready to catch her if I needed to. It turned out that she did not need me. Her hand grasped the back of her chair and she looked up at me. I was closer than what was probably comfortable to her. Her eyes skimmed over my face and she stood a little straighter, lifting her chin. I wasn't sure if she was aware of the defiant stance she was taking.
"Why?" She asked. I imagined that she was trying to sound strong, but her voice was frail, a squeak at the most. "Why am I here? I'm not your princess, and I didn't sign up for any of this, so why is it happening?" I repressed the urge to sigh. I knew that the others would have been too excited for her. They had all converged on her, and she'd been ambushed.
I held out my hand to her. She looked at me for a second, her eyes trailing over my upturned palm, before resting her hand in mine. Her hands were very small and fairly soft, warm to the touch. "Close your eyes." I whispered to her, my voice low, directed only to her. To my surprise, she did without hesitation. And so I took her away from the dining hall, away from the eyes staring into her form, and to a place that Diana loved and nurtured in her time here.
Kate began to ask me questions. I knew that this was coming. It had to. She was logical, as Ava had said. She wouldn't just accept whatever I had to say with a smile. She would want to get down into the meaning of everything, and that meant touching the pieces of me that I had pushed far from my mind. I closed my eyes for a moment when she mentioned Persephone. When the others said her name, I could feel face harden, my eyes going cold. But when Kate mentioned her, I got the flash of her standing right next to Kate, two sisters that knew nothing of each other.
Luckily for me, she didn't linger on my first and only wife. Instead, she started asking me how all of this was possible. She had seen me raise the dead. She had felt the transition from the dining hall to the outdoors, and it had only lasted seconds. Yet she still refused to believe that I was a god. Perhaps she was more stubborn than even I could have imagined.
To my surprise, our conversation was fairly easy. On my part, anyway. It was nice to just fall into a conversation with someone without having them look at you like you were on borrowed time. I imagined that I was – two more years were all I had before my century of searching was over. Kate was the last girl that would ever pass through those manor doors with the goal of becoming my wife.
It was so easy, in fact, that without really thinking about it, I reached out to take her hand. I liked the feeling of her warm hand in mine, so small and delicate. She stiffened immediately, and I felt my stomach clench. She was still afraid of me. She hadn't showed it in the dining hall, but now it came through loud and clear. I sighed, but could not refrain from just barely touching her. She brought a sense of comfort that I hadn't had in a long time. A sense of easiness, that I wasn't just wasting away in an eternity.
Unfortunately, Kate returned to the subject of Persephone. "What does your wife dying have to do with me?"
I paused. How to explain it to her? The fact that Persephone had left me was the very reason that she, and eleven others, had stood before me. The fact that Persephone had left me put me into a depression that lasted thousands of years and threatened my very existence. Finally, I sighed and just told her. If she was to be my wife one day, then I would want a relationship built on any type of honesty that I could give her. "As I said, she chose to die rather than to stay with me. I was her husband, but she simply loved him more." I focused on keeping my face blank, but by the look on Kate's face, I had failed.
"You know you look way too young to be married, right?" She asked me. I wanted to tell her all about Calliope and Walter – two people that were married yet looked like they belonged to different generations. "How old are you anyway?"
I had existed from the beginning of time, from the beginning of humanity. But I figured that it wasn't the answer she was looking for. She wanted something numerical, and that was a number that I couldn't give her. "Older than I look." I paused for a moment. I took a deep breath, trying to sound like I was at ease with her, but the truth was that the topic was really wearing down on me. I explained to Kate that I had loved Persephone so much that it was the least I could do to let her go. She'd needed me, anyway, to let her die. Without my cooperation, she would have been living a life of immortality.
Kate still didn't understand. I tried again to explain it to her, clearly this time, hoping that we could change topics. "I have been ruling on my own for nearly a thousand years, but a century ago, I agreed to only a hundred more before my brothers and sisters take the realm from me. I cannot handle it on my own, not anymore. There are simply too many for me to do it alone. I have been searching for a partner ever since, and you are the last one, Kate. This spring, the final decision will be made. If you are accepted, you will rule with me as my queen for six months of the year. If you do not, you will return to your old life with no memory of this time." That was the bottom line. That was nearly everything that she needed to know.
Kate then asked another question that made me want to hand the reigns over to someone else. She asked about the other girls, the ones who had stood in the spot before her. I had to explain it to her. Some of them lost their insanity, for the tests were too strong for them. Some of them had been tricked into losing. But in the end, none of them had passed because none of them had had the chance to. I didn't tell her the real kicker – that each and every one of them had met an early death, one that I could not postpone or save them from.
Kate seemed to think that I was insane, that I didn't have my head in the right place. She still refused to believe that I was who I said I was. How had Diana managed to raise such a narrow-minded girl when she was destined for this? Or maybe, Kate was just stubborn and refused to give in to anything that she wasn't ready to. It was sort of respectable, in an annoying, obnoxious sort of way.
She looked like she was about to turn away and walk off the property. If she did that, it was all over. Her wind would have to be wiped, Diana's mortal body would still die, and I would be left to fade in silence. But, like she had the ability to do, Ava appeared at just the right time.
Having a hard time, Henry? Her voice was teasing as she stood at the other end of the path. Kate's back was to her. My eyes connected with hers over Kate's shoulder. I told you she was logical. I'm assuming she still won't believe you. But don't worry, I'm here to rescue you, as always.
"Kate?" She called. Kate's body stiffened.
I found myself smiling, though Kate's face was no longer focused on me. She wasn't focused on anyone. Instead, her shocked expression was looking at the patch of flowers nearby. "Anything is possible if you give it a chance," I told her quietly. My eyes returned to Ava, who smiled at me. She approved of the way I had taken control of the situation. Kate looked up at me for a moment before turning around to face Ava.
She didn't even hesitate before launching herself down the path, into Ava's arms. I watched the two of them in their reunification. I kept my eyes to the ground, focusing on the flowers that Diana had lovingly cared for. I could already imagine her back at the manor, the whole land singing at her return.
"Henry?" I heard my name, my body already reacting. I had only been partially listening to their conversation, giving them the distance that I thought they deserved. Kate had given up a part of her life for Ava once, and she had tried to do it again. "She can stay?" Kate's voice was sort of pleading, but I didn't think she was aware of that.
I nodded. Of course Ava would be staying. She kept me just as sane as she did Kate. "She can stay on the grounds, but she may not leave." I replied. It was true, I supposed. There wasn't anything to go to out there. Besides that, Ava would have no reason to. The manor was her home, just as it was mine.
I asked Ava to give us a minute. She flashed me a smile and nodded, her voice whispering through my head. I told you that I would handle it, Henry. See? You should trust me more often. Kate directed her to talk to Ella about the closet, which I knew the two wouldn't see eye-to-eye about, before bounding away.
Kate took the chance to ask me about the dream with her mother. I explained to her that it would happen to her every night. She would get to speak to her mother, she would get to see her well and whole, before Diana's mortal body left this world and the Diana I knew returned to the manor. I was just pleased with myself. I had managed to give her something that she had honestly wanted. I had managed to make her somewhat comfortable here in an uncomfortable situation. I hoped Diana approved.
"What now? What am I supposed to do?" Kate asked me. She seemed a little worried about it. I could imagine why. She had been taken from a highly logical world which she embraced wholeheartedly and was thrown into a world of gods and goddesses, secret tests, and possible immortality.
"Just be yourself," I replied. I lifted my hand to put it on her shoulder, but I hesitated. Still, I followed all the way through, my palm resting on her shoulder. I didn't want to scare her away from me, so I removed my hand after only a second. I gave her another short explanation of the tests, telling her that I had no ties to the test myself. Walter's reminder of that yesterday had angered me, but now I felt that it was for the better. Kate could learn to trust me if she knew that I wasn't the one giving her what would either promise immortality or a life alone, without her mother.
She managed to make me laugh, which was a miracle in itself. I couldn't remember the last time that I had laughed. It was just a chuckle, but it was something. I was almost sure that Ava was watching from a distance, and I wanted to tell her to butt out of it, but I couldn't manage to do that while keeping my face straight. I had to explain to Kate what the prize was. Immortality was nothing to be scoffed at, especially with what she had to go through to earn it.
I leaned forward a little more after explaining that she would have freedom with her immortal life, for six months out of each year. "Perhaps, you may even learn how to swim."
The fear and stress that had taken over her expression and tensed her body immediately dissipated. She snorted loudly, which was so unlike any of the other girls that I'd had here that it made me smile. "Good luck with that." She told me.
I couldn't help but smile. Her words made me feel elated because I'd never had such an easy banter with someone like her before. I could tease Ava, and she would endlessly tease me back, but she was the only one that didn't look at me like I was sometimes an outsider. Kate was a breath of fresh air. And even though I smiled, I knew that the words I spoke had more significance to me than they did to her. "Or perhaps some things are impossible after all."
What do you guys think? As always, I want to give another reminder/disclaimer: So far, all of the scenes with Kate and Henry have been out of the books. The words they speak to each other and not my own. I have the book in front of me. But as you've probably noticed, I try to skip around the majority of the conversation while only putting enough to keep you guys knowing exactly what's going on with them. I hope it's sufficient. (:
I've been wondering if anyone can answer this question for me: What color are Kate's eyes? For the life of me, I can't remember.
Thank you all for reading, and be sure to leave me a quick review. Check back for an update! Peace. (: