Page 51 of You Can't Fight Lightning
His shoulders hunched up. “Hypnos.” He says the name like I should know it.
“What?”
“Hypnos. The god of sleep. I asked him to give you a week’s worth of good sleep. You said you hadn’t been sleeping.” His broad, beefcake shoulders moved up and down in a shrug.
Why did he have to be such a perfect specimen of a man? I mean to look at. “You asked another god to drug me?”
“No. I asked him to gift you with restful sleep.”
“And not dreams?”
“Why does everyone assume I want to get in your dreams?” He wasn’t calm any longer but annoyed.
“Don’t you? Or turn into a toad, or a newt?” I knew it wasn’t true—he’d favored bulls and swans and showers of light—but I wanted to be snarky. To poke at him, make him hurt like he’d hurt me.
One thing I knew about Zeus was that he was proud, that his pride got in the way of smart decision making. If he was Zeus, if this was real—I couldn’t even believe I was thinking this might be anything other than the ravings of a crazed man—his pride would be wounded.
I wanted him to feel the wound.
“I don’t favor amphibians.” Z’s words were easy, but his tone told me I’d scored at least a point.
Why didn’t it make me feel better?
Why didn’t any of this make me feel better?
“I wouldn’t either. Slimy, damp and gross? Not exactly the pinnacle of romance.” I crossed my arms in front of me, cocking out my hip as I rolled my eyes, the picture of feminine scorn. If my hair were up in curlers, the stereotype would be complete.
“I’m sorry. I’m not doing anything with magic. I wanted to do this… to be human. Like you.”
I laughed. “And this is how you do it? Tell me this story, and say, oops, no magic? Z, you need to leave and seek help.”
He took a few steps closer to me, throwing his face into relief against the light behind him. “What would it take for you to believe me?”
It was good to see that Z looked as miserable as I felt.
I threw up my hands. “Well, surprise me! After all, you’re a god, right?”
Z’s lips pressed together, as though he were holding back from saying what he wanted to say. Then he stepped right in front of me and reached out a hand toward me. “Will you take my hand?”
“Why?” I tucked my hands harder under my arms.
“I can show you that I’m not lying to you. All you have to do is take my hand.”
I stared at him, trying to figure out if he was just bullshitting me some more, and what the harm would be if I held the hand for just a minute of a guy clearly not with it.
Slowly, my hand moved toward his. When my fingers touched his palm, he wrapped his fingers around my hand. “Close your eyes.”
“What? No way!”
Then everything went black.
I closed my eyes.
Air whirled around me, cool and full of the night sounds. Then it lightened, and I could feel the sun on my face. “What?” I whispered as I opened my eyes.
We weren’t in Bisbee anymore.
“Where are we?” My voice came out as a croak, as though I were one of the toads I’d goaded Z about just a few moments ago.
