Goddess (12 page)

“You are brave and compassionate, as a Worldbuilder should be, and I am very proud of you. But a war is coming to your shores, niece,” Hades said sadly. “You, like your namesake before you, must decide how to meet it.”

SEVEN

T
he shrill chirp of a cell phone parted Helen’s reluctant eyelids. It was still dark out, and dawn was a long way off. Underneath her, Orion shook himself awake and reached for his jeans that were draped over Helen’s back like a shawl. His fingers fumbling with cold and sleepiness, he finally managed to dig his cell phone out of his pocket and answer before it stopped ringing.

“’Lo?” he grumbled, his voice still half asleep. “Hey, bro. Yeah, she’s safe. She’s right here with me.”

Helen focused her hearing so she could listen in.

“Oh. Good,” Lucas said over the phone in a leaden tone. “Can you both come back to my house? Cassandra is about to make a prophecy. She’s been asking for you specifically, Orion. I didn’t mean to interrupt anything.”

Helen’s eyes met Orion’s as they flared in understanding.

“We’re on our way now. Luke, wait. . . .” Orion said, but it was too late. Lucas had hung up. Orion gave Helen a sheepish look. “Sorry ’bout that.”

“Why? Maybe it’s better if he thinks we slept together. Maybe he’ll . . .” She trailed off when she saw the doubtful look on Orion’s face.

“He’s not going to get over you, Helen. Doesn’t matter how many men you spend the night with.”

Helen nodded, accepting this. Orion looked Helen over and changed the subject.

“Where’d you get the clothes?” he asked.

“I sort of called them into existence in the Underworld.”

“How long were you down there for?” he asked, starting to get concerned. “What happened?”

Helen debated telling Orion everything that Hades told her. But after the night they’d just had, how was she supposed to tell Orion that his mother had fought in a war that drove her insane because of a misunderstood prophecy about a place that didn’t even frigging exist anymore? She didn’t know if she would ever be able to tell him that. Instead, she just shrugged.

“Let me guess,” he said, turning away so he could shake the sand out of his jeans. “It’s another long story. You’re going to have to start telling me some of these long stories of yours at some point, you know.”

“I know,” Helen said as she stood and brushed herself off. “I just need some time to sort through it all first.”

Helen knew that Orion could see the confusion swirling around inside of her, but he didn’t push her to confide in him. Instead, he dressed and then turned to her with his arms out.

“Can I get a lift?” he asked with a cheeky smile. Helen wrapped her arms around him and got them airborne, chuckling as she did so. Encouraged by her laughter, Orion kept joking. “Captain? Are there drinks on this flight? I think I have a fake ID here somewhere.”

“A fake ID? Why would I serve you if you just admitted you were underage?”

“So there
are
drinks,” he persisted in a mock-serious tone. “I’m not surprised. Look at all the pockets you conjured up for yourself.” He started frisking Helen, humorously cramming his hands into her cargo pants and digging around in her jacket like the nation’s security depended on it. “Of all the getups in the world you could have imagined for yourself and you pick something I’d go hunting in. Never knew you had an L.L.Bean fetish.”

“I was cold!” she said, nearly shouting with laughter.

“Cold, and apparently predisposed to pick flannel over fur.”

“What can I say? I’m from New England. We like flannel.”

By this point, they were hovering over the Delos backyard, and Helen had to force herself to stop giggling so she could concentrate on landing. Serious again, she swung her feet under them.

“Ooo. Rubber boots. Very sexy,” Orion said. Helen lost it again at the last second, and they tumbled to the ground in a goofy heap.

“Are you okay?” Matt shouted in a worried voice.

“No, it’s fine. We’re good,” Helen shouted back to Matt, who was standing up behind the door of his new car, the engine and headlights still on, like he had jumped out of the driver’s seat a second ago.

Helen tried to untangle herself from Orion and look presentable, but he kept grabbing her by the knees and ankles so she couldn’t stand.

“So
that’s
what happened to the in-flight drinks,” Orion said musingly as he tipped Helen over for the third time. “The captain drank them all. What a lush you are, Hamilton.”

Helen tried to plead her innocence, but since she couldn’t catch her breath she never got a coherent sentence out in her own defense.

“Are you two finished yet?” Matt asked. “What are you, nine?”

Helen and Orion stopped goofing around and settled down. “Did Ariadne call you?” Helen asked Matt.

“Hector did,” he replied, helping Helen to her feet.

“Where’s Claire?” she asked.

“Locked in her room. Her grandma wouldn’t let her out of the house at this hour,” he replied with a chuckle. “Any idea what Cassandra foresaw?”

“She asked for Orion. That’s all we know,” Helen said. The three of them made their way to the garage and the side door that led into the kitchen.

“Huh,” Matt said, looking over at Orion with a creased forehead. “Hector mentioned something about the Tyrant.”

Helen felt Orion stiffen and glanced over at his chest, trying to read his feelings. He was rolling them over too quickly for Helen to make any sense out of what she saw, but she could tell by the way he pinched his lips together that he was steeling himself for some kind of fight.

Helen made up her mind right then that if anyone tried to say anything negative about Orion, she would walk out. His whole life he’d been treated like a bad omen, and he’d never done anything to deserve it. The words
born to bitterness
welled up in Helen’s mind as she recalled some of the criteria for the Tyrant. After what she’d seen in Newfoundland, Helen knew how well that description fit, but it still didn’t make Orion the Tyrant.

Orion’s only mistake had been being born to the wrong parents with the wrong talent. But apparently, that was enough to make everyone shun him. And over what? Another misleading prophecy, just like the one about Atlantis? There was no way Orion was this Tyrant monster, and Helen intended to say so.

Before they even got inside, Helen could hear the haunting, multivoiced chorus of the Fates speaking through Cassandra. As she walked through the kitchen door a horrible screaming started. Three voices were tangled together into one, and Matt, Helen, and Orion ran toward the source of it—the library where Castor and Pallas had their joint office. In half a second, all three of them were at the door.

“Nemesis sends her vessel to blind us! Darkness comes!” wailed the chorus of the Fates, their voices filled with fear. “He must be killed, or everything will be destroyed!”

Orion, Matt, and Helen burst through the door to find the Delos family assembled and staring up. Cassandra hung in midair, glowing bright purple, green, and blue with the tri-part aura of the Three Fates. She was thrashing and howling with pain as the Fates pushed their way through her and forced her to be their messenger. Cassandra, her face wrinkled with extreme age, raised a clawlike hand and pointed directly at Orion.

“Kill him!” one of the Fates shrieked through Cassandra’s mouth.

“He will ruin everything!” another voice said as Cassandra’s face bubbled and rearranged itself into another old woman’s.

“Why does he still live? He should have been killed as a baby!” said the third Fate peevishly.

For a moment, Cassandra wrested control of her body away from her tormentors. “No!” she said forcefully. “Go away!”

“You are OURS!” all three of the Fates shrieked. “You will not disobey us!”

Cassandra started tearing at herself with her nails, leaving long, bloody welts in her skin. Her face was a mask of fear, but her fingers kept digging. The Fates controlled her hands, but the rest of her was aware of the punishment her possessed hands were inflicting on her. Helen took an involuntary step back in revulsion and realized that everyone else in the room had done the same. Except for Orion.

“Enough!” he commanded, striding forward until he was under Cassandra. “Leave her alone.”

The Fates screamed, and in a rush of strange wind and a flare of purple, green, and blue, they abandoned Cassandra, leaving her to fall out of the air. Orion caught her before she could hit the ground and cradled her in his arms. She buried her face in his chest and started sobbing.

“It’s all right now. Shhh,” he said soothingly. He carried her to the couch and sat down, holding her in his lap. He looked around at everyone in the room accusingly. “You all just stand there and let those hags do that to her?” he asked, his eyes zeroing in on Castor.

“It’s not like that,” Jason said, shaking his head. “We’ve tried everything.”

“Every time we’ve tried to stop it, they just hurt her more,” Lucas said.

Orion looked over at Lucas, and his angry gaze softened. He nodded apologetically, accepting that he may have been too quick to judge.

“So why do they leave when Orion tells them to?” Pallas asked. His eyes narrowed suspiciously at Orion. “Why are the Fates so afraid of you?”

“Maybe because I’m not afraid of them,” Orion countered defensively.

Helen tensed herself for a fight and felt Lucas and Hector go on the alert with her—all three of them ready to argue for Orion.

“The Fates fear Orion because they can’t see through him. Something about their sister, a beautiful woman with a veil over her eyes. She covers their eyes when he approaches,” Cassandra said tiredly, ending the fight before it could begin. She drew a hiccupping breath and sat up in Orion’s arms and looked at him. “You’re like a blank wall to them. Or a dead end.” She wiped her hand across her face. “I don’t know exactly what they think. All I get are glimpses here and there. But I do know that whenever you’re part of the equation, they can’t see the answer.”

“Is that why you couldn’t see my future?” Helen asked Cassandra. “When I started meeting Orion in the Underworld and spending a lot of time with him, you said you couldn’t see my future anymore.”

Cassandra tilted her head to the side, considering this. “I suppose that could be it. The Fates won’t tell me anything about Orion. They hate it when I even think of him.”

“Good,” Orion said. “I’ve never liked the Fates.” He smiled down into Cassandra’s face, like he’d just put his finger on something. “So, is this why you’re always following me around the house?”

She smiled back and nodded shyly. “I can relax when you’re around because I know they won’t come.”

Helen glanced at Castor, Lucas, and Hector, who were all sharing troubled looks. Their hearts were filled with confused fogs, like they had no idea how they should feel about what they’d just heard. Helen wished she’d been in the room earlier. She wanted to hear this new, revised Tyrant prophecy, preferably before Orion did.

“And you’re not afraid of me?” Cassandra asked Orion cautiously. He smirked.

“Ever been to Thailand?” he asked. She shook her head slowly, bemused by his out-of-the-blue statement. “Let’s just say I’ve eaten meals that are scarier than you. Bigger than you, too.” Cassandra chuckled, but halfway through, exhaustion caught up with her and she started to yawn. “Yeah, I have that effect on a lot of people,” he said, making her laugh again through her yawn. Orion stood up with Cassandra in his arms. “Okay. I think it’s bedtime for you, Kitty.”

“Will you stay with me until I fall asleep?” she asked, clutching at his arm.

“Of course.”

On his way out the door, Orion gave Helen a meaningful look. She nodded in response to let him know that she’d fill him in on anything that he missed while he tended to Cassandra. As soon as he was out of the room, several people started talking at once.

“I can’t believe the Fates left like that,” Ariadne breathed to her twin.

“It looked like they were going to kill her this time,” Jason said back.

“It’s worse than we thought,” Pallas said urgently to Castor, silencing all other side conversations. “If Orion stays, we are blind. At least with the Oracle we had an edge over the gods. A small one, but better than nothing.”

“I know,” Castor replied, his face tight with tension.

“He’s a good man. Anyone can see that,” Pallas persisted. “But good or not, he’s too dangerous. He can’t stay with us.”

“No. You can’t send Orion away,” Lucas said in a low voice, his eyes skewering his father. All eyes flew to Lucas, surprised that he of all people would defend Orion. Lucas’s face was impassive. “He saved my life and Helen’s. We’re blood brothers now.”

“I agree,” Hector said evenly. “Orion has fought alongside us. He is a part of our family,” he continued, nodding to Lucas and Helen.

“Just because someone fought alongside you does not make him a part of this family,” Pallas said to his son in a raised and frustrated voice. “You rely too much on your honor to make your choices for you, Hector!”

Hector looked away from his father’s intense stare, backing down. He was too respectful to go against his father, even if Pallas was wrong. That pissed Helen off.

“This isn’t about honor or about Orion,” Helen said bitterly. She took a step toward Pallas and felt Lucas, Hector, and Jason fall into position behind her. “It’s about Cassandra. You’re too scared to face the future without someone to tell you what to do. You’d rather let her suffer than have to doubt what’s coming next. All this talk about Orion being dangerous is an excuse so you can keep your Oracle and not feel too guilty about what that does to your own niece.”

Pallas took a step toward Helen, his lips curling into a snarl. Undaunted, Helen took a step toward Pallas and tipped her chin up at him, taunting him to take a shot. As far as Helen was concerned, this fight was a long time coming. From the first moment Pallas had laid eyes on Helen, all he’d ever seen was Daphne. After so many years of blaming Daphne for his brother’s murder, he couldn’t let it go. Pallas had always looked at Helen as if any day now she was going to betray the Delos family, and she’d had enough of it.

“And do you think the same of me, Helen? That I would let my daughter go through that torture so I can . . . what? Feel better about tomorrow?” Castor said quietly as he stepped between Helen and Pallas. Helen felt Lucas put his hand on the small of her back, and she eased off.