work a double to give Kate the day off. Helen had a feeling that the
two of them were avoiding each other. She had tried to talk to Kate
about it the night before after Claire left to go to the bonfire, but
she just didnt have the energy to push Kate to open up. Everything
felt duller to Helen. Muffled, like her feelings were in storage, buried
under mounds of packaging peanuts.
Helen went to her room and switched gravity off and on, alternately
floating up and thumping down until she figured out how to
swing her legs under her and land on the balls of her feet instead of
all over the damn place. She worked a bit with the air currents, but
she couldnt do anything more than finesse her position as she
floated or she risked blowing her room to pieces. After a few hours,
the constantly ringing phone drove her out of doors. The Delos
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family wanted to know why she wasnt at their house yet for practice,
and they wouldnt stop calling until she answered.
Helen had been thinking. She just couldnt see the point of learning
how to swing a sword if she couldnt be wounded by weapons,
and she didnt need to fight if she could simply fly away. She knew
that eventually Hector or Jason would come looking for her at
home, so she wandered outside with no clear destination, hoping
that a little speed would help clear her head. She was in jeans and a
sweater, not exactly running gear, but it didnt matter. As soon as
she was out of the town center she went off Polpis Road, heading
east. She didnt care where she ended up, as long as it was away
from people. As she ran she realized that she had come this way
once before, and although she didnt want to think about her first
flight and everything that came after it, she knew it was the perfect
place to find the solitude she was after.
The sun was going down and she was grateful to be numb enough
to experience something beautiful without her depressing thoughts
barging in and ruining it. Looking around, she saw a familiar lighthouse.
She glanced down at the sand under her feet and wondered
if it was the same sand that had cradled her and Lucas when they
were in so much pain. When they had died for a moment, she
realized.
As soon as the thought occurred to her, she knew it was true.
They had done more than just suffer terrible injury that night, they
had started to cross over. Or at least Lucas had. And she had followed
him down to stop him. And there was a river . . . Wait, what
river?
Hey! What the hell do you think youre doing? Hector shouted.
He was furious. He stalked up the beach, his legs eating up far
more distance than a humans could as he came toward her.
How did you find me? Helen sputtered.
Your moves arent so hard to anticipate, he sneered. Now get
your ass to my house.
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I dont want to practice anymore. Its pointless, Helen called
over her shoulder as she turned on her heel to walk away. I just
want to be left alone.
You want to be left alone, huh, Princess? Sorry, it doesnt work
that way, he said as he grabbed her shoulders and spun her
around. That did it for her. She gave one hysterical laughit was
either that or start cryingand shoved Hector away from her.
Hard.
What are you going to do? What? Are you going to beat me to
death? You cant! Youre not strong enough, Helen said as she hit
him repeatedly on the shoulders, trying to instigate a fight. So go
get a sword. Go ahead. Oh, wait, I forgot. That doesnt hurt me,
either. So what are you going to do, you big bully? What do you
have to teach me?
Humility, he said quietly. He moved fast, but he was also bending
the light funny the way Lucas did. While she was still trying to
focus her eyes, pissed that she hadnt even considered that Hector
could have this talent as well, Hector grabbed her, threw her over
his shoulder, and started walking toward the water.
Enraged, Helen used her full strength against him for the first
time. She didnt care how much she hurt him. She pushed until she
unlocked herself from Hectors grip. She heard his arm break as
she physically separated herself from him. Then she changed states
to fly away. As she summoned a wind to take her away, he grabbed
her with his other hand. His more dominant hand. Helen realized,
a bit too late, that Hector had allowed her to break his left arm so
that she would chose weightlessnessweightlessness and momentary
weakness. Before she could digest what he was doing and shift
back to the gravity-state to get enough purchase to push him off, he
dragged her easily into the water where her weight mattered not at
all.
Hector walked right into the water and trudged down, down,
down until they were both completely submerged under what
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seemed to Helen like fathoms of dark water. She struggled uselessly.
This was Hectors element and he had complete control. He
could even speak and be heard underwater.
You arent the only one with talents, Princess, he said.
There were no bubbles streaming out of his mouth, just clear
speech. He could breathe, he could talk, he could walk on the
seabed as if he was walking on firm ground. Helen finally understood
why Hector terrified her so much. He was an ocean creature,
and she was deathly afraid of the ocean.
Ever since shed almost drowned as a child, Helen had suspected
that the ocean had it in for her, but shed never told anyone that
because she was pretty sure they would think she was crazy. Now,
almost a decade later, as she looked into Hectors blank blue eyes,
she knew she had been right. Helen bucked and squirmed under
Hectors relentless grip. Great gouts of bubbles flew from her
mouth as she screamed in soundless panic. She scratched at his
face and kicked her feet, but there was nothing she could do to
make him let her go. She was going to drown.
Acid fizzed in her veins and the edges of her vision smudged as
she started to black out. As her eyes closed, she felt him tug on her
legs as he towed her back to shore. He hauled her out of the water
by an ankle and swung her over his head and down onto the sand
like a mallet, hard enough to dislodge the liquid from her lungs.
She puked burning salt water and coughed until her inner ears
stung and she could hear the blood thumping in her head.
If you had been training with me today, you would have known
that you can use your bolts underwater, he said, yanking on his
broken arm to straighten out the bones with a sickening crack. He
screamed and fell to his knees, panting for a moment before continuing
through gritted teeth. But you didnt show up for
practice.
They sat next to each other on the sand for a while, both of them
too injured to move. As they healed, the setting sun seemed to give
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up on the day and jump headlong into the water. The sky grew
dark.
I thought you were descended from Apollo, Helen rasped.
Her vocal cords were still damaged, but she didnt need to say
anything more, anyway. Hector didnt come off like the smartest
member of the Delos clan, but Helen was starting to suspect that
even if he didnt spend as much time reading books as Cassandra
did, he was every bit as clever as the rest of his family.
A minor sea goddess called a Nereid mixed with our House
somewhere along the way. There are a lot of minor gods and spirits
of the water or the woods still running around here and there, and
things happen over thousands of years. None of the House lines
are purely descended from one god or another anymore, and all
the younger generation of Scions have more talents than their parents,
he answered.
Why is that?
Cassandra thinks is has something to do with the Fates wanting
the Scions to acquire more talents and become more powerful so
they can rule Atlantis, but personally I just think its because were
all mutts. My great-great-grandfather sleeps with a nymph, and I
get to walk underwater. You dont need the Fates to explain that
one.
Is that how you knew I can drown? Because you have power
over water?
That was common sense. And I dont have power over water, Im
just at home in it, he said. He turned to look her in the eye. When
he continued speaking it was in a tone that was excruciatingly similar
to the voice Lucas used when hed taught her to fly, and it
tugged at Helen. You dont think like a fighter yet. You have all
these amazing talentstalents most Scions would trade half the
years of their lives forbut you cant use them because you dont
think tactically. Just stop and use your head for a second. The
ocean isnt a weapon, but it can kill. The air isnt a weapon, but if I
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were to deprive you of it, you would die. The earth isnt a
weapon . . . he began.
But if I were to slam into it hard enough . . . I get it, she finished
for him, swallowing hard and staring out at the unforgiving
waves.
Water is your Achilles heel. Its the one element you fear because
you have no control over it.
Helen didnt know how he had figured that out, but she knew he
was right. Somehow, even when she had been ignorant of her abilities,
she had known deep down on an unconscious level that she
had less to fear from three of the four elements. She could command
the air and summon winds, she could manipulate the gravity
of the earth, and she could easily tolerate the heat of fire because in
order for her to create lightning she had to be able to withstand
temperatures that were hotter than any flame. But water was the
one element that rendered her completely helpless. Finally, she understood
her own fear, even if she wasnt any closer to conquering
it.
How could you have known that about me? Helen asked,
slightly awed.
Because Ive been trained to think tactically and find my opponents
weaknesses since the day I was born. You havent. There are
so many ways to kill a person, Helen. You think youre safe because
you passed Cassandras test with the sword, but youre not, Hector
said, his voice thick with frustration and worry. I know youre still
in shock, but I dont have time to wait for you to get comfortable
with what you are. People are coming for you. You have to grow up,
and you have to do it now or a lot of people are going to die. So go
home. Eat something and get some rest. You look sick and I dont
want Luke blaming that on me. But tomorrow you come to train.
No more excuses.
Without waiting for a response, Hector stood up and left her
alone on the dark beach. She fiddled with her heart necklace,
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running the charm along her lower lip as she sat there feeling
ashamed of how she had acted. Her clothes were heavy with water,
but she didnt wring them out. She felt like she deserved to be waterlogged
and uncomfortable a little longer.
Obviously, she had to keep training with Hector, but that meant
she had to go to the Delos house. That meant she had to see Lucas,
and she absolutely could not do that. No matter how she turned it
over in her mind she felt like she was choking whenever she
thought about having to see him every day, knowing that he was
forcing himself to be nice to her, that he probably pitied her. She
still couldnt figure out how she could have been so wrong about
Lucas in the first place, and it stuck inside her like a splinter that
cant be found and dug out. She didnt expect him to fall at her feet
or anything, but to go from holding her hand everywhere they went
to saying her would never touch her? How could that be?
Unable to sit still with these thoughts in her head, Helen jumped
up into the air with a little cry and let an easterly wind take her out
over the water. For a few heartbeats she hung in a calm envelope of
air as the stars switched on, desperately sucking up the beauty of
that experience like it was emotional Novocain.
When she was calmer, she circled higher and hitched a ride on a
steady westerly gust that brought her back over the island. She was
not a graceful flyer yetin fact she was barely competentbut if
she didnt think about it too much she knew what to do to move
herself along. She had no clear idea where to go, but suddenly she
was freezing cold and in need of comfort. Without making a conscious
choice, she found herself circling over Claires house.
Helen alit in Claires front yard, and then realized that in her condition
she couldnt just go up and ring the bell. She was soaking
wet and shaking with cold. Mr. and Mrs. Aoki would call her father
immediately if they laid eyes on her like this.
Circling the house on foot, Helen peeked inside the windows, trying
to figure out where Claire was. She fished her cell phone out of
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her jeans to call Claire and get her to come outside, and then