By chance, Kate happened to pick Lucas’s room. Helen almost backed out, but then she found that she couldn’t resist the temptation of being close to anything that belonged to him.
“What’s going on?” Helen asked.
“Jason said that Jerry got lost down there. He said that all of this should have been over before we even got in the car and came here,” Claire said calmly.
Kate jumped in, unable to contain herself. “But there was some horrible god interfering. He must have led Jerry’s spirit in the wrong direction while we were carrying him to the car,” Kate said in a shaky voice. “And now the twins can’t find him.”
“Morpheus met with Ariadne on the border of his land to tell her that it was Ares who misled your dad,” Claire said in a hushed voice, and looked over at Kate for corroboration.
“Helen. Why is the god of war trying to kill your father?” Kate asked, her voice trembling on the verge of hysteria. Kate was a practical woman, and not accustomed to emotional outbursts, but she was still trying to wrap her brain around the fact that everything she knew as myth was really true. Helen took her hand and squeezed it.
“I should have told you,” Helen said, barely able to look Kate in the eyes. “I thought I could protect you if I kept you separate, that you and dad could go on with your lives if you just didn’t know. It sounds so stupid now when I say it out loud, but I really believed it could work, and I’m sorry. Ares is trying to get to me. I don’t know why he’s doing it, but I know he’s using Dad as bait.”
“Okay,” Kate said, wiping away a leaking tear and pursing her lips in determination. “So what can we do about it? How do we save Jerry?”
“Not we,” Helen whispered darkly, remembering Morpheus’s warning that Ares dreamed of hurting her. “Me. Ares wants me.”
“And you’re just going to go running right down there to face him, aren’t you?” Cassandra asked from the doorway. Helen turned to see Cassandra standing behind her with her arms crossed in anger. “Even though you know this is probably a trap?”
“Yes. And I have to go right now.”
“Lennie, that’s just about the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard you say,” Claire said, disbelief wiping all expression off her face. “Matt is a better fighter than you are and he isn’t even a Scion. And you think you can take on Ares alone?”
“Yes,” Helen said, looking around impassively at everyone’s shocked faces. “I’m the Descender. I can control the Underworld and Ares can’t. I don’t know what it says about me, that I have power over that place, but there it is. Up here, I wouldn’t have much of a shot against him, sure. But in the Underworld I can beat him—at least long enough to get my father back. I know it.”
Helen walked to Lucas’s bed and pulled the covers down.
“Helen. Your father wouldn’t want you to endanger yourself for him,” Claire said firmly as she put a hand on Helen’s shoulder and turned her around. Helen couldn’t remember the last time Claire had called her by her full name. She, Kate, and Cassandra were all ready to stop her, which they could do easily. Unless she convinced them, all they had to do was keep her awake.
“I know my dad wouldn’t want this, but . . . well, too bad!” Helen finally burst out in a rough whisper, trying to keep her voice down and nearly failing. “He’ll die if I don’t get him away from Ares, and if the twins stay down there much longer, they’re going to die, too. You know I’m right, Claire. You know how every second on the border of the shadow lands feels like forever to the soul stumbling around in it.”
Claire dropped her eyes and turned her head, nodding painfully. She did know, and the memory still frightened her.
“Just wait for Orion to go with you,” Cassandra begged, crossing the room to Lucas’s bed as Helen climbed into it.
“I can’t. It takes Orion half an hour to get down to where the portal is on the mainland from Nantucket. In the Underworld, time moves differently, but my father’s spirit isn’t in the Underworld yet. Time hasn’t stopped, it’s stretched out for him and the twins, and every second I waste up here feels like days and days to them down there. Jason, Ari, and my dad won’t last in that desert another half an hour. I have to go now.”
Kate, Claire, and Cassandra looked around at each other sadly. They knew Helen was right.
“I wish I could say everything’s going to be all right, but I haven’t been able to see your future for a while now. I’m sorry,” Cassandra said, leaning forward impulsively to kiss her on the cheek. “Good luck, cousin,” she whispered tenderly, clinging tightly to Helen’s neck.
Helen reached out her other arm and brought Kate and Claire into the hug as well.
“You’d better leave now and shut the door behind you,” she said resolutely as she let the three of them go. “It’s about to get dangerously cold in here.”
The Oracle was near. That was a problem. Her dear mortal females could die and not disrupt the plans of the Twelve, but the Oracle was almost as important as Helen herself, and unfortunately she was far more fragile.
True Oracles who were strong enough to bear the crushing weight of the future were precious, and although the gods were subject to the Fates just as mortals were, they had never had an Oracle of their own. Procuring one had always been a top priority. This Cassandra in particular was a favorite of Apollo’s. He had waited for her for millennia.
Listening in on the conversation between the princess and the Oracle, he could hear her taking the bait. No matter how dangerous it was to her, she would follow her father down to the shadow lands, just as his master had predicted.
Automedon had a very small window of opportunity. He could only strike after she created a portal, but before she descended. If he didn’t sting her then, the goddess charm she always wore around her neck would prevent any penetration. Worse than that, she would be able to incapacitate him with her lightning long enough to fly away. She was only vulnerable for a moment—the cold of the Void was the signal—and then he had a split second to act.
Pacing around the outside of the mansion, Automedon tasted the air for the scent of any of her protectors. Luckily, they had their hands full in the center of town. Automedon heard the Heir, the true princess of legend, dismiss her handmaidens with a loving embrace, and relax into the sleeping trance, the mental state from which she preferred to conjure the portal. The time had come.
Automedon leapt forward, knocking down the front door, and sprinting up the stairs on all fours. The mother mortal raised her hand to draw the curse of Hestia down upon him, but she was too slow.
Leaping over the precious Oracle to spare her, Automedon knocked the two pretty but useless handmaidens aside. He shattered the lover’s door into splinters, vaulted onto the bed, and cupped the princess’s sleeping head in his right hand half a heartbeat before she descended, the very moment she was most vulnerable. Her beautiful amber eyes snapped open. From inside his left wrist, Automedon slid his stinger out of its sheath and pierced the Princess’s slack throat. Her eyes fluttered and her lips quivered as his venom flooded her blood. He heard screaming from the hallway and from the bottom of the stairs, but the noise was inconsequential. He had his prize, and none of them was anywhere near strong enough to keep him from taking it.
The princess went still. Automedon picked her up and carried her paralyzed body out of the lover’s window and off the island.
Lucas watched Hector blur as he sped off to find his father, while he and Orion stayed back to help a cluster of injured people onto the sidewalk. A triage center was forming, and people who lived in the area were coming out of their houses with water, bandages, and first aid kits to help the wounded. Lucas and Orion had urged Hector on, but had to stop themselves when they couldn’t ignore the cries for help.
“We should check the next block, too,” Orion said when they had helped the last of the injured, and the two of them began to run at a human pace down the nearest alley.
“Hold up,” Lucas called out to Orion as he fished his buz
zing phone out of his jeans.
Lucas looked at the screen and saw that it was his mom. He answered it immediately, already feeling a sick, slithering sensation in his gut.
“Lucas, he took her,” she said in a clipped and urgent monotone. “Helen was just about to descend to help her father and the twins when Automedon broke down the door, stung her, and then jumped out the window with her.”
“How long ago?” Lucas asked coldly.
Orion’s eyes flared as he picked up on Lucas’s chaotic emotions.
“A few minutes ago. Claire and Kate got knocked down by that creature, and I just finished making sure they were still alive,” his mother responded in a disgusted tone. “I don’t understand this, Lucas. How could he sting Helen? The cestus . . .”
“I gotta go.” Lucas hung up on his mother, not because he was angry but so that he could think. After relaying the information to Orion he went silent.
“Should we go back to your house? Try and find a trail?” Orion suggested.
“There won’t be one,” Lucas said quietly, wishing Orion would just shut up.
“Then what do you suggest?” Orion continued as he scrutinized Lucas carefully. When Lucas didn’t respond he raised his eyebrows and repeated himself. “Lucas. I can read your feelings, you know. Tell me what you’re thinking so we can work it out together.”
“I’m trying to figure out how the hell anyone would be able to capture Helen! Have you ever tried to fight her? Even when she holds back she’s a beast!” Lucas was teetering right on the edge of violence. He wanted to hit Orion, but he settled for yelling. “I can barely handle her and I don’t think she’s shown me even a fraction of what she’s capable of. Can you imagine what she’d do to someone if they tried to kidnap her and keep her against her will? Half of Massachusetts would be on fire!”
Orion looked at Lucas’s chest with concern.
“You’re freaking out. I need you to calm down right now. For Helen.” Orion grabbed Lucas by the shoulder, and Lucas felt flooded with warmth. His heart slowed down, and a wave of soothing feelings overtook him.
He knew Orion was a Son of Aphrodite and could manipulate emotions, but Lucas had never actually experienced anything like it before. It was a physical change, like an instant drug working on his body and mind, and for a moment Lucas wondered just how much Orion could affect him, and in what ways. If Orion could make him feel this good, it was reasonable to assume he could make him feel just as bad as well. The implications were astounding.
“I’m sorry,” Orion said, releasing Lucas. “I don’t like to do that without asking first.”
“No, it’s okay. I needed it,” Lucas said gently, knowing that Orion disliked using his talent to control hearts under any circumstance, even when it could benefit him greatly. He continued in a much calmer voice. “Did you notice the ice on Helen’s bed when she brought you back from the Underworld tonight? How she couldn’t float right away, and how I couldn’t lift the two of you off of me? Is that loss of Scion powers normal when Helen descends?”
“It’s normal around all portals into the Underworld. They’re dead zones. No heat, no living organisms growing on the walls, and no Scion talents. I think Helen creates a temporary portal when she descends, and it must take a few seconds to dissipate after she dismantles it,” Orion said with a thoughtful frown.
“Do you think Automedon would know all this about portals?”
“I wouldn’t doubt it. There have been other Descenders, and he’s three days older than dirt. That monster’s probably seen everything,” Orion said. “He wouldn’t have much time, though. Remember, after a few seconds, she could fly again.”
“Not a lot of time, sure. But if he were expecting it, it’d be enough. He was watching her for a few weeks. He’d know she would definitely follow her father down into the Underworld,” Lucas said, sensing that he was on the right track. This had to have been planned. “Automedon just had to make sure Jerry got terribly injured—easy enough to do in a riot—and then when every Scion on the island was out chasing Eris and Terror . . .”
“There’d be no Scions around to protect her while she went after her dad,” Orion finished. Then he shook his head as he noticed a flaw in their logic. “But Automedon could have done this any time over the past few months. She descended every night, and no one’s been guarding her. Why wait?”
“Well,” Lucas said, looking away embarrassed. “I’ve almost always been with her at night, usually on her roof. But no one, not even Automedon would have been able to see me.”
“How can you know that?”
“I’m a Shadowmaster. And I can also make myself invisible.” Orion’s eyes widened. Lucas plowed on impatiently before they could get off topic. “But that’s not the point. Automedon had to wait for Helen to complete her task in the Underworld before taking her. Tantalus wouldn’t dare make a move against Helen before that.”
“But why take her now? Tantalus knows about me and probably the dozens of other Rogues, too. He can’t hope to achieve Atlantis unless he kills us all. Do you think he intends to start with Helen?”
The world tilted on its axis for a moment as Lucas considered that. What if Helen were already dead? Was it possible that half of his heart could die without him feeling it? Lucas shoved a hand in his pocket and felt the last poppy obol left in the world, rubbing it between his thumb and forefinger. He already knew what he would do if Helen died.
“I don’t know,” he whispered, banishing that thought for now. He looked up at Orion intently. “You’re right. It doesn’t make sense for Tantalus to have her kidnapped now, but remember, he’s probably not the one calling the shots anymore. Automedon’s new master must have wanted the Furies out of the way as well before he gave the order to take Helen. Regardless of why Automedon waited, there’s only one place I can imagine where anyone would be physically capable of holding Helen prisoner.”
“A permanent portal. My portal is the closest one and I got followed there earlier tonight,” Orion said ruefully, like he wanted to kick himself. He started moving toward the west. “Do you want to wait here for your family while I go after her?”
Lucas smirked at Orion, not bothering to answer the question.
He knew that the smart thing would be to contact Hector and make it a three-to-one fight against the much stronger Myrmidon, but there was no way he could make himself hold still long enough to do that. He charged after Orion, and half a moment later they were at the edge of the island.
“Oh, God, Matt! You have to get here,” Zach rasped into the phone. His breathing was uneven and the receiver kept brushing against his chin, like he was running or walking fast. “He’s got Helen and he’s going to hurt her!”
“Wait. Where’s here?” Matt interrupted. He waved an arm frantically at Hector, Pallas, Castor—everyone who happened to be standing around the Delos kitchen, trying to figure out where Automedon could have taken Helen. Zach kept talking, the words spilling out of his mouth in a gob, like yolk dribbling from a cracked egg.
“I was supposed to call Lucas and that Orion guy,” Zach stammered. “That’s what I’m supposed to be doing right now, what I was always supposed to do, and I will because he’ll kill me if I don’t, but I know that’s his plan, so I can’t follow it entirely, right? I figured if I tell you, then we can figure something out.”
“Slow down! What do you mean ‘plan’?”
“The plan to start the war! He needs all three of them to do it!”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Helen’s cheek was hot—burning hot.
But the rest of her was freezing, she realized as she clawed her way up from the dragging darkness and back into consciousness. She was colder than she had ever been and something close to her smelled awful, like rust and rot.
“There she is, she’s come to play! Two more to come, then bombs away!” tittered a wheedling voice. “Prettyprettypretty godling.”
Ares.
Helen held very still and tried no
t to start shrieking. She needed to think. The last thing she remembered was Automedon’s face over hers, a jab in her neck, and then liquid pain pumping through her body until her brain switched itself off in self-defense.
“I see you there, my pretty little pet,” Ares said, no longer laughing. “You cannot hide behind your eyelids. Come. Open them. Let me see our father’s eyes.”
She heard the note of anger creeping into his voice, heard the threat in his move toward her. He’d called her bluff, and her eyes opened in terror. She disengaged gravity to fly away, but it didn’t work, and she immediately saw why. Even the air was saturated with ice crystals. The cold was so complete it stretched the senses beyond their limit and twisted them back the other way around until ice burned like fire.
In the flickering light of a bronze brazier, Helen could see that Ares had her bound with thick rope, staked to the ground at the entrance of a portal. Helen looked around desperately, but in her heart she already knew she was in the perfect prison. In the Underworld she could transport herself away from Ares with a few words. On Earth, she could at least put up one hell of a fight, and maybe get away. But at a portal, when she was neither here nor there, she was just a teenaged girl, tied up, and at the mercy of a maniac. This was planned, Helen knew. It had probably been planned for, literally, ages.
“Tears! I love tears!” Ares gushed as if he were talking about puppies. “Look how the little godling weeps . . . Still so pretty she is, she is! Let’s change that.”
Ares hit her across the mouth and Helen felt something snap. She took a deep breath. So this was it. She spat and looked up at him, no longer crying. Now that it had started she knew it wouldn’t be long, and in a way that was better than waiting for it. At least if Ares was here torturing her, that meant he wasn’t misleading her father’s spirit in the Underworld. This wasn’t the outcome she’d been hoping for when she’d closed her eyes to follow her father down into the Underworld, but it was better than nothing. Helen looked up at Ares and nodded at him, ready for whatever he had to dish out now that she knew her father was safe.