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I shook my head. “That’s not what I meant. The Furies are punishment for crimes. They don’t judge the crimes.”
“Something changed,” Orestes replied. “I know they were punishment, Hector. I accepted their punishment, as much as I ran away from it. But with Leo, something changed. It was as if they weighed my punishment. Maybe they’d punished me long enough. I don’t know. Whatever it was, something changed…” He trailed off, and sucked in a breath. “Do you feel that?” he asked, suddenly.
I paused, turning in a slow circle. There was light traffic, and a few pedestrians in the distance, but that was it. Nothing that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. “No. What is it?”
Orestes shrugged. “I can’t explain it. Feels like the air is heavier. Maybe a storm is coming in.”
I breathed in and scanned the sky, but it was bright with stars. Didn’t mean something wasn’t coming, though.
After a moment, he started walking again, a little faster, and in no time, he was unlocking Pollux’s door.
It was a good thing he had a key, because I didn’t.
Inside, Paris and Pollux were talking in low tones, standing in the living room. “Is Achilles with you?” Paris asked when he saw us.
“No,” Orestes answered. “He’s probably still with Leo. Did you call?”
Both of them nodded, something on their faces that was akin to jealousy, but without the anger. Wanting, maybe.
Yeah. If he wasn’t answering his phone, I had a good idea of what he was doing. Something stabbed me in the chest at that. Heat blasted down my spine, and I took off the jacket I’d thrown on earlier to push up the sleeves of my sweater.
“I hope heat is included in your rental,” I said, which earned a glare from Pollux. “You keep that on blasting?”
Striding toward the thermostat, he frowned. “It’s not on.”
It was making me sticky and uncomfortable. I ignored Pollux’s comment, instead going to the window and sliding it up.
“What are we doing here?” It was the same thing I asked Orestes, but now I questioned the group.
“Leo needs us.” Paris’s answer was concise.
“For what?” I asked. “A meeting? She doesn’t need you for that. What are you thinking you’ll do? Present the shard she found?” The shard currently locked away in a lead box underneath my cottage? “We can’t do that. No one can know about it.”
Paris was already shaking his head. “No, that’s not what I meant. She doesn’t know what’s going to happen and her career, her work, it’s everything to her. If something bad happens, if they try to take it away from her, I want to be there.”
It was a fucking sauna in this place. I sat on the edge of the window, waiting for a breeze, but the night was dead still.
Orestes shifted uneasily, rocking forward and back on his heels. “Something’s not right.” He canted his head to one side, listening.
Pollux came to the window, hands in his pockets, and bent to look outside. “Fucking weird out there. Quiet.” As he stood, he studied me. “You don’t look well.”
I wasn’t feeling well. Sweat was dripping down my back. I ripped my sweater off, tossed it on the floor and let out a breath. But the heat seemed to be coming from inside me, radiating from my blood.
No one said a word as I tried to pull myself together, though I felt their eyes on me. I went to the kitchen, poured a glass of water, and guzzled it down.
It was like standing under the summer sun in Troy. The last time I felt this heat was right before Achilles ended my life, as I stared down the general who was blessed by the gods.
“Orestes is right,” Pollux announced. I faced him, but he was staring at the other man whose golden eyes seemed so light, they glowed.
Gods.Theywereglowing.
“Your eyes,” I whispered.
Orestes shut them, pressed his heels against them, but when he opened them they were just as bright.
I had my mobile out of my pocket at the same time Paris said, “Call Achilles.”
I connected the call, but he didn’t answer. I tried again. Nothing.
