by Aimee Carter
“Fine. But she leaves the instant it is over.”
“Agreed.”
With fury radiating from him, Henry stormed across the room to where I sat. Brushing his lips against my cheek, he whispered, “Kate, I am so sorry.”
“Whatever it is, it’s okay,” I said, trying to remember a promise he’d made that he might be forced to break. Nothing came to mind.
He straightened up and set his hand on my shoulder. I could feel how tense he was, and it did nothing to help my own nerves. “Brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews, may I present to you Katherine Winters.”
I started to chastise him for introducing me by my full name, but my breath caught in my throat when I saw the procession of people walking toward us. I gripped the edge of my seat, too stunned to move.
Walter was first, dressed in a simple white robe. After him came Sofia, her cheeks flushing as she caught my eye.
James was next, and he stared at the ground. I wanted to look away, but my eyes followed him all the way to his throne. His was the one that looked like the arms were made from two snakes. I shivered.
After him, Irene entered, and then Nicholas and Phillip, the gruff stable hand.
Ella, holding Theo’s hand.
Dylan from Eden High School, a face so distant in my memory that it took me a moment to place him.
And by the time Xander stepped through the door, looking whole and well, I was too floored to wonder exactly how he’d come back from the Underworld.
Henry’s grip on my shoulder increased when the next person stepped inside the circle, and I suddenly realized why he was angry.
Calliope.
But she wasn’t the last. My stomach contracted when I caught sight of who brought up the rear.
Ava.
They all stood in front of their respective thrones, giving me a few merciful seconds to stop my mind from reeling. I vaguely noted that two of the thrones were empty—and Walter claimed the massive throne made of glass—but the room spun around me, making it difficult to focus.
“Kate,” said Henry. “I present to you the council.”
CHAPTER 19
THE COUNCIL
It took every ounce of willpower I had to keep breathing as I stared at the faces of the council. Friends, enemies, but not the strangers I’d been expecting. Dozens of questions darted through my mind, none staying still long enough for me to force it out. All in all, that was probably a good thing, but I didn’t understand—this was the council?
I looked up at Henry, and he gave me a reassuring smile. It didn’t help.
“I will be right here,” he said before moving to sit at one of the two empty thrones. I’d never felt so alone in my life.
“I—I don’t—” I started, finally finding my voice. “How—who—”
Ava was the one who answered. “I’m sorry for lying to you, Kate—we all are. But this is how it had to be.”
“We needed to know that you were able and worthy to fulfill this role,” said Ella, all traces of bitterness gone from her voice. “While it may feel like we betrayed you, it’s really the opposite. We now know you well enough to decide whether or not you’re fit to become one of us.”
I focused on Henry, the only one I trusted to be honest with me. “It was all a setup? Ava in the river, Xander, Theo, Calliope—”
“No.” His voice was so firm that I instantly fell silent. “Not all of it. Be patient, Kate. You will find out soon enough.”
I was more than willing to shut up and let them get on with it. If I’d been nervous before, now I was petrified. Glancing at James, I noticed he refused to meet my eyes. Slowly resentment filtered through the other emotions churning inside of me, and I balled my hands into fists. No matter what Henry said, it was impossible this was some sort of coincidence. Everyone I knew in Eden was here.
“Before we begin,” said Henry, this time addressing the council, “I believe there is a matter that has yet to be decided.”
Calliope, who was to my right, stepped forward. She looked furious.
“Sister,” he said in a booming voice that echoed through the room. “You have admitted to killing at least eleven mortals in cold blood over the past hundred years. Do you plead guilty?”
She sniffed and narrowed her eyes. “Yes.”
Henry looked at me, the gravity of his stare making my heart thud. “As her only surviving victim, Kate, her punishment falls to you.”
Bewildered, I looked back and forth between them, trying to figure out if he was joking. He wasn’t. “I don’t—” I froze. How was I supposed to do this? Taking a deep breath, I said in a small voice, “Um, what are the options?”
“Whatever you wish,” said Henry, his eyes as hard as diamonds as he glared at Calliope.
I opened my mouth and shut it again. This was the job, wasn’t it? The one I was supposedly signing up for. Deciding people’s fates. If I couldn’t figure this out when I was the one she’d tried to kill, how was I supposed to decide for people I’d never met before?
As I stared at Calliope’s pale face, I realized it wasn’t knowing her that made me freeze up. It was knowing why she did it. She loved Henry, and like me, she must’ve hated seeing him hurt. Putting up with Persephone, knowing she didn’t love him, having to watch him go through losing her—and then being faced with girls who were supposed to take Persephone’s place when she’d loved him first? No one could’ve possibly been good enough for him, not when she was standing right there waiting for him to notice her. It was no excuse for murder, but I understood wanting to be the one to make Henry happy.
I chose my words carefully, keeping eye contact with her as I spoke. She stood across from me, looking like she wanted to kill me all over again. “I know you don’t like me. I know you think I’m not good enough for Henry, and I know you want him to be with you. I get why, too. I get that you love him and just want him to be happy. I get that you probably thought the girls who came before me were too stupid or petty or selfish to love him like you do, and I know that love can make people do some really dumb and hurtful things sometimes.”
I glanced at Henry, but his expression was impossible to read.
“I can’t punish you to eternal torture or whatever it is just because you loved someone enough to try to protect him. While you went about it the wrong way, I get what you were trying to do. And that makes this really, really hard.”
Again I looked at Henry, although this time he was looking at the ground. “I want you to spend time with every girl you killed,” I said, my voice breaking. “I want you to get to know them and appreciate them for who they are. I want you to stay with them, one by one, until you understand their individual worth. I can’t make you like them, but I want you to respect them and appreciate them as people. It can’t be superficial, either. You have to mean it. And I want you to make amends with them as well.”
Calliope glared at me with such intensity that I considered myself lucky to still be in one piece. Angering a goddess wasn’t the smartest thing to do if I wanted to stay alive for much longer, but I trusted Henry to make sure she didn’t turn me into a pile of ash.
“When all of this happens—and when they forgive you for what you did to them—then you can go on and live your life, or whatever it is that you have. But you’re never going to see Henry or me again after today. Not because I want to hurt you, or because I hate you. I don’t. Like I said, I understand why you did it, in a way. But neither of us can trust you anymore.”
Even though I was sure I was being fair, my decision felt cruel. She loved him. The possibility of never seeing Henry again tore at me, and I’d only known him for six months. How could I possibly be okay with separating her from the person she loved for the rest of her eternal existence?
“And I wanted to let you know that I love him, too,” I said quietly. “If—if I pass, I’m never going to hurt him like Persephone did, and I’ll do everything I can to make sure he’s happy. I promise.”
A long moment p
assed before Calliope reacted. I half expected her to scream and shout and tell me how unfair I was being, but instead she nodded, her eyes brimming with tears. Stepping back to her throne made of cushion and lace, she sat down looking like I’d ripped her heart out of her chest. I felt like the most horrible person on the planet. The only thing that kept me from taking it all back was the ache in my abdomen from where her knife had slid inside of me.
“And so the decision has been made,” said Henry in a grimly satisfied voice. “I will uphold Kate’s ruling no matter what the council decides.”
“As will I,” said James weakly. I felt a stab of pity for him, but there was nothing I could say to make it any better, not when I didn’t understand it in the first place.
Henry sat back down, and it was several seconds before anyone spoke. I stared down at my lap, too afraid to see the looks on their faces. Was I fair? Or did they, too, think I was being cruel?
“Katherine Winters,” said Walter as he stood, and I looked up. “You were tasked with seven tests, to be distributed throughout your time in Eden Manor. If you have failed any of these, you will return home and live out your existence without any memory of the past six months. If you succeed in all seven, you will be married to our brother, and you shall rule his realm with him for as long as you wish. Do you accept?”
There was no backing down now. “Yes.”
Irene stood next, her hair flaming in the bright light. “For the test of sloth, Kate passed.” She gave me an impish smile. “Your study habits were quite inspiring, you know.”
Was that what Henry had meant when he’d said I couldn’t possibly fail after nearly killing myself studying for that stupid test? It had to be. But they couldn’t all be so simple.
Sofia was next. She looked as warm and motherly as ever, and it was hard to imagine that she could be part of something so terrifying and official. “For the test of greed, Kate passed.” She must’ve seen my confused look, because she smiled and added, “Your clothing, dear. When you were offered a new wardrobe, you didn’t hesitate to allow your friends to help themselves as well.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. Apparently not liking dresses was a virtue.
“Gluttony,” said Ella, standing. I furrowed my brow—out of all of them, I’d have thought Calliope would’ve been the one to handle that. “While Kate was made aware it was a test, and while she was unconscious for much of the time afterward, she did willingly make the choice to stop eating.” She raised an eyebrow. “Although I would recommend three square meals a day outside these walls.”
Ava stood next, twisting side to side with a childish grin on her face. “As for envy, Kate passed with flying colors.”
“Envy?” I said, my voice cracking as I tried to think back on what that could possibly be.
“The day Xander died.” She shot him an apologetic look, and he winked. “You didn’t let jealousy interfere with your decision. I mean, not that you were jealous—that’s the point. You were fair, and you were patient with me, even though I didn’t deserve it.”
So Xander—or whoever he was—really had been killed. Or whatever it was, because I was pretty sure gods couldn’t die. I found some relief in knowing that not everything about the past six months had been scripted.
Calliope stood next, pale and shaken, though her voice was surprisingly strong. “Wrath,” she said, raising her eyes to meet mine. For a moment, I thought I saw a ghost of a smile on her face, but it was gone as quickly as it came. “With her decision today regarding the punishment for my actions, Kate has passed.”
I was sure that what Calliope had done hadn’t been scripted either, which meant that not all of the tests had been decided on ahead of time. What would it have been if she hadn’t tried to kill me? Either way, five down, two to go.
Walter was the one to stand next. “Lust,” he said, and my heart sank. He couldn’t fail me for this. They had to know what Calliope had done. “You engaged in lustful relations with our brother, an act that is strictly forbidden before the council makes a decision and a marriage occurs.” He pressed his thin lips together, and suddenly it was hard to breathe. Didn’t he understand that we’d been set up? There had to be a trick, a loophole, something that would make them forgive that night.
“But—” I started, but Walter’s voice cut through mine.
“I am sorry, Katherine, but for the test of lust, you have failed.”
Failed.
The word echoed endlessly in my head. The room spun around me, and it was only my iron-tight grip on my stool that kept me from falling. My chest ached, and I felt as if the air itself was pressing in on me, making breathing impossible.
This couldn’t be happening.
“Brother,” said Henry in a strained voice. “I would like to contest the council’s ruling on this.”
“Yes?” said Walter. I looked hopefully between them, struggling to keep myself from spiraling downward into despair. There was still a chance.
“As you know, the test in question was compromised. We were both given large doses of an aphrodisiac that affects both the mind and the body, allowing for our inhibitions to be lowered. If anyone is to carry the blame for that evening, it is me.”
“No,” said a small voice. Calliope. “It’s me. I was the one who did it. I thought—I thought that if they failed a test…”
Walter frowned. “Yes, I am aware. But you know as well as I do that our rules are firm. No matter the circumstances, they must be followed.”
Henry sighed, and something inside of me broke. He looked as crushed as I felt, wearing his pain clearly, but it was the way he glanced at me that was agony. His eyes were cloudy with anguish, and already I could see him pulling away. He’d dared to hope because of me. He’d tried because I’d made him, and it was my fault he looked like that. It was my fault he was hurting so badly.
“No,” I blurted. “Henry doesn’t deserve this. Calliope said it was her fault, and she did it on purpose. That shouldn’t count. It can’t count.”
“I’m afraid it isn’t up to you.” Walter frowned, and against my better judgment, I glared at him.
“He’s your brother, and if you do this, he’s going to die or—or fade out of existence or whatever it is. I don’t care how strict your rules are. If you love him half as much as I do, I don’t understand why you don’t get that this isn’t fair.”
“It isn’t always about fairness.” Walter’s voice was gentler than I expected, and his expression was strangely compassionate. “Despite evidence to the contrary—” he looked at Ava, and she rolled her eyes “—we do not abide lust.”
“But it wasn’t lust!” I stupidly tried to stand, and pain exploded in my chest, but I refused to let this be the end. “I’m not guilty of lust, because I love him. You can’t accuse me of something I didn’t do, not when it means that Henry’s going to die for it. Anything else, fine—do whatever you want to me, I don’t care. But don’t do this to Henry,” I said, tears blurring my vision. “Please. I’ll do anything.”
“Kate,” said Henry. His face was pinched and his shoulders were strained, as if he were struggling to stay put. “It’s all right.”
“No, it’s not. It’s not fair.”
“Katherine,” said Walter. “You say you will do anything, yet you do not do the one thing we ask of you.”
“What?” I wiped my cheeks with the sleeve of my dress.
“Do you accept your failure and the consequences of it?”
No, of course not. This was a cruel joke, a mockery of justice. Henry and I finally had a shot at being happy, and now we’d both lost it. I couldn’t look at Henry or any one of the other faces surrounding me, unable to stand seeing their disappointment.
“I accept that the council has chosen to fail me, yes,” I said in a choked voice. “And I understand what it means.” Better than they did, apparently. “But I don’t think it’s fair that you’re doing this to Henry, and if there’s anything I can do to change your minds, I’ll do it.
”
Walter eyed me, and there was something so intimidating about it that I wondered if he was going to smite me or whatever it was gods did to people they didn’t like. “You have failed, Katherine. There is nothing you can say that will change that fact.”
I blinked rapidly, struggling to pull myself together. I didn’t want Henry’s last memories of me to be this. Turning in my seat as much as I dared in order to face him, I managed to force out a small, “I’m sorry.”
He didn’t meet my eye, and I couldn’t blame him. I’d failed, and now he had to suffer for it.
Caught between anger and despair as the room seemed to press down around me, delivering blow after crushing blow, I wished more than anything that I could turn back the clock to that night in order to stop it from happening. Henry deserved so much more than this, and I wasn’t able to give it to him, no matter how badly I wanted to.
The silence seemed to echo in the ballroom as no one said or did anything. Only seconds passed, but it felt like an hour. As bitter disappointment settled in the pit of my stomach, one rational thought came to mind:
What now?
A noise from behind me caught my attention, and I tried to turn around to see what it was, but any movement now made my chest feel as if it were on fire. I heard the thud of a door closing, and the soft click of heels against marble echoed through the ballroom.
“Sister,” said Henry, his voice full of rich golden warmth that made my pain ebb away. As I looked into the faces of the other council members, I realized they all seemed happy and relieved. And smug, I noticed, glancing at Ava. Even James seemed happy to see her.
“Hello, Henry.”
All the air whooshed out of my lungs as her voice filled my head, chasing away my thoughts until there was nothing left but her. Forgetting the pain, I strained my neck to see her, watching as she greeted all but Calliope with a smile and a kiss on the cheek. Making her way around the circle, when she reached Henry, she stepped into his open arms.
In the back of my mind I realized I was gawking, but I couldn’t stop. She separated herself from Henry and took a seat in the throne next to him, the one made of branches and vines that had previously been empty, and something inside of me fell into place.
