Goddess (Starcrossed)

Jerry’s,” Helen said in a robotic voice. “Lucas and I aren’t cousins.”
    “How?” Noel asked. She and Castor exchanged confused looks. “Lucas heard her say—”
    “That we were all family ,” Helen interrupted, figuring out how Daphne had done it. “That’s what she said, word for word, in front of Lucas. And technically, she’s right. All the gods are related, so we are, too—distantly.” She stopped and swallowed around the choked feeling in her throat. “ I’m the one who told Lucas I was Ajax’s daughter when he and I were alone, not her.”
    Helen paused, remembering how she’d almost given in to Lucas in the greenhouse, right before she’d fed him her mother’s big lie. She remembered how Lucas had kissed her as if he could breathe her in through his skin. How he’d tugged at her clothes as he’d guided her down to the ground so gently. She could still feel him, still see the shape of his big shoulders over her, and she knew that the moment when she pushed him off of her was the moment that had decided her whole life.
    Lucas. Her home. The mansion she’d paid for a million times over but hadn’t lived in yet.
    She and Lucas were meant to be together. They should have been together that night, but instead, she’d pushed away the biggest blessing of her life because of her mother. Hate hit her like a cramp, and Helen hovered somewhere between sickness and pain.
    “I believed it, so Lucas heard the truth, even though it’s a lie.” Helen finished in a low voice, trying to control the almost physical need to punch her mother.
    “My father used to do that to me,” Castor admitted, like he understood what Helen was feeling. “He’d make me believe a lie, then send me to tell Tantalus so all my brother would hear was the truth—the truth as I understood it. That’s the only way to sidestep a Falsefinder. Turn the people who trust you the most into patsies.”
    “Ajax told me that Paris used to do it to all of you to sidestep Tantalus’s talent,” Daphne whispered. “Where do you think I got the idea from?” She and Castor shared a look, recalling something that they both seemed to remember.
    “Well, you’re out of patsies, Mother,” Helen said bitterly. “Get up.”
    “Helen,” Castor said, trying to remind her to stay calm. Helen ignored him and kept her mounting rage focused on her mother.
    “Stand up and tell me why you did this to me.”
    Daphne looked up at her, but before Helen could get an answer, they all heard a commotion coming from inside the Delos house—the sounds of gasps and shouts.
    “Everyone, get in here!” Jason yelled out to them. “He’s alive! Hector’s alive!”
    “He can’t be,” Daphne said, jumping up. They all sprinted inside.
    Hector was laid out on the kitchen table, his armor and most of his clothes stripped away. Bowls of bloody water surrounded him, and a sponge lay next to him, stained red. Jason had already begun to wipe his brother down in preparation for the pyre. But Hector was certainly not dead. Not anymore.
    He was pale and weak from blood loss. His lips were blue, and his hands shook terribly as he sat up and clutched Jason’s shoulders, trying to talk. Something clanked against his teeth, and grimacing, he spit out a gold coin. It was the obol his father had placed under his tongue to pay the Ferryman. Hector took a moment to stare at the bright disk in his hand, contemplating the Scion equivalent of his own gravestone.
    “That’s a first,” he mumbled. He gave the obol to Andy. “For later,” he rasped to her, his voice weak.
    “Much, much later. Don’t do that again,” she scolded, her swollen, tear-streaked face beautiful with joy.
    “You got it.”
    Hector’s whole body suddenly trembled as he tried to stay sitting up.
    “He needs blood,” Jason said, worried, as he supported his brother and laid him back down on the table. Jason held up his hands, and they began to glow. He brought his hands over Hector to start healing him, but Hector stopped him.
    “Wait, Jase,” Hector said, his voice barely above a whisper. “Don’t knock me out yet. Where’s Helen?”
    “Here,” Helen replied, stepping forward from her place behind Noel so Hector could see her. “What is it?”
    “Go to the Underworld. Now. Try to talk Hades out of it,” he said, his feeble tone turning urgent.
    “Out of what?” Helen asked.
    “Out of the trade. Don’t let Luke stay down there for me,” he said, grabbing