I hated it. Hated that they had a shared story. That she could pick up right where he left off, and why the fuck was he staring at her like that?
She glanced at me. It was a natural pause, a place where I should add some detail, ask for clarification, but my throat was closed and my body was hot, and gods help me, but I couldn’t say or do anything that wasn’t ripping Orestes apart, limb by limb.
“Pollux?” She touched my elbow, and I startled. The pressure burned me, and I pulled away.
“What are you doing here?” I asked Orestes.
Her pink lips tightened and turned down briefly—hurt, probably because I ignored her. But I couldn’t think straight. Pushing my hand through my hair, I examined the street. I should have done it before, but her fear, and my shock, made those age-old habits disappear.
“Are you alone?” He had no reason to tell me, but as off-balance as I was, I had to believe he was, too.
“Yes.”
Good.If I took him at his word, I didn’t have to worry about Achilles, or Paris, charging out of the darkness.
“Whatareyou doing here?” Leo asked. “In my building? And how do you know each other?” A shiver ran through her body, and she stepped closer to me. Gods, what that did to me. I found myself standing straighter, moving slightly in front of her.
The jealousy morphed into something more personal, more protective.
“I—” he began, when she flinched. It was a microscopic tensing of all her muscles, like someone had pinched her. Her gaze went distant, then snapped back into place.
“Are you following me?” she asked. “I know you don’t live here.” Her voice shook, then she flinched again. Harder. The tremor running through her body vibrated against mine. Slapping her hands over her ears, she slammed her eyes shut.
It was happening again. Whatever had hit her in the moments before Orestes emerged from the apartments, she was experiencing again.
“What’s happening?” Orestes asked. I ignored him. It couldn’t be concern he felt. He was here to kill her, after all.
She folded in on herself, hands over her ears, head buried between her elbows as she went to her knees. “No,” she whispered. “I’m not. I’m not.”
A whimper left her lips. I went to the ground with her, held her tight, but her entire body seized, trembling so hard I could barely hold her in place.
“I’m not!” she cried. “I never murdered anybody!”
Orestes fell. Like Leo, his legs appeared to be swept right out from under him. He landed next to me, on all fours. Every iota of his being lasered in on Leo. He studied her, and with a flash, I saw what he saw.
Himself.
“How?” I asked. I gathered Leo back into my lap, held her. She wouldn’t remember this, so I allowed myself to press my lips to her silky hair. She smelled so good. I breathed her in.
“I don’t know,” he answered. “I don’t hear them.”
Them.The Furies. Orestes’ eternal punishment for a crime he committed before humans even conceived of time.
For his entire immortal existence, the goddesses of vengeance pursued Orestes, reminding him of the murder he’d been forced to commit. If I could have flung them into the sea along with the rest of the pantheon, I would have. But somehow, perhaps because of their tie to Orestes, they’d escaped the fate of the other gods.
“Then how does she?” I asked. I covered her hands with my own, as if that would help. It wouldn’t. I knew as much.
He reached for her, as if to comfort her, but I shifted away from him.Mine.She was mine to protect. He’d only come here to hurt her. I wouldn’t let him.
A breath left her lips as her body sagged. She leaned against me, allowing me to take her weight.
“You’re okay.” It was the same thing I’d told her earlier, the first time it happened. The first time her eyes had met mine with such trust.
“It’s my burden,” Orestes whispered. “Not hers.”
He wasn’t talking to me, but to them. Not that the Furies ever listened to him or saw anything besides his crime. If they did, they’d have stopped tormenting him long ago.
Releasing a breath, Leo slowly lifted her head. Her face was red and tear-stained.Gutted.It went right into my stomach and twisted.