Page 88 of The Gods Forbid

I wasn’t sure there weren't literal waves of heat shooting out from him, as deadly as a solar flare. “You will not twist her death into something that justifies this insane grab for power.”

Though Sebastian looked like he did now, his voice kept modulating back and forth between the deep, comforting lilt I’d come to cra—come to know—and a lighter, younger version of his voice.

A memory, then.

His father scoffed, gripping Sebastian's face roughly and making him look at him. “If you speak to your mother in that tone again, I will kill you.” He released Sebastian with enough force to make him rear back. “What your mother said is true. I see we’re going to have to teach you that lesson the hard way.”

His father gathered a portal. Before he stepped through with Sebastian’s mother in tow, he snapped, “Stay here if you know what’s good for you.”

When they disappeared, Sebastian’s face fell into his hands, a ragged breath falling from his lips. Finally alone, it allowed for his senses to kick in.

I watched him feel me from across the room, as intimate as a physical caress of his hands down my arms.

Sebastian’s head snapped up, sensing my invasion. I was expecting him to yell or to chuckle sarcastically, chastising me for crossing a line.

Instead, all the color drained from his face. His eyes went wild, almost feral with panic. Before I could blink, he was up and coming towards me, backing me into the wall.

His hands came to my face, cradling my jaw and head in his large palms. “Oh, love,” he breathed, eyebrows creasing in pain. “What did you do?”

“I—I’m sorry,” I tried, my voice breaking off. My hands came up to grip his wrists on their own accord. “I couldn’t leave you like that.”

Sebastian’s expression turned confused. “Leave me like—”

His words were cut off by the snap of a portal cracking through the room. He shoved me behind him, turning around and pinning me against the wall.

My head came to the middle of his neck, so I ducked down slightly to hide behind his broad shoulders. I could still see from the small space in between his torso and arm.

He kept his arms behind his back, holding me to him. To anyone, it would probably look like he simply had his hands clasped behind his back. No one would know he was gripping me to his back like it was the very thing keeping him alive.

His parents walked out of the portal staring at the couch. Where Sebastian had been in the real event.

The dream adapted and they turned around as if nothing happened.

Sebastian’s father signaled for someone to follow him and an older woman stepped through. She was unsteady on her feet, her body not quite able to support itself anymore.

Sebastian’s father beckoned her forward, sneering at Sebastian the entire time. “Go ahead, tell him what you told me.”

The second she opened her mouth, I recognized her. The former Lady Artemis, two generations back. Penelope’s grandmother.

Her voice came out shaky, unsure as she said, “It’s his fault, Sebastian. Penelope would still be here if it weren’t for him.”

Sebastian’s limbs locked up, hearing the words as if they were new instead of a memory likely replayed thousands of times.

“Penelope didn’t die because of him,” Sebastian said, his voice steady with conviction. He sounded so sure my brother had nothing to do with Penelope’s death. How the gods acted in the wake of my brother's birth, forced to fight their counterpart god, with the same powers as them, but simply Roman versus Greek, was not my brother's cross to bear.

Sebastian seemed to agree in this dream. He'd fallen so far from that point.

The former Lady Artemis shook her head, her entire body reflecting the movement like a ripple in the water. “He did, dear. You could never understand, but the stress of having a counterpart who might end your godly line was too much. Too much for my Penelope to bear.”

I could almost feel Sebastian’s heart straining under the tense muscles of his back. “Did she tell you that?” he asked carefully, like he was afraid of the answer.

Penelope’s grandmother shook her head solemnly. “It was obvious. She couldn’t take it anymore and she just…” her voice fell off on a shaky breath, one that seemed to drain all the energy she had left.

As Sebastian’s father helped her back through a portal, Sebastian dragged in heavy breaths, his fingertips burning into my skin. Once it was just his parents again, his mother walked up to him, her finger already pointed in accusation. “You refuse to help us and you curse that poor old woman—one who served faithfully as Artemis for fifty years, mind you—to die knowing that you don’t give a damn about her granddaughter’s memory. That you are willing to let that hybrid, sham of a god rule Olympus, completely uncaring that he cost Penelope her life.”

I felt the snap. Even though Sebastian wasn’t living this memory faithfully anymore, instead using his body to shield mine, I could still feel the muscles of his old self snap hard and taut.

Committing to the conspiracy. I could see the joint of his jaw working, his teeth sawing together as he gritted out, “Never bring her up again, and I’ll do this.”