Lucas went directly to her bed, still tussled and dirty from the time Orion and Helen had emerged from the Underworld onto it—landing on top of Lucas in the process. Throwing the bedding on the floor, he lay down on top of the bare mattress.
Reaching into the right front pocket of his jeans, Lucas pulled out the last of the three obols he’d stolen from the Getty and tucked it under his tongue.
He shut his eyes and opened them again.
“You know, chasing a loved one to the Underworld never ends well, my friend.” Morpheus sighed.
Lucas sat up next to the god of dreams, took the obol out from under his tongue, and offered it to him.
“Please,” he begged, holding out the god’s payment. “Please let me at least speak to Hades.”
“Oh, you are so noble,” Morpheus huffed, punching one of his silk pillows to show just how miffed he was. “Have you really thought this through? Do you think Helen would want you to do this?”
“Of course she wouldn’t. But Helen’s not making this decision, and yes, I have thought it through,” Lucas said calmly. “There’s nothing for me up there anymore.”
He wasn’t being self-pitying; it was the simple truth. After Lucas had refused to kiss her in Everyland, Helen had made it clear that she had chosen Orion as soon as they were back on Earth. She could barely take her hands off of him, and Lucas could only blame himself. He couldn’t very well expect Helen to pledge herself to him if he wouldn’t even kiss her. Lucas had always known that Orion could give Helen what she needed, and now he was just making it easy for her, and making himself useful at the same time.
Andy really loved Hector. Everyone loved Hector. Lucas was an extra body now, the Lover who wasn’t allowed to love. So why not do something good with his life?
“I just want to speak to him,” Lucas repeated.
“All right,” Morpheus said reluctantly, taking his coin and rising from his enormous bed. “I’ll take you to the tree.”
Morpheus led Lucas through the many rooms of his dream palace. As they passed, the impossibly long, slender elfin people who danced inside the glowing circles of mushrooms and chased the bright, iridescent bubbles that seemed to beckon “follow me” stopped their cavorting to stare.
Lucas could hear them gasping as he passed. He thought he heard a few whisper “Hand of Darkness,” but he couldn’t be sure.
Outside the palace, they walked across the plain that bordered Hades and stopped at the edge of Morpheus’ land. They both stood for a moment, looking at the nightmare tree.
It was so large it seemed to take up acres along the border between the land of dreams and the land of the dead. The notched branches flared out as if they were a million fingers of bone reaching up, and trying to scratch the very black out of the night sky.
“Stand under the branches,” Morpheus began.
“And don’t look up,” Lucas finished for him, remembering his last trip to the tree.
“Try not to get damned or cast into Tartarus or anything horrid like that, okay?” Morpheus said with genuine fondness.
“Thank you, Morpheus,” Lucas said sincerely. “I owe you.”
“You and Helen both,” Morpheus replied with a lazy wave of his hand. He turned and walked away, fading into the blur of the eye-teasing lights.
Lucas could hear the nightmares moving through the branches. He held his breath as a light feeling thrilled through him. He forced himself to walk under the branches, his legs marching forward in stiff little strides.
It was a cold fear he felt, responding to nightmares that didn’t threaten him in the usual way. The tree knew he wasn’t afraid of dying or pain as he had been the last time he stood under these branches. Those things were not what he truly feared anymore. This time, instead of claws and teeth scraping across the bark, Lucas heard familiar voices whispering above him.
He heard Matt. He heard Hector. He heard his aunt Pandora. He heard Helen weeping, “I’m bleeding,” over and over. The voices and the shapes of all the people who he had loved and lost hung over him in the branches of the nightmare tree.
Lucas was surprised that Matt’s presence and tone of voice were so familiar to him after just a few short months of friendship. But then, they had shared much more than just lunch tables and homework assignments. They had shared the last moment of Matt’s life, and because Lucas was the one who took it, he would carry a part of Matt with him forever.
“Hades!” Lucas called, forcing himself to shout over the sound of the nightmare-Helen’s crying. “Please, just hear me out!”
The nightmares went silent and disappeared. Lucas looked up to see Hades walking toward him. He stopped on his side of the border. It was the first time Lucas had ever seen the lord of the dead, yet when Hades pulled off the Helm
of Darkness and revealed Orion’s face, Lucas was not surprised. He’d already guessed at the connection between Hades and Orion.
What Lucas didn’t expect was to see Hades swaddled in shadows, exactly like the shadows Lucas made. While Lucas stared, Hades tucked the helmet that made him invisible under his arm. I can make myself invisible, Lucas thought.
Something clicked in his head. Lucas wanted to scream it was so ironic.