Page 65 of Icarus

Icarus splashed them with cold water until that was gone too.

He got dressed quickly and followed the sounds of cooking down to the kitchen.

Burnished

Helios was making pancakes. He’d set the long breakfast table with plates and cutlery, putting his plate and Icarus’s next to each other instead of across from each other. There was milk and juice and empty glasses.

Something in Icarus’s gut tightened at the sight.

“Do you like bananas? I’m making like a caramel thing for them,” Helios said.

Icarus sat down to watch him. “Yeah,” he replied quietly.

Helios took their plates to the stove and brought them back steaming.

“I’m not amazing at cooking,” Helios said, sitting down. “But I’m amazing at this specifically. I can make a waffle and French toast version too.”

Helios’s bananas Foster pancakes were rich and buttery; the bananas were mellow and spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg. There was even a dollop of fresh whipped cream.

“Is this homemade too?” Icarus asked, poking his spoon at the topping.

Helios immediately looked bashful. “I made it yesterday before you came.”

Icarus smiled and sat back in his chair. Helios, clearly anxious, turned his attention away from him and ate a bit faster, so Icarus decided to let this one go.

“I usually go back to sleep for a while after breakfast,” Helios admitted.

“You can still do that. I’ll make myself busy,” Icarus said. The storage room was waiting for him.

“Will you leave?” Helios asked, warily.

Icarus reached out to finger the edge of Helios’s sleeve. Helios turned toward him, bending down, close enough to touch but just far enough that they didn’t.

“I’ll stay,” Icarus said.

Stress

Icarus ran his finger over the banister and thought about his own fingerprints. He sat on the stairs and wondered why Mr. Black didn’t have cameras inside. His eyes scraped the corners of the ceilings, but like always, there were no telltale glints or hunks of plastic.

He remembered the first night he’d felt like he was being watched, felt the air disturbed, because Helios was here. Like everything had shifted to follow his orbit.

Icarus left Helios to sleep and went to the back stairs. He couldn’t steal the gold torque during this vacation. After his brutal lie about only stealing art, Icarus couldn’t chance the likelihood that Helios would catch him stealing something for money. Or worse, find it stashed in his bag. He would have to come back.

More, he wasn’t exactly sure how to break it to Helios that he was leaving. Or how to ask him to come with him. Or if Helios even could. He had been planning this escape for himself for so long that making major renovations to it seemed unwise. Icarus really wasn’t the reckless type, he was cautious. Always.

But even thinking about disappearing and leaving Helios here in this mess made him feel so guilty he had been avoiding thinking about it whenever he could. Even the torque hadn’t crossed his mind in—

Icarus was halfway down the stairs when he saw it.

The disc was gone. Orpheus Losing Eurydice.

Heart racing, he flew down the stairs to the table it had been sitting on. It was a messy job. There was a small scrape on the wood, like the person who had lifted the disc didn’t have a sure grip.

Icarus didn’t touch anything. He held his hands up to make sure of that and backed away from the table. He abandoned his plans for the torque and left the foyer. There was something going on that he didn’t understand, but it felt dangerous. Even being in this part of the house felt . . .

Icarus looked around the edges of the walls, in the corners, around every individual object, searching for changes or reflections, looking for the camera he was so sure was there. He didn’t see anything. But he wasn’t perfect.

He had been walking around this house with his balaclava off this entire time, but he hadn’t done anything illegal in here yet. Even if the entire house had cameras, Helios was near him visibly acting like he was a guest. Even if Mr. Black threatened Helios into confessing about the break-ins, the same tapes that would show him here would also show Helios enjoying his company. It might mean some kind of punishment for both of them, but it shouldn’t land him in a cell.