Goddess (Starcrossed)

you from the awareness of the Fates, Helen. If the Fates can’t see you, they can’t decide your life for you. Do you know what this means? You have free will.”
    They stared at each other, so shocked they almost couldn’t believe it, but both of them sensed a tingling in the air that told them they were onto something huge.
    “But why me? Why am I the one who gets to choose?” Helen’s eyes darted around fearfully. “What role am I playing, Lucas?”
    “You’re the Descender.”
    “That’s not on the list.”
    She was right. Lucas felt a moment of anxiety, and then relaxed as the solution came to him. “Out of all of us, you were the last one to discover that you’re a Scion—the last to join the fight. You’re the Warrior, of course.”
    Helen calmed down and smiled tentatively. “Huh. Go figure.” Her nose wrinkled as she thought of something. “The Fates know I suck at fighting, right?”
    “You’ve gotten better.” He really tried to keep a straight face, but it wouldn’t hold.
    Helen pushed him off the roof. He floated up in front of her, holding his hands in an “I surrender” gesture, still trying not to laugh. She crossed her arms huffily and looked away, trying not to laugh with him.
    “Lover, my heinie,” she said, cracking a grin and nudging him away from her with her foot.
    He caught her ankle and pulled himself between her dangling legs. Helen’s eyes widened with surprise and her lips softened and fell apart.
    “That’s right,” he whispered. Lucas leaned in close to her, loving that in spite of everything that had happened, she couldn’t help but react to him. “Don’t ever forget it.”
    He grazed the curve of her cheek with his fingertips before flying away.

EIGHT
    H elen stared off the side of the house for a while, wondering whether or not she’d done the right thing. A part of her knew she was hurting Lucas more by not setting him straight about her and Orion, but in the end she couldn’t do it. Her reasons were selfish, but still valid. If Lucas thought she was with Orion, he would eventually pull away and she really needed him to do so.
    She could look inside him and see he was still in love with her, but that the love had changed slightly. Regardless of what Orion said about it not making any difference to Lucas if she spent the night with another man, it had altered something in him—not the amount of love he felt, but how keenly he felt it. Helen figured it made sense. Even with a physical injury, there’s only so much pain a person can take before they start to go numb.
    Helen saw Matt leave the house and go to his car. She inhaled a breath, about to call out to him and ask him where he was going, but she remembered all the sleeping people just under the roof she was sitting on and stopped herself. Matt turned and looked in her direction, anyway.
    Impossible, Helen thought as he smiled and waved up at her. There’s no way he could have heard me inhale. But how else could he have known to look on the roof? Helen waved back, and Matt got into his car and drove off.
    Still mulling it over, Helen flew in Lucas’s window and sat down on his bed. For a moment, she considered climbing into it, but there was a chance Lucas would come home and find her there. It wasn’t fair to do that to him. Helen hauled her tired body up and walked down the hallway to Ariadne’s room.
    She was surprised to find Ariadne awake.
    “Hey,” Ariadne said, automatically sliding over to make room for Helen in her bed.
    “Hey yourself,” Helen replied with a worried frown. Ariadne’s heart was a throbbing mess of emotion, and Helen knew it had to have something to do with Matt. She kicked off her shoes and got into bed. “I just saw Matt leave. Did you two talk?”
    Ariadne avoided all mention of her feelings and instead told Helen what she and Matt had discussed about the Scions being stuck in one repeating cycle. She explained how Matt thought the Fates needed all the roles to be filled, and if they weren’t, the cycle would just start over again with the next generation.
    “I think everyone’s coming to the same conclusion,” Helen said with a nod. “It would explain why we all look like people from Troy—we’re stuck. There’s something that didn’t happen way back then that the Fates are still trying to bring about.”
    “But what?” Ariadne asked, exasperated. “And something else I don’t understand? Why can’t the Fates just make what they want to