Dreamless

Automedon had to hang back so as not to be heard in the echoing passages. He wasn’t concerned with the dark. He tasted his way, following the chemical trail that the prince had stamped into the ground.
    The air suddenly became unnaturally cold, signaling that a portal was near. Automedon surged close to Orion and held perfectly still, silently calling to his master with an ancient prayer. His mind filled with the squabbling of vultures, and he knew that his master had heard him.
    The Heir opened the portal and jumped into the dead lord’s land. The split second before it closed again, Automedon darted over and pulled his master through, into the neutral zone.
    Helen landed with a thud next to Orion. They were walking down a deep beach that seemed to go on forever—never meeting the ocean or the land in either direction. She looked around, hoping for some clues that would tell her what she needed to do next. Something about a river kept popping up in her mind. It struck her that she had no idea what she was doing, walking on a deserted beach with a guy when there was no one else anywhere in sight. Lucas was the only one who walked on deserted beaches with her. It was their “thing.”
    Was she cheating on Lucas?
    Impossible! Not even the hot guy next to her (his name suddenly slipped her mind, although she was vaguely aware that she knew him) could make her feel like Lucas did. Although she couldn’t exactly remember how Lucas made her feel at that particular moment, because she couldn’t quite picture his face.
    And where the heck was the sun, or the moon, or the stars for that matter? Wasn’t there supposed to be something in the sky?
    “I think someone followed me, but I don’t think he made it through the portal,” her beautiful companion said. “I didn’t get a good look at him, but whoever this guy is, he’s scary good.”
    I’m in the Underworld , Helen remembered, just before she completely freaked out. And I’m here because I have some very important compartmentalizing to do.
    “Hi,” she said uncertainly.
    “Hi,” Hot Guy replied uneasily. “Helen? What’s the matter?”
    “I don’t know what I’m doing here with you,” she said honestly, relieved that at least he recognized her and called her by her name. “But you know, right?”
    “Yeah, I do,” Hot Guy said, slightly offended. “We’re here to—”
    “Don’t say it!” Helen exclaimed, jumping up to cover his mouth with her hand before he could say another word. “We have to compartmentalize, or something. I sort of know where we’re going, but you have to remember what we need to do when we get there, or we’ll never accomplish whatever it is we’re supposed to accomplish. I think that’s what Lucas said, anyway.”
    “Okay, I can do that. But why are you acting like this? Did something bad happen to you? Please tell me. . . .” Hot Guy pleaded. “Are you injured?”
    “I can’t remember!” Helen laughed, vaguely aware that she sounded terribly foolish, while he sounded deeply concerned. He was really worried about her, and that struck Helen as so sweet. “It’s all going to be okay. You remember your part—but don’t tell me what it is—and I’ll do the other thing. You know, the thing that I’m supposed to do because this is my special little quest?”
    “Because you’re the Descender ?” he guessed.
    “Yes I am!” Helen said with happy-camper enthusiasm. “But what exactly is it that I can do that no one else can?”
    “You can make us magically appear by the river we need to get to just by saying the name out loud,” he said cautiously.
    “Right!”
    Following an instinct, Helen wrapped her arms around Hot Guy’s neck, but she had no idea what to do next. Glancing away from his distractingly attractive mouth, she saw, right in front of her face, the words Lethe and Furies written on the inside of one of her forearms. On a whim, she decided to just go with it. She figured, heck, it was a fifty-fifty chance.
    “I want us to magically appear by the River . . . Lethe?”
    Helen found herself on a riverbank in the middle of a barren wasteland, staring up at a stunning man. She had her arms around him, and he had his hands on her waist, but she couldn’t remember how they had gotten this way.
    “You are so beautiful,” she told him, because she couldn’t think of a reason not to.
    “So are you,” he replied, surprised. “For some reason I think I know you, but I can’t remember