The Atlas Six (The Atlas 1)

Parisa eyes opened and she shifted her leg again, this time adjusting so the arch of her foot sat perilously atop Max’s prized vulgarity of choice.

“Actually?” she prompted.

For once she wasn’t smiling coyly. She didn’t intend to seduce him into an answer. She meant to crush him if he did not.

Nico liked her more for that, which was troubling.

“Don’t be troubled,” she assured him. “You may be the only person who likes me for the right reasons.”

He rolled his eyes, taking her foot in his hands again. “Do you think there’s an intersect between dreams and thought?” To her pause of expectation, he clarified, “I’ve been trying to do research on it but it’s no use, really. I don’t know what I’m looking for.”

“What is he?” she asked him. “Gideon.”

He kneaded the bone above her arch, stroking it with his thumb.

“A creature, technically.”

“Hybrid human?”

“Well—” Nico bit the inside of his cheek. “No. Half mermaid, half satyr.”

“Oh.” Parisa’s smile twitched, and then broadened. “Human-shaped? Where it counts, that is.”

He glanced up at her. “Is that meant to be funny?”

“Yes. A bit.” Her tongue slid over her lips, rendering her faintly girlish. “I can’t help my appetites.”

“He’s got a dick, if that answers your question.” He switched gruffly to her other foot, tugging punitively at her pinky toe. “Not that I—” More hesitation. “I’m just saying, I’ve lived with him for a long time. Things happen.”

“So you’ve seen it?”

Nico glanced up, defensive, and she shrugged.

“I’ve seen plenty,” she told him. “I wouldn’t judge you.”

“It’s not like that,” he muttered.

“Fine, machismo again.” She nudged his knee with her heel. “Don’t be cross.”

“I’m not, I’m just—”

“So Gideon can travel in dreams, then?”

“Gideon… can,” Nico said slowly. “Yes. Sorry, yes.”

“Oh.” Parisa sat up, abruptly removing both feet from his lap. “You’ve done it too?”

“I—” He felt his cheeks flush. “It’s a private question.”

“Is it?”

No.

“Fine, I do it,” Nico said with a grimace, “but don’t ask me how I—”

“How do you do it?”

He gritted his teeth. “I told you, it’s—”