The Gatekeeper's Sons (The Gatekeeper's Trilogy) (44 page)

McAdams rolled over onto his hands and knees and crawled away from her. Blood poured from his shoulder, which he continued to hold with his right hand. He scrambled away, out of her reach but not her sight, and he sat against the canyon wall, breathing rapidly.

It was time for her to go to him. She belted on the golden sheath and found her sword on the cave floor. She returned the blade to its sheath and prepared to descend. You can do this, she told herself. Then to the gods, even to Ares, she said, “I’m going to end this.”

Although she dreaded wh
at had to be done, the feeling of imminent victory lifted her spirits as she climbed down from her cave to the grotto below. McAdams was no longer in view from here, but once she worked her way out past the falls, scaling down toward the deeper canyon, she could see him again sitting and slumped against the rocks.

“You killed my mom and dad!” she shouted as she got closer. “I had to watch them die! Your gunman shot my mom in the neck! My father drove off a bridge trying to dodge the gunman’s bullets, and he and my mother drowned right before my eyes!”

McAdams’s eyes were wide and his breathing rapid. She was within ten feet of him. She drew her sword. It was dirty from use, but it would still do the trick.

“Please don’t kill me,” McAdams begged in a shaky voice.

“Kill him!” Hades shouted. “Do it now and be a god among us!”

“Kill him!” the gods shouted.

She looked up at them gathered above her, and even Ares had a look of lust on his face.

She looked back at McAdams lying there q
uivering, bleeding, tears welling in his eyes. She looked for a place to stick him. Should she slit his throat? Stab his heart?

She shuddered as she raised the blade, still not sure where to pierce him.

“Kill him now!” Hades yelled. “Slit his throat! Think of what he did to your parents!”

Therese gritted her teeth and raised the blade higher, shaking and breathing so rapidly. This was it! This was it! Do it!

“Wait!” she screamed. “Isn’t this enough? To prove I could kill him? Can’t you make me a god without me having to follow through?”

“No!” Hades shouted. “A deal is a deal! He deserves death, and so much more! Kill him!”

Again she looked at him, trembling worse than she. Tears fell from his eyes. He had wet himself. What had she become? He looked at her like
she
was the monster,
she
the villain. Was she? Had she become as bad as he?

What was so very different about them now? He had killed her parents for money, and she was going to kill him now for love and immortality. Wasn’t she better than this?

“No!” she dropped her arm to her side. “I won’t kill him!”

She expected McAdams to take his sword and lunge at her, but he didn’t move.

Suddenly Hades was at her side holding her hand with the blade to McAdams’s throat. “Finish the job!” Hades commanded.

Now Ares was there with McAdams’s sword at Therese’s throat. “No divine interference!” Ares said through gritted teeth.

All the gods appeared around them. Hades didn’t move Therese’s blade from McAdams’s throat, and Ares didn’t move McAdams’s blade from her throat. They stood there with the other gods encircling them.

“Ares, she won!”
Than demanded. “Put down your blade!”

“There’s no victory until death!” Ares said. “No one has won yet. Back away, Hades!”

“Foolish girl!” Hades said, letting go of her hand and retreating to the ring of gods. “Stupid, cowardly girl! You had this won! You can still win! Plunge your blade into this despicable excuse for a human!”

Ares returned McAdams’s blade and stepped back to the circle of gods.

“Come on, man!” Ares said. “Don’t let yourself get beat by a girl. Stand up and kill her!”

But McAdams didn’t move.

“How long should we wait here while this man dies?” Aphrodite asked. “This is clearly a victory for the girl!”

“Hear, hear!” many voices shouted.

Hades moved to the center of the circle. “I swore on the river Styx that she would become a god if she avenged her parents’ death. She’s failed to do that. McAdams has yet to get his just dessert! This is no victory! This is pathetic and shameful! The girl does not deserve to be a god, especially among the Underworld! What kind of wife to Death would such a one as this make? She can’t even end the life of the man who destroyed her parents and brought the worst of human suffering upon her!”

“Kill him!” Artemis pleaded. “You can do it, Therese!”

Than looked at her expectantly. She met his hopeful eyes.

“I’m sorry.” Tears fell from her eyes. “I refuse to kill him. I just can’t do it. I can’t take a life!” She threw her sword down to the canyon floor.

“Kill her, McAdams!” Ares said. “This is your chance!”

Therese looked at the quivering, bloody man who had wet himself, and he looked at her. He didn’t move from his spot.

As much as she despised him, she hated herself for her injuries to him. “Apollo,” she asked silently in her mind, “Can you heal him?”

He gave her a look of astonishment and then slowly shook his head.

“Oh, this is an outrage!” Hades cried, guessing the meaning of the exchanged looks between her and Apollo. He took up her sword from the canyon floor and plunged it into McAdams’s chest.

A collective gasp echoed throughout the canyon. Suddenly Ares had McAdams’s sword at her throat
and Than stood in front of her protectively.

“Back down, Ares!” Than cried.

“Gods and goddesses of the court,” Ares said. “Would you not agree that Hades has broken the rules?”

“At no fault of the girl’s!” Athena objected. “Father, she is innocent!”

“Back off, Ares and put down the weapon,” Zeus commanded. “Let us think what to do.”

Ares took a step back.

Suddenly Hip appeared next to the body of McAdams. He gave Therese a sheepish grin and disappeared with the hazy soul of the man, but the mangled, lifeless body still lay there on the canyon floor.

“
Back to court!” Zeus commanded.

Chapter Forty-Three: The Court Decides

Than wrapped his arms around Therese. She leaned into him and closed her eyes with exhaustion. The ground beneath her shifted. When she opened her eyes, she was back on Mount Olympus inside the assembly hall standing—leaning, really, on Than—in the center of the court. Everything had returned to its original luster. The white marble floors were no longer a clearing on a platform above woods with ants burrowing near her feet. The tree stumps had returned to elaborate thrones, and all of the gods were seated on them, except for Than, who held her in his arms.

The mangled body of McAdams was no longer in sight, and through the foyer, Therese could see the golden whale fountain spraying up its heavenly water with its magnificent rainbow on top. Although she couldn’t see it, she imagined the battlefield had disappeared and had been replaced with the giant wall of clouds surrounding the palace.

“Fellow gods and goddesses,” Zeus said from his position on his throne. “I motion that we take some time to contemplate the decision before us, to rest after so many hours of sitting here watching with anxiety, and to eat the comforting foods we love. Does anyone second my motion?”

“I second it,” Aphrodite said.

“All agreed?” Zeus asked.

“Aye.”

“All opposed?”

No one, not even Ares, objected. Therese suspected he wanted time to think of some really good punishment for her.

“Good,” Zeus said. “We will reconvene in two hours.”

The gods and goddesses stood up from their thrones, but unlike the day before, when they had eagerly gathered around her professing their gifts, none but Aphrodite approached her
and Than.

“They are all disappointed in me,” Therese muttered as she watched them quietly leave the assembly hall.

Than and Aphrodite both looked down to the marble floor.

“And you are disappointed, too,” Therese said.

Than tightened his hold on her. “I won’t lie and say I’m not disappointed. We could be husband and wife and spending eternity together right this instant.” He sighed.

“I should have had Cupid pierce your heart days ago,” Aphrodite said to Therese. “You wouldn’t have hesitated for the sake of love.”

Than swallowed hard. “No. I wouldn’t allow it, and even now, as things turned out, I don’t regret my decision. I wanted her to love me without Cupid’s help.”

Therese bit her lip. “You think I don’t love you enough? You think that’s why I didn’t kill him?”

Aphrodite lowered her eyes to give them privacy.

Than
pulled Therese against him and kissed away her lines of worry. He kissed her forehead, her eyelids, her cheeks, and her mouth. “No,” he finally said. “I know you love me. You wouldn’t have chosen to fight otherwise. You could have gone free.”

She leaned her head against his chest. “I’m so sorry I couldn’t go through with it.”

“I’m not,” he said, and he kissed the top of her hair. “Your mercy and compassion are part of why I love you so much. You’re so different from my father and sisters. They want justice at any price. But you, my sweet Therese, you love and respect life.”

“How ironic that she would fall in love with Death,” Aphrodite murmured. “Listen, I will leave you two alone, but first I have to do something about Therese’s appearance. Just look at yourself.”

She pulled a mirror from the air and held it before Therese.

Therese shuddered at her reflection. Twigs and leaves were tangled in her wild hair, her face was smeared with dirt, her bra, which was once white, was a dull gray and stained with sweat, and her jeans were dirty and torn. She looked like a savage.

Instantly Aphrodite made Therese clean and fresh, dressed in a beautiful gown of pale blue silk. Her red curls were swept up in an arrangement on her head, jewels hung from her ears and around her wrist. Her golden locket from Athena sparkled with polish on her throat. Silver sandals adorned her feet.

“Just like Cinderella,” she laughed. Then, more seriously, she said, “Thank you, Aphrodite.”

The goddess of love smiled and replied, “Although foremost I want you to look spectacular during your final moments with Thanatos, I also suspect the other gods might have more mercy on you looking so angelic.”

“You’re probably right,” Therese said. “Thank you.”

Aphrodite turned and left the hall.

“Hungry?” Than asked her when they were alone.

She shook her head. “I just ate a ton of fruit. Can we just sit down for a while?”

“You’re tired, I’m sure.”

“Yeah. I’m pretty tired, but I’m too nervous to sleep.”

“I could take you for a ride on my father’s chariot.”

“I doubt your father would allow that.”

“I won’t ask him.”

“You think that’s wise?”

He shrugged. “I know my father. His mind is made up. Our little ride won’t change anything. Besides, I could pop to your house, gather the items you want to give to charity, and pop them back into the chariot.
We have two hours. This may be our last chance to get them to the goddesses’ charities.”

“And that could sway their decision today.”

“Possibly.”

She laughed.

“What?”

“It just seems odd to use your father’s fancy golden chariot to deliver my parents’ old clothes to charities.”

He gave her a hug.

“Could I see my aunt and uncle?”

Than shook his head. “No. You’ll have to remain in the chariot over Mount Olympus. I’ll make a few trips back and forth with the bags and boxes while you hang out overhead.”

Than
and Therese went down the rainbow steps, into the golden-paved plaza, and to the stables to the back stall where Swift and Sure, Hades’s black stallions, were boarded. Therese stroked their necks and spoke to them in soft tones. The feel of the animals soothed her.

“They love you already,” Than laughed.

Than led Swift and Therese led Sure across the plaza to the chariot shed where Cupid helped them bridle the horses for their journey.

“This is our secret, Cupid,” Than said, and Cupid winked in reply.

Hades’s golden chariot had a bench seat like Poseidon’s, but there was a second bench in back as well. And where Poseidon had trim of waves and ornaments of marine life, Hades’s chariot was trimmed with golden flames.