Sitting at their usual table, Helen saw Matt on the other side of the cafeteria and signaled for him to join them. As he made his way over, Claire elbowed Helen and pointed out all the girls staring and whispering as Matt passed.
He had a cut on his lip and scrapes on his knuckles that were obviously from fighting. His shirt, which had been a bit too loose a month ago, looked a little tight now. Through the slightly strained material it was easy to see that his chest and shoulder muscles were positively shredded. He’d lost the baby fat in his face, making him look more chiseled and grown-up; he even walked different, like he was ready for anything.
“Oh my God,” Claire said with a look of disbelief on her face. “Lennie, is Matt a stud?”
Helen nearly snarfed her sandwich and had to hastily swallow her bite to answer. “Right? Matt’s, like, a total babe all of a sudden!”
Claire and Helen paused, looked at each other, and said, “EEEWWW!” at exactly the same time before bursting out laughing.
“What is it?” Matt asked when he got to the table, giving them both weird looks. He pointed to Helen’s sandwich and took a guess. “Cucumber and vegemite?”
“No, ding-dong, it’s not the sandwich,” Claire said, wiping her eyes and still winding down from the laugh. “It’s you! You’re officially a hottie now!”
“Oh, shut it,” he said as a blush instantly colored his face and neck. His eyes darted over to where Ariadne had stopped to chat with another classmate, and then quickly looked away.
“You should make a move,” Helen said in a low voice to Matt while Claire was busy waving Ariadne over.
“And get shot down?” he replied sadly, and shook his head. “Hell no.”
“You don’t know—” Helen began, but Matt cut her off firmly.
“Yeah, I do.”
When Ariadne joined them, Helen had no choice but to let it go, but she honestly couldn’t see what Matt’s problem was. She knew for a fact that Ariadne cared about him, and maybe all Matt needed to do was take a chance and just kiss her, like Jason had with Claire. Again Helen was reminded of Orion and the memory of how his lips felt.
“Helen?” Ariadne said.
Helen looked up and saw everyone staring at her. “Yes?” she said, bewildered and a bit startled.
“You didn’t hear a word any of us just said, did you?” Cassandra asked.
“Sorry,” Helen replied defensively. When did Cassandra get here? she wondered.
“Did you dream last night?” Cassandra asked, like she was repeating herself. Helen shook her head. Cassandra sat back in her chair and folded her arms, her naturally bright red lips pursed in worried thought.
“Why didn’t you say anything?” Claire said to Helen, looking both concerned and guilty.
“I don’t know,” Helen mumbled. “I haven’t dreamed in so long I guess I forgot to mention it.”
“Well, Orion didn’t,” Cassandra said in her eerily calm way. Then her face changed dramatically and she leaned toward Helen, looking exactly like a normal girl for a second. “Is Orion always so . . .” She broke off, unable to frame her question properly.
“Funny? Pig-headed? Huge?” Helen fired off in rapid succession, trying to answer Cassandra’s question with whatever Orion-ish word popped into her cluttered head.
“Is he really big?” Ariadne asked curiously. “Like the original Orion?”
“He’s enormous,” Helen answered quickly, trying not to blush. A few more descriptive words bubbled up inside of her head as she thought about Orion, but she kept those to herself. “Help me out here, Cass. Is he always so what?”
“Unpredictable,” Cassandra finally decided.
“Yeah. That’s actually a great word to describe him. Wait, how can you know that?”
“I didn’t see him coming,” she said, more to herself than anyone else.
“What are you talking about? Did he text you or something?” Helen asked, growing more and more confused. “I never gave him your number.”
“Lucas did.” Cassandra acted like everyone knew this.
“What?”
“Orion texted my brother first thing this morning.”
“How did Orion get . . .” Helen stumbled horribly, and stopped breathing. She couldn’t say both Orion’s and Lucas’s names in the same sentence for the life of her.
The bell rang, and everyone else gathered their things while Helen stared off into space, unable to get past the thought of Lucas. Helen knew she was so sleep deprived that she had become cerebrally impaired, but even so, she knew that it was Lucas’s name and not Orion’s that had dealt the knockout punch to her nervous system.
“Why didn’t you say something, Len?” Claire asked in a hurt voice. She automatically grabbed Helen’s dangling arm and dragged her along to her next class when Helen didn’t respond to the bell.
“Say what?” Helen mumbled, still in a daze.
“This morning! You didn’t say one thing about how you’re, you know . . . you let me go on and on about Jason, like it was nothing.”
“Gig, don’t,” Helen said gently. “I’d so much rather hear about how happy you are than talk about how messed up I am. Really. It helps me to hear that good things are still happening in the world, especially when they’re happening to you. I want you to be insultingly happy for the rest of your life, no matter what happens to me. You know that, right?”
“God, you’re really dying, aren’t you?” Claire gasped quietly. “Jason said so, but I didn’t believe him.”
“I’m not dead yet,” Helen said through a weak laugh as she backed into the room. “Get to class, Gig. I’m sure I’ll survive social studies, at least.”
Claire waved sadly at her and then trotted down the hall while Helen went in and sat at her usual seat. She watched in shock as Zach came and sat next to her. He tried to say something but she cut him off.
“I can’t believe you actually have the nerve,” Helen said. She got up and took her stuff, but Zach grabbed her arm as she walked past.
“Please, Helen, you’re in danger. Tomorrow . . .” he said in an urgent whisper.
“Don’t touch me,” Helen hissed, pulling her wrist out of his grip.
Zach’s face fell and his eyes looked up at her desperately. For a moment, Helen felt bad for him. Then she thought about how he’d almost gotten Hector killed at the track meet and her softening heart turned back into stone. She might have known Zach since grade school, but those days were long gone. Helen moved to another desk and didn’t look at him again.
After school, Helen and Claire ran track and then went to the Delos compound together. When they got there no one was around. Not even Noel, who had left a message taped to the refrigerator informing any hungry person who came into the kitchen that there was nothing to eat and she’d be back in a few hours with groceries. Claire and Helen grimaced at each other when they read the note, then they raided the cupboards for anything they could find to quiet their rumbling post-run tummies. Over their pilfered snack, they sorted out why the house was so darn empty.
Pallas and Castor were still in New York, deep in the never-ending bickering of Conclave. According to their last letter, there was still no decision about permanently getting rid of the Myrmidon, although they had ruled that he wasn’t allowed to take up residence on the island. Which was useless, anyway, because it turned out that this whole time he’d been living on a yacht. Jason and Lucas were at football practice, and since Cassandra’s cello was missing from the library, Helen and Claire assumed that she and Ariadne were at school rehearsing for the play.
Somehow, the two Delos girls had gotten roped into playing the music for the winter production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Neither of them had the time, but Cassandra was especially peeved about it. She no longer saw the point in trying to appear normal when her underdeveloped body and her uncanny stillness so obviously signaled that she wasn’t. Helen knew that maintaining appearances was important, but she had to agree. No amount of volunteeri
ng could make Cassandra seem like a normal fourteen-going-on-fifteen-year-old, so why torture the poor girl with theater?
“Hey, Gig?” Helen mused while she and Claire polished off the last of Jason’s hidden stash of chocolate chip cookies. “How much do you weigh?”
“Right now? Probably about a thousand pounds,” Claire said, brushing cookie crumbs off her lap. “Why?”
“I want to try something that might be kind of dangerous. Are you game?”
“I’m so game I should change my name to Yahtzee,” Claire replied smoothly with a hell-raiser grin.
Horsing around the whole way, Helen led her out to the arena while Claire continually tried and failed to hip-bump, trip, and or shoulder-throw her much larger and supernaturally strong friend. When they finally got out to the middle of the sand, after much staggering and giggling, Helen grew serious, telling Claire to hold still. She stood close to Claire, and concentrated on her petite friend’s mass.
“Len, that tickles!” Claire giggled. “What are you doing?”
“I’m trying to make you weightless so I can finally show you what it feels like to fly,” Helen murmured, her eyes still closed. “Maybe put your hands on my shoulders?”
Claire eagerly did as Helen asked. She’d always wanted to know what Helen and Lucas experienced when they soared effortlessly into the air, but until now, Helen had been too uncertain of her ability to agree to try it with Claire. Lucas had warned her that carrying a passenger would be difficult, but that didn’t scare Helen so much anymore. She figured if she didn’t try it now, she might never get the chance again.
As soon as Claire leaned into Helen, the two of them floated up about ten feet in the air. Claire gasped with awe.
“I feel . . . It’s amazing!” Claire’s voice wavered with elation, and although Helen was still concentrating on all the variables that kept the two of them aloft, she had to smile.
Flying really was amazing, and despite what Lucas had said, Helen was surprised to find that lifting Claire was complicated, but not draining. She knew Lucas wouldn’t mislead her about something like this, so she had no choice but admit to herself what he’d been telling her all along. She was stronger than he was. Emboldened, Helen rose even higher.
“What the hell are you doing?” Jason screamed from the ground below them, startling them both.
Claire screeched, and Helen’s concentration faltered. Before she could recover, the two of them started to drop quickly. Looking below, Helen could see that they had soared up higher than she’d thought. Even though she and Claire had fallen a long ways, they were still nearly thirty feet above Jason, Cassandra, Ariadne, and Matt, who were all staring up at them with panicked faces.
“Let her down now!” Jason commanded furiously.
“Jason, I’m fine,” Claire called in a soothing voice, but he wouldn’t listen.
“Now, Helen,” he growled. Even from so high up, Helen could see that Jason was bright red with anger. She decided she’d better do as he said before he popped a vein or something, and she began to gently lower Claire down to him.
She was still about ten feet off the ground when Jason jumped up and snatched Claire out of the air, forcing Helen to release her entirely. He was so angry he couldn’t even look at Claire as he put her down on her own two feet. He rounded on Helen as soon as she touched down in front of him.
“How could you be so selfish?” he asked in a strangled voice.
“Selfish?” Helen squeaked incredulously. “I’m selfish?”
“Did you ever consider how badly you could have hurt Claire if you dropped her?” He got louder and more wound up with every word. “Do you have a concept for how long a broken leg hurts a full mortal even after it’s healed? It can cause them pain for the rest of their lives!”
“Jason,” Claire tried to interrupt, but Helen was already yelling back at him.
“She’s my best friend!” Helen howled. “I would never let anything bad happen to her!”
“You can’t promise that. None of us can promise her that because of what we are!” he howled back.
“Jase . . .” Ariadne put a calming hand on her twin’s arm. He shook it off roughly and then turned on her.
“You’re no better, Ari. You won’t date Matt, but you think training him is going to help?” Condemnation seethed out of him. “How many times do we have to see it before we finally accept the truth? Full mortals don’t live for very long around Scions. Or hadn’t you noticed that we don’t have a mother?”
“Jason! Enough!” Ariadne exclaimed. Shocked tears sprang to her eyes.
But Jason was already done. In one quick motion, he whirled around, shied away from Claire’s reaching hands, and headed straight for the darkening beach. Claire backpedaled after him, giving Helen a pleading look. Helen mouthed the word “sorry” and in response, Claire sighed and shrugged, like there was nothing either of them could do. Then she left to chase Jason, who was rapidly retreating into the gathering shadows of the beach.
“This is my mom, Aileen, and Aunt Noel when they were in college together in New York City,” Ariadne said. She removed a picture that was sandwiched between the pages of a book on a shelf over her bed, and jumped down to hand it to Helen.
The photo showed two stunning young women behind a packed bar, pouring drinks. They had a sassy way about them that Helen admired right away, and they were laughing together uproariously as they served multicolored cocktails to the smeared waves of people in front of them.
“Look at Noel!” Helen burst out in surprise. “Is she wearing leather pants?”
“She sure is,” Ariadne said with a painful grimace. “I guess she and my mom were a little on the wild side when they were younger. They used to work in nightclubs and trendy restaurants all over the city to pay their tuition. That’s actually how they met my dad and Uncle Castor. In a nightclub.”
“Your mom was very beautiful,” Helen said, and she meant it. Aileen was slender, but still curvy and ultrafeminine. She had the black hair and the deep golden-brown skin of a Latin American. “But she doesn’t . . .”
“Look anything like us? No. Scions look like other Scions from history. We inherit nothing from our mortal parents,” Ariadne said sadly. “I think it would have been easier on my dad if he could look at us and see something of her living on. He loved her very much—still does to this day.”
“Yeah, I know,” Helen mumbled, and she was surprised to realize that she did know. Somehow she could sense how deeply this stranger in the photo had been loved. Looking at the way Aileen and Noel were cracking each other up, Helen couldn’t help but think of herself and Claire. “They were really close, huh?”
“Best friends since they were babies,” Ariadne said pointedly. “There’s a pattern, a cycle, to everything in our lives, Helen. Certain themes pop up over and over for Scions. Two brothers, or cousins who were raised like brothers, falling in love with two sisters, or almost sisters, is one of those cycles.”
“And only one of these women is still alive,” Helen said quietly, finally understanding Jason’s overprotectiveness. “Well, Jason has nothing to worry about. I’d die before I’d let anything happen to Claire.”
“Unfortunately, Scions don’t get to choose things like that,” Ariadne said with narrowed eyes. “My father would have died for my mother, but it doesn’t always end up in some heroic battle to save the person you love, you know. Sometimes, people just get killed. Especially around our kind.”
“What happened to your mom?” All this time, and Helen had never asked any of the Delos kids this question. Maybe Jason was right, Helen thought. Maybe she was selfish.
“Wrong place, wrong time,” Ariadne replied as she reclaimed the photo of her laughing mother and tucked it tenderly back between the pages of Anne of Green Gables. “Most Scions would do just about anything to avoid killing a full mortal. But more often than not, a full mortal will get killed completely by accident just because he or she is near a Scion. That’s why my fa
ther and my brother think we should stay away from anyone who could get hurt.”
“But you’re training Matt.”
“I never knew my mother. Everyone tells me she had a big mouth and a fiery Latina temper.” Ariadne shook her head with remorse. “But being tough isn’t enough. My father never taught my mother anything about how Scions fight, and I think that must have had something to do with why she died. I’m not delusional. I know Matt could never beat a Scion, but that’s not what this is about. If I don’t at least give him a skill set, then I’d never be able to forgive myself if he gets hurt. Does this make any sense?”
Helen nodded and took Ariadne’s shaking hands between her own. “Yeah, it does. I had no idea things were that serious between you and Matt.”
“It’s not like that,” Ariadne said quickly, but then she tossed her head back in exasperation and sighed at the ceiling. It was a gesture Helen had seen from Jason many times when he fought with Claire. “Honestly? I don’t know what’s between us. I can’t decide if I’m insulted he hasn’t tried anything or if I should be happy he hasn’t tempted me.”
It was obvious how torn Ariadne was. Helen didn’t know what to say, and eventually decided that maybe Ariadne didn’t need anyone else telling her what to do. Instead of trying to give advice, Helen just sat there, holding her hand while she thought it through for herself.
“Ari, do you know where . . .” Lucas said as he opened the bedroom door. He froze when he saw Helen. “Sorry. I should have knocked.”
“Who are you looking for?” Ariadne said, almost like she was testing him.
Lucas dropped his eyes and closed the door without answering her question. Helen told herself to breathe and forced herself to move her body in some way so she wouldn’t seem so dumbstruck, but Ariadne noticed, anyway.
“You too? Still?” she asked in a slightly disgusted way. “Helen. He’s your cousin.”
“I know that,” Helen said in a strained voice, holding out her hands in a pleading gesture. “You think I want to feel this? Do you know that I actually prefer being in the Underworld now because at least there I know I’m away from this sickness? How wrong is that!”