“What do you want to do?” Orion asked, ready for a fight. “I don’t know this place or these people. Who’s the bad guy?”
Helen shrugged helplessly as she watched the free-for-all. Pivoting around in a circle, she tried to decide who to protect and who to fight against. But they were all her neighbors, and from what she could see, the vast majority of them were hurting each other out of sheer panic. She noticed a path being cleared through the random swarm and headed for it.
Automedon, closely followed by her old pal Zach, was carelessly flicking helpless people out of his way. With his inhuman strength, he sent anyone who stepped in his path soaring through the air like kites that had been snipped from their strings. The Myrmidon wasn’t intentionally seeking to hurt people—he just didn’t care if anyone around him lived or died.
A man was lying on the ground, directly in Automedon’s path. A little girl in a princess costume and a boy dressed as a bear were beside him, standing in a pile of spilled Halloween candy. The little girl was bawling inconsolably and pushing on the man’s back, trying uselessly to wake him. The brave little boy turned to face Automedon, his fists clenched inside the furry bear paws, ready to defend the fallen man and the defenseless baby girl. The man was Luis, Helen realized as she drew closer, and the children were Marivi and Juan.
Automedon hardly even glanced down. He batted Juan out of the way as an afterthought, and sent his tiny body soaring limply over the crowd. Orion turned into a blur at her side, but Helen stayed rooted to the ground in shock. Zach’s face froze into a mask of fear, and he dove for cover as a bolt of ice-white lighting arced out of Helen’s chest and connected with Automedon.
She didn’t think. She didn’t consider whether or not people were watching, or if she wanted to spare the insect for strategic purposes. In her mind’s eye, Helen could see nothing but the image of Juan in his darling little bear costume, floating limply through air. She raised her left hand, focused the stream of pure energy, and turned Automedon into a flaming, vaguely man-shaped torch as she strode toward him.
Automedon writhed in agony like a half-crushed bug. As his skin went from fiery orange to dull red, he fell to his knees, and then onto his side, and then—charred to black—he finally went still.
“Helen, stop!” Orion yelled at her. “He’s dead!”
Cutting off the stream with a crisp, snapping sound, Helen retracted her left hand and looked down on the charcoal husk that used to be Automedon. Zach scrambled to his feet and took off. Helen let him go, turning instead to face Orion.
He was holding Juan. In such large arms the little boy looked like a toy teddy bear. Helen covered her mouth with a hand, unwilling to ask out loud how bad it was.
“It’s okay, I caught him before he hit the ground,” Orion said comfortingly as he strode toward her. “But we should get these kids out of the street.”
They looked down at Marivi. She was staring up at Helen, her eyes wide and her mouth hanging open in awe.
“Do you remember me?” Helen asked. Marivi nodded, her expression frozen in shock. “Will you come with us?” Marivi nodded again, her eyes still wide.
Helen held out an arm to the little girl and she jumped up, clinging to Helen’s neck and wrapping her legs around Helen’s waist as tight as a barnacle. Orion balanced Juan carefully on Helen’s other hip and then he bent down to study Luis, who still seemed to be breathing.
“He’s out, but he’ll be all right,” Orion said, picking him up without delay. “Is there a safe place near here? The hospitals will be overflowing tonight.”
“Ah . . . the News Store?” Helen said, at a loss. “There’s a first aid kit, and maybe my family will be there.”
“Perfect,” Orion replied, motioning for Helen to lead on.
As they headed off, Automedon’s blackened body moved. They heard a brittle, cracking noise, and a large rent opened up down his back, exposing damp pink skin underneath. It breathed. Marivi buried her face in Helen’s neck, hiding her eyes.
Orion and Helen exchanged shocked looks. Suddenly, the shell around Automedon split in half, and he climbed out of his own burnt skin like a crab shedding its outer casing. Covered in mucus, and crouching next to his castoff remains, Automedon looked up at Helen with milky, film-covered eyes and smiled.
“That hurt,” he told her in a detached, nearly robotic way as he drooled stringy spit. He looked at Orion and then down at the gold cuff on Orion’s wrist, narrowing his oozing eyes. “The Third Heir. Nice to see you again, General Aeneas.”
A long, sticky tube uncurled from underneath Automedon’s human tongue and seemed to throb in Orion’s direction. Then it rolled back up and retracted in a swallowing motion into Automedon’s mouth. For a moment, Helen thought she was going to be sick.
“Come on! Before it’s strong enough to stand,” Orion growled in her ear, and the two of them ran away as fast as they dared while carrying injured passengers.
Before the News Store even came into view, Helen knew something was terribly wrong. She could feel the ground trembling, and glanced over at Orion.
“It’s not me!” he said. “Those are impact tremors.”
Turning the final corner, they were enclosed in a dark pall.
“Shadowmaster!” Helen yelled at Orion. “The Hundred must be here somewhere. They have a new one. I saw it at my track meet. . . .”
Helen’s feet slowed as the darkness began to dissipate ever so slightly. She knew this darkness; she had seen it more than once. Through the clinging shadows that reached like smoky hands, she saw Hector slamming someone—the source of the darkness, Helen realized—against the sidewalk repeatedly. It was Lucas. In a flash, Lucas changed positions, got the upper hand, and tackled Hector, punching him savagely. Snapping herself out of her stunned daze, Helen screamed something unintelligible, and ran the rest of the way with Orion close behind.
“Helen!” Kate yelled, and Helen pulled up short.
Following the sound of Kate’s voice, Helen looked and saw her crouched down over Jerry, who was unconscious and bleeding badly. Next to them, Claire and Matt had Jason and Ariadne wrapped up so they couldn’t see or hear. Helen gave the kids to Kate while Orion put Luis down next to Jerry. Helen spared her father one worried look, and then threw herself at Lucas.
As she knocked Lucas off Hector, she saw Orion dart in behind them to wrap an arm around Hector’s throat in a chokehold. Helen used her superior strength to shove Lucas to the ground. She tried to pin him under her, but he had always been better at grappling and easily slipped out from under her, reversing their positions. He secured her hands over her head, and even though she was stronger, she knew she was trapped. Helen considered shocking him, but she was dehydrated from frying Automedon and knew she couldn’t fully control her bolts.
“Please, Lucas, don’t do this!” Helen pleaded as a last resort. At the sound of her voice, he paused and seemed to wake from his trance. A confused look flashed across his face and he jumped off her.
“I’ll get Hector out of here,” Orion shouted as he struggled to keep Hector from pulling free. “Come on, big guy. Time for a swim!”
In a blur of speed, Orion managed to break Hector’s stance and carry him off toward the ocean. As soon as the Outcast was too far away to affect the Delos family, their demeanors changed from anger to painful regret. Claire and Matt released Jason and Ariadne, and Lucas dropped his head into his bloody hands, covering his eyes. Helen wanted to reach out and comfort him, but she knew she shouldn’t touch him. Instead, she just stared at Lucas with her heart in her throat.
“I always knew there was more in you. Something hidden, but I never . . . What is going on?” Kate asked, her voice a hoarse whisper. Helen turned to look at her, and saw that she was barely keeping it together. “Does your father know?”
“No. Kate. Please,” Helen stammered. Looking down at Jerry’s bleeding head, she was overcome with worry. She had no idea what she needed, or wanted, to say.
“Let’s ge
t everyone inside,” Matt said calmly, looking over the shell-shocked faces around him to the riot that was still consuming the town. “First things first. We need to get indoors.”
They carried the wounded to the couches in the café area at the back of the News Store, and the twins immediately went to work assessing the severity of everyone’s injuries. Luis only had a concussion, but little Juan had four broken ribs, a broken arm, and a cracked skull. The twins looked at each other solemnly and prepared themselves for their work.
“Just stand back,” Claire warned Kate and Marivi when they gasped at the twins’ glowing hands. “It’s okay, really. Healing is one of their talents.”
“What do you mean, talents?” Kate pleaded. “Helen, you have to tell me what’s going on!”
Helen didn’t know what to say. She looked down at her father and then back up at Kate, overwhelmed. “I’m a demigod,” she finally spat out. “I’m so sorry, but I don’t have time to explain this to you just now.”
“Alrighty then!” Claire said loudly when she saw Kate’s petrified reaction. “I got this one, Helen. You are so not good at breaking the news gently, by the way. Kate, brace yourself. This is going to get messy.”
Claire started to give poor Kate a crash course in ancient mythology while Helen mouthed the words “thank you” and gestured for Matt and Lucas to join her. She told them about her encounter with Automedon, describing how she had fried him and how he’d shaken it off, molting his burnt skin right in front of her in the process.
“Is Zach okay?” Matt asked Helen.
“Last I saw he was headed down Surfside,” Helen answered, not really caring. “He was with Automedon, Matt, not getting mowed down by him like Luis and his kids, so I think he’ll be fine.”
Matt turned to Lucas. “Can Myrmidons usually withstand lightning, or throw bolts?”
“No,” Lucas said. “They don’t have talents like Scions do, but they are strong. Stronger than most Scions.”
“Even if he was ten times stronger than you, he couldn’t have survived that,” Helen said darkly. “Automedon must have become immortal somehow. Maybe he became blood brothers with a god, like Cassandra said. Lucas, I hit him with a bolt that could melt lead.”
Lucas frowned in thought. There were a million things she wanted to ask him, most of which centered on his being a Shadowmaster, but a bright flash caught her attention and she decided it would have to wait. She, Matt, and Lucas went over to check on the injured. The twins had decided to heal the little boy first so Juan could wake up without then being frightened. Ariadne and Jason spent a few moments monitoring Luis, and decided he was okay.
Wobbly, but not permanently damaged, Luis grabbed his kids and rushed out of the News Store, desperate to see if his wife was still at home. Before her father carried her out the back door, Marivi held her pointer finger to her lips as if to say “shhh,” promising never to tell.
Already exhausted and turning gray from doing so much work on Juan, the twins turned their attention to Jerry. After a quick assessment, they shared one of those looks that Helen was convinced meant that they were reading each other’s minds. But before Helen could begin to ask them how bad the damage was, Orion returned from the sea. Obviously troubled, he thudded as he walked toward them, shaking droplets of water from his hair. He went from being soaking wet to completely dry in a few seconds.
“How’s Hector?” Lucas asked, his voice shaky.
“He’s upset, but safe,” Orion answered.
Lucas dropped his head and nodded.
“How can you be here?” Jason asked him incredulously. “Why aren’t we attacking you?”
“Well, the short version is that Helen and I guessed wrong—but in the best possible way. We ended up getting—I guess you could call it a pardon from the Furies. Right, Helen?”
“But we didn’t solve the bigger problem. Yet,” Helen said, unable to meet anyone’s gaze. She felt guilty that she and Orion were free of the Furies, but the rest of her family still had to suffer.
“You’re Hector’s little sister?” Orion asked, smiling at Ariadne warmly. “He told me to tell you in particular not to worry. He said you worry about other people too much.”
Ariadne tried to smile at Orion, but instead began to choke up. She turned back toward Jerry, wiping her tears away with the back of her hand. Helen looked over at Lucas’s devastated expression.
He was the only one who had attacked Hector. The others had resisted when he couldn’t. The burden would always be heaviest on him. Lucas was this generation’s Paris, and he was destined to be the scapegoat in this epic. The deck had always been stacked against him, and now that he also had to bear the stigma of being a Shadowmaster, it would only get worse.
There was a darkness growing in him. Helen wondered if it had always been there—waiting to come out—or if what had happened between them had planted it. She could see he was barely holding on. He used to be so confident, so alive. He used to shine, and now he was in shadow.
Something snapped in Helen. She was sick of watching the people she loved suffer for things that were out of their control. There was nothing she could do to help her father, but there was something she could do to help the rest of her family.
“I’m done with this. Are you?” she asked Orion.
“Oh, yeah. So done,” he answered, understanding Helen’s meaning right away. Her eyes drilled into his, simultaneously swearing an oath and demanding one from him.
“We go down. We stay down until we find the right river,” Helen said with absolute certainly. “No matter how long you and I have to spend in the Underworld, this ends for the rest of our kind tonight.”
The corners of Orion’s lips tilted up in the faintest of smiles and his tight jaw relaxed.
“I can’t run at Scion speed through the caves, or I risk collapsing them. It’ll take me a few minutes to get to the caves on the mainland, but then it takes half an hour for me to get down to the portal,” he said, lowering his chin like he was getting ready to storm a citadel. “I’ll meet you then.” Orion turned and sped off.
“Take care of my dad,” Helen said to the twins and Kate, and then she headed for the door.
“Where are you going?” Lucas asked, grabbing her arm as she walked past him.
“Home. To bed. To the Underworld,” Helen ticked off in order, like she was giving him a list of deadly weapons.
“You’re just going to go lie prone in a bed, in a bedroom that has a broken window, after pissing off a Myrmidon?” His eyes flared with frustration. “That sounds perfectly safe to you?”
“Well, I . . .” Helen stammered, wondering how she’d overlooked those major details.
Lucas cut her off, muttering to himself about how she was going to give him a nervous disorder. Still firmly gripping her upper arm, he turned her around and led her to the door.
“I’ll guard Helen while she descends,” he called back to Jason. “If anything happens, reach me on my cell.”
“Right.” Jason was clearly trying his best to rally. “We’re moving everyone to our house. We can care for Jerry better there while we protect the rest.”
“Good idea,” Lucas responded.
“Keep us posted, brother,” Jason added, purposely using the word brother. Lucas averted his eyes but smiled gratefully before turning back to the door.
Helen and Lucas plunged onto the chaotic streets and took to the air, looking down on the swarms of people. She felt Lucas pull up short, and directed her eyes to what had caught his attention. Eris was running down a deserted backstreet, chased by two big men with swords.
“My father and uncle,” Lucas shouted above the cold wind.
“Should we help them?” Helen asked through chattering teeth. Lucas wrapped an arm around her and began rubbing her bare shoulders with his warm hands. Not for the first time, Helen wondered how he always seemed to radiate heat.
“They can handle it,” he said, pulling her against him to keep her warm and leadi
ng them onward toward her house. “Stay focused on your task, not on theirs.”
Helen had no idea how he could compartmentalize his emotions like that. His father was down there fighting a goddess, but still he stuck to his job. Like a soldier, Helen thought. It struck her just how much self-discipline Lucas had, and she tried to follow his example, but she couldn’t. Her mind kept straying to Jerry, to the twins, to Hector, but most of all to the fact that Lucas had his arm around her.
Helen followed Lucas under the blue tarp and landed in her bedroom. He led her straight to her messy bed and tried to get her to lie down.
“I don’t know what to do,” Helen said, unwilling to get in bed.
“Why don’t you start by sitting?” he suggested quietly.
“All that brave talk about finishing this tonight, and I’m completely clueless. I have no idea how to end this.” She was trying not to burst into tears.
“Come here,” he said, taking her hand and pulling her down next to him.
“You know what the worst part is?”
“What’s that?”
“I kind of don’t care about any of it at the moment,” she said, tears trickling out the sides of her eyes. “I don’t care that you’re a Shadowmaster, and that you’ve been keeping secrets again.”
“I tried to tell you in the hallway today, I really did. I just couldn’t. I guess I couldn’t face it myself, and telling you would make it real.”
“But I don’t care what you are!” she said, barely able to keep her voice down. “I don’t care that you’re a Shadowmaster, or that you’re my cousin. I don’t even care that I’m supposed to descend and save the Scions in about ten minutes. Lucas, the whole world could be on fire right now, but the only thing that I’m thinking about is how happy I am to be alone with you. How sick is that?”
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