The Gatekeeper's Promise: Gatekeeper's Saga, Book Six (The Gatekeeper's Saga 6) (27 page)

“We’ve asked you here today to discuss trades,” Hades said. “
Specifically the one recently made by Hypnos.”

“Oh,” Lachesis said, drawing out the syllable so that it resembled the moo of a cow.

“Oh, yes,” Atropos said, as she exhaled her cigarette smoke. “I see where we are now.”

“Oh, poo,” Clotho complained. “I was just beginning to enjoy myself, too.”

“Our apologies, dear aunts,” Persephone said. “But this is of grave importance to us.”

“It’s always of grave
importance to everyone we meet.” Atropos sighed, with great exaggeration, it seemed to Than.

Demeter lifted her brows, apparently offended.

“We need to know if Hypnos can take back his immortality,” Zeus clarified.

“Yes,” Lachesis said. “Yes, he can.”

Than noticed the faces of nearly everyone in the room become brighter, especially his mother’s.

“That’s wonderful!” Persephone cried.

“Indeed!” Athena exclaimed.

“
The mortal girl will die, of course,” Clotho pointed out before taking another draft from her cigarette.

“Immediately,” At
ropos added.

Than glanced at Therese, whose face had gone pale.

“If that’s true,” Aphrodite said, “then I don’t think Hip will take his immortality back. His love for her is too strong.”

“Of course it’s true,” Clotho barked.

“We don’t lie,” Lachesis said, more kindly.

“That’s not what I meant.” Aphrodite rushed across the room and laid her hands on the shoulders of Clotho and Lachesis. “I didn’t mean to offend you.” Then she waved her hand in front of her face to clear away the cigarette smoke hovering in the center of the court. “I should have said, ‘in that case.’”

“So we’re back to square one,” Artemis said.

Rhea cleared her throat and lifted a manly finger. “Unless someone else is willing to take Hypnos’s place. Isn’t that so, Atropos?”

“Absolutely,” the cutter replied.

Than suspected
he wasn’t the only god to think of the possibility of Therese making the offer to trade with his brother. He reached over and held her hand. He could feel her looking at him, but he could not return her gaze. He wanted his brother back, but he didn’t want to lose his wife.

I should do this
, she prayed to him.
I should be the one to make the trade. It’s the only thing that makes sense.

He couldn’t look at her. He didn’t want her to see the agony that had taken possession of his features, the tears that were threatening to well up in his eyes. He cleared his suddenly tight throat and swallowed hard before replying.
Only you can make that decision.

***

Therese closed her eyes and imagined her babies’ faces
as she clutched her lockets. Each hour that passed since she had last held them in her arms made it more and more difficult for her to imagine them. Only when Jen lifted up a prayer to her, was she able to see a glimpse of her precious twins through Jen’s eyes.

She needed to be with them.

Thanatos squeezed her hand as they listened to the gods question the Fates, and she squeezed it back. She tried to study his face, to get a sense of what he thought she should do, but he wouldn’t look at her. He didn’t want to affect her decision.

But she wanted to know what he hoped she would do. Did he want her to stay with him and allow their babies to be raised by someone else? Or did he think she should go, with the hope that they would be able to visit one another regularly?

Only you can make that decision
, came his reply.

Before she had given birth, she believed she would ask her aunt and uncle to raise the babies, and if th
ey said no, she would ask Jen.

But once she gave birth and held her babies in her arms, the idea of leaving them to be raised by others made her sick to her stomach. Her maternal instinct was overwhelming. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust her aunt and uncle, or Jen and Hip, to raise them properly. She knew either couple would give the twins ample love and good lives; but she wanted to be their mother. She wanted to be with them each day. She didn’t want to see them grow from afar; she wanted to be right there, teaching them how to take their first steps, in everything they did. And, if she were to be honest with herself, she would have to admit she wanted to age with them.

Maybe it was because she was born a mortal, but whatever the reason, she clung to a romantic vision of growing old with Thanatos and their children. She still dreamed of having grandchildren, of sitting in a rocking chair beside Than on their front porch looking out at the mountains of Colorado, while their grandchildren played in the grass near their feet, sipping lemonade and eating homemade cookies.

She could have this dream if she traded with Hip—all of it except
for the part of having Thanatos by her side. She would age, but he would always look like a boy of eighteen.

When she imagined him coming to her for visits—she an old woman and he a young man, she shuddered.

Than must have felt her shudder, for he looked at her at that moment, and it allowed her to see the agony and concern on his face. He was as torn as she over what she should do.

A memory of her father helping her make a decision when she was thirteen flashed through her mind. He had helped her to decide between band camp and an out-of-town swim meet. If she competed in the meet, she would miss the whole week of camp, and there were plenty of meets and only one camp a year; but she was in the first heat against Lacey Holzmann, who had just beaten her in their most recent competition.

Her father had told her to close her eyes and to imagine what the entire week would be like if she were to choose the swim meet. After five minutes, he asked her what she saw. She described in minute detail how she had beat Lacey. Then her father asked her to close her eyes and imagine what the entire week would be like if she were to choose band camp. After five minutes, as before, he asked her what she saw. She said the whole time she was at camp, she was wondering if she would have beat Lacey.

“Then you have your answer,” he had said.

So Therese closed her eyes and imagined her life with her babies in Colorado. She saw herself teaching them to walk, to swim, to ride horses. She saw herself teaching them to feed the chipmunks and the wild horses. She saw herself on her aunt and uncle’s deck with a pair of binoculars to her face, and she was pointing out the wildlife in the mountains across the Lemon Reservoir to her children, just as she used to do with her father. As the gods continued to discuss options for Hip, her mind went wild with excitement.

Then she opened her eyes and closed them again, this time imagining a life with Thanatos.
She imagined being beside him, loving him, holding him, but these images were soon overpowered, and all she could see was an eternity of wondering what a life with her children might have been like.

She knew her answer.

“I’ll take his place,” Therese said to the court. “I will give my immortality to Hypnos.”

***

Jen loaded the groceries into her pick up and then headed back hom
e. This was the first time in her life that she’d pulled an all-nighter and hadn’t felt tired. She could also carry a ton of bags in her arms and get everything indoors in one trip. It didn’t matter that the sun hadn’t completely made its appearance, because she could see in the dark. Being a goddess had its perks.

She was looking forward, for instance, to learning how to fly and to god travel. As sad as she was that Hip was now a regular human being (which, let’s face it, was not such a bad thing—just about everyone she knew was one), she couldn’t quell the excitement over her new super powers. It hadn’t really sunk in that she wouldn’t be seeing him or her family on a regular basis.

The babies were crying and ready to eat as soon as Jen arrived home, so she took Hestia from her mother while her mother mixed the formula. Jen tore open the packages of diapers and wipes she had bought and got to work cleaning each baby with Hip’s help. Unlike her, Hip was tired and not ready to be awake. She sent him back to bed as soon as her mother had the bottles made. Jen and her mom sat together on the couch in the early dawn and fed the babies.

“I want you to know right now, Mom,” Jen started. “I am never having kids.”

“I guess I’ll have to depend on Bobby to give me grandchildren, then.”

“Good luck with that.”

“I still can’t believe how Hip saved your life,” her mom said. “He gave up so much for you.”

Jen nodded as she adjusted the burp cloth beneath little Hermes’s chin.

“He must really love you,” her mother added.

“We want to be married,” Jen said.

Her mother frowned.

Jen bent her brows and asked, “Aren’t you happy for me?”

“Do you think that’s fair to him?” Mrs. Holt asked. “You said you won’t get to visit us often, except in our dreams. What kind of marriage will that be? And you don’t want to give him children to keep him company.”

It was Jen’s turn to frown. “Not everything can be perfect all the time.”

“Nothing’s ever perfect,” Mrs. Holt said. “But this sounds like a really bad deal for poor Hip. He’ll be alone most of his life after giving up so much for you.”

“So you want me to dump him?”

“No, of course not. But maybe don’t marry him. Give him the chance to move on later, if he so desires.”

This idea just about broke Jen’s heart.

“I’m sorry, baby doll. I’ll mind my own business.”

“Good idea,” Jen said, but inside, she was considering her mother’
s words. Would Jen be hurting Hip by marrying him?

“So, new subject. When are we going to tell Carol and Richard about these babies?”

Hermes spit the bottle out, so Jen moved him to her shoulder and patted his back to burp him.

“We have to wait for Therese,” Jen said. “She’ll tell us what to do.”

“When?”

“I don’t know.” Then Jen asked, “What if her aunt and uncle say no? What if they don’t want the twins?”

Her mother sighed. “Try not to worry, baby girl. We’ll figure out something.”

***

Hip was glad to be out of the house and outside, even though it meant hard work, and he didn’t have his godly strength to help him. Brushing Hershey beat feeding babies and changing diapers any day, even if those babies were his cute little niece and nephew.

Bobby and Jen were fun to hang out with, too, and Mrs. Holt didn’t seem to mind staying inside and taking care of the babies. Mr. Stern was inside helping her.

“By the way,” Jen said as she returned her brush to a shelf in the barn. “Do you have any more dream globes?”

“Sorry,” Hip said. “Yours is the only one. Why?”

“What’s a dream globe?” Bobby asked.

“Oh, no.”

“What’s wrong?”
Hip moved closer to her.

“I kind of destroyed it when I saw you with Pashitia.”

“Who’s Pashitia?” Bobby asked.

“You destroyed my Christmas present?”

“You were with the evil lord of the Sith!”

“Well, it was a one-of-a-kind gift from the Fates. It would have been nice to have over the years, to get in touch with you.”

Jen frowned.

“I guess I’m invisible,” Bobby said. “Maybe I got super powers, too.”

“Hold on,” Hip said, suddenly feeling funny.

As he looked down at the hay, a tingle ran from the top of his head to the tips of his fingers and toes. He immediately recognized what was happening, but he was completely bewildered. How was his immortality coming back to him?

A thud brought him from his reverie.

“Bobby?” Jen ran to her brother’s side.
He’d fallen on the ground. “He won’t wake up. The horses are asleep now, too. Did the duties of sleep come back to me?”

“Not to you,”
Hip said, incredulous. “To me.”

Chapter T
wenty-Two: Goodbyes

Therese tried not to shiver from the cold as she followed Than to her favorite bat cave. The light from the Phlegethon was dim here, and she could barely see. She was also unused to not having her bow and quiver slung around her shoulder, but there was no need to carry them now.

“I’m going to miss this place,” she said.

“Hades promised to let you and the twins visit,” he reminded her.

“He and Persephone just want to see their grandbabies,” Therese said. “I doubt he’ll allow me to roam around for nostalgia’s sake.”

“He might.”

Therese smiled at the image of their twins running around in her bat cave and playing with the rats and mice. She imagined them throwing rocks into the Phlegethon, feeding cakes to Cerberus and Hydra, and rocking Charon’s boat. Oh, how fun it will be to bring them here, she thought. She only hoped Hades would allow it often.