The Gatekeeper's House (2 page)

“
Charon,” Than said. “What’s
happening?”

“
I believe the Underworld is
under attack,” the old man replied in his husky, gravelly
voice.

At that moment, Than sensed Stormy’s
death in the stables, and he disintegrated and dispatched where he
found Therese, with Jewels clutched to her chest and Clifford
barking hysterically at the crushed body that belonged to
Stormy.

“
What in the hell is going
on?” Than asked.

“
I don’t know! We can’t
reach your parents. We’ve got to get out of here.”

Before Than could respond, a thick
black boulder loosened from the ceiling and landed squarely on
Therese’s head, knocking her and the tortoise to the floor. The
tortoise slid across the ground, spinning on its back, and stopped
several feet away, safe from harm, but Than heard the crunch and
thud of Therese’s body beneath the weight of the massive rock. His
heart stopped beating as he held his breath and stared in
shock.

“
Father!” he shouted into
the falling debris surrounding him. He felt like a helpless,
desperate child. “Father!”

***

Hypnos lifted the saddle onto the beast
and tightened the tack. He still wasn’t used to the sharp smell of
hay and feces, stirred about by the brushing by humans of the other
beasts surrounding him. It wasn’t a bad smell, really. Having spent
most of his life in the Dreamworld, where sensory perceptions were
dulled by a degree of separation between the mind and the body, he
rather liked the pungent assault on all of his senses, not just the
olfactory ones. Besides, his eyes were continually pleased by the
prettiest girl he’d ever seen who was now bent over in front of
him. The corners of his mouth twitched, and he fought the urge to
slap her on the rump. Instead, he patted Hershey, the horse in his
charge, and told him what a good boy he was, as he’d often heard
the other humans say to their beasts.

Hip was grateful to the old Holt woman
for taking him on as a horse handler yesterday when he’d shown up,
unannounced. He’d finally won his father’s permission to follow in
Than’s footsteps to journey to the Upperworld as a mortal in
pursuit of a queen. Whether Hip would actually marry her was a
different story. Hip realized that his brother had the right idea
in finding a way to spend time in the Upperworld, and Hip wanted
his turn. All these years of visiting girls in the Dreamworld
didn’t compare to the feeling of being in the physical presence of
one.

Centuries ago, he’d come close to
marrying one of Aphrodite’s youngest Graces, Pasithea, but she
overwhelmed him with her neediness, and he finally broke off their
relationship. Since then, he’d been content playing with mortals in
their dreams, but his brother’s recent love affair, he had to
admit, had made him jealous. He couldn’t help but wonder what real
girls were like and if they’d be as eager to put their arms around
him in the Upperworld as they were in their dreams.

Hip hoped to soon have a taste of Jen’s
pretty lips. Maybe he’d get lucky and taste all of her.

Mrs. Holt looked at him now from behind
the big stallion they called The General.

“
You’re as handy as your
brother,” Mrs. Holt said. “Too bad he couldn’t come with
you.”

Jen stood up and brushed her mare’s
mane. “He’s too busy with the wedding plans, I bet.”

Hip couldn’t stop the smile from
crossing his face every time Jen looked at him through narrowed
eyes. She recognized him, he was sure of it, but she was having
trouble admitting to herself that she knew him from her
dreams.

“
I doubt that,” Hip said
with a shrug.

Jen whipped around to face him with her
hands on her hips, her pretty mouth making a perfect “O.” Then she
said, “He better not make her do everything by herself. Damn your
brother if he does.”

This tickled Hip beyond control, and he
couldn’t stop himself from busting out laughing. What mortal had
the gall to damn the god of death? Of course, this girl had no idea
what she was saying.

“
Language,” Mrs. Holt said
from the back of the barn.

Jen ignored her mother. “What’s so
funny?’ She moved closer, her brown eyes glaring up at Hip from
beneath her pretty blonde bangs and equally blond lashes. “Don’t
tell me you’re a chauvinistic pig.”

“
Jen!” Mrs. Holt scolded
from behind her beast. “Don’t talk to Hip like that.”

Jen kept her eyes blazing on Hip, but
spoke to her mother. “I have the right to talk like that to anyone
who laughs at me, Mama.”

“
My apologies,” Hip said,
reining in his chuckles. “But you misunderstood. Than’s not busy
with the wedding because, last I heard, Therese called it
off.”

Jen’s mouth dropped open. Then, after
staring incredulously at Hip for an uncomfortable amount of time,
she threw her hands up in the air and presented him with a smile he
hadn’t earned. “Allelujah, praise the Lord! It’s about time she
came to her senses.”

Was she praising
him
? Had he become
her
lord
? Somehow
he doubted it, but he was amused by how quickly Jen’s demeanor
changed from attack mode. She looked about to hug him. He liked
being the bearer of good news.

“
When’s she coming home?”
Jen asked him.

Hip shook his head. “I don’t think she
is. I, I…” He wished he’d kept his mouth shut. It wasn’t his job to
explain why a goddess couldn’t live among her mortal friends and
family.

Jen stepped between the horses and
planted her feet inches from his. He wanted to reach out and touch
her to see if she felt as good as she did in the Dreamworld. Her
eyes narrowed and then widened, and for a moment, he thought she
had figured out who he was. But then she said, “Don’t tell me she’s
going to stay in Texas.”

“
Why would she…” Hip stopped
himself. “Maybe you should talk to her yourself.” He turned his
back to her and continued to brush the horse. This conversation was
over. He’d never had to make explanations to mortals, and he wasn’t
about to start doing it now.

But Jen moved close behind him, so
close, he could feel the heat from her body. He could smell her
sweat and something else. Something fruity and sweet.

“
I can’t get a hold of her,”
Jen said in a desperate voice. “She hasn’t returned any of my texts
and calls in over a month. I don’t know if she has her new email
yet. She’s not on Facebook anymore, or Instagram. Nothing. It’s
like she’s disappeared off the face of the earth.”

She has, he wanted to say. That’s
exactly what’s happened. But, of course, he wouldn’t.

Jen put her hand on his shoulder and he
felt every part of him come to attention.

“
Please,” she said softly.
“Please help me get in touch with her.”

He turned and saw tears welling in her
eyes. “I’ll do what I can.”

***

Jen was surprised by the sudden
tenderness in the new handler’s voice. It reminded her of something
from a dream. She closed her eyes and shook her head.

“
What?” Hip asked, his face
close.

She took a step back. “I need to get
back to work.”

As she brushed Satellite, Jen stole
glances at Hip. He’d taken her out to a movie over a year ago when
his brother had introduced them, but then he’d never called her
again after that. He’d said he’d never been to this part of the
world, as though he were from another country. But he was from
Texas. He spoke as if Texas were in a different part of the
world.

Well, maybe all Texans thought that
way.

Now he had the gall to show his face
and ask for a job. He could have called her just to say,
“Hey.”

She glanced at him once more, and this
time she noticed a look of worry come over his face, even
horror.

“
You alright?” she asked. He
was freaking her out.

He turned to Jen’s mother and said,
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Holt, but I have to go.”

“
What is it?” Jen’s mom
asked, also noticing the obvious look of horror on their new
handler’s face.

“
I can’t explain,” he said.
“Something’s not right. I need to go immediately. My
apologies.”

“
Do you need a ride
anywhere?” Pete asked, having just walked in from the pen and
having overheard the last bit of their conversation.

“
Um, no thanks,” Hip said.
“Thanks anyway, man.”

Jen’s mouth dropped open. This made
absolutely no sense. She followed Hip from the barn and stood at
the gate, where he let himself out of the pen.

“
Are you coming back
tomorrow?” she asked.

“
I don’t know. I hope so.”
He didn’t even look at Jen, which hurt after the tenderness between
them moments ago. She’d begun to forgive him. And now he was
leaving?

“
Will I ever see you again?”
she cried out as he jogged down the gravel drive from her house to
the road.

“
I hope so,” he repeated,
but again without turning and meeting her eyes.

Overcome with a sudden feeling of
dread, Jen opened the gate and followed him down the path. She
watched him turn past a line of oak trees. When she rounded the
corner, her throat pinched closed by the shock. He had
disappeared.

She looked all around the one-mile
stretch of road from her house to the Melner Cabin, where he was
staying. Panting for breath and trembling, she knocked on the door
of the cabin and got no answer.

“
Hip? Are you there?” she
called again and again, but the boy had vanished.

Chapter Two: Souls
Unbound

Therese felt as though she were
attempting to squirm out of a wet pair of tight blue jeans. Her
body, heavy as a truck, wouldn’t move, and her mind felt hazy, her
surroundings dreamlike. Than’s fingers curled around her shoulders,
and suddenly she was light again, light as a feather,
floating.

Unfortunately she could no longer
recall why she was here or what she was doing. She’d been in the
middle of saying something, hadn’t she? “What was I saying?” she
now asked Than. It was on the tip of her tongue.

Than bent over a boulder and hefted it
into the air. “It’s going to be okay.”

“
What is?”

She looked down and saw her mangled
body in a bloody heap. Jewels hid in her slightly cracked shell a
few feet away. Stormy was as crushed as she. And Clifford
incessantly barked in terror.

“
I’m dead?” Therese
asked.

No sooner had she asked the question
than a shower of rocks pummeled Than and Clifford, and the force
thrust her up into the air. She reached out her hand toward Than
and the collapsing caverns below her but could not stop herself
from floating away. Gravity no longer had an effect on her, and
nothing was holding her down. She was like an astronaut who had
fallen from her spacecraft, spinning in slow circles as she hovered
among the clouds.

She felt as though she were on the
scariest amusement park ride ever invented and was now tumbling out
of her seat. She screamed in terror, reaching out her hands to grab
onto anything solid within reach. She was dizzy, frightened,
and…confused.

Her mind became muddled and she found
herself struggling to recall what had just happened. Panic built up
in her airy chest as she grasped to remember her own name. She
nervously snapped her ethereal fingers again and again, trying to
remember anything about herself, but came up with nothing. After an
indefinite amount of time passed, she found herself floating among
treetops in woods that seemed vaguely familiar.

Yes. She knew these woods.

She grabbed the branch of an elm tree
and used it as leverage to lower herself to the ground. Once her
feet were on the path, she found she could keep herself grounded
most of the time. Every so often she’d hover a few inches up in the
air, but she managed to stay in the forest.

A familiar sound a few yards away
encouraged her up the mountain, and soon she came upon what she
recalled were horses and their riders. Two of the riders looked
familiar, so she inched closer to the group. Before she could get a
better look, the horses lifted their front legs high in the air,
made a sound of terror, and scattered in all directions.

One of the riders shouted, “Steady,
Chestnut! Steady!”

The rider was a young man with blond
hair cut like a bowl around his tanned face. He had broad shoulders
and thick, muscular thighs. She knew she’d seen him before, but
where?

“
Jen!” he shouted. “Where
are you?”

“
Pete!” a girl’s voice
replied from somewhere in the trees. “God, what
happened?”

“
Something spooked the
horses. Maybe a snake.”

The boy named Pete neared her on the
horse, scanning the grass. She knew she’d seen him before. Then it
came to her, and she remembered everything. She was Therese Mills
and this was Pete Holt. She was in the woods behind her house, and
she was…dead.