Dreamless

Hector with a touch of excitement. “And now all the gods must know that if it could happen to Ares, it could happen to them. They should fear us. For a change.”
    Helen watched her mother worrying her lower lip between her fingers as she paced, deep in thought. It was almost as if Daphne wanted this war, but why? Daphne was a lot of things, but suicidal was not one of them. Helen banished the notion, convincing herself that Daphne was happy only because there was a chance that the gods might try to avoid a war now that they were threatened with Tartarus. That had to be it. Pinching her swollen eyes shut as she tried to clear her throbbing head, Helen felt Lucas take her hand and squeeze it briefly to get her attention.
    “My dad said Jerry and the twins are awake now,” he said softly. His forehead creased when he saw Helen’s eyes swim. “Are you okay?”
    Helen smiled at him and shook her head. She wasn’t okay. None of them was. She held out her other hand and took Orion’s.
    “Want to meet my dad?” she asked him.
    “Yeah. I guess you should meet mine, too,” he said, but he didn’t look too excited about it. He looked sad. Orion’s head bobbed forward and he blinked a few times, trying to stay conscious.
    “Okay. Time to go,” Castor said, his face furrowed with worry. “The three of you are in really bad shape. We need to get you back to ’Sconset. Daphne? Hector? Let’s go.”
    Helen, Lucas, and Orion were still too weak to stand, and needed to be carried back to Nantucket. Helen fought it at first, but then moments after Daphne picked her up, Helen was overcome with exhaustion. She hadn’t expected it, but Daphne’s arms were much more familiar than she could have imagined.
    Glancing first at Orion and then letting her eyes land on Lucas, Helen let her head rest against Daphne’s shoulder and fell asleep to the soothing rhythm of her mother’s heart.

Credits
    Cover photo 2012 by Lara Jade Photography
Cover design by Erin Fitzsimmons

Copyright
    Dreamless
    Copyright © 2012 by Josephine Angelini
    All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
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    Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.
    ISBN 978-0-06-201201-2
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    FIRST EDITION
    EPub Edition © MAY 2012 ISBN: 9780062114358

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