Starcrossed: Goddess Part 28

"He traded himself for his cousin," the leader of the Eumenides said in reb.u.t.tal. "That takes compa.s.sion."

"That was guilt," Helen said, deliberately turning to Hades so he could read the truth in her. "When Hector died I saw guilt, sorrow, and resignation in Lucas's heart. Those were the emotions that made him willing to trade himself. Not compa.s.sion. If it's compa.s.sion that the dead value above all other qualities, then Lucas is not fit to rule here."

The dead conferred, the rustling and creaking of their voices reminding Helen of the sound of the wind in a field of tall marsh gra.s.s. Helen couldn't bear to look at Lucas. She just hoped that he'd forgive her for this someday. Instead, she looked over at Hades, who was watching her with a small smile on his face. She wanted to tell him that she was sorry for working against him like this, but she knew she didn't have to. He could read the regret in her heart.

The leader of the Eumenides tilted her head to the side, listening to the verdict of the dead.

"The candidate has been found unworthy," she said, and Helen nearly collapsed with relief. But the Eumenides weren't finished. "However. He must still fulfill his vow."

"What does that mean?" Helen asked the spirits on the air, even though she couldn't understand their whispery speech.

"It means that someday the Hand of Darkness must replace Hades," replied the littlest of the Eumenides. "He cannot rule until he is found worthy, but someday he must offer himself up to be tested by the dead, and if he pa.s.ses, he must take Hades' place in the Underworld."

Helen couldn't speak. She racked her brain for a reason to object, something that would trump Lucas's vow, but she came up with nothing.

"Helen," Lucas whispered in her ear. "Let it go. It's okay."

"No it isn't!" Helen hissed back at him. "It means that at any time you can be called down here. We won't know when, or how, but someday the dead will call your number and you'll have to go to Hades."

Lucas laughed softly and shook his head. "That's life, Helen. That's what everyone faces. It just means I'll have to live every day like it could be my last day on Earth. I can do that." He looked over at Hades, his eyes shining with that inner light that Helen hadn't seen in him in weeks. "Thank you."

"You must go. Now," Hades replied gravely. "The two of you are needed back on Earth. And Helen? Don't let Zeus win. No matter what you have to do to stop him-do it."

Helen sighed and nodded, knowing what Hades meant, but not sure if she was strong enough to go through with it now that she knew Lucas had to serve in Hades someday. Could she face the long future, knowing that if she wanted to be with Lucas she would have to do it in Hades? Would she end up like Persephone?

"Thank you again, Uncle," she said. "Give your queen my love."

SIXTEEN.

Helen and Lucas appeared on the beach. Hoping to end up close to Orion, Helen figured that the best place to appear was near the spot of the makeshift arena where the duels had taken place. She was expecting to find that the battle lines being drawn on the beach wouldn't be that much bigger than when she had left, so that she would instantly know which way to go to find Orion. She couldn't have been more wrong.

When Helen and Lucas stepped out of the ring of frost, they found themselves in the middle of a gigantic camp crawling with thousands of fighters. Scions, Myrmidons, and mortals were all preparing themselves for battle.

"Son of a biscuit," Helen said, gaping like a hick at the bustling tent city that had sprung up along the beach. Helen saw Mr. Tanis from the hardware store sharpening a sword on a large, round stone. His eyes looked blank and strange. Helen was just about to call out to Mr. Tanis and check if he was okay, when she felt Lucas yank roughly on her arm.

"Up!" he growled fearfully and threw her into the air. As she disengaged gravity, he flew past her and took her hand to pull her along. "Wrong side!" he shouted back at her, steering them inland.

From the air, Helen could see the two camps, but she still couldn't believe the scale of it all. She and Lucas floated for a few moments, studying the new map that had been drawn over the beach on the westernmost side of Nantucket Island. From Siasconset all the way up to Sesachacha Pond, the sh.o.r.e was lined with the tents of Tantalus's army. Orion and his soldiers had been backed up onto the dunes, where they huddled on the high ground, ridiculously outnumbered. Helen could hear Lucas whispering to himself, like he was memorizing a list of things for later.

"Didn't we just leave?" Helen gasped, incredulous. There were too many people down there, too many tents. "How did this happen so fast?"

"Hephaestus has enough arms stored under Mount Olympus to put a sword in the hands of every man, woman, and child in the world," Lucas replied distractedly. Helen watched his eyes skip around, and his lips move as he counted tents under his breath and marked supply lines.

Arrows started whizzing past them. A few of them bounced off Helen, and Lucas instinctively jerked her out of their path. They had been spotted by a phalanx of Myrmidons, and more arrows followed until the air was thick with them.

"I'm fine," she said, knocking a shower of arrows away from her face. She touched the gold heart she wore around her neck to remind Lucas that she wore the half of the cestus that protected her from weapons. "It stings, but arrows can't kill me. Or you, either."

Lucas watched as arrows bounced off him, his expression blank. Helen looked at his heart and saw a dozen different emotions swirling around inside of him.

"Are you angry with me?" she asked pleadingly, placing her hand on his chest. Lucas looked up at Helen, but his eyes were so wild she had no idea what was going through his head. "I know I made you mostly immortal without even asking you first. But it's still up to you. If you want to die, you still can whenever you want. Not that you'd want to die right now. But say someday in the future-you know, you still can."

Lucas's face crumpled with confusion.

A flaming ball catapulted past, barely missing them, but neither Helen nor Lucas paid it any mind. Another hail of arrows darkened the sky around them, but it was all background noise, easily ignored now that she had this chance to tell Lucas everything.

"And then there's all that stuff I said about you not being compa.s.sionate," Helen continued, her eyes suddenly filling with tears. "You have to know I don't really think that about you. I just said it because you hadn't been tested like Orion and I were. It was the only thing I could come up with to use at the trial-the only reason the dead would vote you down."

Lucas's expression was still blank. Helen took that to mean that what she had said about him during the trial had made him see her differently, just as she had feared. In order to save him, she'd made him stop loving her. Tears spilled down Helen's face.

"You hate me now, don't you? But I had to point out your one big flaw, even if it did change the way you feel about me. I did it to get you back, even if it means I've lost you."

"You couldn't lose me, Helen. Not even if you tried," he said, pulling on her arm to bring her closer to him. "And for the record, I agree with you. I should be more compa.s.sionate. I never expected you to think I was perfect. I know I'm not."

"You are to me."

"That's all I care about," Lucas said quietly. "Not-my-cousin Helen."

For just a moment, Helen was scared he wouldn't do it. She'd gotten her hopes up so many times now and been disappointed, that she doubted it would ever actually happen again. But it did happen. He buried his hands in her hair, pulled her to him, and kissed her.

The sky filled with flaming arrows and giant projectiles that smelled like melted asphalt. Everything started exploding around them, but Helen couldn't care less. She was home, and she never wanted to leave it again.

Helen tightened her arms around him desperately, and the kiss grew frantic. Arrows flew this way and that as Orion's soldiers retaliated against the Myrmidons. Noticing that they were caught in the crossfire, Lucas ended the kiss, but still held her close.

"We'll finish this later," he promised breathlessly, pressing his forehead to hers for a moment to calm down. Then he turned and led her back to earth.

They flew swiftly, avoiding the stinging onslaught of weaponry as best as they could, and landed on their side of the battle line. Archers bristled with arrows. Armor clanked and leather creaked. An army of Scions, small though it was, faced the first wave of Tantalus's army-thirty-three Myrmidons that stood opposite them over a wide strip of sand, with Tantalus standing at the rear as their leader. Helen listened to Tantalus shout orders to the standing army and decided that she had to hand it him. He'd been her personal boogeyman for several months now, but he was no coward.

As soon as Helen and Lucas touched down, Orion and Castor ran forward to meet them.

"How did you . . . ?" Orion asked Helen as they watched Castor hug his son tightly.

"Tell you later," Helen replied.

"Where's Hector?" Lucas asked.

"In my tent," Orion responded, leading Helen and Lucas to it. "He actually thinks he's going to fight."

"I don't think I'm going to fight, I am going to fight," Hector said in his grouchiest voice from inside the tent.

"Hector, if you get yourself killed again, when I take over Hades I'll give you a really long time-out in Tartarus," Lucas said jokingly as they entered.

Helen and Lucas went inside, and the first thing that Helen noticed were six sets of armor, hanging from their racks like hollow soldiers standing guard over the room.

Bronze for Hector, white for Orion, silver for Castor, red for Jason, and black for Lucas, Helen thought. Apart from the rest, there was a set of golden armor-the size and shape indicated that it was made for a woman. That's mine.

Beneath the sets of armor, Jason was wrapping gauze around Hector's chest. Jason looked pale and shaky from healing his brother.

"Lucas!" Ca.s.sandra said, and launched herself at her brother. He caught his little sister and hugged her. His cousins swarmed him, hugging him and thumping his back, but despite their happiness at seeing him, everyone had heard what he'd said.

"What do you mean, 'when you take over Hades'?" Ca.s.sandra asked, releasing Lucas.

"What happened?" Castor asked Helen accusingly, like she'd only done half her job.

"Dad, look, there's no way out of the vow I made. But thanks to Helen, I don't have to take over right now. Let's focus on the battle at hand." Lucas squeezed his father's shoulder, then turned to Hector. "Helen and I saw behind the enemy lines from the air. Where's the map?" He sounded like he'd planned a battle a million times.

Ca.s.sandra led the men to a table in the corner, and Lucas immediately began breaking down the setup of the enemy camp. Helen was about to join them when she heard a familiar voice. It was distant and weak, calling out from the no-man's-land between the two sides.

"Somebody help!" Claire was screaming.

She was in pain.

"Gig?" Helen called, and ran outside the tent, blindly heading for the edge of the line. The burning b.a.l.l.s of pitch that the Myrmidons had launched at Helen and Lucas blotted out everything with huge clouds of black smoke.

"Here!" Claire shouted back hoa.r.s.ely, somewhere behind the smoke screen.

"Helen, don't!" Orion yelled, but Helen didn't listen.

It didn't matter to Helen if Claire had chosen Matt over her. The sound of her best friend in pain wiped everything else away. Helen charged into no-man's-land.

A new wave of arrows was unleashed as soon as Helen set foot on the line-warning shots from the Myrmidons.

"Lennie!" Claire howled, her voice jagged with pain.

Claire was somewhere out there in the dunes, but Helen couldn't see her. Too many arrows were falling, and fires were raging in the rose-hip bushes and in the marsh gra.s.s.

Helen felt a giant swell of power surge up and out of her, as a desperate need to find Claire overtook her. Several things happened at once. The fires on the ground extinguished in a hiss of frost and steam. A great wind blew and whipped all the smoke back, revealing Claire and Daphne crouched on the sand. And a hundred arrows paused in midair, their bronze tips balancing on the edge of Helen's magnetic field. Everything was still for a moment.

Her heart in her throat, Helen saw that even though Daphne was shielding Claire from the fires with her body, they had both been shot several times with arrows.

Claire was bleeding badly.

Helen ran to her, her hands tingling with panic. She was belatedly aware of the fact that by running into no-man's-land she had taken the field. Inadvertently, Helen had made it okay for the Myrmidons on the other side to do the same.

Helen heard Lucas, Orion, and Hector sound their battle cries behind her to summon their soldiers. As one, they charged headlong into the fray that Helen had unwittingly started. All she could see was Giggles, crying and clutching at the arrow in her chest.

"Get out of her!" Helen screamed nonsensically to the arrows sticking out of Claire. They all obeyed and jumped out of Claire's skin, making matters much worse. Rivers of blood began to flow from Claire's body.

Helen got to Claire and Daphne before the charging armies met. She pulled them both close and rocketed into the air as the Scions and the Myrmidons met in a clash of swords and shields beneath her.

As she rushed Claire and Daphne to Jason, she glanced down and saw Castor, Hector, Orion, and Lucas plowing into the Myrmidon phalanx without their armor. Lucas took the lead, blocking furiously. The sight of Lucas knocking blades out of the way with his bare hands sent a shiver through Helen, and even though she knew a sword or an arrow couldn't kill him, she was relieved that she had to focus on flying and couldn't watch. In a moment she had Claire and Daphne in the tent.

"I'm fine," Daphne insisted, limping off toward the table and chairs. Helen laid Claire down in front of Jason and Ca.s.sandra. Jason reacted immediately, his hands glowing blue to stop Claire's bleeding even as his heart crawled with hurt over what she'd done.

"Jason, wait!" Claire pleaded.

"Claire, for once in your life, could you please just shut up?" Jason said angrily. Helen looked in his heart, yellow and bruised, and she could see he was so wounded by Claire's betrayal that he couldn't even look her in the eye.

"Pallas won't fight you and Hector," she gasped, stubbornly continuing. "Daedalus refuses to fight Orion, and the G.o.ds have lost the support of most of the Scions on their side because they're hypnotizing mortals." Blood began to pour out of her mouth.

The one freaking power Helen didn't have, and it was the one that she most wished for-the ability to heal her loved ones when they were suffering.

"Do something!" Helen yelled at Jason.

"Her lung is punctured," he said as Claire struggled under his hands. "I have to put her under."

"Claire, please, calm down," Ca.s.sandra said soothingly. "Let Jason work."

"No!" Claire replied, knocking Jason's glowing hands away. She tried to sit up, but more blood poured out of her mouth. Still, she fought to deliver her message. "Tantalus, a handful of the Hundred Cousins, and the Myrmidons are all that's left," she said, choking on her own blood. "Tantalus leads them all. He's the brains, and he's heavily guarded by the Myrmidons."

"Try to keep still," Ca.s.sandra said, easing Claire back down.

"I'm so sorry," Claire coughed. "Ari and I thought we were doing the right thing."

"I know," Jason replied, and the mustard-colored bitterness that Helen saw in his heart morphed into a gorgeous red-gold cloud. "Now, seriously, shut the h.e.l.l up," he whispered tenderly.

He pa.s.sed a glowing hand over Claire's head, and she blacked out. Helen watched for a moment as Claire's wounds began to close, and Jason's face grew paler with the effort to heal her, before she turned to Daphne.

"Thank you," Helen said grudgingly. "For getting her."

Daphne nodded and looked down at a wound in her thigh. "I'm in no position to request anything in return. But I'm asking you to leave Tantalus to me."

"He's all yours," Helen said unfeelingly, before leaving the tent to fly over the battle and find her men.

She spotted Lucas first. He was fighting alongside his father. She knew that Lucas would be fine, and that he would protect Castor. She looked around for Orion. Arrows whistled around her as the Myrmidons behind the front lines emptied their quivers. Seeing the arrows bounce off of her, they quickly put up their bows, pointing and crying out at the impossible sight.

From the air, Helen found Orion and Hector fighting back-to-back. A circle of six Myrmidons had them pinned down. Helen flew to them, and once she was in range, she called the swords out of the Myrmidons' hands. Six swords jumped into the sky and hovered there as Helen landed with an earthshaking thud next to Hector and Orion.

Her arrival did not have the effect she expected. Instead of running away, the Myrmidons began to close in.

"The Tyrant," they chanted in unison as they moved toward her like a congealing ma.s.s of hate. "Kill the Tyrant."

"Not your best move, Princess," Hector scolded. He pointed a frantic finger at Orion. "Get her off the battlefield!"

Before Helen could figure out why Hector was so bent out of shape, Orion threw her over his shoulder and started running to the tent. As she bounced uncomfortably against Orion's back, she managed to prop herself up enough to see the entire phalanx of thirty-some Myrmidons zeroing in on her, and she figured it out.

The queen may be the most versatile piece on the chessboard, but if she gets taken out, the game doesn't end. It's only over when the king gets cornered that someone calls checkmate. Belatedly, Helen realized that she was the king in this game, not the queen.

As she thought this, Helen noticed someone running through the battlefield dressed in golden armor-her golden armor.

"Wait!" Helen screamed, reaching out for the girl in gold who was foolishly impersonating her. "That's suicide!"