Goddess (Starcrossed)

along.
    Lucas looked out at the gently folding waves, thinking. “Am I like this from now on?” he asked. “Will I be able to breathe underwater back on Earth?”
    “Yes,” Helen replied quietly. “In Hades, he makes it so no one has any special powers—except him, of course. That way he doesn’t grant talents to individuals who weren’t born with them. Hades is very smart. He avoids the whole question of giving too much power by suspending all powers when you are with him.”
    “You didn’t do that,” Lucas said quietly.
    “I couldn’t. I needed to fix you. And now I just want to please you,” Helen admitted. “I want you to enjoy all that I have to give you. But in order to make it possible for you to breathe underwater here, I had to change your body permanently. That’s why I don’t know how many Scions I should bring here. I want everyone to see this, but what if I . . .”
    “Inadvertently make an army of Scions who have a multitude of talents that not even the Olympians have?” Lucas finished for her. “It is a big thing to consider.”
    “Unlimited power.”
    Lucas thought some more. “Why didn’t Zeus do this? Give himself and all the Olympians as many different talents he could think of?”
    “I don’t know. I don’t think he’s into sharing power,” Helen guessed. “It could also be because, like Hades, he decided to set certain rules for his world that prohibit him from giving out powers. But I don’t know what the deal is with Olympus. I’ve never been there.”
    “I hear there’s a lot of feasting,” Lucas said jokingly. “Ambrosia, nectar of the gods, nymphs. Lots of nymphs.”
    “Keep ’em fed and happy so they don’t revolt,” Helen said with a nod and a grin. They chuckled with each other, their eyes locking. Lucas took her hand and looked away.
    His eyes scanned the horizon, sweeping over the dazzling view like he was trying to memorize it. He turned back to her and grew serious. “How’s the family?”
    “Anxious. We should go back,” she replied reluctantly. “Time runs here just like it does on Earth, and they’re waiting for me to come back with you.”
    Although Helen would have loved to spend eternity in this hut over the water with Lucas, she had more than one reason to return to Earth. She had to get back to Orion, her Shield, so the Fates couldn’t see her while she tried to come up with a way to stop a war with the gods. She knew she didn’t have much time. Now that she’d created her own world, Zeus would be gunning for her, and she couldn’t even start to plan without making sure that the Fates couldn’t see her.
    She itched to tell Lucas about all this, but she knew she couldn’t. Even in her Everyland the Fates could still see her, and if the Fates thought she was trying to dodge them, they’d find a way to keep her from Orion. They might already know what Helen was planning, whether she said it out loud or not, but she figured saying it would definitely jinx it. She had to wait until she was with Orion again to tell all of them what she was planning.
    “I can feel you fidgeting,” Lucas said with an indulgent smile. “But before we go, may I ask a favor?”
    “Anything.”
    “Don’t bring anyone else here, to this cove, okay? Let this place be ours.”
    “Forever and ever,” she promised.

THIRTEEN
    L ucas 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,