“I’ve got a whole closet upstairs,” I said. “Ask for Ella. She’ll show you where everything is.”
“Thanks.” Ava gave me one last hug, whispering, “He’s cute,” in my ear, then bounded off toward the manor. I watched her go.
“I didn’t think I’d ever see her again.”
“Understandable,” said Henry. He stood so close to me that I could feel the warmth of his body. “Sometimes we misjudge what is possible and what is not.”
I looked up at him, a strange and unpleasant tension spreading through me. A dozen questions ran through my mind, but there was only one that was surrounded by a delicate bubble of hope. If I waited much longer before asking him about it, that bubble might burst. “Was it real then? My dream with my mother?”
Henry looked decidedly pleased with himself. “Did you enjoy it?”
“Yes.” I hesitated. “Was it—was it just once?”
“No.” He watched me closely, as if he was afraid I would pass out. I wasn’t so sure I wouldn’t. “For the duration of your stay, you will get to see her every night.”
I studied the pattern in the marble fountain, my eyes tracing the jagged lines and swirls. “Thank you. So much.”
“There is no need to thank me.” He sounded confused. “I told you I would honor our agreement, and I will.”
“I know.” But I’d never thought it meant I would get to spend more time with her. Not by her bedside holding her hand and hoping she would wake up, but talking to her like she wasn’t sick, like the past four years had never happened. It was beyond everything I’d hoped for.
But him honoring his side of our agreement meant I had to honor mine as well, and it crept up on me, terror slowly penetrating my mind and body as I realized I was trying to do something no one had been able to do before. In a way, it felt like I’d signed my own death warrant. “What now? What am I supposed to do?”
“Just be yourself.” He set his hand on my shoulder, like he’d done for Ava. Unlike Ava, however, he seemed afraid to touch me, and the contact lasted for only a few seconds. “The tests will most likely come when you least expect them. I am not in charge of administering them, nor am I the final judge.”
“I’m not really good at pop quizzes,” I said.
He chuckled, and it washed over me, helping to dissolve some of my anxiety. “These are not the sort of tests any teacher would grade you on. They test who you are, not what you have stored in your brain. It is possible you will recognize them as they are happening, and it is possible you will not. But just be yourself. That is all anyone can ask of you.”
His fingers brushed against my cheek, lingering. This time I didn’t pull away.
“Why the tests?” I said. “Why are they necessary?”
“Because,” he said. “The prize is not something we give out lightly, and we need to make sure it is something you can handle.”
“What’s that?”
“Immortality.”
I felt a cold block of ice form in the pit of my stomach. So my choices now were live forever or die trying—or forget the last conversations I would ever have with my mother. Somehow it didn’t seem fair.
“You will do well,” he said. “I can feel it. And afterward, you will help me do something that no one else is capable of doing. You will have power beyond imagining, and you will never fear death again. You will never grow old, and you will always be beautiful. You will have eternal life to spend as you wish.”
A shiver ran through me, and I didn’t know if it was because of the way he spoke, what he said, or the way he looked at me. Eternal life without my mother wasn’t something I wanted to contemplate. But if he could bring Ava back…
“Perhaps,” he whispered, “you may even learn how to swim.”
That broke the spell. I snorted loudly, unable to help myself. “Good luck with that.”
He smiled. “Or perhaps some things are impossible after all.”
Once Henry returned me to the breakfast room, I ate so quickly that I could barely taste the food, despite how mouth-watering it all looked. Stacks of buttered toast, piles of bacon, even a side of pancakes with maple syrup, but Ava was somewhere in the manor, and I wanted to see her again. I needed to confirm that she was really here. It wasn’t until after I’d finished my eggs, cooked exactly like my mother used to make, that I realized for the first night in weeks, I hadn’t had a nightmare. I made a mental note to ask Henry about that, wondering if it was because of my dreams with my mother. It had to be. If anything, I’d expected Eden Manor to make my nightmares worse rather than chase them away.
Before I could see Ava, however, Calliope informed me that I had to meet my tutor. Once I’d finished my meal, she was the only one there to show me the way, with Ella conspicuously absent. I hoped it meant she was busy helping Ava, but given how much she already seemed to hate me, I expected her to stick around as little as possible.
On our way, we passed a bowl of fruit, and I remembered the question I hadn’t been able to ask Henry. “Why do you taste my food?”
Calliope held a door open for me. “To make sure no one’s trying to kill you.”
“Why would they try to do that?”
She gave me a look that made me feel like an idiot for not already knowing the answer. “Because if Henry relinquishes his control over the Underworld, someone else will take his place. Not everyone’s rooting for you, you know.”
“Wait, what?” I’d been so concerned about what would happen to me if I passed that I hadn’t stopped to think what might happen to Henry if I failed. “Who?”
“I can’t tell you that. Watch out!”
I stopped abruptly, narrowly missing a vase set on a pedestal. It looked expensive. And ancient. And handmade. I sucked in a breath and moved gingerly around it.
“In here,” said Calliope, gesturing toward another door. She pushed it open, and I stepped inside, focusing on the only thing worth looking at: a small wooden table with a matching chair on either end. Everything else was a dull white, and it smelled as if it had recently been painted.
“I’ll see you afterward,” said Calliope as she pulled the door shut behind me. I spun around and hobbled toward her, managing to trip over the thick carpet.
“Wait!” I called, but it was too late. The door was already closed, and to my horror, I noticed there was no handle. It would be impossible to open without someone on the other side.