Page 57 of Aïdes the Unseen
I didn’t stop walking.
“Pollux,” I said without turning.
He laughed. “That’s not the name I’m using this time.”
“Don’t care.”
“Rude. I came all the way to the surface, and you don’t even offer me a coffee?”
“I didn’t invite you.”
“I go where the threads pull.”
I paused then, just for a second. That was the problem with gods like him. They didn’t lie. Not exactly. They just told the truth in the most weaponized form they could devise.
I turned.
Pollux still lounged, perfectly relaxed, like a cat on a sun-warmed ledge. There was far more pressure beneath the surface, crouched within him just behind his spine. One of the Dioscuri,he had shared his immortality with his human twin. They were rarely without the other, though together they had warranted a place in the stars.
“You’re early,” I said.
“That’s twice today you’ve said that. Maybe the clock isn't broken. Maybe you’re justlate.” The insouciance infusing his quip dared me to act.
“She’s not ready.” And he should damn well know that. His gift with travelers made him as likely to be one of those who stole her away at the moment of her death. One who could act in those few precious seconds when her soul was just out of my reach, before she could truly re-enter the Underworld.
“She never is.” His eyes sharpened. Yet, he didn’t seek to deny his presence or offer me weak excuses. “That’s not the point.”
I didn’t respond. The street around us blurred slightly. A lens shift, too subtle for mortals to notice, but I saw it. The barrierbetweenwas thinning. Not unheard of, but not expected either. More shifts this time. More changes. The pattern seemed to finally be breaking after all these centuries.
“Let me guess,” Pollux said, his voice almost kind. “You think this time will be different. You think this incarnation will choose you and the bloom will open and stay that way.” He straightened then, far too smooth and confident. “Let me save you the trouble, Skotos. She’s already being watched and not just by you.”
My chest went still. Mywill. “Stay away from her.”
He grinned, all teeth now. “I’m not here for her. I'm here for the momentafter. When she breaks. When she remembers too much too fast, and the world you’ve so carefully manicured around her begins to burn. I’ll be there to offer a different path.”
I stepped toward him, not a threat but a warning. “I’ll end you before you touch her.” This time, suspicion would be enough.
Pollux’s smile didn’t move, but the air around him did. Slightly. It was as if it bowed—to me, not him.
“You could try,” he said lightly. “But I’m not your shadow anymore, Graven. Not since Prague. Not since the gate burned in reverse.”
I didn’t flinch, but the memories still tore through me like teeth.
“I know about the dog,” he added softly. “It’s almost cute that you don’t.”
That stopped me cold.
He turned to go then, brushing imaginary dust off his shirt. “Be careful with hope, Skotos. It starts small and then it eatseverything.”
He vanished with the next flicker of the traffic lights. No sound. No trace. The world around me resettled, and sound rushed back in.
I’d just been warned—whether Pollux meant to do it or the universe offered me a boon—I would take it.
What the hell had I missed? And how much time did I truly have left?
Chapter
Eleven
