“How could you say something like that?” said Ava, ap-palled. “Of course he loves her. I should know.”
“Yes,” he said curtly. “You should. If you’ll all excuse me, I have things to do before the ceremony.” He kissed me on the cheek before breezing past Ava and my mother, and the three of us watched him go. I tried not to let it get under my skin, but the thought of going six months without seeing James after spending all summer with him was hard to swallow. No matter what his feelings for me may or may not have been, he was still my friend.
“I’ll go see what’s the matter with him,” said my mother once James was out of sight.
“Thanks,” I said. “He wasn’t like this while we were in Greece.”
She sighed. “No, I’d imagine he wasn’t.” Giving me a hug, she added, “I’ll check in on you before the ceremony.
Ava, stay with her until Henry returns.”
“Planned on it,” said Ava, and once my mother had hurried after James, Ava turned toward me with a sly grin. “So, want to see where the magic happens?”
The look on my face sent her into a f it of laughter, and it was only when I threatened to follow my mother that she sobered up.
“I’m sorry, it’s just—you’re such a prude. ” I didn’t dignify that with an answer. The only time I’d slept with Henry had been after being dosed with an aphrodisiac, thanks to Calliope. While the thought of me failing a test had enraged Henry, part of me held out hope that he’d enjoyed it as much as I had. We hadn’t slept together since, but now that we were married, it might be something he was expecting.
I wasn’t sure which was worse: the thought of Henry expecting me to sleep with him, or the thought of Henry not wanting to sleep with me at all.
Ava f inally pushed the door open, revealing a large bedroom suite on the other side. The carpet was soft and the color of cream, and the walls were painted the same rich red as the entrance hall. In the center stood a massive bed on a raised platform, and the sheets were gold. It was perfect, and I hated myself for liking it so much.
“Please tell me someone’s changed the sheets since Persephone lived here,” I muttered, and Ava laughed.
“Of course. I even talked Henry into letting me redecorate for you. I didn’t think the door would bother you, else I’d have changed that, too.”
The knot in my stomach unraveled. “Next time, open with that,” I said, wandering around the room to inspect it. Furniture was scattered throughout, including two love seats, a desk and a vanity, and a great bay window overlooking the courtyard and the garden of jewels. I pulled the gold curtains shut.
A high-pitched yip caught my attention, and I whirled around in time to see Pogo, the puppy Henry had given me last winter, come barreling toward me. His little legs could hardly keep him steady, and his tail wagged so enthusiasti-cally I was afraid he would break it against something.
“Pogo,” I cooed, scooping him up and cradling him to my chest. “You haven’t grown a bit, have you? Where’s Cerberus?” He licked my cheek, and I grinned. Finally something was going right.
“Cerberus has his own job down here,” said Ava from across the room. “I took care of Pogo for you—taught him a few new tricks and everything.”
My grin faded. “I thought Henry was going to take care of him.” He’d gotten Pogo for me because he wanted to show me that he intended for our relationship to last, and instead of taking care of him like he’d promised, he’d handed him off to Ava for the summer? I hugged Pogo tighter.
“He gets busy sometimes,” said Ava, and I crossed the room to join her. “Now, this is your closet. I even talked Henry into letting me choose your outf its for you this time instead of Ella.”
Ella, who along with Calliope had attended to me throughout my stay in Eden, had spent the f irst few months dressing me in the most painful fashions of the past thousand years solely to make me squirm. I would’ve rather spent the next six months wrapped in a sheet than wear the hoopskirts and corsets Ella would have undoubtedly provided for me.
Ava opened a door, and my eyes widened. It was the biggest closet I’d ever seen, complete with rows of jeans, stacks of blouses and sweaters, and an entire wall covered with shoes. There was also a row of fancy dresses, but Ava had mercifully kept those to a minimum.
“I f igured you wouldn’t want them, so I stole most of them for myself,” she said as I ran my hand over a shimmering silver gown that I almost would’ve considered wearing if I had somewhere to go. “Don’t tell Henry.”
“I won’t.” I sat down next to the wall of shoes and inspected the nearest pair. Size seven, like me. “If I tell you something, do you promise not to tell anyone else?” She was by my side in an instant, and the hunger in her eyes for gossip almost made me reconsider. But I had no one else to talk to other than my mother and James, and I was too embarrassed to go to my mother about this, and James—well, he was sort of the problem.
“Of course,” she said in a conspiratorial whisper. “You know you can tell me anything, and I won’t tell a soul.” I wanted to believe her, but I still remembered the girl in Eden who had tricked me into breaking onto Henry’s property, only to have her try to abandon me there. Her stunt had backf ired, leading to Ava dying and Henry offering to heal her if I stayed with him for six months a year.
Since then, however, she’d become one of my best friends, and I couldn’t ignore that.