Starcrossed (Starcrossed 1)

Jason and Hector gave identical groans and immediately went

back to work. Again, Cassandra?s opinion went unquestioned.

Helen had always tacitly assumed that Lucas was the leader of the

kids and that his father, Castor, was the leader of the whole family,

but now she thought maybe there was another, less traditional dynamic

at work in the Delos family. When Cassandra spoke, everyone

listened?including Castor. And apparently, Cassandra didn?t

need the influence of the Furies to dislike Helen. Which reminded

her . . .

?I don?t see the Furies!? Helen suddenly exclaimed out loud.

?None of us do,? replied Castor in a pensive voice. Helen heard a

leathery squeak as he twisted around in his seat to look back at

them. ?We?ll figure it out later. You two need your rest for now.?

She couldn?t argue with that; in fact, she could barely keep her

eyes open. As soon as she heard the soporific purr of the engine

she nodded off exactly like a fussy baby on a car trip.

She woke up in a big, white bed as the sun was going down. The

room?s window framed the sky, which was doing things with color

that all the island painters had to be going bananas over.

She wiggled her toes. When that worked out okay she propped

herself up on her arms and got into a sitting position. Swinging her

legs out of bed, she realized that she was in someone else?s nightgown

and she wasn?t wearing anything underneath it. She knew

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she was recovering from a near-death experience, but she was still

bashful enough to blush. The nightgown was actually more what

Helen would call a nightie, as gowns were generally much longer

and more opaque. Testing her feet on the floor was enough to wipe

her modesty away, however, and her startled cry was quickly

answered with a welcome helping hand.