I stabbed him, but it was all Zach, really. He was the one who figured out how to kill Automedon.” Helen pried Matt’s hand off Zach’s wrist and replaced it with the beautiful dagger. “He wanted me to give you this and tell you that you were a great friend. Which, of course, you are.”
Matt looked down at the ancient artifact and shook his head. “I don’t want it.”
“Take it,” Helen said. “It was his last wish, and my throat hurts too darn much to argue.”
Matt gave her a sad smile and a sideways hug. He stared blankly at the dagger for a moment, then tucked it into his belt under his shirt. Both of them felt horrible about the decision to leave Zach’s body on the streets in Nantucket, but they knew there was no better way to conceal the true cause of his death than to blame it on the riot.
“I won’t leave him in a disrespectful place, I promise. I’m very sorry about your friend, Matt,” Pallas said in a surprisingly tender voice. He put a hand on Matt’s shoulder and squeezed it reassuringly until Matt looked him in the eyes and nodded, signaling that he was ready to let go. Pallas picked Zach up gently and ran away so fast Helen knew it almost looked to Matt as if they had disappeared.
Without making her ask, Matt took Helen’s arm and put it over his shoulders, half carrying her back to the main powwow that was taking place at the edge of the chasm. Her leg had been broken in several places when Ares kicked her, and she still couldn’t walk on it but, like the rest of her, it was healing. She could see out both her eyes again at least, even though the right one was monstrously swollen. Helen still had plenty to be grateful for. Eris and Terror had run off as soon as Ares was defeated, and as soon as Helen had opened her eyes, Daphne had told her that her father and the twins were still alive. Unlike Zach. Matt placed her in between Orion and Lucas, and went to stare down the hole like Hector and Daphne.
“I already told you,” Orion said, gingerly pressing gauze pads to his two wounds. “The portal is closed. Look at my wrist.” He held up the Bough of Aeneas. “When it’s not glowing like that? That means it isn’t near a portal. Can I close the rift now so the farmers who own this place don’t accidentally fall down it?”
Lucas began to laugh at Orion’s tone, then quickly stopped laughing and clutched at the shoulder his father was bandaging. Helen could tell Orion was done with answering questions. He tended to get more sarcastic when he was ticked off. She decided it was time to step in and let him off the hook.
“I shut the portal, and I shut it forever,” she rasped through her tender vocal cords. “Ares isn’t getting out that way, if at all. Go ahead and close the rift, Orion.”
“But how can you know that?” Daphne interjected with mild exasperation. “Is there any way for you to go down and check, Helen?”
“Daphne, look at her. She’s suffered enough for one night. Stop pushing,” Castor said with his usual levelheadedness while he finished wrapping Lucas’s shoulder. “If Helen and Orion say it’s okay to close the rift, then let him close it.”
Daphne threw up her hands and turned away, blowing air through her lips noisily, just to let everyone know that even though she had been overruled, she still didn’t agree. Hector rolled his eyes and shared a look with Orion. Apparently, both of them were familiar with this little display of Daphne’s, although it was the first time Helen had ever seen it.
“Close it,” Hector said to Orion. The ground squeezed together with a grinding moan, and shut with a small boom.
“Well, looks like we’ll never know now,” Daphne said in a snippy undertone.
Helen really wanted to slap her, but she couldn’t stand up without Matt, and he had wandered off somewhere. She craned her head and found him searching the ground for something. He suddenly crouched down, sifted through Automedon’s ashes, and pulled out something shiny. The sheath to the blade, Helen realized, wondering why he wanted it.
“Hey. You okay?” Orion asked her, jarring her out of her thoughts. Orion put a finger on her chin to make her hold still and stared into her injured eye. Still staring at it, he leaned to the side and called over her shoulder. “Hey, Luke. Have you seen this?”
“Yeah,” Lucas said heavily, looking down and nodding. “Did you notice the shape?”
“Yeah. Very fitting.”
“What are you two talking about?” Helen said, her voice cracking.
“There’s a blue-white scar running down your right iris, Helen. The kind of scar Scions don’t get rid of,” Lucas said quietly. “It’s shaped like a lightning bolt.”
“Is it, like, freaky looking?” she asked Orion, paranoid that no one would ever want to look her in the right eye again. He started to laugh and then stopped abruptly, clutching his wounds and grimacing just as Lucas had moments earlier.
“Actually, I think it looks kind of awesome. Not too happy about how you got it, though,” he said in a falling tone.
“Me neither.” With or without a scar, Helen knew she would think about this night for the rest of her life. She just hoped Morpheus would be kind and not send her any nightmares about it.
“We’ll have to call a summit,” Daphne said to Castor. “Of all the Houses. Atreus, Thebes, Athens, and Rome.”
“I know,” Castor said, nodding. He looked over at Orion and shrugged. “When’s good for you?”
Helen, Lucas, and Orion all laughed at that, but the moment of levity died fast when they considered why they had to have a meeting of the Houses to begin with. They needed to tell all the Scions that the war had started and come up with a plan to deal with it.
“In the meantime, I think we should call everyone we can. Tell them to watch their backs,” Hector advised.
“Do you think the gods would really try to pick us off one at a time?” Lucas asked dubiously.
“No,” Matt said, rejoining the group. “I think they want a real war. Something big and heroic.”
“More fun that way,” Helen said remotely, thinking of Ares and his twisted idea of playtime.
“This isn’t a game,” Hector reminded Helen and Matt gently. “The gods have seen what Helen can do, and what they face is worse than dying. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather spend eternity in the Elysian Fields than in Tartarus. If I were Zeus, I’d make Helen my first target, but I don’t think Orion and Lucas are much farther down on the gods’ hit list. Like it or not, the Houses are united. We stick together from now on. No one wanders away from the fold.”
Everyone nodded at Hector’s decree. He was, and always would be, their hero.
For a moment Helen saw Hector wearing a breastplate and holding a spear as he addressed the troops. Jason stood behind him, holding Hector’s plumed helmet with pride. At the base of the castle walls, wave after wave of brave soldiers screamed Hector’s name, bathing it in glory.
“Getting the right conditions to lock Ares in Tartarus was a lucky break,” Helen said, blinking until the vision of Hector, glowing red and gold in the sunshine, went away. “It’s not something that happens all the time.”
“But it did happen,” Daphne said, turning toward Hector with a touch of excitement. “And now all the gods must know that if it could happen to Ares, it could happen to them. They should fear us. For a change.”
Helen watched her mother worrying her lower lip between her fingers as she paced, deep in thought. It was almost as if Daphne wanted this war, but why? Daphne was a lot of things, but suicidal was not one of them. Helen banished the notion, convincing herself that Daphne was happy only because there was a chance that the gods might try to avoid a war now that they were threatened with Tartarus. That had to be it. Pinching her swollen eyes shut as she tried to clear her throbbing head, Helen felt Lucas take her hand and squeeze it briefly to get her attention.
“My dad said Jerry and the twins are awake now,” he said softly. His forehead creased when he saw Helen’s eyes swim. “Are you okay?”
Helen smiled at him and shook her head. She wasn’t okay. None of them was. She held out her other hand and took Orion’s.
“Want to meet my dad?” she asked him.
“Yeah. I guess you should meet mine, too,” he said, but he didn’t look too excited about it. He looked sad. Orion’s head bobbed forward and he blinked a few times, trying to stay conscious.
“Okay. Time to go,” Castor said, his face furrowed with worry. “The three of you are in really bad shape. We need to get you back to ’Sconset. Daphne? Hector? Let’s go.”
Helen, Lucas, and Orion were still too weak to stand, and needed to be carried back to Nantucket. Helen fought it at first, but then moments after Daphne picked her up, Helen was overcome with exhaustion. She hadn’t expected it, but Daphne’s arms were much more familiar than she could have imagined.
Glancing first at Orion and then letting her eyes land on Lucas, Helen let her head rest against Daphne’s shoulder and fell asleep to the soothing rhythm of her mother’s heart.
