Goddess (Starcrossed)

hanging out with a bunch of Myrmidons?”
    He glanced at her and quickly turned his attention to Hector.
    “It’s not you I want,” Matt said to Hector. “There’s only one life I want to take, and it was never yours. I came to kill the Tyrant.”
    “Matt,” Lucas said calmly while Hector and Matt stared each other down. “There is no Tyrant.”
    “Oh yes there is,” Matt said harshly. He looked at Helen.
    They had been friends since they were too little to stand, and she had never seen his face like this. It was like he hated her.
    “She may not be doing anything to hurt you now, Lucas,” he continued. “But absolute power corrupts absolutely, and there has never been a being with more power than Helen.”
    Helen felt dizzy and slightly nauseous. Because she knew he was right.
    “Helen? The Tyrant?” Orion said, guffawing with disbelief.
    Tantalus, Daedalus, and Pallas all moved away from Helen and positioned themselves behind Matt.
    “Dad,” Orion hissed, but then quickly shut his mouth. Helen saw his eyes harden, and she could see in his heart that Orion was scolding himself for not having anticipated this.
    Helen looked at Hector and saw him staring at his father, Pallas. There was genuine hurt in his eyes, but no blame. They were so different that it didn’t surprise either one to find the other on the opposite side of the war.
    Castor stood firmly behind Lucas, glaring at his brothers. Helen felt Daphne take a position behind her and Orion.
    More Scions shuffled around on the outskirts of the group. Tense, murmured arguments flared up and then subsided as individual members broke from their Houses and decided for themselves which side they preferred—Helen’s or the god’s. Two distinct sides were being drawn. Matt raised his voice so everyone could hear him.
    “The prophecy says that the Tyrant is the vessel where the blood of the Four Houses has mixed. Tell me Orion, how many powers did Helen get in the blood-brother exchange with you and Lucas?” Matt said. “Nearly all of them, right? That’s what we’ve figured.”
    Matt gestured to Claire and Ariadne, and they moved to join his side. Helen felt her stomach slide down like she was on a roller coaster. All of a sudden, she couldn’t breathe.
    Losing Matt was a big enough blow, but losing Claire was unthinkable. Her Giggles. Her best friend ever, and she’d picked the other side. Helen knew that Claire had doubts about her. She should have tried to talk to Claire instead of keeping secrets, but instead she’d let the rift between them grow larger and larger. And all that fear she saw in Claire’s heart had taken over.
    Helen heard Jason whisper Claire’s name to himself, and when she glanced over at him, it looked like he was dying inside. Helen had a brief memory flash of Troilus, whose wife, Cressida, betrayed him by choosing a Greek lover over him. Helen could see into Claire’s heart, and it was obvious how torn she was. But when Helen looked at Matt’s heart, there was no conflict. He believed what he was doing was right.
    “Matt. How can you do this?” Helen asked, trying her hardest not to cry.
    “Because you can control the earth, the sea, and the sky,” Matt said as more and more Scions joined his side. “You can call lightning, manipulate gravity, and pull all the swords out of an army’s hands by generating a magnetic field. You can control hearts, and now I learn that you’ve even created your own world. Helen, is there a force you don’t command—except maybe yourself? You nearly killed Lucas your emotions were so out of control, and from what I’ve seen your behavior is getting more erratic as time goes on, not less.” Helen looked away and made a frustrated sound, but Matt continued. “Most important, please explain to me, if you can make your own world—a perfect world that you control utterly—what’s to stop you from destroying this one if we don’t do exactly as you say?”
    Silence.
    All Helen could hear were waves and seagulls. Matt would be the first to figure that out. He’d always been so darn smart.
    “Do you remember homecoming freshman year?” Matt asked. He shifted on his feet uncertainly, his eyes sad.
    “Yeah,” Helen said with a shrug. “A bunch of us spent the whole night talking around the bonfire, like, five minutes down the beach from here.”
    “Do you remember Zach asking us if we could build a time machine, would we use it to go back and murder Hitler when he was