Dreamless

would have killed you. I don’t think I could have lived with myself if I did. I almost killed you,” Helen repeated. She was choking up again, feeling how close she had come to doing something that she knew her conscience couldn’t handle.
    “Hey. I’m fine, so no crying, okay?” He took her shoulders and pulled her into a huge, warm hug. Helen relaxed gratefully against him. “Believe me, I’ve done things that are far worse. That’s why I want you to stop and really think about whether or not you want to have me along.”
    “You’re kinda slow, huh?” she said, her words muffled in his chest. She pulled back in his arms, laughing now the worst had passed. “Of course I want you here. I need you. I don’t want to get attacked by any monsters tonight.”
    “Helen, this isn’t a joke. I could do much worse than just kill you.”
    “What do you mean?” Helen thought about him reaching inside of her, how it had kind of hurt, even though it felt so good. He was so gentle. She imagined how horrible it would have felt if he hadn’t been. “Is this about your invisible hand?”
    “My what?” Orion asked, confused. Then he suddenly blushed and looked down.
    He eased himself away from Helen and put some distance between them. She shuffled around for a moment, unsure of what to do with her arms.
    “I’m sorry, I didn’t know what else to call it,” she stammered apologetically, thinking she might have said something silly. “It felt like you reached into my chest. I pictured a hand.”
    “No, don’t be sorry. Call it whatever you want. I’ve just never heard it described that way, that’s all. Not that I’ve done it that much,” he added quickly. “I’ve always known that’s not the kind of love I want. Forced.”
    “No, I wouldn’t want that, either. That’s quite a talent you got there,” Helen said cautiously. She didn’t want to offend him, but the truth was, it frightened her a little. “Can everyone from the House of Rome do that?”
    “No,” Orion assured her. “But they can sway you—and don’t think that isn’t bad enough, because it is. Sometimes the difference between doing the right thing and the wrong thing takes less than a nudge, but I’m the only one that I know of that can fully turn a heart. Or break it forever. And that’s not the worst I can do.”
    Helen couldn’t imagine many things that were worse than having a heart that was broken forever, but something in the way his eyes widened and sunk in with fear told her that he could.
    “So, what’s the worst you can do?” she asked gently. Orion clenched his jaw and spoke through his teeth.
    “I’m an Earthshaker.”
    He said “Earthshaker” like most people would say “ax murderer.”
    “Okay,” she said blankly. “Wait, I don’t understand. What’s so horrible about that?”
    He stared at her disbelievingly for a moment. “Helen . . . have you ever heard of a beneficial earthquake? One where everyone went around afterward saying, ‘Gee! It’s real lucky we had that devastating earthquake! I’m so glad everyone I know is dead and the whole city is a pile of rubble now!’”
    Helen didn’t mean to laugh, but it slipped out, anyway. Frustrated, Orion tried to turn away from her, but she wasn’t about to let him go. She grabbed on to one of his thick forearms with both of her hands and tugged until he turned back and faced her.
    “Don’t walk away. Talk to me,” she insisted, wanting to kick herself for laughing. “Explain this whole Earthshaker thing.”
    Orion dropped his head and took her hand. As he spoke, he fiddled nervously with her fingers, rolling them between his own, as if the pressure soothed him. The gesture reminded her of another time when Lucas had taken her hand. She almost pulled away, but she didn’t. Orion needed her, and she realized that she wanted to be there for him. Always. Truce or no Truce, Helen couldn’t convince herself that caring for Orion was wrong.
    “You know that my father’s side, the House of Athens, is descended from Theseus, a Scion of Poseidon,” he began carefully. “Well, it’s very rare, but I was born with all of Poseidon’s talents, including the ability to cause earthquakes. When a Scion is born with this particular talent, the law of our House is that the baby is to be exposed. But my father wouldn’t do it.”
    “What do you mean by ‘exposed’?” Something about the dark way he said the word gave her goose bumps.
    “Left