Starcrossed (17 page)

figuring out a huge puzzle that had been troubling them.

“I have nothing. No pictures,” Helen replied in a flat voice. Cassandra

exhaled sharply and nodded her head at some internal

thought.

“To protect you, probably. If she severed all ties with you and

made sure you grew up on a small island with a limited group of

friends it was less likely that a rival House would discover you,”

Cassandra observed as if she was a detective gathering together all

the clues.

“Apparently, that didn’t work,” Helen scoffed.

“It did for a long while, but the Furies would not allow it forever,”

Castor said quietly.

Helen ran the charm of her necklace along its chain, and held it

out for Castor and Cassandra to look at. “This is all I got from her.

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A piece of jewelry. Does it mean anything to you?” she asked

intensely.

A part of her had always hoped that her necklace was important—

that maybe someday it would answer all her questions. In her

wildest daydreams she imagined it being the talisman that would

someday guide her to her mother. Cassandra and Castor studied

the heart charm carefully, but there was nothing special about it.

“It’s very pretty,” Cassandra said kindly.

“It is, isn’t it? But it’s from Tiffany so there are probably thousands

just like it. It’s just that this is all I have,” Helen said, the

words spilling out uncensored. “My dad says she must have been

planning to leave for a long time because by the time he figured out

she had left us, all the pictures were gone. Every single one. Even

pictures he thought she had no idea he’d taken.”

Helen stood up suddenly and started pacing around aimlessly.

She walked to the far end of the library, looking at all the books

that the Delos family had collected together, all of the antique furniture

they probably handed down, generation to generation. It

was a family legacy Helen had been denied, and she felt a sense of

loss not knowing where her mother was, or where she’d come

from. But she also sensed a possibility in that ignorance.

“Your family is tight, I can see that. You always know where

everyone is. But my mother did something drastic, right? She ran

away.” Helen struggled with the right way to phrase her thought,

and decided the best thing would be to ask a question. “Why were

you so sure that the House of Thebes was the only House left? How

could you possibly know that?”

“We keep very close watch over our numbers, Helen,” Cassandra

said.

“Yeah, but how can you know for sure?”

“It’s barbaric,” Castor said, shaking his head. When Helen gestured

for him to continue he did. “When one demigod kills another

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from a rival House there is a traditional celebration for the champion

called a Triumph. It’s considered a great honor.”

“But that doesn’t mean my mother is dead. Maybe she’s just

missing! You don’t even know who she is!” Helen said. The tears

tipped over the edge of her eyelids and splashed down on her shirt.

“The fact that you exist proves that anything is possible,” Cassandra

said. But she wasn’t able to look Helen in the eye.

“Right around the time you were born, the Houses were going

through a period of intense fighting that was thought to be the final

confrontation. There were a lot of deaths,” Castor said, looking

down at his hands.

Helen turned her back on Castor and Cassandra and tried to

breathe her way through the tears, but still it took a few moments

before she knew she wasn’t going to start sobbing. She didn’t even

know why she was so upset. She’d always thought she hated her

mother.

“Helen, we understand that you might need some time before we

continue. We still have a lot more to talk about, but we’re not going

anywhere and we can finish this conversation when you’re ready.

In the meantime, please know that we really do want to help you,”

Castor said gently from somewhere on the other side of the room.

Helen heard them get up to leave, but she couldn’t bring herself

to say good-bye. After they’d left, she opened up the French doors

and went out onto the patio. The sight of the pristine beach and

rolling blue water blunted the sharper edges of her emotions and

before she knew it she was shuffling down the beach.

“Are you okay?” Lucas asked from behind her.

Helen just nodded, not surprised that he had appeared. They

both looked down the beach, watching a big, hairy dog jump in and

out of the surf with glee. After a moment Lucas moved and stood

beside her.

“I’m relieved,” Helen said. She turned her head to look at him.

“My whole life I thought my mother hated me so much that she

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didn’t even want me to know what she looked like.” A pained expression

darkened Lucas’s face, but Helen continued before he

could interrupt her. “I’m not saying an ancient blood feud is a good

thing, but at least it’s a reason why she left me. I’ve never had one

of those before.”

“She could still be alive, you know,” Lucas insisted. “Regardless

of what Cass and my dad think.”

“I don’t know what to feel about that yet,” Helen replied honestly.

“Kate has been more of a mother to me than Beth, or whatever she

was called, ever was. I guess I’ll decide how I feel when I find out

the truth. The whole truth.”

“That works,” Lucas replied, smiling out at the water for a moment

before another thought occurred to him and his face fell. “For

now, anyway.”

He squeezed her fingers, and Helen glanced down, surprised

again that they had joined hands when she wasn’t paying attention.

She didn’t know who had initiated this new habit of theirs, but she

realized that it would be nearly impossible to stop. She had never

held a boy’s hand before and it should have made her shy, but it

didn’t. It felt like the most natural thing in the world for her to

touch him. That thought made her shake her head in wonder. She

looked up and noticed that he was looking down at their hands as

well, probably thinking the same thing.

“Do you want to sit down for a moment?” she asked, suddenly

conscious of the fact that the last time she had seen him he was unable

to walk without Jason’s help.

“Nope. But I wouldn’t mind something else to eat.” He threw a

distracted glance over his shoulder at the house.

“Me too. My god, I’m a pig!” Helen said, still surprised at herself.

“You went hours without eating during the heal,” he said, leading

her away from the water’s edge. “That’s crazy talk.”

“You know, if it weren’t for the whole ‘agonizing pain’ thing, I

think I could get to like heals. People carry you around, and feed

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you nonstop. It’s like being an infant, only you’re old enough to appreciate

it.”

“Not so much fun when you have to go to the bathroom, though.”

“No! Especially not when you’re around strangers,” Helen said,

expecting a laugh or a witty response from Luke, and not getting

either.

“We’re not strangers,” he said quietly, slowing down so he could

look her in the eye.

“Well, not anymore,” she agreed. She felt a hot blush stinging her

cheeks and had to look down. His eyes were so honest and so blue

that Helen felt if she didn’t force herself to look away right from

the start that she’d get stuck and never stop staring at him.

They held hands as they walked back. When they got close to the

house, Helen noticed Cassandra staring down at them from one of

the second-story balconies. She didn’t look happy.

When they went into the kitchen, they found Noel already hard at

work over half a dozen pots and pans. She set them up with a pint

of ice cream, cookies, nuts, and caramel sauce and told them they

were strong enough to make their own darned sundaes before she

went back to snarling at the ox-sized roast she was wrangling into

the oven. After a decadent snack that tempted the rest of the house

into the kitchen to spoil their appetites, Noel told everyone that

they might as well just stay in their seats because dinner would be

ready in another twenty minutes.

“I can’t. I have to go home,” Helen admitted in a disappointed

tone as she pushed a few soggy pecans around the bottom of her

bowl.

“Ridiculous. You’re not going anywhere,” Lucas responded.

“No, really. I have to go home, get the Jeep, and then pick Kate

and my dad up at the airport.”

“One of us can get them for you,” Ariadne said, rising from the

seat on the bench to Helen’s right.

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“Sit, Ari, you’re still drained from healing. And don’t think for a

second all that blush you’re wearing is fooling me,” Pandora said

with a twinkle in her eye and a snarky finger wag that set her

bracelets dancing and tinkling. “I’d love to go and meet your dad,

Helen.”

“No, you can’t!” Helen said a little too forcefully before she got a

hold of herself and continued in a steadier tone. “My dad doesn’t

know about any of this. Please. It’s very kind of you to offer, but if

you could just give me a ride back to my house, I’d really appreciate

it.” She couldn’t look up, but she knew everyone was shooting

each other meaningful looks over her head. Ariadne touched

Helen’s hand and opened her mouth to say something, but Lucas

spoke first.

“I’ll drive you home,” he said as he slid out from his seat on the

bench and pulled Helen along with him by the hand. “Let’s go.”

“You’re in no shape to travel,” Noel said, shaking her head, but

Lucas was already walking toward her and smiling mischievously.

“I’m driving her home, not flying her there,” he said, suddenly

grabbing his mom faster than she could move and kissing the top

of her head with an exaggerated smooching sound. It couldn’t have

been too comfortable, but it was funny enough to get Noel to laugh

and admit that Lucas was strong enough to drive.

Helen tried to give everyone a heartfelt thank-you but Lucas

made a snoring sound, grabbed her hand, and dragged her across

the room, saying, “Yeah, yeah. You’ll be back tomorrow, anyway.”

“What?” Helen said in a flustered daze as Lucas pulled her

through the kitchen door that led to a huge garage packed with

fancy cars. He bundled her in a little, classic convertible Mercedes

and started the car as he hit the door opener.

“You’ll be back here tomorrow afternoon,” he said, finally answering

her question as he pulled out and headed off the compound

toward Milestone Road.

“I can’t. I have track,” Helen reminded him.

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“I have football. I’ll drive you back here after we’re both done.

And I can pick you up for school in the morning if you’d like.”

“I thought you weren’t allowed to do sports anymore.”

“That’s mostly cleared up,” he said with a huge grin. “Look, all

I’m going to say is I’ve seen the football team. And believe me, they

need my cousins and me.”

“I should probably be offended by that, but I’ve seen the football

team, too,” Helen said, mirroring his grin. “But regardless, I can’t

come over after tomorrow. I have to work on Monday nights.”

“Tuesday then,” Lucas said.

“I can’t. I have to cook dinner for my dad,” she said in a rushed

voice.

“He can come, too. My mom wants to meet him,” Lucas said with

growing uncertainty. He glanced over at Helen. “Don’t you want to

come?”

“It’s not that,” she said, feeling cornered and frustrated and not

knowing why. “My dad won’t allow it, okay?” Helen looked out her

window at the golf course and felt Lucas take her hand and shake it

a little to get her to look at him.

“No one will tell your father about you if you don’t want them to,”

he said, glancing from her to the road and back again.

“It’s not that. He doesn’t let me go out on school nights,” she

said, looking back at him, but he was frowning deeply and staring

at the road. As the minutes ticked by silently, Helen could feel Lucas’s

mood getting worse and worse.

“Nope. This isn’t going to work,” he said suddenly, pulling the car

over to the side of the road, yanking on the parking break, and

turning in his seat to face Helen. When he saw Helen’s startled face

he took a shaky breath to control himself before he started. “I don’t

know if my dad explained this to you, but the different Houses are

the descendants of different gods,” he began.

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“Yes, he said something like that,” Helen responded quietly. She

felt like a kid in the principal’s office and she had no idea why. He

tried to smile at her, but gave up.

“My family’s House, the House of Thebes, are the descendants of

Apollo. He’s primarily known as the god of Light, but he was also

the god of Music, Healing, and of Truth. Falsefinders—Scions who

can feel lies—are very rare, but I’m one of them. I always know a lie

when I hear it, and if it comes from someone close to me I can’t

stand it. So you can’t lie to me, Helen. Ever. If you don’t want to

tell me the truth, please, for my sake, don’t say anything all,” he