Helen?” Orion said from far, far away.
“Gods, you’re heavy,” Lucas groaned.
Helen couldn’t figure out why they were making such a racket when she was trying to sleep. It was rude.
“Sorry, but I wasn’t expecting it to be so crowded in here,” Orion replied in an annoyed voice. Helen tried to recall where “here” was.
“It’s not what you think. I came to guard her while she descended,” Lucas grunted. “You know what? If she won’t wake up, toss her off.”
“Why are you two being so noisy?” Helen mumbled peevishly, finally opening her eyes.
She saw that she was lying facedown on top of Orion, and he, in turn, had Lucas pinned underneath him. All of them were stacked in her tiny bed, tangled in the blankets and dusted with ice, like frosting on the layer cake. After all that had happened in the Underworld, it had slipped Helen’s mind that she had descended while Lucas held her in his arms, and even though a lot had transpired in that other universe, just milliseconds had passed in this one before she reappeared back in her bed with Orion in her arms.
Helen looked down at the Scion sandwich and tried not to blush. There was no reason for her to be embarrassed about any of this, right?
“Why are you so damn heavy?” Lucas asked breathlessly as the air was pressed out of his lungs. “I’ve lifted school buses with less effort.”
“I don’t know,” Helen mumbled, and tried to release gravity. It didn’t entirely work, although she did feel herself lighten a bit. “What the hell is going on?”
“What’s wrong?” Orion asked.
“I can’t float!” She shivered as the ice in her hair melted and turned into cold water that ran down the back of her neck.
“Calm down and try again,” Lucas said gently.
She did, and after a few moments it worked. She hovered over Orion as she unwound the constricting blankets, and then wafted away from him.
“That is so amazing,” Orion said, looking at Helen in awe as he got off Lucas and out of bed.
“You’ve never seen Helen fly?” Lucas said, and then he nodded as the reason why occurred to him. “No powers in the Underworld. Huh,” he mumbled to himself, staring at the fast-melting ice on Helen’s bed, deep in thought.
“Lucas, we did it,” Helen said. He glanced up at her, quickly discarding his absorbing thoughts. “We’re all free—the Scions, the Furies. All of us.”
“Are you sure?” he asked, almost daring to smile.
“Only one way to find out,” Orion said. He took out his phone, dialed, and waited until someone on the other end answered. “Hector. We think it’s over. Get to Helen’s as fast as you can.” He ended the call and looked at Helen and Lucas impassively. Lucas’s eyes widened with worry.
“Are you sure that was a good idea?” Helen asked Orion uncertainly.
“No, he’s right,” Lucas said, and seemed to brace himself for another encounter with his cousin. “It’s better to test this with just the four of us. Safer.”
“Okay. But can we do this outside?” Helen asked sheepishly. “My dad really loves this house.”
As soon as Helen said it, she was overwhelmed with worry for Jerry. She’d put the thought of him on the back burner so she could focus on what she needed to do, but now that she wasn’t running around like a crazy woman for the first time in what had to be the longest day of her life, Helen was desperate to find out what had happened to her father.
She led Lucas and Orion down to her front yard and then pulled out her phone to call Claire.
“How’s my dad?” Helen asked as soon as she answered.
“Ahh. Alive,” Claire said tentatively. “Look, Lennie, I’m not going to lie to you. It’s bad. We’re on our way back to the compound now. Jason and Ari are going to work on him there, but other than that, I don’t know what to tell you. I’m driving, so I’d better go. I’ll call later if something happens, okay?”
“Okay,” Helen tried to say, but it came out a whisper. She hit the end button and wiped her wet cheeks quickly before she looked up. Orion and Lucas were staring at her.
“Is Jerry . . . ?” Orion began.
“He’s not good,” Helen said in a strangely high voice.
Helen began to pace, and she didn’t know what to do with her hands or her feet. She touched her nonexistent pockets, ran her fingers through her snarly hair, and tugged at her clothes. It was as if all of her extremities had just picked up and started flapping on the breeze, like one of those fan men dancing outside a car dealership. Without Jerry, she was just one big loose end.
“Jason and Ariadne are very talented, Helen,” Lucas said in a low voice. “They’ll fight for him. You know that, right?”
“Yeah,” Helen said in a distracted way, still pacing. “And if they can’t save him, I’ll go down there and I’ll . . .”
“Don’t say it Helen,” Orion interrupted urgently. “You may be the Descender, but Hades is still lord of the dead. Remember what happened when you said you’d free Persephone? How easily he dealt with you? Don’t even think about trying to steal from him.”
“He can’t have my father,” she said, suddenly very still. She looked up and stared at Orion, daring him to defy her. “I’ll turn the Underworld upside down and shake it until Jerry drops out if I have to, but he can’t have my father.”
“Helen,” Lucas said, his face masklike with fear, “no mortal can cheat him or beat him. Please listen . . .”
“Luke?” the questioning voice came from across the dark yard.
Lucas spun around to face Hector, who was striding toward them across Helen’s lawn. Whatever he was going to say to Helen was immediately forgotten. Hector stopped a few paces away from Lucas, and they stared at each other tensely, both waiting for the Furies. Who didn’t come.
“Son of a bitch,” Lucas whispered, too stunned to move for a moment. He looked at Helen, shocked. “You really did it.”
The cousins came together and clasped each other in a fierce hug, both of them apologizing at the same time. While Helen looked on, she felt Orion staring at her. She glanced over at him and found him watching her with worry.
“Princess!” Hector said as he released Lucas and scooped Helen up into one of his big hugs. “I knew you could do it.”
“I had a lot of help.” Helen giggled as Hector lifted her off her feet and squeezed her.
“I heard,” Hector said, putting her down to face Orion. He pulled Orion into one of his manly back-thumping hugs, and then turned back to Lucas. “Where’s the rest of the family?”
“Almost all of them are back at our house, but less than an hour ago I saw our fathers fighting Eris in the riots. Looked like they had her cornered, but I didn’t see anyone fighting Terror. He could still be on the loose.” Lucas gave this report with soldierly precision.
“I just wish I knew why all these small gods are making cameos today after so many decades of silence.” Hector bit his lip. His eyes darted up and met Helen’s, and her shoulders slumped when she got his meaning. Why was everything always her fault?
“Wait. Where else have the small gods been seen today?” Orion asked, sharing a confused look with Lucas. Hector filled Orion and Lucas in on Thanatos crashing the Conclave in New York, and the fact that Automedon might have broken his contract with Tantalus.
“Where’s Daphne?” Orion asked, concerned for her.
“Last I saw she was electrocuting Skeletor. Why? You looking for a fight of your own?” Hector asked Orion with a devilish smile.
“Hell yeah,” Orion replied immediately, grinning back at Hector. Helen thought they were enjoying the prospect of a showdown with the small gods a bit too much.
Helen had to shake her head to clear it. For some reason she kept seeing Orion and Hector in armor. When Hector turned to include Lucas, her déjà vu got even worse. For a moment it looked like Lucas was wearing something that looked like a toga.
“Wait, guys. Helen’s dad was injured. And I’m not sure I like the idea of her being in the middle of riot with Automedon on the loose,” Lucas interjected before they could charge off. He glanced over at her and his brow wrinkled with concern when he saw her face. “Ah, Helen? Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” she said, shaking herself out of it and rubbing her temples. “I’m just so tired I think I’m starting to see things.” Like a marble palace lit by torches and everyone decked out in leather and bronze.
“Then go to your father,” Hector told her. “Personally, I think you can take the Myrmidon, but whatever. Stay safe. The three of us can handle this without you.”
“No, I should help.”
“Go,” Orion said, rolling his eyes at her. “If we get into trouble, you can come rescue us with your almighty lightning, okay?”
“Are you sure?” she said with a grateful smile, already taking to the air.
“That is just fricking awesome,” Orion breathed, forgetting everything to marvel at Helen as she floated above him. Acting on impulse, he reached up and ran the backs of his fingers along the back of her calf. Helen swallowed hard around the lump in her throat and looked at Lucas, who was purposely looking elsewhere. Orion followed Helen’s eyes and dropped his hand, realizing what he was doing.
“Get out of here, Princess,” Hector said knowingly. “Go take care of Jerry.”
Helen couldn’t help but glance at Lucas and mouth the words Be careful to him as Hector and Orion turned toward the center of town.
“You too,” he whispered back, his eyes warm. Her stomach was already filled with butterflies from Orion’s intimate touch, and now they grew to the size of a 747. Lucas turned and broke into a run to keep pace with Hector and Orion, leaving her hanging breathless in midair. As she watched them speed off, she couldn’t decide who she wanted to stare at more—Lucas or Orion. Her attention was so torn between the two of them that she felt like she was watching a tennis match.
Deeply confused, Helen flew to Siasconset, landed in the Delos family’s backyard, and forced herself to change gears and focus on her father. She rushed into the house and went right to Noel, who was in the kitchen, cooking up a storm.
“Helen!” she said, barely looking up from the twenty-gallon pot she was stirring. “Go downstairs, past the exercise room, and into the cellar. You’ll find three freezers. Open the short one and take out the big roast. Hurry-hurry! Everyone will be hungry.”
“Short one. Big roast. Got it,” Helen said, and bolted off to run Noel’s errand. She didn’t even try to argue. She may not have been around the Delos family for very long, but she knew enough to know that when she was in Noel’s kitchen she’d better do as she was told. She came back in half a second and put a frozen roast the size of an ox in the sink that Noel was pointing at in a hassled way.
“They’re working on Jerry in the guest room we normally put you in,” Noel said, finally turning to Helen with a sympathetic look. “Go quietly. If one or both of the twins are sleeping, don’t wake them. It could injure them.”
“Okay. Thanks,” Helen said.
She twisted her hands and shuffled her feet, not knowing what to do with herself. She knew she was supposed to go upstairs and check on her father, but she didn’t want to see him hurt. She felt her loose ends starting to flap around again.
Looking at Helen’s attack of the fidgets, Noel’s eyes widened and she immediately put down her scorched wooden spoon, wiped her fingers on her apron, and pulled Helen into a big, soft hug. At first Helen was startled stiff, but then she just let go and really leaned into it. Noel smelled like bread dough and baby powder. Helen couldn’t remember anyone but Kate ever feeling so fluffy and relaxing. It was like hugging a warm muffin.
“Better?” Noel asked as she leaned back and looked Helen over appraisingly. “You look exhausted. Did you stop dreaming again?”
“No, I can dream,” Helen said, laughing a bit as she smoothed down her now torn and dirty dress and wondered how Noel knew about the whole non-dreaming thing. “It’s just been a really long day.”
“I know, honey. And you’ve done so much,” Noel said, cupping Helen’s face in her hands and looking at her intently with wide, loving eyes. “Thank you for bringing my Hector back to us.” Noel kissed her on the forehead, the gesture reminding Helen of Lucas. Which reminded Helen . . .
“Wait. How could you know about Hector? That happened, like, five minutes ago.”
“All my boys call me first whenever they have either really good or really bad news. It’s the in-between news that boys are not so good with,” Noel said with a grin and narrowed eyes. “You’ll see for yourself someday.” Then she turned back to the counter, picked up a giant knife, chopped something like it had insulted her, and dumped its sorry bits into a bubbling pot.
Surprising herself, Helen wrapped her arms around Noel from the side and stole a quick hug. Noel absentmindedly kissed the top of Helen’s head and stroked her hair while she stirred, like she was used to both giving and receiving random affection at any given moment from any kid in her inner circle. More relaxed now and ready to deal, Helen went upstairs to find her father.
Automedon left his master in the strange in-between land at the bottom of the cave, went above ground, and summoned his slave. The mortal boy was not accustomed to his new life of servitude, but luckily for him, he was moderately intelligent and didn’t make many mistakes. As soon as Automedon relayed directions to the cave and inquired after the arranged provisions, he raced back to Nantucket, still not certain if the curse of the Furies had been entirely lifted or not. He was willing to take the chance and move forward with the plan either way, but it took him a full thirty-eight minutes to return and locate the Face.
At first, Automedon had looked for her at home, but found only her scent lingering heavily in the front yard. He could taste that she had not been alone, and that even the Outcast had been with her at her house. A brief glance at the ground told Automedon that there had been no confrontation, no Fury-induced fight. There was only one explanation for that.
The Descender had been successful! After so much waiting and watching, after so many generations had proved themselves unworthy, it was finally time. His master was right. All that she had needed was a little push, a little incentive to figure it out, and she had. This was no look-alike. This Descender was the princess he had been waiting for—the real Helen.
Fired up by this new victory, Automedon tasted the trails. They were still so fresh he could sense the emotions of the Scions who’d made them. There was nothing but brotherhood in the air—brotherhood and undying love. The taste of love rose, and then faded in the turbulent winds of the atmosphere. She must have flown away. The men had definitely run off together to the center of town, back toward the distraction that had been carefully orchestrated to occupy the small army of powerful Scions that guarded this new—and Automedon would swear before the gods—true Helen. So far, everything was going according to plan, except for the most important part.
Automedon held very still. He couldn’t afford to waste one movement. This was the event that three and a half thousand years had built. Everything was in order, everything was finally as it was always meant to be—except for one thing. He had to find Helen.
She wasn’t at the home of her mortal father. She wasn’t with the lover. She wasn’t at school. Unless Helen had left the island, which she almost never did, there was only one place left: the satellite dwelling of the House of Thebes in Siasconset.
Both of the twins were sleeping, one on either side of Jerry in the big, white bed that Helen herself had healed in after her fall with Lucas. Jerry looked pale and sunken, like he had been deflated. Lying on top of the covers and curled up like cats at the bottom of the bed, the twins had their eyes closed in restless sleep.
They were panting and their fingers kept tensing into claws, their brows wrinkling in unison as if they were sharing the same nightmare. The air in the room was baked dry as a desert. Helen knew that meant they were following Jerry around the edge of the dry lands, just outside the Underworld, trying to shepherd his frightened spirit back into his body. They were fighting like crazy, that was obvious, but they both were covered in sweat and paler than sheets of paper. Helen knew they wouldn’t last much longer.
Kate stood up from a chair in the corner and rushed to embrace Helen when she entered the room. As they hugged, Helen saw Claire sitting on the floor on Jason’s side of the bed. Claire gave Helen a wan look and stood up gingerly, like her legs had fallen asleep a long time ago. The three of them silently agreed to go down the hallway to another room before they had their talk, so as not to disturb the trio in the sickbed.
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 buzzing 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!”
