Starcrossed: Goddess Part 22

Lucas took his last look at paradise.

"Ready?" Helen asked him, holding his hand tightly in hers.

"No," he sighed, watching her ever-changing eyes catch the light of the rising sun. "But let's go, anyway."

A stab of startling cold, like being plunged into ice water, and they were back at his house. It was quiet in a way that the Delos compound almost never was.

"I thought you said everyone was waiting for us," he said, starting to worry.

"They were," she said tentatively. "Orion?" Helen called.

Jealousy shot through Lucas, white hot. He tried to brush it off, but couldn't. She was still holding his hand, but she was thinking about Orion. In Everyland, Helen could pamper him and treat him like he was the only person in the world, but back on Earth she had someone else to love-someone who wasn't her cousin.

"My dad," she said, giving him a worried look.

"Come on," he said, using the moment to pull his hand out of hers before she saw the battle in his heart.

Lucas and Helen went upstairs and found Kate watching over her father, still asleep.

"Why are you the only one here, Kate?" Helen asked angrily. "You're not strong enough to stop Daphne if she tries to drug him again."

"Daphne's gone down to the beach with everyone else for the duel," Kate said, her eyes searching Lucas for injury. "Where have you been?"

"What duel?" Lucas looked at Helen to see if she knew. When Helen shrugged, Kate quickly explained what happened after he and Helen had vanished.

"What about Orion?" Helen asked. "Phaon is only doing this to get to him."

Lucas gritted his teeth and tried to remind himself that he should have expected this. She loved Orion, and Lucas couldn't blame her. It was easier to love Orion-less complicated.

"Doesn't matter." Kate shook her head. "Daedalus and Phaon weren't allowed to choose . . . what do you call them? Backups? Wingmen?"

"Seconds," Lucas said, supplying the name.

"That's it-no seconds allowed for their fight."

"Even if Phaon lives, he won't be able to go after Orion," Lucas told Helen to set her at ease. "Not that he would. Orion would crush him in an open duel."

"But if Phaon wins, and kills Daedalus . . . ," Helen began.

"If he wins, he wins. No one can retaliate. Not even Orion." Lucas watched Helen try to digest this, and he could see she was having a hard time with it. "It's better this way. The killing has to stop somewhere."

Helen finally nodded, accepting this even though she didn't want to. Lucas didn't blame her. He didn't want to see a murdering pedophile get away with it if Daedalus lost to Phaon, but there was no way around it. Duels had strict rules. The t.i.tan Hecate, G.o.ddess of all portals and crossroads, made interfering with them impossible. It was said that not even Zeus could defy Hecate. She was the only t.i.tan he couldn't send to Tartarus.

"Do you want to go? I should probably stay in case Daphne comes back," Helen said to Kate in a weak voice. She obviously didn't want to stay, but she felt like she had to offer.

"Go? And watch a couple of sweaty dudes I don't know try to hack off each other's kibbles and bits with swords?" Kate asked with a c.o.c.ked eyebrow. "No thanks. I'll stay here with Jerry."

"You're awesome. You know that, right?" Helen told Kate, giving her a hug.

"I do," Kate replied. She pulled back and looked at Helen, smoothing a hand over her face for a moment and growing serious. "And the less you vanish in a ball of fire and ice the less gray hair I grow. You know that, right?" Helen chuckled. Kate turned to Lucas and pointed at him. "And no more grabbing on to Helen when she's a human torch, okay?"

"Very sound advice," he replied as Kate hugged him.

Leaving Kate to watch over Jerry, they hurried down to the beach. As they made their way to the large group of bystanders gathered by the water, Lucas didn't try to take Helen's hand again. He could tell that she was eager to get to Orion, and he didn't want to make her feel like he was holding her back.

As soon as she caught a glimpse of Orion, she took to the air and flew to him in a rush. Lucas walked the rest of the way to give them a moment alone and to give himself a moment to cool down.

It wasn't that he thought Helen didn't love him. He knew she did. But Orion could give her what she needed, and he couldn't. All Lucas had to do to make Helen happy was get out of the way. It was simple-even if it was also killing him.

"Lucas?" his father called out, sighting him. He came running down the beach in a blur.

Castor may have had a head start, but Hector and Jason both beat him to where Lucas hung back, walking slowly up the beach.

"I can't believe it!" Hector howled, grabbing Lucas in a bear hug. "We all thought you got toasted!"

"I did," Lucas said, laughing as his cousin swung him around.

"Get off him, doofus," Jason said irritably to his brother. "Let me at least check him over before you crack his ribs."

"I'm fine, Jase," Lucas insisted as Hector put him down. "Completely healed."

It took him what seemed like forever to greet the rest of his family. While he tried to prove to his mother that he had all his skin still on, he caught a glimpse of Helen having an intense conversation with Orion.

When Lucas next stole a glimpse of Helen, she was glaring at her mother, and Lucas could tell that they'd had a quick exchange about Jerry. He didn't know what they had said to each other, but he was pretty sure that they'd decided to save their fight until later.

The group formed a circle around a leveled area of sand. It was a makes.h.i.+ft arena, probably very much like the first fighting grounds. Unfamiliar Scions-Lucas a.s.sumed they were members from the Hundred Cousins-finished their task and backed out of the ring, throwing a torch, a key, and a serpent into the cleared area.

A woman appeared, and the three symbols that had conjured her vanished. She wasn't young, and her features weren't perfect, but even still she was lovely. And terrifying, Lucas decided.

"Hecate," Hector whispered. Lucas nodded absently, momentarily transfixed on the only t.i.tan left to wander the world, before she disappeared again.

Lucas glanced up and down the beach. It was November, not long after dawn, and bitterly cold, but there were still a few people scattered along the sh.o.r.e. What if someone saw?

"How are they expecting to pull off a duel without bystanders calling the police?" Hector mumbled to Lucas.

"Hecate," Lucas mumbled back. "Once the duel starts, nothing can stop it. She'll keep any interference away. Especially uninvited mortals."

Lucas looked over at Orion. His eyes were on his father, who stood a few paces in front of him, his sword ready. Helen was at his side. Lucas quickly looked away when he saw Helen and Orion join hands.

He turned his attention to Phaon, who stood across the ring. His stance was slack, listless, like he wasn't really paying attention. Compared to Daedalus, who was squared off and eager to get into the fight, Phaon's mind seemed to be elsewhere.

"He's dead already," Hector said in Lucas's ear. Lucas nodded in agreement. Phaon had given up. Although Lucas knew that Phaon deserved this death, he felt pity for him.

"I just want to say one last thing, if I may?" Phaon's thin voice barely outshouted the waves. "I was not always a horrible person, although I've done horrible things. I understand now that what I did was wrong."

Lucas felt his pity deepen. He took a step forward to say that this duel should be stopped, when Phaon crumpled to his knees with a shriek. He clutched at his chest, like someone had just stabbed him there.

"Try that again and I'll rip out what's left of your heart," Orion said, his face livid. Whatever internal battle the two of them were fighting with their talents from the House of Rome, Orion won. The ground shook, and for a moment it looked like Orion was ready to tear Phaon apart with his bare hands, but Helen put her arm out and stopped him.

Lucas no longer felt pity, although Phaon had never looked more pathetic. His sympathy had strangely vanished. He realized that Phaon must have been controlling their emotions. Looking around at the rest of the group, Lucas saw that everyone was as furious with Phaon for manipulating them as he was.

"Get up," Orion commanded, and Phaon rose to his feet. "Pick up your sword." Phaon took the hilt of his sword in his hand and a lascivious leer tugged his face into an ugly shape.

"Why so frustrated? I already told you, you can have the little one, Orion. You know she wants it from you." Phaon grinned obscenely at Ca.s.sandra.

Lucas felt Hector and Jason grab his arms, and he realized that he had been moving forward to get the twisted b.a.s.t.a.r.d.

"Don't," Hector growled in his ear. "It's not your life to take."

"I'll see you all in Hades," Phaon said with a despotic laugh.

"No," Helen said, her voice ringing like a G.o.ddess. "You won't."

She spoke with such certainty that Phaon's manic smile melted. He stared at her, knowing that she knew better than any of them what awaited him. The look on Helen's face was sphinxlike. Merciless. It terrified him, as it should have.

"Begin," Orion said. He moved out of the arena's circle like he knew exactly what he was doing. For a moment, Lucas wondered if Orion had dueled more than one man in the Colosseum.

"For my sister, Ca.s.siopeia," Daedalus said quietly, almost like he was praying.

And then he attacked Phaon with all the skill and power of a seasoned warrior.

Lucas counted four strokes before he saw Phaon gus.h.i.+ng blood from a wound in the leg. Phaon limped around, kicking up sand to distract his opponent, but that didn't deter a veteran like Daedalus. He feinted, moved past Phaon, and reversed his thrust with the tip of his blade to pierce Phaon in the back-specifically in the kidney, a very painful wound.

Jason nudged Lucas. They glanced at each other, and realized together what Daedalus was doing. He wasn't going to go for a quick kill.

"He's going to bleed Phaon to death," Jason whispered.

"Good," Lucas replied. He looked to his right and saw Hector nodding in agreement.

It took almost twenty minutes. A cut here, a bone-breaking blow there, and on and on it went, until even Lucas, Jason, and Hector became uncomfortable. Daedalus was ruthless. He inflicted each injury as if he were ticking off the ultimate bucket list. This was obviously something Daedalus had thought about for a very long time.

No one spoke or moved to stop him.

Lucas looked at his father, expecting to see him growing uncomfortable as he watched the systematic torture of another human being. But instead, all he saw was a removed expression on Castor's face, like his father was remembering something painful that still lingered from long ago. Glancing at all of the members of the older generation, Lucas saw similar expressions, and he knew that everyone present believed that Phaon deserved the extreme punishment he suffered now.

Phaon flailed. In agony, he chattered on about how he wasn't sorry. He went on and on about how he owned innocence because he stole it, and now he was the G.o.d of innocence. He insisted that he might be a monster, but weren't they all?

The answer was a decided no. The rest of the Scions, for all their faults, were not like him. When Daedalus finally cut off Phaon's head with a straight, clean blow, they nodded as one, turning their faces to the sky.

Catharsis, Lucas thought.

"Well done, my son," said a ringing voice.

The circle turned and looked at the waterline. Striding up out of the waves was a bare-chested young man with black hair and piercing blue eyes. He carried a trident, but because of the look on his face, to Lucas it appeared to be more like a pitchfork in the hands of a devil. A devil that looked exactly like Lucas.

He heard gasps from the group, and he felt Hector nudge him.

"There's your evil twin," Hector said under his breath, his face enlivened by the danger he felt in the air.

Lucas knew he should have been more amazed by the appearance of a G.o.d, but he wasn't. Strangely, he could only think about his swim with the lemon shark a few minutes ago. Helen had just given him a new power over the ocean. He could breathe underwater. Not for the first time, Lucas wondered if she'd given him more powers than that.

"My Scions have always been stronger than yours, niece, and here again, my Daedalus has proven the physical superiority of my offspring by killing your Phaon."

"Like I care about a show of brute strength?" asked another voice that purred seductively.

Again, the group turned as one to see a tall woman, her blonde hair falling in clouds down to the back of her knees and her voluptuous body undulating like waves beneath it. Dressed only in a sheer white slip, she sauntered up the beach, her toes tickling the foamy crease where the waves met the sand.

"It's not the strength of the arm, but the pa.s.sion inside the hearts of those who fight that ultimately determines the winner of the war, Poseidon. We've been through this." She went directly to Helen and stood in front of her as she spoke. "Many times, in many wars, we've seen how the hearts of men and women decide the outcome of battles." She smiled and took both of Helen's hands in hers. "h.e.l.lo again, Helen."

"h.e.l.lo, Aphrodite," Helen replied, tears gathering in her eyes.

Helen actually remembers her, Lucas thought. For the first time he considered what that meant. Helen remembered Troy. She knew what really happened.

"I've missed you so much," Aphrodite said.

"And I've missed you," Helen said, her voice catching, like she was not only surprised to find herself saying this, but surprised to be feeling it, too.

"Funny, isn't it? I've known every love possible, but as the years stretched out, the love I longed for the most is the one I shared with my sister."

The two women hugged each other tenderly, and the golden glow that grew around them was mesmerizing to see, like looking at magic. Lucas could hear the hearts of the Scions slow to beat with Helen's and Aphrodite's. It was a strong, binding synchronicity that Lucas knew they would all remember, no matter how opposed they were in the future.

Fear ballooned inside of Lucas. Not because the G.o.ds were among them again, but because Helen was at the center of it all. She inspired such love in him, in Orion, even in a G.o.ddess. There was no hate without love, and Lucas couldn't help but think that they would all soon be facing a desperate fight because of the pure love they all felt in that moment.

"A touching reunion," said the bare-chested man with black hair. "But your man lost, Aphrodite. And you still owe me our wager."

Lucas pushed his way through the group and faced what looked like a wet and slightly feral version of himself. "This is not a game for the G.o.ds to bet on. These are our lives."

Poseidon studied Lucas, and laughed. "The Fates would put my face on a moralizing sap. Let me tell you something, boy. I don't care what the Fates want. In the sea, the big fish eat the little ones. You're going to have to grow some thicker skin if you're the one who's supposed to try and replace me."

"At least he's intelligent," said another familiar voice. A G.o.d who looked like Hector's twin came down the other end of the beach, interrupting Lucas before he could question Poseidon's last remark. "My would-be replacement is brave, but he's got to be the dumbest of all the Scion mongrels. He actually wanted to challenge me-still mortal as he is. It's embarra.s.sing, really."

Lucas automatically grabbed Hector by the arm. He could feel his cousin itching to jump Apollo, immortal or not, and that would probably get them all killed.

A burst of freezing air from the center of the circle interrupted a fight before it could begin.

"Now, now, Apollo," said the young, blond man who stood in the patch of newly formed ice. A gust of air pa.s.sed over Lucas, but it wasn't sea air. It smelled like the mountains, laden with herbs and smelling faintly of stone. It had to be from another world. "None of us make wise decisions when it comes to women. Hector is no exception. He wants his Andromache for himself. Can you blame him?"

The young blond man was tall but no giant. He wasn't exceptionally muscular, either, but despite the fact that both Poseidon and Apollo were larger and more physically developed, he radiated power as he walked to Helen and Aphrodite. The G.o.ddess nodded at the G.o.d respectfully, but it was Helen whom he addressed.

"Well, daughter. You've been busy," Zeus said in a softly scolding tone.

Lucas schooled his face so he didn't give away his emotions as he thought this through frantically. He had known for a while that the Fates a.s.signed roles, trading out new actors in each new cycle so that everything stayed the same even as it changed. Lucas quickly looked around at the G.o.ds and their Scion doubles before his gaze settled on Orion. Orion's twin was missing.

"What do you want from us?" Helen asked, squaring off with Zeus. Lucas couldn't help but be proud of her, even though it was insane to talk to a G.o.d like that. Zeus had cursed entire generations for lesser offenses, but Helen didn't show a drop of fear.

"Not us. It's what I want from you, Helen." Zeus spoke softly but his voice still seemed to boom.