The Gatekeeper's House (29 page)

“
Sshh. Listen. I’m sorry
your initiation into my world couldn’t have happened at a more
peaceful time. But I’m also glad you’re here with me, to help me
through the turmoil.”

“
Oh, Than…”

“
Sshh. Listen. If you don’t
want to go through with Athena’s plan, just say so. There’s no one
here but me. Tell me how you feel.”

“
When I suggested the
diversion be our wedding,” Therese began, “I hadn’t thought it
through.”

“
We can call another meeting
and suggest something else,” Than said. “Artemis mentioned the
Olympic games.”

“
But Apollo was right. Those
athletes from all over the world have worked for years for their
moment in the games. I’d hate to risk spoiling it for
them.”

Than kissed her. “You’re the most
selfless, thoughtful person I know.”

She smiled back at him. “So when you
weigh the dreams of hundreds of athletes and the risk to all those
mortal lives against our small wedding party on Mount Olympus,
well, it’s only logical that our wedding is the right
choice.”

“
We can still make it
beautiful and wonderful,” Than said gently.

“
I know, but won’t the
anticipation of carrying out Athena’s plan cast a dark cloud over
it for you?” Therese asked.

“
When I’m your husband,
there will be no darkness ever again.” He put his mouth to
hers.

“
But things could go
terribly wrong,” she murmured against his lips.

“
And that will always be
true,” he whispered. “And equally true is the possibility that
things will go terribly right.”

She closed her eyes and sighed as he
covered her with kisses, and for once, they spent a quiet evening
together at home.

Chapter Twenty-Five: Mr.
Holt’s Funeral

Therese was crushed when Aphrodite
refused to meet with her after Athena had been released. As she
carried out her duties as goddess of animal companions over the
next couple of days, she continually prayed to the goddess of love,
letting her know that she had meant what she had said during her
visit to Mount Olympus.

The mission wasn’t meant to
insult you, Aphrodite. You seemed neutral in the conflict. I would
have taken you with me to the Underworld along with Artemis and
Hephaestus if you had indicated a wish to help us in our cause.
Please forgive me. You are still my favorite goddess.

When the day for Mr. Holt’s funeral
arrived, Therese was pleased to learn that Hermes had offered to
take over the duties of the god of death so both Than and Hip could
join Therese as mortals in the Upperworld to support the Holt
family during their grief. Hermes detested doing such work, which
he’d done, centuries ago, before the birth of Persephone’s twin
boys. This was a major sign of reconciliation on his
part.

The morning of the funeral, Therese,
Thanatos, and Hypnos god-traveled to the Melner cabin. From there
they drove in Hip’s shiny red convertible down the road to
Therese’s aunt and uncle’s house for a short visit before the
funeral.

“
Terry!” Lynn cried as soon
as Therese stepped through the door.

The two-year-old ran across the front
room straight into Therese’s arms.

“
Oh, Lynn!” Therese squeezed
her sister with tears in her eyes. “I’ve missed you so
much!”

“
Wanna pay wit
me?”

“
I do want to play with
you,” Therese said, pulling away from their hug to look at her
sweet sister’s adorable face.

Her green eyes and red hair were bright
against her dark complexion, and the dimples in her cheeks reminded
Therese of her own. “Do you remember Than?”

Carol and Richard joined them in the
entryway and greeted the boys with hearty handshakes. Carol gave
Than a hug.

Therese introduced them to Hip, whom
her family had not yet met.

“
It’s great to meet you,”
Richard said. “Please come in and have a seat.”

“
Can I get you something to
drink?” Carol asked as the visitors took the sofa with Therese in
the middle. “I just made a pot of coffee.”

“
That sounds really good,”
Than said.

“
I’ll help you, Carol,”
Therese offered, getting up.

Lynn climbed on the couch between the
two brothers, smiling from ear to ear. Therese glanced at her from
the kitchen as she helped pour mugs of coffee. Lynn stood between
the twins pointing at their faces, apparently wanting to show off
her new vocabulary.

“
Nose,” Lynn said as she
touched Hip’s nose. Then she touched his eye, which he closed just
as her finger stabbed into his socket. “Eye.”

“
That’s right,” Hip said,
blinking.

The others laughed.

Lynn turned to Than. “Ear.”

She stuck her finger in his ear, which
made Therese giggle. She could tell Than was trying hard not to
cringe away from her, but to take it like a good sport.

Then Lynn touched his bottom lip.
“Mouf.”

Therese covered her own mouth, nearly
in fits.

“
Mouth,” Than corrected,
with an emphasis on the “th.” “Put your tongue between your teeth
and say, “Th.”

Therese giggled again at the sight of
Than’s demonstration.

Hip said, “C’mon, bro’, she’s quite
young.”

Thanatos repeated his lesson, so Hip
joined in.

“
Th,” they said, spitting
across the room.

“
I see now,” Hip said to the
adults. “He just doesn’t want her calling him a fan. Isn’t that
right, bro’?”

To everyone’s surprise, Lynn
said, “Mou
th
.”

Therese’s heart filled with joy at the
sight of her future husband teaching her sister how to speak. She
didn’t think she could get any happier until she turned to rinse a
mug at the sink and caught sight of her parents sitting on the
windowsill looking in. She waved at them, and they each nodded and
sang her a little tune.

Hi Mom and Dad. It’s good
to see you.

Hello, Therese,
her mother prayed.

It’s good to see you,
too
, her father added.

“
Oh, look,” Carol said. “Our
red birds are back!”

“
Back?” Therese
asked.

“
They favor this window,”
her aunt explained. “They visit me nearly every morning. Richard
built them a nice house and hung it up in the elm—that one there,
the one he saved from the Dutch elm disease. See the birdhouse
hanging there on the branch?”

Therese saw the cute little white house
with its little round door and its two little perches. A bird
feeder hung in the adjacent branch. She turned from the window and
her parents to gaze at Richard across the room sitting on a chair
beside Than. Richard was engaged in conversation with the boys and
hadn’t heard their kitchen talk, but she was glad nonetheless to
see him getting along with her immortal family.

She and Carol brought the guys each a
mug of coffee, and then Therese rejoined the twins on the couch,
with Lynn on her lap, to visit until it was time to head to the
funeral home. Therese opted to ride in the backseat of her aunt and
uncle’s car so she could sit beside Lynn as they headed toward
Durango. Hip and Than followed in the convertible. Through the
window, Therese occasionally caught sight of two red birds flying
above them.

Therese sat between Lynn and Than in
the pew behind the Holt family during the service. The shoulders of
the Holts quivered with their sobs, especially Bobby’s. The
youngest Holt was a mess, and Therese’s heart ached for
him.

She was surprised when Pete glanced
back and prayed to her.

I know who you are,
he said.
Jen told me
everything.

She gave him a nod of acknowledgement,
not sure how she felt about that, and thinking, too, that there was
so much Jen did not know, including the bit about Pete becoming a
golden retriever last year. Therese decided that was probably
information neither of the Holts needed to know.

When they had all gathered at the
cemetery and the casket was committed to the ground, Therese held
Jen’s hand. Tears spilled down her friend’s cheeks as the dirt was
tossed onto the casket, and she stepped forward to toss on a yellow
rose.

To Therese, Jen
prayed,
I hated that man, but I also loved
him.

Therese squeezed her friend’s hand and
stood by her side as long as Jen needed her.

Later, at the Holt house, where
visitors had brought casseroles and cakes and buckets of sweet iced
tea, Therese and her family—both the mortal and the
immortal—gathered among them, visiting until late in the evening.
At one point, Therese stood alone on the front deck scouring the
mountains on the other side of the reservoir for wildlife, like she
and her dad once did. He was right above her on a branch beside her
mother. Nowadays, of course, none of them needed
binoculars.

See that wild horse?
he asked.

Where?

To the left of the gray
boulder beneath a string of Cypresses. See it?

Oh, yeah. Now I
do.

As she stood there gazing over the
wooden rail, she noticed Hip and Jen walk across the yard to the
barn holding hands. Although she was glad the two liked each other,
she worried over how it would all end up. Hip was a god and Jen was
not. Would Jen try to become a god, too, in order to be with Hip?
The thought of her fragile friend undergoing challenges, like the
ones Therese had endured, filled her with dread. Jen had already
been through so much in her short life. But hadn’t that been true
of Therese when she had first met Than?

Before she could think much more about
it, Pete came up and leaned on the rail beside her,
frowning.

“
I’m sorry for your loss,”
she said, putting her arm through his. “You gonna be
okay?”

“
Sure I am,” he said. “It’s
you I’m worried about.”

“
Me? Why?” Therese noticed
her parents had turned toward Pete to listen.

“
Well, this would sound
crazy to anyone else.” He glanced around to make sure they were
alone, unaware of the two birds in the branch overhead. “Hip told
me I’m what is called a seer, ‘cause I can see ghosts.”

Therese already knew that. “What does
that have to do with me?”

“
Well, Hip also told me how
seers can get the ghosts to tell them the future.”

“
He what?” She would have to
give Hip a piece of her mind. Why in the world would he do such a
thing?

“
He said if you spill blood,
the ghost will come to you and answer your questions about the
future.”

“
That’s creepy, Pete. Why
would anyone do that?”

“
Well, I did do it.” He
glanced around again. “I tried it on my father and it
worked.”

“
Don’t listen to Hip, Pete.
Oh, I wish he wouldn’t have told you that.”

“
So that’s why I’m worried
about you, because of something my father told me last
night.”

Therese glanced up at the birds, not
wanting them to overhear whatever Pete had to say. “Hip was
probably just joking around, Pete. Don’t take him too
seriously.”

“
Hip was telling the truth.
And my father said…”

“
Don’t tell me. I don’t want
to know.” She glanced up again at the two red birds. “Nothing good
ever comes from knowing the future.”

“
But…”

“
And don’t tell anyone,
especially Jen, because it’ll just upset her to know you’re talking
to your dad’s ghost.”

“
But, Therese…”

“
Promise me, Pete. Swear an
oath on the River Styx.”

“
What?” He pinched his brows
together.

“
I mean, just promise me
that you won’t tell anyone about this, and try your best to forget
it yourself.”

Pete sighed but said
nothing.

“
You promise?” She hadn’t
realized how fast her heart was beating. She felt the bad omen
emanating from Pete. She both wanted to know it and didn’t at the
same time, but she especially did not want her parents to overhear
it.

“
I can’t promise it, but
maybe right now isn’t the best time.”

***

That night, while Therese and Than
curled up beside one another on the bed in what was now their room
with Clifford happily nestled between them, Therese thought again
of what Pete had said to her on the deck of his house. She tried
not to think of it, determined to sleep for the first time in
weeks, but the bad omen prodded her awake. What could the ghost of
Mr. Holt have to say about her that had worried Pete?

Therese closed her eyes and
prayed to Hip to bring her a deep sleep. Her last thought before
she entered the world of dreams was something Than had said to her
recently. While it was true that things could go terribly wrong, it
was equally true that they could go terribly right. All she could
do was hope for the best. Lying there, with her head on Than’s
shoulder—with Clifford curled near her waist, with Jewels beside
them in her tank, with Stormy not far in the stables, and, best of
all, with her parents alive and accessible through prayer anytime
Therese needed them—at that moment, things
were
going terribly right.