“Sorry!” she said, and rushed to keep up with her friends.
Lucas circled the Getty Museum, a gleaming white building elegantly perched on top of one of Los Angeles’s more scruffy hills. The white stone structure capping the dry, rocky hill was strikingly similar to the Parthenon. The Parthenon was originally a treasury, so Lucas felt it was fitting that he was coming to the Getty to make a withdrawal of coins.
He was searching for a spot that would hide him for the one moment of his landing when he would have to slow down enough that he could be seen. Lucas moved in faster than a human could see, settling too lightly on the ground to leave any footprints. The instant he touched down, Lucas half ran, half flew to the door so quickly that all a security camera picked up would be a faint blur. Stopping right next to the door, Lucas froze and disappeared.
In the last few weeks, he had learned that if he didn’t move around too much he could scatter light so that the surface of his body looked like whatever was behind it. In the beginning, before he had perfected his invisibility cloak, it was still possible for a Scion to make out a faint fracture between the picture he created and his surroundings. Luckily, only one Scion had ever noticed it, and that had been Lucas’s own damn fault.
After a half an hour wait, a maintenance man finally came out the door with a rake in one hand and his early morning thermos of coffee in the other. Lucas simply slipped around him and walked in without tripping a single alarm. He could have ripped the door off its hinges, but he didn’t want to attract too much attention to himself. Lucas didn’t know whether his plan would work, but he didn’t want his family to get suspicious and interfere.
He’d always been taught that museums were sacred places because they housed so many Scion relics, but he never imagined that one day he’d be pushed to a point where he’d consider breaking into one. Now he was desperate. He had to do something to help Helen.
His father had been wrong. All it took was one look at Helen—her clothes torn and covered in that black mud from the Underworld—and Lucas knew for sure that he wasn’t Helen’s problem. He had done as his father had ordered, but she was still suffering. Staying away from her was not enough.
Lucas knew Helen was strong, and he trusted her to make good decisions even when he disagreed with her. She had insisted that Orion was helping her, so no matter how much it ate him up inside to think of the two of them alone together, Lucas had stepped back.
He’d promised himself after the night Pandora died as he watched the dawn break from Helen’s widow’s walk that he would suffer anything as long as Helen moved on and lived a full and meaningful life. He’d turned himself into something twisted in an attempt to break things off between them. Yet that morning she’d looked sicker than she had before Lucas had pushed her away.
Whatever was happening to her went far beyond her feelings about their doomed relationship.
Lucas moved so quickly down the hallways of the museum that his face couldn’t be recorded. Even though his surroundings changed by the nanosecond, Lucas knew where he was going. There were plenty of signs to point him in the right direction. the treasures of ancient greece was a huge crowd pleaser, and this famous exhibit of recently unearthed gold artifacts had already traveled all over the world. This month it was the Getty’s turn, and they had plastered the place with bright silk banners in celebration.
They’d also put a lot of pictures of the artifacts online. In true Southern California style, the smaller, less impressive pieces of gold that had been left out of other museums’ promotional pictures were clumped together in huge, sparkling group shots. Los Angeles just loved to get as much dazzle as it could into one frame, and after over two weeks of flying all over the world, searching every museum, that was how Lucas had finally found what he was looking for. On the internet.
Compared to the other pieces in the collection, the small handful of gold coins was hardly worth displaying. He had to go to one of the back cases to find them, but when he did, he didn’t waste any time. As far as he knew these three coins—each with a poppy flower engraved on one side—were the last remaining obols that had been forged in honor of Morpheus, the god of dreams.
Lucas stole them all.
“We’re going around in circles!” Helen moaned to the unsympathetic library ceiling. “I know it doesn’t make much sense, but trust me, there’s no such thing as geographical progress down there. Did I mention the beach that doesn’t lead to an ocean? It’s just wet sand like a beach at low tide, except there’s no ocean. Ever. It’s just a beach!”
She was so tired she felt like she was starting to crack up, and every now and again she’d shiver unexpectedly, which was beginning to worry her. She couldn’t get sick. It was both impossible and annoying. Helen’s phone buzzed, interrupting her scattered thoughts. Orion was asking if the “Greek Geeks” had come up with anything yet. She smiled at his nickname for her study group and texted back that they hadn’t. She asked him what he was reading on the Roman end.
War, orgy, rinse, repeat. Getting boring, he texted. Almost ;)
“Is that Orion again?” Ariadne asked with a pinched face. Helen glanced up at her and nodded in a hassled way while she typed.
She understood why everyone was concerned—they had to make sure the Houses stayed separate—but sometimes Helen felt insulted. Sure, Orion was gorgeous. And brave. And hilarious. But that didn’t mean they were dating or anything.
“Wait! You can find Orion!” Claire exclaimed, derailing Helen’s wandering thoughts.
“Yeah, I told you already. I concentrate on his face and I appear right next to him, just like Jason and Ariadne do when they bring people back from the edge of the Underworld. But I can only find him if he’s in my same infinity,” Helen answered. “Because if he isn’t, I won’t ever find him, even if he descends the next . . . Oh, forget it.”
“Helen, I understand all that,” Claire groused in frustration. “What I don’t know is if Orion is the only person you can find just by thinking about him.”
“I’ve already tried to find the Furies that way, Gig—a bunch of times. It never works.”
“They’re not people,” Claire said very clearly, trying to contain her excitement. “What if you focused on someone who lives down there? Do you think you could use that person as a kind of beacon?”
“It’s the land of the dead, Gig. Looking for someone who lives down there is kind of an oxymoron, isn’t it?” Helen asked, getting lost in Claire’s logic.
“Not if she was kidnapped, body and soul, by the boss himself,” Claire said. She folded her arms across her chest and smiled like she knew a secret.
Jason made a surprised sound in the back of his throat. “How’d you get so smart?” he asked, gazing admiringly at Claire.
“Just lucky for you, I guess,” she answered with a grin.
Ariadne, Helen, and Matt shared confused looks while Jason and Claire smiled at each other, forgetting that there were other people in the room.
“Um, guys? Hate to interrupt, but what are you talking about?” Matt asked.
Jason stood up and went to the stacks. He brought back an old book and laid it open in front of Helen. She saw a painting of a young black woman, walking away from the viewer, but looking back over her shoulder like she didn’t want to go. She was dressed in a gown of flowers and wore a crown that sparkled with jewels as big as grapes. Her body was as graceful as a ballet dancer’s, and even in the profile view her face was stunningly beautiful. Yet despite her great beauty and wealth, she radiated a crushing sadness.
“Oh, yes,” Ariadne said quietly. “I remember now.”
“Who is she?” Helen asked, awed by the image of this sad, beautiful woman.
“Persephone, goddess of flowers, and the queen of the Underworld,” Jason answered. “She’s actually a Scion. The only daughter of the Olympian Demeter, the goddess of the earth. Hades kidnapped Persephone and tricked her into marrying him. Now she’s forced to spend the fall and winter mont
hs in the Underworld. They say Hades built her a night garden next to his palace. Persephone’s Garden.”
“She’s only allowed to leave the Underworld to visit her mother in spring and summer. When she comes back to earth she makes the flowers bloom everywhere she goes.” Ariadne sounded dreamy, like she was enchanted by the thought of Persephone making the world blossom.
“It’s October. She’d be down there now,” Matt added with cautious hope.
“And you’re sure she’s not an immortal?” Helen pinched her eyebrows together in doubt. “How can she still be alive?”
“Hades struck a deal with Thanatos, the god of death. Persephone can’t die until Hades lets her,” Cassandra spoke from across the room, making Helen jump.
She’d forgotten Cassandra was sitting there, writing a letter to her father, who was still in New York City. Castor and Pallas were only allowed to receive written messages while in Conclave, and they had asked for some specific information on the Myrmidon. Cassandra had always had the disturbing ability to remain as still as a statue, and lately that ability had become so pronounced it was getting downright spooky. She joined the rest of the group and stared at Persephone’s picture with a frown.
“So she’s trapped down there,” Helen said, directing her focus back to Persephone’s sorrowful figure.
“But she could still help you,” Cassandra said. “She knows everything about the Underworld.”
“She’s a prisoner,” Helen replied with an angry scowl. “We should be helping her. Orion and I should, I mean.”
“Impossible,” Cassandra said. “Not even Zeus could get Hades to part with Persephone when Demeter demanded her daughter back. Demeter sent the world into an ice age, nearly killing off humanity over it.”
“He’s a kidnapper!” Matt exclaimed, outraged. “Why isn’t Hades locked up on Olympus with the rest of them? He’s one of the three major gods. Shouldn’t he be part of the Truce?”
“Hades is the eldest brother of the Big Three, so I guess that technically he is an Olympian, but he was always different. I can’t remember any literature that says he’s even been to Mount Olympus,” Cassandra said with a quizzical little grimace. “The Underworld is also called ‘Hades’ because it is entirely his realm. It’s not part of the Truce, or even part of this world for that matter.”
“The Underworld has its own rules,” Helen said. She understood this bit better than anyone. “And I’m guessing you all think that Persephone might be willing to break a few of them?”
“I don’t want to promise anything, but if anyone would even be able to help you down there, it would probably be her,” Jason said. “She is the queen.”
Helen’s phone buzzed.
Want to know Julius Caesar’s favorite dirty joke? Orion texted.
Meet me tonight, Helen texted back. I think we’re onto something.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Helen stared at the croissant and wished that one of her talents was X-ray vision. She very much wanted to know what was under that flakey crust. If it was spinach, it had to go on the tray at the end of the case. If it was ham and cheese, well then, it had to go in her belly.
“Lennie? You’ve been staring at that pastry for ten minutes,” Kate said in a matter-of-fact way. “Any longer and it’ll get stale before you get it into your mouth.”
Helen straightened up and focused her eyes, trying to laugh like nothing was wrong. The laugh came out so forced and delayed that it sounded almost creepy. Kate gave her an odd look and stared pointedly at the croissant. Helen took the expected bite and regretted it. Spinach. Still, it gave her something to do so she would stay awake, and Helen had to stay awake for the rest of her shift, no matter what she had to put in her mouth.
Her vision had been blurring in and out every few minutes all night, and if she accidentally fell asleep and descended without Orion’s face in her mind she knew she wouldn’t meet up with him in the Underworld like they had planned. But even more important, she couldn’t allow herself to nod off and a microsecond later appear in the News Store, covered in crazy gunk from the Underworld.
The last few days Helen had been scared stiff that she might fall asleep in class or at work, descend, and wake up in front of everyone she knew covered in unexplainable filth. Especially this evening. She was more tired than she had ever been in her life, and Zach was bogarting a table at the back of the News Store, in the Kate’s Cakes section. Where Helen was stationed.
Several times Helen had tried to strike up a conversation, trying to find out what he was doing there all by himself on a Saturday night, but he barely even acknowledged her. He just kept ordering food and coffee, and typing on his laptop in a distracted way, almost as if he were just doodling. Never once did he make eye contact. When she did catch him staring at her, which happened more than Helen liked, he usually had a disgusted look on his face, as if he had just caught her picking her nose or something.
Wiping down the countertop for the thousandth time to keep herself awake, Helen heard the bells on the front door jingle as someone walked in. She wanted to scream. It was so late, so tantalizingly close to closing. The only thing she wanted was for the night to end so she could count her drawer, go home, and flop into bed. She could tell Zach to scram at ten o’clock sharp, but a new customer could take forever. She heard Kate squeal with happy surprise.
“Hector!”
Helen was out front, jumping into Hector’s arms along with Kate, in about half a second.
Hector picked up both of them easily, one girl to an arm. Although it usually took Hector about five minutes to say something that annoyed the bejeezus out of Helen, when he smiled and held out his arms for a hug she forgot how much of a pain in the ass he usually was. Hanging from Hector’s neck was like reaching up and hugging the sun—nothing but nurturing warmth and light.
“I could get used to this!” Hector chuckled, holding them both up in the air and squeezing them until they were breathless.
“But Noel and I just talked a few hours ago! She told me you were still in Europe, studying. What are you doing on Nantucket?” Kate asked when Hector put them down.
“I got homesick,” he said with a shrug. Helen knew he was telling the truth, even if the whole cover story about studying in Europe was a lie. “It’s just a quick visit. I’m not staying long.”
The three of them chatted pleasantly for another few minutes, although Hector kept shooting Helen worried looks. If Hector was concerned for her, then Helen knew she must be a scary sight. Excusing herself, she went into the back to throw some water on her face.
When Helen returned to the Kate’s Cakes section, Zach wasn’t in his seat, but hurrying back to it. He gathered up his things in a rush and bolted out of the café, his eyes glued to the floor. Helen followed him hesitantly to the front, watching him plow past Hector and out the door. Hector raised his eyebrows at the strange behavior.
“We’ll miss him horribly,” Kate said sarcastically. Then she checked the time. “You know what? If I hurry, I can make a drop at the bank before the last pickup. Can you close up alone, Lennie?”
“I’ll help her,” Hector offered, making Kate smile.
“Are you sure? You know I can only pay you in food, right?” Kate warned playfully.
“Deal.”
“You’re the best! Be sure to box up as many leftovers as you want for your family, too,” Kate said as she gathered her things and headed for the door.
“I’ll do that,” Hector called as she jogged out the door. He sounded cheery enough as he shouted good-bye, but his face fell as soon as Kate was gone.
No matter how much he would have loved to do as Kate asked, there was no way Hector could bring his family anything. Helen touched his arm consolingly and then pulled him into a hug when she saw him shake his head.
“I couldn’t stay away. I had to see someone related to me.” He squeezed Helen tight, like he could hug his whole family through her. “I’m glad I can be with you at least, Princess.?
??
As Helen hugged him back, a black anger started to rise up out of the tenderness she felt, and it had nothing to do with the fact that he was still calling her “Princess” even though she’d asked him a million times not to. How dare the Furies separate Hector from the people he loved? He was more committed to family than anyone Helen had met. Now, more than ever, the Delos family needed Hector’s strength to carry them through, but he was an Outcast. Helen had to find Persephone and beg her to help. She needed to end this.
“So you just stopped by because you needed a hug?” Helen asked sardonically when they pulled apart, trying to lighten the mood.
“No,” he said seriously. “Not that a hug from you isn’t worth it, but there’s something else. Did you hear anything about a break-in at the Getty?”
Helen shook her head, and Hector pulled a piece of paper out of his jacket pocket and showed it to Helen.
“It was obviously a Scion,” Helen said as she read the description of the impossible break-in and the stolen artifacts. “Who did it?”
“We don’t know. Daphne’s asked all the Rogues and Outcasts she knows, but so far no one’s admitted to it.” Hector rubbed his lower lip with his thumb. It was a gesture Helen had seen his father make when he was thinking. “We can’t figure out why these gold coins, and only these coins, were stolen. As far as we know, they have no magic that’s particular to any one of the Four Houses.”
“I’ll ask the family,” Helen said, taking the piece of paper and tucking it into the back pocket of her jeans. Then she covered her mouth as a giant yawn escaped. “Excuse me, Hector. But I can barely keep my eyes open.”
“I came here feeling all sorry for myself, but you know what? Now that I’m here, I’m more worried about you. You look pretty beat-up.”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m a total disaster.” Helen laughed ruefully as she tried to smooth her hair and straighten her clothes. “The Underworld is, well, it’s exactly as bad as you’d think. But at least I’m not alone down there anymore—that’s something.”