Starcrossed (Starcrossed 1)

stood up.

Something was still bothering Helen. There was a hole in the

story Ariadne had just told her.

?Who was it?? Helen asked suddenly, looking up at Ariadne?s

puzzled face. ?The way we were taught the story, Odysseus tricked

the Trojans with a giant wooden horse. Everyone knows about the

Trojan horse. But you said someone betrayed Troy, and I don?t

think it was by mistake.?

?I was hoping you wouldn?t pick that up,? Ariadne said, looking

like she was mentally kicking herself. ?There was no wooden horse.

It?s a nice fairytale, but that?s all it is. Odysseus was involved, that?s

true, but all he did was convince Helen to use her beauty to charm

the guards into opening the gates at night. That?s really all it took.

It?s why we Scions never name our children after her. For us, naming

your daughter Helen is like a Christian naming their child

Judas.?

Helen ran past her dad and upstairs when she got home, claiming

she wanted to turn in early. She did her homework and then made

herself lie down, but she couldn?t sleep. Her brain kept sifting

through everything Ariadne had told her that afternoon, focusing

mostly on the cult of the Hundred Cousins. To distract herself from

thinking about just how many people would want her dead so that

they could live forever, she got out of bed and attempted to fly.

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She tried to think lighter, then higher. She even tried to sneak up

on it by pretending to trip, but all she succeeding in doing was

jumping up and down until her father yelled up the stairs for her to

stop clowning around.

Hoping a little ancient history would put her to sleep, she picked

up the copy of the Iliad that Cassandra had given her and read as