The Gatekeeper's Promise: Gatekeeper's Saga, Book Six (The Gatekeeper's Saga 6) (25 page)

“Come on!” he shouted to them as the ground began to open up.

They scrambled down the canyon wall as more stones slipped and fell all about them.

“To the platform!” Apollo shouted from below.

Ares had flung Athena over his shoulder in the same way Hip had Jen, and they all staggered along the quivering canyon toward the platform.
When they reached the lower canyon, they looked back in horror as their grotto collapsed and the rocks began to roll down the wall and hurl through the air toward them. Hip winced when he noticed Therese fall several feet with the baby strapped across her chest.

As they scram
bled along the lower canyon toward the wall leading up to the platform, another quake jerked them off their feet, but before a single one of them could recover, an explosion of rocks burst into the air, and a powerful wind railed against them. Hip was on his knees holding onto Jen for dear life, when suddenly he found himself on the rainbow steps inside the gates of Mount Olympus. All of them were there, lying on the steps: Ares with Athena, Than and Therese with their babies, Hecate and Hermes behind him, and Apollo and Artemis each holding the hands of their lovers. Hip’s godly powers were immediately restored, as were those of the other gods, and prayers were assaulting him from every god he knew.

Through the great hall, Hip saw the fire
from Hephaestus’s forge spraying into a band of Cyclopes, who returned fire from the center of the fortress with lightning bolts. An army of gods surrounded Zeus’s palace, many of whom were engaged in hand-to-hand combat with zombies empowered with Circe’s black magic. Briareos created a tremendous wind surrounding the fortress, and the limbs of some of the zombies had fallen from their bodies and gotten caught up in his cyclone. As Meg and Tizzie decapitated undead soldiers, the heads were added to the awful swirl of decomposing body parts. Rhode and Amphitrite gathered some of the zombies in Poseidon’s golden net, while Phobos and Deimos deflected lightning bolts with their incredible shields. Even Aphrodite and her Charities swung their swords with the other daughters and sons of the Olympians. Poseidon led them with his trident. Dangerous sparks flew in the air all about them.

Athena rejuvenated in a blaze of glory, and, together with Ares, Apollo, Artemis, and the others who had been trapped
in Circe’s battlefield with her, she conjured her sword and charged into battle.

Hip retreated with Jen
toward the gates and immediately prayed to the Fates.

I relinquish my immortality to Jen Holt. I swear on the River Styx to take her place. Please do it now.

All the strength that had returned to his body slowly drained away.

He was vaguely aware of Therese screaming across the courtyard to him, something about his father’
s chariot.

When Jen lifted her face and stood on her feet, she looked at him with wide eyes.
Her body glowed with the beauty reserved for the gods. She’d always been beautiful, but now she was breathtaking. Her injuries were healed. The blood was gone. Her hair blew like golden rays in the wind around her face. He drank in the vision of her, as though trying to imprint it permanently on his eyes.

“Hip?”

He took her face with his hands and pressed his lips to hers. He would kiss her as hard and as long as he could. He would kiss her until his brother came for his soul, after which he would never kiss her again.

***

Therese cupped little Hermes in her arms
, who squirmed in his makeshift sling, as she stumbled back from the rainbow steps of Mount Olympus, surrounded by the chaos of war. An undead soldier headed toward her, and she elbowed him out of the way, pleased to finally have her powers restored. Than climbed to his feet behind her, holding Hestia. From somewhere beneath the helm of invisibility, Hades screamed at her through prayer to get the mortals to safety. His chariot was parked outside the gates. She was to go now.

She turned to Than, who was untying the sling and handing Hestia over. His face was pale, his expression grave.

“Take her, before she dies in my arms.” He kissed Hestia’s head, and then did the same to little Hermes.

She’d almost forgotten. Now that Thanatos was back to normal, he could no longer hold their babies.

Therese’s heart was breaking in two, but she had to get the twins away from him.

“I’m so so
rry,” she said.

“Go,” Than warned just before pulling her down
and out of the way of a streak of lightning.

“I’m going to take Jen,” Therese said. “Look. She’s okay.”

“Oh, no.” Than’s face became even graver. “Oh, hell no!”

Therese was baffled as Than
disintegrated and one of him ran from her side toward Hypnos. Other versions of Thanatos also stormed toward the palace, knocking zombies over left and right. She followed the one that headed for Hip, dodging fire.

“What have you done?” Than
shouted at his brother.

“Don’t tell me you wouldn’t have done the same,” Hip said. “Let’s just get this over with.”

Therese got a better look at Jen and Hip and immediately realized what had happened. Hip had taken her place. Jen was a goddess. That was the only reason why she was still alive.

Therese didn’t know what to feel, what to think.

“Get what over with?” Than asked.

“I’m taking her place,” Hip said. “Take me to Charon.”

“Let me take her and the twins to the Holts,” Therese said. “She’s still in danger here. She doesn’t know how to fight.”

Another lightning bolt zipped past.

“Hip, go with them,” Than said. “Your soul isn’t calling to me. Just go.”

Therese led the wa
y through the gates to Hades’s chariot, where Swift and Sure hovered nervously between Pegasus on one side and Riptide, Seaquake, and Crest pulling Poseidon’s chariot on the other. Cupid flew protectively near the animals with an arrow fitted, ready to strike.

Cupid helped them pile
into the chariot. Hip took the reins in front with Jen beside him. Therese held the babies in the backseat. They flew away from the explosions and fire and sounds of thunder to the west, toward the San Juan Mountains.

Before they descended from the skies, Per
sephone appeared beside Therese in the backseat.

“Hypnos!”
she cried. “Oh, my darling son! What have you done?”

Therese watched in silent anguish as the goddess tried to come to terms with the loss of her son’s immortality.

“I love her, Mother,” Hip said. “And she was going to die.”

“I’m confused,” Jen interrupted. “Are you talking about me?”

“He’s given you his immortality,” Persephone said, not with an accusatory tone, but not with kindness, either.

“Given it to me?” Jen looked to Therese for explanation.

“He made you a goddess,” Therese said. “You would have died, otherwise.”

Jen’s mouth fell open.
“But that means…” her voice dropped off as she sat on the bench in front of Therese beside Hip, in shock.

From the backseat, Persephone said
, “It means he’s no longer immortal. It means he’ll die one day.”

“Sooner than that,” Hip said. “Than should be coming for me any moment.”

“You’re wrong,” Persephone said. “You changed her before she died. Why would Thanatos come for you now?”

Hip’s eyes widened
as he turned back to look for confirmation from his mother. “That can’t be.”

“You will live as a mortal on earth in her place,” Persephone said as tears rolled down her cheeks. “I suppose you can watch over Than and Therese’s
precious twins.”

Therese felt the knot in her stomach tighten. She should be grateful, but instead, she was filled with envy.

“I gave Jen my immortality because I thought I’d go straight to the Elysian Fields. I can’t go on without her.”

The chariot descended into the familiar mountains behind Jen’s house.

“Can’t you take your immortality back?” Jen asked.

“The trade is irrevocable,” Persephone cried. “What’s done is done. Oh, Hip!”

The goddess flung her arms around her son and cried against his neck.

“This is so messed up,” Jen said, breaking into tears. “I don’t want to be a god without Hip.”

Hip’s eyes closed
, and he slumped, sound asleep, into Jen’s arms. Therese noticed the twins had also fallen into a deep sleep. The duties of sleep must have been transferred to Jen.

“What’s happening to me?” Jen asked. “I’m being called in different directions all at once!”

Therese touched her hand and called for the duties of sleep to come to her. “Let me help you.”

“Hades needs his chariot,” Persephone said. “We must go at once.”

“Take care of my babies for me,” Therese said to Jen, handing them over. “Just until I can figure out what to do.”

Persephone kissed each of her grandchildren. “They’re so precious.”

Therese felt herself disintegrating as restless mortals everywhere embraced sleep for the first time in weeks.

“What will I tell everyone?” Jen asked.

“I don’t know.”

“We have to go.” Persephone carried her son from the chariot and laid him on the ground beneath a Cyprus tree.

“I’ll return as soon as I can,” Therese said, kissing the tops of her babies’ heads.

As she and Persephone drove the chariot back to Mount Olympus and away from the newborn twins, ano
ther part of Therese died.

Chapter Twenty:
Conundrums

Jen stood in the darkness behind her house holding Therese’s babies with Hip asleep at her feet. Even though night had fallen, she could see clearly, as though the sun was bright in the sky. She also felt unencumbered by the two squirming infants. Although they were barely six pounds each, bouncing them around the grotto had given her a back ache over the past few days; tonight, they seemed light as a feather. She supposed what Therese had said was true: Jen was a goddess, and she was endowed with goddess strength.

She looked down at Hip, who yawned, stre
tched, and opened his eyes. She couldn’t believe what he’d done for her. To save her life, he’d given up his immortality. Tears sprang to her eyes. His generosity and outpouring of love overwhelmed her.

A
s Hip blinked and looked up at her, it occurred to her that maybe their situation wasn’t as bad as she had originally thought. They would have his entire lifetime together. That’s really all she ever wanted: a lifetime together. She didn’t care if he grew old. She would always love him and would take care of him up until the end.

And if it ever became too difficult for her to go on without him, maybe she could give her immortality away to someone else. Maybe she could give it to Bobby. She’d cross that bridge when she got to it. Right now, she was glad to be alive and glad to finally experience the depths of Hip’s love for her.

Hip climbed to his feet and circled her waist with his arms.

“Are you okay?’ he asked her.

She nodded. “Thank you.”

He gave her a half smile. “I had no choice. I couldn’t bear to go on…”

“You don’t have to. We can still be together like this. I’ll live down here, and when you die. I’ll give my immortality to someone else.”

Hip frowned as he
cupped her face in both his hands. “We’ll have each other in our dreams, like before.”

It was Jen’s turn to frown. “Why in our dreams. This isn’t a dream.”

“When I gave you my immortality, I also gave you my duties. You’re the new goddess of sleep.”

Jen felt her eyes grow wide with understanding. The excitement that had built u
p inside her chest deflated. “I don’t get to decide what kind of goddess I want to be, like Therese did?”

Hip shook his head. “I’m sorry.”

“I don’t understand.”

“
I made a trade. It’s hard to explain.”

“Maybe I could be the goddess of animal companions and
she
could be the goddess of sleep. Then I could be with you.”

“
She can’t do that, or she’ll go mad. But she could take over for short periods, like she’s doing right now.”

“There has to be a way,” she insisted.

He kissed her cheek and whispered, “Let’s get the babies inside.”

***

Therese
flew through the night sky with Persephone in Hades’s chariot, ready to help the other gods take back Mount Olympus. Disintegrated into the millions, she also helped bring rest back to humankind.

Thanatos met her at the gates and fought by her side, but elsewhere, he had resumed his duties as god of the dead, and he told her, where the Underworld and dream world met, that gathering the souls of Circe’s undead army would be a job of cataclysmic proportions.

Before they parted at the very spot where she had first met Hypnos four years ago, he asked about the twins.