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“That Conor was in it.” This, my dad says with no emotion, all of it hidden, tucked away.
“Andthe kitten. The kitten has a thing for the gates. It goes through them every time. And when it goes through, Daisy has a seizure.”
“I don’t want to be the one to say this,” Poseidon starts.
“Don’t,” Ashley says.
“But is there a case for—”
“Poseidon.”
“Taking out the kitten? For fuck’s sake. One dream kitten shouldn’t be this much of a problem.”
“You think Daisy should go into her dream and kill a kitten?” Zeus is horrified.
“No. I think she should…you know. Take it out. Take it…somewhere else. Away from this stone room. You can’t negotiate with cats. That’s why we don’t have one. If this cat has a death wish—”
“How do you know it’s death through the gates?” My mom’s soft, and thoughtful, and her question sends a bolt of ice down my spine.
“Because it is,” I tell her. It’s a weight off my shoulders, and it’s awful, because this is the one thing I won’t tell her. I won’t tell any of them. “It is.”
“The gates show the nightmares,” Hercules answers, his hold softer on my hand, thumb moving over my knuckles. “I saw my mom through them, after she was dead. And Ollie.”
A tear leaks out of the corner of my eye and lands on my dad’s shirt. “I never saw that.”
“What do you see?” My dad asks.
I shake my head, which hurts, then shake it harder.
“Okay,” he says. “Okay.”
“So.” Poseidon says around what must be a mouthful of sandwich. “This is fucked.”
Zeus sighs. “If only two people have ever seen the dreams—”
“It’s more than two,” I say, at the same time as my dad.
I put my hand on his chest. Is hekidding? He has to be kidding. “What?”
“I didn’t see the room.” His heart speeds up again. “That’s not what I dreamed about.”
Somehow, my mom’s touching both of us now. “Was it Rosie?”
It’s such a gentle question, but my dad’s chest hitches. He’s quiet for way too long before he clears his throat.
“No. It was Conor. But the scenario was the same.”
“How did it end for you?” Hercules is the most tentative I’ve ever heard him.
“He came back,” my dad says simply. “Was that you?”
“Daisy asked me to stop him from going through the gates, so I did.”
There’s athud.
“Poseidon, get up off the floor,” chides Ashley.
“I can’t.” He sounds miserable. “I can’t. You want me to shoot somebody from the bow of a moving ship? Fine. You want me to beat up an asshole? Any day of my life. If it’s both of them, then—ouch. You motherfucker, you can’tkickme when I’m on the floor.”
