Starcrossed: Goddess Part 6

She and Lucas were woven from the same cloth, cut apart, and then st.i.tched back together from one cycle to another. The circ.u.mstances changed, but they were always intertwined, no matter what.

The difference now was that in this life they were cousins. That had never been part of the deal before, and it didn't feel right to Helen. Lucas, or Paris, or Lancelot, or any one of the hundreds of names she'd called him over the centuries had never been her cousin before. They'd always shared a doomed, starcrossed love, but they had never been related. What had happened this time to throw everything so far out of whack?

I really don't care if he's my cousin anymore.

As soon as Helen thought this, she remembered Aphrodite's curse. If Helen didn't have a daughter, love itself would be taken from the world. And Ariadne had once told Helen that close relatives like cousins almost always had insane children. Since Helen was quite sure that Aphrodite wouldn't forget her 3,300-year-old curse, and since Helen could never bear the thought of d.a.m.ning an innocent child to insanity, there were no options for her and Lucas. She jerked her leg away and tilted her knees to her other side, toward Orion. Sensing her uneasiness, Orion looked over at Helen with concerned eyes.

Setting aside her bias for Lucas, Helen had to admit that Orion was the most beautiful man she'd ever seen. She smiled at him, and he nudged her elbow playfully with his before they both returned to devouring their food.

Sometime later, Helen took her attention off her plate long enough to notice that Jason and Claire had joined them at the table. Claire had a newspaper with her.

"She found something," Jason said seriously.

"It's not good," Claire warned. She opened up the paper and showed them an article. "Three volcanoes erupted last night in Europe."

"That doesn't sound normal," Kate said.

"It's not," Jason replied. "Especially since one of the volcanoes had been extinct for thousands of years."

"Hephaestus?" Andy asked.

"We think so," Claire said, looking at Jason.

"But why would he make volcanoes erupt? Just because he can?" Andy pressed.

"No. So he can forge weapons for Olympus," Lucas replied. Several people started talking at once. In the commotion, Helen saw the opportunity to talk privately with Orion. She swung her legs around and straddled the bench, gesturing with her chin for him to follow her out into the hallway.

As she pa.s.sed, she saw Lucas glance up at her. He looked at her like she was the big, blue sky, and he was watching it fall.

Something bright and pretty inside of him seemed to burn up and turn to soot. Ashy-colored hurt smeared around Lucas like a fog, darkening the air and stinging Helen's eyes.

Helen clenched her jaw and forced herself to keep going, heading blindly for the front door. She felt Orion hook his fingers around her arm. They were by the coats hanging in the front hall when he finally nudged her around to face him.

"What's going on with you?" he whispered. "I could have sworn you just saw . . ."

"Parts of Lucas's insides burn up and come out of his skin? Or are you talking about Hector literally glowing when he fell madly in love with a girl who hates him? Because I just saw both of those things happen," Helen said in a manic whisper. "It's as if everything that everyone is feeling is splashed across their insides, and I can see it! I'm pretty sure I shouldn't be able to see inside people!"

Orion took a step back, momentarily thrown, and then nodded in acceptance. Helen looked up at him pleadingly.

"What the h.e.l.l is going on with me?" she squeaked. "I can see love, Orion, and it's making me totally hectic."

"Yeah, love'll do that," he said distractedly. Helen bounced on her toes, anxious for some kind of explanation or rea.s.surance-anything, really. He put his hands on her shoulders and squeezed comfortingly. "You're seeing emotions. It's perfectly normal. For members of the House of Rome, anyway."

"News flash. I'm not from the House of Rome."

"And that's the big problem, isn't it?"

"Lucas told me once that Scions are born with all their talents. Have you ever heard of this happening before?"

"What? A Scion taking such a huge beating they wake up with a new talent? No, I haven't." He rubbed her upper arms with his palms a few times and then gathered her into a hug. "There's got to be an explanation. We'll figure it out."

"I don't want to figure it out," Helen grumbled, her words m.u.f.fled in his chest. "I want it to go away." She pulled back a bit so she could look up at him. "How do you stand it? I usually have a hard enough time dealing with my own emotions. What the heck am I supposed to do with everybody else's?"

"You get used to it," he replied with a little shrug. Helen gave him a dubious look and he chuckled. "Okay, you don't get used to it," he admitted. "But you do get better at blocking it out."

"You know what? This sucks. I was just getting the hang of all the other things I can do," she said, throwing up her hands. "And it's like I woke up the other day with this whole new bunch of magic tricks to deal with, but no instructions for getting the blasted rabbit back in the hat."

"What do you mean? What else is going on in there?" Orion asked, tapping Helen lightly on the tip of her nose with his pointer finger.

"I don't know," Helen said with a frustrated sigh. "Honestly? I'm so confused right now I don't know whether to spit or go sailing."

Orion smiled and leaned back against the wall, letting his gaze drift down in thought. Helen stared at him for a few moments, just enjoying his company and the fact that he was there with her. No. Better than that. He was there for her.

Orion had saved her b.u.t.t so many times now, listened to her whine when she couldn't figure something out. He'd followed her to h.e.l.l and back, and he still didn't seem fed up with her. The grat.i.tude she felt toward him, and toward whatever force put him in her life, was overwhelming. He sensed her flood of feeling and looked up, startled.

"There's something I need to show you," Orion said quietly.

"Sure," Helen responded, concerned. The half-sad, half-afraid look on his face worried her.

Even more confusing than the look he gave her were the colors she saw boiling inside of him. They twisted and changed before Helen could define them. He was hiding his feelings from her, she realized with a jolt.

She knew Orion had been through a lot in his life, and sometimes Helen had to run through the whole mess in her head just to keep it straight. Orion was a Rogue Scion. His parents were the Heads of two opposing Houses, the House of Rome and the House of Athens. He'd been claimed by the House of Athens when he was born, so the House of Rome hated him and wanted him dead, even though he had inherited the t.i.tle of Head of the House of Rome. The House of Athens hated him as well, because he was born with the talent to cause earthquakes. Earthshakers were supposed to be left to die at birth, but Orion's father had gone against this rule.

When other members of the House of Athens found out that Orion was still alive, they had tried to kill him when he was still just a little boy. To defend his son, Orion's father-Daedalus-had killed one of his family members and became an Outcast, which meant that for years before the Furies were finally dealt with, Orion couldn't be anywhere near Daedalus without feeling the Furies' influence and wanting to kill his own father. And his father wanting to kill him.

As if this weren't bad enough, everyone was terrified Orion was going to turn into the uber-bad guy, the Tyrant. The prophecy said that the Tyrant would come if the blood of the Houses mixed, and Orion was the son of two different Houses. The Tyrant was also supposed to be able to reduce all mortal cities to rubble. As an Earthshaker, Orion fit that description, too.

All the Scions had feared the Tyrant before the Trojan War. As Helen remembered it, the Trojan War had started, not because of an unfaithful wife with a pretty face who ran off with a handsome prince, but because the rest of the world believed that Helen and Paris had created the Tyrant. The Scions would stop at nothing to kill the Tyrant, then and now. The only reason Orion was still alive was because they didn't know for sure that he really was the Tyrant.

And that's what bothered Helen the most. The Fates were cruel to Scions in general, but Orion had been hunted, neglected, shunned, and feared since he was a small boy and he had never done anything to anyone. It was like the moment he was born, he drew the short straw and the Fates had turned the whole world against him. That amount of adversity struck Helen as unnatural, even for a Scion. What did he ever do to deserve the torture he'd lived through? And Helen was pretty sure Orion had been literally tortured. She pictured the horrific scars on his otherwise gorgeous body, and her heart broke all over again.

Orion looked down at Helen's chest as tenderness for him welled up inside of her. It was incredibly intimate, and Helen had to admit, a thrill to be that exposed to someone.

"Tonight," he said in a gravelly voice, averting his eyes tactfully as if Helen were suddenly topless. In a way she was, and they both knew it. Helen crossed her arms shyly over her chest. He pushed himself off the wall and stood up straight until he was at his full height over her. It struck Helen again just how big Orion was. Maybe that was another reason everyone feared him. The guy was huge. "I want to take you there tonight. Before I have to go back to school tomorrow."

Helen nearly laughed, and then caught herself when she remembered that it was her school that had been demolished in the Halloween riots, not his. After everything, Orion still had to pretend he was a normal guy who went to prep school, did his homework, and gave a c.r.a.p about what the other kids thought of him. It seemed so ludicrous, but no one could say for certain what was going to happen in the future. He was just covering all his bases.

After the big meeting of the Houses that was supposed to take place at some point over the next few days, Orion might have to go back into hiding again. Maybe Helen and Lucas would have to hide as well. The three of them were responsible for the breaking of the Truce, and there was a possibility they might have to run for their lives if the other Scions turned on them. Or they might have to face off with the G.o.ds.

"Where are you going?"

Orion and Helen both jumped at the unexpected sound. Ca.s.sandra appeared out of the shadows, slinking forward silently, her eyes unblinking as she glanced from Orion to Helen and then to the front door that they were standing before.

"Are you leaving?" she asked Orion gravely.

Ca.s.sandra's eyes were big and s.h.i.+ny in the dim hallway, like two still pools of deep water in a shady forest. Distracted by a strange s.h.i.+mmer, Helen glanced down at Ca.s.sandra's chest. A single silver orb captured Helen's eyes. Like a full moon in winter, it hung inside the midnight-dark of Ca.s.sandra's tiny rib cage and glowed a ghost-blue color that danced across her pale cheeks.

As lonely as a rock in s.p.a.ce, Helen thought, staring at the orb. That's her heart.

When Helen looked at Orion, expecting to see him fixated on the silver s.h.i.+mmer of Ca.s.sandra's core, she was shocked to see him smiling happily-as sunny and as bright as could be. It was as if the chill Helen saw inside Ca.s.sandra was invisible to Orion.

"Hey, Kitty," Orion said, grinning down on Ca.s.sandra.

Ca.s.sandra didn't object to the nickname he'd given her. In fact, she seemed to like it, which was downright baffling. She smiled up at Orion, sending the silver light in her chest out in a wavelike dance across her face and down her arms and out to the tips of her braided hair.

"You said you were staying a while." Ca.s.sandra's gaze was glued to Orion. "You said you were going to make me a bell."

Orion threw back his head and laughed, his bright teeth flas.h.i.+ng in the dim entryway. "I made it already. But I won't force you to wear it if you don't like it."

He pulled a long, sparkly braid of silky purple twine from his pocket. It was studded with miniature jingle bells that were smaller than sunflower seeds. Ca.s.sandra's eyes lit up.

"I like it," she said enthusiastically.

"Never heard of a kitty that actually wanted to wear a bell before," Orion said with a comical grimace. He motioned for Ca.s.sandra to hold out her wrist, and when she did, he began wrapping the long thread around and around, forming a multilayered, tinkling gauntlet as he did so.

"That's really beautiful," Helen exclaimed as Orion began knotting the bracelet to Ca.s.sandra's wrist. The materials were simple, but the end result was surprisingly stylish. Helen wanted one herself. "When did you get the chance to make that?"

"Oh, you know. Here and there," he replied with a mysterious smile, his eyes on his task. "Used to make jewelry for the tourists when I was kicking around India and Tibet. Just to make a buck. I got good at making little things like this fast." He finished tying it off and released Ca.s.sandra's wrist.

"When were you in Tibet?" Helen asked, surprised and a bit envious. She'd always wanted to go there.

He locked eyes with her, his lips sealed. Helen glanced down at Orion's chest, but he was doing that thing where he s.n.a.t.c.hed the colors away before Helen could really see them.

"We'll talk about that when we go out tonight," he said finally.

"Okay. But you gotta teach me how you do that cover-up swirly thing, or I'm not going anywhere with you," she said, pointing first to his chest, then to hers. "I'm at a serious disadvantage here."

"So, you are leaving," Ca.s.sandra said anxiously, turning to Orion. "You two are going on a date?"

"Not exactly," Orion said, staring at Helen with an enigmatic smile. Helen had no idea what he had in store, so she just shrugged.

"You're not going for long, are you?" Ca.s.sandra persisted, a desperate note creeping into her voice.

"No way," Orion said. He took her hand up playfully and shook it, making the bells on her new bracelet ring for a moment. "I'll be back before you know it."

"Good," Ca.s.sandra said, sighing the word with relief. She noticed Helen watching her carefully and squared her shoulders. "Hector said w-we should all stick together. I-I think he's right."

For the life of her, Helen couldn't remember Ca.s.sandra ever stammering before, and she wondered if Ca.s.sandra had foreseen something about her and Orion going out. Maybe it was too dangerous for them to leave the Delos compound at all? Then Helen remembered that Ca.s.sandra hadn't made a single prophecy in days. Since Halloween, Helen thought.

Before Helen could ask her if this was normal, Ca.s.sandra spun around and glided down the hallway.

"Speaking of Hector," Orion said, completely unfazed by Ca.s.sandra's odd behavior. "I should probably go get him. He can't be wandering around right now when he's supposed to be lying low, no matter how lovesick he is."

"Yeah," Helen mumbled, still thinking about Ca.s.sandra. If Orion could see hearts, how could he not see how different she was around him? Helen decided that she had to be imagining it.

"Are you okay?" Orion asked, touching her arm gently. His concern for her only proved her point. If Orion didn't notice it, then there couldn't be anything going on inside Ca.s.sandra-she was just a strange girl, and Helen must have misinterpreted what she saw.

"Yeah. I guess," she waved her hand, dismissing her thoughts and smiling at him. "Go get Hector. Drag that numbskull back if you have to."

"He's probably in the ocean. He likes to swim when he's upset. Shouldn't take me long," he said, and then studied her closely. "Are you sure you're going to be okay?"

"Yeah. Don't worry about me."

The corners of Orion's mouth turned up in the faintest of smiles. "Easier said than done." He leaned across the few inches separating them and brushed his lips across hers. "I'll be back soon," he whispered, and turned to leave before Helen even had a chance to kiss him back.

Matt could feel his warriors getting closer. They were tied to each other by blood oaths and could sense one another, as if they were all different limbs of the same body.

Sometime over the next few days his troops would arrive on this beach in s.h.i.+ps, echoing the journey they had made thousands of years before to claim Helen of Troy. Matt looked for their approaching mast from the beach. The remnants of this once-great army had begun their journey the moment the dagger had fallen into the chosen hand, but scattered as they were to all parts of the globe, it would take time for them to reach this sh.o.r.e.

Finally, after so many millennia, they were to be reunited with their newly reborn master. And with the dagger on which they had all pledged their lives.

It was because of the dagger, the magical gift of silver-footed Thetis to her only son, that they were all fated to live until they died in battle for his honor and glory.

They had been unlucky.

Their nearly indestructible master had died before they had had the chance to die for him, but their oaths still bound them. They could not die of old age, or of sickness, or of broken hearts, no matter how horribly the world treated them. They could only die in battle, and most of them had. None but the strongest were left-those most committed to their master and their master's pledge to kill the Tyrant.

Just thirty-three in all.

But Matt knew that thirty-three 3,300-year-old Myrmidons were enough to set the world on fire.

FIVE.

Helen stood over her father and watched him breathe. Every rise and fall of his chest was long and labored. The twins a.s.sured her that he had no injuries left for them to heal-but for some reason Jerry just wasn't able to stay conscious. It was as if he were very tired. It might be that he only needed to rest, they said, but if that were the case, it didn't make sense to Helen that her father wasn't physically able to stay awake for more than a few moments at a time.

Helen tried to pin down what she was feeling, but when she asked herself how she felt about the fact that her father was still in such bad shape, and that no one knew what to do about it, her mind started to wander.

Distracting thoughts kept popping up-like how Luis and his kids were doing after being hurt by Automedon, how the store had held up since the riot, and whether or not anyone had checked on her father's house to make sure it wasn't vandalized. All of these thoughts were logical enough, but they were not the things she should be thinking when her father was barely clinging to life.

She sat down in the armchair that was pulled up to the side of her father's bed and wondered what was wrong with her. How could she be so distracted at a time like this? She noticed her leg was bouncing up and down and put a hand on her knee to keep it still, but it didn't work. About to jump out of her skin, Helen stood up and started pacing.

"A few more steps and you'll wear a hole in the floor," Lucas said softly from the doorway. Helen spun and faced him, clenching her fists. She wasn't in the mood for an emotional encounter, and for once Helen wished Lucas would just go away.

Leaning against the frame, Lucas's eyes skipped over her. He gave her a half smile, gesturing over his shoulder with his head.

"Come on," he said, his voice clipped.

"Where?" Helen challenged. She crossed her arms and glared at him.

"Down to the cage," he fired back, not at all intimidated by the look she gave him. Lucas pushed himself off the door frame and crossed to Helen slowly. When he got to her, he took her wrists, unwound her tight arms, and parted them. He stepped closer, until he was nearly up against her. "You need to hit something."