Goddess (Starcrossed)

contact with before. Again, she wondered about Orion’s awful childhood and whether he would ever tell her about it—and about how he got those scars.
    “Thanks, bro. But I’m not leaving my family again,” Hector said, giving Orion a grateful look.
    Orion nodded, but Ariadne started shaking her head vehemently. “No, Hector. No,” she said, her voice getting panicky. “We just got you back. I don’t want someone coming here and dragging you off to jail.”
    “It’s all right,” he said, pulling his sister close and patting her shoulder with one of his thick hands. “No one knows I’m on the island. They all think I’m still studying in Europe. I’ll hide here in the house. It’ll be fine.”
    Believing him, Ariadne calmed down and squeezed her brother’s chest in a fierce hug. Over her head Matt and Hector exchanged a look, Matt silently promising to look after Ariadne if anything happened to Hector. Somehow, Helen could see these emotions pass between the two young men as clearly as she could see colors painted on a canvass. She blinked her eyes furiously, hoping like crazy it stopped.
    “What the . . . ,” Orion exclaimed suddenly, jerking up and breaking Helen’s train of thought. He twisted around to reveal Cassandra, who had crept up behind him on the bed. He relaxed as soon as he recognized her.
    “Were you here the whole time?” Claire asked, incredulous.
    Cassandra shrugged in a noncommittal way, but she didn’t say anything.
    “She startles the hell out of me, like, five times a day. I swear, she makes no noise when she moves,” Orion said to Claire. He turned to Cassandra. “Keep it up and I’ll put a bell on you. Like a bad kitty,” he threatened with a stern look on his face, but he didn’t push her away. Instead he scooped her up and placed her on top of his pillows, bringing her inside the circle of conversation.
    “So, we all know that someone needs to find that girl and bring her back here as soon as possible,” Orion said, pointing to the article. All the guys nodded.
    “Wait. Why?” Helen asked, surprised.
    “She’s not safe in the mortal world anymore. Apollo didn’t get her yet,” Jason answered, his voice trailing off at the end. Helen looked at Claire for an answer but Claire shrugged, stumped.
    “Apollo never let a girl get away,” Lucas said, like he hated admitting that he was the descendant of someone so loathsome. “When he wanted a mortal he chased her, even if she didn’t want him back. Anywhere she ran, he followed. He wouldn’t give up.”
    “Unless she begged a goddess to turn her into a tree or a body of water or something that he couldn’t violate,” Matt said testily. “Haven’t you ever wondered why the House of Thebes, the descendants of Apollo, have so many members?”
    “ All the gods were miserable, raping, warmongering bastards. Not just Apollo,” Hector said with a grimace. “That’s why we have to find a way to get rid of them. Again.”
    Orion, Lucas, and Helen shared a pained look, each of them keenly aware that this was their fault. The three of them had accidentally become blood brothers when they fought Ares, and that had joined the four Houses and unleashed the gods on the world again.
    “Hang on. I wasn’t blaming you three,” Hector began apologetically, but Orion smiled and put a hand on his friend’s shoulder.
    “We know you didn’t mean it like that,” Orion said.
    “But it was still our fault,” Helen reminded them all. “The gods have always backed Scions into a corner and forced us to make a choice between bad and worse, but we’re the ones who have always fallen for their traps. I won’t let it happen again.”
    Lucas gave Helen a worried look, but before he could lecture her on the dangers of hubris for the tenth time, she changed the subject. “So who wants to come with me to get this girl?”
    “You’re not going,” Lucas and Orion said in unison.
    “Yes I am,” Helen replied to both of them. “You two are a mess, and Hector can’t show his face in public. Who else is going to go?”
    “I’ll come with you, Len,” Claire said, cutting off Lucas and Orion before they could argue any further. “Don’t worry guys, I’ll watch her. If she keels over, she can land on me, okay?”
    “And me,” Ariadne said.
    “You’re still way too drained,” Jason said, shaking his head at his twin.
    “And that poor girl just got attacked by a god last night. She’s probably too injured to