Chapter Thirteen
Thalia
I’d been duped.
Tristan spun us around the dance floor, and while it was very romantic, I needed a break. I needed to sit. I let go of him and walked over to a chair.
“I can’t believe I fell for it.” I should have known. I felt so stupid.
“How could you have known? You can’t feel souls like I can. And even as strange as it sounds, to be hanging out with your son in the dream world, anything can happen. Time travel, even in dreams, is forbidden. To break that law of the world would cause devastation.” He was trying to make me feel better. I knew it sounded crazy but with everything that had been happening, I thought this was something real. Not fake. Then a thought hit me.
“He said she isn’t here. Oh God, Tristan, do you think they know about our daughter, too?” We had been trying to keep that a secret from the gods.
“I’m not sure.” His face turned hard as stone. Tears started rolling down my cheeks. I just wanted them to be born so I could protect them, and hope that this will all end when their beautiful faces gaze upon the world. The gods surely couldn’t be so cruel as to kill babes in cold blood once they looked at them.
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t look into this when he first appeared. I failed your heart this time, Thalia. It aches, and I hate to see you so sad.” I shook my head, hearing the sadness in his voice.
“It’s not your fault. I should have been more cautious.” It was the truth. I figured I was safe in my dreams, guessing that was the one place they couldn’t touch me. I was wrong. I’m so glad our son had brought Tristan in to see what was happening. I touched my stomach and thanked him silently. Tristan kneeled down in front of me and kissed my belly.
“Thank you Ren.” He knew where my train of thought had been, and had to say it too.
“What now?” I felt like every step we took in the right direction, something would happen, and would knock us back a few. I was tired, so tired of it all. I’m glad the babies were growing rapidly. I couldn’t take nine months of this.
“Take me out of the dreams; I just want to sleep dreamlessly for the rest of the night, please.” I just needed a break. I was starting to feel overcooked. He nodded and grasped my hand. I felt myself start to relax, and I closed my eyes, ready to not think or dream for a few hours.
I woke up with an urgent need to pee. I leaped out of the bed and relieved myself. I could hear voices echoing down the hall but didn’t feel up to being around people right now. I loved my friends, but being tricked in my dream had hit me hard last night. Once Tristan took me out of the dream world I slept well, but I couldn’t sleep forever. I had to wake up and face the fact that I had let someone trick me. I didn’t think I was naïve, but I was feeling the fool right now.
I took a deep breath and went out to sit on the bed, looking at the clock perched on the nightstand.
“Ok, five minutes.” I was giving myself that time to be upset about what happened. After that, I was going to move on, and was going to be strong for my friends and family.
Obviously, Morpheus was trying to accomplish something. He really didn’t want me to take off my ring. Why? The rings gave me control over my powers, and my mind that was at war with itself otherwise. I could stay in the underworld, and I was immortal. If I took it off, I would be just a normal demigod. So wouldn’t he want me to take them off? I was confused about that, and decided I would talk to our crew about it later.
What if they knew about us having twins?
I hoped they didn’t, I truly did. But if they did, then we would have to stick to our plan and that was that. We were having twins. That wasn’t going to change just because they knew about them.
“I won’t let anyone dupe me like that again, I swear,” I told the babes and looked at the clock. My five minutes was up. I was going to move on and prepare for whatever was next. Dressing myself in a long maxi dress, I walked out into the main living space to see everyone was gathered in the living room, talking, and going over plans. Food sounded good, so I made myself a sandwich, and then made my way over to the couch to join their discussion.
“Morning, sunshine.” Lacey smiled and blew me a kiss.
“How are you feeling?” Tristan asked, looking at me with concern in his eyes. I know he felt my unease, but gave me the space I wanted.
“I’m all right now. I had my moment to feel foolish. Did you update everyone?” I wanted to get down to business. He shook his head no, so I took a bite of my sandwich and listened as Tristan told everyone that Morpheus, the Greek god of dreams, had infiltrated mine and was up to something.
Orion and Leander both expressed their thoughts on what the plan could be. While they had good ideas, none of it held any merit. Morpheus really hadn’t done anything shady besides the whole ring promise thing. That was it. Feeling hungry still, I went to the kitchen and grabbed an apple to cut up.
“Best option is to keep with our plan and wait it out. You can guard her in her dreams, and we can protect her during the day.” Orion gave it to us straight and Leander agreed with him. Tristan was not the strategist in our crew. He was just the most powerful. Lacey was there for whatever support we needed her for, and I was thankful for that. She was still smiles and happiness, something we could use around to keep morale up. When our talk had come to an end, Orion retreated to his room, and Leander went to the kitchen.
“So I was thinking…We need to get this place ready for some babies, right? How about we send the boys out to get baby stuff, and we can start decorating?” Lacey moved to sit next to me and wrapped her arm around mine. Baby stuff? I smiled, that was exactly what I needed.
“I think it’s a great idea, but I doubt they would leave us.” I countered.
“We have the hunter to protect us, plus the dog. They won’t be gone long. What do you boys think?” She looked at Tristan and the food-stuffed face of Leander. My eyes were focused on Tristan’s. I could see that he didn’t want to leave me, but he also did want to do this.
“Okay.” A computer appeared in front of us with a baby store’s website pulled up on the screen.
“Make a list of what you would like, and we will get it.” He was smiling and I leapt into his arms. I needed this so much. Pulling back, I looked at him with a question on my mind.
