as she went. As she passed India Street, she heard the slaps and
thuds of what sounded like a massive hand-to-hand fight. Her feet
pounded against the pavement as she ran up the middle of the
road toward the sounds, already knowing where she was going,
where the Fates would have arranged this. The Nantucket
Atheneum.
Helen rounded a corner and saw that a dark pall erased the entire
end of the street. Even in a dark room its possible to sense
other things around you, but Creons shadows were so complete
they robbed Helen of more than just her vision; they uprooted her,
tilting all of her other senses off balance as well. Looking at the
thing he created, Helen understood why Creon was called a Shadow
Master. He did more than simply take away the light; he made
that same thing that lurks under the basement stairs or at the back
of the closetthat full darkness that your brain believes is stuffed
with serial killers and monsters. Helen had to swallow down a
scream just looking at it.
Somewhere inside that terrifying black hole, she could hear
Creon and Hector hammering away at each other in a blind rage.
Helen was at a loss. She was so scared of the disorienting nothingness
that Creon had created she couldnt force her feet to run into
it. She screamed Hectors name and scrunched her fists up in frustration,
and as she did so her hands began to glow with the stark
blue-white glow of electricity. Then something occurred to her.
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When she was fighting for her life against Creon in her foyer, her
spark had thrown back the gloom so she could see him. Even
though he could control other kinds of light, her lightning had to
be different somehow. Acting immediately, Helen held out her
hands and summoned a bright spark to dance between her palms.
She lit up the whole scene in front of her.
Hector was on his back and Creon was over him, beating his head
repeatedly into the marble steps of the library. The blue glow
snapped and hummed with increasing intensity around Helens
hands, and Hector turned his swollen eyes toward her bright light.
He smiled. Freed from Creons disorienting shadows, Hector was
able to struggle out from under his cousins grip and he stood to
face him.
They came at each other before Helen could take another step.
Clashing together, Creon and Hector ground each others faces into
the marble steps. They threw each other into the Doric columns,
and yanked at one anothers skin and bones, each of them trying to
pull the other apart. Helen began running, yelling at them to stop,
but she was too late. While she was still half a block away, Hector
managed to get behind Creon. With one cracking yank, he broke
Creons neck.
Helen stopped running and froze in the middle of the street, her
mouth hanging open as Creons lifeless body tumbled down the
steps. Hector looked down at the body, and then up at Helen, momentarily
free of the Furies and in complete possession of his own
passion. For a split second, Helen knew that Hector understood
what he had done, and that what he had done was unthinkable. He
had killed his own cousin.
A dark comet fell out of the sky and plowed into Hectors distracted
body, knocking him through three columns and cracking the
very foundation of the faux temple.
Lucas, stop! Helen screamed, her voice breaking painfully as
she cried out with all of her strength.
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Lucas couldnt hear her. The Furies had him. All he could hear
were their commands to kill the kin-killer. Lucas hit Hector over
and over, trying to beat him to death.
Helen half flew the last few strides to the battling pair. She threw
herself up into the air and then came crashing back down on top of
them with as much gravity as she could muster. Pushing the two
boys back into the cracked rubble of the library steps, Helen threw
her arms up in a V over her head and summoned matching bolts
for each hand. Before either of them could block her, she brought
her bolts down onto the heads of the warring cousins and shocked
them both into unconsciousness. As they fell still under her hands,
Helen could hear rapid footsteps behind her. The rest of the Delos
family was coming.
Get back, she screamed with her ruined voice as she spun
around to face Ariadne and Pallas, who were both running toward
her from opposing streets.
Hector was unconscious, but he could still incite the Furies in his
family. His sin was so recent that the impulse to kill him would be
urgent and blinding, even to those who loved him the most. Helen
had made peace with the House of Thebes, but she had not become
a part of it, so she was mercifully free of the urge to kill Hector,
who had now become an Outcast. She got in touch with the sensation
that connected her to her lightning and felt a disappointingly
small spark. She had been running around for hours now without a
sip to drink.
She looked back at Hector and Lucas, made sure that they were
both breathing, and then stood up and walked out into the street,
putting herself in between Hectors unconscious form and his infuriated
family.
Dont come any closer, Helen said, forcing what voltage she had
left to spark out of her fingertips in a false show of power.
Helen held out her icy blue hands as she came down what was
left of the steps and looked from Ariadnes sly eyes to Pallass
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bared teeth. They were not themselves anymore, but blunt instruments
for the Furies. She stepped into the street and raised her
glowing hands to warn them off. At the sight of Helens lightning,
they backed off a step or two, but just as they were about to back
off completely, Castor rounded a corner, following the whispers of
the Furies.
Helen was ridiculously outnumbered. She had no idea how far
she would have to go to protect Hector from his own family. She
couldnt kill any of them any more than she could let them kill him.
If they didnt buy her bluff, she was out of options. She had never
felt so alone in her entire life.
Helen, Ive got Hector! Stay between us while I take him away,
Daphne called out behind her. Whatever you do, dont let them
lay eyes on him or we will lose this fight!
Helen sighed at the sound of her mothers voice, so relieved that
she had someone on her side that she found the strength she
needed to make the only choice that she could.
She didnt care if she drained every last drop of water out of her
body. The only thing that concerned her was stopping the vengeance
cycle before it devoured a family that she loved. She flung
her arms out wide and with a last gasping push made her lightning
dance in a great, blinding circle around her body. Ariadne, Pallas,
and Castor threw up their arms to protect their eyes from the one
kind of light they had no control over.
Helens halo of ball lightning was hotter than the surface of the
sun. It melted the pavement under her feet into lava and heated up
the air around her until it literally hummed. The Delos family
jumped away from the intolerable light and heat, but more important,
they jumped away from Daphne as she ran into the darkness
with Hectors unconscious body slung over her shoulder.
The pain was unbearable. Helen couldnt hold the ball of electricity
for more than a few seconds. As soon as she heard Daphnes
footsteps move away, she switched off like a fried lightbulb and
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stumbled desperately out of the white-hot liquid asphalt that was
pooling below her, burning her and choking her with noxious
gases. She crawled on hands and knees toward Ariadne, Castor,
and Pallas, their faces matching masks of agony as they all suddenly
became aware of what they had nearly done. But Helen
couldnt let them fall apart just yet.
Lucas needs help! she rasped, gesturing back to the shattered
steps of the Atheneum.
Ariadne, Castor said in a brittle voice. Go get Lucas. Helen,
can you walk?
No, she admitted, shaking her head.
Mortals will be coming, Castor said as he picked Helen up and
started to carry her off, but he stopped when he noticed his brother
wasnt following. Pallas! We need to go!
My son, Pallas whispered, unable to move.
Dad, come on! You have to take Creons body! Ariadne hissed
from the stairs of the Atheneum. She had Lucas draped over her
shoulders and she was glancing around frantically to see if there
were any witnesses.
The sound of his daughters voice managed to distract Pallas
enough to get him to pick up Creon and follow Castor out of the
town center and out into the moors.
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UNCORRECTED E-PROOFNOT FOR SALE
HarperCollins Publishers
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Chapter Nineteen
Helen stared at the glass of water in front of her as it
sweated condensed moisture onto the kitchen table.
Shed already drunk what seemed like a bathtub full of
water and she wasnt thirsty anymore, but she held on
to this last glass to give herself something else to look
at besides the bereft faces around her.
His whole life is this family. This House, Ariadne said. Her eyes
were wide, red, and staring, like someone who had been stuck in
too many different airports in too many different time zones for
too long. They all looked like thatlike theyd woken up to find
themselves on the wrong side of the planet. How can Hector be
Outcast from the House of Thebes?
I could have stopped him, Jason said with grim certainty.
You can barely sit up straight in your chair right now, Jase, Ariadne
said, shaking her head. Jason had yet to recover from healing
Claire, and his twin wouldnt let him take responsibility for
something that he hadnt even seen. I was there. I should have
stopped it.
You werent on India Street when Hector killed Creon, Ari,
Helen said, still staring at her water glass. I was.
Stop it, Helen, Lucas said. You and your mother saved this
family, or at least, you saved whats left of it.
Lucass words brought fresh tears for Pandora. After several
minutes of quiet crying, the family lapsed back into silence.
Everyone was thinking the same thought, that if each of them had
done one thing differently that day they could have staved off all
the pain that they were all suffering. Cassandra had told everyone
they couldnt have known what was going to happen, but in saying
that she seemed to take the burden of guilt onto herself. She
seemed locked in her own head, unable to let go of the fact that
she, of all people, should have been able to protect her family.
Call your mother, Noel said suddenly to Helen, breaking everyone
out of their tortured thoughts. Im the only one who can bear
to be near Hector now, and I want to see my nephew. Hell need
me.
Helen nodded and pulled out her cell phone. It was the same
phone Hector had given her with bloody knuckles and a toothless
grin after Lucas had beat the stuffing out of him, but she buried
that memory and dialed her mothers number. As her phone connected,
she stood up to leave the kitchen and wandered toward the
front of the house, which was usually quieter.
She heard two rings at the same time, one in her ear and one
somewhere inside the house. Helen looked around and found her
mothers bag hanging on a hook in the front entryway. She chided
herself for not being more aware. Daphne had been kidnapped; of
course she had left her things behind. Helen hit END and heard the
phone in the bag cease ringing. She stared at her mothers purse,
and was overcome with an irresistible urge. Just as Helen reached
for it, there was a knock at the front door a few feet away from her.
Helen hastily opened her mothers bag and took out the cell
phone. She quickly scrolled down the list of latest calls as footsteps
approached from the kitchen. Concentrating on the glowing
screen, Helen saw a few incoming unlisted numbers and a single
outgoing call to someone named Daedalus before she had to shove
the phone back in the bag.
Ariadne appeared in the entryway to answer the door, and a moment
later Castor and Pallas appeared behind her. They were tense
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and probably expecting either the police or a member of the Hundred
Cousins. After the briefest of pauses they nodded to Ariadne,
signaling that it was okay for her to open the door. When she did,
Daphne was standing on the doorstep.
I call for a meeting between the House of Atreus and the House
of Thebes, Daphne announced as she crossed her arms in an X
over her breast and tilted her upper body forward, giving the suggestion
of a bow.
Castor and Pallas looked at each other. Whatever hatred they carried
toward Daphne needed to be put down now, and they both
knew it. Pallas swallowed hard and finally nodded.