Goddess (Starcrossed)

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 shore 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 compassionate,” 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 compassionate. 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.