Then, Zeus intervened. I lived. Castor died, and I made the request—the request that resulted inthis. “I asked to share my immortality with you,” I told him. “I wanted to save you.”
“Does it look like I'm saved?” Castor asked angrily. “Here? Alone? I wouldn't have done this to you. I cared more for you than to curse you for eternity.”
I missed my brother, but hearing his anger made this more of a nightmare than a dream. At least I could see him. My memory of him wasn't totally gone.
“I didn't know.” All I had known was that I didn't want him to leave me. I didn't want him gone forever.
He dug his fists against his hips and let out a breath. His green eyes, the same sea green as mine, narrowed. “How are you here when you've never come before?”
“It's a dream,” I answered. Part of me wished it wasn't, because then my brother would be real. He'd be speaking to me. It didn't matter that what he said filled me with guilt. If I had done this to him, I deserved his anger.
He grunted but shook his head. “No, brother. It's not. This is my reality. But for the entirety of this half-life, no one has stepped foot in this world but me. Now, you're here.”
The world grew darker and he glanced up at the sky. “Something is changing.”
I followed his gaze to the clouds, watching them roil, darken, and gather. Lightning flashed and the wind picked up, whipping my brother's tunic and pushing his hair into his eyes.
“Something's different.” He studied me, eyes widening, and hurried to me. He clutched my wrists in his hands, squeezing hard. “I can feel you. You're real.”
“It's a dream,” I repeated, because what else could it be? I was riding in the car with my brothers and Leo.
“It isn't.”
I didn't know what to wish for—real or a dream? If this was real, we were talking. But if it was real, I'd also cursed him when I'd only wanted to save him.
“I'll make you believe me.” With a sharp tug, Castor twisted my arm, spinning me around until the joint at my shoulder gave way.
For a brief moment, I felt nothing, and then, like the lightning, pain flashed through my body as he yanked my arm from its socket.
Tightening his grasp on me, he suddenly jerked me forward and whispered, “Wake up.”
* * *
Pain followed me from my dream into waking. Heat, sharp and electric and inescapable, blasted along my nerve endings. I came to with a yell.
Leo cried out, jerking the wheel so I rocked into the seat and zinged my shoulder.
“Pull over!” Hector commanded, taking off his belt.
“Fuck,” I ground out. Leo was driving carefully, but every slight movement made me want to scream. “Fuck. Fuck.”
“How the bloody hell did you manage this?” Hector asked. He pushed my chest, pinning me to the back of the seat. He stared at my shoulder, and I glanced down.
“Fuuuuuck.” I drew the world out. I could see where my shoulder was out of joint, the ball pushing against and distorting my skin and muscle.
The van slowed as Leo drove off the highway and down an exit. In minutes, she'd found a place to pull over and stopped. Immediately, she shut off the van and spun in her seat. “What happened?”
“He’s dislocated his shoulder,” Hector answered. He peered at Paris and Achilles. “I need you to get out. I need room to move his arm. It's too crowded.”
Achilles slid the van door open and jumped outside. Leo remained where she was. “What can I do?” she asked.
“See if you can find a pharmacy. Some place with first aid items. We'll need to wrap his arm and shoulder after.”
“It'll heal too quickly.” Everything was on fire. “Hector. Fucking do it before it's stuck this way.”
Hector moved in front of me, squatting so we were eye-to-eye. “This is going to hurt.”
Wrapping his fingers around my wrist, he began to lift my arm. “Mother-fucking fucker!”