Goddess Interrupted Read Free Page B

for eighteen years, but at that moment all I cared about was filling the hole that had grown inside of me during the six months I’d been gone.
    “Hello, my darling,” she said, embracing me. I breathed in her scent, apples and freesia, and hugged her tightly in return. I’d missed her more than I could have possibly put into words, and as far as I was concerned, no one would ever talk me into leaving her for any length of time again.
    “What was that all about?” said a second voice. Ava. My best girlfriend and the reason I’d met Henry in the first place. Another one who’d lied to me about being mortal. “Kate looked like she was having a fit.”
    “It’s nothing that can’t be controlled with a little practice,” said my mother, touching my cheek. “I see you got plenty of sun. Did Greece treat you well?”
    She let me go, and Ava swooped in for a hug and a squeal. “You look gorgeous! Look at your tan—I’m so jealous. Did you dye your hair? It looks lighter.”
    I searched over her shoulder, but the path that led to the obsidian palace was empty. Henry hadn’t come to greet me after all. My heart sank, and I avoided James’s stare. I didn’t want to see him gloat. “What do you mean, something that can be controlled with a little practice?”
    “Your gift, of course.” My mother’s smile faltered. “Do tell me Henry explained this to you last winter.”
    I gritted my teeth. “From here on out, how about everyone assumes that if Henry was supposed to tell me something, he didn’t. Sound like a plan?”
    “Probably didn’t think you’d survive long enough for it to matter,” muttered James.
    Ava ignored him and looped her arm in mine. “You’re grumpy today.”
    “You would be too if you fell through a hole in the floor and wound up in hell,” I said.
    My mother took my other arm, and James trailed after us as we headed toward the palace. “Don’t let Henry hear you call this place hell,” she said. “He’s very touchy about that sort of thing. This is the Underworld, not hell. It’s where—”
    “—people go after they die,” I said. “I know. He told me that much. Where is he?”
    Even as I asked, I had a sick feeling I knew exactly where he was.
    “He and a few of the others had a matter to attend to,” said my mother. “They will be back before your coronation ceremony tonight.”
    “Does that matter have anything to do with a giant gate and Calliope?”
    Ava stopped short, and I tugged on her arm, but her feet remained planted on the ground. “How did you know that?”
    I shrugged. “That’s what I was trying to tell you all—I saw it, just now.”
    Up on the surface, seeing visions like that would’ve gotten me committed, but my mother didn’t so much as blink. “Yes, sweetie, that will happen from time to time, and eventually you will learn to control it.”
    “Great,” I said waspishly. “Could you at least explain what it is?”
    “No need to get upset,” said my mother, and my exasperation immediately dissolved. She may not have been dying anymore, but after I’d spent four years watching her teeter on the edge between life and death, I’d all but forgotten how to be upset with her. Six months away wasn’t going to change that.
    “I’m sorry,” I said, guilt rushing through me. I glanced at James, who lingered in the background, his hands shoved in his pockets and his mop of blond hair falling in his eyes. But I wanted answers, not more diatribes about how I had a choice. “What’s going on? Why could I see Henry?”
    My mother wrapped her arms around my shoulders, and I relaxed against her. “Why don’t we go inside where it’s comfortable, and then we’ll tell you everything?”
    Somehow I doubted that I would ever really learn everything that was going on when it came to my new family, but my jeans were damp from the ground, and the sooner we got to the palace, the sooner I would see Henry. And then—
    And then what?
    James’s offer