Starcrossed

it.”
    “But I’ve spent my entire life scared to death of using any of my powers,” Helen said in a strangled voice, thinking about her cramps.
    “I know I’m asking you to forget about years and years of conditioning, and it probably won’t happen overnight, but it still has to happen, and you have to be the one to decide to make it happen. You are the most amazingly talented Scion I’ve ever seen.” Lucas raked a hand through his hair and shook his head, at a loss. “Really, Helen, you can’t see yourself the way I do, but if you could, you’d be speechless. It’s time for you to stop fearing what you can do, and it’s definitely time for you to start using all your talents when you train, especially your lightning.”
    “How am I supposed to do that without frying everyone? I don’t suppose you have a garage full of lightning rods?” she tried to joke, flustered that Lucas thought she was powerful, but more important, that he seemed to love that about her.
    “I haven’t worked out the details yet,” he said with a grin. “But I’ll think of something.”
    When they went into the house it was dinnertime. Helen was happy to see that Claire was still there, sitting at the table, waiting to be fed like the rest of the family, chatting away with the twins about a paper due the next morning for one of their brainiac classes, and stopped only to wave excitedly at Helen when she and Lucas came through the back door.
    As usual, the kitchen was packed. Pallas and Castor were hovering hungrily over the stove, burning themselves every time they dipped a finger into a pot to taste what Noel was cooking, but not caring enough to stop. Pandora and Hector were joking around with each other by the sink, laughing identical laughs as they tried to see who was better at spitting a grape into the air and then catching it again in their mouths. Poor Noel couldn’t turn one way or the other without tripping over one of her offspring, a guest, a husband, an in-law, a nephew, or a niece—and, yet again, no one seemed to be lending her a hand.
    “You know I can cook, right? Should I offer to help your mom?” Helen asked Lucas sheepishly.
    “Are you kidding? My mom loves this. Sometimes I think she’s just waiting for all of us to get married and move out so she can open her own restaurant.” He saw Helen’s dubious look. “I’m serious! She was telling my dad the other day she wants to have a dinner party and invite half the island. She’s insane.”
    “There you are, Helen, dear,” Noel said when she looked up, as if she had been truly anxious about Helen’s whereabouts. Then she turned back to her stove top and started talking to herself. “She’ll need extras. So damned thin all of a sudden . . . Father still doesn’t know the first thing about her so he isn’t feeding her properly and Kate is so worried! Now where is Cassie?”
    Noel was mumbling to herself, but loud enough so Helen could hear. She couldn’t tell if Noel was out of her mind with stress, used to being talked over in such a loud room, or if she was intentionally letting Helen in on her thoughts. Noel took a lungful of air and hollered Cassandra’s name.
    There was a startled thump from upstairs, and Cassandra’s distant voice yelling back, “Start without me, I’m busy!”
    Helen and Claire shared a wide-eyed stare, which melted into identical warm smiles. They had both been only children, both growing up not being allowed to raise their voices indoors. Together, they’d dreamed of having big families and full houses with a thousand things happening at once, and now they saw in the other the remembrance of that girlish wish. The yelling jangled the nerves a bit, but there was no denying that it made the Delos house feel like a home.
    “Hec-Jace-Castor-Lucas!” Noel sputtered while she stared at her son’s face and repeatedly forgot what she had named him. “Go drag your little sister down here. We have guests tonight.”
    Lucas did as his mother asked, returning with a very grouchy Cassandra thrown over his shoulder.
    “But I see them every day!” Cassandra whined as Lucas bent forward and put her down on her own feet next to Helen.
    “Mom said,” Lucas replied with an apologetic shrug. Apparently, there was no arguing with that because Cassandra rolled her eyes and sat down at the table without another word.
    “Hi,” Cassandra said in a slightly miffed way to Helen. “Do you eat a lot of garlic?”
    “No.