AllFreeNovel
Share Us
No one spoke a word. The only sound was my breathing, overly loud to my ears, the train wheels over the rails, and the muted wind rushing past.
“So?” I finally started. “Who’s going to tell me what’s going on?”
Pollux shifted to face me, opened his mouth, and then shut it again.
Orestes took my hand, and rather than answer my question, asked his own. “Are you hurt?” His quiet voice was deep, and raspy, like he had to push the sound past his vocal folds.
Was I hurt? I did a quick mental inventory of my body. My ribs ached, as if I had been squeezed too tight, and my lips felt thick and swollen. Every muscle in my body was tense, from my neck down to my toes. But I didn’t tell him that. “No. I’m fine.”
The other man sat across the aisle from us, in one of those bench seats that faced the seats across from it. We had another row in front of us, otherwise I might be afraid he’d jump the aisle so he could wrap his hand around my throat.
I glanced at him, and when I met his hazel-brown eyes, away. I faced Orestes, whose gaze was traveling all over me. He reached toward me, and I flinched.
He winced in response. “I’m sorry.”
I hadn’t meant to do that, but everything inside me was poised for flight. I shivered again, and he shifted, pulling his coat from one arm and then another. Draping it around my shoulders, he sat back. “We won’t let anything happen to you.”
“Why do you care?”
He’d begun to ease back into the seat, but froze when I spoke. It was a harsh question. And I hadn’t done anything to lighten it. My tone was rough, my voice rough. But all my edges were jagged right now, and my insides exposed to these men who were strangers.
Even if they didn’t feel like it.
“I care, Leo.” Pollux’s deep voice was quiet and firm. When I didn’t answer, he reached over to touch my knee. This time I didn’t move. “I don’t want anything to happen to you. Orestes doesn’t either. Didn’t he keep you from becoming road kill?”
“If that’s true, then how do you know him?”Him.The man who I was allowing to sit across from me without screaming for the police. What was wrong with me?
I reached into my pocket, searching for my phone.
“This?” the man asked. He held up the black phone out of my reach. Pollux held his hand out and the other man hesitated, just for a second, like this was a test.
Finally, he held it out, dropping it onto Pollux’s palm. “Feel free to call the police, but I’ll be gone by the time they get here. And you’ll have to explain how you know me.” He turned a lazy stare toward Orestes and Pollux. Daring.
Pollux gave it to me while holding that stare. “Go on, Leo. Call.”
My fingers trembled, sliding over the screen as I tried to unlock it.
“I can do it,” Orestes said, taking it from me. He hit the side button to override the lock screen.
Covering it, I stopped him. “Wait.”
I had to get my thoughts straight. That idea had me freezing. What if this was all in my head. I pinched Orestes.God.It was hard to get enough flesh to pinch. His side was pure muscle.
“Leo!” He twisted away from me.
“You’re real. So this isn’t a nightmare, or another hallucination. I don’t know if that’s good or bad.” How messed up was I that I preferred attempted murder to losing my sanity?
As if he could read my mind, the man smirked. Holding out my hand, I took my phone back from Orestes. “I want an explanation. How do you know each other?”
“We’re—” Pollux hesitated.Really?He was getting ready to lie to me already. Standing, I made to squish past them. He put a hand on my hip, nearly spanning the space from my side to my belly button and gave me a gentle push back. “Wait, Leo. It’s complicated.”
“We’ve been friends for a very long time, but before that, we were enemies,” the man answered, one eyebrow raised.
“Enemies.” There was a ring of truth in his tone, though I had no reason to trust him. I lowered myself into my seat. “Really.”
“Really,” he replied. “We fought each other in a war, a long time ago.”
“Achilles.” Orestes’ voice was like the hiss of a snake, warning him from elaborating.
