index

by Unknown

  “You hit your head,” Jason warned as the Scions shot each other

  uncertain looks.

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  “And I still know what I saw. Look, don’t worry about me, I’d

  never rat out a friend, but we have to go now,” Matt insisted. “Before

  the police come.”

  “Ari?” Jason asked as he met his twin’s eyes in an honest exchange.

  “Is it life threatening?”

  Ariadne ran her hands just over Matt’s skull, a faint glow coming

  out of her palms. “He’ll be just fine,” she said after a brief moment.

  She started to lead Matt toward Hector’s truck, but Matt giggled

  and stopped dead.

  “Wow. What did you do to me?” He gave her a goofy smile.

  “I healed you. That’s my gift,” she answered as she smiled back at

  him, suddenly looking exhausted.

  “Thanks,” Matt said. He allowed himself to be moved toward

  Hector’s truck. “Wait. Where’s Claire?” Helen was out of the truck

  and barreling down on Matt before her mother could even hold out

  an arm to stop her.

  “What do you mean ‘where’s Claire’?” Helen demanded, balling

  her fists so hard her arms started shaking. “Where did you last see

  her?”

  “The front seat,” Matt replied weakly as he gestured toward his

  car.

  Jason’s whole body went rigid. Moving so fast he was little more

  than a blur, Jason tore the door of the car off with one hand and

  tenderly scooped Claire out from underneath the dashboard with

  the other. She was unconscious, bleeding, and as limp as a wet cotton

  doll.

  “No,” Jason whispered to her. “You were supposed to stay away

  from me.” He placed his lips a hair’s width away from hers and

  held statue still.

  “How is she?” Ariadne asked urgently.

  “She’s breathing,” he said after a moment, his voice breaking. He

  lifted his head up and met his twin’s eyes.

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  “Well, can you heal her or not?” she asked him calmly, as though

  she and her twin had prepared themselves for this.

  He clenched his jaw and nodded, but didn’t speak, carrying

  Claire into the back of the truck and holding her carefully on his

  lap while everyone else organized.

  “I’ll take care of Matt’s car and meet you back at home,” Lucas

  said to Hector, already obscuring the particulars of the wreck by

  bending the light around it.

  “Wait,” Daphne commanded. She raised a hand like she was hailing

  a cab and closed her eyes. “This will draw less attention,” she

  said. Thick wreaths of pearl gray fog rolled off the water and down

  the street, the long, ropy tendrils racing toward her delicately tilted

  fingers.

  “Great Zeus, Cloud-Gatherer,” Hector said under his breath as

  the scene of the accident disappeared in the fog. Then he turned to

  Lucas. “Where are you going to hide the car?”

  “In the ocean. We can clean it up after dark,” Lucas answered as

  he plunged into the thick mist to push Matt’s lump of twisted metal

  and leaking toxins off the dock.

  Everyone else squeezed into Hector’s truck. The whole incident,

  from Creon’s attack to their getaway, had only taken a few minutes

  and they were a full four blocks from the scene before they heard

  the first siren sounding through the fog.

  They drove in complete silence, at a completely lawful speed, out

  to Siasconset, each of them stuck inside their own thought boxes of

  shock and worry. As they cruised along, Helen couldn’t take her

  eyes off of Jason and Claire. Jason had started moving his hands

  an inch above her body, his palms glowing like his sister’s had

  when she healed Matt. He whispered in her ear. He blew soft,

  sparkling breaths against her closed eyes as if he was exhaling energy

  directly into her unconscious dreams.

  Whatever he was doing was helping Claire, but it was also causing

  him excruciating pain. A thick, slick sweat beaded up on his

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  graying skin as Claire seemed to settle with more comfort in his

  arms and gather more color in her cheeks. By the time they parked

  at the Delos compound, Jason was so spent Helen didn’t even ask,

  she just picked Claire up off his lap and carried her into the house

  for him.

  “My room. Quickly,” Jason croaked as Helen carried Claire into

  the crowded kitchen.

  She ducked past the startled faces of the Delos family, cradling

  Claire close to her chest to shield her from prying eyes as she and

  Jason made their way to the stairs. Halfway up the staircase she

  felt Jason put his hand on her shoulder and lean into her for support.

  He was so weak he could barely put one foot in front of the

  other. Eventually, he made it the rest of the way.

  “How can I help you?” Helen asked Jason, easing Claire down into

  his bed.

  “You can’t,” he replied as he stretched his big frame out alongside

  Claire. “I made my choice, and we’re tied to each other until she recovers.

  It’s sort of like a Healer’s last stand. At this point we’ll

  either make it through that desert together or we won’t.”

  “Oh, good,” Helen sighed, finally feeling hopeful. “Claire would

  never allow someone she cared about to just go and die, especially

  not to save her own life.”

  She saw Jason smile and nod humorously as he remembered that

  no matter how dire the situation seemed, at least he had tied his

  life force to a genuinely legendary fighter.

  “I did everything I could to keep her out of this, to protect her

  from our kind,” he whispered, meeting Helen’s eyes.

  “Yeah, I know. All that arguing you two did, even though you’re

  obviously perfect for each other,” Helen said, feeling guilty. Jason

  had tried to push Claire away to keep her safe, but Helen hadn’t. “I

  get it now.”

  “You have other things to deal with,” he said, his eyes already

  starting to close. “Go. I’ll guide her through.”

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  “If you lose your way, I’ll follow you down,” Helen told him,

  already feeling the baked air of the dry lands leaching all the moisture

  out of the atmosphere.

  Suddenly, Helen knew what the dry lands were and why she had

  always been too frightened to recognize the truth when it was staring

  her in the face. The desert that she wandered into while she

  slept, the land Jason now had to traverse to save Claire, was the

  land of the dead. For the briefest of moments she could see Claire’s

  fetch, confused, scared, and soundlessly calling out Jason’s name.

  Helen banished that disturbing image and spoke directly into

  Jason’s ear. “I know the way through the rubble, and I promise, if

  you can’t make it on your own, I’ll come down and carry you both

  out.”

  Jason’s eyes snapped back open in shock, but his spirit was

  already following Claire’s, and although he tried to fight it, his eyes

  closed again as he slipped into a deep comalike slumber. Helen left

  the room, trusting him completely with Claire’s heal. Mentally, she

  was already joining the battle that awaited her in the living
room.

  Helen picked her way down the stairs, hearing her mother’s

  raised voice as she neared. It was already hauntingly familiar even

  though she had known the woman only a few short hours.

  Daphne’s voice was Helen’s own, coming from outside her head

  like a recording played back on a crappy answering machine.

  Helen hated it—not the sound, but feeling like she was stuck in

  someone else’s mistake, doomed to adopt the worst qualities of the

  people she was supposed to love the most.

  Helen paused for a moment to steel herself before she went into

  the living room. In the few short minutes Helen had been upstairs,

  a fight had begun.

  “I’m to blame?” Daphne shrieked at Pallas, reacting to something

  he’d just said. “If you all had just stayed in Cádiz, away from Helen,

  none of this would have happened!”

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  “That was my fault,” Hector admitted, trying to get everyone to

  calm down. “My family had to leave because I nearly killed one of

  my own kin.”

  “You wouldn’t be the first,” Daphne said out of the side of her

  mouth.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Pallas asked indignantly.

  “Are you finally ready to talk about the elephant in the room?”

  Daphne said bitterly. “I didn’t kill Ajax. Tantalus did.”

  “You’re a liar!” Pallas said, taking a menacing step toward her.

  “Then how come I’m alive? Tantalus told all of you that he killed

  me himself, didn’t he?”

  Pallas stared at her furiously.

  “Just answer this one question. If I killed your brother Ajax, then

  why don’t you see the Furies right now?” Daphne asked, throwing

  her arms out as if to show she wasn’t hiding them anywhere.

  Everyone looked around at one another, as if they were expecting

  someone else to have an explanation, but no one did.

  “Pallas, do you remember how Ajax and I hated each other, more

  than just the rage of the Furies could account for, but at the same

  time we wouldn’t allow ourselves be parted? Do you remember

  how we used to seek each other out, like we couldn’t bear to be separated

  for even a moment?” Daphne asked in a softer tone.

  “You were his obsession,” Pallas said darkly, his eyes shooting

  briefly over to Lucas.

  “And he was mine. Eventually, we fought, but at the last moment,

  instead of killing each other, there was a terrible accident. We

  ended up saving each other’s lives. When we did that, I paid my

  debt to the House of Thebes. And he paid his debt to the House of

  Atreus. After that, Ajax could be with my family without inciting

  the Furies, and I could be with his. How could I stand in front of

  you if this weren’t the truth?” Daphne motioned to Helen and Lucas.

  “You’ve seen it happen again, right in front of your eyes, and

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  you all already know what the outcome is. Once the Furies were

  gone, Ajax and I fell in love.”

  “Liar!” Pandora hissed.

  “No,” Lucas said, shaking his head with a stricken, almost fearful

  look in his eyes. “She’s telling the truth.”

  “I touched his body with my own hand,” Pandora screamed, tears

  tangling her pretty pixie face into a snarl. “He was dead!”

  “I think we were both dead for a few seconds,” Daphne said compassionately.

  She was trying to get Pandora to listen to her, but in

  vain. Pandora shook her head at everything Daphne tried to tell

  her. “Ajax and I never really understood exactly what happened,

  but I swear to you, I didn’t kill him.”

  Pandora whirled away from Daphne, turning her back and still

  shaking her head in denial. Ariadne went and stood next to her and

  took her hand, but Pandora would accept no comfort. She dropped

  Ariadne’s hand and crossed her arms tightly across her chest, like

  her insides hurt, her left hand cupping the cuff-locket on her right

  wrist.

  “Oh, how typical! The House of Thebes thinks it knows

  everything because it’s the House of the Oracle,” Daphne said to

  Pandora’s back, almost pleading with her. “And the irony is that

  it’s because you think you know it all that the other Houses have

  been able to hide so much from you—our relics, like the cestus—

  even our very existence. You thought the House of Atreus was

  extinct, but here I am. Open your eyes! Whether you want to believe

  it or not, Pandora, Ajax and I saved each other’s lives that

  night, and then we fell deeply in love.”

  “Then the two of you ran away together?” Castor asked, shocking

  everyone with his sympathetic tone.

  “We had no choice. Even though I had paid my debt to the House

  of Thebes, and I could be near any of you without inciting the Furies,

  you all still wanted me dead,” Daphne replied with a shrug.

  “Ajax said that if we could explain what had happened to Tantalus,

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  he would take our side. He really believed your brother would help

  us. We were so young, only seventeen.” A powerful emotion overwhelmed

  her and she suddenly clenched her fists and her jaw, as if

  she was refusing to cry.

  “Finish your story,” Lucas said evenly.

  “’Jax and I were living on a sailboat, hiding at sea. Tantalus

  rowed out to meet us because we were too frightened of an ambush

  to come ashore. As soon as Tantalus saw my face he went mad.

  They fought over me in the rowboat. I can’t swim—I swear, I

  couldn’t get to them. Ajax lost,” Daphne said. She stared directly

  into Lucas’s eyes. “Tantalus claimed that he killed me that day, but

  obviously that’s a lie. He has been chasing me ever since, maybe

  because he wants me for himself, or maybe because he intends to

  kill me and he doesn’t want anyone else coming after me for the

  sake of a Triumph. I’m not entirely sure what he wants anymore.”

  “I don’t believe it, no matter what you say, Lucas,” Pallas said,

  shaking his head in denial. “Tantalus loved Ajax.”

  “Yes, he did. He loved his brother, and then he killed him,”

  Daphne said, frustrated to the point of cruelty. “Now, as a kinkiller,

  he’s an Outcast, and he can’t have contact with anyone from

  the House of Thebes without the Furies revealing his sin to you.”

  “Pallas,” Castor said gently. “Didn’t it ever bother you that our

  brother stayed hidden even when there were no other Houses left

  to fight?”

  “But there were other Houses, and there still are!” Pallas

  shouted, pointing to Helen and her mother. “He must have known

  she was still alive, and that she can seduce anyone, even us, to help

  her get to him.”

  “I haven’t used the cestus on you, Pallas. Not even to get you to

  believe me,” Daphne said tiredly. “I want you to know in your own

  heart who killed Ajax. I need you to believe that I wasn’t the one

  who killed my husband.”

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  “Everything she’s saying is true,” Lucas said, locking eyes with

  Helen. “She hasn’t used the cestus. And she and Ajax were

  married.”

  Helen looked away, although she could feel him studying her

&nbs
p; face.

  “The Fates have done this many times,” Cassandra intoned, a

  hint of the Oracle’s glow in her eyes and voice as she momentarily

  peeked through the Veil. “The Star-Crossed Lovers are in the warp

  and weft of the pattern, and my mothers are compelled to repeat it

  again and again. Symmetry must be maintained or the fabric of the

  universe will be ruined. All Four Houses have been preserved this

  way.”

  “All four?” Lucas repeated as his eyes sought out Helen’s. A glimmer

  of hope flared up in him, but instead of seeing his own elation

  echoed in Helen, her face was pale and empty. She looked away.

  “Four Houses in Three Heirs,” the many voices continued to

  chant. “The Star-Crossed Lovers have preserved the bloodlines.

  And the Three shall raise Atlantis.”

  A strange hush overtook the room, like the pause between a

  blinding flash of lightning and the deafening roar of thunder that

  inevitably follows.

  “Sibyl!” Daphne said suddenly, addressing Cassandra by the

  most ancient title of her office. “I beg you to answer me! How can

  the Scions rid themselves of the Furies?”

  “She can’t control them yet!” Castor gasped at Daphne, whose

  face had grown greedy and desperate. Helen’s mind flashed back to

  Daphne’s sudden decision to come back to the House of Thebes

  with Lucas, and she knew that this was what her mother had

  wanted all along.

  Castor grabbed Daphne’s arm, pulling her away from his daughter,

  but it was too late. The Three Fates had been officially

  summoned into the body of the Oracle to answer a direct question,

  and they would not be stopped. Cassandra’s mouth glowed, her

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  hair writhed, and her head snapped back. Her eyes grew rheumy

  with cataracts and her skin wrinkled. An old woman forcibly

  pushed her way through a young girl’s shell like she was tearing

  through a piece of paper. Convulsing, the old woman turned into

  another woman, and then a third, as the many voices chimed out of

  her.

  “The Descender must go down to those who cannot forgive and

  cannot forget. The Descender and her Shield will free the Three

  from their suffering as she will free the Houses from the cycle of

  blood for blood,” they said, and then went silent.

  Cassandra’s head righted itself. The wrinkles smoothed and her

  eyes cleared, but the eerie extra presences were still in her. Daphne

  pulled herself away from Castor and approached the Oracle with