Page 6 of The Brothers Bane

She says the last bit with emphasis, letting me know she’s fully aware of where I’ve been.

“Anyway,” she says, turning away. “I’ll let you get settled in. My bunk’s the one nearest the door if you need me. Breakfast is at eight in the main hall where we were earlier.”

I reach out and grab her arm as she turns to go. “When can I see Alcides?”

She shakes her head. “It isn’t up to me. Sleep well, Nemea.” She rests her hand atop mine, then disappears back out the door.

3

Nemea

The feeling of being unmoored intensifies now that Mel is gone. For several beats, I stare at the duffel and the locker I’ve been assigned, then start to unpack. As promised, I find towels, toiletries, and clothing: two sets of undergarments, and two sets of the same dark clothing I saw the women wearing in the barn—including cargo pants, tank tops, and a pullover—and sweats. When I open the locker, I find a pair of boots inside. Skeptical, I inspect them and find them in my size.

I don’t know why that should surprise me, but it does, and yet it is comforting to be in a place that pays attention to such details.

I pull out a towel and the toiletry bag, stowing everything else in the locker, then stash my satchel on top of it all. I don’t have much of value inside it aside from my sketches and pencils, anyway.

Once I’m standing under the spray of hot water, the exhaustion hits, magnifying the sense of being overwhelmed by everything that’s happened over the past few days. Has it been onlydays? I wish I’d asked Mel what the date was. Don’t visitors to the Underworld lose time? Maybe I’ve been gone ages and the world Alcides brought me back to is years in the future.

But no… that can’t be right. They said something about the Titans making a demand that they’d come to collect on in a week. If they need me to be ready to fight, we only have a week to do it in.

Thatreminder only hits me even harder, and the tears start to flow unbidden. My gut’s a tangled knot of confusion and uncertainty, and the longer I stand under the hot spray, the tighter and tighter it grips me, until I’m doubled over. I brace one hand on the wet concrete floor, staring down at the water flowing into the drain while I clutch my middle, trying to suppress the silent sobs. Beneath my hand, my tattoo twists, coiling tentacles tighter around my upper arm as if in comfort. The ground trembles under my touch and my breath hitches.

No. I can’t lose control like this. Not when it might hurt someone without me meaning to. But it’s nearly impossible to rein it in now, no matter how hard I grit my teeth.

“Hello?” a light, accented voice similar to Mel’s calls through the steamy air. I inhale sharply, then scrub my wet hands over my face, pushing my hair back.

“S-sorry,” I say through sniffles. “I didn’t mean to wake anyone.” Thankfully the shaking earth calms, making me wonder whether it was all in my head.

“I’m a night owl, so no harm done. Everyone else is pretty dead to the world right now. I just came in to pee and heard you crying. I wanted to see if you were okay. The first night here is always the hardest.”

I peek over my shoulder and see the back of a woman in sweats and a tank top, her curly, dark golden hair clipped up at the back of her head.

She turns her head slightly, but keeps her eyes fixed on the wall.

“I’m not that modest,” I say with a chuckle. I’m finally able to take a breath and rise, then turn and tilt my head back to wet my hair properly.

She shrugs. “I didn’t want you to feel put on the spot or anything. My name is Ele.” It sounds more like she’s describing her name than telling me what it is. I must look confused, because she smiles and explains, “It’s short for Eleutheria. My mother is fond of symbolism. It meansfreedom.”

“Ah, I’m in touch with that. My name is Nemea. My mom had a thing for lions. Or Greece. Or both—I’m not sure. Though she never left the state she was born in,” I answer, inspecting the assortment of bottles in the toiletry bag, but only finding lotion and toothpaste.

“Shampoo is on the wall,” Ele says.

I glance at her, then to where she’s pointing. A trio of dispensers are bolted to the wall beside the faucet. I was so wrapped up in my own torment that I hadn’t even registered them when I came in.

“That’s handy,” I comment.

She seems to hesitate when I turn back to face her, lathering shampoo into my hair. Finally, she speaks.

“And I know who you are. I was there when they captured you. I… ah… was the one who grabbed you. Mel subdued your companion.”

She says “your companion” in a forced way, as if she’s not willing to say his name out loud.

“We were kind of sneaking around. I didn’t know where he was bringing me, but now that I do, I’m not surprised by the welcome party. At least it feels more welcoming now than it did at first. You’ve even got fucking shampoo dispensers in all the shower stalls.”

She relaxes. “We do our best. You may not get a shower curtain, but at least we’ve got halfway decent shampoo and conditioner. If you need something special in the way of bath products, just ask.”

“I’m pretty low maintenance,” I say. “You don’t have to stay and keep me company.” I tilt my face into the water and rinse. When I look at her again, I find her leaning with her hip against the low sandstone wall between the stall I chose and the one next to it. Her eyes are wide and fixed on my side.

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