Dreamless

floated higher to get her bearings. Looking down at the still-dark landscape, she saw that she was near the south shore of Massachusetts and relatively close to the coast. She turned to the first rays of the sunrise, and headed due east out over the open water.
    Somewhere over Martha’s Vineyard, Helen started crying. She kept picturing the stunned look on Orion’s face as she stabbed him— stabbed him, she kept repeating to herself in shock.
    A sob burst out of her and she covered her mouth with her hand. She tasted something very wrong on her lips and looked at her hand in disgust. It was covered in Orion’s blood. She really had almost killed him, and the proof of it was stained into her skin. If he hadn’t kissed her, he’d be dead now.
    Helen swooped dangerously in the air above her house. She tried to clear her eyelashes of the tears that were freezing as soon as they welled up, but they just kept coming. The more she tried to stuff the sobs down, the more violently they seemed to burst out of her. What had Orion done to her heart?
    Helen’s control over the wind began to falter, and she tumbled in midair like a plastic bag in a storm. She dropped out of the sky and made a beeline for the blue tarp covering her bedroom window.
    Tearing the tarp aside, she dove into bed and buried her head under her chilly pillow to muffle the sound of her tears. She could hear her father snoring in the next room, blissfully unaware that his daughter had very nearly become a murderer.
    Helen cried herself out as quietly as she could, but no matter how tired she was, she refused to fall asleep. She couldn’t bear the thought of descending back into the Underworld so soon, although she knew that it didn’t make any difference. This cycle that she was stuck in seemed never ending. If she slept, if she stayed awake, what did it matter? There was no rest for her no matter what she did.
    Zach saw Helen lift up the blue tarp over her window and fly under it. He’d seen his master do a lot of things that were physically impossible, but seeing a girl he’d known his whole life flying was difficult for him to process. She’d always been like an angel, so beautiful she was almost painful to look at, but in flight Helen really did look like a goddess. She also looked upset. He wondered what had happened to her. Whatever it was, wasn’t good. Zach assumed she still hadn’t been successful in the Underworld.
    And how the hell had she gotten out of the house in the first place? he wondered. Then he started to sweat. Somehow, Helen had switched out the lights in her bedroom, and then about half an hour later appeared behind him in midair. Could she teleport now? What was he going to tell his master?
    Zach knew he had to make a report. He turned to walk toward his car, parked down the street, and jumped. Automedon was standing behind him, as silent as a grave.
    “How did the Heir get out?” he asked calmly.
    “She just fell asleep. . . . She didn’t leave, I swear it.”
    “I can smell your fear,” Automedon said, his red eyes shining in the dark. “Your eyes are too slow to see her. I can no longer trust you with this task.”
    “Master, I . . .”
    Automedon shook his head. That was enough to silence Zach.
    “My master’s sister has had word from her brother. They are almost ready,” Automedon continued in his blank and emotionless way. “We must make preparations to capture the Face.”
    “You master’s sister?” Zach asked shrewdly. “But Pandora’s dead. Don’t you mean Tantalus’s wife, Mildred?” Zach crumpled onto his knees, all the air rushing out of his lungs. Automedon had punched him in the gut so fast he’d never seen it coming.
    “You ask far too many questions,” Automedon said.
    Zach gasped and clutched his middle, certain now that Automedon had a different master. He wasn’t working for Tantalus anymore, and Zach had a feeling it had something to do with that tall, inhuman woman and the misshapen boy with her. Whoever she was, she was calling the shots now for her brother, and it was her brother who was Automedon’s real master. Zach knew that Automedon didn’t trust him enough to tell him who he was working for, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t still find out. He just had to be careful.
    “Forgive me, master,” Zach wheezed as he stood up, still bent over with pain and seething with bitterness. “I will get you what you need. Instruct me.”
    Automedon’s mouth twitched,