Page 85 of The Shadow Gods

“You choose him,” Achilles said. He reached over and squeezed Pollux's shoulder. “That is your choice. He is your twin.”

“And you're my brother.” Pollux shook his head. “If it comes to that...”

My stomach twisted and throat got tight. In those seconds, I realized what a liability my feelings were. It would put all of them in an awful spot to make an unimaginable choice.

Shutting my eyes tight, I tried not to panic. Second after second passed, but I pushed it down. “They want us freaking out about things we can't control,” I finally got out. “Like you said, they're playing games again.” I opened my eyes to find both Achilles and Pollux watching me. “We can't let them distract us. We're going to get Castor out of there. Then we're going to kill them.”

Achilles's smile became wicked, and his eyes twinkled. “Bloody right we will.”

Pollux had dropped my bag on the floor. “Can you get that for me?”

He reached down, and I took it. In the front, he'd stuffed the books he'd been holding for me. I took outTheogonyand held it up. “I realized something as I was reading.” I opened it, flipping to the pages where I'd read about Zeus overthrowing his creators. “There was a war, fought between Olympians like Zeus and Athena and Poseidon and their parents—the Titans. Zeus and Athena aren't the first gods to exist. They're not even the second. The children of gods have been overthrowing them since forever.” I looked at both of them, holding their gazes so they could read how deadly serious I was. “You can kill them.” I cleared my throat. “We can kill them.”

They didn't say anything, and I couldn't tell what they were thinking.

“And who takes their place?” Achilles asked, finally. “Because, in those stories, the old gods are replaced by new ones.”

“No one,” I replied. “We don't need them. These last centuries upon centuries, mortals have done plenty of damage without the gods’ help. Anything that happens to us is due to our choices. Not their whims. We live or die and only have ourselves to blame.” They both nodded, but Pollux frowned, and that look didn't leave his face.

“I think that we're going to find the answers in Corfu,” I said. “I can't say why or how, but I feel it.” Pressing my hands to my stomach, I added, “I just know.”

Pollux

That was twice now. Twice when I’d stood right next to Leo while something happened to her. I never doubted my skill before, but my inability to protect the one person I cared about was killing me.

Leo handed me her book, short-nailed finger pointing to a passage. “Start reading there. Maybe you'll see something I don't.”

I smiled at the command in her voice and took up right where she said to. The problem was, I couldn't keep my thoughts on the words. Over and over, they went to the second she’d slipped, and I'd struggled to pull my hands out of my pockets to catch her. The sound of her head hitting the deck made me wince, even now.

When—in those seconds between the sound and her wince—had she seen my brother? How could she be in danger, and yet exist right in front of me?

“I'm okay,” she muttered.

I caught the quick glance that Achilles shot our way before he closed his book. “I'm going to find the others. They'll want to hear what happened, but I think I'll buy them a drink when I tell them. It'll probably take a while.”

Narrowing my eyes, I watched him calmly leave. Right as he shut the door, our eyes met. He stared at me, long and hard, trying to tell me something. When I widened mine, confused, he rolled his. He gazed hard at Leo, then me, then back to Leo...

Oh.

Oh.

Cheeky fucking bastard. He was giving me a chance.

The door closed behind him, and the moment it did, Leo shut her book. “Are you okay?”

My mind had gone from myths of Zeus and his sire, to how long it would take me to strip her out of those pants. Beyond that, I wasn't focusing on much else. “I'm fine.”

The bed squeaked as I shifted to see her. She drew one leg between us and pulled a pillow onto her lap. “I'm sorry.”

The pillow was hiding too much of her body, so I took it from her and stuffed it behind my head while drawing her against me. Leaning back against the headboard, I held her tight so her head rested on my chest.

I breathed her in and shut my eyes. I could stay like this forever. It was heaven. My cock hardened and I shifted.

Leo lifted her chin until our eyes could meet. “Are you mad? Not just about Castor, but everything. We never finished our conversation in Bologna.”

"No." I repeated it, so she knew how serious I was. "No.I never finished what I started to explain." That day, I'd wondered aloud if I should have kept her a secret from my friends. In the days after that, I realized that sharing her was the only way I could let myself love her. They were a safety net, allowing me to take a leap. Someone would catch Leo if I couldn't. No one else was strong enough to protect her. "It hadn't mattered after Poseidon appeared."

"It matters to me." She turned her head and kissed my shirt. "I don't want to hurt you, and I'm afraid that being withallof you is hurtingyou."

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