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And I fucking laughed. The ideaIcould start a war. It was so beyond fantastical. Hector’s chair flew across the kitchen, slamming into the counter to shatter into pieces.
“Steady on.” Achilles leaned back in his chair.
“You think it’s a joke? You know—out of every human on this earth—you know what can happen. And you just laughed.”
“Calm down, Hector.” Paris leaned forward, palms flat on the table. “I kissed her.Idid.”
Hector leaned down, closer and closer, until I was caught in his icy blue-eyed glare. “Get your shit. You’re leaving.”
Paris said something, but my pulse was thumping and my blood rushing so fast it roared in my ears.
“You forget that I’ve seen Helen,” I said. The words were quiet, too quiet, but Paris stopped speaking, and every face at the table turned in my direction. “I’m laughing because the idea that this—” I hated showing this weakness, but he had to understand I was no danger to any of them. I circled my face with my finger, and then gestured down my body. “There is no way I’m anything like Helen. And once you get to know me, both Pollux and Paris…”
Paris started to shake his head, which distracted me, but I nodded vehemently. “Yes, Paris. Once you get to know me, and see just what I am, you’ll move on. You want to have a conversation about the ingredients in the paint used at Delphi, I can do that. If you’re super into being lectured, I can do that, too. But I’m not comparable to Helen, in any way. And you won’t think about me again for the rest of your—well—infinity.”
Hector stared at me, gaze traveling over my face and down my body. He looked at me, really looked at me, and it took every ounce of self-control I had to stay in one spot. “Get your shit.”
Pushing my chair back, I made myself hold his gaze while I stood. My body was so hot, I knew I was as red as my hair. This was one of the more humiliating experiences of my life. Not the worst. But close.
Paris straightened. “This is my house, too, Hector. If you have a problem, you fucking leave.”
Achilles rocked back in his chair, crossing his arms. “I’m with the prince. You’re being a dick.”
Orestes nodded. “Hector. It’s not your business what she does. What any of us do. We don’t need your protection.”
All at once, the spark and fire in Hector was doused. He stood, stunned, as if trying to process what Orestes had said. Now, I was pissed. Hector had been straight-up mean, but I also had a heart. And I knew with every ounce of my being that Hector loved his brother and friends and that protecting them was what gave his life purpose.
If I let them choose me over him, it would destroy him.
“No.” I glanced at Orestes. “He’s right. You’re right, Hector. I need to go. I shouldn’t be here at all. I have a life in Oxford, and I’m ignoring it. I should have dropped the seal at your door, and left then.”
My throat burned, and I rushed from the room before they could see me cry. I ran up the stairs to the third floor where I grabbed my phone and computer, and left everything else.
The notebook.
The stone.
No one stopped me on the way to the guest room where I shoved everything I had into my bag. It probably took me all of ten minutes to collect my meager belongings and go downstairs. Low arguing filtered to me from the kitchen, but I didn’t try to listen. I didn’t want to.
This was for the best. Really, it was. I had to go to Oxford anyway, and see if I could salvage my career. Pollux and Paris would go back to being friends, and everything would be the way it should be.
I wasn’t needed here. I didn’t belong.
Pollux
As a rule, I wasn’t dramatic. But I couldn’t stay in the same house with Paris and Orestes and Achilles and the strangely-distant Hector while my emotions were going haywire.
Hector always left his keys in his car, so I jumped in and took off. I didn’t give a shit about the potholes or the mud or rain, I just needed to think.
It didn’t take more than a mile for me to come to terms with the idea that Paris saw something just as unique in Leo as I did. I hated that he saw it, but it was inevitable.
She knew the truth about us and hadn’t done anything I expected. She knew the story of my life, and hadn’t batted an eyelash when it had been revealed. There was the ancient Pollux, the son of Zeus, and there was the person I was now, who had been shaped by experiences lasting thousands of years. She accepted both parts of me.
And if she accepted me, she’d accept the rest of them. Look at how she’d forgiven Achilles.
No. It wasn’t the inevitability of my friends falling for Leo that had come as a surprise, it was that I didn’t know how to handle it.
I wasn’t going to bow out. Pulling over to the side of the road, I sucked in breath after breath. Thousands of years of stagnation and in a couple of months, everything changed.
