He led us back through the depressing halls, out onto the deck. I should have brought something warmer with me, but I'd left my bag in the van. I'd been so focused on the books I would need, I left my clothes.
Pollux put his arm around my shoulders. “Where were we in your dream?” he asked, “Someplace warm?”
“I don't know,” I said, shrugging. “My dream was very boring, unfortunately. You were in a dull green field under a gray sky, and you looked angry or irritated, at the very least.”
He froze. “A dull green field under a gray sky?”
I nodded. “Not warm, not cold. Not anything. It was very boring. You were the only one there.”
“That wasn't me.” His voice came out quiet and ragged.
“What do you mean?”
“You dreamed about my brother, Castor. Stuck between realms of existence.” He stared at the books in his hands for a moment before lifting his eyes to meet mine. “He has been there since his death, and he'll remain there for eternity.”
“Half of immortality?” I asked. That was what Zeus had demanded Pollux give him to take his twin from the Underworld.
“Yes,” he answered. He shook his head and swallowed hard. “I damned him to that plane, but I never saw him until we left England. I never dreamed of him before, and then suddenly, both of us do?” His eyes widened. “Could I free him, Leo? Do you think that's what these dreams mean?”
I didn't know.
The wind blew harder, and rain pelted the deck. He dropped his arm from around my shoulders to stuff the books under one, then shoved his hands in his pockets. “We trap the gods and want them to stay trapped, but my twin, who never deserved this fate, is stuck somewhere I can't reach him.”
“We don't know that,” I answered quickly. “We haven't tried yet.”
“You think we should?” he asked.
“Yes.” The answer came quickly. The rain was falling faster now, obscuring my vision. I hunched my shoulders against the wind and water. “If there’s a way to free your brother, then we have to do that. Just like we have to make sure the gods stay where they are. Or we kill them forever...” I trailed off. “There are no gods who have been killed forever, are there?” I glanced at the copy ofTheogonyhe still held under his arm. “All the gods have trapped the ones who came before them. It's easy to forget that Zeus and his pantheon are not the first. They're not even the second.”
The ship's horn blasted again a second before the ship listed. The movement wasn't jarring, but the deck was wet, and I lost my balance. I stumbled on the now slippery deck, but there was nothing to grab. Reaching for me, Pollux dropped the books. I grabbed for his hand, but only our fingers touched before the horn blasted again.
I lost my footing and went down hard. The back of my head hit the deck, knocking me so hard I saw stars, and then nothing.
Leo
“Why are you here?” Pollux asked.
His voice sounded strange. I opened my eyes and found myself staring up at a gray, overcast sky.
“Well?”
I flicked my gaze downward and met light green eyes regarding me from a familiar face. The expression, though, was unfamiliar. Different.
New.
“Castor?”
Eyes wide, the man sat back. “You were here before. Who are you?”
Moving carefully, I sat up. I studied the land and the sky. No one and nothing. Not even the grass blew with a breeze.
Castor grabbed my shoulder, shaking gently. “You know my name. Who are you?”
I faced him. “Leonora Ophidia. I am your brother's...” It seemed complicated to tell him what exactly I was to his brother, so I settled on, “I am your brother's.”
“My brother's?” His gaze raked me, but his face gave nothing away. It reminded me of the first time I met Pollux and how he had kept all his thoughts close to his chest. “Perhaps that's why you're here, then. He didn't believe me. And when he didn't return, I was nearly certain of it.”
“You hurt him.” Pollux’s cry of pain after his arm had been yanked out of his socket was easy to remember.