But it was more than just good looks that made a legend, especially in the genetically gifted Scion gene pool. There was a reason why both Casanova and Romeo, arguably the two most famous lovers in history, came out of Italy. Calling Orion a “handsome bastard,” while accurate, didn’t even begin to cover the effect he could have on a woman. The children of Aphrodite were irresistible sexually and most of them could sway people’s emotions to a certain extent, but Orion had told Lucas that his gift was much more powerful than that.
Orion had a rare ability. He could make Helen fall out of love with Lucas with a light touch. If that wasn’t bad enough, after Helen’s feelings for Lucas were severed, Orion could control Helen’s heart so that he could have the kind of casual relationship that wouldn’t violate the Truce—no commitment, no strings, just sex. That asshole could do whatever he wanted with Helen, and there was nothing Lucas could say against it.
The thought made Lucas want to beat the crap out of something, but instead he reminded himself that his family was probably worried about him and forced himself to head home.
Fortunately, Orion seemed squeamish about using his talent for any reason—even self-defense. He’d been deeply offended when Lucas had suggested that he had touched Helen’s heart in the cave for a cheap thrill. And after seeing the two of them in the Underworld together, Lucas knew that Orion would never force Helen into anything. In fact, Lucas was sure he’d protect her with his life. That made him hate Orion less, which only made things harder. Lucas wanted to hate Orion, but since he couldn’t, there was no one left to hate but himself.
Heading down the eastern coast, Lucas stayed out over the water so he didn’t have to fly too high and freeze his ass off. He’d left his jacket in his locker, but it didn’t really matter. He could think himself warm whenever he needed to. In fact, Lucas was beginning to believe he could think himself hot—really hot—almost as if he were on fire. But he didn’t have time to deal with that odd new talent right now. It only took him a second before he was landing in his backyard.
The guilt hit him as soon as he touched down, and he started looking around for his little sister. He shouldn’t have left her alone at school for Helen. Now that the Fates plagued her nearly every day, Cassandra was even more fragile than a fully mortal child. It took all of her strength to just survive each possession, and the fact that she did survive when so many past Oracles had died made Lucas suspect she was probably stronger than he was. But as strong as she was, after a possession she barely had enough strength left to breathe.
The other day he had found Cassandra sitting halfway up the stairs, slumped over and panting. After half a dozen steps, she’d been so worn out that she’d had to rest a minute and catch her breath. Lucas had carried her to her room, but it had been a struggle for him to go near her. She still had the aura of the Fates clinging to her, and although Lucas loved his little sister dearly, the Fates sent a chill down his spine.
Even Cassandra was scared of them, and she had to suffer their presence inside of her several times a week now. Lucas couldn’t know exactly what that kind of physical and mental intrusion felt like, but from the way she looked afterward, he assumed it had to be like rape.
The fact that this was happening to his baby sister, and that there was nothing he could do to stop it, made him very angry.
Striding across the back lawn toward the house, Lucas struggled to control his rage, reminding himself that he needed to be more careful. So many things made him angry these days. Since that disastrous dinner when he’d struck his father, he had developed a “side effect” that was tied to his anger.
He discovered it in full at Helen’s track meet when he saw her surrounded by the Hundred, but it didn’t start there. It had started with his father, just a small seed at first. But it was growing.
Part of him wondered if it would be easier if he talked to Jason or Cassandra about it, but he couldn’t bring himself to do that just yet. It would only worry his family more if they knew. Hell, it worried him.
Lucas had almost told Helen in the hallway earlier that day, but he couldn’t spit the words out for the life of him. Helen had been so afraid of Creon, and Lucas didn’t know if he could bear it if Helen started looking at him like that. He still hadn’t decided if he should talk about it with anyone, even though the reality was that eventually his all-knowing, all-seeing little sister would find out.
“Cassandra?” Lucas called out as he entered the kitchen. “Jase?”
“We’re in here,” Jason called from the library.
Jason’s voice didn’t sound right. He was tense, but Lucas assumed it was because he was still angry with Claire for disappearing with Helen all day and making them worry. The way Jason was handling the situation with Claire really frustrated Lucas. He wanted his cousin to wake up and realize that he’d been given a gift. He’d fallen for someone he could actually have.
The heavy double doors to the library were tilted open, and even before Lucas entered the room he could feel the tension and hear the barely controlled anger in everyone’s polite voices.
“Where were you?” Cassandra asked with narrowed eyes. She’d been grilling him about his whereabouts a lot lately, even though half the time she already knew the answer.
“What’s going on?” Lucas asked instead of answering her.
“Matt finally decided to share something with us,” Jason said tightly. He was so furious his cheekbones were flushed. Lucas had seen that particular shade of red before, and he knew firsthand how hard it was to get Jason that angry. He looked at Matt and raised his eyebrows questioningly.
“I’ve been in touch with Zach. He called me the night before last, and warned me that something was going to happen today, but he didn’t know what, exactly,” Matt replied heavily.
“Why didn’t you say anything, Matt?” Ariadne asked in a hurt voice. “Even if Zach didn’t know the specifics, why didn’t you warn us?”
There’s another problem just waiting to happen, Lucas thought. But there was no way around it. Scions tended to fall in love young because they tended to die young. At least Lucas couldn’t find any fault in Ariadne’s taste. Matt had proven his loyalty to the House of Thebes many times over. Which was what made this current situation so puzzling. Matt usually made better choices and showed more sense than this.
“You wouldn’t understand,” Matt replied sullenly.
“Try us,” Lucas said, his internal temperature rising. He hated it when full mortals acted as if they were so different from Scions, as if they didn’t have all the same feelings.
“If I told you what he told me, what would you have done to him? Questioned him? Beat him up?” Matt exploded. “The guy’s a compulsive liar. Most of what he says is bullshit, and that’s what I thought his warning was. He has no idea what he’s gotten himself into!”
“And that’s supposed to make it all okay?” Jason said.
The argument continued, getting more and more hurtful with every exchange. Lucas hadn’t been on Nantucket for very long, but he still had every single class with Matt at school. He spent more time with the guy than he did with his own father, and he couldn’t remember ever seeing him get angry before. Like Jason, Matt was levelheaded, but right now both of these usually calm individuals were so angry they could barely see straight. Everyone was riled up.
This much discord isn’t natural, Lucas thought. Discord. The riots, the uncontrollable anger—even angelic, goody-two-shoes Helen had wanted to do something bad. It all added up.
“Eris,” he said out loud. He felt like kicking himself. “Listen, everyone. If Ares tried to instigate some kind of conflict with Helen in the Underworld, then it only makes sense that his sister would try to do the same in the real world. The Truce doesn’t include her—she isn’t one of the Twelve. She can use her powers here on Earth.”
“Oh, gods! Of course!” Cassandra passed a hand across her face and smiled up at him. “How did I miss that?”
“Well, I had
more to go on than you. I actually saw her,” he explained. “In the hallway with Helen while we were hiding. Eris and Ares look very similar, like they’re twins or something, except Ares is covered in blue dye. That’s what threw me.”
“How can you know what Ares looks like?” Claire asked, her eyes drilling into Lucas. “The Greeks loathed him so much that they barely wrote any myths about him at all—let alone one that describes his appearance in an authoritative way.”
Figures Claire would be the one to spot that, Lucas thought. He sighed and came clean.
“I’ve seen Ares. I found a way down to the Underworld and I was there when Ares confronted Helen and Orion.”
When everyone stared at him with dropped jaws, he went on to explain about the Getty robbery, what the obols could do, and how he had given one to Helen. He didn’t apologize for any of it.
“And you didn’t tell us about this, why?” Ariadne asked through clenched teeth.
“You wouldn’t have understood,” he said, consciously echoing what Matt had said a few moments ago. “All that matters is that Helen can dream again.”
“Look, we’re all committed to protecting Helen, and if you’d come to us with this idea, you know we would have agreed to the robbery to save her life. So why’d you do it alone? Luke, what if you’d been seen?” Jason asked seriously. “The Getty is blanketed with surveillance cameras.”
“Not an issue,” Lucas replied with certainty.
Jason gave him a doubtful look, but Lucas shook his head once in warning. Jason knew him well enough to know that Lucas was trying to tell him something. He took the hint and dropped it for the time being, but Lucas knew his invisibility secret probably wouldn’t last the night now that Jason was suspicious. He was willing to let that one go as long as no one suspected his other, much more frightening secret.
“Kids!” Noel shouted anxiously from the front door. Everyone reacted to the alarming tone in her voice.
“Mom?” Lucas shouted back as he rose from his chair. A moment later, she appeared in the doorway, out of breath and looking around wildly as she counted heads. She didn’t get the number she was hoping for.
“Where’s Helen?” she asked, her tension mounting.
“I left her at work,” Lucas replied quickly.
“Oh, no,” Noel whispered to herself, fumbling with her cell phone as she dialed a number. His father’s number, Lucas realized. Castor was still in Conclave with the Hundred. Leaving the meeting could be seen as a breach. Every decision the Conclave had come to up to that point could potentially be scrapped, and his mother knew it.
“Mom! Are you sure you want to do that?”
“Screw Conclave! Castor and Pallas need to come home now. There’s a huge riot in the center of town, Lucas. Right outside the News Store!”
Heat swarmed Helen’s skin, making it sting and prickle with sweat. The bone-dry air smelled like struck matches and wiggled like the surface of a lake. Light blinded her, although there appeared to be no true sun.
Orion released Helen’s hands so he could turn and face the only tree in the dry lands. Three small girls stood in its shade, their thin shoulders quivering as they cried. Orion gestured for Helen to join him so they could approach the Furies together. The three sisters reached out for each other fearfully. As Orion took a step closer, they wrapped their arms around each other in a miserable huddle.
“Wait.” Helen put a hesitant hand on Orion’s arm. “I don’t want to frighten them.”
“Have you come to kill us, Descender?” the one in the middle asked. Her voice was still childlike, even though it was rough with tears. Now that Helen could see them clearly without feeling their influence, she wondered how she could ever have thought they were grown women. They were just children.
“We know how you Scions hate us and want us dead,” whined the one on the left. “But it won’t work.”
“We don’t want to hurt you. We came to help.” Helen held her hands up in a peaceful gesture. “Isn’t that what you wanted the first time you led me here? For me to come back someday to help you?”
The Furies sniffled and cringed as they clutched at each other, still terrified. Orion slowly took off his backpack and laid it on the ground, glancing up at them soothingly as he did so to make sure none of them were startled. Helen thought it looked as if he were approaching a herd of skittish deer, but his tactics seemed to be working. The Furies watched him carefully with wide eyes and pursed lips, but they did seem to be more at ease.
“We’ve brought you something to drink,” he said gently as he unzipped the backpack and took out the three canteens.
“Poison?” asked the whiny one on the left. “A trick to send us to Tartarus, no doubt. I told you already. It won’t work.”
“Sisters. Maybe this is best,” the smallest one on the right said in a thin, wispy voice that could barely be heard. “I am so tired.”
“I know you are,” Helen said, her heart going out to the three girls. “And I know what it is to be really tired.”
“We only want to help ease your suffering,” Orion said. He sounded so kind that the one on the left wavered and took a half step toward him.
“There is no end to our suffering,” said the leader in the middle, restraining her sister. “You Scions may find peace, even happiness from time to time, but we Erinyes are tormented always. We were born of blood spilled by a son who attacked own his father. We are fated to avenge the wrongful death.”
The leader glared at Orion accusingly, and he looked up at the Furies with pleading eyes. Helen took a reassuring step closer to him. He was starting to lose focus on the reason they were there. That wasn’t like Orion at all.
“I didn’t kill my father, no matter how much the Fates would have liked that,” he declared in a strong voice. “I was born to bitterness, but I don’t choose to be bitter.”
“But it’s not a choice for us, prince,” whispered the smallest one. “The murders are always inside our heads.”
“We Erinyes can never forget the blood that your kind has spilled. We remember every moment,” the leader said with deep sadness. The three girls began to weep again.
“And that’s why we are here. My friend and I think you’ve suffered enough for the Scions’ sins,” Orion said in his soothing voice. “We only want to give you some water to drink. Aren’t you thirsty?”
“We’ve not had a single drop of water in over three thousand years,” said the one on the left.
All three of them were tempted, that was obvious. It was so hot and dry, even in the shade of their miserable tree, that Helen, who had grown used to deprivation, was desperate just to wet the inside of her mouth for a moment. Finally, the littlest sister stepped forward on legs so skinny and frail they nearly folded up underneath her.
“I am very thirsty. I wish to drink,” she said in her tiny, whispering voice.
Her thin arms shook as she held out her hands. Orion unscrewed the lid and helped her steady the canteen and raise it to her lips. She swallowed a small sip, and then looked up at Orion in shock. She grabbed the canteen and tilted it back, swallowing the entire contents in a series of loud gulps before swooning against Orion. He caught her and held her, glancing at Helen reassuringly.
“You’ve killed her!” the whiny one gasped.
“He can’t kill any of us,” the leader said. “Look. She stirs.”
The littlest one clutched at the hem of Orion’s shirt, burying her face in his chest. He stroked her hair with his free hand and spoke softly in her ear as her shoulders started to shake. Helen could tell from his tone that he was telling her that it was okay and that she was safe. The littlest Fury suddenly threw her head back and revealed that she wasn’t in pain or crying. She was laughing.
“Sisters,” she sighed. “It’s . . . heaven! The Heirs have brought us heaven to drink!”
Helen quickly handed the other two Furies their canteens, and watched as they joined their sister in euphoria. The littlest one kissed Orio
n on the cheek in gratitude and then threw herself into the waiting arms of her two bigger sisters. The three girls cried with joy as they hugged each other, bouncing and squealing and laughing all at once. They looked like three young girls, jumping around at a slumber party.
Glancing over at Orion, Helen saw him staring at the three girls with intense, but seemingly conflicted, emotions. She went and stood close to him, trying to offer him whatever reassurance she could. He seemed shaken up by the mention of his father, and she wanted to let him know that none of that mattered now. The Scions were free of the Furies, and soon he and his father could be together again.
“You were right,” Helen said. He looked down at her with a questioning smile. “Setting them free was way better than eternal joy.”
They both turned their attention back to the girls, and watched their rejoicing. Then Helen shrugged and made an “eh” noise, pretending like she was still debating it. Orion laughed at her joke, but he didn’t say anything. He just draped an arm over her shoulders as they watched the three sisters hug and dance.
The littlest one was the first to break away. At first, it seemed that she had grown tired from all the excitement and needed to go sit for a moment. She staggered away from the group and covered her eyes with a hand. Orion quickly released Helen to go to her aid when she wavered as if she was about to collapse. She bent her head. Red drops stained her white dress as she wept bloody tears. Her sisters took her from Orion, asking what was wrong. Not long after, the other two began to weep as well.
“What happened?” Helen asked Orion.
“I don’t know. All she said was that she couldn’t get their faces out of her head,” he replied with a worried frown as he watched the girls huddle together and speak privately. They seemed to come to some sort of a consensus, and the leader approached Helen and Orion.
“It appears this joy was not meant to last,” she said.
The other two girls continued to cling to each other as they cried, and Helen desperately wanted to help them. Orion crouched down and picked up the discarded canteens, frantically checking them for any leftover drops of water but they all were empty.