Free The Goddess Hunt by Aimée Carter Page A

wasn’t too much to ask for.
    During my winter with him though, I’d had to fight for every small step forward. Every look, every touch, every kiss—what if six months apart brought us back to square one? He’d spent a thousand years mourning his first wife, Persephone, and he’d only known me for one. Our wedding hadn’t been the perfect ending to a wonderful love story. It’d been the beginning of eternity, and nothing about our new life together was going to be easy. For either of us. Especially considering that on top of adjusting to marriage, I’d have to learn how to be Queen of the Underworld, as well.
    And no matter how many years I’d spent caring for my dying mother, I had a sinking feeling none of it would help when it came to ruling over the dead.
    I pushed my worries from my mind as the black wrought-iron gate of Eden Manor came into view. New York, school, my mother’s illness—that was my past. My mortal life. This was my future. No matter what had or hadn’t happened during the summer, I would have the chance to be with Henry now, and I wasn’t going to waste a moment.
    “Home sweet home,” I said as I drove through the gate. I could do this. Henry would be waiting for me, and he’d be thrilled to see me. My mother would be there, too, and I wouldn’t have to go another six months without seeing her again. After nearly losing her, spending the summer without my mother had been torture, but she’d insisted—this first summer was my own, and she and Henry wouldn’t be involved. But I was back now, and everything would be okay.
    James craned his neck to look at the brightly colored trees that lined the road. “All right?” he said to me. “I should be asking you that,” I said, eyeing the way he drummed his fingers on the armrest nervously. He stilled, and after a moment I added before I could stop myself, “He’ll be happy to see me, right?”
    James blinked and said coolly, “Who? Henry? Couldn’t say. I’m not him.”
    That was the last answer I’d expected, but of course he wasn’t going to be cheerful about it. James would have been the one to replace Henry as the ruler of the Underworld if I’d failed, and even though it hadn’t come up on our trip, James was undoubtedly sore about it.
    “Could you at least try to pretend to be happy for me?” I said. “You can’t spend your entire existence mad about that.”
    “I’m not mad. I’m worried,” he said. “You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to, you know. No one would blame you.”
    “Do what? Not go back to Eden?” I’d already passed the tests. I’d told Henry I’d be back. We were married, for crying out loud.
    “Everyone’s acting like you’re the be-all and end-all for Henry,” said James. “It isn’t fair to put you under that kind of pressure.”
    Good lord, he really was talking about not going back. “Listen, James, I know you liked Greece—so did I—but if you think you can talk me into not going back—”
    “I’m not trying to talk you into anything,” said James with surprising firmness. “I’m trying to make sure no one else does. This is your life. No one’s going to take your mother away from you now if you decide you don’t want to do this after all.”
    “That’s not—that’s not why I’m going back at all,” I sputtered.
    “Then why are you, Kate? Give me one good reason, and I’ll drop it.”
    “I can give you a dozen.”
    “I only want one.”
    I sniffed. It wasn’t any of his business. I’d nearly died in my attempts to save Henry from fading; I wasn’t going to walk away from him because of the possibility that I might not like the Underworld. “I don’t know how you do things, but I love Henry, and I’m not going to leave him just because you don’t think he’s good for me.”
    “Fair enough,” said James. “But what are you going to do if Henry doesn’t love you?”
    I slammed on the brakes and forced the car into Park so violently that the