Dreamless

eyes, and some had slightly red skin. A few were rumored to have had antennae that they hid under their helmets,” Castor answered pensively. “Helen, are you sure the one you saw had red eyes ?”
    “Oh, yeah, no doubt about that,” Helen said positively. “They were really shiny, too.”
    “Automedon,” Pallas said, looking at Castor. For the first time Helen could remember, Castor used an English curse word, and a foul one at that, as he nodded in agreement with his brother.
    “Makes sense,” Cassandra said. “No Scion ever claimed to have killed him.”
    “Because no one could.” Lucas looked over at Helen, shaking his head slowly as if he couldn’t believe this was happening. “He’s immortal.”
    “Okay, see, that I don’t get,” Helen said nervously. She was looking for a flaw, something logical that would make the situation seem a little less dire. “If Myrmidons are immortal, then why isn’t the world crawling with them?”
    “Oh, they can be killed in battle. And most of them were killed at some point in history. But, see, that’s sort of the catch with Automedon,” Ariadne said with wide, apologetic eyes. “There are stories of soldiers literally cutting Automedon’s head off, and he just picked it up, put it back on, and kept fighting.”
    “You’ve got to be kidding me,” Helen said with a raised eyebrow. “How can that even be possible? He’s not a god. Wait, is he a god?” she asked Ariadne in a hurried aside, in case she had missed something.
    “No, he’s not a god,” Cassandra answered for her. “But he might have shared blood with one. This is just my guess, but if Automedon became blood brothers with one of the immortals thousands of years ago, before they were all locked away on Olympus, then Automedon can’t be killed, not even in battle.”
    “Blood brothers? Are you serious?” Helen asked dubiously. She pictured two kids in a tree house pricking their fingers with a safety pin.
    “To Scions, becoming blood brothers is a sacred rite, and it’s pretty hard to do outside of combat,” Jason said with a smile, seeming to understand Helen’s misinterpretation. “You have to be willing to die for someone, and that person has to be willing to die for you. Then you have to exchange blood while you are in the process of saving each other’s lives.”
    Helen’s eyes darted over to Lucas. She couldn’t help but think of how they had broken out of the Furies’ curse by nearly dying for each other. From the look in Lucas’s eyes, Helen knew he was thinking exactly the same thing. They hadn’t exchanged blood the night they fell, but they had both saved each other’s lives and that had bound them together forever.
    “You can’t make it happen or plan it. It’s something that comes out of an extreme situation,” Lucas said directly to Helen. “And if the two brothers live, sometimes they share a few of each other’s Scion powers. Now imagine doing that with a god. Theoretically, it could make you immortal.”
    “But you don’t know for sure if that’s the case with Automedon,” Helen challenged. “Cassandra said she was just guessing.”
    “Yeah, but Cassandra’s guesses are usually pretty close to the mark,” he snapped, his temper rising quickly.
    “You’ve been blowing this out of proportion since the second I told you! The more I think about it, the more I doubt I’m in any real danger,” she continued defensively.
    Lucas’s face blanched with anger.
    “Enough!” Noel yelled from the doorway. “Lucas, go upstairs and go to bed.” Lucas whirled around to face his mother, but Noel didn’t give him the chance to start with her. “I’m sick to death of watching the two of you fight! You’re both so tired you’re not even making sense anymore. Helen, go upstairs with Ariadne. You’re sleeping over.”
    “I can’t leave my father alone with that thing practically next door,” Helen said, slumping down on the edge of Castor’s desk. Noel was right. All the endless running around, coupled with the emotional minefield she had to navigate whenever Lucas was near, suddenly hit her like a brick. She was exhausted .
    “Trust me, if you’re here, then that creature won’t be far away. I know it’s going to be hard for you to accept this, but both your father and Kate will be safer if you keep your distance from now on.” Noel said it as kindly as she could, but her words were still harsh. “Lucas, I want you to go with your father